Forty eight hours later, it is still difficult to imagine what they were thinking. Rent a building on Bayview Ave., put up a huge plywood hoarding and attach a plastic leaflet dispenser. Fill it with this.
NOTICE:
As Toronto’s homeless population grows and winter approaches, we need additional temporary shelter for the homeless. Your neighborhood has been selected as a home for a new shelter. The Jefferson Homeless Shelter, Opening November 1, 2015, 1591 Bayview Ave (Bayview Ave and Manor Road E., 62 overnight accommodations, three daily meals on a first come, first served basis, volunteer staff of three. We understand you may have questions, comments or concerns. Please reach out to us at info@The JeffersonShleter.ca or 1-888-859-0185
MANIPULATION
To whomever wrote this calculated notice, it was (as we now know) an oh-so-clever means of getting the merchants and residents of South Bayview into the right frame of mind to blurt out suitable remarks for a commercial. The commercial was in aid of a local charity. There was no homeless shelter planned, just a filmmaker’s self-involved plotting to manipulate ordinary people for the purposes of a good video clip. The correct frame of mind for this act of God’s work? Horrified maybe or perhaps distraught. Maybe some people would cry. Ideally there would be palpable fear. Let’s be frank, no woman wants to walk past a 62 bed homeless shelter at night, even if it is managed by an alert staff of three volunteers.
PEOPLE AGHAST
The film maker certainly realized his goal of getting a reaction. Phone calls, mail and sidewalk runners carried the news that there was a homeless shelter coming to the street. At the BIA and in the offices of elected officials people laboured to try to understand how this could be happening. People on the street were aghast. One woman who lives over a store nearby threatened violence through her tears. About noon, another notice surfaced. It was intended for a smaller readership and it said that a film company would be making a commercial at this location.
WHO US?
A call to this firm elicited a sort of “Who Us?” reaction from the location manager. He was deeply upset that a story had been published in The South Bayview Bulldog calling the scheme a hoax. We had spilled the beans, ruined the value of a carefully prepared body of duped citizens for their unintended role in the commercial. Did we tell you there is a hole cut in the hoarding which looks suspiciously like a place to put a hidden camera? We did say that there is a certain kind of filmmaker self-involvement that raises their mission above the need for any concern for people or for honesty.
OUTLANDISH FIB
Please, said the location manager, take down that post. Just for a couple of days. Can you believe it? This foolish suggestion extended yet again the outlandish world in which these plotters were living. There were many outlandish things about this homeless shelter fib, even at first glance. How would the homeless get to Bayview Ave? We surmised they would need to be bused to the location Oh yes, said one film employee, that’s right. Talk about making it up as you go along. But remember, even though this scheme at first blush had several outlandish aspects, zealots are often both ridiculous and dead serious at the same time.
