Pollievre compares major B.C. city to a 3rd world country. People living there say that's not right
CBC
Garth Gorrel and his wife, Debbie Houghtaling, have been camping along the Okanagan Rail Trail at the north end of downtown Kelowna, B.C., for two years.
Gorrel, a former steelworker in Kamloops, and Houghtaling, who used to do online clerical work for an Alberta-based janitorial service, both lost their jobs due to layoffs at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Hoping to find employment, the couple relocated to Kelowna but had no luck. Unable to afford a rental apartment, they made the decision to shelter outdoors.
"We're staying right there — home sweet home," Gorrel said, standing near their makeshift residence consisting of two tents, a vegetable garden, and their dog Kismet.
"Don't get in people's way, and you will be fine."
In May 2021, the City of Kelowna set up what it calls an "outdoor sheltering site" on the Rail Trail where people could sleep in tents between 6 p.m. and 9 a.m. every day. The main purpose of the designated camping site was to discourage people from camping in city parks and other public spaces. The city has since expanded the allowance and estimates about 100 people are camping there daily.
However, the couple didn't anticipate encountering strangers intruding on their lives, driving through the encampment area, filming, and hurling derogatory remarks at the campers.
"They drive by and say "crackheads" or one guy went by with a megaphone [saying], 'Don't do drugs.'
"We're not all drug addicts," Houghtaling said. "You feel like you're on display."
She believes that those filming are a paycheck away from experiencing homelessness themselves. To her surprise, one of the videos they captured was uploaded to TikTok over the weekend.
Two days later, federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre tweeted the TikTok video, gaining over 11,000 likes.
"These images are not from a faraway third-world country. This is Kelowna after eight years of Trudeau and the NDP," Poilievre wrote in the tweet.
Houghtaling finds it absurd that a politician would choose to use a TikTok video that lacks any context about the Rail Trail campers.
"Why has he not even come down and spoken to anyone here or driven by and filmed it himself?
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