Maggie Helwig Profile
Maggie Helwig

@MaggieHelwig

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Sometimes I do conceptual art. Sometimes I don't. Gangster pastor, allegedly.

Toronto
Joined September 2011
Don't wanna be here? Send us removal request.
@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
2 years
Jesus to be jailed for "dwelling in street." See attached press release.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
Today a doctor and a nurse from Inner City Health Associates tried to find an indoor space for someone living in a tent in my churchyard, who currently has an open wound where he recently lost a finger. Nothing was available. Do not try to tell me that the system is working ...
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
8 months
How bad is the emergency shelter situation in Toronto? Today, someone showed up with a referral from 129 Peter Street *to our encampment*, an encampment which the city is trying to shut down. Nothing makes sense any more.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Today the police removed me, along with others, from the south part of the space which has been treated as the churchyard for 150 years, so that the Department of Transportation could install large concrete blocks surrounded by a fence.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
In addition to the line at the food bank, the church gave out over 150 breakfasts to hungry people early this morning, eventually running out of food at 8 am.
@DFisman
David Fisman
1 year
Ontario under Doug ford. College Street, Toronto. Block-long breadline on one side, homeless encampment on the other
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
You can't keep Kensington Market down ...
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
2 years
If anyone wonders why there is an encampment in my churchyard, consider that people are being discharged from the ER directly to the streets, because there are no shelter beds ...
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Another thing many people don't quite grasp about encampments -- yes, we do have some long-term residents, who will not access City-run spaces for various reasons. And yes, everyone who was there last Friday and wanted a shelter-hotel got one. But ...
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Dianne Saxe cycled past the church and gave us a dirty look again today. This is now our entire relationship with our city councillor.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
The City makes things sound very simple, and there are so many complexities around encampments and shelter which most people don't understand. To say that everyone in the encampment was offered shelter-hotel space is not simple.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
The central event in my third novel involves a group of girls in their early teens swarming a homeless man. But in the novel, one girl intervenes to prevent an escalation into serious violence. People say my novels are dark. It saddens me that they are far less dark than life.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
City crews are back in the church yard -- this time to remove some of the blocks they installed on Wednesday, thanks to many complaints about the health of the trees.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
10 months
Encampment eviction by stealth at St Stephen's. We were told that the old trees needed work for safety. Encampment residents left peacefully with assurances that they could return. There is now a police car outside the church blocking return.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
2 years
Today, firefighters and paramedics responded to my call for someone who was our stairwell with severe hypothermia (body temperature about 33 C). If I had not gone to the back door to receive a delivery when I did, the person might well have died. It is only mid-November.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
But the idea that blocking off the churchyard will somehow magically get everyone to go indoors immediately is completely delusional thinking. They ar real people. They are here and they really exist and they can't be made to vanish.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
2 years
Re the St Stephen's encampment: we have commitments, which we believe to be reliable, that there will be no eviction in the coming week. We are working on a plan which we hope will enable everyone currently resident here to stay until they can access safe indoor accommodation.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
And there is no other space. We all know this. Drop-ins know. Shelters know. Hospitals know. The City knows. In this state of crisis, why are we trying to take away such alternatives as people are able to create?
