Mayoral hopeful Jane Pitfield has landed herself in some trouble — yesterday, the city’s homelss advocates voted to oust her as co-chair of the homelessness advisory committee. Seems the committee doesn’t like her anti-panhandling motion she plans to present to council next week which asks for several reports from city staff about what can be done to curb panhandling. The gist of the motion is a “quality of life” bylaw making it illegal to “impede any other person’s reasonable enjoyment of day-to-day activities through panhandling.”
Toronto Star reports:
During a raucous meeting yesterday members of the city’s homelessness advisory committee voted to remove Pitfield as co-chair. But Pitfield says only city council can remove her from the post. And she said she won’t quit voluntarily in the face of opposition to a motion she has presented in city council seeking tougher measures against panhandling. Some members of the committee walked out after voting 28 to 4 in favour of asking the city’s community services committee to begin the process to have Pitfield removed as co-chair.
This adds a little drama to the mayoral race. Pitfield has been chided in the media for having a charm factor in the negative, something that works against mayoral hopefuls (see Barbara Hall, circa 2003). If she was looking to get herself into the headlines, mission accomplished. Read the full Star article by clicking here.
photo by Bouke Salverda
