The Downside Of The Nanny State

Joe constantly highlights the plight of the "average" person and that the resolution to their problems usually comes from the "community" not the bureaucracy who sucks up tax dollars to shuffle paper rather than help people.

Fiorito: On new homes, fresh starts and helping hands

The leaves flutter dryly by, as the weeks have also been fluttering; we have not done a month-end report for some time now.

You recall the stately palm tree of Heather Blumer, hers from youth; it grew and grew until it threatened to poke its way through the skylight of her home.

She was willing to give the tall tree away. I got a note from her husband Ian recently. Among those interested in taking the palm off Heather's hands were:

"Two private residences, an interior plant company, a conservatory, a long-term care home, three different performing arts centres, an electronics store and an elementary school."

Plus, I might add, any number of avid individuals. Ian continued, "We ended up giving it to a family ... who told us they would look after it with great care."

The people who got Heather's tree are horticulturalists living in a house with high ceilings and six skylights, and I have never before envied a palm.

You may also remember my friend Theresa Shrader who got caught without important welfare benefits during the recent city strike. She is now going to school, where she is getting good grades, and she also has new pots and pans.

New pots and pans?

We will get there the roundabout way: Marc Charbonneau was elected as a Toronto Community Housing tenant representative a while back. He thought he might, as tenant rep, have the clout to get a secure lock on the front door of his building, a townhouse in which there are several small apartments; without a lock on the front door, anyone passing by can enter just like that.

Marc read about Theresa as he was replacing his own pots and pans, and he remembered or perhaps guessed that hers were in rough shape, so he did a little sleuthing and he found her and he gave her his old, perfectly good, pots and pans.

Nice, huh?

Not nice is that Marc has still not been able to persuade the lords, and the landlords, of community housing to provide a secure lock for the front door of his building.

On to other matters.

I wrote recently about Sonia Mirakian, who went to see about the installation of some blinds in the kitchen of an elderly customer. She found the customer, who has no family, living in a state of disorder and confusion.

Sonia is a smart cookie, and she was certain that the elderly woman was in the early stages of dementia. Alas, she could not stir the helping professions to act.

But the police read that column, and they were able to figure out where the woman lived – they are, after all, the police – and they looked in on the woman, and were able to steer some help her way.

A tip of the cap to the men and the women in blue. But I still think that help is often too hard to find, and that people who live alone are profoundly vulnerable.

Speaking of which:

You know that the Toronto Community Housing Corporation has engaged the Hon. Patrick LeSage to conduct an inquiry into the death of Al Gosling, the 82-year-old man who was evicted from community housing. The coroner is also looking into the death.

When Al was still alive, at least six Star readers offered to pay Al's arrears in full, no questions asked. It is a shame Al did not live long enough to accept such generosity.

There will be a memorial service for Al Gosling at the Church of the Holy Trinity, 10 Trinity Square, on Nov. 19 at 7 p.m.