By Emina Gamulin

If the board of trustees votes yes at their next meeting, the deal between the Toronto District School Board and Onestop Media Inc. will see as many as 74 secondary schools receive video screens in common areas with ads running 30 per cent of the time.

Two schools in our coverage area, Central Technical (725 Bathurst St.) and Harbord Collegiate (286 Harbord St.) already have these monitors, as part of a pilot program that was implemented in four secondary schools last year.

The potential decision has received vocal criticism from anti-corporate activists and the Toronto Star editorial board, amongst others. Public schools are no place for advertising, argue the critics. This is a precedent-setting slippery slope, they say. The Gleaner, respectfully disagrees, although not without a caveat.

If these screens were going up in grade schools we would be the first to cry foul, but these are teenagers, not children. These students have at least 14 years of media experience behind them and are growing up in an age where everything from double rainbows, to graphic images of war, to hardcore pornography, are accessible with a few key phrases and a mouse click. This is not to say that we should passively accept everything that comes our way, (we believe the exact opposite actually: that if nothing else, students should leave high school with the ability to think for themselves), but teens are savvy enough to see these screens for what they are: advertising from their school, their student council, and yes, select corporations.

The school board will still retain control of which advertising it deems acceptable to broadcast in schools. There is a real opportunity to incorporate these screens into class curriculum; it needn’t be an excuse to justify the ads. While a certain innocence is lost when advertising is brought into learning environments, our public schools are not currently sacred spaces free of corporate influence (vending machines promoting junk food and the sponsored milk chugging competitions held at this editor’s high school come to mind).

And yes, in an ideal world, all schools would receive all the funding they need, but in reality many Toronto schools are rife with crumbling infrastructure and outdated technology, with some so destitute that they live day-to-day with the threat of closure always near. For some, like nearby West Toronto Collegiate, the battle has already been lost; the school is expected to shut it’s doors this year. The school board has a deficit of $42 million this year. Our schools need money, and the province won’t provide adequate resources.

However, we take huge issue with the proposed deal the TDSB is cutting with Onestop. Currently, schools will only get 10 to 15 per cent of the revenue stream from the ads. This number is completely inverted from the normal agency-client relationship, where the selling agency (Onestop) would receive 15 per cent of revenues, and the provider (TDSB) would keep the remaining 85 per cent. While TDSB representatives did not get back to the Gleaner regarding their projected revenue stream, The Toronto Star reports an estimated $100,000 a year. If we do the math, each school will receive $1,351 a year from this project. Divide that by ten school year months, with an average of 22 school days a month, and each school is set to gain $6.14 a day.

$6.14. Setting up a table selling brownies in the cafeteria during lunch hour could bring in more profit. Our trustees should reconsider their deal with Onestop, and see the value in what they are selling.

Contemporary artist Michael Golland, beginning one of his multi-layered 'Heart' pieces. Tracy Chen/Gleaner News.

By Tracy Chen

This Valentine’s Day, people will have the chance to reach for hearts of a different variety.

Michael Golland, contemporary artist and longtime Liberty Village resident, is creating a wall of 40 heart paintings. These hearts will premiere at the “A Work of Hearts” event in Liberty Village.

A portion from the sale of these paintings will go towards the Laser Eagles Art Guild (LEAG), a charitable organization that supports artists with limited speech and mobility. Heart paintings by the Laser Eagles will also be on display, and LEAG-designed greeting cards will be available for purchase.

Golland wanted each of his heart paintings to be unique, yet also represent his signature style, which is a simple line with a washed over process.

Each heart follows the mathematical principle of Leonardo Da Vinci’s Fibonacci ratio. This proportion runs throughout the universe and has also been used in masterpieces, such as the Mona Lisa. “It gives a very harmonious result,” says Golland.

He has painted each heart a different colour. He says these are “the colours of the last century.” They include his personal favourite—burnt orange—as well as cobalt blue, ultramarine violet, and green-gold. He says each heart takes him “hours and hours” and he paints over each creation “at least a dozen times.”

The paintings will range in size, the largest is 4 feet by 4 feet, while the smaller ones are 2 feet by 2 feet. As each painting is sold, it will be replaced with another painting, replenishing the wall of hearts. The exhibit will remain for six weeks after the launch date.

Liberty Village has been Golland’s home for almost 20 years. He has seen artists leave the area, but has stayed because he says he believes in Liberty Village. “We have an opportunity still to keep it in the creative segment or we are going to lose it,” says Golland. He says that establishing oneself as an artist is “nearly impossible.”

“Whatever I can do to help out artists is very important to me,” says Golland. He met with the Laser Eagles artists last year and started thinking of ways he could help the organization. “When you see some one like the Laser Eagles who often can’t use their hands, I’m interested in finding a way for them to be able to use their creative edge,” says Golland.

LEAG will use the proceeds to finance art supplies, and towards the expansion of the program throughout Ontario.

Courtesy Tracy Chen.

The guild was founded in 2004 by Judith Snow, an advocate of inclusiveness issues for people with disabilities. Snow has lived with a type of muscular atrophy since birth. “Laser Eagles gives people the situation where they can’t help but notice that the artist is doing more and contributing more than the label would suggest they can,” says Snow. “It breaks the sense of disability.”

Laser Eagles is based on the Artistic Realization Technologies (ART) program developed by Tim Lefens. Lasers can be attached to the artist and the beam is then used to indicate their intention on the canvas.