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
If the City puts concrete blocks all over the churchyard, it won't help anyone get into shelter. They'll just sleep in another park, or in a doorway, or they'll go to an ER to get out of the cold. These are the real choices.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
8 months
Notice in my mailbox from a group objecting to the new St Felix respite centre on Adelaide. Notice on-line from a new group called "Friends of Randy Padmore Park" worried about "park safety." So many groups dedicating themselves to making poor people disappear.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
People have gone from the encampment into shelters, or into housing. But they needed somewhere to be in that sometimes lengthy interim period before they could get indoors. Our encampment was known as a safe and supported space.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Two people are still living on the north side. We're not sure how long they will be allowed to remain. Four more people are currently on what is indisputably church property.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Our encampment was also a place where Streets to Homes workers knew they could find people. The presence of the encampment helped them get into indoor space. EVENTUALLY.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Over the time the encampment has been here, probably hundreds of people have lived in it, some for only a day, some for weeks, some for months. They were people who were trying to access shelter. But it is often impossible to access shelter.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
When Central Intake is turning away hundreds of people a day, and hospitals are discharging people to known encampments, and people are sleeping on the street outside 129 Peter Street, there has to be somewhere people can go.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
We are sorry to report that the court has rejected our application for an injunction which would have protected our encampment from eviction. We don't know the City's intentions, but they are legally able to clear the encampment at any time, as of now.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
@shawnmicallef @TorontoStar I've lived here for 38 years, and I have put my whole life and heart and soul into this city, and it doesn't feel like home to me any more. It's an unbelievably sad feeling.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
We do not consent to the continuing displacement of vulnerable people. We do not consent to the dehumanization of people living in encampments. We do not consent to a society which does not provide the necessities of a safe and dignified life for all.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
2 years
@LadyScorcher @pmcancercentre @tarragontheatre We have a mask requirement at my church, but it's really quite lightly implemented at this point. There's a box of masks at the door, and when people come in and see everyone else in a mask, 90% of the time they put one on without being asked. Visible community norms can work.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
At least one of the people at our encampment described as "declining service" has already accepted two referrals to hotels, and both times was rapidly evicted for missing bed checks. At this point, they are understandably not willing to take another referral.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Lots of City workers and trucks at the encampment right now. They say the plan is to concrete-block the south plot. They say they will not clear the north plot at this time but no way to know what 'at this time' means. Come if you can. @Diana_C_McNally
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Read this thread.
@TO_nuisance
Al (they/them)🍉
7 months
The St Stephen’s clearing was the first encampment defence I’ve been to since I got rehoused. I was at the church from 7:30am-8:30pm. The DAY AFTER NATIONAL HOUSING DAY, they brought the Claw out, after dark, after almost all of us had already been there for 12+hrs. 1/8
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
10 months
We are disappointed and very angry. We have dealt with the City in good faith and that good faith has not been returned.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
This is yet more proof that trees are more important than poor people, but nevertheless it is a small win. If anyone wants to take photos of this impressive feat of coordination, feel free, but we're not opposing this.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
@ShelterHotelsTO This is libellous. In the 18 months that the encampment has been here, there was one report of a sexual assault -- no charges were laid. There was one altercation in which a penknife was involved, and a minor injury.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
First, the only shelter-hotel left downtown is for women only. Men and couples can only be accommodated a great distance from their established supports, relationships, and sometimes employment. People don't always have TTC fare, and commutes can be long.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
So many individual people, so many individual stories, so much complexity which the news stories hardly ever manage to cover.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
I'm glad he got a shelter-hotel room yesterday. But how many people are caught up in situations like this, without friends who happen to be good at navigating bureaucracies?
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Second, shelter-hotels have nightly bed checks, at a time which is very early for adult human beings, especially if they need to commute a long distance to and from the hotel for supports/jobs/friendships.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
The City's official statement says that they will be "servicing the encampment" tomorrow. It is a unique interpretation of the word "servicing."
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Hotels vary in their policies, but most are very quick to evict for minor issues, especially missing bed checks.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Then there is the person who was trying to get a hotel room or any kind of emergency shelter for months, but was refused, because the City database still listed him as "housed", and workers believed he just "didn't want to go back."
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Also, the churchyard is apparently now under 24-hour watch by Logix Security.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
Warming centres will not open until 7 pm tomorrow. If you can, please bring tarps and other waterproofing equipment to anyone living outside. This will be a very dangerous night. And call the mayor's office to ask for the warming centres to be opened asap.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
2 years
@meganysta I was outside with a new tent for a resident whose old tent had collapsed. It was a rough morning, but everyone is still here, no residents were displaced, so that's something.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
I have no official position. I am just his friend. But I believe what he tells me. Eventually I was able to sort out what was going on, and run around between different agencies to get papers for him so he could *prove that he was homeless.*
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
Warming centres are closing at noon today. Seriously. Because it's so lovely out.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
In fact, he was evicted from City-funded housing run by a well-known housing provider last summer. He wasn't even told by workers that they thought he was housed; they just didn't offer him anything.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Folks left in the encampment trying to clean up today, hindered by the fact that the City grabbed most of the garbage bins with the Claw ...
