Behind His Mask

“Behind The Masks” – Testimonials of Those Marginalized by Income, got its name and was inspired by singer/songwriter Fred Joly who performed as the audit was being held, and also for those attending the audit closing dinner. Fred wrote the song Behind His Mask based on his true experiences. The playing of his song prompted Rapporteur Daisy Wai to remark that his song affected her as much as anything she'd heard that day. We have included an excerpt from the song below.

A Report on the Interfaith Social Assistance Reform Coalition
(ISARC) Social Audit in York Region on April 20, 2010

Behind His Mask

Do you see the old the old man under the bridge?

Sitting there with a suitcase in his hand.

He’s been drinking there for years and years;

And whenever he’s tired he just beds down on the sands.

 

Does anybody know him?

Can someone please tell me his name?

Because whenever I see him walking through the city;

He keeps his head down in shame.

 

He’s a refugee.

Or is he just another shipwreck of society’s.

Looks like a rebel.

Penting up the angers from the past.

Into a twisted fantasy.

The empty bottles are just escapes from his realities.

Bums around wearing a loner’s mask.

 

The morning’s sun’s an awakening misery.

No doubt another aweful day.

Cramped from the cold misty whispering night.

He doesn’t want to go but he knows that he cannot stay.

Stumbles to the ground on his hands and knees.

There’s mud dripping off of his face.

Then a tear draw a line down his wrinkled cheek;

He cries out “Lord help me please!”

 

I’m a refugee.

And I’m running from the scorns of this society.

But I’m in a lot of trouble.

‘Cause I’m drifting at sea with a broken mast.

And everybody judges me.

As I’m trying to find my own destiny.

It looks about time to put on my “keep away from me mask”.

 

When I heard about the old man from under the bridge.

Died there just the other day.

I decided to show up at his Sally Ann service.

Where the Captain tried but he didn’t know how to say.

 

That’s there a new star’s light shining in the sky.

Because another soul has been set free.

The man spent his final moments scribbling in the sands.

“I think, I see, my liberty.”

 

Look way up at the refugee.

Can’t you see the castaway of society.

No wonder he was such a rebel.

Still hurting from all the pains of his past.

Living in a fantasy.

Trying to escape his own reality.

 

From up above beams down a man.

Behind his mask.