We mean poverty and the lack of supportive housing for those suffering from various handicaps. I visited some of these on my arrival last Thursday. And beyond the visible and the hidden there are those who live in precarious circumstances and may fall at any time into homelessness. We all know that such levels of poverty, the accompanying lack of both affordable housing and supportive housing undermine our society. You cannot have a democracy which functions on the legitimacy of the citizenry and then have citizens eliminated from that society by their condition.
Citizenship implies inclusivity.
An inclusive society cannot accept the idea that exclusion is normal. The true reflection of ourselves, of our society, is the one among us who has least. That is the bar by which we must measure ourselves, our own success, that of our society. It is, in the words of Thomas de Koninck, a matter of honouring the human wherever the human is found 1 .