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
Update: warming centres WILL open tonight. This is a very helpful development, but spaces are still limited. Check on anyone sleeping outside, and donate tarps etc if you are able.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
@ShelterHotelsTO This is probably a significantly lower crime rate than we would see in private homes over that period of time.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
We will issue a more detailed statement soon, probably sometime tomorrow. In the meantime, we can only say what we said at the beginning of this process: we do not consent.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
2 years
There will be a clean-up on Friday morning, but it will be carried out by the church and The Neighbourhood Group. No one will be displaced. If you see City trucks here on Friday morning, do not be alarmed.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
6 months
A really in-depth piece which includes the voices of some of our encampment residents.
@globeandmail
The Globe and Mail
6 months
Opinion: From Vancouver to Toronto, tent city dwellers carry on despite the constant threat of being swept aside
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
2 years
Our event tomorrow morning with Timothy Schmalz will proceed as scheduled (and will include a Mennonite choir!)
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Blocks apparently left for entirely symbolic purposes.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
2 years
How many people will die this winter?
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
8 months
There are many powerful deputations being made at City Hall today. This one is extraordinary, and I can attest to the truth of it.
@raghu_venugopal
Raghu Venugopal MD
8 months
Toronto’s overstretched ERs are the worst shelters for the homeless. I ask the City of Toronto to recognize the unmet need and support our fellow citizens better. My deputation at City Hall today. ⁦ @oliviachow ⁩ ⁦ @ausmalik ⁩ ⁦ @BravoDavenport ⁩ ⁦ @epdevilla
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
2 years
The dwellings on the south wall have been taken down with consent after the people living there chose to move indoors.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
@lorrainelamchop We've been working on squeezing people onto the bit of land which is church property. It's cramped, and there are ways they can be threatened there too, but so far we've made sure that no one has had to leave if they wanted to stay.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
Looks like the burnt tree is being written off, though the arborist who came in August thought it would recover. But "this is today's plan, who knows about tomorrow," as the City staffer supervising the operation told me.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
"The bodies are all accounted for, they just don't know it yet." -- Encampment resident, November 10th As we wait to see what the City's next move will be, now that our application for an injunction has been refused, here is our statement on recent events. (long thread).
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
10 months
@lorrainelamchop People talk about needles as if they are living creatures that can leap onto you and gnaw through your clothing.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
@Diana_C_McNally @TODropinNetwork St Stephen-in-the-Fields, drop-in from 6 pm to 10 pm tonight and December 30th; takeaway breakfasts with coffee 7 am to 8:30 am December 24th and 25th, December 31st and January 1st.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
@ShelterHotelsTO When the alleged sexual assault occurred, it took police 45 minutes to attend. In the meantime, encampment residents kept the accused person confined to a tent, so that they could not run away before the police came.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
8 months
@Diana_C_McNally We have found "Friends of Bellevue Parkette" in the companies directory. It was incorporated as a not-for-profit in August this year. The address is 95 Bellevue (Westside Montessori School). The sole listed contact is the director of the Westside Montessori School.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
@lorrainelamchop We should be able to run some hot meals down there in about half an hour.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
11 months
@Gruesomebrat Thank you! We've had so many badly coordinated deliveries, and uneaten food piling up, and then the residents are blamed for "unsanitary conditions" ...
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
You are welcome to join us at the Christmas services at @StStephensTO -- family carol service on the 24th at 8 pm, First Mass of the Nativity on the 24th at 9 pm, or Sung Mass of the Nativity on the 25th at 10:30 am.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
@lorrainelamchop FFS, they already got the plan for low-barrier respite turned into a shelter, and now they're against the shelter? I've been so preoccupied with our encampment I didn't notice BoH was dealing with this, or I'd have been there.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
2 years
@AWPeet2 @Diana_C_McNally @StStephensTO Yes, a rough morning. But at least all our residents are still here and safe, for the moment anyway.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
8 months
@terraloire Friends of Kensington Market and Friends of Chinatown Toronto remain awesome, but yeah.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
@ESNParkdale To be accurate (which I believe is important), what I said was "In some cases, these have been respite beds ... in other cases, they have been shelters which people believed to be unsafe." Media need to stop equating "indoor space" (the actual City wording) with "housing."
