They look like the walking dead.
With blood trickling down from their needle wounds, they stumble around looking like zombies.
“Is this a movie?” said a woman walking through George Hislop Park near Isabella and Yonge Sts. on Tuesday.
No, this is downtown Toronto — mostly closed, except for the drug addicts and homeless.
The first thing you will notice is there’s not exactly physical distancing standards being set in any urban tent city on some of the city’s most expensive real estate near Yonge and Bloor that looks like Haight-Ashbury in San Francisco.
These clustered-together tents, with debris strewn all around and stoned occupants, is frightening to look at. Then comes the smell of the human waste being pumped from the portable toilets. You will see crack pipes and syringes — and the real people who ingest the junk in plain sight.
What you won’t find are the scolding politicians who, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, have managed to shut down much of Toronto’s normally bustling downtown. Instead, they have effectively handed it all over to street culture.
You won’t find anyone here wearing masks, or gloves, either.
What did the city’s Medical Officer of Health Dr. Eileen de Villa say again? “This could be selfish and dangerous behaviour that could set us back.”
She wasn’t talking about the opioid addicts living in a sewer next to law-abiding, mortgage and rent-paying citizens. She was singling out Torontonians who merely all went to their city park at the same time on the first nice day of spring.
There was intense consternation and hand-wringing about that. On this blight on Toronto, however, the mayor, the medical officer of health and premier have said nothing. The vitriol of authority seems to be reserved for people walking their dogs, allowing their kids to enjoy the swings and daring to go to cottage country.
“Mostly white covidiots at Trinity Bellwoods,” screamed a shameful Toronto Star headline.
Seems, however, the name-callers missed the homeless takeover of Toronto’s downtown.
“It’s disgusting,” said neighbour Helen Jaye, who normally takes her two pomeranians for a walk in the park, but doesn’t think it’s safe or clean enough now.
“Why can’t they move them all over to the CNE grounds?”
Resident Miss Suzette added it’s time “for Mayor John Tory and Premier Doug Ford to do something for these people and for the neighbourhood.”
Instead of harassing citizens out for walk, send in doctors and nurses and councillors and bring in family members who want to assist.
“I need help,” said Ashley Sedgemore, 30.
Her story is tragic.
“I have addictions,” she said. “Fentanyl and crystal meth.”
Ashley was in tears when she was telling her story. She wasn’t the only one. She and her friend Marcus get the money for this habit by “boosting,” which they explain is “stealing items from stores and selling them to people at one third the cost.”
They are always $50 away from their next hit.
Ashley has two kids, seven and nine, who don’t know where she is other than being told “their mommy is sick.” You can see the blood coming from her track marks on her neck and her leg is so red and swollen that it’s almost double the size it should be.
Would this qualify as dangerous, Dr. de Villa?
As a doctor, please help Ashley so she can see her kids again. Saving her from dying is better than power-tripping on free people.
And Mayor Tory, instead of a war-on-the-car bike lane network, looking for billions we don’t have to create a roof over the train tracks and harassing law-abiding citizens for just being human while leaders bend the rules too, step down from you’re disease-free ivory tower and look at what Toronto has become.
Tear down these tents, get these people medical help and stop Toronto from turning into a garbage dump.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
