Street Canvassers

[buildup]

I live near Yonge & Carlton and get plenty of practice every day on handling canvassers. Being polite absolves me of any guilt I might feel if I were rude to them and rudeness accomplishes nothing other than a ripple of negativity that just keeps expanding. Of course, the first rule is to avoid making eye contact and to never slacken the walking pace. I always walk defensively, constantly looking for potential traps ahead and when possible, making sure that there is another pedestrian between myself and the canvasser. It's a game to be enjoyed and all part of urban living. No reason at all to get bent out of shape because of it.

A year ago I did not know how to stare though someone and ignore their existence. I do now, but wish I and others never had to learn this dubious skill. In this way street charities are destroying civility with thier friendly-aggressive approaches.

To those who are more forgiving, how will we feel if every registered charity starts obstructing our busiest sidewalks?

With regards Black History (MONTH now ALLYEAR) its basically 2 guys. And I've been numerous Afro-Canadians express their irritation with them.

 

[ehlow]

If you do make eye contact and smile then you're essentially getting their hopes up that you'll do whatever their goal us (give money, take a flyer, buy their CD). Once I had a friendly conversation with one of them but at the end of the 10 minutes of chatting about random stuff he was essentially not happy because I had wasted his time (I didn't want to give money). I'm not sure why I did it that time.

I don't mind friendly conversation, but I know it'll be wasting the canvassers time if you do talk to them at the end of the day.

With some of the more aggressive ones, let's say you make it pretty clear you're not interested in stopping & chatting by avoiding eye contact and walking quickly. They will then position their bodies directly in front of your field of vision and wave and smile, sometimes pushing something in front of your face. Let's say you say "no thanks" and walk around, sometimes they actually follow you for a bit and push their flyer or whatever in front of you for a while longer.

Often if you say "no thanks" they don't give up, they'll say "why not", "don't you care about blah".

Other tactics involve making weird observations about what you're wearing, sometimes comments about your ethnicity or something provocative like that. For those who work near canvassers, sometimes they recognize you and start making comments about their repeated observations about you, what you're doing in order to try to get you to respond.

Having said that, if someone comes up to me and it isn't clear that they're a canvasser, I still pay attention in case it's someone who needs directions or something. I don't ever want to ignore someone who genuinely needs help or something.

 

[M.R.Victor]

The way I look at it, as with every human interaction, the stronger will prevails over the weaker one.

Even if I don't end up donating, buying, giving, etc, I personally view the interaction as opening myself to feelings to guilt and emotional manipulation. Especially if I try to shy away, or to communicate with them that I don't want any trouble, for some, it still invites a sort of predatory hope that they can bully me or sucker me into buying. Which they obviously could, if social norms were not there to limit the extent to which they could be aggressive in this regard. I'd rather not give them the opportunity to test the flexibility of said social norms.

Maybe my constitution is different from yours', but I am conscious of this weakness, which is why I always enter the interaction at a higher degree of intensity than them, clearly conscious of my intent to not yield. I treat it like conversational form of soft martial arts, matching the others' energy and using it against them.

So I do make eye contact. I'm aware that I get their hopes up, but I let those hopes smash against the wall of determination which I erect internally as a defense. They quickly give up when they realize that although I am engaging them, all hope is futile because, instead of shying or running away, I am more than ready for escalation. So they don't escalate or pursue.

 

[nfitz]

A year ago I did not know how to stare though someone and ignore their existence. I do now, but wish I and others never had to learn this dubious skill. In this way street charities are destroying civility with thier friendly-aggressive approaches.

Have you never had to deal with panhandlers?

That situation is certainly not as bad as it used to be back when Lastman was mayor ... but it's the same skill, and I've have thought anyone in downtown a lot would have mastered it years ago.

 

[buildup]

Have you never had to deal with panhandlers?

That situation is certainly not as bad as it used to be back when Lastman was mayor ... but it's the same skill, and I've have thought anyone in downtown a lot would have mastered it years ago.

Amature panhandlers aren't nearly as persistent as professionals.

 

[the lemur]

I generally just say 'Sorry' and continue walking briskly, or else I have headphones on.

Plan is the most annoying group because of their banter - 'Hey, you seem really interesting, I'd like to get to know you' is a dumb line but it does get attention.

The Black History guys are just puzzling, aside from the fact that they're really just looking to make money. Aside from the fact that I don't know how accurate their information is, what would they really have to gain from getting it to me?

And the most pitiful bunch are the kids selling chocolate (often some kind of off-brand stuff I've never seen elsewhere) to finance something vaguely related to a sports team. They mumble their pitch and on top of that it seems like a sad way to raise money for something that should be better funded.

 

[barit]

The worst is those Black History solicitors that try to sell you racist pamphlets. I have been harassed by them a few times. I have seen them at Yonge/Dundas and Yonge/Bloor and other parts of the city.

I've run into these guys a few times trying to get into the Eaton Centre on the south side. It's almost like a gauntlet. I told one of them I don't want to hear it and I got back a look that could only be described as vengeful. That made me feel really happy about entering the place.