‘Trackers,’ who undergo a three month training process are then matched with an artist. Trackers work with the artists to create the artists’ vision on canvas. The goal is to give the artists as much control as possible. Not all of the artists use the lasers, most prefer to use other forms of communication.

Michael Skubic, the tracker for Snow, has also tracked for artists who cannot speak. When tracking people who do not speak, he says that “it’s getting to know the person a lot closer and how they communicate.”

Skubic has tracked for an artist who didn’t communicate verbally, but kinetically. While going through colour options with her, she will get excited and be “bouncing around and having her head nodding,” when she wants a particular colour. However, when he comes across a colour she isn’t interested in, she will look “very sullen and look like she’s about to go to sleep.”

Skubic says that the Laser Eagles meeting is one of the happiest times for the artists. He describes a “different air” when everybody is there. “If I was going to put any single word to it, I would say inclusion,” says Skubic.

“It’s almost magical; it really feels different, even though it’s just space and people.”

“A Work of Hearts” will be held on February 11, 2011 at 6 p.m. at 15 Atlantic Ave. The wall of hearts will be continually replenished for the next six weeks. For more information, visit www.michaelgolland.com.

Once the "surreal" glamour of the gala was over, author Sarah Selecky became friends with her fellow Giller Prize nominees. Courtesy Sarah Selecky

By Jeromy Lloyd

Seven years ago, the short stories from This Cake Is For The Party moved with their author from Victoria to Toronto, where they found audiences in publications such as The Walrus and Geist. But it wasn’t until 2006 that the process of assembling these stories into Cake, Sarah Selecky’s first anthology, began.

The young author and writing instructor had just bought a home in Parkdale. There, she began an intense editing and rewriting process that fashioned Cake into a work so well-received it would go on to earn a nomination for one of Canada’s top literary awards—the Scotiabank Giller Prize—alongside such notables as Kathleen Winter and Alexander MacLeod.

“I have to go for a walk once a day through the neighbourhood,” she says of the daily rituals that produced Cake. When deep in her process, she’ll visit a few of her favourite haunts to watch Parkdale’s residents going about their lives. “Parkdale feels like such a little village to me. It’s a very supportive community.”

In contrast, big cities, or their obvious absence, play a large role in most of Cake’s stories. In “Where Are You Coming From, Sweetheart?” they’re a haven for the sullen fourteen-year-old trying to escape Sudbury and her father. For the simplicity-seeking couple in the midst of a marital crisis in “Prognosis,” they are an overcrowded past life. Characters always seem to flee either to or from them.
Selecky’s cities are anxious places, and characters often leave them to escape their worries. It never really works, leaving Selecky’s lost souls to cope with their choices far from home and comfort.
“I’ve had my brushes with [anxiety],” says Selecky, on the phone a few days prior to the Giller’s nationally televised gala ceremony. “Writing definitely brings that out in me. When I’m writing and it’s going well, I feel better than when I’m not [writing]. The panic that sets in when I’m not writing comes out in my stories.”

The Giller judges describe these subtle tensions in Selecky’s stories as “quietly apocalyptic,” which makes Selecky laugh when asked about it.

“When I was young I always had a fear of the Apocalypse, so seeing that word used in relation to my own work made me think, ‘Oh God, they can see that?’ Growing up I lost sleep over it. I never told anybody, and now I’ve clearly subverted it into something ‘quietly apocalyptic.’”

Personal disasters like death and betrayal appear throughout Cake, though Selecky says she’s never conscious of her writing patterns until readers show them to her. “A lot of themes from story to story are pointed out to me, and then I feel really exposed. It’s the oddest thing. I think I’m doing something completely different with a plot, then someone will say ‘There’s always a dinner party in your stories.’”

It’s true. Dinner and cafe tables are where characters reveal their conflicts. In “Throwing Cotton,” Anne, who wants a baby despite sensing resistance from her older husband, foresees an awkward weekend retreat over a spaghetti dinner with friends.

“The pasta should have been cooked for another five minutes,” Selecky writes. “It sticks to my teeth like masking tape … Sanderson is quiet, possibly craving a cigarette. Shona is the only one who has wine left in her glass. I wrap my ankles and feet around the cold metal chair legs and silently will Sanderson to not open another bottle. It’s cold in the cottage, even though the candles on the table make it look cozy.”

Selecky, a vegan and self-described foodie, says food is implicit in life’s emotional events.

“Cake’s stories are all about intimacy in some way. Food plays a role in that, whether eating for emotional fulfilment or not. In so many of our most compelling times in relationships and families and social situations, food always shows up: weddings, funerals, Christmas.”

No wonder, then, that Poor John’s (1610 Queen St. W.), the Mascot (1267 Queen St. W.) and Capital Espresso (1349 Queen St. W.)—with their vegan cupcakes, cookies and soups—are regular stops for Selecky. She sometimes ventures to The Belljar (2072 Dundas St. W.) for its avocado and pepper sandwiches.

While the Parkdalian didn’t win this year’s Giller Prize (Johanna Skibsrud, a Nova Scotian who now lives in Montreal, took the top prize for her novel The Sentimentalists, Selecky has become good friends with her fellow nominees. Once the “surreal” glamour of the gala’s television broadcast ended, the five writers found time to sit together and talk shop. They email each other regularly now, sharing photos from the night and discussing future projects.

While there is still some promotion to do now that Cake has a “Giller Prize Finalist” sticker on it, she’s set time aside this winter to work on a new project (which she hints may be non-fiction). Until then, she’ll walking her neighbourhood streets every day, recording the quiet apocalypses she walks past.

