A tender is out by the City for security guards for parks, starting with Trinity-Bellwoods, Alexandra Park and Lamport Stadium with the clear goal of preventing encampments.
The tender allows for the addition of other parks as well.
What's notable here is that they want guards who may actually carry out arrests; that means a different level of training that your typical guard and almost certainly means they would work in groups of two or more.
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Comments:
1) I'm not opposed to enforcing rules against encampments, providing there is actually housing available to place someone in, and that said housing can reasonably be passed off as safe, and hygienic.
Given that Toronto shelters are turning away 40-100 people per day, even in good weather (never mind before it turns cold) I question where it is people are supposed to move to?
2) Further, if one is to enforce said rules; I'm inclined to think that this should be done with a light hand if at all possible (social workers, mental health workers etc); and failing that, that if there is no alternative but to use
some measure of force, that that should be done only by those with the most advanced training, to cause the least harm necessary.
The idea of spending a not insubstantial sum of money to chase people out of one spot or another, who then have nowhere to go............just seems odd. Where things are completely out of hand, the City already has means at their disposal to address that, for better or worse.
I question the value for money proposition here, and quite probably the moral of this, in the current circumstances.