Disorder and suffering permeating beyond Pandora: https://fb-news-sharer.pebmac.workers.dev/https://cheknews.ca/disorder-and-suffering-permeating-beyond-pandora-1342670/ I already ranted about this mess at length earlier today. See this post for commentary: https://www.facebook.com/martingirardforvictoria/posts/pfbid02vZeUpNkFDbkYQt7PousmoGC3g8c1DPc3XFnkgE9RyDZMh96WtJcWBGv8Y28sNez4l I say this article misses the mark completely by putting the blame on lack of mental health institutions. Committing indigent people to psychiatric institutions does nothing to address the underlying causes of homelessness. It doesn't make housing and rentals any more affordable, it doesn't prevent wrongful evictions, it doesn't help people out of poverty, it doesn't improve accessibility and accommodations for disabled people, it doesn't properly assess patients who need real health care, it doesn't prevent domestic violence nor relieve trauma, it doesn't improve access to the legal system—I could go on and on. As for recent provincial mental health legislation amendments, they were struck down by the BC Supreme Court for a reason: patients had no way to demonstrate that they were not crazy, since denial was considered de facto proof of insanity in a twist that wouldn't look out of place in a Catch-22 sequel. Therefore any indigent person unfortunate enough to be swept up under the Mental Health Act at random could be held against their will without recourse. And if you can't think of what could go wrong with that, you haven't heard of cases of mistaken identity like that of Joshua Spriestersbach, who recently spent two years and eight months forcefully drugged in a psychiatric hospital in Hawaii, presumed delusional for claiming he wasn't the man the authorities claimed he was: https://fb-news-sharer.pebmac.workers.dev/https://fb-news-sharer.pebmac.workers.dev/https://globalnews.ca/news/8089067/homeless-man-mistaken-identity-hawaii-wrongfully-accused/ I've actually had to deal with clients facing comparable predicaments, in which service providers made completely off-base assessments merely on the basis of drug use and odd behaviour, without investigating any further. One such case I have documented in a guide which shows exactly why the system gets it wrong: https://martingirardforvictoriacouncil.ca/2026/07/21/an-insiders-guide-to-homelessness/ Seriously, quit treating unhoused people with extreme prejudice, because this is the main reason society fails to address homelessness.