Letter: As we remember our veterans, don’t forget the battles so close to home

By Letter to the Editor on November 13, 2025.

Dear editor,

As all of us know, (Monday was) Remembrance Day. As many of us do not know, the Government of Canada estimates veterans at risk or experiencing homelessness to be approximately 2,600. Other reports suggest the number could be up to 10,000.

There are extreme data challenges in calculating these numbers, perhaps because most of us do not talk to street folk; we do not know who they are or where they have come from. We do not know the stories,yet we have many biases.

Last Friday (Nov. 7), our local group of Niitsitapi Kookums, who regularly feed homeless people from the back of well-used vans, downtown where the colorful seacans used to be, challenged the community to come and join them for a 36-hour homeless experience.

I and a colleague joined them outside city hall at 3 p.m. We lasted until 5 p.m. to two hours. We were covered with know, had frozen feet and wanted to go home and get warm. We felt like total wimps.

In those two hours however, we had so many excellent chats with homeless people who are helping us to get a glimpse into beginning to understand the extraordinary life challenges of people living without roofs over their heads and fridges full of food.

Several of the Kookums are sill there at city hall even though the 36-hour challenge has long been fulfilled. The Kookums are disappointed with the number of people who did not stop for a chat; they are outraged with drive-bys who shot at them with BB guns.

As with any problem on our Earth right now, the starting point for understanding and solving is talking to each other with an ear and heart for understanding.

I challenge all of us to stop and have a chat. It is a start.

Best regards,

Deborah Forbes

Medicine Hat

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