Necessities of Life

'They’re not even letting the truck drivers have outhouses, for crying out loud.'

Part 1: Jonker Brotherhood

Tim Jonker. Screen capture from a video he recorded in Ottawa on 3 Feb. 2022.

Some problems, such as the scarcity of portable outdoor toilets in Ottawa, were difficult to solve. "We had lots there, but getting them into downtown was an issue," remembers Tim Jonker. "We weren't allowed to bring them in. Why, I don't know. We kept getting mixed messages. Yeah, they're gonna accept some. And then you'd get to the road, it's blocked off, and the police would say, 'No, not allowed in.'" It didn't seem to matter what paperwork they showed the cops.

"And then the one weekend we just had them walked up. I don't know how exactly they did it, but all of a sudden there was 10 port-a-potties at the corner of Wellington and Metcalfe." Before long, these required attention.

"And again, they wouldn't let us pump them out. We couldn't come up with a pump truck to clean them. So we had to remove them. A group of men lifting these dirty port-a-potties, sliding them onto the tailgate" of pickup trucks. Tim shrugs, "Which we did, whatever." 

In the above video, recorded on February 3rd, Tim Jonker shows viewers Ottawa streets that have been blocked by the police. At the 37-second mark, he says: ‘If people are wondering why they can’t get into parts of downtown, well there’s a reason. [The police are] not making it easy.’

He continues: ‘Some things are slightly inhumane. I don’t know if anybody’s walked up this street in a while, but they’re not even letting the truck drivers have outhouses, for crying out loud…You would think they would give people at least the necessities of life…”

next instalment: Social Isolation & the Churches