DON'T ENCOURAGE JUNKIES, HOMELESS

Editor;

Re: Bums Prefer Ocean Views (B.C. Views, Sept. 7)

I just returned from a two-week holiday visiting family, most of whom
emigrated to B.C. 50 years ago. I have two aunts, three cousins and
their extended families living in Maple Ridge and I always receive a
warm welcome.

I congratulate you on your article, which I read on the Internet.

Here in Scotland we have the same problems with the so-called
"homeless drug addicts" and the same bleeding heart politicians and
social workers with schemes, projects and solutions to the problems
of crime, squatting on private property and vandalism caused by these people.

Throwing public money at them, giving them sympathy, free needles and
places to inject, etc., is futile. I know -- I'm a civil servant in
the Department of Work and Pensions, and the word "work" is simply
not in their vocabulary.

We have them here, too: people who would rather commit suicide than
do a day's honest hard work.

Why should they?

When our government and its agencies give them welfare, so-called
community care grants and everything they need to lead a comfortable
life -- all at taxpayers' expense?

We live in crazy times, and with increasingly crazy liberal
governments not only tolerating these parasites but encouraging them,
things will never change.

Your article was accurate, not only describing the junkie issue in
Canada, but throughout the Western world.

Thomas Toye

Paisley, Scotland