- The music they're playing.
That's what they're using to try and get rid of me.
- [Interviewer] Yeah.
- But I'm a musician so it doesn't bother me at all.
(Interviewer laughing)
- Roy. - Yes.
- [Interviewer] We're here in London, Ontario.
- Yes.
- [Interviewer] You're sleeping outside.
Tell me about it.
- Well it's not bad through the summer.
There's really nice parks in London.
There's about 55 kilometers of paved trails.
And there's gazebos and everything.
So the summer's not bad.
The wintertime I usually don't get much sleep,
maybe a couple hours a night,
because you're afraid of going to sleep,
or that you think you're not gonna wake up.
- [Interviewer] Yeah you said the police
woke you up this morning?
- Yeah, they woke me up about 10 o'clock.
They didn't hassle me or anything.
I've never had many problems with London police.
As long as you treat them with respect they're pretty good.
It's just the odd one, you know.
I've had the police in London help me more than anything.
- [Interviewer] Yup.
- But, a lot of people on the street,
they don't have any respect for em
and they talk down to them
and they wonder why they get treated badly, you know.
- [Interviewer] How many years you been out here?
- I've been on the street for about 10 years now.
I worked 21 years at General Motors.
They closed General Motors here
and they've moved it to China and Mexico.
So the plant was closed.
I locked my pension in,
but I hurt my hand.
I got bit by a spider
and they tried to do surgery at the hospital,
and they screwed my hand up, and I'm left-handed.
So I can't write and I have very little strength.
And contrary to what they say,
there aren't a lot of job for people with disabilities.
They're supposed to be mandated
to give people jobs with disabilities,
but they always find an excuse why they don't.
So, I raised three kids by myself,
they're all grown up and gone.
It's funny how you go from being number one to nothing
when they decide they're gonna
pull the rug out from under ya.
I worked since I was a kid.
I grew up on a farm.
But the way our society is today,
it's disheartening is what it is.
I used to love this country, but the older I became,
and the more aware I became
of the social problems that we have,
and the disparity between the rich and poor,
and how the gaps widening all the time.
I really don't want to be a part of their society anymore.
I'd rather donate my time to places like Unity Project,
which is a homeless relief shelter here in London.
I've donated over a thousand hours there.
- [Interviewer] Well it's cool that you're keeping busy.
When we first started talking you said,
"at least you're on the right side of the dirt".
- Well I don't know, I've never been on the other side,
it might be good there too.
(Interviewer laughing)
But I don't know, yeah.
- [Interviewer] If you had three wishes what would they be?
- I'd want to ah.
I'd love to see my kids.
That's about it.
I just, I wish people would treat each other good,
instead of having these class distinctions,
and people looking down on other people.
We're all human beings
and we all deserve to be treated with respect.
Unfortunately, the haves are treating the haves-nots
worse and worse all the time.
We're becoming little more than numbers.
- [Interviewer] Yup.
- And hopefully the Liberals give us
a little more funding for homeless strategies.
Half of the problem is, the amount of money you get,
if you get a decent place,
you're looking at spending 3/4 of your money on your rent.
- [Interviewer] Yup.
- So they want ya out of the shelter system,
but you can't afford to eat.
So people end up coming back.
I mean, I don't even--
- [Interviewer] It's a crisis, it's a serious crisis.
- I know, and London's not bad.
I came back from Sudbury, I was up there for six months.
A bachelor apartment there is 700 bucks.
A one-bedroom, 750, 800.
I get a thousand dollars a month.
How you supposed to live on that?
- [Interviewer] Well we have to do something.
- We certainly do need to do something.
I just hope they don't do what that think-tank
at Princeton University wants to do
and bring the Earth's population down to six million souls.
The haves can continue to have because,
the have-nots don't deserve anything anyway.
- [Interviewer] Well thank you very much for talking to me.
- Thank you sir, I appreciate your time,
and best of luck on your project.