It was a few weeks ago that I noted that the Piano Man was back. He was perched up in his usual bus bench in front of the Farmer's Market playing an endless array of demo strings on his organ. One was particularly memorable, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. This was played out loud and clear at two o'clock in the morning to an empty audience on a clear, but cool night in April. I was struggling to continue to overcome my stint in the hospital, which whacked me more emotionally than physically, although I am still medicated. I spoke to the Piano Man once. He told me lived close by, so each time he was able to bring his equipment by pulling it in his cart. The last time was when my husband and I were waiting the last bus home, he came to tell us about a hundred "refugees" from Fort McMurray had arrived at Niagara. I thought to myself, "Those people must be really desperate to come to Niagara, of all places, with no jobs, no money, no future". Then, it was realized they had come back to their families they had left behind when they first left to Fort McMurray.
The Piano Man was around last year too, when my husband and I would go to the bars, have a few drinks, cheer on the Blue Jays and come back to rest up and then go home. I haven't been out anywhere in a long time because simply I can't afford it. Too many people around me in this region are experiencing the Cloud, you know that big hanging gray thing that doesn't leave your stream of consciousness as you attempt to go about your business. There's a whole section of King Street, especially towards Ontario Street where businesses have literally closed down. Even Jumpin' Jaxx, one of my favourite after-bar eats when we all used to hang out at Open Mike nights at the Strega Cafe. We'd sit outside on clear nights and chat politics, philosophy, hopes and dreams, none of which ever became true for any of us. I meet the same people we used to do this with ... many are gone already to Toronto or other better climes, but the ones here are left aimless, with a Cloud over their head, even those who had cheerfully graduated from Brock, even those from Brock's Badgers and others who once held down the fort in this Town.
My illness has left me for broke. All the bills still come in, even if I am not able to bring in any money. This is something that two income families do not have to worry about or people who have high paying jobs with the kind of benefits that would carry you over for a short or long-term illness. I've longed for the days when I was able to secure good high-paid employment with these kinds of benefits, but this is not possible in Niagara. Niagara Region has a culture of gigs, low paying part-time jobs and if you are lucky, you can win a lottery or inherit some money and buy some property by the lake. It is not that there is nobody that is doing well in Niagara. I know a few of them, but unfortunately, there are not enough of them to invest in the entire infrastructure we once had and has now collapsed. There are large companies that feed off the poor, such as payday loan companies, household rental agencies, temp employment agencies, pawn shops and similar enterprises that have scarred our once pristine real estate.
As my husband and I left to catch a cab earlier in the week, a man was shouting to himself as he awkwardly walked down the street. His eyes, glittering from the dose of whatever hit he took, gazed at me then quickly turned away. These are part of the downtown landscape these days. All the days when I used to enjoy time together with my husband and even on my own, are gone. I leave my decrepit home to go to my office, where the stress and threat level always seems so magnified, that nothing I do relieves this anxiety. It's not my inability to do my work that is an issue -- it is the kind of problems that walk through my door that create the anger, the sense of hopelessness that I have in this region. We do many kinds of disability claims, which we are largely successful in but they can be a high climb. People I deal with often have mental disorders and their visions and anger and lost dreams are part of what they bring through my door. I compartmentalize. However, regardless of well I do that, I still remember when private practice was fun. Those were the days people had more agreements, more hopes, more dreams and we were consulted to assist them with business plans, board training, workshops, etc., which I enjoyed delivering as much as those receiving them enjoyed attending. I looked forward to this and did not have to think, just put one foot in front of the other and soon, this one will be dealt with and done. These times were memorable.
Unfortunately, there is not much of that going on anymore. Many small businesses have disappeared or gone bankrupt. Even a few of my colleagues had left their practices in less than glowing terms. There is a high rate of pain and depression among those in my profession. Around Ontario, I am aware of some who've had to go to rehab, others who have attempted suicide, others who have quit their practices and others who have had health crises, a heart attack, a stroke or something like I just had. To the contrary, leaning on one's fellow colleagues is not always a great thing, especially when we all are feeling the same way, but many will not admit it. We have to put a look of strength on our faces, while we work to save the folks who come to us who are literally worse off. Working in the Niagara Region in any small business can be a challenge for anyone. People have a much lower average and median income than most other parts of Ontario, At least half of those that have jobs are working precariously. Most new jobs in the region are low-paying, low skilled positions. Too many people are resigned to be happy just to get a call centre job, an occupation with high turnover, high stress and in many ways, hard on the family.
