On Thursday, February 21 a committee of Toronto City Council heard from numerous deputants regarding the critical loss of shelter beds and other basic services for homeless persons in the downtown. Council opted to do nothing.

The recent horrifying death of Robert Dziekanski at Vancouver Airport has provoked an international outcry over the indiscriminate police use of Tasers.

I've become embroiled in a discussion about how psychiatry is being utilized within the prison system as an additional means of punishment under the guise of 'penal reform'. No doubt psychiatry is inherently punitive when it functions in this capacity as partner to the judicial apparatus. But this is to say nothing of those innocents who find themselves incarcerated and punished in psychiatric prisons (euphemistically referred to as 'hospitals') without even having broken any laws. (This actually means the vast majority of psychiatric 'patients'.)

At the end of the day, 'partial equality' is not an option. What's important is for us to be able to figure out what is realistically achievable over the short, medium and long term.

Feeling restless, this evening I made one of my now rare post-sunset forays on foot out onto the streets of my part of the city.

Several years back, the City of Toronto initiated a 'pilot project' where a male psychiatric nurse would be teamed up with a plainclothes cop on patrol in the city's east downtown.

I've run into a situation of blatant discrimination in my own home city. While I'm not going to go into specifics about this case, the complicating factor is that it arises out of a situation that many would not consider 'politically correct', ergo, the person involved is considered by some as perhaps not deserving of support or protection.

This is the question I dread the most. It is also the query that is made of me in the initial stages of just about every acquaintanceship. And whenever it is asked, invariably said ship is sunk.

Three as in three AM. Three in the morning. Three hours past midnight.

To be honest, the concept of 'recovery' is being turned into just another buzzword from the 'mental health' industry. In reality, the only 'recovery' the system appears to promote or perceive as possible is within the context of the existing medical model, through aggressive lifelong tinkering with peoples' brain chemistry or genetic makeup, and with diagnosed people still expected to occupy the same narrow, oppressive social niche as has been the case all along.

My bullshit detector's been activated once again.

It angers me beyond all imagination that psychiatric incarceration, police brutality, forced drugging and complete negation of our humanity or worth is the best our supposedly 'enlightened' society can offer to distressed people.

Personally, I see no conflict here. By 'right to health' I take it that a diversity of resources, products, services etc. that can help restore, maintain or promote a healthful quality of life ought to be available and universally accessible. (Personally, I would also include nutritious food, decent housing and community engagement among the above).