Celia Lottridge describes herself as a "loyal Seaton Village resident." Courtesy Fitzhenry and Whiteside

By Eddie Mumford

“Even though my neighbourhood has changed drastically, it still basically looks the same … so I thought it would be fun to think about what it was like in another time,” says storyteller group founder and writer Celia Lottridge, on why she set her new childrens’ book The Listening Tree in Seaton Village.

The Listening Tree features a young girl named Ellen Jackson, who, with her mother, is forced to re-locate to her aunt’s boarding house on Manning Avenue, after leaving their farm when their hometown is emptied by drought.

“I saw it as a time when life was full of practical problems—the majority of people were having to cope with the day-to-day of getting money … the Depression had a huge impact here in Canada, but I don’t think a lot of children or adults have any idea of how extremely hard it was. We like to forget about hard times,” she said.

This book creates a fictional yet realistic Toronto for children to learn from. “How can you learn about your country if you don’t have any fiction to read?” she said. “That’s what got me into writing, [the idea] that these books needed to be written.”

When asked if the character of Ellen was at all autobiographical, Lottridge said “Yes, in the sense that when I was a child my father changed jobs several times, so at least five times before I was 12 I had moved, [however], I’d say [Ellen’s] kind of extreme on the shy side.”

Lottridge has never left the greater Annex area since she moved to Toronto in 1975 and describes herself as a “loyal Seaton Village citizen.”

Ms. Lottridge is one of the founders of (and is now a trainer and consultant for) The Parent-Child Mother Goose Program (720 Bathurst St.), which began in 1986 as a not-for-profit organization that uses storytelling as a way to help nurture the bond between caregiver and child. “We still use the same pattern of how the program works—we still use the same training manual we wrote in 1989,” explained Lottridge, “As neighbourhoods changed and new groups moved in, we’ve learned how to incorporate material from different languages, and how to make people feel comfortable and part of a group.”

“Children who experience stories have a more complete experience of language, they learn about the emotional content, and they also learn that the stories have patterns. Even for small children, it’s like they tune into it, even though they don’t exactly understand the words.”

The program focuses on smaller groups of caregivers and children, rather than large assemblies, “We want to create groups where people feel comfortable and they know each other. It gives us time to help people relax.”

The Listening Tree is out in select bookstores this month. For more information on the Parent Child Mother Goose program visit http://www.nald.ca/mothergooseprogram or call (416) 588-5234.

This motion simulator platform is one of many technological advancements to be seen in the Toronto Rehab Institute's Challenging Environment Assessment Lab (CEAL). Courtesy S.K. Advani

By Melissa Sundardas

The new subterranean research lab on University Avenue is bringing a scale of advanced, breakthrough technologies for research that would make Willy Wonka proud.

Located just beneath Toronto Rehab Institute’s University Centre (550 University Ave.), this new facility—called the Challenging Environment Assessment Lab (CEAL)—allows scientists to safely and accurately develop treatments, technologies, and products that will help the elderly and disabled cope with everyday difficulties, especially during the winter. The facility will be ready to begin experiments in March.

“Sometimes it’s quite difficult to go straight from the laboratory into the real world,” said Geoff Fernie, vice president of research at the Toronto Rehab Institute (TRI). “For example, if we develop something that makes it easier for you to look after your mother at home … it’s difficult for us to knock on people’s doors and say, ‘Can we install this in your house and do you mind if we drill some holes in your wall? It may not work though.’ So we are building [the research laboratory] to do this sort of thing.”

TRI’s research has helped develop numerous beneficial devices like the Staxi transport chairs we see in parking lots, airports and big hospitals; Sole Sensor shoe inserts that help reduce falling by enhancing feeling and sensation on the soles of your feet that lessen with age; and Handi Audit, which tracks how often people wash their hands in the hospital.

With a 50-foot ceiling, complex glass cabins, a drawbridge, a robot safety harness, movable ice floors, snow, and the ability to generate air close to minus 20 degrees Celsius, this lab is teeming with high-tech wonders for the eyes and progressive, future developments in rehabilitation for society.

The research conducted will focus on a number of environmental and health related complexities that the elderly, disabled, and injured encounter. These include stair accidents, winter slips and falls, sleep apnea, spinal cord injuries, and head injuries.

“By the time you die, you’ll have been affected in some way by these almost certainly, so we take the big problems and we focus on them,” said Fernie.

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) Report on Seniors’ Falls in Canada, the fall-related injury rate among seniors is nine times greater than people younger than 65 years old, and almost half of seniors who fall experience a minor injury, with five to 25 per cent suffering serious injuries, such as a fracture or a sprain.

“As you know, falls are the scourge of growing old—everyone knows someone who has fallen and broken their hip, and they’ve never really recovered. Many die.”

CEAL will examine factors like the design of stairs, how the brain processes multiple signals when things are happening simultaneously, and the slippery, dangerous conditions of winter weather will  all be examined.

There are 17 carefully selected companies, both local and international, which are involved in contributing their resources and technology to aid in making the proposed research in the lab possible. The roster includes Composotech, CIMCO, Pure Ingenuity and Quanser to name a few.

“We’ve never worked on something this scale, but it was a great opportunity. They’re a local institution and the cause is a very worthwhile and it really interested us,” said Paul Karam, director of engineering at Quanser, which has provided the lab with a robot safety harness and a software called QUARC that allows researches to connect all various instances of their tests together and make a cohesive experiment.

