Originally posted by: silverpig
Originally posted by: yllus
Wow, man, glad you're okay. Report it if you can because he might remember and try it again with a knife someday.
You folks in BC need to start catapulting your bums into the ocean. I don't know how accurate the news we get on the east coast is about that stuff, but it sounds like it's becoming a bit of an epidemic.
Well the thing is a lot of them aren't "our bums". I think about 30-35% of the bums here are from Quebec. There are plenty from the other provinces too.
It's a touchy issue. There are a lot of people who make a lot of noise in support for the homeless. And there are honest stories of guys who got laid off in a slow time, got behind on some payments, lost their wife, lived out of their car for a few weeks looking for work, then ended up on the street. I'm sure at least a good percentage of them don't want to be there and would make good use out of a second chance, but then there are the militant assholes like this guy who ruin it for them.
The big thing here right now is the city/province/feds are spending billions here for the olympics. And damn is it ever money well spent. However, the bleeding hearts question how we can spend this much when there are homeless still on the street.
One of the loudest noisemakers is a guy by the name of David Cunningham. He's the leader of this group called the APC (anti-poverty committee or something like that). They stage disrupting protests, demonstrations etc, and are very vocal in the media. It got to a point where he got some airtime on a local radio station and he totally blew it.
The announcers asked him why he felt like he deserved free money and a free place to live. He said that he didn't make much money and needed help etc. The announcers asked if he had a job. He said he worked for the APC. They asked how often he worked. He said 2 days a week. They said that there are plenty of jobs available here, and asked why he didn't work more. "Eh, none of those jobs are suited to me."
So because he doesn't want to work, he feels he's entitled to free food, money, and a place to stay, and thinks the same for everyone living on the streets.
So while public opinion was leaning towards the APC for a while just because so many people are disconnected with what's going on in that part of town, it seems the tide has turned against them because of that radio interview and incidents like mine.