September 27th, 2022 · Comments Off on EDITORIAL: Taking control of the narrative (Sept. 2022)
The province is dissolving Ontario’s independent COVID-19 Science Advisory Table and replacing it with, what one member described, as its exact antithesis. The science table didn’t hesitate to bring attention to facts the government didn’t want to hear, but which the public needed to know. Read more
April 11th, 2022 · Comments Off on FORUM: Celebrating our local leaders (Spring 2022)
MPP Jessica Bell pays homage to community contributors
By Jessica Bell
Our Community Recognition Awards recognize the people who help make University-Rosedale a wonderful place to live. Here’s some of our recent award recipients.
March 14th, 2022 · Comments Off on ON THE COVER: Show Bloor Annex Love (Winter 2022)
With many COVID-19 restrictions being lifted, small businesses are ready for some love. To help promote main street, a #ShowLoveTO heart has been installed in the Bloor Annex BIA parkette at Bloor Street and Brunswick Avenue. Stop by and take a selfie with the heart and post it to social media for your chance to win $100 to spend at any BIA business. Full details available at bloorannex.ca. NEILAND BRISSENDEN/GLEANER NEWS
February 4th, 2022 · Comments Off on FORUM: Omicron demands leadership, not indecision (Jan. 2022)
Ontario suffers while Ford dithers
By Jessica Bell
As the Omicron wave overwhelms Ontario, University-Rosedale residents are facing big challenges. Parents are wracked with the decision over whether to send their children to school. Hospitals are near capacity. You can’t get a PCR test. Surgeries are being canceled. Demand at food banks is at record levels, driven by rising poverty, job loss and inflation. The science is rapidly evolving, people are exhausted, and there is no public consensus on how to proceed. Read more
December 17th, 2021 · Comments Off on LIFE: Honouring son in area parks (Dec. 2021)
Suicide seen as collateral damage during COVID-19
Christine Andreopoulos plays chess at the table she donated to Jean Sibelius Square in honour of her son, Kye Andreopoulos, “a loving and faithful son and friend.” Kye took his own life, age 28, due to failures in our under-resourced mental health system, stretched to the breaking point by the pandemic, she said. “That psychiatrists couldn’t see their patients in-person. To me, that was the wrong part.”
NICOLE STOFFMAN/GLEANER NEWS
November 11th, 2021 · Comments Off on FOCUS: Gleaner sits down with Jessica Bell (Fall 2021)
With less than a year before the provincial election our MPP reflects
MPP Jessica Bell has had an eventful first term serving her riding of University-Rosedale with the pandemic likely affecting at least half of her four years. Over a year into COVID-19 and less than one year left before the next election, Bell reflects on her term thus far and what’s to come. MADELINE SMART/GLEANER NEWS
September 8th, 2021 · Comments Off on EDITORIAL: Ford’s flawed passport (Aug. 2021)
Doug Ford emerged this week after weeks of summer slumber to announce a “vaccine certificate system” which is both late and lame. He then prorogued the legislature, lest he be answerable to it, and headed back into seclusion. Read more
August 16th, 2021 · Comments Off on EDITORIAL: Ford’s school plan is a fail (July 2021)
Ontario parents have been eagerly awaiting the “robust” plan for a safe re-entry back to classrooms Premier Doug Ford promised in June. The past year has been brutal for both the education and mental health of Ontario students, as they have spent more time out of classroom than young people in any other part of the country. However, the 26 page document outlining how the government intends to keep students safe does them no favours: it’s late (coming out less than a month before the start of school) and is little more than a carbon copy of last year’s failed plan. Read more
June 15th, 2021 · Comments Off on EDITORIAL: Ford chooses wrong path, again (May 2021)
And this month in Ontario politics: Premier Doug Ford, yet again summons the experts for their advice, and pledges to follow their lead. And yet again, once advice is received, promptly goes off in a wildly different direction. This month, the experts told Ford it was safe to re-open schools for the month of June. They told him schools need to be opened not just for the sake of education, but for the sake of mental health. Yet here we are, with schools closed until September. Read more