Security & Fraud

Life in Regent's Park

Our office is in Regent Park. It's there for a number of reasons, not the least of which is we prefer to remain hidden away. There is a great deal of poverty in Regent Park and there is a great deal of crime as well. There is also a sense of community not found in the suburbs or other parts of Toronto. In Regent Park, this sense of community does not necessarily come from organized activities that members of the community participate in together, the Saturday morning hockey game or meeting your neighbours at your daughter's ballet lesson. It comes from knowing you are surviving together. It comes from knowing that the person you meet on the street may have a life just a little worse off than the next person, and it comes from respecting each other's ability to survive life. This doesn't mean that the people of Regent Park are friends with the crack dealers and prostitutes on the street, or that they are all involved in crime themselves, just that they understand and respect the need of people to survive.

After awhile, you recognize the people on the street. The police officer, the business person, the store owner, the crack dealer, the office worker and prostitute. When you do, you sometimes acknowledge them with a good morning or a good evening. Perhaps sometimes you will give someone a cigarette or a loony. Those that give, suspect that those that ask won't use the money for food as they have suggested, but for drugs or booze. Still you have some sympathy for their plight. You know how hard life can be and you can only imagine what may have happened to bring some people down to the depths they have reached. There is no limit. Because of circumstance, our own shortcomings or the actions of others, all of us have failed at one time or another. Most of us have been able to recover from our failures, occasionally turning them into successes. Sometimes though, we know that there, but for the Grace of God, go I. Many of the crack hookers you see on the street, for example, are products of abuse, both sexual and physical at the hands of their fathers, brothers, uncles and family friends. They have not been able to recover from these terrible experiences and have allowed themselves to sink into a world of addiction, either by choice or design. It is a way to escape, and it could happen to someone you know. When you see these girls, for that is what most of them are, many people are disgusted by their presence. They think about what they do and are disgusted by the very thought of it.

The people who live and work in Regent Park are disgusted that these girls have gotten into a situation where they have no choice but to do what they do. At the same time, though the people of Regent Park can understand that even a crack hooker should be offered some human dignity and be treated with courtesy and respect.

There have been occasions when our staff have prevented people from being beat up down here. We have assisted prostitutes and drunks who have been badly beaten up. We have seen people spit on the hookers and kick at the homeless, and none of the persons we have seen do these things was from Regent Park.

Bill Joynt is a well-known private investigator with The Investigator's Group in Toronto. He can be contacted at 416-955-9450 or by e-mail at billj@investigators-group.com.