For all the planning and deliberate effort behind a successful conference, sometimes it’s the random moments that bring home the importance of what happens onsite.
I’m in Toronto this week, working with a team of local writers at a two-day meeting on refugee health. This morning’s opening session highlighted the profound health and social challenges facing refugees and immigrants, as well as the unimaginable courage, resourcefulness, and resilience that life has demanded of them.
After the session, I stepped out of the conference facility to run a quick errand. Half a block away, the intersection was blocked by crime scene tape. I saw a half-dozen police cruisers on the scene, with another one weaving through traffic to join the crowd. With 225 participants nearby, my first reaction was to look for any signs of imminent danger that should be reported back to my client.
But then, I found out that all the fuss was about…
…a stray deer.
I gather the animal was first spotted around Toronto’s Union Station and led a merry chase to the block north of Chestnut and Dundas, before being taken down by someone who was handy with a tranquilizer gun. By then, the scene had drawn a crowd of spectators, from passersby on the ground to workers on the roof of a nearby construction project.
I’ve lived in cities all my life, and I have a definite soft spot for wildlife. On a visit to British Columbia’s incomparable Pender Island a couple of years ago, Karen found it hilarious that I took so very many photos of so very many deer.
So I’m glad the deer was caught. I understand why a small deer in a big city was a public safety hazard that had to be dealt with. I trust that it will be released safely. I don’t begrudge whatever Toronto’s Finest had to spend to get the job done. I just wish I couldn’t think of so many dozens of other areas where people, households, and communities are falling through the cracks in a fractured economy.
At the conference, I’m hearing about aspects of the refugee health and resettlement system that are working well, even heroically. But there are also areas where service delivery falls short, often because agencies find it difficult to decide who should fund which programs. A delegate told me the various governments seem to have trouble talking to each other across the “perceived divisions” between health and resettlement.
I guess Toronto’s police and animal control services found it easier to sort out jurisdiction over the immediate health and long-term resettlement of a stray deer.
Before this story was done, I’m afraid I may have become a small part of the circus. A TV reporter saw me step into the intersection, camera in hand, and invited me to comment. I think I blathered something about hoping the deer was caught safely. I hope I was also clear about the human services and supports that are in dire need of funding.
I don’t know whether the refugee health conference has drawn any news coverage. If it has, I can guarantee that the story will have to get in line behind a very frightened deer on Toronto’s mean streets. Too bad the refugee camps in Africa and Asia don’t have Bambi on their side.