Homeless and their protectors....
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Posted by R Port from Mississauga ON Canada on December 04, 2021 at 20:30:39:
I have had the blessed honour of working Class A down at my armouries for the last couple of weeks. We are gearing up extensively for our SAV and ATI. For the majority of this time their have been the constant reminders of Op "Cold Snap" throughout the building. For those of you uniformed, the City of Toronto has set up a homeless shelter at our armouries. The "Clients of Toronto" are invited to stay overnight between the hours of 1900 - 0700. They are treated to medical care, hot showers and a free meal. This is all a stop-gap measure, as they wait for their more permanent shelter at the recently shut down Doctors Hospital to be ready. Therefore the day when the clients would no longer be able to come, came today. This morning the parade square was cleared of all mattresses and chairs and the city personnel packed up all of their equipment. This came as quite a relief to members of a certain unit, as their Christmas Dinner was to happen the next day (Saturday). It would simply not be able to happen, as this dinner is routinely held on the parade square. However, before the end of the day yesterday (Thurs) we received word that a coalition of persons who support the homeless was going to conduct a sit-in protest at the armouries. They were complaining more or less about our treatment of these unfortunates, how we could kick them out in such balmy weather. The armouries was put on immediate protest alert, and plans of action were drawn up. The next morning I was greeted at the entrance to the armouries by Metro's finest and a completely secure armouries. We were prepared for a protest at around 10am. At around 0830 I heard the OIC armouries come over the intercom stating that 32 CBG had extended the Operation until at least 0700hrs Monday morning. There went the Christmas dinner! Now I have learned that this dinner will be held at the smaller armouries in Toronto, working alongside a QL2 course. Needless to say, the protest did not happen and the day passed just as dull as any other.
I heard a companion of mine make a comparison to this protest action to that of making a donation to a charity. If I were to give $1000 to fight a disease, and then decided that I could not give any more, should the disease fighting institute protest and threaten to chain themselves to my house? I think not. So that's how my day went, who ever said the Reserves don't get to have their fun.
Celer et Audax
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