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Wednesday, October 7, 2015
Vol. 8 • Issue 27
Dragonboaters take last paddle of the year See Page 21
jewellery designed by you!
Hardware handed out in city soccer finals See Page 22
Council backs off on panhandling bylaw, seeks more input
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Nelson’s Bernadette White, Shelly Samerson and Chris Keats spoke on Sunday night at the Nelson United Church during the exhibition of the calendar project Nelson: Poverty in Modern Times. They urged community members to practice empathy with their impoverished neighbours and came out against the proposed panhandling bylaw.
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Impoverished residents share stories during photo exhibition for calendar project Nelson: Poverty in Modern Times
WILL JOHNSON Nelson Star On Sunday evening Nelson resident Lorna Gould stood before those gathered at the Nelson United Church for the release of the calendar project Nelson: Poverty in Modern Times and shared the story of the first time she was forced to panhandle. “I don’t know how many times before this happened to me that I walked into Safeway, saw a panhandler sitting there, and walked right by them. I wouldn’t even think about it,” Gould said, an emotional strain in her voice. “Then one day I found myself
there. Let me tell you, the first day you go out panhandling, it’s not pretty.” But she was given reason for hope: “I was very lucky that the first person who stopped and gave me some money was a woman with a huge heart. She gave me some change, grabbed my hand and said ‘I’m sorry you’re going through this hard time right now’. Nobody had said that to me.” Gould spent much of her testimony in tears. “This project was very emotional for me and I want you to see the emotion involved. Homeless people are not scum. Everyone
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needs to know that. We’re just like everyone else; we just don’t have any money.” Gould’s photographic contribution to the calendar is an image, taken at 4 a.m., of a woman pushing a shopping cart through the parking lot near ChahkoMika Mall. Along with the other pictures, which include kids in sleeping bags camping out in the grass and a double rainbow arcing across the sky, the calendar captures both the bleak reality and the beauty of the participants’ lives. Continued on page 15 to
BILL METCALFE Nelson Star Nelson council has deferred its decision on a proposed panhandling bylaw for a month. Mayor Deb Kozak opened the discussion of the bylaw at Monday night’s council meeting by saying that people have talked to her and to other councillors expressing the misconception that council is trying to ban panhandling, and she said the Nelson Committee on Homelessness wanted to have input to the bylaw. The bylaw, introduced Sept. 14, was to be given third reading Monday, but councillor Michael Dailly started the discussion by saying, “I am recommending we don’t give this a third reading. Panhandling season is coming to a close so it is not imperative that we do this right now. I think we should do this right and make sure there is proper community input. I would like to hear a recommendation from the committee on homelessness and broader community input as well.” Councillors voted unanimously to put the decision off for a month and ask management staff to in the meantime figure
out how to get more input, and it was suggested the next committee of the whole meeting on Oct. 26 would be a good place to hear from people. The monthly committee of the whole meetings are set up specifically to hear presentations from the public. Kozak said councillors could get their own input in the community because “all council members are connected through their portfolios to community. Councillor [Janice] Morrison is with the economic development groups, we have councillor Dailly with the affordable housing committee, Councillor Cherbo is connected with seniors groups …” Morrison said she agrees with putting the decision off because, “I had some concerns around the wording.” Councillor Anna Purcell agreed and said “We should air it a bit more among ourselves and among the business groups and different social service groups in town. It feels like a big deal and it is happening fairly quickly.” Kozak said she has even had a couple of Continued on page 14
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