The Grey Bruce Labour Council has awarded David McLaren its annual Activist of the Year Award to recognize his ceaseless efforts to improve the well being of the community.
The council says the award recognizes contributions for the community, workers, and vulnerable people.
Recently he brought attention to the numbers of homeless people in Owen Sound and elsewhere in Grey and Bruce. He said the solution is to provide for those people, not move them out. McLaren moved to the region in 1990, and has spent the last 32 years working on social and economic justice issues as an individual and with the Saugeen Ojibway Nations.
“The solution some municipalities, including Owen Sound, have for our homeless neighbours is to roust them from their encampments and safe places. This, I think, is cruel, especially with winter coming in. There are better ways to help, but it doesn’t seem to me that Councils are looking very hard at them. They are certainly not implementing them,” he said.
McLaren added income inequality is the root cause of poverty.
“It all comes down to not having enough money to get to the end of the month,” he said. “If you’re working for a living, you need living wage, and currently that means at least $20 an hour in Grey Bruce,” he said.
He also worked through the local riding association of the NDP and ran for federal office in the election of 2015.
