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> Fifteen years ago, flying into Vancouver, a local told me charities would give homeless people one-way bus tickets there from colder regions of Canada to prev
by Tiktaalik 2y ago
> Fifteen years ago, flying into Vancouver, a local told me charities would give homeless people one-way bus tickets there from colder regions of Canada to prevent winter deaths
This is kind of one of those urban myths btw. Like yes it has technically happened before but if you chase down the stories it's not at all common and it's more of a situation of someone having some family or relationships in a province away and people trying to help by connecting them.
- michael1999 2y agoNo. It was 35 years ago, but it's not an urban legend. Back in '88, when he was just mayor of Calgary, Ralph Klein had the city "solve" their homeless problem for the Olympics by buying one-way bus tickets to Vancouver. It is back in the news because it's started happening again in 2s and 3s. https://edmontonsun.com/2013/03/29/remembering-ralph https://edmontonsun.com/2013/03/29/remembering-ralph https://globalnews.ca/news/2567494/reports-2-homeless-men-from-saskatchewan-given-one-way-bus-tickets-to-b-c/ https://globalnews.ca/news/2567494/reports-2-homeless-men-fr...
- Tiktaalik 2y agoAs I said, > Like yes it has technically happened before So the reason it's important underline the "urban myth" status here is that while you've correctly pointed to the few concrete examples where this has occurred, in general many people casually, incorrectly throw these statements around as if this is frequent and constantly happening and this is a really toxic and bad habit that our society has. At best it's lazy innuendo, but at worst intentional misinformation. The reason that this urban myth of the homeless from somewhere else is so toxic is that it enables people to dismiss homeless people as not really part of their community and thus enables people to not care about poverty in their community or the impacts of poverty on their neighbours. Thus people can freely disengage themselves from the issues of poverty. It's not their neighbours it's some Other People.
- michael1999 2y agoI don't quite understand your point. I contradicted you because I'm old, and I'm getting tired of people calling things that I vividly remember "urban legends". Lizard people in the sewers is an urban legend. That mean old drunk giving one-way tickets to Vancouver is history.
- Tiktaalik 2y agoThe point is that there's a difference between "this is a thing that has happened" and "this is a thing that happens". The latter thing is the toxic exaggeration of the truth IMO. Like you're absolutely right that this particular rare event has happened before and I'm not discounting that, but the phrasing of the OPs story more suggests at the form of this story that is the myth that this is a trend and frequent occurrence. I follow your point. Certainly this is more real than lizard people in the sewer, but not as real as people would have you believe when they casually exaggerate and insinuate that all the homeless around are from elsewhere and are being trucked in to this day.
- michael1999 2y agoPlease don't call real events that you acknowledge "urban legends". You demean our cognitive commons with language like that, and undermine your own credibility.
- Tiktaalik 2y agoI decline to join you in your brave fight against context but good luck sir