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Canada: Bystanders ignore plight of burning homeless man
The Times Colonist ^ | December 14, 2005 | Maurice Bridge

Posted on 12/14/2005 7:54:20 PM PST by Stoat

Bystanders ignore plight of burning homeless man

 

 
Christine Wellstead, an emergency room nurse at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, stands near an alcove outside a Starbucks where she doused a homeless man whose comforter caught fire while he was sleeping.
Photograph by : Ian Smith, CanWest News Service
 
 
 
 

Maurice Bridge, CanWest News Service

Published: Wednesday, December 14, 2005
VANCOUVER -- St. Paul's emergency nurse Christine Wellstead has seen some pretty rough things on the job, but nothing has shaken her as much as the callous indifference she witnessed Monday night as bystanders ignored an unconscious homeless man wrapped in a burning comforter.

Wellstead was on her way home from work around 10:30 p.m. when she stopped at Starbucks at 19th and Cambie for a coffee. Smelling smoke, she walked outside to see what was burning, but all she could see was a woman sitting at an outside table, talking calmly on her phone as clouds of smoke rolled past her.

"She's on her cellphone, having her coffee and she's sitting amongst this acrid smoke," she said.

Looking further, Wellstead found a man slumped on a bench in a nearby alcove on the side street, wrapped in a comforter that was on fire.

"It was smouldering, and it was by his face," she said. "It was all orange, and there was smoke. I threw the blanket on the ground and tried to wake him up, but he didn't wake up."

She ran back into Starbucks for water to put out the fire, and that's when she got a real shock.

She said another woman customer standing at the counter told her: "Just leave him alone, he's a homeless person," Wellstead recalled. "I looked at her and I said, 'What are you talking about?'

"And she says, 'He's homeless, just forget it.' "

Appalled, Wellstead rushed back out with water to douse the fire and still couldn't wake the man, so she ran inside again and asked a barista to call for help.

"I said, 'You'd better call an ambulance, because I can't wake him up,' and the lady [customer] said, 'Don't call the hospital, they don't want him,' and I just looked at her, and I said, 'I work at the hospital and yeah, we want him.' "

Wellstead finally woke the man and got him sitting up as they waited for the ambulance. He told her he was prone to seizures and believed he had one while he was smoking, wrapped in his comforter against the night chill.

Wellstead said she didn't believe he suffered serious burns. The fire and ambulance crews who answered the call were great, she said, and treated him with respect as they took him away to St. Paul's Hospital.

The ambulance service confirmed a man was taken to St. Paul's after the incident. CanWest News could not obtain information on his condition Tuesday.

The well-dressed customer who made the callous remarks sat alone in her car at the curb, sipping her coffee and watching as the event unfolded.

Wellstead went home, but she was still upset Tuesday morning. "I can't get my head around it," she said. "I'm so upset. I was almost in tears.

"I know there are a lot of homeless people here and I know some of them can be annoying, but this was a human being.

"His blanket was on fire."



TOPICS: Canada; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: apathy; canada; canadianchristmas; canadiancompassion; canuckistan; christmascompassion; compassion; homeless; immolated; immolation; kindness
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To: Welsh Rabbit

Remember the case in NYC years ago where a woman was being attacked on the street and no one called the police .. yes it happens.


61 posted on 12/14/2005 9:07:31 PM PST by 1066AD
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To: Porterville

Read the posts by that self-proclaimed Canadian here and you'll find that your opinion is certainly not hyperbole.


62 posted on 12/14/2005 9:08:50 PM PST by indcons
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To: Stoat

63 posted on 12/14/2005 9:16:05 PM PST by Lancey Howard
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To: furquhart

What "rabble"? We're not talking about ordinary citizens here
_________________________________________________________
You're right! Let's get the DNR to sell tags and open a season! //sarc//


64 posted on 12/14/2005 9:18:02 PM PST by Grizzled Bear ("Does not play well with others.")
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To: Lancey Howard

What is this? Angry Seinfeld cast members? Are they angry with the stoat or are they angry with Canada?


65 posted on 12/14/2005 9:18:28 PM PST by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: burzum

Interesting premise, probably true.


66 posted on 12/14/2005 9:19:02 PM PST by khnyny (Merry Christmas)
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To: tfecw

Yes I do.

I don't think there's anything wrong with making someone who is down and out a little more comfortable on a cold night.

By the way are you an old style Methodist?


67 posted on 12/14/2005 9:20:44 PM PST by beaver fever
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To: Grizzled Bear

For a second I thought you meant "Do Not Resuscitate" tags. I would, given the number of drug overdoses, be most certianly supportive of that.


68 posted on 12/14/2005 9:23:50 PM PST by furquhart (Took-Took-Tookie-Goodbye)
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To: indcons

"Am I on FreeRepublic or DU here?"

Good luck tring to figure that out. I'm sure you'll find the answer one day.
______________________________________________________
On "DU" someone would have said it's Bush's fault.


