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TTC: Other Items (catch all)

So the TTC has a bit of a shitty problem on Line 2.

Piecing together the first hand reports on social media, it appears that there is a female passenger that rides Line 2 daily, while carrying a literal bag of shit with her. The stench is so unbearable that all other passengers are forced to evacuate the car. There are some videos on social media of an entire car of passengers running out the train to get away from her; that stench is surely a lot more than some bad B.O.. It appears that she's been doing this daily for the past week or so, judging by the very similar sounding anecdotal reports I've seen consistently pop up on social media all week,

Early yesterday morning, a TTC operator made a P.A. announcement "shaming" the person for stinking (that's the word the news media is using), and the operator has apparently been terminated from the TTC. See CBC article here.

Personally, the operator getting terminated doesn't sit right with me, at all. I have nothing wrong with homeless people using transit, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. You absolutely cannot be riding public transit with a literal bag of shit on you. That's not just offensive to passenger comfort anymore, but rather a genuine health and safety concern. Hopefully the union can help this guy out
 
TheTigerMaster said:
So the TTC has a bit of a shitty problem on Line 2.

Piecing together the first hand reports on social media, it appears that there is a female passenger that rides Line 2 daily, while carrying a literal bag of shit with her. The stench is so unbearable that all other passengers are forced to evacuate the car. There are some videos on social media of an entire car of passengers running out the train to get away from her; that stench is surely a lot more than some bad B.O.. It appears that she's been doing this daily for the past week or so, judging by the very similar sounding anecdotal reports I've seen consistently pop up on social media all week,

Early yesterday morning, a TTC operator made a P.A. announcement "shaming" the person for stinking (that's the word the news media is using), and the operator has apparently been terminated from the TTC. See CBC article here.

Personally, the operator getting terminated doesn't sit right with me, at all. I have nothing wrong with homeless people using transit, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. You absolutely cannot be riding public transit with a literal bag of shit on you. That's not just offensive to passenger comfort anymore, but rather a genuine health and safety concern. Hopefully the union can help this guy out
Click to expand...

Section 3, Paragraph 25 Subsection F of TTC By-Law 1 states that "no person shall behave in a manner which would interfere with the ordinary enjoyment of persons using the transit system".

There are a few homeless people who ride the trains every day sleeping and smell like feces. It is as though they crapped themselves and didn't do anything about it. They may have mental health issues in addition to being homeless.

I sat across from a person last week who was sleeping hunched over smelling of feces. I was only going 3 stops but the entire car was cleared of people.

I feel bad for them but they need help, they need to be removed from train and offered assistance. A fully loaded rush hour train is not the place for a homeless individual to sleep when they smell like feces.

If the TTC permits it they are inviting a lawsuit. Human Rights and sensitivity be damned. If an individual presents a risk to my health and safety via his personal hygiene they should not be allowed to use the system.

There needs to be a certain level of hygiene met in order to use the system.

Before anyone says I am being insensitive let me say this, if a person smells that offensive there is a chance they could be carrying diseases. They should be removed from the train and provided medical attention.

Someone commented on Twitter how riders complaining of the smells emitted by riders should get off and get on the next train. I would like to point out this is not always possible. If this happens during rush hour you may not be able to leave the train and if you do it may be awhile before you get back on.

Think of it this way before saying the operator should be reprimanded. This foul smelling individual.. would you willingly invite him into your home smelling such as they are? Be honest.

Screenshot_20200201-013407_Chrome.jpg
 
^I am in agreement with pushing the TTC to address this as a hygeine issue. Had a situation recently when a homeless person, clearly unbathed for a long time, entered the car and lay down on the seats. Pulled down his trousers and began scratching his bare legs. The car emptied. I wasn't worried about feces, but more about fleas lice and bedbugs. That's not an unreasonable concern when an individual has clearly been living rough for some time.
This is not a situation that merits pushing the yellow strip (or is it?) but it's certainly beyond something passengers ought to address on their own.
I have a lot of empathy for the homeless, and I don't know what the best solution is, but just looking away and ignoring the person certainly isn't the right answer.

