(Today’s Northumberland file photo)
By Cecilia Nasmith/Today’s Northumberland
Cobourg council has voted unanimously in support of Mayor Lucas Cleveland’s notice of motion that objects to certain language in the draft Parks and Recreation Master Plan that – in his view – create a permissive climate in public places.
The motion addresses the current draft that is currently posted on-line for comment. His motion called for it to be revised to remove any language that affirms housing or shelter as a human right in the context of parks planning, recommends harm-reduction infrastructure (including syringe disposal bins or non-stigmatizing drug-use signage in municipal parks), frames homelessness or encampment use of public parks sympathetically or as a parks-planning consideration, contradicts or is inconsistent with existing bylaws governing such issues as consumption of illegal substances and trespass to property.
While council declined to allow “eight to nine” speakers to address the issue, a scheduled speaker did – Cobourg Ecology Garden Chair Cheryl Kidd.
Currently celebrating its 30th anniversary, this garden is on the Lake Ontario shoreline south of Legion Village. A high proportion of their annual 6,000 to 8,000 visitors each year tend to be school and other youth groups, and its volunteers tend to be seniors – “the vulnerable sector,” Kidd pointed out.
As an open unmonitored environment, it would be a disastrous spot for syringe-disposal bins. Improperly disposed sharps are a risk, as is the potential for these unsupervised bins to tempt young people into cracking them open.
Discarded paraphernalia and homeless people are already making volunteers feel unsafe, she said – and there is the danger of losing these volunteers, who typically devote some 1,400 hours of care each year.
“I’ll just reiterate our ask that council direct staff to remove all language from the draft Parks and Rec Master Plan that recommends the installation of syringe disposal bins and non-stigmatizing drug-use signage in the Cobourg Ecology Garden,” Kidd said.
Cleveland praised her courage “as one who has suffered harassment, intimidation, threats, libel, slander, attacks on my house, attacks on my vehicle, attacks on my business downtown for speaking against the normalization of drugs.”
Later, he noted steps being taken by Federal and provincial governments in dealing with these issues, such as the provincial program of building more jails and Federal bail reforms. He believes this creates hope that people doing illegal activities can be arrested, with those who need help receiving it.
Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty added that the town has adjusted its own bylaw, with good results, such as no encampments in public parks.
“I know bylaw enforcement work hard, when they’re notified of issues, whether it’s encampments or any other nuisance things within our parks,” Councillor Aaron Burchat said.
Chief Administrative Officer Tracey Vaughan had earlier noted that, leading up to this draft, the Engage Cobourg site had a time for public comment, and there were 2,884 unique visitors. Two hundred sixty-five of them submitted 348 items of feedback.
Vaughan said that the final draft is now up for viewing, and will be presented to council July 22.
