Homelessness and Panhandling in Toronto

[Prometheus The Supremo]

No, they ask if you have had sex with a man since 1977 (or thereabouts). If you anser yes you are automatically disqualified, which makes this automatically discriminatory to gay people. They don't take into consideration whether you are HIV-negative, just that you are gay.

so that's their testing process? wow! fuck biology classes, what a job? what are your credentials? well, i'm a homophobic pro flag anti fag pro beer anti queer christian conservative. you're hired!! you'll be great at screening blood!




i think any questioning of any kind is useless. test everyone as if you were expecting them to have everything known to man, even if they were stranded on an island for their whole life, being the only person there and going to the blood clinic has been their only contact with humans since being pushed out of a vagina at birth.

 

[Pep'rJack]

You may love panhandlers and your heart may bleed for them, but will they once they threaten or even attack you. In downtown i was verbally assaulted by panhandlers in Chinatown and chased by one in Ottawa. From that point, i knew these people aren't society's disadvantaged people, but a group of aggressive bums who really don't deserved to be help. Due to these people, we cannot help the real homeless, so this problem cannot be solved. Get out of your idealist dreams and wake up and see what really happens around you...

lordmandeep rocks. I demand more lordmandeep!

This is what you think of all people who panhandle? Maybe you need some therapy to help you get over the trauma of your "incidents" with street people?

You're just another deluded pansy librul. lordmandeep has merely been 'mugged by reality', as they say, and is now here to save the likes of you from the compassionate fantasy kool-aid before your foolish heart bleeds you to death. You just won't understand until you're inevitably stabbed to death by one of these worthless beasts.

Heed the learned, enlightened words of lordmandeep before it's too late!

 

[lordmandeep]

there is nothing in the world i dislike more then dreamy idealists who ignore the world around them.

 

[poppajojo]

lordmandeep rocks. I demand more lordmandeep!

You're just another deluded pansy librul. lordmandeep has merely been 'mugged by reality', as they say, and is now here to save the likes of you from the compassionate fantasy kool-aid before your foolish heart bleeds you to death. You just won't understand until you're inevitably stabbed to death by one of these worthless beasts.

Heed the learned, enlightened words of lordmandeep before it's too late!

lol? sarcasm?

 

[JasonParis]

Yeah, I was going to talk about panhandling but then I looked at the title of the post.

That's just been fixed.

Everyone: Does anyone remember back in the late 70s the sad high-profile case of the shoeshine boy murder on the Yonge Street strip? I remember reading about the case and also seeing an exhibit at the Toronto Police Museum on College Street about this case-the boy was 13 or 14 years old and was found atop a building on Yonge-this caused a crackdown on Yonge Street's seamy underside

It was also an event that led indirectly to the tub raids in T.O. and a lot of misinformation about gay people being propagated.

Why condemn them for being cautious?

Are you serious? Denying all gay men from giving blood is "being cautious?"

 

[Hydrogen]

You're just another deluded pansy librul. lordmandeep has merely been 'mugged by reality', as they say, and is now here to save the likes of you from the compassionate fantasy kool-aid before your foolish heart bleeds you to death. You just won't understand until you're inevitably stabbed to death by one of these worthless beasts.

You're right.

I've seen the light!

Therapy for lordmandeep, I say!!

Therapy with an iron fist!!!



I guess that could sound threatening, but as I am not a licenced therapist, who cares.


Yes. I am off topic.

 

[Admiral Beez]

Denying all gay men from giving blood is "being cautious?"

Statistically such exclusion is useful, since IIRC HIV/AIDS is more prevelant amongst non-IV-drug using gay folks than non-IV-drug using heteros. Since the HIV blood screening methodology will never be 100% perfect, excluding the population with higher HIV helps to keep the blood safe, over and above the safety provided by the HIV blood screening process.

Now, that said, I'm amazed that this has held up in court, as it's definitely discrimination. I can just image going to the blood clinic to get blood for an operation saying..... "Don't give me any of that homo blood, nor any savage black blood, nor any Jewish blood, just the good Aryan stuff..."

On a technical note, is anyone else experiencing a double load-up of the UT posting windows? For the last few weeks, when I click Reply and then start typing, I get about a paragraph done and then the window re-sets itself and my post is gone.

 

[JasonParis]

Statistically such exclusion is useful, since IIRC HIV/AIDS is more prevelant amongst non-IV-drug using gay folks than non-IV-drug using heteros. Since the HIV blood screening methodology will never be 100% perfect, excluding the population with higher HIV helps to keep the blood safe, over and above the safety provided by the HIV blood screening process.

