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July 3, 2014 | 68 pages
Bringing awareness is uphill battle from coast to coast Jeff Mackey jeff.mackey@metroland.com
News – Some people say that you can’t know a country or its citizens until you have seen them for yourself. Well, Jason McComb knows that Canada is an expansive country better than most people, he’s just hoping that Canadians’ minds will follow suit. McComb, 37, is walking across Canada, from Newfoundland to Victoria, by himself to raise awareness about and acceptance towards homeless people. He says that the task he has laid out for himself can sometimes be an uphill battle. “My toes aren’t toes anymore, they’re blisters,” joked McComb, from the Guest House B&B in Merrickville. McComb, who has already been to six provinces including Prince Edward Island, was taking a much needed day of rest in Merrickville after the owner of the B&B offered to let him stay the night. McComb said he tried to sleep on a bench behind the cemetery in Kemptville the night before and barely got any sleep thanks to the mosquitoes. In fact, since setting out on his journey at the Terry Fox Memorial in St. John’s, Nfld., on April 16, McComb has had to lay his head all sorts of places. “I have slept in abandoned vans and apartment building hallways,” he said. “But I have also slept in luxury hotels, when people put me up, tomorrow night I’m in the woods I think.”
“(When walking) I do my best to make it to a community because I am very nervous about sleeping out,” said McComb. “I have been cornered by coyotes, I was chased by a moose – I’ve seen it all out here.” He said he doesn’t plan his route or accommodations too much in advance as he prefers a “now what?” approach to the journey. “Because that is what it is like to be homeless, you wake up every day wondering how you are going to get through it,” said McComb. But unpredictable accommodations aren’t the only thing interesting about his journey – he has earned the attention of some very important people as well. McComb gave Camilla and Prince Charles one of his Homeless Happens hats in Halifax, met Stephen McNeil, the Premier of Nova Scotia, hung out with the Trailer Park Boys and was even draped in an Olympic Gold medal by cyclist and speed skater Clara Hughes in Gander, Nfld. – an act that brought him to tears. He and Hughes share a deep concern for Canadians with mental health issues, especially when they are stigmatized. “Mental illness is a huge part of this, and that’s no secret,” said McComb. “The homeless society, and I use the term society loosely, is the only society in the world that it isn’t politically incorrect to stigmatize or treat awful,” said McComb, who isn’t homeless at the moment but said he has spent 13 of the last
Jeff Mackey/Metroland
Jason McComb, an advocate for Canada’s homeless population, stands outside of Guest House B&B in Merrickville on June 28. 21 years of his life without a home. “You know ‘that bum, that hobo, that lazy person’ – everyone feels they can engage in that type of conversation and
there is nothing wrong with it,” said there is a story behind each one of those McComb. “But we are really oppressed people.” and people are further abusing someone See WALKING page K6 who is already in a hurting situation –
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