The end is near... and you could be next.
A true short story of broken systems and facing homelessness. 2023-05-27
As I write this, I have very unsure feelings about my (our) future. I hope you all find time to read through and absorb the magnitude of what this means. Things in my life (with my wife) have gotten to a point where if I don’t write down my story and put it out there, it may never happen. This will be a very vulnerable and raw disclosure where I offer myself with full humility to whatever may come. Feeling like I have nothing to lose... here it goes.
A short background: I have spent my life doing what I believed was right. I was raised mostly by my Mom and many family friends. I was given a wonderful variety of exposure to different cultures and beliefs, so I became very open minded and have a strong spiritual foundation. I worked hard when I was in my teens, even had my own business for 3 summers in the late 80s. I put myself through college without any loans and only minor assistance from my parents. I spent over 25 years working my way up to senior roles in civil engineering in BC & Alberta and left on well respected terms. I’ve lead/supervised up to 50+ design techs at one point and for the last 5 yrs of my career was earning over 6 digits/yr before taxes/fees/child support/etc. I’ve always tried not to step on the toes of others to get where I want to go. I’ve always tried to do good and lift others up when I can. As I will make clear, the phrase “nice guys finish last” is becoming my truth. I’ve always been a “yes” man, where I try to please people and find ways of achieving what they requested of me, often to my own detriment.
During my previous marriage, I fought to also do what is right. I was there for the birth of both my daughters (now 15 and 19). I helped raise them until my divorce and for several years after tried to stay in their lives as much as my ex would “allow” after separation. About eleven years ago, I met Sacheen (who many of you know) and over ten years ago we started dating; Now we’ve been married for almost five and a half years. Sacheen was happy to see me spending time with my girls and often stepped up to support me being in their lives; Many times she went out of her way to make sure they had time with me. This included supporting me while going through the corrupt family law system in Alberta (Edmonton) and spending countless stressful hours and $$$$$+ fighting for parenting time with them. Over 7 plus years (5 plus in Edmonton & 2 in Kelowna), I (we) went the gambit from mediation, to collaborative law, to a full day in court with oral evidence. When it became apparent over 6 years ago that my ex did not wish to honour any of our mediated parenting agreements and that she had fully succeeded in parental alienation of my daughters, Sacheen and I made the hard decision to move to Kelowna, after my girls were told by their mother to not answer the door to me for my scheduled parenting time. We were both born and raise in BC and love the Okanagan area. I had already been head hunted by a local consulting firm, and when I followed up it didn’t take long for them to offer me a job. When we arrived, Sacheen had some challenges finding employment within her mental health field. After a couple years in Kelowna, she landed a job working with CMHA (in a facility created to provide housing to the homeless)... you’ll see the irony here in a bit. As she found out during her time there, this organization and facilities do very little to help the homeless and the trauma they are dealing with. In fact, they often further dependency, addition on pharma, & drain the systems that should be helping from massive amounts of funding (often donated by ignorant citizens to placate them into believing they are doing good.)
This is where our story starts to take a turn. (*disclaimer, Sacheen has written an entire book about most of what is to follow up until about a year ago.)
In February 2019, Sacheen’s grandfather on her Dad’s side passed and we attended his funeral. This was a milestone as it started a cascade of reconciliation with the whole family on her dad’s side. It opened the door for her to feel like she was accepted and loved by that family. There was a lot of learning and heightened emotions to this and following this for a few years. She learned how most of what she knew from her mother about her dad and his family was very much lies. Long story short, this caused a lot of emotional and physical pain.
In March 2019 (for spring break), there were problems with my ex and she refused to work with me on transportation of my daughters from Sherwood Park to Kelowna missing the flight I had booked for them... then she left on Friday to spend a week with her boyfriend in Mexico, leaving my daughters with my parents who dropped everything and drove from Calgary to be with them. That Sunday, Sacheen drove (with a bad back) out to Sherwood Park to pick up the girls and bring them home to Kelowna on Monday. I had to work Monday and two half days on Tues/Wed. My girls had some fun & beach time with Sacheen while I was working, however by Thursday Sacheen’s back started to fail her. By the following week she was experiencing much greater pain and numbness in her legs. She had been having sciatic issues and intermittent paralysis for decades before this so at first we thought it was just more of the same. Within a week after my daughters left, Sacheen had lost most of the feeling in her leg while experiencing severe pain in her back. Being unable to walk without crutches she was forced to take all of her sick time, and eventually a short term medical leave from work.
I’m tying to condense this part, because this story is more about the corruption and abuse of the systems. Over the next year, she received two back surgeries and was put (unwillingly) on heavy pain pharma toxic crap. As an example, she later learned that one of the main medications she was put on was recalled by FDA but still being prescribed by Drs in Chinada. After her second surgery there was NO real support for physical recovery or therapy. She was stuck at home most of the time with only her son (who has ASD) to assist her while healing. She tried to get out and exercise but it was extremely painful (like stepping on fire/knives/etc. as the sensations changed) for months. With 3 months of being on crutches and her muscles atrophying things were not improving. We resorted to some serious learning about alternative understandings and started implementing some new strategies. Over the next 2 years she retrained herself and healed herself using some of the latest mind-body strategies and techniques along with various herbal & other natural supplements. All this, of course, while we moved to a new home, continued advocating for others, became activists, and much more. Like most, we fought battles and lost family and friends along the way due to all the corruption and lies being pushed from pharma, politics, etc.