Indeed it is, but the gap is smaller than it once was. Nonetheless, HIV antibodies can be easily detected and denying a whole group of people from giving blood when the vast majority of them don't have HIV is discrimination. This is especially troubling as we are continually encountering blood shortages in Canada.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

This is majorly off topic, but then again...

Actually the whole debate is silly - Canadian Blood Services have two types of deferral - one is temporary for things like having gotten a tattoo, engaging in high HIV risk activities (het), etc; while blanket bans are population based, which includes individuals from certain geographical areas, potential exposure to CJD, MSM since 1977, etc. Now, what irks me is why MSM can't be considered as a temporary ban instead? First, why should het individuals engaging in risky sexual activities be given a temporary ban, and yet a permanant ban is imposed upon those who had MSM regardless of their sexual history and HIV test status? Isn't the latter a better indicator of risk than an overly simplistic population approach which gives a false sense of security? Beyond that, there are populuations (e.g. youth, blacks) that are of higher than average risk for HIV - and why didn't they have a blanket ban imposed?

If they truly wanted the blood supply to be safe, they would have to enforce some form of complete chasity for all donors for a period of at least 3 months prior to testing and subsequent blood donation.

AoD

 

[unimaginative2]

You make good points, AoD.

The reason for the added questioning is that none of the tests, including the one for HIV, are 100% effective. They use the screening process to further reduce the chance of transmitting deadly diseases (again) through the blood system. Some of the blanket bans seem to be a lot more than is necessary. They also ban anybody who's ever lived in Western Europe, because they might have Mad Cow.

 

[jozl]

I live near Parliament Street. The panhandlers and mentally ill "wanderers" have made the street a very unpleasant place to be and a nightmare for the local businesses. I remember an interview I heard with Rudy Giuliani commenting on how he dealt with the problem of panhandlers and people living on the street in New York. "You have to start with a general consensus, and that is, that living on the street, particularly in a northern climate, is not good for anyone. It's not good for the poor or homeless it's not good for the mentally ill person wandering the street, it's not good for local businesses or tourism. Regardless of why they are there and which agencies should be responsible for dealing with them, the bottom line is, you have to generally all agree that it's not good for anyone to be living or begging on the street. Once that very basic consensus is established you can pass the laws and build the infrastructure to deal with the various problems affecting these people."
I don't believe we have reached the point in Toronto where we have consensus that the situation is not acceptable. I suppose we need a few more murdered tourists or frozen alcoholics before we get the message.

 

[Admiral Beez]

I live near Parliament Street. The panhandlers and mentally ill "wanderers" have made the street a very unpleasant place to be and a nightmare for the local businesses.

Me too, I live near Sumach in Cabbagetown, but I thought I had it bad until I started walking and driving down Sherbourne from Carleton down to the Lakeshore.

 

[rp07]

I have to get work really early in the morning and several times as I was waiting for streetcar at Yonge and Queen all alone I get approached by pan handlers. As they approach me I stiffen up get this tingling sensation like a spidey sense going off warning me of danger. Of course nothing happened but it's a feeling I get sometimes.

 

[lordmandeep]

You're right.

I've seen the light!

Therapy for lordmandeep, I say!!

Therapy with an iron fist!!!



I guess that could sound threatening, but as I am not a licenced therapist, who cares.


Yes. I am off topic.
Reply With Quote

Why do you guys always make fun and ridicule the people who speak common sense...
moronic idealists like you let Hitler take over Europe before they saw the reality of what was happening.

Well, it is unrelated to homelessness but you see the point of my historical example.

The worst way to solve a problem is to ignore it. Any educated man would know this and i know you are one.

 

[Hydrogen]

Why do you guys always make fun and ridicule the people who speak common sense...
moronic idealists like you let Hitler take over Europe before they saw the reality of what was happening.

Well, it is unrelated to homelessness but you see the point of my historical example.

The worst way to solve a problem is to ignore it. Any educated man would know this and i know you are one.

Hate to inform you, but I wasn't around when Hitler came to power. Also, it was just a little more than a case of idealism that got him there (and one could argue that Hitler was, himself, an idealist of sorts).

Concerning ridicule, since you quoted me, allow me to point out that I was merely echoing your own words made in earlier posts.

And as for your spectacular invocation of common sense, allow me to paraphrase Albert Einstein who suggested that common sense is the collected prejudices acquired by age eighteen.

Platitudes should never be confused with problem-solving.