Let’s solve our problems instead of sweeping them away!
I’ve spent years advocating full time for the marginalized and disenfranchised of this city. Now it’s your turn, to lend me your support by electing me to the Victoria municipal council this October.
I’m running for you! Yes, I mean you, the two thirds of eligible voters who stay home on election day, because every candidate strikes you as dishonest and disconnected from your concerns. I myself have never cast a vote in an election, precisely for this reason. I’m done making excuses; if none of the candidates meet my criteria, then it’s up to me to assume the role.
I’m also running for you, the remaining third of the electorate who begrudgingly cast strategic votes, because you’re afraid vote splitting would usher in the worst case scenario. You don’t dare vote for an outlier, because you don’t think they have what it takes to win. Well, I’m running to win, after spending years facing off against the current council as an advocate. I’m not afraid to take firm stances on controversial issues establishment candidates stay clear of.
I champion human rights. The blight on this city results from moral bankruptcy in our current municipal council, which has abdicated its responsibilities under human rights law in favour of short-sighted expediency, with the disastrous results that we know. The next council must reverse course and solve the problems this administration has created then blamed everyone but itself for the predictable outcome.
None of my constituents shall be left behind, no matter how humble. Every last one of you deserves an advocate on the municipal council. Make me that advocate, by granting me your support on election day. Yes, I mean you, the two thirds who never vote in municipal elections, and the remaining third who are afraid to vote according to your conscience. Together, we shall reclaim this city and fix it.
Platform
Homelessness
Drug policy
Law and order
Indigenous relations
Human rights abroad
Environment
Let’s talk about the elephant in the room, shall we.
The homelessness crisis has grown so dire in recent years that a lingerie boutique owner in town has announced her candidacy for mayor in the upcoming municipal election, exasperated by unhoused drug users squatting her doorway and breaking into her store. Whatever differences she and I may end up having, I at least agree with her that these poor folks don’t belong in her boutique’s doorway.
And so do they. Some in detention even ask their lawyers to keep them incarcerated because they have nowhere to go once freed. In Saanich, a violent offender ready to turn his life around worries he’s about to be released into the same cycle of homelessness, addiction, and crime that landed him in jail in the first place; his own mother wishes he remain there for want of an alternative. The war on poverty leaves the indigent nowhere to go but behind bars. In fact, their predicament has gotten so acute that many out there are reduced to consuming methamphetamine in order to stay awake around the clock, for lack of a safe space to sleep.
Throwing (homeless people) in an out of corrections where they’re just basically warehoused isn’t the answer.
Clearly criminalizing homelessness has failed. So why not put people with lived experience of homelessness in charge this time. Here’s one: I used to be unhoused for five years, three of which I spent volunteering on the front lines. I’ve taken charge in emergencies and reversed drug overdoses with naloxone. Even now I still live in a supportive housing complex, surrounded by people in precarious situations desperate to turn their lives around. Trust me, I’ve seen it all.
From that perspective, allow me to highlight the crux of the problem with a single paragraph from the executive summary of a staff report on the crisis, released in December 2025:
While enforcement is a necessary part of an overall strategy to end sheltering, and the only role for the City to play, it does not address the underlying causes of homelessness that result in sheltering. Without significant intervention and coordination of the Provincial ministries of health, mental health and addictions, housing and poverty reduction, to address addiction, mental health, trauma, systemic racism, and systemic issues in the criminal justice system, the issue of sheltering will not be solved by enforcement alone. [Emphasis added]
There you have it. The municipality acknowledges enforcement won’t solve the issue, yet it has nothing else to offer, under the callous delusion that municipalities have no role to play in the solution. Therein lies the problem.
Spending millions of dollars throwing tents in the garbage is not the solution, and yet this sums up the municipality’s plan.
This mayor and council has literally doubled down on the war against people who live in extreme poverty in our community by removing parts from the allowable sheltering list with not enough shelter spaces in the city and so now our friends and our loved ones are dying. Every death is because the person’s Section 7 Charter rights and the ability to provide themselves with shelter is taken away by the removal of tents, blankets, clothing, medication, food, ID, and immediate survival items.
Recent councils have forgotten this wisdom, just like the report has been deleted from the city’s website. Instead, the current administration wastes millions of dollars a year only to, in Councillor Loughton’s own words, “rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.”
Every morning, the city deploys a sweep team of five bylaw officers, two police officers, and five cleanup crewmembers—and not a single outreach worker to help clients navigate the system or mitigate the traumatic impact of contact with law enforcement. This is the main reason homelessness persists in this city. Volunteer advocates have to step in to fill the gap; I myself have helped several unhoused clients petition the legal system in desperation.