He describes the experiments as putting a full room on a robot that can move in three positions and three rotations along with a tracking system that allows you to see in real time where a person is walking, how their limbs are, and their heart rate.

“Our software is structured so that everything happens at the same time—it’s very deterministic—so they can really come up with groundbreaking experiments that simulate real life conditions,” he said. Although the purpose of many experiments is to almost make test subjects fall or slip and record the data, Karam said that the subjects need to kept safe.

“[The robot safety harness] actually tracks the person and when it detects a fall, basically lets them fall to a very slow rate to the ground,” he said.

This state-of-the-art facility became a reality through grants the TRI won from the Canada Foundation of Innovation, an Ontario Innovations trust, the McGuinty government, donations from appreciative patients and philanthropists, and contributions from the industry.

Come March there will be many volunteer opportunities for the community to help with some research projects and organize tours of the lab.

“We love volunteers and obviously we’ll need more when it’s open,” said Fernie.

For more information, visit www.torontorehab.com.

328 Dupont Street is one of six properties referred to in an Official Plan amendment application. Perry King/Gleaner News

By Perry King

The Wynn Group is moving forward with its plans of developing a 29-storey hotel and condominium on a strip of Dupont.

An application to amend the Toronto Official Plan, that will change the designation of six Dupont properties from an employment to a mixed-use site, was submitted by the Wynn Group in May, but was only given public notice in October.

The application was submitted in conjunction with the proposed hotel-condo project that the Wynn Group ultimately wants to develop on the site.

If the Wynns’ applications are approved for amendment and rezoning, the development will be the largest on Dupont Street since the Loblaws supermarket (650 Dupont St.) came to the neighbourhood in the mid-1990s.

The Wynn Group, led by Paul and Les Wynn, have been proposing a mixed-use development on the site for years. According to an article from the January 2008 edition of the Annex Gleaner, Paul Wynn sought community feedback on a proposed 22-storey residential property with commercial entities and professional offices. “The issue, right now, before the city, is whether or not the land should only permit employment uses, and the reality is within employment areas of the city, it’s a pretty narrow range of employment uses,” said Mark Flowers, the Wynns’ legal representative.

Perceived by local residents and the Annex Residents’ Association (ARA) as “precedent-setting” at the time, the Wynns retained counsel in 2009 and have been doing their own research into the feasibility of mixed-use.

The Wynn Group, operating for 40 years, is based out of an office at 330 Dupont St. They have over 2,000 residential properties and 2 million square feet of commercial space in the GTA. Those include high-rise buildings in Parkdale, including the notorious West Lodge Apartments. The Wynns were awarded the runner-up “Golden Cockroach Award” by the Parkdale Tenants Association (PTA) in 2004. They also have a retail chain for furniture and appliances.

The amendment application, to be taken up by community council as early as January, only publicly refers to 328 Dupont but also applies to 330, 332, 344, 358, and 374. These properties are mainly filled with businesses that rent the spaces, including a few massage therapy schools, a DNA testing centre, and an office for the Ontario Conservatory of Music.

The city has traditionally rejected residential applications on the north side of Dupont because it is provincial policy to have cities protect these lands since they are economic generators. The Wynns originally wanted to apply the amendment to the entire north side of Dupont to Bathurst, feeling the land was not being used to its fullest capacity. Since there is already a limited number of residential tenants, they believe it is already a de facto mixed-use area. However, consultants recommended keeping the application specific to properties the Wynns own, as well as the adjoining auto shop at 374 Dupont.

Barry Brooks, the city planner handling the Wynn’s application, is pessimistic about their chances. “We have some concerns, obviously, because changing the Official Plan designation from employment area to mixed-use area is a substantial change. We’re interested at looking at what’s appropriate, and we’re still making that determination at this point,” he said.

Brooks will be reporting the status of the amendment application in the new year. “Staff are taking a close look at the application and are evaluating it against the context of the city’s official plan and provincial growth plan for the Golden Horseshoe, and we’ll be reporting to council on that,” said David Oikawa, Brooks’ superior in the city planning department.

Should council adopt the position of rejecting the application, Flowers said the Wynns will likely appeal at the OMB. “I would fully expect that we would then appeal that, and the Ontario Municipal Board would have to make a decision on the land use issue.”

Community opinions on the matter vary. In 2008, locals expressed concerns about traffic congestion, proximity to the CP rail corridor, and the possibility of obstructing the sight lines from Casa Loma (1 Austin Ter.).

Those height concerns are echoed today by ARA chair David Harrison, who finds the 29-storey height to be “crazy” and “a mistake.” He hoped that a Dupont Visioning Study, similar to the previously completed Bloor Visioning Study, could be developed before Wynn’s proposal was considered. “I am told nothing will go ahead with the Wynn brothers until after that. Who knows, we got a new team downtown, but that’s the last I heard,” he said.

The ARA’s position is that height restrictions for buildings on Dupont should be capped at seven storeys.

While Harrison said that the local community would not be in favour of a residential development on-site, there are some who see a benefit to it. “There are a lot of mixed feelings, people that live around the area are happy because their property values will go up,” said Robert Chee, who manages the Diverso restaurant and cafe (328 Dupont St.).

“I personally think the area needs it. There’s not much on this strip from here to Bathurst, or just past Howland. There’s no banks or hairstylists or convenient places to shop. It might be good for this area.”

