Nathan, BC's Latest Example of

Last Wednesday I was watching the local news. I immediately recognized the face being flashed across my television screen. It was Nathan. I have known Nathan for many years; he is an intelligent, insightful and articulate individual. When he speaks, it is hard not to listen, because when he speaks, he speaks from his heart.

Nathan is a member of Homeless Nation. He has many videos on the site, most posted under my account (you should check them out). He speaks about change, about skills, about services and about how to improve the lives of those living on the street, Nathan is an educator and he uses his voice to provide those around him with a better understanding. Nathan is a person with ideas about how to make the world better.

During the newscast I learnt that Nathan was the latest example of the province’s attempt to send a message, BC does not want you here if you have a warrant. The government spent $3000.00 to send Nathan back via Con-Air to the province where his 2003 warrant was issued. The report was, in my opinion an attempt to publicly humiliate Nathan and issue a warning to others, if you have warrants, stay out of BC.

In every report I viewed either on the television or on the Internet, Nathan was portrayed as a ruthless violent offender, someone we, as a society should feel safer having off our streets and out of our province. This is simply not the case. If you view Nathan’s videos you will quickly get the sense that this is a person of social justice, someone who wants more for his community and speaks out to educate and evoke social change. This is not a person who operates through a lens of crime and violence, as the media would have us believe.

I have been in contact to those who have more details of the events that followed Nathan’s arrest. I will leave those details out of this blog for now in order to protect Nathan’s confidentiality and to avoid hindering his case in any way. I can tell you that he is okay, and that Echo (his dog) is safe and being cared for.

In discussing this with another college, I am told that business members have now been approached to donate their Air Miles to Con-Air, to help rid our province of others living here with out of province warrants.

I am irritated for several reasons, but primarily by how law enforcement, media and business can rally for this cause, when so few rally for improving the situation of homelessness and poverty our city is experiencing. The quick answer is money, it is easy to throw some money for a plane ticket to send someone out of province, but not to develop and financially support a strategy to improve the lives of those living on the street.