Monday, September 10, 2007

B.C. Homeless Man Fights For Right To Sleep

Homeless challenger gets his day in court

The 35-year-old is getting set for Monday, when two lawyers are scheduled to take on the City of Victoria with a constitutional challenge to the municipal bylaw forbidding camping in city parks.



Click below for Article

Richard Watts, Times Columnist
Published: Monday, September 10, 2007

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

RE: Homeless challenger gets his day in court

Good day. I am the person whom this article was about and I feel a
need to clarify a few things written about me and this campaign to
determine the 'right to sleep'.

It is often said, by those who think they have much to lose, that I
am homeless by choice. I have to pause for a moment and consider what
that means. There was a point where I believed it was a choice, to
love truth with the apparent intensity that I do, until the truth that
I loved so much made it plain that there was no choice involved. I has
been my love of truth that led me to no longer use money. It was my
love of truth that ostracized me from normalcy (in its revealing of
why pride is sin). It was my love of truth that showed me there is no
evil. It was my love of truth that made it impossible to hate all the
instigational police, security guards and parks workers, even though
they work so hard to raise ire... and my love of truth led me to the
one truth that most everyone thinks is insane, the truth of all motion
being ruled by fate. So, on one level, no, I am not homeless by
choice. On another, I 'chose' to have integrity and was exposed to the
reasons for, and unsustainable nature of, capitalism. Or, mayhaps, I
am completely mad- would that be good reason to put fertilizer where I
sleep, or to hire a security guard to stand above my head, literally,
for 8 hours a night for 20 nights with the express purpose of not
letting me sleep, or to drive me out of city limits 6 times, or to
steal 4 years of my life in the hopes that I will just go away before
everyone sees how much the city and the 'crown' have no clue how to
presume innocence? As far as being discredited, I invite my detractors
to do their worst.

The article mentions how I am going to take this fight to other
municipalities "such as Oak Bay and Saanich". Successful completion of
this challenge means every municipality in Canada, that has any 'like'
bylaw, will be open to be challenged without obstruction. If I survive
this challenge I will be too busy to be any more personally involved
in any of the other tent-cities that pop up. As far as sleeping on
anyone's front lawn, if you are a delusional monster responsible for
genocide and promotion of eternal slavery, ya, I will totally be in
your face.

There was no need to mention my father- we don't talk much because
we don't have news to share or news gets delivered other ways.

And lastly, as far as being 'God's people', God's people know
better than to support anything that believes in lies, especially the
lie of pride, and if it means the fall of capitalism and subsequent
'tribulation' of a world that has over-populated itself a hundredfold,
then may we keep our courage and patience even after everything has
turned itself to the whirlwind.

Sincerely,

David Arthur Johnston

Victoria, BC, Canada