A Dupont revisioning study, a project to be taken up by Councillor Adam Vaughan’s office (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina), the Planning and Growth Management Committee, and city planning, has been talked about for years, but the city planning department has been stalled by lack of revenue. But with the Bloor Visioning Study completed, the time may be right to get the study underway.

“We’re hoping to have some discussion as to what would be the appropriate form for development on Dupont. Obviously it’s going to be mixed-use, but I think we would very much hope that height restrictions would be in place. We’ve seen some height restrictions now on some developments,” said Harrison.

The Wynns have not yet submitted an application for the rezoning of the development, but plan to do so if their amendment application is approved.

Bellevue Square Park was the site of a month-long crime blitz this fall. Perry King/Gleaner News

By Perry King

Out of the 68 arrests that were made in a Kensington-area drug blitz, police Sergeant Jeff Zammit remembers one arrest that bothered him.

“We dealt with one guy that was trafficking, and he was with a woman and a baby in a stroller—it was his girlfriend—while he was selling,” said Zammit, who is a part of 14 Division’s community response unit.

“He said, ‘You know, I know I sell weed, but it’s not serious. Why don’t you go after the crackheads?’”

Targeting street level drug dealers of marijuana was the main focus of a crime blitz in Bellevue Square Park. 14 Division began preparing for the blitz this spring as a result of concerns raised by local businesses and residents at a 14 Division community police liaison committee meeting. It lasted from mid-September to mid-October.

Coordinated by Sergeant Daren Halman, 40 plainclothes and uniformed officers were present in the park, following up on tips.

Police also cracked down on other illegal conduct. “It’s not strictly drugs [we were enforcing], it was alcohol, dogs off their leash, and people breaking smoking bylaws—people were smoking beside a kid’s area,” said Zammit.

After 14 Division reported an initial 55 arrests on Sept. 28, Halman updated that number to 68 at a community police liaison meeting Oct. 13.

Police have laid various charges, including Trafficking in Marijuana, Possession Marijuana, Assault Police, Proceeds of Crime, Fail to Comply Probation, Fail to Comply Recognizance, Fail to Appear Court, and Possession of Ecstasy. Police is withholding information about the accused, including names, ages and future court dates.

Through their sources, 14 Division was also able to execute a drug seizure at an Augusta Avenue home. With the help of the Toronto Drug Squad, about $1 million in marijuana was seized. “They seized a large quantity of plants, which we believe was supplying the area as well,” said Zammit.

The search warrant, which applied to several homes in the neighbourhood, was executed Sept. 29. It was one of a dozen citywide search warrants issued as a part of Project Shuffle, a separate police drug enforcement blitz that began in July. 14 Division solely executed the 14 Division blitz.

The month long blitz was the first in the market since 2009. That year, two blitzes were undertaken. In July 2009, Project Escape saw plainclothes officers arrest 76 street dealers primarily in Kensington, but also on King, Queen and Dundas streets. Project Escape was also prompted by neighbourhood complaints. Besides marijuana, cocaine, hashish, heroin and oxycontin were seized. Many of the people arrested had previous convictions. In the fall, Project Sunshine arrested 60 street dealers in Kensington and other major downtown areas.

But the police and the community still see a “revolving door” of drug problems. “I find the problem with Kensington Market is that people think it’s carte blanche to smoke and sell marijuana in that area. They think it’s like a drug zone, when in fact it is illegal to use it or sell it,” said Zammit.

Some members in the community seem less than pleased with the blitz. “If the police walked a beat like they used to, instead of staying in their cars all the time, the city would be a much safer place,” wrote Grey Coyote, of Kensington Market Action Committee in an email.

“Kensington is far from the only area of the city with problems. We are diverse and unique and St. Stephen’s feeds hundreds of homeless people every day. As long as they are doing that, we are going to have a higher than average crime rate.”

Others recognize the drug problem, but say it is a part of what defines the neighbourhood.

“I think there are eyes on us at all times,” said Mika Beraket, who chairs the Kensington Market BIA. “Yeah, there are drugs in the market, particularly in Bellevue Square, but that’s part of the culture here. I’ve never felt frightened walking through that park. I felt more frightened walking on College Street, with all those high heels parading around.”

Recognizing a need to improve safety, the BIA is considering capital funding for improved street lighting at night. Those plans will be explored in the new year.

By Rebecca Payne

Multiple campaign managers of Ward 18 (Davenport) candidates claim questionable tactics were used in the race, and are pointing their fingers at newly elected Councillor Ana Bailao’s campaign.

Bailao edged out Adam Giambrone’s former executive assistant Kevin Beaulieu by 1,366 votes.

Beaulieu’s campaign manager, as well as fellow Ward 18 contender Kirk Russell, allege that the election was marred by the presence of phoney city translators, proxy forms being sent to people who never requested them, and campaign office lines being tied up by calls about an offer for free pizza. In all but the last case, the allegations are directed at Bailao’s campaign, or it is insinuated that she was involved.

Bailao denies all accusations of wrongdoing.

An article written by Roger Brook, a volunteer for Beaulieu’s campaign, published in Now Magazine raised questions as to a possible link between Senso Magazine, a Portuguese publication, and Bailao’s campaign. In response to the article, Bailao said, “Well, that magazine published an article on me like many other Portuguese-Canadian newspapers and magazines. I was on the cover of a couple other newspapers.