On average, a homeless person uses approximately $54,833 per year in health, corrections, and social services; in supported housing, service utilization drops to $36,848 per person per year. Thus, supported housing results in service utilization net cost avoidance of $17,985 per person per year.
In fact, if the municipality spent its budget accordingly, it could shelter everyone who currently sleeps outside in the downtown core. The current council persists in singleminded repression instead, because it learned the wrong lessons from the Victoria courthouse encampment in 2015, unlike then BC Housing Minister Rich Coleman who admitted the following during a phone interview the following year: “The one lesson we learned is, as we dealt with some on these tent cities, is early intervention and understanding the clientele.”
You want to end homelessness? Put yourselves in the shoes of a destitute person who must navigate your system. Or better still, put someone who has in charge.
The government of British Columbia has declared a public health emergency pertaining to the opioid overdose crisis in April 2016, in response to the explosion of deaths resulting from unregulated street drug use. Ten years on, with a tally of over 18,000 dead and no end in sight, it’s time to acknowledge the bleeding obvious: higher levels of government are politically incapable of addressing this crisis.
That’s the toll as of April 14 2026, ten years into the forever opioid overdose crisis.
Some critics have lauded the recent reversal of BC’s drug decriminalization pilot as evidence of its failure. They have missed the point of the initiative: it is the decades-long war on drugs that is a failure, and decriminalization of simple possession was a timid acknowledgement of this fact. The pilot’s only failure was to appease its most vociferous detractors, none of whom have any alternative to offer but the same ideological blinders that have led to this generational hecatomb in the first place. Indeed drug overdoses remain the leading cause of death among young people, many minors among them.
Even then, detractors conspire to make things even worse. In September 2025, Councillor Gardiner brought forth a motion calling upon the provincial government to end the decriminalization pilot, delivered with an undignified rant against harm reduction; Councillor Loughton countered that for the first time she felt ashamed to be sitting on Victoria’s city council. Another motion from Gardiner, in November 2025, called upon Island Health to close safe consumption sites such as The Harbour. Both motions were overwhelmingly defeated on the basis that these would lead to even more deaths.
Speaking of criminalization, the last place a sensible policymaker should send casual drug offenders is jail. Carceral institutions are the territory of street gangs that offer ‘free drugs’ to fellow inmates in order to get them perpetually addicted and indebted, thus fuelling the vicious cycle of homelessness, addiction, and crime—as every streetwise person knows. Moreover, a criminal record is a liability when seeking employment or housing, thus a hindrance on the road to recovery.
So where do we go from here? Enforcement has proven an unmitigated disaster, and hardly any change in policy could make things worse. Therefore I propose that we implement decriminalization of simple possession at the municipal level, by directing the police not to enforce s. 4 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. I would even go as far as extending this directive to s. 5 by crafting an exemption for brick-and-mortar stores and compassion clubs with a business license, such as the Strathcona Tea Society’s Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary in Vancouver.
My whole premise for health care is that you have to break the law or you don’t get anything.
Current practice prioritizes discretion and avoiding jail time for individuals with substance use disorder. Arrests are now infrequent and based on individual assessment.
Furthermore, other Canadian municipalities, namely Vancouver, Toronto, and Edmonton, have pursued decriminalization by seeking exemptions to the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act. In hindsight, I would do away with the red tape altogether to avoid unnecessary delay, the likely prospect of rejection, and the eventuality of an interminable constitutional challenge.
As a bonus, allowing respectable establishments to sell drugs would undercut street gangs, drug trafficking being their primary source of income; this would lead to a reduction in organized crime and gang violence as well.
I like to call myself the most apprehensive of drug user advocates. I don’t like any of the measures I call for, nor do I ask anyone to find them palatable. My priority is saving lives. If the above arguments do not suffice, I could name 18,000 more, the toll increasing by an average of five per day. Since higher levels of government have proven impotent, it befalls to municipalities to implement solutions—even in contempt of federal law.
As a civil rights advocate, I believe in holding public officials to a higher standard—especially law enforcement officials, as those who enforce the law have first and foremost a mandate to set the example in order to inspire public confidence in the system. If they, of all people, do not honour the values they are sworn to uphold, why should any member of the public expect to be treated with due respect and dignity.
Such contempt for human rights negatively impacts the police’s interaction with civilians. For example, in July 2024, I documented as a legal observer one instance of racially motivated stop-and-frisk on Pandora Avenue, against an innocent member of the public who was searched without consent nor reasonable cause for detention.
