Some rich people do live on the island, but it's mostly like a huge park, where people have their boats. On the opposite side to Toronto there is also a beach so we headed there to chill.
We found a tiny little beach where Lake Ontario was literally making waves like the sea and set up camp. It was probably a good thing we hadn't made it out until the afternoon as it was really hot and muggy. Predictably, we all lay down and fell asleep in the afternoon sun.
When we woke up we ate our little picnic of sandwiches, crisps and peaches before heading back through the park aiming to walk around the island. We were in for one of the more interesting half an hours of our lives...
Whilst walking through the park, we saw a group of young people up ahead of us. We could hear them shouting as we approached but I thought they were joking and messing about. As we got closer it became apparent that they weren't joking. There was a group of about eight of them, all shouting, some were pushing others about and others were trying to intervene. At one point, a girl was completely pushed to the floor. We could catch random snatches of what was being shouted, but, as you can imagine, it's not really blog appropriate. What was clear though was that they were all at least drunk, if not high on something.
We walked past where they were on the nearest path, trying not to stare too much, and I noticed that there was another couple further away with their dog who were also watching nervously. They appeared to be on the phone, so we approached them and they confirmed that they were calling the police. All this time, the group were shouting and screaming in the background at a distance. After a while they calmed down, but the police were nowhere to be seen. The couple and their dog had wandered off so we followed their lead. At the same time, two girls broke away from the group and were walking in front of us in the same direction. As we walked over a bridge in the park, we saw four police finally strolling in our direction. The girls immediately turned tail and began heading back the way they'd come. The police reached us first so we confirmed they were headed in the right direction and notified them that the two girls had been involved. The couple and their dog appeared to confirm it was them who had called.
The police officer we spoke to kept asking us about a guy with a knife. We had no idea what he was on about, and because we said that we hadn't seen anyone being threatened with a knife from where we were, he didn't seem to be interested in going to check out the scene. The other police had called the two girls back and were listening to them spinning a story which included that the guy who had been threatening them had gone back to Toronto on the last boat that left, clearly to stop the police following them back to their friends. The couple also joined in on this conversation. One of the policeman was more interested at looking at a giant fish over the side of the bridge and none of them seemed to care much that the two girls were clearly drunk or stoned or both. Just to clarify, being drunk in a public place is a big big deal over here.
Whilst the police were talking to the girls, a shifty looking guy walked past and the couples little yappy dog went straight for his ankles, causing him to cry out and draw attention to himself. Kitty, Emma and I all saw this and watched as the woman ran over to grab the dog. She asked the man if he had been hurt to which he replied, 'Yeah, f**k, it hurt.' The husband came over and said that the dog didn't bite him to which the man responded by pulling up his suspiciously thick trousers to show the guy his lack of bite mark. Clearly the dog went straight for him because it could smell some kind of dodgy substance, hence why the paranoid guy overreacted. All of this was going on under the police's nose and once again they didn't realise.
They let the girls go back to their friends after having a nice chat, clearly they weren't interested, and got back on their little boat to go and rescue a kite surfer.
We got the ferry back, discussing how useless the police had been, not aware our point was about to be proven once again... Walking back to Emma's from the ferry, we walked into a scene on the pavement where a guy who was ridiculously intoxicated chucked a whole bottle of liquid at a couple just walking by. This guy was so drunk he could barely stand up. The couple were shocked and angry and we were a bit like what the hell, having just stumbled onto the scene.
Coincidentally, a police car was driving past in the closest lane. The couple tried to wave it over, and no word of a lie, the police woman inside just waved back. Seriously. They then realised what we were trying to do and stopped further up the road. Even more coincidentally, another police car was driving past and stopped. The drunk guy at this point was trying to stumble up the road. Emma spoke to the police officer that had just stopped and told him there was a very intoxicated guy wandering up the street. He responded by saying he couldn't do anything because he was on "paid duty". For real.
We left them to it, still in shock at how little the police had done in general in our eventful half an hour. On the way we witnessed the drunk guy stumbling across the busy road. Any normal police would have removed him to avoid innocent people hitting him with their car. It was all very interesting! And doesn't make us love Canada any less, don't worry.
When we got back to Emma's, she found out that she had got the nannying job she applied for and wanted which was exciting! We spend the rest of the evening packing and watching episodes of our new favourite show My Strange Addiction.
No comments:
Post a Comment