“I’m somebody that the community knows. When you’re in an ethnic community they tend to talk about what their people are doing. That’s what happened. That’s all I have to say.”

Bailao was also quick to point out that the writer of the article neglected to mention that he was working on Mr. Beaulieu’s campaign when he called her, and others quoted in the article, for comments. She also added, “After I won, I was on the cover of another three community newspapers.”

A later article Brook wrote, also published in NOW, says there were reports of phoney volunteers on election day, and refers to “Bailão’s campaign tricks.”

“We had several reports of volunteer translators working inside polling stations,” wrote Michal Hay, co-manager of Beaulieu’s campaign, in an email. “City staff told our scrutineers that they had been sent by the city to help translate and a few of them had shirts that read “I speak Portuguese” in Portuguese. Given that the translators were not wearing credentials we asked the elections staff to call their supervisor, who confirmed that the translators were not sent by the city, but were impostors,” said Hay.

Although the translators were asked to leave, Hay said that many continued speaking to voters. “One had even been sitting with the clerk who was signing in voters and simply moved to the front entrance and continued addressing voters.”

Elizabeth Pereira, campaign manager for Kirk Russell, said that on election day she received a phone call from Beaulieu’s campaign manager, telling her to “get down to Poll 22 immediately.” Pereira said that the Russell campaign team were in contact with Beaulieu’s team all day long.

“People were there trying to claim they were translators … they were asked to leave. Then these two gentlemen [who] were trying to go in as translators, once they left, they went to Poll One and registered as scrutineers for Ana Bailao. Apparently there was a lot of that going on; going from poll to poll to poll,” said Pereira.

When asked about this issue, Bailao said, “All our volunteers had my forms to sign in as scrutineers, so that’s the people that signed in as scrutineers. Whoever was working for the city I don’t know, whoever was working for me. I mean, I have my volunteers and they were scrutineering and pulling out the vote like any other campaign.”

There are other, more serious allegations that some are making against Bailao. According to Russell, a few days before the election he received a call from an elderly woman who was distraught because she had received a proxy form she had not requested. “She said Ana’s campaign had given it to her. They called her and told her it was in the mailbox.” The woman, who is housebound, was under the impression that she would be able to vote from home, as she had done in previous federal and provincial elections—not that she would receive a proxy. “[She said] she was told by Ana’s camp that ‘Everybody else had received their forms.’ [They] didn’t use the word proxy,” said Russell. The police were called, but since the woman had not signed the proxy, charges could not be pressed, although a complaint was filed.

According to Bailao, “If she got it in the mail, that’s all she got, right? Whatever she does with it it’s up to her … I can’t comment, I don’t know who that person is.”

Proxies were a contentious issue in this election. At Poll 12 (St. Anthony’s Catholic School), police were called on election day. Vince Demasi, a scrutineer for Russell’s campaign, was there.

“There was a high volume of people there, usually at a poll you get 300 to 400 people, I just thought the volume was too high. [Someone] had a proxy mailed to someone who lived at Ana Bailao’s house.” This set off alarm bells for Demasi, and he challenged the proxy. “Why would you, as a candidate, have someone mail a proxy to you? I just thought that smelled.” Despite police questioning, the person with the proxy was allowed to vote.

When asked about this proxy, Bailao said, “I’m not the only person who lives in my house. There’s some people that live here, and people vote where they live and people receive mail where they live.”
As for the police being called, Bailao said it was her understanding that the police were called because “[the person making the complaint] intimidated to city official so much that the city official felt like they had to call the police.”

Demasi’s response to this accusation was, “She’s out to lunch!”

Demasi said that police were called because of the possibility of election fraud. “Do you honestly think an election official who has the power to shut down a poll would be intimidated by a scrutineer challenging a proxy? No. She’s lying.”

“We know that her [Bailao’s] camp had a tremendous amount of proxies,” said Pereira.

Pereira also filed a complaint on election day, regarding a poll clerk at Poll 12. “As I was coming in to St. Anthony’s, one of the ballot clerks was conversing with Ana Bailao’s people. When they saw me, they quickly dispersed.”

Bailao’s response to this account was: “I have no idea what that is. I did not come across any information like that.”

This same poll clerk also had an encounter with Demasi. While on duty as a scrutineer, an elderly woman, a neighbour of Demasi, was told that she had already voted. “She said ‘Can you help me? They say I’ve voted already.’ I went to the DRO, and said ‘She said she never voted.’ Then the poll clerk says, ‘I’m the one that took the vote.’ I said, “She’s 80 years old! She’s not coming down here [to vote] twice.” The woman was eventually issued a ballot.

“I’ve been involved in a lot of campaigns, this one just didn’t go right,” said Demasi.

Russell echoed this sentiment: “We all worked together because we wanted a fair election, and unfortunately, I don’t think we had one.”

YouTube videos that aim to damage both Bailao and Beaulieu surfaced leading up to the election.

In one, a volunteer canvassing for Beaulieu is caught with a bag that the creator of the video alleges contains Ana Bailao literature, with the implication that it was stolen.

Another is a video spliced with footage of Bailao at a debate and footage of an interview, conducted by Kirk Russell, with a bakery owner. This video attempts to discredit Bailao’s comments at the debate, but it is obviously cut in an amateurish attempt to discredit Bailao.

Another questionable event on election day—which on any other day would have been benign—was someone was distributing flyers at Yonge and Eglington offering free pizza.

