Tim Horton's vs Street People

A while back one of Tim Horton's employees lost her job for giving a free timbit to the child of a regular customer. Reason caused a terrific uproar over the unfairness of her dismissal and she was given her job back. The store manager had "gone by the book" which forbids giving away freebies. This was a case of a brain dead manager not being able to think outside the box.

Today Tim Horton's is in the news again because one of their managers ousted a street person after a real customer bought them breakfast. Tim Horton's has a rule against street people hanging around their stores. Now we might think that this particular street person had every right to be in the store since she'd been bought her meal but try thinking outside the box once more.

How many regular customers would this store lose if some dumb do-gooder decided to buy even a coffee for a few street people? I for one am not going to frequent a place where I have to sit near someone who hasn't bathed in a year, who might be seriously mentally ill, and who might attack me. I'm generalizing now but street people are often not safe to be around.

The Tim Horton's in question here is the same one my silly friends dragged me to last year at 11 P.M. on a Friday night. It's the same place where my silly friend decided we'd made a big mistake when we discovered a lineup of hookers at the washroom. We very quickly left...just as we'd very quickly leave if we had to sit next to a street bum that some yuppie had brought inside.

It is everyone's right to eat or drink at a public restaurant but what about our right to keep our distance from the inebriated and unbathed? If a company executive crawled into a Tim Horton's in that condition I wouldn't want him/her there either so it isn't the tax bracket I denounce but the lifestyle.

It may sound unfair but if you look and smell like a bum I think a store manager has every right to keep you off their premises. Otherwise they'll lose business and that isn't fair either.

There's an old saying, "your rights end where mine begins" so now we just have to determine whose rights are being infringed upon the most.