August 11, 2006
Summer of the Car?, National Post Sort Of Feeds The Homeless, Key City Bureaucrat Jumps Ship
Chief Bill Blair points out that gun crime in the city is down this year. He feels that increased policing, cooperation from the community and a specialized anti-gun task force have put the pinch on gun crime. With a month left in the summer we hope he doesn't jinx us.
Maybe the reason why gun crime is down is because people prefer to get behind the wheel of their SUVs, minivans and sedans and run over their victims instead? Toronto Police are seeing a rise in hit and runs. Summer of the car anyone?
National Post writer David Menzies tries to feed Toronto's homeless all by himself and finds out that they don't want his "Nature Valley Sweet & Salty peanut bars, Jos. Louis cakes, fresh fruit and cold Gatorade" or his offer of pizza and hot dogs, they just want cold hard cash.
You can call him Professor Egoyan starting in September. Atom Egoyan is teaching an undergraduate course called "Transgressions: An Approach to Interdisciplinary Practice" at U of T.
Hey! Torontoist's own Fauxreel gets profiled in the Globe for his latest work.
Fareed Amin, the deputy city manager responsible for water treatment, waste disposal and roads, has quit his job with the city to go back to work for the province. Jane Pitfield tries to spin this into an election issue saying that "He wanted to make the city accountable, he wanted more transparency...I believe he just came to the conclusion he was wasting his time."
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Wow. That's too bad about Fareed. He wasn't exactly radical, but he was reliable, knowledgable and predictable (in the best sense.) Who know what we'll get now.
Good old National Post. You can always rely on the cons to try proving whatever negative stereotype is levelled at the homeless. They don't want your food? I guess that's because they use the money for drugs and alcohol and candy! How would David Menzies like it if someone decided what he could eat, when they're just as capable of giving him the means to decide for himself?
Sounds like a flawed study. I've given people food before because they happened to ask me for change when I was on my way home from the grocery store. And today, I saw a woman hand a man a small bag of produce on her way out of the store, and he accepted it.
People take fruit. It happens all the time. Is it possible that regardless of one's housing situation, people don't like to be accosted by journalists who are just testing them?
Actually, I've offered food and hot drinks in the winter to homeless people several times and they've refused, and even barked at me. To be perfectly honest, that totally put me off, so I've stopped offering. I'll very rarely give a homeless person cash...and only if I don't see a single liquor store in sight or smell alcohol or cigarettes on their breath. It's their prerogative if they want to smoke and drink, but they're not doing it on my dime. And if they're truly hungry, why wouldn't they accept the food?
I'm certainly not saying that the journalist's study isn't flawed, but some of what he says is true.
Let's not give the writer the benefit of the doubt -- he clearly had an agenda when he set out on his little test. He reports that 14 out of 40 people he offered food refused, and based his whole article on the crabbiest of those people. Seems to me that if you take 40 people who have been kicked around their whole lives and put some patronizing stranger in their faces to tell them what to eat -- well, I'm suprised only 14 told him where to go.
I wonder if he considered that some of those people may not have even been hungry at that moment, but could've used the money for food or shelter later. Maybe they had food allergies or dietary restrictions. Maybe they just don't take food from strangers just as all our mothers taught us.
This kind of 'reportage' really disgusts me. As does the idea that the poor are only deserving of our charity if they act the way we want them -- most preferably quiet, unhappy, and acquiescent.
This made me so mad I sent a letter to the editor.