On our recent daring raid on Victoria we stayed at a vacation rental condo right downtown, with a railing bar and high stools on its second floor balcony giving us a front row seat to the street life below. People watching is a major activity on these city excursions and this new spot was ideal. Once upon a time Victoria was known as an old folks’ retiree city, with a rudely cheeky descriptive expression that included the phrase “nearly dead”. This is old news, if it ever really was true. With 2 universities, a college, and a service industry taking care of millions of tourists there is a lot of life left in the old girl, although afternoon tea in the Empress Hotel is still a thing I’m told. (I wouldn’t know, I’m too busy out buying books). I think all the old folks have moved to Qualicum Beach.

Alaska cruise ship tourism is huge for the city, with over half a million passengers a year descending upon the city on their day visits which of course lends a certain flavour to the downtown scene during the cruise months. It’s very obvious when the ships are in and equally obvious when they pack up and leave. This year the largest ship ever to make the stop arrived in Victoria, the Royal Caribbean Explorer of the Seas, based in Seattle, the first of 21 stops it will make this season. This ship is too large to even visit Vancouver as it won’t fit under the Lion’s Gate Bridge.

Hmmm. I wouldn’t mind a boat trip up the inside passage to Alaska one day but somehow the 15 bars, 10 pools, FlowRider surf simulator, seaview rock wall, 3-D movie theatre, basketball courts, ice-skating rink, miniature golf course and a spa are not part of my vision. And hanging out with 4000 fellow passengers plus staff is my personal idea of floating hell.

Speaking of hell.

I still love the city of Victoria, as I have since my very first visit with its architecture, gardens, stunning ocean and mountain views. But all is not well in this charming city and this is nothing new. The downtown is not that big and the numbers of homeless and street people seem disproportionately large – a jarring sight alongside beautiful restored old buildings and huge hanging flower baskets at every lamp post and millions of dollars changing (some) hands with every blast of a ship’s horn.

This year over 100 homeless people have taken up residence in the gardens of the provincial court house. This is only a few blocks from the harbour, although tourists walking the shop-filled downtown streets may never venture the few block away where the tent city is located and may never be aware of its existence. But the residents of the surrounding streets sure are.

So what is this? Plain and simple this is a squatters’ ghetto and pictures of it (I did not go in to photograph it myself) echo my Manila memories although don’t mirror it. A big difference is there are no children in this one. Now the authorities can’t continue to ignore the homeless problem with sights like this and as reports of open drug use, noise, garbage, human feces, a stabbing, a policeman’s injuries come to light, it’s now a situation where the lawyers are battling it out in court.

The reason the homeless ended up on the grounds of the provincial courthouse is that the Victoria municipal authorities wouldn’t let them camp in the city’s parks. Or at least when they did allow people to sleep there overnight, everyone then had to pack up and move along every morning. Someone found a loophole – there is no outright law against camping on provincial land (which is where the courthouse is) and a judge agreed, ruling that since these people had nowhere else to go, they could stay there until September, to give the city time to come up with another housing solution.

No one can wait till then (except the homeless who have little choice). The city went back to court this week to try once again to get an injunction claiming that the situation in the camp has “deteriorated” and citing fire hazard as the big concern (along with drug use, “gangs” moving in, violence). The upset neighbors have hired their own lawyers. This time, the city is scrambling to find other housing solutions so they can tell the judge that there other options for these people. No longer able to avert their eyes, the tent city is forcing everyone to look at the problem in one way or another. Except the tourists with deep pockets who come and go – as long as they don’t stray too far off the beaten path.

Now, how about Victoria’s other very dirty, not so secret secret. The city’s sewage pouring, untreated, into the surrounding ocean. Oh yes.