Troll Under the Bridge

Remember the story of the Three Billy Goats Gruff you were told as a kid? It was about a troll under a bridge. Toronto has its own troll under the bride, his name is Chris Gardener.

Chris Gardener has taken the spotlight recently. You see, he lives under the Gardener expressway at Spadina. He has done so for the past 8 years. He built a makeshift house under the highway in which he stole electricity and payed no tax on. He even has his "property" fenced in. Gardener's career choice to support his "house" is drug dealer. Gardener (as he has named himself, after his place or residence) hasn't been a major problem until recently. The city of Toronto needs to make repairs to the highway. He needed to be moved as his choice of residence would pose a safety hazzard to himself and construction workers.

The political fallout has been over Gardener being moved. Gardener recounted the story that eight years ago, while he was in Montreal, God came to him and told him that landlords have no right to charge rent. Thus Gardener travelled to Toronto and set up his shack under the highway. Judging by this statement alone, we can safely assume that Gardener is a frosty chocolate nut bar with a brain turned to nouget. The city has repeatedly offered him welfare, affordable housing, and treatment for his mental issues. All of which he has refused. Gardener simply does not want to be a part of our society, though he won't go as far as moving to a cabin in the woods, which would be a far more appropriate place if he wants to drop out.

Of course, OCAP has to get involved in all of this. The Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, a radical Toronto based anachist group, was attracted to his story like flies on cow pies. More alarming is that they tend to agree with Mr Gardener and "God" that people should be allowed to live for free. OCAP is simply getting more comical as the days go on. Perhaps they should host their protests at Second City and get some money out of making people laugh at them. This is a group that has failed to attract the attention of political parties due to their beyond communist, extreme far left tactics. Today, they attempted to block Mr Gardener's eviction. Fortunately, they were peaceful, but not without giving people a hard time. Mr Gardener's shack was rightly demolished and work can now proceed on the highway safely.

The story doesn't end there though. It brings about some questions about the true nature of poverty in the city of Toronto. The question is, should we allow this type of behaviour? More low income housing seems to be the magical cure-all that OCAP is proposing. The fact is, there are already tons of low income housing projects in Toronto. One must be making an income first though. Homeless do not. They simply choose to live on the streets even though there are plenty of safe alternatives. I don't buy the mental issue argument either Despite what OCAP wants, nobody can, nor should live for free. That's the nature of most societies. If everybody is going to get things handed out to them, well, who is going to produce and manage those things? Even in communist countries, that type of behaviour is unacceptable. Sorry Mr Gardener and OCAP, you loose and you always will.