An Ontario mayor has linked his town’s issues to colonialism. Will it make a difference?

SIOUX LOOKOUT — There’s a homelessness crisis in a northwestern Ontario town, and the mayor says he can’t solve it. That’s because, according to him, it takes more than local government to solve a centuries-old issue. On May 6, Mayor Doug Lawrance sent a letter to the provincial and federal governments explaining that homelessness, addiction, and mental-health issues in his town are “a direct and consequential result” of European colonialism and are therefore beyond his abilities to handle.