by arthur Weinreb,
august 24, 2004
a group of about 20 squatters, living in a shantytown located a stone’s throw away from Toronto’s Skydome, are "demanding" that the city provide garbage collection and portable toilets for their "homes". These little street urchins don’t ask — they demand. and while the city has so far refused to comply with their demands, Mayor David Miller wasted no time in sending his homeless advisor, Sean Goetz-Gaden, running down to talk with the little dears.
Most of the homeless who inhabit the city’s parks, vacant lands and sidewalks suffer from mental illness or substance abuse problems. While it is difficult to know exactly what goes through the minds of those who are mentally ill or whose brains have been fried by intoxicating substances, it is a safe bet that they do not lie around and contemplate garbage removal. These kids, whose spokespersons range from 16 to 21, are activists, not the stereotypical hardcore homeless. They are spurred on by John Clarke and his merry band of Ontario Coalition against Poverty (OCaP) activists. after all, Clarke has to have something to do. He can’t engage in direct confrontations with governments any more because in the past he has ended up getting in trouble with the law. and when it comes to jail and stuff, let’s face it — the head of OCaP is no Martin Luther King.
Mayor Miller and his left wing cohorts on council have no desire to help the homeless get off the streets. and it is absolutely disgusting and insulting that our testosterone-challenged chief magistrate sent his advisor scurrying down to the Skydome shantytown when commanded to so by a bunch of teenage leeches. Miller wouldn’t do that for a taxpayer. Can you imagine what would happen if a hard working taxpayer contacted the city and asked if someone could go to his home to take an application for a building permit because he was too busy working to go to City Hall? It’s a sure bet that he would be laughed at before the city’s flunky hung up on him. Unlike the homeless activists, hard working taxpayers serve no useless purpose to bleeding heart left wing councillors and their agenda.
at a time when people with debilitating illnesses or physical disabilities walk across the country to raise money for charity, these shantytown urchins can’t be bothered to walk the short distance to City Hall to make their demands known. But then again, they don’t have to. They just snap their otherwise idle fingers and city hall runs to them.
according to their spokespersons, these shiftless dregs on society are just as much part of the community as their condominium dwelling, tax paying neighbours are. and City Hall agrees. So do their buddies at the Toronto Star that wrote a descriptive article about their "homes" that could have come right out of Better Homeless and Garden Magazine.
Given the left wing majority on city council, these kids must think that they have died and gone to hobo heaven. Sure, they didn’t get their portable potties or their garbage collection but hey, that won’t stop them from living in their own filth. When the sensible Councillor Doug Holyday suggested that the shantytown dwellers be taken off of the streets, along with the rest of the homeless that occupy our sidewalks, parks and City Hall grounds, the reaction of the left was predictable. Councillor Joe Mehevc whined in the media that "strong-arm tactics are not the answer to solving the homeless problem. Forcing street people into shelters will only prompt them to hide in remote locations". Perhaps Mehevc should ask the residents of Toronto who are forced to step over the homeless who inhabit the sidewalks or the tourists who walk by the shantytown on their way to see a baseball game, what they would think if the homeless remained hidden.
It is hard to understand why Miller won’t give into their demands and provide garbage pickup and portable toilets. If he’s willing to have staffers run down to them on command, he might as well cave in to their demands and at least clean up after the kids who are simply too lazy to get rid of their own garbage. But Miller doesn’t really care how dirty this city is.
It would be nice if David Miller took his trusty broom and swept these kids who think that the world owes them a living away. But he won’t. It would be even nicer if someone grabbed Miller’s broom and swept him away during the next municipal election.