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economist suntribune the region saturday march 112000 people without proper shelter refused rooms at local hotel homeless face discrimination governments consider making discrimination against homeless illegal by usa queen staff writer salvation army family services worker jane nielsen is lobbying the province to change the ontario human rights code to stop legal discrimination against the homeless ifs the last frontier of discrimination allowed in the province youre not allowed to discriminate on the basis of race religion sex colour sexual orientation or anything else she said do we want to live in a society where you have to make a certain income before youre considered an important part of the social fabric i dont want to live in a province like that but anyone is allowed to discriminate on the basis of you being homeless if we want to see ontario as a fair place regardless of race colour social status we need to identify homeless people under the law do we want to live in a society where you have to make a certain income before youre considered an important part of the social fabric i dont want to live in a province like that nielsen was dumbfounded to learn that discrimination against the homeless some of societys most vulnerabie citizens is per missible after trying to place drifters in a newmarket hotel last month this winter the salvation army and an aurora social service agency called crosslinks launched an outreach van service which cruises yonge street and hwy 7 look ing for homeless people on mondays tuesdays and thursdays between 3 and 9 pm according to a study conducted a year ago there are 500 people with no form of permanent shelter in york region living on the streets in fields or in abandoned barns and cars nielsen called the hotel which the salvation army refuses to identify on feb 16 and asked the manager to reactivate an account the church had had with the estab lishment in the past but when she mentioned placing home less people the manager refused despite assurances a public health nurse on the van would ensure the drifters were free of drugs and alcohol you dont send somebody to a hotel drunk or stoned and let the manager deal with it said nielsen adding anyone under the influence would be sent to a detox centre and a shelter rather than a hotel if they need ed emergency housing irs a safety issue you dont jeopardize the safety of others for one person the salvation army would pay the bills of the clients including any damages that might be incurred but the manager refused to accept any one described as homeless according to nielsen who is now lobbying the regions mpps to change the hitman rights code she wouldnt listen to me she heard street van and completely freaked out they set up an account with us who did they think we were sending the queen were not sending the president of ibm while nielsen understands the managers concerns she argued the hotel cant predict staff photomike barrett jane nielsen of the newmarket salvation army was shocked to learn it is legal to oiscriminate against the homeless the behaviour of any of its customera and nobody else who stays at the hotel has a salvation army guarantee that the church will pick up all expenses they cant tell if somebody is a drug addict or beats his wife or whatever by look ing at them she said i can understand her concerns but when youre hot reasonable thafs where fear comes in we fear what we dont understand and that becomes a problem for everyone but nielsen was even more outraged to learn what the hotel was doing is legal what they have done is unethical and immoral but ifs not illegal she wants to change that where we would like to go now is get the homeless identified under the human rights act she said be a big brother mmm this message brought to you as a community service ol the economisttribune bp patricks dancer saturday march 18 jl markham district vets hall 7 washington street markham live band 2nd time around 5j1 irish comedienne- tom williamson jj 4jt tickets 10 per person food irish stew phone2943159 p just because youre homeless doesnt mean youre a criminal theyre not going to make great middle class people as much as we would like that but theyre still human beings just because youre homeless doesnt mean youre a crimi nal nielsen may get her wish according to human rights commission communications officer john nixon both the provincial and federal governments are considering making it illegal to discriminate against the homeless social condition is something that is a topical issue and the canadian human rights act review committee set up by the federal government is examining the issue he said there is no protection for social condi tion at this point in the provincial coda were monitoring this issue we are aware there are calls to somehow extend protection to homeless people i dr michael damus formerly of 6212 main street stouffville is pleased to announce the relocation of his family practice 29 toronto street south uxbridge new patients welcome fluent in german please call 905 8520522 for information and appointments j