A Closer Look: Jody Paterson

I'm a communications strategist and writer with a journalism background, a drifter's spirit, and a growing sense of alarm at where this world is going. I am happiest when writing pieces that identify, contextualize and background societal problems big and small in hopes of helping us at least slow our deepening crises.

Showing posts with label homelessness. Show all posts

Showing posts with label homelessness. Show all posts

Saturday, January 31, 2026

Future generations will (rightly) shame us for this moment

Berthold Bronisz, Pixabay What’s underway in Canada and the United States right now is the manufacturing of new classes of people who can ...

Friday, December 26, 2025

Sometimes using drugs makes sense

Gerd Altmann, Pixabay One of my long-time friends has Dissociative Identity Disorder – what they once called multiple personality. Getting t...

Thursday, December 04, 2025

Half a millenium is long enough to know that what you're doing isn't working

I went looking for the origins of that phrase "the deserving poor" today. It turns out to be a 426-year-old term dating back to th...

Saturday, November 01, 2025

The cruel, pointless belief that we can address a social crisis with enforcement

Scrambling to pack up as bylaw gets ready to close in In days gone by, I'd be out talking to people living homeless and hearing mostly a...

Friday, October 17, 2025

Word volley on the social crisis from the local newspaper, in order

Wal_172619 Pixabay If words in a newspaper could solve the social crisis on our streets, we'd be on our way with the back-and-forths tha...

Thursday, October 09, 2025

Can we be (Instagram) friends?

Bylaw sweep is on in Victoria and this man has to run to get to his stuff before it's gone A communications strategist living through ...

Sunday, September 28, 2025

Pump up the volume on the social crisis

Gerd Altmann, Pixabay I wrote a letter to the editor to the Victoria Times Colonist that they ran Sept 27 as an opinion piece , which I then...

Wednesday, August 06, 2025

When "passing" isn't an option

Pixabay - Roninmd The concept of “passing” has presumably been around since whenever the first person on the outside of the dominant social ...

Friday, July 04, 2025

Life's a mess for people on the streets. But at least they've got friends

Bianca van Djyk, Pixabay I spent a bit of time on “the block” this past weekend, that stretch of Pandora Avenue that is currently one of the...

Monday, June 23, 2025

My radio interview on - surprise! - the toxic drug crisis

Image by 愚木混株 Cdd20, Pixabay Anyone else like a radio opportunity that gives free range to say whatever you want to sound off about, but th...

Monday, September 16, 2024

Lock 'em up: Everything old is new again

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay And just like that, institutionalization is back. My head is in a whirl. After untold hours of my ear...

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

In case you were wondering: A surfeit of social realities to explain (a bit) about how we got here

Image by Taken from Pixabay I haven't worked as a full-time journalist for almost 20 years now, but people still pay me to go find th...

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