The Editor,
Twice now in the last two months there have been evictions on my street and on both occasions a massive RCMP response ensued, along with fire, ambulances, and on one occasion, a RCMP tactical unit.
Moving can be stressful, and being evicted even more so.
Throw in a pandemic, add in an affordable rental shortage, the possibility of homelessness, and top it off with a mental health challenge, and you have a recipe for disaster.
In both evictions, the person being evicted ended up harming themselves with a knife, and wound up in hospital.
We have known for some time now that people are experiencing greater mental health challenges during the current pandemic, and yet we seem to be conducting evictions in the same fashion as before.
Could these evictions have been resolved peacefully if greater mental health support had been present at the time of the eviction?
In the most recent eviction, I woke up to what sounded like the person living above me murdering someone and the blood-curdling screams and ensuing thumps and bangs were disturbing to say the least.
I fully expected to hear gunfire and the fact that the person was not shot speaks to the professionalism of our Coquitlam RCMP.
We either need to find a way to conduct evictions more peaceably, or put the eviction ban back in place till sufficient resources are available to conduct safe evictions.
Rob Bottos, Coquitlam