It turns out that the phone number on the flyer was not for a pizzeria, but for Beaulieu’s campaign office. “We had seven phone lines in our office and a full phone bank of volunteers calling voters reminding them to vote. In the final hours of election night phone calls starting pouring in, tying up our lines, preventing us from calling voters,” said Hay. According to Hay, the name of the pizzeria “didn’t exist.”

The Tollkeeper's Cottage is the only restored and operational one of its kind. Matt James/ Gleaner News

By Susan Oppenheim

I met Jane Beecroft in 2008, when she brought flyers into my shop for the opening of a nearby historical restoration.

At the time I knew nothing of heritage work, the Community History Project (the group she founded), or the Tollkeeper’s Cottage, and I had little interest in the undertakings at the corner of Davenport and Bathurst.

From Jane, I have since learned that Davenport Road is one of the oldest and largest First Nations trails in the world, at over 10,000 years old. The tiny (20 by 30 feet) 19th century cottage on the northwest corner has been salvaged, moved five times and restored with over 1,500 volunteer hours of labour, fundraising, and lobbying.

This is a treasured feature of the Annex, and, as the only restored and operational tollkeeper’s cottage of its kind, it also holds an enormous significance on the world’s stage as well.

Jane was one of five children born to working class parents in Oshawa. “I was born in 1932 at the beginning of the depression, and there were lots of periods in my life when I went without, but that does not colour the way I look at the world,” she said. “I am able to think, and so I do not act as a deprived person. I learned things by osmosis; by being around people.”

At age 51 she was living alone, commuting to Toronto from on top of a mountain outside Bancroft, as an established freelance writer for the CBC. On those trips she sat listening to her short-wave radio, learning about global-issues.

Gazing down and seeing how progress was eroding the heritage of Canada’s largest city, she and seven others banded together to form the Community History Project (CHP).

After decades of lobbying city hall, she has earned the nickname the Dragon, but Mississauga First Nations, Toronto’s earliest residents, call her the Truth Speaker. “Without the help of the Indians, the settlers would never have even survived. You can’t possibly know where you are going until you know where you’ve been,” said Jane.

A quarter century later, the areas CHP services now include the Annex, Seaton Village, and Yorkville.

When they started out, they had no idea where to focus themselves, so they preserved and collected any historical assets and documents of heritage buildings, ravines, rivers,photos, letters, anything they could get their hands on. “I realized that history was not taught properly in the schools; it was compartmentalized, not fluid. Most people knowvery little about history—you have to delve deeper to understand the layers of communities.”

Today, I am sitting with Jane, who still chairs the CHP, surrounded by historical materials at their generously donated offices, which span the 2nd floor of the 97 year-old historical noted Bank of Nova Scotia (at Church and Queen).

Listening is not something many of us do often or well enough, but Jane holds my attention. She is not only very well informed but also generous with stories—stories that rarely begin with “I,” but rather with “they” or “we.”

Successful volunteer coordinators must possess the art of engagement, and Jane certainly does. “We are, all of us, volunteers,” said Jane, “[that] rely on the funds we must generate ourselves. We apply annually for a grant from the Ontario Ministry of Culture based on what was already spent. We receive only $1250 a year for maintenance and upkeep and the rest we have to raise ourselves.

“It is not about individuals, or me. It is about the responsibility felt to further our understanding of ourselves as a city and as a part of a nation, using history as the model.”

If this is of any interest you can:

1. Become a member for $20 annually.
2. Come to the cottage Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. and meet the indomitable Jane. If you live in the Annex, I assure you she can tell you about the history of your street and community.
3. Arrange group visits on Tuesdays, and find out about collecting tolls—the lives lived, risks taken, and hardships endured in 1835.
4. Attend their events—invited speakers’ series, seasonal festivals.
5. Join the board of directors or volunteer; offering your expertise, fundraising abilities, and much appreciated hours of time.
6. Offer writing and computer skills.

When you visit, there are pamphlets outlining other projects, docents on hand (skilled volunteers), and authentic recipes and other small items for sale.

For more information visit the web site or phone (416) 515-7546.

A day after the Oct. 25 Toronto election, Councillor-elect Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) attended this community meeting. Perry King/Gleaner News.

By Perry King

Investigations on three of four recent shooting incidents in the Annex area are still open, according to updates from 14 Division.

At a meeting on Oct. 26, over 50 people packed into the Bickford Centre cafeteria (777 Bloor St. W.) to hear Inspector David Vickers and Detective Sergeant Brian Kelly announce that investigations for shootings on Sept. 26, Sept. 30, Oct. 8, and Oct. 20, are progressing but police still need help with information.

The meeting was organized by the Friends of Christie Pits Park (FCPP) and the now renamed Christie Pits Residents’ Association—formerly the Christie-Ossington Residents Association (CORA)—in response to growing resident concerns.

Business owners, local residents, and Councillor-elect Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) were in attendance.

Two of the higher profile shooting incidents—at Central Technical School (725 Bathurst St.) on Sept. 30, and Toronto Brazilian Jiu Jitsu mixed martial arts gym (813 Bloor St. W.) Oct. 20—were targeted attacks. Both incidents resulted in a short-term lockdowns of local schools.

At Toronto BJJ, a suspect shot at three men multiple times in the Banjara restaurant (796 Bloor St. W.) parking lot. The suspect, who fled south on Montrose Avenue, has yet to be caught.