- Paul
 
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crs1026 said:
^I am in agreement with pushing the TTC to address this as a hygeine issue. Had a situation recently when a homeless person, clearly unbathed for a long time, entered the car and lay down on the seats. Pulled down his trousers and began scratching his bare legs. The car emptied. I wasn't worried about feces, but more about fleas lice and bedbugs. That's not an unreasonable concern when an individual has clearly been living rough for some time.
This is not a situation that merits pushing the yellow strip (or is it?) but it's certainly beyond something passengers ought to address on their own.
I have a lot of empathy for the homeless, and I don't know what the best solution is, but just looking away and ignoring the person certainly isn't the right answer.

- Paul
Click to expand...
Exactly. It's not because they smell bad. If they have shit on them, the will leave some on the seats. The affected seats would need to be sanitized.

I think the smelly homeless do need to be removed not because of the smell but because no now wants to be near them. On a busy train, it'll lower line capacity and increase as people look to move to the next car or wait for the next train.
 
TheTigerMaster said:
So the TTC has a bit of a shitty problem on Line 2.

Piecing together the first hand reports on social media, it appears that there is a female passenger that rides Line 2 daily, while carrying a literal bag of shit with her. The stench is so unbearable that all other passengers are forced to evacuate the car. There are some videos on social media of an entire car of passengers running out the train to get away from her; that stench is surely a lot more than some bad B.O.. It appears that she's been doing this daily for the past week or so, judging by the very similar sounding anecdotal reports I've seen consistently pop up on social media all week,

Early yesterday morning, a TTC operator made a P.A. announcement "shaming" the person for stinking (that's the word the news media is using), and the operator has apparently been terminated from the TTC. See CBC article here.

Personally, the operator getting terminated doesn't sit right with me, at all. I have nothing wrong with homeless people using transit, but a line has to be drawn somewhere. You absolutely cannot be riding public transit with a literal bag of shit on you. That's not just offensive to passenger comfort anymore, but rather a genuine health and safety concern. Hopefully the union can help this guy out
Click to expand...

My take here is that while termination is heavy-handed, and some form of intervention was called for; an announcement, shaming a person; one who may well be mentally ill, and is otherwise desperate was not a particularly wise, kind or helpful choice.

I advocated before, I do so again, that the TTC needs to have an intervention team, a social worker and a mental health professional who can respond in such situations.

The focus should ideally be on 'offering assistance' and voluntary cooperation, with some level of 'compelled' eviction as a last resort.

There is no doubt the current situation isn't acceptable. But the means to address it is through compassion; not derision.
 
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Northern Light said:
My take here is that while termination is heavy-handed, and some form of intervention was called for; an announcement, shaming a person; one who may well be mentally ill, is otherwise desperate was not a particularly wise, kind or helpful choice.

I advocated before, I do so again, that the TTC needs to have an intervention team, a social worker and a mental health professional who can response in such situations.

The focus should ideally be on 'offering assistance' and voluntary cooperation, with some level of 'compelled' eviction as a last resort.

There is no doubt the current situation isn't acceptable. But the means to address it is through compassion; not derision.
Click to expand...

I agree - termination should be reserved for the head in the arse managers of the system. Whoever hand wave this away is obviously open to having their home or workplace or whatnot host these rather pungent individuals.

Northern Light said:
Dare I ask..........will the tile match? Will the wall-mount light fixtures match? (fingers crossed)
Click to expand...

Nevermind those details - will they round the edges?

AoD
 
^Having spent a lot of time in the labour relations field, I strongly suspect the termination, if it is fact, will not stick.

This trend of spot terminations for committing inclusional faux-pas's has really picked up thanks to social media, because the court of public opinion piles on, demands instant "capital punishment", and the company jumps to protect their image. Except.....

But then, you get to arbitration, and you can't prove you gave the worker due process.....and you never had given your workers any guidance or direction on how to handle these situations......and they have an otherwise clean record.....and their foible isn't something that justifies termination anyways....and they get their job back, with back pay and seniority credit.

The worker gets a paid holiday, and the company gets the good PR (sort of). Is this really a win?

I'm not saying the worker should not have been taken to task, but as a one-time thing this wasn't a termination case under Ontario labour law, even with a Conservative government in power.

- Paul
 
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