I know when they come through my door - the names of the culprits tend to be repeated, as we prepare to go through our third, fourth, fifth or sixth round with the same parties. I try not to be too insular at this, as even these parties are hurting in their own way and as Jesus lie dying on His cross, he prayed to His Father, "Forgive them, Father, for they do not know" or words to this effect. It seems when the Cloud falls over us and we become ensnared in her difficult web, we become outwardly more nasty to one another and unable to come to a consensus. At the worst of this, I see more hate crimes committed against people, our most vulnerable. These are the folks that are so distressed that they believe that somehow very vulnerable people are getting something that they aren't and therefore, they must churn their aggression on them. I've witnessed people kicking a homeless man right on my street, as well as a group of teenagers pushing an older woman off her wheelchair and told her tauntingly that she can walk. While I do report all of these incidents, I never see how they are dealt with, and it appears that nobody is surprised when I tell them what I saw.
I walk down the streets of downtown. I notice many businesses closing down, only a few new ones opening up. The tenure of the new ones always seems uncertain as sometimes it seems a business has a remnant of permanency, but appears to lose it once the economy even slips yet another impossible notch. When one is at the bottom, one cannot believe how much further we can go. The fact is Niagara has become more and more bimodal in terms of success patterns. I've met someone I knew in the 1990's who was always investing money in properties, in businesses and various activities. The last time I seen him he was receiving ODSP, after a series of heart attacks. One may say, he should have purchased disability insurance. The point is he did, and yes - he did collect for a bit - until they decided he was on it for too long and he got kicked off, like most claimants eventually are. ODSP is becoming more and more the point of ONLY resort and not last resort.
There are others who I will refer to as the Temporarily Better Off (TBO). These are folks that appear to have jobs that last more than a couple of years, pay people enough to eat and have a roof over their head in the same month and might even pay well enough for the person to own and operate a car. However, more and more studies are pointing to the fact that a majority of these people when asked, believe they are one paycheque, one spouse or one illness away from abject poverty. One of my female acquaintances who was forced onto CPP after long term disability basically dropped her after she had to sue and settle with them, still does not recognize that she is one spouse away from desperate poverty herself. Her spouse is a nice man, very ambitious and successful enough to claim and actually keep middle class status ... but like anybody else, all it takes is an illness, an accident or some other issue to lay him out and then he can no longer support the family. One's own empire of assets gets torn down instantly when you ask for help. You have to live on your savings, your retirement savings, sell your second property, etc. until you are down to next to nothing, before you can get help. I don't know what that accomplishes other than keeping people in need of financial support, making it very difficult for them to climb back up, but somehow the TBOs of our society think this is okay. ODSP keeps stats on how people exit the system. Less than one tenth of one percent leave the system through employment or self-employment. Most leave through reaching the age of sixty five or through premature death. Some get married and leave the system as well, but that number is very low as well.
I hear the folks at ODSP wondering why more and more people are getting on this system. How can we stem the flow, they ask. Well, if people can just stop getting sick, stop getting into accidents, stop divorcing their spouses, etc., we'd all be happy. However, misery tends to compound misery and over the past several years, I've watched so many couples separate and/or divorce. To think this does not affect the upcoming generation is a complete understatement! Niagara Region has become a bastion of depression, apathy, division, scapegoating and poverty. One fellow I spoke to said he read a study that said that there are 100 unemployed workers seeking jobs for every single vacancy. That's not very good and certainly not a unifying factor ... for those that get these jobs, there are always people who think they got these jobs for reasons of nepotism, being a minority, etc. I have met men in the region that feel that they have no protection under the Human Rights Code or Charter, when in fact this isn't true. The majority of folks I've represented before the HRTO were white males and we have met with successful settlements and a few times, successful hearings.
The provincial government wants to pick a region to test the guaranteed annual income. I say, don't pick a region - just implement the damned thing. However, if any region needs to be picked, pick Niagara Region, as to me, this area seems to be the one that is so badly covered by that gray cloud and is followed by lingering misery and longing for days gone by. The people here need a boost to their morale, their sense of hope and to aid them in becoming the creative, capable people they were meant to be, and maybe then my practice will grow back into more of what it used to be ... to help people build things, as opposed to constantly fighting for the declining set of crumbs our social safety net offers, or to assist in conflicts with others that led to each one's demise. Maybe then, the Piano Man will continue to play, but aside from himself, he will have others with him playing guitar, drums and violin, and get invited to play in bars, clubs and other places. He will no longer be alone playing musical demos at three o'clock in the morning.
Your thoughts?
