There was a time in Canada when begging was against the law. In fact, if you didn’t have any money in your pocket, and at the same time, you couldn’t convince the police that you had a home to go to, you could be arrested. That law was finally removed from the Canadian criminal code in the 1960s; and rightly so.
There are three forms of begging on the streets as I see it. There are those who play musical instruments to amuse us. There are those who stand in traffic and wash our car windows. And there are those who sit or stand on the sidewalk with a hat in front of them hoping that passersby will drop coins into the hat.
The question that truly comes to the fore is; is playing an instrument to amuse us in hopes that we will drop a coin in their instrument a form of begging on the part of the musician? The Toronto Transit Commission holds auditions for musicians to compete for the privilege of placing themselves in certain subway stations at certain times of the day to entertain us so that they can earn a living. Does that come under the classification of begging? Squeegee people, that is people who stand next to your car and offer to wash your windows while you are waiting for the light to change in your favour, are offering a service in hopes that you will give them some money. Does that also come under the classification of begging?
The first thing we have to do is look up the definition of begging. One dictionary defines that word to mean; to ask for something as a gift, as charity, or as a favor. Obviously, it doesn’t necessarily mean that one has to speak in order to beg. Holding your hand out to a stranger with your palm facing upward is in essence, asking for money as charity and as a favour. That is begging. That being as it is, does it not follow that if you are sitting on the sidewalk with a hat placed in front of you, then that too is a form of begging. If that is so, is it such a giant leap to conclude that if someone is playing an instrument while standing on the sidewalk and his opened instrument case is at his feet, that that too is a form of begging? And if a squeegee person has just washed your car window and his services were unsolicited and then he holds his hand out to you with the palm of his hand facing upwards, is that not also a form of begging?
I remember many years ago seeing a old scruffy-looking man who had Kleenex stuffed up one of the nostrils of his nose with postcards in his hands while he stood on Yonge Street (a major street) in downtown Toronto. You would see him there every day, come sun, rain or snow, year after year. He didn’t hold his hand out and he never approached anyone and neither did he speak. The fact that he had these postcards in his outstretched hands was a clear message that he wanted to sell them. He was obviously begging. The police ignored him, probably because they figured he was mentally ill and no one ever complained about him because he didn’t obstruct pedestrian traffic. Stories floated around Yonge Street that he was a millionaire and when he eventually stopped coming around, the talk was that he probably was in the Caribbean living in luxury off the fruits of his labour as a beggar. In truth, he probably died penniless of old age.
There are three kinds of beggars who sit or stand on the sidewalk and beg for money. There are those who have lost an arm or a leg or are old-age pensioners and are living on government sustenance but don’t get enough income from the government to enjoy other things in life besides food, shelter and clothing. There are those who simply refuse to work and are happy as beggars. Often you also see them late at night lying over gratings on the sidewalk in winter to get heat or in a doorway of a store to protect themselves from the wind. And finally, there are those who live in splendid homes, drive beautiful cars, and have a wardrobe that most men and women can’t afford. In actuality, fewer than one in five neggars are actually homeless.
I have a great deal of sympathy for disabled people and old-age pensioners who are unable to work and are living on what little the government gives them. If I see such a person on the street with his or her hand out or a hat at their feet, I will give them some coins, usually about a dollar’s worth. I don’t have to do that but I do it because it makes me feel good. I am grateful that I am not in their shoes and if giving them some money will make them a little bit happier, it makes me feel happy to.
With respect to those who don’t work, there are four possible reasons for this. The first reason is that they are simply lazy. They don’t want to commit themselves to a daily regimen; they want to be free from all responsibilities and obligations. I have no sympathy for these people and I don’t give them the time of day, let alone any of my money.
