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Where's Sandra?

Pathetic! A group of protestors entered Toronto council chamber and handed out a piece of paper. That's it. Nothing scary, nothing to cause anyone to flee in terror.

Lack of Shelter Beds Prompts Protest

Outside City Hall Gaetan Heroux of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), said, "when you begin to find dead bodies, at essentially the heart of the city. People that we know, very well, it's disturbing. Especially because the Mayor has never ever spoken about the fact that Torontonians are dying on the streets." Heroux had presented to Joe Mihevc's Community Development and Recreation Committee, along with several other groups to highlight this issue that was still unresolved. Last month we reported this story in Joe's Mihevic's Choice: Believe the Homeless or the Bureaucrat: Does Toronto Lack Shelter for the Homeless?

Three times on extreme cold weather alert nights in Toronto, The Toronto Tribune, has attempted to get a shelter bed to find out who's right the city or the homeless. Twice the phone went straight to voice mail and once the phone rang for over three minutes without an answer. Perhaps there are beds, the issue could be the inability to access them. One of these nights that we called, was the night Robert Maurice was found death in the stairwell of a parking lot.

After speaking to the media, Heroux led a group of protestors into Toronto City Hall, council chambers to hand out a press release to all of the councillors present for the Tuesday March 4th, session.

About ten councillors remained throughout the demonstration. It appeared that not one of these councilors were women, speaker Sandra Bussin disputes this, though it was what we observed. Rob Ford remained so did Adam Vaughn and Doug Holyday.

Rob Ford said, "If people come down and they protest, they have every right to protest. I don't know why the other councilors took off I sat there and I listened to what these people said. They have legitimate concerns."

The Toronto Tribune informed Ford of our inability to get through to the referral center and obtain a shelter bed on three separate occasions, including the night Maurice died. Twice it was voicemail and that night the phone rang for over 3 minutes. Ford responded, "I'm not aware of this stuff. People have to call me and I'll bring Phil Brown into a meeting, he's the general manager for Shelter Support and Housing and if these phone numbers no one is picking up, I want to know about it. I'm not one to talk about it. I will sit down in my office I'll bring Phil there, If there are a couple of people that want to call me and say 'here Rob, I want to show you what's going on here, they're not working'. I've got to know about it, I wasn't aware of it. If people are saying there's no beds available in the shelter and the city is saying there is beds. Well then call me and I will personally go down and tour the shelters. It's simple, either there are beds or there aren't beds." He's right, it is that simple, "All this double talk is nonsense. I will go down there, you tell me a time and a place to me. If they say there is no beds and I show up there and there's no beds, well Phil's going to be with me and I'm going to say 'why isn't there beds, you said there are and there aren't, given me an explanation right now. If there are beds, then I'm going to say 'here are the beds'. It's one or the other, there is no grey area here, it is one or the other. I don't know what's going on here. I wish people would call me and I will personally return they're call and I'll set up a meeting to go down and help these people out."

"Tell 'em to call me and leave their name and number if I'm not there and I'll personally return their call. I return everyone's call within one day guaranteed."

Joe Mihevic had this to say when asked why he left, "Why would we take it? We were being accused of being murderers. Why would I want to take it, being yelled at that I'm being a murderer and I don't care. Give me a break. I am devoting, I have devoted, I will devote tons and tons of energy, but I don't need some self-righteous people to come and yell at me that I'm not doing my job. I don't need it, I'm not going to do it. It's a simple as that. I think those tactics suck. I've been in many a social movement and I haven't used that kind of tactic and that kind of anger and that viciousness and I'm not going to. It's vicious. It's not helpful. You are not contributing to the cause of homelessness and overcoming it."

The Speaker Speaks

Sandra Bussin said, "The members of OCAP rushed into the chamber. They moved right into an area that is not permissive for the public where the members of council sit. They in fact disrupted the procedures of the council meeting to the extent that the meeting could not be conducted. The procedure that members of council and members of the press are to follow are the instructions of the speaker, I am the speaker. When there is a protest and a disruption and an inability to conduct the council meetings, all members of council are to leave the chamber and the press are not to be on the main floor of the chamber and that is for the safety of all people that are in the chambers, so that security and the staff and the police are able to deal with the situation."

Bussin was asked to speak to the issue that they raised. "I'm not clear. They were discussing the fact had... there was so much shouting other than I was made aware of this through, I believe, through a press release. I wasn't clear in terms of the shouting what exactly was, it's totally not within the democratic process that a group should be taking over the council."

Informed that OCAP and Street Health had gone through the proper procedure and presented to Joe Mihevc's committee Bussin replied, "I think you should speak to the city staff, but from a briefing note that I have, that information is inaccurate, that in fact there are a sufficient number of shelter beds and they were not all used. There were somewhere in the range of 80 extra beds."

Bussin added, "There were more beds than there were individuals that needed a bed."

The Toronto Tribune said, "actually that's inaccurate," and explained that we had called the referral hotline that night and "got voicemail," not access to a shelter bed.

"I'm not privy to the information that you have." Yes you are Sandra, we just told you about our failure to access a shelter bed that night, all of which was captured on tape, just like our interview with you.

Sandra Bussin continued, "The information I have is that there were more than a sufficient number of hostel beds." Beds that couldn't be accessed by any of the homeless lacking a phone and voicemail.

Not enough cops on hand at City Hall to protect Sandra Bussin from a piece of paper

Because Toronto has so much money to spare Bussin has decided that "those members who defied my instructions were jeopardizing their own safety and interfering with the engagement of the security and the Toronto Police. We will be dealing with that later. If one of the individuals had been carrying a weapon, a concealed weapon, their safety and the safety of others would have been at risk," from a piece of paper?

Plus everyone was searched prior to entering the chamber. Media exempt provided we showed passes, which hadn't happened during an earlier visit to Council Chamber that very day. Doesn't the Speaker trust her own security staff backed up by a dozen uniformed cops?