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Downtown Kingston reveals its new banners on May 25, 2022. Photo by Peter Hendra /The Kingston Whig-Standard
A Gananoque woman does not plan on returning to downtown Kingston after a confrontation with an unhoused individual.
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According to Jackie Watson, she came to Kingston with her daughter, who lives with frontal lobe brain damage, in April for a doctor’s appointment at CDK Family Medicine.
They arrived in Kingston around 11:30 a.m. and parked in the Robert Bruce Memorial Parking Garage on Brock Street.
Immediately after pulling in, she noticed a man wandering around.
“I noticed that he was kind of lingering around picking up stuff, had no shoes on, nothing, just kind of talked to himself,” recalled Watson. “I kept the doors locked, and then I noticed that he was leaving.”
Once he was out of sight, Watson proceeded to get herself and her seven-year-old out of the car. But as they were heading over to pay for parking, the man re-appeared in a dark corner.
“He threw a glass object at us, and it shattered and it hit me, not my daughter. I just said screw it, and I basically grabbed her, grabbed her hand, and we walked out back. He then came out of the garage area and started chasing us practically all the way to CDK,” said Watson.
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Worried about the safety of her daughter, she didn’t brother taking out her phone to take a picture. At that point, Watson said, she was in flight mode.
The entrance of the Robert Bruce Memorial Parking Garage on Bagot Street between Princess and Brock streets. Photo by Peter Hendra /The Kingston Whig-Standard
Watson did notify Kingston Police about the incident, who took in all of her information.
While locating the individual can be difficult, Const. Anthony Colangeli released some safety tips for shared environments such as the downtown core.
Those include being aware of your surroundings, travel in well-lit, populated routes, remove yourself if a situation feels unsafe, maintain personal space and have a plan if you need assistance.
He also encourages people to report behaviour that appears to be suspicious or concerning to the Kingston Police.
As for Watson’s daughter, the incident scared her so much that she didn’t want to walk back to the car from her medical appointment. With her daughter living with frontal lobe brain damage, explaining to her about mental health issues and homelessness was difficult to do. Instead, Watson had to carry her back.
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Now she won’t even leave the house.
“I don’t think we’ll be going downtown for a while. One thing usually we do are the buskers, and there’s no way we’re doing any of that,” said Watson.
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According to Marijo Cuerrier, the executive director of Downtown Kingston, hearing about the incident made her very sad, not just for Watson and her daughter but for the downtown community.
“Incidents with individuals who are suffering from mental health and addictions-related illnesses can be unsettling for anyone, and especially if there is a child involved. Unfortunately, until the Ontario government steps up and takes responsibility for the compassionate and respectable care of this population of people, all communities are facing challenges that they are not equipped to deal with,” said Cuerrier.
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She added that the downtown core of any city can become the hub for activity of this nature for many reasons: the individuals feel safe with people around, they have been banned from many support facilities because of their behaviour, and some make their living panning for money.
“In Downtown Kingston, we are fortunate in that the vulnerable community is mostly known by our Welcoming Streets outreach team, who are trained in dealing with situations involving individuals suffering from mental health/addictions and the effects of homelessness — but of course they cannot be everywhere, at all times. They do a lot of proactive work building relationships with people on the street and connecting them with services,” said Cuerrier, who added that one negative experience shared on social media can have the ability to damage the reputation of the downtown.
For the most part, Cuerrier said the thousands of people who visit the downtown do have positive experiences.
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While the incident involving Watson did take place, Cuerrier wants to remind people that the downtown is, in fact, safe.
“Incidents happen that shouldn’t happen in a perfect world — but we don’t live in a perfect world at the moment. We work every day to offer a safe and inclusive downtown. Welcoming streets is only one of the tools we use. We also have specific police officers who are familiar with our community that frequent the area. If all goes as planned, we will introduce a dedicated officer back to our streets in the coming weeks,” said Cuerrier.
The City and Kingston Police are also actively working on the introduction of Special Constables to the city, which Cuerrier hopes will be dedicated to the downtown once up and running.
As for Watson, while she’s still hesitant to return to the city’s downtown, she shared her experience so others would remain vigilant, hoping an incident like hers doesn’t happen to anyone else.
“It’s traumatizing,” said Watson, who is advocating for more support and program funding for those who need it.
“With mental health, addiction, and homelessness, we need to get these people off the street and properly taken care of and that keeps us safe. too,” said Watson.
Mkulchar
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