The municipality’s bylaw services department fares no better. In recent years, ten internal misconduct investigations were conducted in a department of thirty-five employees; most of the complaints were substantiated. One complainant went public with allegations of homophobia within the department and even called for an independent investigation into its workplace practices. Mayor Alto has denied responsibility, claiming there isn’t much the municipal council can do to intervene, even spuriously conflating governance with interference.
I have recently filed a Freedom of Information request with the City of Victoria to disclose these investigation reports. The municipality refuses to comply, even though I invoked the public interest clause of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). The matter is currently before the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner. In the meantime, the public is left in the dark pertaining to rampant workplace misconduct perpetrated with taxpayer dollars, thereby delaying accountability and reform.
Over recent years, police agencies have been required to fill the void created by gaps in social programs, which often places police officers in an untenable position. Often, the police are the only ones left to call in situations where a social worker or mental health professional could have been more appropriate.
Clearly the current council has abdicated its oversight duties, which I mean to restore. As a councillor, I shall seek appointment to the Victoria Police Board and press for the appointment of a civil rights defender among the public, in order to restore accountability and trust in law enforcement. I also call for transparency in misconduct allegations by municipal employees, starting of course with the council itself. Moreover, I would amend the code of conduct for council members to allow any resident to file a complaint, as many have been clamouring for.
Now, I’m sure many of you would rather see the council address our public safety crisis. My approach, however, lies primarily in addressing its root causes, usually poverty. Solving homelessness would go a long way toward eliminating common criminality, while sound drug policy that undercuts street gangs would also go a long way toward eliminating the scourge of organized crime. These should be the priorities of the municipal council.
That being said, I keep saying I’m an advocate, not an apologist. I would rather not get between the police and chronic offenders mindlessly begging to be put behind bars, as I support the police’s mandate to preserve public order in spite of my reservations. The best way for a council member to do so is by relieving it of answering calls caused by failure of public policy, and by fostering a respectful work environment in which everyone can thrive without prejudice. This is precisely what some officers have been asking for.
The lands the city of Victoria occupies is also known at the traditional territory of lək’ʷəŋən, home of the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations and its people, who have lived here for millennia before European settlers arrived, and may endure for millennia after this city is dissolved, in spite of our colonial system’s shameless attempts at uprooting them and extinguishing their culture.
I myself am a colonial settler who has travelled over five thousand kilometres to relocate from Quebec to this island, and I’m not looking back. I have no strong attachment to these lands, no traditional lands to speak of (save perhaps France, which I’ve never visited), and no traditional language or culture I’m attached to. That’s just fine; we are entitled to our differences. But those who migrate from afar have a duty to work with indigenous populations with a strong attachment to the land. Every migrant is a guest who is expected to abide by the ways of the community they settle in—especially if they have the pretension to govern. It is our collective duty to work with indigenous communities in order to mend the wrongs of the past and safeguard our environmental heritage.
And so one of the things I make sure non Indigenous people understand is we don’t need you to help heal us, we need you to fix yourselves. We need you to get those people out there who are perpetrating this process of working against reconciliation under control. We need you to straighten yourselves out, we don’t need you to just step forward and say well here is what we can do for you because my question is always, what are you doing for yourself?
Recently, the council funded a program to help Indigenous unhoused residents return home to their communities. While the idea has merit on paper, it actually adds insult to injury coming from a colonial governing body that has lately done everything to chase them away from their ancestral lands in the first place. Our municipality should rather save such an offer as a last resort, after doing everything to help them stay in this community instead.
Mayor Alto has recently conflated governance with interference pertaining to discrimination allegations in the bylaw services department, and the municipality refuses to disclose investigation reports against officers even under the public interest clause of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA). The current council is clearly unwilling to put its own house in order.
The City of Victoria has yet to take an official stance against this assault on the hard-won Indigenous rights. It could bring forth the matter to the Union of BC Municipalities for debate, or seek to intervene against the government in the aforementioned appeal. Its silence shows just how perfunctory its commitment to reconciliation actually is, at a time First Nations would welcome any ally they could get. While there are many ways a municipal government can step forward to support Indigenous people, advocacy and reform are what the latter clamour for the most. None of us can move forward with reconciliation while our system is mired in the colonial mindset of the past, run by those from abroad who arrogantly presume to know better than peoples who have lived on these lands for millennia.