While all the above was going on, I was working hard to pay bills and keep in touch with my daughters (to no avail.) I was trying to work with the systems, and was for quite some time trying to continue making child support payments. Sacheen was initially receiving EI for med leave (initial 6 mo if I remember), then through CMHA relieved long term disability payments. We believe Interior Health should have been liable for medical malpractice and two botched back surgeries, however that’s near impossible to get as they all play “pass the liability buck” around and they never take responsibility for they harms they cause. After about a year, her insurance company abruptly stopped payments and cut her off. They refused to work with her on alternative therapies and modalities, and of course she had painstakingly removed herself from the pharma poisons and spent months (years now) detoxing. Because she was cut off and unable to work in traditional jobs (unjabbed and unable to work full time sitting or standing) we faced a considerable loss of income.
Even as it was, my debt from years of legal battles and bills was already starting to ruin my credit rating. As many are learning this was all part of the illusions of the slave system we were born into. I was unable to continue making child support payments in full, and eventually not at all. Don’t worry they didn’t suffer; my ex was still taking by girls to Mexico with her family for vacations, and buying my oldest daughter a nice used car. After several months of this, my ex used the MEP system in Alberta to force my employer to garnish most of my pay cheques. Because of this, at the end of 2021, I was grossing close to $9K/mo with a take home of less than $2K... you do the math. My employer at the time was still pushing/promoting jabs, but did allow work from home for unjabbed (can you say segregation?). I wasn’t willing to work within the system any longer so I gave my notice before Christmas break 2021. This was very much a moral integrity decision too as I found out later the brainwashing was an internal (corporate structure) problem too. Trust me when I say, you can NOT fully see the problems in the system while you’re still IN THE SYSTEM. When, not if, you get push out of the corrupt corporate/taxation/financial systems... you will all see it much more clearly.
Starting 2022 without income was scary. We survived on the credit and savings we had as I took a “sabbatical” and doubled down on our activism. I made some amazing connections and friends during this time. It felt great. After a few months and debt piling up with no end in sight, I found a labour job in construction to supplement paying bills, initially starting with 25 to 30 hr weeks... but by end of that summer needed 40+ hrs as we were still sinking into the hole each month. While I’ve been doing this Sacheen spent time finishing her book (almost), started a new Holistic Mental Health coach business (which is mostly about helping those that can’t afford traditional[aka corrupt] counselling), and some serious activism, including last fall running for City Council and taking the City of Kelowna to Court for election fraud for the first time EVER.
This last winter was hard as we only recharge our souls & much of our energy when we connect to nature. Late last year we maxed out our already over extended credit. We’ve been “cash only” for over 8 months now. No credit (people look at me weird when I tell them that.) Early this spring due to losing some work hours in the winter (hazard of working in construction) we started getting behind on rent payments. Rent in Kelowna (like everywhere) has very quickly spiked upwards in the last two years, and shows no sign of stopping. Our property manager tried to work our a short reprieve with the property owner (of foreign origin)... however that did not last long and was not enough to keep ahead.
The last couple months we’ve scrambled to weight out options as what we can afford is simply not adequate. How do you live in a refrigerator cardboard box anyway? The truth is, that most people who are forced out onto the streets are living in constant “survival mode”. Due to poor conditions (lack of sleep, healthy food, clean water, sanitary conditions, etc.) this creates dis-ease and pain and trauma. These all compound and most spiral quickly down. Few can cope with these conditions. Yes, we know many get addicted to pharma substances. That is one of main reasons Sacheen ran for City Council to battle the homeless issues and the compounding housing crisis. I hope that gives us the armour we need. I believe we sort of have a plan, but don’t want to divulge to “listening ears”. The next month will be interesting. I will try to update when I can.
In the last 4 years, we have fought family, friends, co-workers, medical systems, insurance systems, employers, LGBTQ propaganda, banks, our country, provincial, & city politicians. We have fought for childrens’ safety, healthy food, mental health systems, safe medicine, clean air, clean water, safe shelter ... now we are fighting for a home so that we can continue to fight battles for a better world for you, for our children, for your children, and all of humanity. What have you done to stand up and create a better world? Have you done everything you can? Locally? Can you face yourself in the mirror if you haven’t done everything possible? I can. I don’t know where this is going, but perhaps my karma is to suffer in this life for some luxuries/riches I experienced in a past life? Or perhaps the reward is in the next life? Or maybe the reward is simply being able to know I stood with moral integrity. That is my challenge to you.
I maintain a deep spiritual foundation that prevents me from believing it's over for me. I am trying to find the opportunities within possibilities before us. I am open to changes that perhaps push me in a better direction. I have often experienced that every time the universe sends me for a loop, the only time I fail is when I give up or give in. When I stand in my power and confront the demons before me, I may get hurt, I may lose something or someone, but I win! I win because I learn. I win because I grow. I win because I will NEVER QUIT. All I ask of you is the same.
With Love, Light, Peace and Wellness to all the warriors out there.
Lorin & Sacheen
