This is also my first posting.  Thank you to Cathy Crowe to bring
the plight of the homeless to the attention of those in health
promotion.  I think that the homeless are invisible to many people.
Teaching or studying at Ryerson exposes the community to homelessness
everyday.  One does not know what happens to the people one usually
sees everyday around here - they just disappear one day.
It is appalling that there should be homeless people in a city
and a country as wealthy as Toronto, Canada.  It is more appalling that these
people have to live on the street in a Canadian winter.
By ignoring the homeless, by not quantifying their deaths and the
fact that these people are very ill - we are just creating a
condition in which we are getting rid of the homeless by the
sin of ommission.
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Viviane Caplan                          Phone: (416) 979-5000, ext. 7071
Professor of Nutrition & Physiology       Fax: (416) 979-5204
Ryerson Polytechnic University          E-mail: [log in to unmask]
350 Victoria St., Toronto
Canada, M5B 2K3
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On Wed, 22 Oct 1997, Cathy Crowe wrote:

> This is my first time posting to the list, so excuse me if this is totally
> irrelevant. We all watched the media and expressed alarm in 1996 when three
> homeless men died on the streets of Toronto. An inquest followed, known as
> the "freezing death inquest". To date neither the Coroner's office in
> Toronto nor any other body has been committed to track homeless deaths and
> make them public. To date, no federal, provincial or muncipal level of
> government has the mandate or responsibility to respond to homelessness by
> creating housing and supports.In this regard the "freezing death" inquest
> jury recommendations have been ignored.
>
> People should know that the following homeless men and women died since
> August in Toronto:
> Stanley Peterson, an elderly wheelchair bound man who was known around the
> Tim Horton's near Ryerson, Wally Neshkewe, outside of Scott mission, Garnett
> Smoke, east end Toronto, Linda Houston, in North York, Al Voicey, downtown
> Toronto, Mary Louise Sharrow (body found in Don Valley), Aligator Al in
> hospital, Mansour at a downtown hostel.
>
> These are only the deaths I am aware of. Without doubt there are more. The
> Ontario Coalition Against Poverty has launched a "Death Watch Committee"
> which will ensure that any future death does not remain unnoticed.
>