Sandra sometimes heads into the street to ask stopped cars for change, something the nearby Shepherds felt was dangerous enough to warrant putting up a no-panhandling sign. Later on, I was able to ask the cop why he'd issued Sandra a ticket. He told me panhandling was illegal and that the area had been drawing a lot of complaints.
It happens every day. Panhandlers around Ottawa are stopped by police and ticketed. Sometimes it's warranted - it's illegal under the Safe Streets Act of 1999. Sometimes it's not, like when the police indulge the terms "aggressive manner," and "obstructing the path." The cops don't pay much attention to the rules, said homelessness activist Jane Scharf when I talked to her last week. That's why she's gone and done something monumental for the city's downtrodden. She got them a union.
"I believe that panhandling is a necessity right now because of the inadequacy of social services and the Safe Streets Act is an unconstitutional piece of legislation as well," said Scharf, explaining some of the reasoning behind the union.
Not only that but sometimes "the police get even more overzealous with their application of [the Act]. They would get rough with the individuals or they will impose it beyond the restrictions
Readers might remember Scharf from last summer's Safe Streets Act protest under the Colonel By underpass across from the Rideau Centre. She slept there with the group until August when the police charged her with mischief before the City could clean the area after complaints it was unsanitary. Scharf said the police tried everything to get them to move, including calling their "The Ritz Under the Bridge" sign a business advertisement. Police still haven't returned it to Scharf.
"If we get panhandlers organized we can start to address the misapplication at least for the immediate future and also we can help reduce the vulnerability of the panhandlers by getting them hooked up with members of the community that want to help to defend them and support them in what they're doing."
All of which is to say that Ottawa panhandlers got their first union on March 8 through the Ottawa branch of the Industrial Workers of the World. Union delegate Braden Cannon admitted it was a strange notion considering there's no employers involved, but said the IWW supports Scharf's idea of hooking up panhandlers with three community members in case they want to file a complaint against the police or contest a ticket they've been issued.
"This is our first foray into panhandling, at least in Ottawa," said Cannon, but it's not without precedent. The IWW in Vancouver recently unionized squeegee kids, and organizations of the unemployed were fairly common during the Great Depression, he said.
Currently, Scharf and the IWW are looking for volunteers who will agree to put their name and phone numbers on a card that can be handed out to panhandlers who can then call one of three people for help navigating the legal system. The main hope, said Cannon, is that by stirring things up in police stations and courtrooms, the law might back off a bit.
Paul Smith knows that this mentality is accurate. He's been with the Ticket Defence Program since last summer. It aims not so much to contest the legality of fines against panhandling but to "clog up the system.
"Once the pressure is there on the police, from the courts, to stop wasting their time, that's when you'll see a change in strategy," said Smith in a phone interview. Since the group set up, the police have withdrawn most of the tickets, he said.
"I've been in court a lot, that's my legal background," admitted Smith, who got his first courtroom experience after becoming an environmental activist in 1989. "Being in the courts you see a lot of policemen lie, a lot of miscarriage of justice," he said, emphasizing that you don't need a legal background to represent people fined under the Safe Streets Act.
"I don't think it's going to last ... it's a heinous piece of legislation. If you really wanted to endorse it you'd have to stop all these shineramas," he said, referring to university fundraisers during frosh week.
Scharf downplayed the irony in a panhandling union. "I actually don't find the panhandlers and homeless people in general to be people who are thumbing their nose at society. I believe they've been systematically excluded by a series of neglectful and/or abusive treatment from their families and communities."
She saw more irony in the fact that a "no panhandling" sign sparked the idea for a panhandling union. She told X Press that it will be difficult to organize this group because of they live on the edge without appointment calendars, so she'll be circulating among panhandlers to listen to them and pass on info about what's happening in the courts.
The Safe Streets Act was upheld as constitutional by the Ontario Court of Justice in December 2001 but that decision is being appealed and will likely end up at the Supreme Court of Canada.
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