Feb12 2025 Statement for Parks and Rec "Labour Relations and Investigations" staff

On Wednesday morning February 12 I got in my car to go grocery shopping before the snowstorm that was predicted to start in the afternoon. I decided to stop in at Dufferin Rink on my way, to take a photo of what might be a good spot for a community bulletin board.

When I drove up the dead end street by the rink, the three legal parking spots were already full. So I pulled up to the dead end, which has a no parking sign, but allows people with a disabled permit, which I have, to park anyway. Another car was parked there, so I parked beside it, close enough not to block the curb cut for the pedestrian path that leads to the high school.

There wasn’t a lot of space between my car and the other one parked there, for me to get out of the car, so I could open the car door only partway. As I got out, there was a knock on the window of the next car. It turned out there was someone sitting in the car. That turned out to be Justin, one of the Dufferin rink guards. He rolled down the window and told me I had damaged his car by opening my car door.

There was no sign of damage. I opened the back door of my car, again a tight squeeze, to get my cane out from the back seat. Justin said that I had now damaged his car more, with my cane. I said that there was no damage and went inside the rink to take my photo.

When I left the rink to get back in my car, another rink guard followed me. That was Jordan. Justin was still in his car. I got in my car to leave, but both Justin and Jordan said I couldn’t leave because they had to wait for the police to examine the damage to the car. I said there was no damage, and that I wanted to go. Jordan then stood behind my car to keep me from backing up and leaving. So I got out again and took a photo of Justin’s car to show there was no damage from me opening my door. Jordan then stood between the two cars, blocking my driver’s side door so that I couldn’t get back in. He said he was calling Adam, his supervisor, who had not arrived for the day yet. They spoke for a while and I asked Justin to move his car so that I could get in my car. He refused for a time, but then Jordan spoke to Adam again, and said Adam had told him that Justin should move his car.

It was about 10 a.m. by that time. I had hoped that someone I knew might be passing by, so that I could ask for their help. But there was no one.

Justin said he would move, but that he had to warm up his engine first, and just sat there for a few minutes with the motor idling. Jordan asked me if I knew so little about cars that I didn’t understand that people have to warm up the engine before moving. Then Justin drove away. I started to back my car out but then a police car came up and parked nearby, so I thought maybe they really had called the police and I waited. However, it turned out that the police had been called because of an overdose elsewhere in the park.

I decided that the whole encounter had been so strange that I would wait for Adam to arrive, so that I could talk to him. I went back inside the rink building and waited for him. He still wasn’t there so I asked another rink guard if he could get Adam to call me. But the rink guard said no.

When Adam did arrive, the first thing he asked me was “did you touch any staff?” I said no and tried to tell him what happened but he seemed to be focused on what I had done rather than anything his staff had done. That was too strange for me, so I left and went to buy my groceries.

After I got home, two police cars pulled up at my house and said they had been speaking to the two rink guards and their supervisor, and had decided to trespass me from the rink, on the grounds that I had shoved a city staff person and also that I “was making the rink staff uncomfortable” when I was at the rink building. They emphasized that this was a caution, not a charge, and that it pertained only to not being in the building, not the whole park.