Protesters call for safer sidewalks, remember MUN professor lost in accident

Dozens of protesters blasted the City of St. John's on Monday over what they say are years of unaddressed concerns aboutsidewalk safety.

"People aren't going to tolerate being second-class citizens as pedestrians," saidLea Movelle, an organizer with theSocial Justice Co-operativeofNewfoundlandand Labrador.

The protest was partially in response to the death of Memorial University professor JohnShirokoff, 63, who was struck in early January whilecrossing Elizabeth Avenue.

He died five days later of what police said were complications related to the collision. It's unclear whether sidewalk conditions were a factor in that collision.

"When it's a big problem like this, it's a systemic issue, and these things take a long time to change," one of the protest's organizers, Kelly Bruton, said prior to the protest Monday.

"I do believe that there's a critical mass of people now who have come together, because initially it was just a bunch of people, including myself, trying to advocate. But now people are moving together."

Shirokoff'stwin sister wrote a statement read by one of the organizers.

"He lived a simple life, and for 20 years used St. John's transit with a pedestrian safety-conscious mind," Pattie Ghent wrote."He was methodical and cautious with his day-to-day life while encouraging others to be the best they can be."

"In honour of my brother's memory and his dedication to students, all the roads which thousands of students and staff walk must be the best they can be to prevent more deaths. Prevent such waste of intellectual minds like my brother's."

Deputy Mayor Sheilagh O'Leary told CBC last week that neither a bylaw enforcing property owners to clear the sidewalks adjacent to their homes nor an additional tax to ramp up city-led sidewalk clearing were on council's radar.

O'Leary said council is, however, open to discussion.

Bruton said it's the city'sjob to figure out the problem.

"That's what we're trying to do, is to try to force the issueso that councillors, and the mayor and all the people that work at the city, start to see that we can't afford to lose more lives," she said.

Bruton said the group also plans to gather at Bannerman Brewery on Wednesday to discuss pedestrian safety and to hold a town hallMarch 15.

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