“It’s important for you to know that the victims of the gun violence, almost 100 per cent of them, are people who live lifestyles that are consistent with violence. I’m talking drug dealing, gang violence, putting themselves in positions, relationships, and conflicts that cause these types of gun violence incidents to occur,” said Vickers. “I’m happy to say that citizens are not being gunned down on the street.”

Josh Rapport, director of Toronto BJJ, attended the meeting to clarify that the shootings were not connected to his business.

“A quick Google, and a little bit of intelligence told me he was a known to police in Vancouver,” he said. “A little rumour mill around the gym, after the fact, was that this was his third time being a victim of gunfire and that his other buddy who also came down from B.C., and likes to train in martial arts, lost his wife to a similar shooting.”

Rapport cancelled two memberships as a result of the incident and the Vancouver man is banned from the gym. He assured those in attendance that his business is not involved in these types of activities.

The other two cases are still being investigated.

On Sept. 26, a tourist was shot in the midst of a robbery during a party at Pero (812 Bloor St. W.), but survived. Kelly said that everyone at the business is cooperating with the investigation.

Kelly is having less cooperation with an Oct. 8 shooting at an apartment building at Melville Avenue and Shaw Street, north of Christie Pits.

“I can’t speak to that a whole lot. There has not been an arrest, and that investigation is continuing and progressing,” he said.

Vickers adds, “What can you do? We need your help. You folks are the eyes and ears of the community. We need you to communicate with us, to do it by calling us, telling us directly,” he said.

“Part of our biggest challenge is getting people to share info, to become witnesses. I understand that there are parts of being a witness that are uncomfortable. I understand that, but it should not prevent you from providing us with info, so we can move forward.”

The meeting was devoted to putting 14 Division crime in perspective, discussing community initiatives, and other strategies that may deter criminal behaviour.

Vickers confirmed that overall crime in the division is down 30 per cent compared to 2006. Shooting deaths have also decreased 15 to 12 per cent, compared to numbers in 2002 and 2003.

Despite this, 14 Division has the fifth highest crime rate out of 17 divisions in the city, with 18 shooting incidents occurring this year alone.

Many parents, including FCPP chair Monica Gupta, wanted clarity on what lockdown policy was for schools.

One parent, Alice, commented that while high schools were locked down during the Central Tech situation, elementary schools—including the school her children attend—went about their business. “I trust the police to know where and who to lock down but it felt a bit odd that high schools were locked down and elementary [students] were playing outside,” she said.

Another parent was concerned that the lockdown protocol was not applied consistently to Catholic schools.

While he could not specifically comment on those lockdown decisions, Vickers assured the parents that the police were doing their best to keep everyone safe with the information they had.

Vickers recommended the TPS Links program, which is a community automated notification system that sends texts and phone calls to inform of emergencies, road closures, and amber alerts. Gupta mentioned the LOFT graffiti art program, street beautification projects, and parks programs that the local residents associations can undertake to prevent crime.

The Bloorcourt BIA, which covers Dufferin Street to Montrose Avenue, was criticized for being weak, with only a few participating businesses. Joe Perketa, the BIA’s vice chair, said that the budget is small because the area between Ossington and Montrose is “nearly abandoned.”

He said that because landlords are happy to collect the apartment rent and apply for exemption from full business taxes while the storefronts lie vacant, many landlords do not contribute to the BIA budget.

Layton said he would look into reining in bad landlords and ways to help grow the BIA.

Perketa also discussed long-term plans for a streetscape improvement program.

Erica Brisson's latest work consists of line drawings inspired by the Toronto landscape. Courtesy Erica Brisson.

By Liivi Sandy

Every environment is a new palate to explore for artist Erica Brisson. The 27-year-old grew up in the Annex with the neighbourhood driving her creativity.

Erica has been on the road for eight years, studying art history and studio art at Concordia University in Montreal, and then working at the Banff Centre for the Arts. But now upon returning, her latest works explore the question: what has become of the community?

“I’m back, having been away for awhile and I’m interested in that question right now,” Erica says. “I’m seeing positive things that have popped up. I’m enjoying new things I’m seeing [since] being back, and I’m interested in reconsidering things I saw when I was younger.”

Her latest exhibit, “I’ll Look Around,” was a part of this year’s Queen West Art Crawl, and featured line drawings that Erica describes as a “poetic documentation of people and places from my everyday life in Toronto.”

“I’m perplexed by the visual cacophony of the city,” Erica says. “It’s bewildering.”

Courtesy Erica Brisson.

The artsy intellectual was curious about broadening her horizons from a young age. Attending Concordia University in Montreal allowed her to adopt the Francophone culture.

“I was living in French Montreal, meeting people from different places, encountering a culture you wouldn’t in Toronto. And then I was in Banff, the Wild West, meeting other artists in nature.”

Erica says her curiosity was similar to that of anyone in his or her early 20s, though her dedication provides an example of someone who is not only talented, but also wise beyond their years.

“I am continually impressed by Erica and her creative output, which she manages to keep focused yet dynamic, just like she is,” art critic Pandora Syperek said in an email.

“When I first met her I was surprised, not only by her level of achievement for such a young woman, but also by her eloquence and composure. I also learned that apart from being self-possessed and enterprising, Erica is kooky and a bit off the wall in a really fun way. I think it’s this combination that she brings to her creative projects.”

She was an active participant in the arts community while in Banff, always finding herself absorbed in one project or another.

Pandora was struck by the colouring party Erica had at the Banff Centre, where she let a bunch of friends “go wild” with markers on drawings she had made of inspirational 20th century women.