“I am a rock! I am an island . . . ” For songwriters Simon and Garfunkel, those words were a description of both strength and isolation. In the case of Ottawa Centre MP Mac Harb, they take on an entirely different, more literal, meaning.
First of all, rocks can’t see. Which would explain why, in a recent interview, Harb said there were no homeless people living in his riding.
“I mean, I can’t see a lot of people in Ottawa Centre at -40 degrees or -50 degrees without having a place to go and sleep because they would not be able to survive outside,” he said.
Actually, they don’t always survive, but they are there. We wonder what secluded little island in Ottawa Harb lives on that he sees no homeless people and couldn’t read his local newspaper announcing the death of a homeless man in his riding only nine months ago. These are his constituents, and he should at least know they’re there.
People do live on the streets in Centretown. They live there because they have nowhere else to go and some live there year-round — yes, even in sub-zero temperatures.
The man sleeping on the street around the corner from the UNICEF store on Bank Street late one night last week, or the man living behind the Ottawa Technical high school, are just as much a part of Centretown as the workers in both those buildings.
But is it any wonder that politicians such as Harb haven’t paid much attention to homeless people? Until this year, the homeless couldn’t vote because they didn’t have fixed addresses. Now the Elections Act has been interpreted to correct that.
But the homeless are not likely to be cheerleaders for tax cuts, and unless they stage a violent protest like the one on Parliament Hill last year, they won’t be heard. And let’s face it, the poor and the destitute don’t exactly convey the sense of a prosperous economy politicians usually like during an election campaign.
In Harb’s defense, he’s had a busy month. First, there was the trauma of being lost in the Parliament Buildings on the way to a meeting with the auditor general. Then, he cried out to all who would listen that there was an evil conspiracy by the Canadian Alliance to keep Harb and his Liberal colleagues away from the meeting.
The sad thing is, his ignorant statement about homeless people probably won’t affect Harb’s re-election campaign.
Homeless people probably won’t vote in this month’s election. Harb’s ignorance certainly won’t give them any hope that their concerns — where to sleep, how to eat, how to keep from freezing to death — will be given any consideration at all. He doesn’t even know they exist.
But for those people who do vote Nov. 27, homeless or otherwise, keep in mind: not only can rocks not see, they don’t listen either.
—Melanie Brooks