69 posted on 12/14/2005 9:24:00 PM PST by Grizzled Bear ("Does not play well with others.")
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To: furquhart

Last time a hard rain washed off all the scum of the earth
there was only one family and a few animals left....


70 posted on 12/14/2005 9:26:40 PM PST by joesnuffy (A camel once bit my sister-we knew just what to do- gather large rocks & squash her-Mullet Ho'mar)
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To: Stoat

Everyone:

"Whatsoever you do to the least of my brothers, as you do unto Me".

And:

"There but for the grace of God, go I."

It's hard to fathom the callousness of some of the comments.


71 posted on 12/14/2005 9:27:10 PM PST by khnyny (Merry Christmas)
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To: beaver fever
"I don't think there's anything wrong with making someone who is down and out a little more comfortable on a cold night. "

They are down and out because they are drunks. You are part of their problem. But hey, whatever helps you alleviate the guilt of being a productive member of society and earning what you have.

If you want to help folks go to a soup kitchen. Tutor them at a center. Give money to a halfway house or open up your spare bedroom. Don't give alcoholics booze when all of their problems stem from booze. I do the tutoring one myself when i have free time.

As for being an old style Methodist. I'm sure you can figure out where to stick your ad hominem.
72 posted on 12/14/2005 9:28:41 PM PST by tfecw (It's for the children)
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To: NewsJunqui

"Granville"

Granville is going the way of 100 block Hastings.

The non druggie street people are moving into the West End to get away form the mayhem.

On the bright side Yale Town developement is slowly getting rid of the down town blight.

BTW Canada is not socialist heaven for steet people. It's socialist hell.

Next time park your car in the car park on the corner of Thurlow and Alberni next to the liquour store.

There is extra car park security because of the liquour store.

Just take a five dollar cab ride to your car and Bob's your uncle.

Hotel and high end car parks are the worst hit.


73 posted on 12/14/2005 9:28:41 PM PST by beaver fever
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To: khnyny

"It's hard to fathom the callousness of some of the comments."

Well said, Friend......

On a happier note, may this joyous season bring you many blessings. Merry Christmas.


74 posted on 12/14/2005 9:30:52 PM PST by indcons
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To: burzum
It's called diffusion of responsibility. When people are in a group they think that it is the group's responsibility to solve a problem, not their own. Diffusion of responsibility is greater when the group is large, respected, and has an authority figure.

In rare instances there are cases where people will take action. This is because these people are either not 'in tune' with the group or because they have a very strong level of personal responsibility. I believe in liberal areas there is a very strong level of group-think and a very weak level of personal responsibility, which is why the greatest atrocities in history have been committed by leftists (because noone would speak up).

BUMP and repeated for poignancy!

That might be one of the clearest explanations/rationale for Liberal mass psychosis I have ever seen...BRAVO!

I do have one nit to pick....while I believe your explanation about group-think is spot on, unfortunately it also applies to (unfortunately) Right-Wing Statists who believe in total Gub'Mint authority.

It is innate to all Liberals, and it happens (occasionally) to one-time Conservatives that begin to believe their own hype and press releases, and feel that THEY are the best Moral Authority.

I HATE that any Conservative could become this way, but it is an ultimate reflection of weak character (as you point out) and the inability to resist temptation, matched to the idea that they need to do "something", which eventually becomes complete dominance and control.

It is also the result of the belief that "they know better" than the public that elect them...just look around Free Republic and you can spot them.

Anyway, again, your nicely distilled explanation is fantastic.

75 posted on 12/14/2005 9:30:57 PM PST by Itzlzha ("The avalanche has already started...it is too late for the pebbles to vote")
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To: tfecw

Lemme guess. You're a twelve stepper.


76 posted on 12/14/2005 9:30:57 PM PST by beaver fever
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To: beaver fever

"Lemme guess. You're a twelve stepper."

Got anything other than Ad hominems?


77 posted on 12/14/2005 9:32:42 PM PST by tfecw (It's for the children)
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To: khnyny
It's hard to fathom the callousness of some of the comments.

Agreed.  Such is the nature of the internet, and the anonymity it provides.  I wonder if some of the posters would be saying the same things if they were in a room full of people, and everyone could see one another?

It's one thing to say something when you are hidden; it's quite another to say the same thing in full view of all. 

78 posted on 12/14/2005 9:33:22 PM PST by Stoat (Rice / Coulter 2008: Smart Ladies for a Strong America)
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To: M203M4

The good weather just prolongs the agony.

And yes other Canadian cities dump their homeless here.


79 posted on 12/14/2005 9:33:26 PM PST by beaver fever
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To: furquhart
So, I guess you prove that not all Canukistanians are kinder and gentler?

South Park has been proved to be correct to blame Canukistan.

"I am deeply saddened", really.
80 posted on 12/14/2005 9:34:18 PM PST by porkchops 4 mahound (Banned by Canukistan, "Si vis pacem, para bellum", If you wish peace, prepare for war.)
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