Then there are the teenagers who have run away from home and can’t find a job. I have sympathy for them but I still don’t give them money because if their home life is normal, they should have stuck it out until they got a job and saved up enough money to go out on their own. If they have escaped from a bad home, they are eligible for welfare or some other form of assistance and merely have to ask for it. There are church organizations that will assist them. I remember many years ago when my car broke down in a town and it was in the garage for repairs. I didn’t have enough money to go to a hotel so I went to the rectory of a Catholic church and the priest invited me into his home for the night and gave me a good breakfast the next morning. If these runaways get hungry enough, they will either find a job, return home or seek social assistance. They shouldn’t be begging on the streets. Besides, it’s dangerous because pedophiles look for kids begging on the streets.
The third kinds of people who refuse to work are the addicts and alcoholics. They can’t get a job because of their addiction and alcoholism. If they would lay off the booze and drugs, they could straighten out their lives and begging wouldn’t be necessary. I don’t give them any money because I have a strong suspicion that it will simply be used for the obtaining of more drugs or alcohol.
The fourth reason is that the beggar is mentally ill. I have sympathy for these people but they are generally given assistance from the government. (albeit nothing more than enough for food, shelter and clothing) I don’t make enough money that I can afford to give money to these kinds of unfortunates.
The third kind of beggar is the type of person who already has sufficient money to live on but chooses to go to the streets to increase his or her income. In Toronto, there was a woman who lived in an expensive home, whose entire family worked and yet, she chose to go to the streets as a beggar. She was called the ‘Shaking Lady’ because she deliberately shook her body as if she was suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. She was discovered by a newspaper reporter as being a phony and when the reporter confronted the woman, the reporter was attacked with a cane. The Shaking Lady was arrested and charged with assault. She was convicted and since then, she hasn’t been seen in her usual haunts.
Can accepting money or food without solicitation be construed as a form of begging? Let me give you two examples of this. In 1947 when I was a thirteen-year-old, the Children’s Aid put me in a group home with four other boys. We lived on a farm in Richmond (Lulu Island) just south of Vancouver. Every Saturday morning, I took the train to Vancouver for four hours of music lessons. I was given 25 cents so that I could buy some lunch. All I got for that money was a donut and a cup of hot chocolate. Needless to say, I was still hungry. One Saturday afternoon while walking to the train station, I stopped at a window of a fancy restaurant and stared at the food that was being served. I must have been drooling because two middle-aged women saw me and one of them asked; “Are you hungry?” Is the pope Catholic? They took me into the restaurant and gave me a great meal. They even offered to adopt me. Hey. I was a sweet kid then, or so I have been told. The second time that I got a free meal and some money was in 1960 when I was riding a motor scooter from Toronto to Sioux St. Marie, about 700 kilometres from Toronto for the purpose of applying for a job. When I was several hundred kilometers from Toronto, I pulled over to a diner. I didn’t have much money with me and I needed most of my money for a hotel room in Sudbury. A businessman sitting next to me noticed that all I asked for was a piece of pie. I told him that that was all I could afford. He offered to pay for a full meal and when we were finished our meals, he handed me a five-dollar bill. Five dollars then was quite a lot of money since a full meal could be had for about a dollar. I could have refused his offer but I was hungry and short of money so I accepted his gift.
In Vancouver, when the two women bought me a meal, I was hungry and had no money so I accepted their offer. On occasion when I am sitting in a restaurant and I see someone who appears to be in need, skimping on what they are buying for their lunch, I will strike up a conversation with them and then offer to pay for their meal. Most accept my offer.
There are only two times when I actually begged for money or food. Both times it happened in the same city and on the same day. The city was Seattle and it was in September 1953. I had taken the train from Vancouver to Los Angeles to spend a month with my mother in Hollywood. On the way back, I had to switch trains in Seattle and had three hours to kill. I had no money left for food. While walking on the street, I approached a man and asked for twenty-five cents. That would have bought me a sandwich. He said in response, “I was just going to ask you for twenty-five cents.” I was so embarrassed. Nearby was a YMCA and they had scheduled an activity that would also include some sandwiches after the activity came to an end. I went in and as I looked at the sandwiches, I asked the woman at the counter if I could have one before the activity began. I told her that I hadn’t eaten in two days and was very hungry. She smiled and handed me a sandwich. I stayed for the activity and ate a second sandwich after the activity ended. Hey. I was hungry. Was I begging? Yes, I was and I am not ashamed to admit it. I was a sailor in the Canadian navy and as such I worked for a living. I had simply temporarily run out of money and was very hungry.
