RALPH'S HERO TREATED LIKE A CRIMINAL

Tuesday, September 16, 2003

The Calgary Sun

BY LICIA CORBELLA, EDITOR

After Premier Ralph Klein was pied in the face this summer, he expressed gratitude to the nameless, unknown citizen or citizens who helped capture his assailant.

Well, Ralph, here's your chance. Let me introduce you to the fellow primarily responsible for making sure your attacker gets his just desserts. His name is Daryl MacKinnon.

So, who is the brave man who stepped out of the pancake line on Monday, July 7, to ensure the pie-eyed punk gets a taste of justice? Well, brace yourselves, 'cause this Stampede breakfast Superman doesn't live up to society's perception of a hero.

MacKinnon, you see, was living at the Sunalta homeless shelter, run until that very day by that marvelous ministry of mercy, the Mustard Seed.

"I didn't feel heroic at all," insists MacKinnon, who yesterday helped dole out cream of ham soup to hundreds of homeless people at the Mustard Seed shelter in downtown Calgary.

"I just reacted," he says, shrugging. "I saw the assault and felt outraged. The guy started running so I stepped out of line, grabbed him, kind of twisted him and got him onto the ground."

MacKinnon credits his three years with the Canadian Armed Forces for his instant reaction.

The irony of this situation is while MacKinnon was tackling Klein's assaulter, he says Klein's government was assaulting him and 149 other men like him who were getting help at the Sunalta Shelter, located at 2032 10 Ave. S.W.

The Mustard Seed ran the shelter -- complete with meals, showers and programs to help the men permanently get off the street -- for $12 a day per person.

The province wanted to slash funding to $6 a day per bed, something the Seed's executive director, Pat Nixon, says is impossible.

MacKinnon, who is working as a roofer now and is in the Seed's Step Up program -- which has him setting goals in a bid to live on his own -- says he moved out of the Sunalta Shelter, as did many men, because the province treated him (Ralph's hero) like a criminal.

"They have three guards there every night with handcuffs and bullet-proof vests. Before that we were self-policing," says MacKinnon. Worse still, during the day, the doors are locked, so the 50% of residents who work -- often at night -- have nowhere to sleep during the day.

Yesterday, Nixon joined forces with Dermot Baldwin, executive director of the Calgary Drop-In Centre, to express concern about the direction Alberta Seniors' Minister Stan Woloshyn is taking emergency shelter funding.

As we stroll through the Drop-In Centre's kitchen, filled with volunteers from Conoco Phillips dishing out chili to some 500 "clients," Baldwin points out that the province requires every one of the 2,500 meals it serves each day to meet the Canada Food Guide requirements, but it provides just three cents toward each of those meals. The rest comes from donations. In total, the province spends $15 million a year on the homeless.

"Ralph is planning to throw around billions of dollars to bail himself out of the botched job he did deregulating energy and now his government is planning to sock it to the poorest of the poor in society," complains Nixon.

"What's more," pipes in Baldwin, "we save the province millions of dollars a year."

He refers to an incident in which a cold and hungry homeless man called the police to tell them he was going to throw a brick through a department store window.

"There were no more beds in the city. He was freezing and hungry. So he threw the brick."

That one event cost the system $3,500 just in arrest processing and court fees. Had the province provided enough funding, it would have cost taxpayers $19.45 instead.

Meanwhile, MacKinnon has a great idea.

"I know Ralph has a heart for the homeless," says MacKinnon.

"Premier Klein needs to come down and tour these facilities and see the love and miracles that take place here."

So, how about it Ralph? Dermott Baldwin and Pat Nixon --two living saints -- would be thrilled to show you the miracles they help perform. Miracles like your hero Daryl MacKinnon.