At the Sept 22 public hearing, an intensive care nurse who lives on Parkdale Ave shared her experience of the convoy.
“I live on Parkdale Avenue which is adjacent to an on-and-off ramp. I’m an intensive care nurse who has worked and seen the worst of COVID and other critical care patients. Parkdale Avenue has a lot of health care workers that live in that area and during the initial phase of the occupation, trucks of all sizes were racing down Parkdale, honking their horns the entire first weekend. They were driving on sidewalks, with no regard for the people that lived in that area or their safety. I only work night shifts and I was working that weekend and I got absolutely zero sleep going into work with those incessant horns. It’s not so much about me, the patients that I cared for got a nurse that was exhausted. Calling in sick was not an option because of our shortage so I went in, I was probably 36-40 hours without sleep caring for critically ill patients.
The people that came to the city had no regard for anybody, they just didn’t care – driving on sidewalks, racing down there blaring their horns from one end of the street to the other incessantly. It was impossible to sleep during that period. I work only night shifts and I sleep during the day so it was very impactful.
We had exhausted health care workers. I’ve heard stories from other people at the hospital and other people that lived on Parkdale: doctors that lived in the downtown core couldn’t study, ambulances had trouble making their way through the core which impacted the care and the lives of people.”
You can view the full testimony here.
