by arthur Weinreb,
November 17, 2004
Last Saturday, the Ontario Coalition against Poverty (OCaP) attempted to take over and occupy a city-owned building in downtown Toronto to use as housing for the homeless. The six-story building, located at 590 Jarvis Street was the former headquarters of the Toronto police and it is rumoured that the city is going to sell it to be converted into condos. as the first potential squatters entered the building, the police, no doubt with some sentimental attachment to their former HQ, moved in quickly to remove them. Many left of their own accord and the remaining 16 were arrested for trespassing.
The political landscape has changed since OCaP occupied the so-called "Pope Squat" a couple of years ago. In those days, the Tories were in power in Ontario and Bad Boy Mel Lastman was the city’s chief magistrate. These days McGuinty the Magician (now it’s a premium, now it’s a tax) is firmly ensconced at Queen’s Park and David Miller, a Harvard-educated socialist is the mayor of Toronto.
The more things change, the more they stay the same. What was noticeable about the OCaP action was the venom in the voice of OCaP head honcho, John Clarke. Clarke spewed out the names of David Miller and Dalton McGuinty with the same utter contempt in his voice that he had when he used to speak the name of Mike Harris. But Clarke has realized that despite the caring and compassion that McGuinty and Miller claim to have, nothing has changed as far as the homeless situation is concerned.
Miller’s refusal to do anything to get the growing numbers of homeless off the streets of Toronto and symbolically allowing them to sleep in Nathan Phillips Square has put the homeless issue front and centre in the city. Many ordinary Torontonians, who are not in housing or homeless advocates agree with the radical OCaP that the homeless should not be sleeping in the streets or underneath the window of the mayor.
Miller’s idea of helping the homeless is to make it easier for them to live on the streets. He recently allocated a couple of hundred thousand dollars to hire two people to go out and talk to them. as long as the homeless continue to get food and clothing while on the streets, they will have no incentive to leave. Miller refuses to do anything to have the homeless taken to shelters that are often the first step in obtaining permanent housing.
David Miller sees nothing wrong with having people sleeping on sidewalks or in Nathan Phillips Square. If he did, he would do something about it. To paraphrase, he has looked into their eyes and they are him. The mayor is not unlike them; his constant whining and begging other levels of government for money makes him Toronto’s chief panhandler. Cities and municipalities do have a point --in cases such as Toronto, much more money is sent to Queen’s Park and Ottawa than is put back into the city. But the mayor and his left wing supporters on council refuse to take any responsibility for their spending. They waste money while moaning that they don’t have enough to take care of the city’s real problems. They have shown that they cannot handle money but want more of it.
Claiming poverty, Miller won’t listen to those who criticize this once clean city that allows the homeless to sleep anywhere and everywhere. and he won’t listen to OCaP that is demanding that the city (not just the feds or the province but Toronto) use some of their empty buildings to get people off of the street. OCaP and many others have a common cause, albeit for somewhat different reasons.
Miller won’t listen, but he’ll spend taxpayers’ money to set up a roundtable called "Listening to Toronto" so that people can meet with council and tell them what their priorities are. Even for a government that can find no end of things to waste money on, this is a waste of money. Whether those people are OCaP members or left wing or right wing extremists, they’re all going to say the same thing--the homeless should not be on the street. But Miller and his gang of supporters in the homeless industry won’t listen. People like them never do.
as long as OCaP can refrain from the type of violence actions that focuses attention on them and not their cause, they will continue to be in the mainstream of those who do not want the homeless on the streets of Toronto.