A Regina business owner says he is deeply disturbed after his security cameras captured a man apparently trying to flag down passersby for help for several hours before he died out in the cold late last month.
“When you see a guy sitting there, and you’re watching him die on video, it’s not a TV show — it’s real life, so it’s going to hit you,” Jeff Holt said in a Thursday interview.
“What kind of society are we?” he remembers asking himself when he saw the footage.
The video, which Holt shared with CBC News, appears to show the man talking briefly with a driver on a bus around 8 p.m. on Dec. 30. The video then shows the man stumbling out the rear door of the bus and falling onto a lawn on Fourth Avenue E.
The bus waits for a couple of seconds before driving away from the man, who appears to be unable to get up on his own.
Over the following hours, several pedestrians, vehicles and at least three more city buses can be seen in the surveillance footage passing by the man, but none stopped for more than seven hours.
Around 3:30 a.m. on Dec. 31, a cyclist passing by stopped and checked on the man, according to the footage, and called emergency services.
In a few cases, people interacting with apparently-homeless people have been placed at risk when the man suddenly goes aggressive or overly expressive, and it makes for intense situation people don’t want to experience.
Not often, but often enough.
In one case in the west, a cop administering an emergency injection to prevent an overdose was killed by the person she was working to save, stabbed in the chest.
Humans profile as a safety measure. We make assessments in three seconds and it’s just evolution that mangled us like that. I think that’s what so many people did here, and it’s difficult to fault them as this article seems to mean us to do.
Oh please. All someone had to do was call emergency services. Dress it up with all the excuses you like, all this demonstrates is the ongoing callous disregard for anyone unhoused.
Yeah I’ve called ambulances for a couple people I’ve found that I wasn’t comfortable approaching. It doesn’t take much and could save a life
Ambulance rides in Alberta aren’t covered and cost $390.
I’m not sure I’d have done any different than those who passed by.
Whenever I drive by someone waiting for a bus in extreme cold, I’m always torn because I want to pick them up but my instinct is to mind my own business because not everyone wants a ride from a strange man in a pickup truck.
And those fees are waived for people experiencing financial hardship:
https://lethbridgeherald.com/news/lethbridge-news/2023/08/11/ahs-waives-ambulance-fees-for-people-with-no-income-or-address/
There is literally no excuse not to call 911 or, in my area, 211 if you witness someone whose health appears to be in danger.
That’s just for the homeless and you don’t know if someone is homeless.
So therefore ignore a health crisis? Wtf man.
The majority of folks who are housed also have insurance which covers ambulance services, either through an employer or a provincial subsidized program, of which there are a variety, such as:
https://www.alberta.ca/non-group-coverage
Or
https://www.alberta.ca/coverage-for-seniors-program
Or
https://www.alberta.ca/aish-what-you-get
But keep soothing that conscience.
Dude you have issues, the only conscience I see here is yours being butthurt on behalf of an already dead man. If you would like to do something about it it definitely doesn’t involve online arguments that you’re clearly losing from a self-preservation point of view.
Get out of your own head, maybe if you spent less time being a keyboard douchebag you’d see someone who could use the help you’re preaching like a rabid dog.
I have issues for advocating for providing life-saving assistance for members of our community.
Sure guy. Keep fighting the good fight.
Yup, happened to me. Unfortunately, “apparently-homeless” usually means someone who’s drunk or strung out on drugs.
If you do end up getting killed trying to help someone who’s under the influence, your family may not get any justice at all.
You pretty much always have to either call the police or ambulance and not interact with someone in need. It sucks, but that’s the world we live in.
The only three times I stayed with the person while waiting for emergency services, there were either other people around, the person was unconscious, and one old lady who was lost seemed to have dementia and wasn’t a threat to me.