Meet Bonnie Briggs

By Cheryl Smith

TORONTO, Ontario —  The colourful array of individuals walking the

pedestrian paths at Church and Wellesley includes a dancing monarch

butterfly, nearly majestic in the surrounding concrete.  This eclectic choir

seems to welcome Bonnie Briggs: androgynous, enigmatic, and unlikely

“Local Hero“.

Bonnie sports an over-sized NDP-orange t-shirt, baggy corduroy dungarees

torn open at both knees, and a well-worn pair of runners. Her glasses are

thick. She wears two hearing aids. Her face is scrunched into apparent

confusion, but that’s misleading. Her somewhat broken body is just hard at

work moving her onward. She leans into the bundle-buggy for support. Her

shoulders are hunched, her knees, weak.

“Sorry I’m late” she says but she’s only five minutes off the mark.

Briggs points to ‘Gingers‘, a Thai -Vietnamese eatery, and leads the way.

“It’s always with me,” she says, referring to the buggy. “When people see it,

they assume I’m homeless…stupid and lazy.”

Briggs seems reluctant, answers in short sentences and offers only the barest

of bones. She rarely looks up. Vague about her childhood, she says only that

she was adopted into an upper middle-class family, and that her birth mother

was very poor.

“I didn’t do well in high school. I was sick a lot (with rheumatic fever) and

bullied (an experience she shares with husband of 28 years, Kerre). I’ve

worked on and off all my life, mostly factory work.”

Perhaps her most acclaimed work was on the Toronto Homeless

Memorial which stands outside then Church of The Holy Trinity behind the

Eaton’s Centre. She is surprised all these years later to learn that she was

named Local Hero by the Toronto Star in 2008 (Nancy J White) for her

work. “Let me see that”, she says, “I didn’t know that.”  There is no change in

her affect.

Today, the memorial remains “temporary”, flimsy pieces of paper encased in

plastic, holding the names of over 600 people who have died on the streets

of Toronto since 1986. Every month a vigil is held outside of The Church of

the Holy Trinity behind the Eaton‘s Centre. New names are added and

candles are lit. Bonnie co-writes and reads a poem with Sherman

Hesselgrave, pastor of the church.

Bonnie has also written two plays and a collection of poetry called “Poems

from Street Level“, including “I Will Never be Homeless”, which she calls

her signature piece.

She has co- founded two theatre companies (Cobblestone and Street

People’s Theatre), acts (preferring male parts), and sits on over 15 Social

Justice committees and groups, some of which she founded. She belongs to

a samba band, plays drums and loves to dance. All of this

rolls off her tongue, her gaze downward, no change in her affect. The closest

she comes to being animated is when she is talking about her two plays:

‘Geoffrey’s Epiphany’ and ‘Perceptions 502‘.

“Geoffrey works on Bay St where Ben used to work before he

became homeless. Ben is giving Geoffrey, who is falling into bankruptcy,

financial advice.

Perceptions 502 was an info piece for Fred Victor‘s (a homeless shelter in

Toronto) and takes place on the 502 (Queen St) streetcar.”

Once housed after her own experience with homelessness, Bonnie returned

to school, studying Community Work at George Brown College in 1995.

Her work on the memorial became her student placement. She formed a

committee that included among others the TDRC (Toronto Disaster Relief

Committee), two artists/architects and a city councillor. She graduated with

honours. Her work on the memorial has been archived by the TDRC with

the City of Toronto.

“I would like to see a more permanent structure, like the one at City hall for

the War Veterans. That’s where I got the idea. We need a plaque for our

homeless who die on the streets, to honour and remember them.”

Bonnie came by her own experience with homelessness innocently enough.

“We were just regular people, no drugs, alcohol, working…” A housing

shortage left them homeless in the mid 80’s after their landlord sold the

property they called home.

They slept in laundromats, the back of a car, hospital waiting rooms,

wherever they could find a safe, warm place to sleep and everyday they

hunted for that place.

Briggs has been securely “under housed” for the past 17 years. She and

Kerre share a junior one bedroom in a three story walk-up in Parkdale. It is

woefully neglected by the landlord. Kerre sleeps on the tiny floor space in

the living room; the bedroom fits only a single bed.

After graduating from George Brown, Bonnie became disabled. Kerre soon

followed, suffering a major heart attack. They both receive ODSP (Ontario

Disability Support Program).

Almost 60 years old now, Bonnie says of her future: “What I hope for is

enough money to cover the rent and expenses, and to be able to eat regularly.”

Until that happens for everybody, for as long as she is able, Briggs and

buggy will push on, steadfastly determined, with a permanent place in her

heart for the fallen.

Share this: