The holidays are a time to celebrate, but not everyone has the means to do so.
Charitable organizations across the country try every year to give a Christmas to the less fortunate.
That includes the Old Brewery Mission, in Montreal, one of the first soup kitchens to have been founded in Canada, in 1889. It feeds the hungry every day, but at Christmas the meal is extra special.
Students from a local high school collect food and money donations so that volunteers can serve a traditional French Canadian Christmas dinner, complete with turkey, mashed potatoes and tourtière (meat pie).
Many of the 500 or so of the Old Brewery Mission’s clients are homeless and half of them suffer from mental illness. As much as 80% are men and their average age is 45.
But the door is open to everyone, not only the homeless, says director general Matthew Pearce. “We’ll get the occasional taxi driver who pulls up for a hot meal. They’re welcome as well. Anybody who feels they need the Old Brewery Mission to cheer up their Christmas is welcomed.”
Pearce notes that the number of people eating at the shelter has stabilized. “We’re hoping it’s a precursor to a downward trend,” he says. “But we’re not seeing that yet.”
It is estimated that 30,000 Canadians are homeless on a given night.
In its spring budget, the federal government announced that it would tackled the problem in 2014 by using a housing-first approach. The measures included in its plan were denounced by the Quebec government, which felt they would actually make things worse.
The province had promised to develop its own policy on homelessness by theend of 2013, but it didn’t follow through.
Pearce, who saw the draft, feels that if the policy were to be put into action “it could change the face of homelessness” in Quebec.
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