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
@ESNParkdale The fact that only 26 referrals to "indoor space" have succeeded in a full year is also because there are frequently no spaces of any kind available at all on any given day.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
@kailahunte Yes, any video or audio, please share. If you don't want your identity to be public, PM me.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
@shawnmicallef I have said this before and I will say it again: Douglas Coupland was born in 1961, and he coined the term "Generation X" for a book which was (like most of his books) basically about himself. The only reasonable position is that Gen X begins in 1961. I have never understood 1964
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
@Diana_C_McNally @StStephensTO I have honest to God heard suggestions that people should be "sent north to work as farm labour."
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
8 months
@Diana_C_McNally @cityoftoronto Also, not that this is exactly the point, but the area has very challenging growing conditions (heavy shade). And who is going to look after this garden? When the City put flowers into planters nearby once, they expected me to make the time to water them.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
@Gruesomebrat @cmcdonaldglobal Reinforcing the reply above -- it is NOT the same encampment. That there are not two but three encampments within the tiny space of Kensington Market should tell you how dire the situation is.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
@jmwensley @nejsnave @oliviachow The church absolutely did not allow it; I am the priest of the church, and was removed from the area while protesting it yesterday. However, it is not technically church property, but a transportation right-of-way, so our legal position is complex.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
@beansprouts_mom Been near shelling on Thai-Myanmar border. Treated bleeding wounds of people with Hep/HIV. Broken up many physical fights between people twice my size. Always wear my N95 indoors. People who have experienced a lot of risk get good at risk assessment ...
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
11 months
@1goodtern Very accustomed to being an outsider. Neurodivergent. Experienced in risk assessment. (I am not at all risk-averse, personally, but I like to choose my risks).
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
As soon as it became apparent that the "community group" was a thin fiction, the "permit" disappeared from the City's argument. They now say the permit has been cancelled, and was issued "in error".
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
@cobalt1982 @Diana_C_McNally I assure you @Diana_C_McNally is not a naive person. It's not bystanders who happen to be on the TTC who should be doing this, but people experiencing distress should not be abandoned to the TTC as their only shelter or source of support. Best to stop a crisis before it starts.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
@Diana_C_McNally @lorrainelamchop I'm fairly sure I saw her swing by on her bike at some point in the afternoon. She seemed perplexed that there were still homeless people there.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
2 years
@meganysta The cage disappeared the night before last. I think some people misunderstood the intention and thought it was installed to prevent people from interacting with the statue, and were understandably upset about that. I guess we should have put a sign on it.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
2 years
@DCapTO @meganysta Unfortunately, it is not private property. Although it has been used as the churchyard for generations, it is legally a transportation right-of-way. Not that the Department of Transportation has taken any interest in it until the last three months ...
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
This is beyond awful.
@Diana_C_McNally
Diana Chan McNally
1 year
Horrifying: @fordnation 's Ministry of Health is ending renumeration for physicians who treat extremely vulnerable people who are uninsured, which includes undocumented and many unhoused people. This is telling physicians to treat people for free, or else don't treat them at all.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
6 months
I reposted the wrong article earlier, this is the one which highlights my sister's contribution.
@globeandmail
The Globe and Mail
6 months
Vancouver Art Gallery admits celebrated J.E.H. MacDonald oil sketches are fakes
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
@lorrainelamchop Fairly sure it is the safety of the fence.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
We will also, as always, serve a drop-in dinner on Friday the 23rd from 6 pm to 10 pm, and takeaway breakfasts on Saturday and Sunday from 7 am to 8:30 am.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
2 years
@KatTapestry @Gruesomebrat @NHC_Gigi @KatTapestry , it is an honour to work with you. And thank you so much for alerting Tim.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
7 months
@nejsnave @Noellenarwhal We were not doing social media callouts because we didn't want to cause police/security to ramp up their presence, but we have been spreading the word to our contacts. It is right out in public now, so I expect many others will come as well.
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@MaggieHelwig
Maggie Helwig
1 year
Very proud that a short piece of mine is included in this book.
@nilikm
Nili Kaplan-Myrth MD PhD
1 year
I interrupt the general sense of disinformation defeatism and public health gloom to announce that I’m reading the final manuscript today for #BreakingCanadians , co-written by beloved healthcare experts and advocates. Next it goes to production for @utpress fall/winter catalogue!
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