At the time of this writing, a city counselor wants the City of Toronto to ban panhandling in designated tourist areas. He called for heavier enforcement of Ontario’s Safe Streets Act.
That Act which became law in Ontario prohibits a person in engaging in one or more of the following activities if done in an aggressive manner. They are;
1. Threatening the person solicited with physical harm, by word, gesture or other means, during the solicitation or after the person solicited responds or fails to respond to the solicitation.
2. Obstructing the path of the person solicited during the solicitation or after the person solicited responds or fails to respond to the solicitation.
3. Using abusive language during the solicitation or after the person solicited responds or fails to respond to the solicitation.
4. Proceeding behind, alongside or ahead of the person solicited during the solicitation or after the person solicited responds or fails to respond to the solicitation.
5. Soliciting while intoxicated by alcohol or drugs.
6. Continuing to solicit a person in a persistent manner after the person has responded negatively to the solicitation.
Obviously, this form of aggressive begging is inappropriate and should be frowned upon. The citizens simply don't want to be accosted by legions of these kinds of supplicants when we walk on our sidewalks.
In a unanimous decision on January 17, 2007, the Ontario Court of Appeal dismissed appeals from 11 homeless men who were convicted of provincial offences in 2001 for washing windshields or asking Toronto drivers for money while standing on the roads. They claimed that banning squeegee people from begging on public roadways violates their freedom of expression. However, the Ontario Court of Appeal had ruled that regulating pedestrians and traffic and reducing dangers on the streets is important enough to override their constitutional right to work on the street and ask for money for their unsolicited services. The court said in part; "While the appellants' conditions of economic disadvantage may be deserving of sympathy, they have not established they are entitled to a response that is constitutional in nature." Peter Rosenthal, a lawyer for the appellants, said, “The people we're talking about are people so poor they have to beg and who in our view are deserving of protection and should be considered among the groups of people against whom one can't discriminate.” Unfortunately for the squeegee people, that argument isn’t a valid one.
The Charter of Rights in Canada doesn’t list poor people for protection on the basis of personal characteristics, such as race, sex, ethnic origin, or age. Our Constitution protects those rights subject only to such reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society. So in effect, our courts may say on any particular issue that yes, someone's rights have been violated, but no, that violation is not unconstitutional. There was a time when being broke in Canada and homeless resulted in the police arresting these citizens and putting them in jail. That law was final;ly rescinded.
I personally feel that if someone is in need and they have to go to public places to beg for money, I don’t see why they shouldn’t be able to do that. For example, any one of us could find ourselves stranded on a street with no money to catch a bus to go home because a pickpocket picked our pockets. Disabled persons who are unable to work or seniors who are living hand to mouth on small stipends given to them by the government should also be able to beg for money if they feel that their needs exceeds what they get from the government. Strangely enough, in Japan, the only persons permitted to beg on the streets are disabled soldiers. This is because they don’t get income from the government.
Begging is demeaning; we should have no doubt about that. But if one’s needs are not met, for one reason or another, then begging to many is their only option. It is up to the rest of us who have no need to beg to decide whom we will help and whom we will ignore.
The way I see it, as long as those that are compelled to beg are not aggressive, then I say, let them do what they have to do. The fact that many citizens in Canada will drop coins in the outstretched hands, hats and instrument cases of those in need, is a good sign. It is proof positive that Canadians are a caring nation. I certainly hope that the only people who beg on our streets are those in need and not creeps like the Shaking Lady who are scamming us out of our money.
NOTE: In April 2008, the Toronto Police announced that there was a 288% increase in illegal panhandling charges on the streets of Toronto.
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