Submitted by Zainab Awl

About: I am a 21 year-old university student at Ottawa University and with today being the 50th day of the transit strike I can no longer stand by and allow this to be acceptable. I am out of patience, I am out of trust in government officials and more tragically I am no longer proud to be an Ottawa citizen.

My take: This strike began quite strategically I believe. December is the busiest time of the year and the Ottawa citizens did not have the time to sit around and figure out what all this meant, how this could happen and what was being done to make it end swiftly. I know this because I am a student and I have a job. When the strike hit I was right in the middle of exams and in the middle of the Christmas rush. My main concern was making it to my exams and making it to work. I have spent hours stuck at school, hours in traffic and spent my wages on food while at the university. My job is at Starbucks and the Christmas period is a period that is exhausting and hectic.

As a barista I was able to see the effect of the strike on my co-workers, on my manager and mostly on the changed demeanor of our customers. As baristas we have a great vantage point into the lives of many different citizens. We serve a variety of customers. My store is especially busy as we are located at the Gloucester Chapters. The neighbouring area is home to 3 different restaurants, a major movie theatre, government buildings and is only two minutes from the highway. We get people coming in our doors from all over Ottawa.

As a psychology student, I have been trained to be perceptive. I have never seen the Ottawa people so exhausted, angry, confused and dejected before. The climate during the bus strike has been very hostile. Our customers are extremely stressed out and unable to keep it together. My partners and I have been confronted with behaviours that are shocking and uncharacteristic. I believe most service workers have been getting the brunt of citizen's collective frustration. We do not blame the individuals, we blame the situation that has cultivated hostile attitudes. I have been in the service industry for many years, been around for many Christmas seasons. The conditions have not changed. Every Christmas season is hectic, is exhausting but even through it all, the holiday spirit was very visible. This was the first time since I moved to Ottawa that I have noticed a complete lack of happiness during the holidays and beyond. A cloud of despair has descended on Ottawa and that cloud is rife with turmoil.

I will have to quit my job. This is a job I never imagined having to leave until I finished my diploma. The people I work with are more than co-workers. The customers that I see on a daily basis are more than just people. At Starbucks Gloucester we are a family and now I have no choice but to leave my second family because I am spent. The constant scramble to get to work, to get to school and to find out how to get home has taken its toll. For seven straight weeks almost eight, I have been running around trying to keep up with my life. I have failed that attempt. My grades are suffering, my personal life is non-existent, and my work life is no longer enjoyable because the effort to get there overshadows the time I spend doing my job.

I haven't slept due to irregular hours, due to stress and due to not wanting tomorrow to come because I no longer have the energy to keep up with the never-ending pace. My family has been amazing in this crisis. They never complain about leaving at 5 A.M., they never get angry at the lack of time I am around due to wasted hours waiting to get home. They never complain about travelling up to 10 times a day picking us up or dropping us off. They do not complain but I am complaining on their behalf, on the behalf of all the other people who just speak of their ordeal but have no one to really listen or care. I am complaining because this is no way to live because this should not be happening here in Ottawa.

My biggest aggravation at this point directly concerns the Place D'Orleans mall and neighbouring businesses. I am so disgusted about their behaviour that I thought it was imperative that I pointed out their reckless and inhumane attitudes to a media outlet for further investigation.

The University of Ottawa, Carleton and the College of Algonquin have arranged for a private shuttle bus to help us students out. The service runs fairly regularly and is necessary on many levels. It alleviates city traffic; it gives parents an alternative to a long commute. It allows for students to efficiently and swiftly get to class, fixing the problem that faced many students who had to miss classes due to traffic, and lack of parking. As well, it is an environmental solution to the pollution created by the excess of vehicles on the streets of Ottawa.

I use the service from Orleans to Ottawa U, Carleton, and Algonquin. Originally the shuttle used the Place D'Orleans park and ride until the Transit workers complained. We students got shuffled to the Loblaw's parking lot across from the mall then we got turned away from there as well because the company complained. I find that interesting because we students did not cause a disturbance, we did not take up a lot of space and we only used the parking lot for moments while loading on the bus.

I find it dumb that they would turn away customers. We students brought in business. While waiting for buses we would often go into the shopping center and buy various products. On a community level I thought Loblaws would be proud to provide students, most of whose parents shop there regularly, kids who could be their own children, a place to get to school. Nonetheless we got kicked out to an empty parking spot near the Bay, across from the Loblaws pick-up area. Now we are seeing the mall taking measures that do not make sense. Instead their actions are proving to show us fellow Orleans residents that we do not matter. I can't believe what they are doing. I have worked at that mall for 4 years, I have shopped at that mall for over 12 years and every one of those students I stand with in the cold, chose to support their local mall and have contributed in a large way to its success.

In return, the mall has decided to:

• Not open the Bay doors for us to seek shelter in freezing temperatures


• To close their doors even before the mall closes so we have to wait outside


• To put up pylons around the area where we get picked up because they do not want our parents or rides to use a handful of parking spots to shelter us from the cold while we wait for unpredictable buses


• Call mall police to block access to public parking nearest the bus shuttle pickup area

I am greatly offended and honestly enraged. It does not make any sense, students and their rides do not take parking spots from mall patrons, and the parking lot is often empty. We are using the spots temporarily and we cannot understand why we are constantly being punished for a strike we did not create or have any way to stop. It's inhumane to go through all these tactics for no logical reason. I have waited in the cold for over an hour and so have many of my fellow students; we do not complain and we do not create any disturbances. We do not understand why instead of helping us out the mall thinks of us as delinquents. We are making the best of a very bad situation and instead of helping us out in the simplest way they put more hurdles in our way. They need to feel ashamed and they need to be held accountable.

It's incredible that just two months ago I was thinking I am lucky to be Canadian, that we are a model for other countries on good governance. I do not think that way anymore. It's a slap in the face to watch the United States; a country that has been mismanaged for eight years now, under the leadership of a great man who seems to care about human rights — both theirs and the worlds.

In a time where I want to be just as excited about a possible new world order, in a time where the world is catching an infectious hope for a different world, we Ottawa citizens are stuck in a backwards violation of basic citizen rights.

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