Local advocates react to Premier Fords comments about encampments [Video]

Advocates in Waterloo Region are calling out Premier Doug Ford after he made controversial comments about people living in encampments.

“If you’re healthy, get off your A-S-S and start working like everyone else is,” the premier said Monday while responding to a question about affordable housing waitlists. “Get an application and drop it off at one of these companies and start working.”

Julian Ichim, who has lived in an encampment had a lot of say about Ford’s comments.

“My initial reaction is that the Fords aren’t taking seriously the economic crisis that we’re in,” he said.

He said for many people living in encampments, getting a job takes a back seat to survival.

“You don’t even have a toilet, right? Like, if you’re sleeping outside, there is nowhere you can go to clean yourself up,” Ichim said.

For the last 40 years, Joe Mancini and the Working Centre have been …