Hereditary First Nation leaders at a rally held at Fort Victoria on Canada Day in 2024, to denounce the government’s push to undermine the Douglas Treaties which guarantee Indigenous peoples the right to hunt and fish on their ancestral lands. Hereditary Chief David Knox of the Kwakiulth First Nation commented that while he loves Canada, he simply cannot stand its government, for using the Indian Act to undermine indigenous leadership and values.
Recent global events may have you concerned about human rights violations beyond our borders, and wondering how our every level of government should respond as the entire world spirals into chaos and war, caused by insouciance and the erosion of democratic values worldwide. If nothing else, let’s disabuse ourselves of the notion that wealthy nations can keep hiding behind walls, pretending to be either safe from or innocent of all evils beyond.
You may nonetheless wonder how this concerns a municipal government. I invite you to take into account that one in five of this city’s residents has settled here from abroad. Victoria is home to migrants who have sought refuge from Ukraine, Palestine, Cuba, the Philippines, Iran, and many other oppressive or warn-torn countries. Once I assume office, these people shall be my constituents. If they care about human rights abroad, so shall I champion them as their elected representative.
The UN took a strong stand against apartheid; and over the years, an international consensus was built, which helped to bring an end to this iniquitous system. But we know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.
There are more concrete steps a municipality can take to avoid complicity in overseas human rights violations, such as divesting from weapon manufacturers enabling these. I’ve filed a Freedom of Information request to uncover the City of Victoria’s investment portfolio, and found that it holds millions in Municipal Finance Authority funds, some of which invest in large banks with shares in those very weapon manufacturers. Converting these to more responsible financial instruments would be trivial.
Another way is to either introduce or support a resolution to the Union of BC Municipalities, calling upon it to petition the federal government to take action. Such a resolution was proposed ahead of the 2025 convention, but lacked enough votes to even be admitted for debate. This city must add its voice to a growing chorus calling upon our government to implement a full two-way arms embargo between Canada and any regime that perpetrates crimes against humanity.
A crowd marches across town in solidarity with Palestine in April 2024. These brave folks have been rallying every week since October 2023, rain or shine.
Renewables are highly competitive and, for this reason, low-profit. Fossil fuels are uncompetitive and high profit. Media proprietors, like almost all billionaires and hectomillionaires, gain exceedingly by investing in them. If it is sometimes hard to tell the difference between fossil-fuel lobbyists and the billionaire press, this is because there isn’t one. For the sake of the ultra-rich, we are all being gaslit.
And you know what? That’s just fine. Canada is a renewable energy powerhouse, and Canadians like it that way. So let’s plan our city for a time, perhaps not that far away from now, when we no longer need to rely on gasoline at all. Indeed, I would have the next council ask the staff to study the long-term feasibility of altogether eliminating this municipality’s dependence on gasoline.
Of course naysayers are sure to say that it cannot be done, just like they brushed aside electric cars as a pipe dream and solar energy as unscalable. In the meantime, Chinese car maker BYD has leapt ahead of the pack with nearly instant charging stations for electric vehicles, a boon for those charging their cars while on a trip away from home. The technology required to power cars with renewable energy as conveniently as with gasoline is either already available or waiting right around the corner. Municipal planning must anticipate a future without obsolete technology and plan accordingly.
In fact, we need to reengineer our city’s transportation system away from its twentieth-century, car-centred design, into one more befitting our twenty-first-century reality. Let’s face it: we’ve already transitioned into the era of Uber, Evo, and even Waymo. Considering recent technological advances, the number of privately-owned vehicles on our roads is bound to plummet, as shall our need for multiple lanes, parking lots, and even driveways, to say nothing of gas stations of course. That creates space to repurpose for affordable housing, green spaces, and bike lanes.
While we’re at it, the municipality should also divest its holdings in oil and gas corporations. I filed a Freedom of Information request to disclose the city’s portfolio, which includes the Municipal Financial Authority Money’s Market Fund, investing in pipeline giant Enbridge, and its Government Focused Ultra-short Bond Fund, with indirect holdings via large banks. These could trivially be converted to the Fossil Fuel Free Short-term Bond Fund so we have no excuse.
Breakdown of the City of Victoria’s investment portfolio as documented in its 2023 annual report.
Captured at a rally against fracking at the BC NDP convention at the Victoria Conference Centre in November 2023. Let’s wean ourselves off fossil fuels!
Are you a fellow human rights advocate? Have you considered running for council in the upcoming municipal elections in October? Then have a look at RevolutionNow.ca! I look forward to forming a coalition with enough like-minded candidates to push forward a progressive agenda under the next administration. Let’s reclaim our democracy together!
