This Saskatchewan homeless man patrols streets to save others from freezing to death

Ernest McPherson rarely sleeps on a cold winter night.

Instead, the 54-year-old homeless man wanders the streets of Meadow Lake, Sask., 300 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon, in order to keep himself and others from freezing to death.

During his nightly patrols, McPherson checks on about two dozen people huddled in different locations, such as alleys, derelict buildings or vehicles.

"I walk around, make sure they stay awake and they stay alive," said McPherson.

Like many small cities, Meadow Lake, with a population of 5,300, doesn't have a homeless shelter or any place for vulnerable people to warm up after 4 p.m. or on weekends. 

Saskatchewan's harsh winter is just beginning, but the coroner's service is already investigating the deaths of two men found frozen — one in Saskatoon and another in Prince Albert.

On a recent patrol, McPherson bought soup from 7-Eleven for a young woman who was shivering without a jacket.

Then, in a back alley, he banged on an old car half-covered in snow.

"Anybody here?" he shouted. No one ended up being inside, but there were scraps of food, bedsheets and a black garbage bag filled with clothes.

"It's like there's nowhere in the world for them and nobody wants them," McPherson said. "They're really happy when they see me come along, and I'm really happy to find them [alive], because it doesn't take long to freeze out here."

There's only so much that McPherson can do to help, though. Often, he will wake someone up, get them moving, give them warm clothing or take them to 7-Eleven or an ATM lobby for a brief respite from the cold.

He feels compelled to watch over others in the same way a "guardian angel" watched over him last winter. He nearly froze to death in a –38 C snowstorm.

"I lost direction and time… so I sat down for a minute, and thought I'd rest for a minute. I fell asleep," McPherson said. "I had a guardian angel that night. She came and kicked me in the foot."

WATCH | Ernest McPherson describes the night he almost froze to death: