Michael McMurtry's one-man show, Happyview P.S., plays this month at the Palmerston Library, beginning Sept. 20. Courtesy Michael Watier.

By Bethan Evans

Have you ever thought to yourself, Children’s theatre is entertaining for my kids, but I am bored to tears after the curtain opens? Michael McMurtry did and decided to do something about it.

“I wanted to create something that entertains kids, but is also sophisticated and will appeal to their parents as well,” says McMurtry about his one-man show, Happyview P.S., opening this month at the Palmerston Library (560 Palmerston Ave.).

Wanting to share his love for live theatre with his children, he began taking them to productions.

Inspiration struck after seeing Welcome to Vaudeville by Steve Morel and Jenny Parsons at the Fringe Festival. “I had never considered doing a show for kids before, but I couldn’t get over the feeling of being at a show with my kids and all of us having a ball. For a parent, it’s very satisfying to share that experience with your kids, but it’s rare in kid’s theatre today,” said McMurtry.

Born and raised in Toronto, McMurtry returned to Canada after a four year stint in New York, and has been involved in the Canadian entertainment scene ever since. He is well-known for his multi-character comedy featured in his one-man show, Enthusiasm of the Species. Both of his previous one-man shows have been produced for television.

Besides theatre, McMurtry has worked steadily in both television and films. He received a Gemini nomination for his role in the television show Godiva’s. Over his career, McMurtry has also had the opportunity to work with some of Hollywood’s legends, including Walter Mathau, Carol Burnett, Glenn Close and William H. Macy.

“I always felt that I was a comic doing dramatic roles. I have a lot of admiration (and some envy) for comedians. I always fantasized about being part of a sketch group. Creating this show has allowed me to indulge in silliness and comedy,” said McMurtry. “It’s given me permission to pull out all the stops and have as much fun as possible. It’s allowed my inner clown, my inner comic to come out.”

Courtesy Michael Watier

For Happyview P.S., McMurtry refined some long-time characters to bring them into a cohesive fun interactive show designed to entertain both kids and parents. “The premise of the show is a school assembly and the audience members play the roles of the students at the schooll,” said Derek Williams, director and co-writer of the play.

“Michael plays six different characters that he has developed over the years. The show is original and interactive and is as funny for adults as it is for kids.”

Performing the show, in his own community is also exciting for McMurtry. Like the Jersey Avenue street party that he helped create, he hopes the play will connect with his neighbourhood. “I hope that it will bring people out in the community and engage them in a new way. It’s an afternoon or an evening activity that both parents and kids can enjoy. It’s a very wild fun show!”

And how did his most important audience like the show? “My children love it, they are incredible audience members! Kids imaginations are so deep and open and they lose themselves in the characters.”

Happyview P.S. will be playing five shows at the Palmerston Library theatre  Sept. 20 (7 p.m.), Sept. 25 (2 p.m.), Sept. 26 (2 p.m.), Oct. 2 (2 p.m.) and Oct. 3 (2 p.m.).  Tickets are $10. For more information visit www.spicymike.ca or call 416 539 8437

The Watchmen, led by singer Danny Greaves, will be performing at the Horseshoe Sept. 24–25. Courtesy Reil Munro.

By Karen Bliss

Danny Greaves, vocalist from the popular ‘90s rock band The Watchmen, still plays live with the band, but he’s been working on solo material, composing for film, and has ventured into the restaurant biz.

The Watchmen—Greaves, guitarist Joey Serlin, bassist Ken Tizzard and drummer Sammy Kohn—broke up in 2003, but for the past three years have reassembled for sporadic shows. Their first show this year will be at the Horseshoe Tavern (368 Queen St. W.) for two nights, Sept. 24 and 25. A week earlier, on Sept. 18, they will be at Blue Mountain in Collingwood with 54.40 during the Centurian Cycling Festival.

“I don’t think anybody is interested in having us exist the way it used to, even if that were possible,” says Greaves.

“I don’t know if it is anyway, just because of the nature of the industry, but we’re doing it for the original reasons that we used to—because we missed each other and decided to get together and see if anybody still cared and people do and we do and we’re having fun.”

Greaves is a Liberty-area resident and business owner. Last December, he bought into the landmark 24-hour diner The Lakeview (1132 Dundas St. W.) with three experienced partners. Previous to that, he co-owned the Chelsea Room, a lounge bar which closed in 2007.

“[The Lakeview] has been there since the ‘30s—when essentially you could see the lake, which I don’t think people realize,” he said.

“We’ve been lucky enough to be pretty rammed. For me it’s just fun, taking my kids there. I’m involved a little bit, but not as much so because music’s still happening for me. We’re still looking for another bar in the neighbourhood. I like the social components. I like to talk to people and have fun and shoot the shit and find out who they are and find out who you are.”

The Lakeview partners are also opening a coffee shop called The Abbott in Parkdale on Spencer Avenue, one street over from where Greaves lives. “The first black doctor in Toronto, Dr. Abbott, lived on Spencer, which I think is really cool from a historical standpoint,” Greaves says.

Anderson Ruffin Abbott (1837-1913) was the first black Canadian to become a licensed physician.

For the past decade, Greaves has also been scoring movies (Kanadiana, The Pedestrian, The Risen), which has influenced the direction he’s taking for his first solo recording. “The music itself is Pro Tools oriented,” he said, referring to the digital audio workstation software.

“I guess it could be called movie music, sort of atmospheric pop. For me, the best thing about it is doing it because I wanted to, not because I have to feed my family or because I’m in the machine.”

While Greaves can’t say if The Watchmen will release a full album again, there is the possibility of a new EP. Two new songs, “Trampoline” and “Miss Monday Morning,” are available for free in the “media” section of the band’s website. “It wouldn’t be hard to make four or five,” he says. “We’re all so busy with other stuff so it’s hard to physically get us in the same spot. I think what’s fun is there’s no specific plan.”

The Watchmen does, however, have a brand new documentary DVD, All Uncovered, which will be for sale at the upcoming shows. Directed by Reil Munro, Greaves says it includes footage from 1988 to present-day, including archival home movies from Kohn’s personal collection.

“I’m amazed that it could be put together. Usually, you plan for what it’s eventually going to be for; Reil just went through tons of old stuff, recording in Seattle, playing this big German festival, talk shows in Australia, stuff I didn’t even know existed. I think the diehards will enjoy it. It’s a nice document of what’s gone on.

The Coast will be releasing their sophomore album Queen Cities Sept. 23. Courtesy Carl Heindl.

By Karen Bliss

Toronto indie rockers The Coast, who celebrate the release of its sophomore album, Queen Cities, on Sept. 23 at the El Mocambo, began life in the Annex.

Frontman Ben Spurr and guitarist Ian Fosbery were living on St. George Street at the time and called their band The July 26th Movement.

“We were about to break up,” recounts Fosbery, “and we decided, ‘Let’s give it one more try and write different music, and change our name to the Coast’ [after the Paul Simon song] because our old name sucked. It was like starting anew.”

Today, Spurr lives in Parkdale, brothers Jordan and Luke Melchiorre (drums and bass, respectively) in High Park, and Fosbery divides his time between Toronto, Etobicoke and New York.

Fosbery is looking forward to returning to the neighbourhood to play El Mocambo. “We haven’t played there in a long long time,” he says. “It will be nice to play there again. We did a charity gig there about a year and a half ago, but our own show was four or five years ago, before it was renovated.”

Back then, the Coast’s 2006 self-titled EP led to a deal with local indie Aphoria Records in late 2007. The band cut its 2008 full-length debut, Expatriate, with producer Chris Stringer—of Timber Timbre, Ohbijou, and the Wooden Sky fame—at the Lincoln County Social Club, a loft studio in Liberty Village. The album was later picked up by Afternoon Records in the U.S., and the band ended up touring throughout North America and the U.K.

Courtesy Carl Heindl

Being on the road for a year-and-a-half influenced Queen Cities, which the bio says is about “crossing borders.”  Tons of bands tour and don’t write entire albums about it, but Fosbery explains, “There was nothing else going on in our lives. It was life in a van. It’s the theme of what touring causes in life because it does put a strain on your life at home when you’re away.”

Once back in Toronto, Fosbery says they spent a long time writing and arranging the songs, then invited Stringer to the rehearsal studio to hear the new direction (before going into the Lincoln County Social Club again). “Chris is very involved in what we do and, as always, he added a lot of ideas and took away a lot of ideas from what we already built.

“It’s definitely louder and faster,” Fosbery says of the new album. “A lot of the songs on Expatriate were slower and more singer-songwriterey—well, not a lot of them, but this album is much more to the point. It’s only 9 songs long.

“Not that we don’t like making slower songs,” he adds. “There’s always talk of us doing an acoustic EP because Ben writes a lot of songs like that, that are a lot softer and wouldn’t really be served very well by loud guitars and loud drums, but I think touring a lot of times we’re playing in a room to a bunch of people who are talking and it’s pretty loud.”

So they adjust their sound to get their attention? “It’s not really an attention thing,” said Fosbery.  “It’s more of an energy thing. When you’re playing a show and things are loud, you’re really, for lack of a better term, rocking out.”

Fosbery and Spurr also play keyboards on their recordings, but onstage they use a fifth player to take care of those parts. “We often do this when we record. We record all these intricate parts and there’s so much going on at any given time that we need another pair of hands [live],” says Fosbery.

Sometimes that person is Stringer, but Fosbery isn’t sure he’ll be able to play the CD release party. “Chris has problems with his ears, tinnitus, so he’s taking a break from live music for a while.”

Maybe, if the Coast wasn’t louder and faster than ever.

Sherrill Sutherland took part in her ninth Caribana parade this past summer. Courtesy Liivi Sandy.

By Liivi Sandy

Spend some time with Sherrill Sutherland and you’ll get an education.

The 25-year-old Annex resident works for CBC News Network, writing about the events that make our city, country, and world tick.

Spend more time with Sutherland and you’ll realize that she’s more than you bargained for. The candid young woman is crazy about more than just news. She has an ardent passion for Caribana.

She was one of thousands of “masqueraders” strutting down Lakeshore Boulevard West in a bikini, belt, and massive elaborate hat this year.

“It’s kind of like an addiction so you do it every year,” she said. “You become a pseudo-famous person for the day.”

Sutherland has participated in Caribana since 2002. She was studying journalism at Carleton University at the time, and was overwhelmed at the possibility of being a part of it. “What if I didn’t fit in? I was excited at the same time—about the party, my culture. I could show my Vincey pride.”

Sutherland was born in Ottawa, and raised in small towns all across southern Ontario. She grew up with her mother and a French-Canadian step dad. Her mother is Irish-Canadian and her father is Vincentian.

“I never embraced my Caribbean heritage because I wanted to fit in,” she said. “I lived in small towns where I was the only black person, or one of very few.”

Her first year in Caribana was exhilarating to say the least.

“No one is judgmental,” she says. “It made me very proud of who I was.”

In 2008, Sutherland started working as an intern at CBC and the CBC was an official sponsor for the parade.

“It seemed like no one [at CBC] knew what the project was about. I was floored, and wanted to get involved.”

Sutherland was eager to share her experience and give people more insight into the two-week event.

“There is art, music … a lot of other things happen other than the parade. I wanted to give an inside perspective. Very few Torontonians know what it is.”

She also wanted to dispel rumours about the violence sometimes associated with Caribana. “Sometimes things get linked to Caribana in the media that are unrelated.”

Last year, her interest in Caribana led to her blogging about her experience during the event for CBC. She was also a guest on two CBC shows, including the radio news show As it Happens. “I became the Caribana expert for CBC.”

This year, she was excited as ever to get on her costume and walk the city for hours, pose for photos, and revel in the celebration that surrounds the parade. Her enthusiasm is infectious.

“My best friend is Polish,” said Sutherland. “She said she wanted to be involved. You’d be surprised how many [non-Caribbean people] there are [participating]”

“I feel like it has become a crucial part of our relationship,” added friend Basia Bukowski. “It is absolutely something we have bonded over.”

“If I missed it I would really regret it,” Sutherland says. “It’s like my summer anthem.”

Dan Dwoskin plays the Trane Sept. 3. Image courtesy Dan Dwoskin.

By Brendan Hair

Vigour Projects, a new Toronto-based not-for-profit organization will be presenting its first health music concert called Vigourfest at Trane Studio on Sept. 3.

Founder and president Dr. David Alter, a cardiologist and researcher who has been writing songs since his teens, merged his love for music and health to create the project.

Alter’s plan for Vigourfest is to improve the health of communities through music. And the project’s drive is generating health awareness by presenting musical genres ranging from indie to adult contemporary.

As a doctor, Alter believes music is the most “primal therapeutic tool.”

“Music has a lot of impacts on individuals and on communities,” says Alter.

According to Alter, medical research shows music impacts blood pressure, heart rate, behaviour, and emotion.

But he also hears artists say that music has an ability to break down social barriers.

Dan Dwoskin, an indie musician participating in the inaugural Vigourfest believes that music is a universal language, that can connect complete strangers.

Dwoskin says music is especially impactful on health because of the way people emotionally and physically react to it.

“[People] are swayed to dance, smile, sing, or cry when they hear something powerful enough to dictate the mood. Music can inspire action, heal a broken heart, allow love to blossom, and calm our nerves,” he says.

Proceeds for Vigourfest will support the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario.

Vigourfest will not only promote great music, but  great food too.

The organization will be receiving support from The Toronto Vegetarian Association and samples from local food vendors.  Cooking demos will also be supplied courtesy of Karma Co-op.

By Perry King

At 9:47 p.m. on Aug. 25, Toronto city council voted 37–0 to approve the hotly debated harmonized zoning bylaw.

The new bylaw, arising from an eight-year harmonization exercise, now regulates the use of land and buildings, including their height, size, bulk, and location. Written with a common terminology and set of defined zoning terms, the bylaw consolidates 43 former bylaws that were grandfathered from pre-amalgamation Toronto.

The new bylaw maintains current development standards —like height and density—as much as possible in order to preserve and protect existing neighbourhoods.

Key parts of the bylaw include a transition protocol that aims to protect existing development permissions and prevent development application delays, and regulations that protect ravines.

The bylaw was the first item tabled by Mayor David Miller for city council’s last session before municipal elections in October. If the bylaw were not approved, the matter would have been deferred to a committee meeting in February 2011.

“Staff have laboured four years, invested some $7 million in that labour, to produce a document that will help this city prepare itself for the challenges of the 21st century,” said Councillor Norm Kelly (Ward 40, Scarborough-Agincourt), who chairs the Planning and Growth committee. “This is one of the foundation blocks of this city that will enable it to face the many and varied and complex challenges.”

In November 2009, the matter of approving the bylaw was deferred for further consultation and revision. Although a final draft was released in late May—and a final public meeting for June was arranged—the matter was further delayed because deputees exposed numerous problems with the bylaw.

In the final Planning and Growth management public meeting Aug. 19, 68 deputees, residents and lawyers—mostly representing commercial properties—brought forward their site-specific concerns.

Signe Leisk, a U of T legal representative, wanted clarification on how the bylaw would change the definition of a post-secondary institution. Councillor Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) said that a university plan was under way to assess the capacity for student housing for post-secondary institutions.

Adam Carson, who represents 20 fraternity and sorority houses in the Annex, had two objections: the matters of classifying these houses as rooming homes, and regulating these houses, which he said would interfere with the operation of the Greek houses. “These properties do not fall under the definition set out in the bylaw, and the planning act does not allow for class of property by association or gender,” he said.

Rules applying to rooming houses, including those set out for fraternity and sorority homes, are replicated from existing provisions in the new bylaw. Vaughan says the fraternity exemption was removed from the rooming house bylaw earlier this year.

“This bylaw will never be perfect. It’s the reason why we have the committee of adjustment, it’s the reason why we go through re-zonings. Every property owner wants exceptional conditions to apply to their property. This bylaw proposes to change some of the dynamics, the metrics, the language, to make it more consistent,” said Vaughan to city council. “There will be problems where people pull billing permits and suddenly realize that problems that they thought they wrapped up and approved suddenly trip into variances and we’re going to have to deal with it.”

Written By Rick Salutin

August 10 to 22 at Fort York, 100 Garrison Rd.

By Beth Macdonell

On now through Aug. 22, Festival at the Fort presents Great Voices, a play that tells the story of the Battle of York during the war of 1812 between America and British Canada.

Written by columnist and author Rick Salutin, Great Voices is an enriching and fun journey into one of the most violent periods between the Yankees and the Canucks.

Arriving at the fort, the audience is encouraged to stroll through the grounds before taking their seats on benches by the campfire. As you listen to bagpipes clash with the city soundscape and admire two centuries-old British military buildings, the play begins. The audience is told to “forget the Gardiner, forget the sounds of traffic.”

Instead, you are to imagine it’s the spring of 1813, and America has just decided to attack.

Seems hard to imagine, given the massive condos, billboards, and highways that surround the national heritage site today, but Great Voices, as it turns out, gives an educational and entertaining portrayal of the attack and the era.

For over 90 minutes, the audience is guided outdoors around the fort where they are introduced to giant puppets, music, and plenty of humour, including a rendition of a song called “Stew Again,” mocking the monotony of the soldiers’ diet.

A mixed native and white cast tell stories that give detailed information on famous historical events. One informs the audience of the alliance between Sir Isaac Brock and Tecumseh, the leader of a large native confederacy, that caused the American base at Fort Detroit to surrender.

Leuitenant-Govenor John Graves Simcoe discusses introducing the first piece of legislation which moved to abolish slavery in the British empire.

Simcoe established York in 1793. He feared an attack from the United States, and felt Niagara, the former capital of Upper Canada, was situated too close to the U.S., and eventually choose Fort York because of its strategic location.

At the time, Toronto Islands still formed a peninsula, creating what was then called Toronto Bay, which Simcoe saw as a natural protective barrier in case war broke out. To the south, the old walls that surround the fort mark the original coastline of the city.

When the war came to York, it was still a small town of about only 1,500 residents. The play pokes fun at what it was like living in York at the time, being surrounded by thick woods and flurries of mosquitoes – a distant memory of the now expansive urban sprawl.

There was only one day of fighting at Fort York. The Americans captured the site quickly. Both barracks were destroyed. One by the American fighters, the other by a smouldering fire left burning by the militia that defended the fort. The barracks were rebuilt a year later in 1814. The parliament was also burned down.

Great Voice is well orchestrated through the different scenes, moods and locations. The play was able to integrate and engage the audience without distracting the audience away from the history.

The cook, played by James Gordon wins my vote for favourite character in the play. He researched and wrote the songs, performing them with spunk and enthusiasm. Simon Richards played the powerful British men in the story. He brought out the surprising introspective nature to which these characters were given. Tecumseh was evocative and emotional. The host, Hendrick Bruyn, lead the audience with energy and wit. My only criticism is that the performance was very male centric lacking a strong female role on either the Native, British or American sides. It would have been interesting to learn how the women of York were living.

Go see Great Voices to buff up on your history in advance of the war’s 200th anniversary in 2012 and learn about the birth of Toronto. It’s a wonderful opportunity to interact with the past and present in a creative unique way.

Photos by Sean Baker

The popular graphic novels make use of many Annex locations. Image courtesy Oni Press.

By Tim Legault

As Bryan Lee O’Malley, creator of the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels, sat signing a stack of his sixth and final volume in the series (Scott Pilgrim’s Finest Hour) in preparation for the book’s launch party, he recalled Publishers Weekly’s review of his first volume six years ago.

“Scott Pilgrim is 23 years old, lives in a cold, unnamed Canadian town …” began the review.

“I’m like, ‘No, it’s named. It’s not a town. It’s Toronto!’” reflected O’Malley, whose graphic novels prominently feature the Annex. “So I think I might have taken a bit of offence by that and tried a little harder to make it more Toronto-ish.”

Scott and his friends lounge around Lee’s Palace. Image courtesy Oni Press.

Toronto has since become almost a secondary character in the series. The titular hero spends his time hanging out with friends at Sneaky Dee’s , fighting his girlfriend’s evil ex-boyfriends at Casa Loma or Lee’s Palace, shopping for CDs at Sonic Boom, or dodging late fee’s at No Account Video (a stand-in for Suspect Video).

“I think in the beginning, it was more like I just used [those locations] because they were all around me,” said the 31 year-old artist. “It’s the locations that I was kind of wandering around through when I was depressed. They have a personal significance to me.”

Since then, his books have been optioned and turned into a high-budget, summer blockbuster, starring Brampton-born Michael Cera and directed by Edgar Wright, the British director behind cult favourites Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. The movie, released Aug.13  to coincide with the Scott Pilgrim video game, was filmed mostly in Toronto.

Scott Pilgrim visits Casa Loma. Image courtesy Oni Press.

The book’s midnight launch party, which took place at The Beguiling (where O’Malley once worked), The Central, Rocco’s Plum Tomato, and other surrounding stores, brought in a large enough crowd to fill up Mirvish Village. Some fans even dressed in costume and lined up to meet O’Malley, who was there signing books.

The series centres on Scott Pilgrim (named after a song by indie-band Plumtree), an unemployed twenty-something who falls for a girl, Ramona Flowers, who he can only continue to date on the condition that he defeats her seven evil ex-boyfriends. The series is defined by its esoteric video game and indie rock references, as well as it’s oscillation between moments of mundane naturalism and surreal, manga-influenced battle sequences. For example, a visit to the Toronto Reference Library quickly turns into an epic battle between Flowers and Scott’s ex-girlfriend. A party might be interrupted with a battle between Scott and an evil robot.

O’Malley was born in London; Ont. but grew up in northern Ontario. He later returned to London, where he went to a Catholic high school. After what he describes as “an unsuccessful stint” at The University of Western Ontario, he moved to Toronto in his early twenties.

“I was only here from 2001 to the middle of 2005,” said O’Malley, who now lives in Los Angeles with his wife Hope Larson, also an acclaimed cartoonist. “It was the first time I was out on my own. I was just very sheltered.”

O’Malley first started Scott Pilgrim after a long-distance relationship with a girl fell apart two months after his move to the city. He lived at Davenport and Ossington, and then later moved to Bathurst and St. Clair.

Scott and his friends regularly meet for drinks at Sneaky Dee’s. Image courtesy Oni Press.

“I was really moping around the whole summer and started writing these ideas for Scott Pilgrim,” he reflected. “Fortunately, I met another girl, became happier, and the story kind of took off on its own.”

Readers familiar with The Annex will certainly appreciate a pivotal scene in the third volume in the series, Scott Pilgrim and the Infinite Sadness. In it, Scott and an evil ex-boyfriend must test their strength by running through Honest Ed’s. When Scott is asked is he has been to the department store before, he replies, “No. Well Once, but I almost died.”

Smiling, O’Malley says that Honest Ed’s is “a bit of scary place.”

“I think people from other places, they don’t necessarily understand what [Honest Ed’s] is, but they get the feeling of it. People have come to Toronto from out of town after reading the book and go to Honest Ed’s and they’re just like ‘Ahh! He’s right!’”

It took O’Malley just six months to complete the first volume. As he has progressed as a storyteller and a cartoonist, each book has taken him longer and longer. “It took less time at the beginning because I was naïve and young and could stay up all night and just draw and draw and draw,” said O’Malley,  “The better I get at drawing, the longer I take. I feel like I’ve got to work harder and try harder. So I feel like I could write something on the side, like a screenplay or whatever.”

Running through Honest Ed’s proves to be a tough challenge for Scott. Image courtesy Oni Press.

When the Scott Pilgrim movie began to take shape, O’Malley says there was never any talk, at least to him, of changing the setting of the story. In what would have been a suitably ironic twist, there was one moment where there was talk of shooting in New York and having it double as Toronto (“Which I can’t even imagine”).

“I feel like in those days, when we were first starting to talk about it, I was just a starving artist and I would have just taken anything. I would have been like, ‘Sure, set it in, you know, rural Nebraska—I don’t care.’ However, they didn’t.”

Scott visits Sonic Boom, the local music store by Bathurst and Bloor. Image courtesy Oni Press.

After O’Malley finishes his grueling promotional work (a recent tweet of his read: “If you’ll excuse me, I have 50,0000,000000,000,00 more interviews to do”), he plans to relax for a little bit and do some writing.

“I’ve got these ideas in my head. I’m trying to write a script with a friend. I think I’ll probably just take it easy for a bit.”

By Jennifer Farncomb

Is it time for new management at Casa Loma?

Recent events have called into question the management and finances of the castle, which some say are lacking in transparency and the ability follow through on agreements made with the city in 2008.

“Now what staff is identifying is that we have a problem—and it’s a big problem and we need it resolved,” said Councillor Joe Mihevc (Ward 21, St. Paul’s) who sits on the Casa Loma Board of Trustees ex officio. “We need to focus the city’s attention on it and we need to focus Kiwanis’ attention on it.”

On July 7, city council voted in favour of adopting recommendations about the management and operations of Casa Loma made by the city manager: that the castle’s board of trustees meet monthly; that Kiwanis develop a revised financial plan; that a joint working group be established, and that the chair be removed by the end of July. The chair of the Board of Trustees of Casa Loma, Richard Wozenilek, is facing allegations of a conflict of interest. His law firm performed $111,000 worth of legal services for Casa Loma.

Kiwanis Club of Casa Loma (KCCL) president Joachim Gerschkow agreed to the first three recommendations but said they were unwilling to oust Wozenilek. Failure to comply with the city could result in eviction for KCCL.

Representatives for KCCL declined to comment on the matter, but did send the Gleaner a written response to the city report. The response defends the KCCL against the allegations in the report. “The Kiwanis Club has remained in compliance with the financial requirements of the Management Agreement,” it reads.

Trelawny Howell, the great grand niece of Sir Henry Pellatt (the builder of Casa Loma) has always been skeptical about the way the castle was run. “We were suspicious of whitewashing the financial papers,” said Howell. “The Kiwanis club had one set of financial papers, and Casa Loma had another set, and between the two, they were never properly audited.”

In 2007, KCCL faced the possibility that their lease with the city would not be renewed, so they proposed a plan for improvements with timelines and dollar amounts for the next five years, called the Strategic Vision.

In 2008, council decided to renew their lease under the Management Agreement, which included implementing the Strategic Vision. A joint board was established made up of half Kiwanis delegates, half city appointees, ex officio members and a Kiwanian chair.

To assist with the costs of the Strategic Vision, the city exempted Casa Loma from property taxes ($175,000) and capped annual payments. The proceeds from the financial break were to be placed in the Casa Loma Improvement Fund (CLIF).

“So the Kiwanis sold city council on the new vision and the problem is that, two years have passed, they haven’t delivered,” said Rita Davies, Toronto’s director for cultural services who sits on the Casa Loma board.

According to the city report, the KCCL have been using the CLIF to supplement shortfalls in operating revenue and only $335,000 of the projected 1.5 million dollars will be available for improvements by the end of 2011. They are also behind schedule in implementing the Strategic Vision.

Governance concerns were also raised in the city report. “Certainly, at this point there is a feeling from the staff report that Kiwanis has not fulfilled its obligations as the representatives of half the board,” said Mihevic.

In response to the city report, the KCCL did provide some reasons for their financial difficulties. For example, they have not received a partial property tax refund for 2008, which meant they had to adjust their cash flow planning. In addition, Casa Loma did not receive any aid during the recession like many publicly-owned attractions.

Mihevc does not believe that the city has reached the stage where they will begin looking for a new operator, yet, but said, “Kiwanis do great work in the area of arts and culture especially with their music festival. They are not, though, in the business of running large tourist attractions like Casa Loma.”

Links to city reports regarding Casa Loma from 2005 to 2010 can be accessed here.

By Perry King

Bill 21 is now officially law, but local retirement homes are still unsure how the new regulations will affect them.

“We do not know at this point how much change there will be in terms of regulations,” said Anne Walton, vice president of operations for Diversicare, the overseeing body for Hazelton Place Retirement Home (111 Avenue Rd.).

“Certainly the legislation is consumer protection legislation and we support that.”

Bill 21, or the Retirement Homes Act, is broad legislation that will create a regulatory authority that will license retirement homes and conduct inspections. The act will also establish blanket care and safety standards, and establish residents’ rights, promoting zero tolerance for abuse or neglect.

In addition to curbing incidents of abuse and providing consistent standards of care, the legislation aims to prepare for the upcoming increased retirement population, who may outnumber children by 2015 according to a Stats Canada report in May.

“I think everyone has heard situations where residents may feel they weren’t getting what they were supposed to be getting or being addressed, where the retirement wasn’t doing what it promised,” said MPP Gerry Philips (Scarborough-Agincourt) and Minister Responsible for Seniors.

There are roughly 40,000 Ontarians that live in 700 retirement homes across the province. In our neighbourhoods, there are eight retirement homes that vary between short and long-term care, caring for hundreds of residents.

Similarly, Bill Boggs, the administrator for Eden Manor (251 St. George St.), said it is still early in the transition, and that the residence is also trying to figure out what changes would come out of the new rules.

Philips said that those rules will made clear soon. Annex-area retirement homes will be affected very little by the legislation he said. Implementation—including forming the regulatory authority and setting care and safety standards—will take about a year to put into place.

The Liberal government has been working to make this bill law for four years, and the feeling of finally having the bill passed has been that of relief. “It’s a sense of accomplishment that it’s the first time ever that retirement homes will be registered in the province, licensed, inspected, required to meet standards, and required to provide the residents with strong rights,” said Philips.

Rosario Marchese (MPP, Trinity-Spadina) thought the legislation should go further. “If retirement homes were simply residential facilities, this piece of legislation would be okay. But, the reality is that increasingly what we’re noticing is Ontarians are living in these facilities when they have serious healthcare issues,” said Marchese. “Because of that, we need to have better regulations that we believe are not going to be in place to take care of these people as we do in long term care facilities.”

According to the new law, a retirement home is where a minimum of six or more unrelated persons aged 65 or older purchase accommodation and care. Marchese is concerned that the private operators will move to the public sector, where there will be “less stringent” rules on how to operate.

Coupled with an “industry-dominated board,” the situation could lead to two-tier healthcare, he said. “There’s a potential for the healthcare of these individuals that live in these facilities to be undermined. We’re worried that we see no mechanisms for ensuring adequate transparency or accountability.”

Marchese added that he will propose the expansion of oversight duties for the current ombudsman, Andre Marin, to ensure the regulatory board will have proper impartial oversight.

Philips understands the concerns, but says he has ensured that those concerns have been answered. “We, the government, appoint the chair, the four of the nine members. The other five members have to be selected using the criteria that we will have to approve. This is a regulatory authority that has to look after the interests of the residents, that has to fulfill the legislative mandate.”

For Philips, debates naturally follow from these kinds of situations. “Whenever you introduce legislation to regulate an area that hasn’t been regulated, ever, there are always divergent views on exactly how to do it because you’re heading into new territory.”

Hamish Wilson sends more letters to the Gleaner than anyone else (except Rudolph Manook, but that’s another story). Wilson’s letters are invariably about cycling issues. This month, it seems he went on the offensive with Councillor Adam Vaughan, who hit right back:

Vaughan’s response:
Hamish, every time this issues comes up you insist on dredging up past half-truths and mis-represent my record. It’s tiresome and ultimately undermines your arguments. Specifically;

Not true. Where there are no lanes there will be sharrows.  Additionally I took steps to nominate Harbord as the street to pilot the first bike boxes in the city and to further improve cycling along Harbord this street will now have the first bike lanes in the city that will be painted through all intersections along the route improving safety in particular at Bathurst, Spadina and St. George. This proposal has now been approved by council.

Not a problem—claiming that there was a problem, acknowledging that it was fixed by my office and then raising it again as sign that the city is not working towards bike lanes on Bloor is a little disingenuous. The reality is; the terms of reference were drafted using a preliminary version of the Bloor Visioning study. When the oversight was discovered the stretch of Bloor in question was rolled into the study area without any trouble.

“Vaughan’s support for the pushed-through Bloor Visioning Study that didn’t see bikes is beyond reprehensible”

Originally the planners who worked on the Bloor visioning study, and in fact several residents on the steering committee for the project opted to not include bike lanes on Bloor. As the study progressed and as alternatives were discussed the final report which I did help get passed called for bike lanes to be considered once a design was produced. We await the design.

” Mr. Vaughan’s not been good at providing support for bikes at City Wall”

Mr. Wilson cannot produce one vote that shows I don’t support bike lanes, bike infrastructure or bike safety. At council I have voted in favour of every bike route proposed. I have added bike lanes in my ward, improved bike lanes in my ward and taken steps to approve innovations that hopefully improve cycling safety. As a member of the Police Service Board I have worked with the cyclists union to enforce and hike fines for parking in bike lanes. At planning I moved the motions to increase bike parking standards in new developments. Later this month we will install the first on-street parking stands for bikes on Spadina. A move that eliminates a car parking space and uses the spots for two-wheelers. Short of imposing everyone of Mr. Wilson’s requests I don’t think there is a stronger councillor at City Hall.

The sentence in his letter I take most offence at however has nothing to do with me. It’s this line about people who walk in the neighbourhood not being worthy of consideration because cyclist are being hurt and are subject to “injuries that pedestrians don’t have”. Whether you are on two feet or two wheels a collision with a car is a devastating event. Suggesting that cyclists matter more is cruel.

My role as a Councillor is to make sure the city builds complete streets . I don’t care who is at risk, nor do I care who has been hit more, we must build streets that are as safe as they are beautiful. Bloor Street is no exception.

Adam Vaughan

Wilson’s rebuttal:
Dear Councillor Vaughan,
Thanks for taking the time to write back—I do have respect for your workload.

And at times, yes, you have voted for many biking things, just many of the bike lanes are of less merit, and some of the other initiatives tend to be feel-good measures where the real needs are for safer passage. You may feel very good about voting for bike lanes on the wider part of Bloor West of Dundas Street West, but the real needs for bike safety and bike lanes are far more acute in the narrower segments from Dundas Street West over to Ossington.

And there is one very salient vote that you did not support biking on—the Bloor Street Transformation project that has failed to provide adequate width for cyclists even though this was the best place for an east-west bike lane in 1992, though you diss the study.

Your vote for this project also removes the bike parking near Bloor/Yonge over to at least Bay, and worse, sets the tone for privatization of the street and planning processes as well as perhaps constrains the remnant portions of wide Bloor between Avenue Road and Spadina. This portion of Bloor is getting pretty ripped up and trashed and dangerous—and what are your plans for this street? Will you try to repeat the disaster of the Boor Street work and neglect bike safety? Or will there be bike lanes on this portion of Bloor in your ward over to Spadina?

No, we have not actually seen any on-street improvements. There are plans, yes. But I am fairly cynical about the gap between plans and the doing of them, and then there are the major issues of quality. With Harbord for instance, the real need is for dedicated and continuous bike lane space in that missing four blocks—and sharrows are a relatively feeble substitute.

I had thought that the plans for extending bike lanes to the corners would need to have Council approval, and Harbord bike lanes were not on the batched bike lane agenda item at PWIC, so it is news that these have been approved by Council. It’s too bad that the detailed plans have again not been available to the public for comment and criticism, and that is a major issue now with what gets done (I have been unable to open the two attachments which may be the relevant plans, and I will try again, but I am somewhat of a Luddite).

I have real reservations about the quality of the plans that the City can offer, given the Bloor Street mess, as Dan Egan’s name was on the front cover of that 1992 report, the Brown and Storey plans originally had bike lanes I believe, and even Councillor Rae promised us bike lanes on Bloor in the last election. The City has also proven itself unable to put down coloured paint on the road, and has also not been able to measure the road width on a portion of Wellesley correctly, 30 years after Wellesley was first studied for bike lanes. And then there was Buttongate.

With Harbord Street, bike boxes everywhere will not necessarily provide extra safety, and may well antagonize others towards bikes if they are not well thought out, and I suspect that will be the case, as bike boxes at every stoplight will delay all other vehicles along this route, especially if they are the thing du jour.

We do not need the bike boxes on Harbord if there is not going to be a bike lane leading up to the intersections, and I think more cyclists would like the safety of a continuous lane rather than feeble sharrows through those missing four blocks, especially when there are perhaps twice as many varied off-street parking spaces in the near-Spadina area as might be removed for bike safety.

The one spot I can really see a usefulness of a bike box is westbound Harbord from the Spadina corner towards the pinch point at the bank, and well out of your area at the end of Harbord westbound at Ossington, in turning left.

And the pavement quality of Harbord is getting rougher too, with quite rough pavement patching from drainwork at the top of Major, which is replicated up on Bloor too.

And there is often a significant delay between Council OK of a bike facility and its doing. We’re still awaiting some needed changes on the Viaduct, and fixing up the dangerous Wellesley curve, which has been very uphill to even get acknowledged by the City (with an FOI, and no fix yet, 1.5 years after installation).

With the EA study—it’d be really nice to have the faith in the system that bike lanes will be considered as an option—but the City was quite incompetent, perhaps deliberately, at lowballing the Bloor Transformation into a rubber stamp EA category even though I think you would figure out a disparity between $2.2 million and $25 million (though it’s now $30 million). That extension of the Bloor Visioning study over to Christie when it ended at Bathurst is still smelly though.

The Bloor Visioning Study fails bikes. It is status quo risk, and will likely make it worse if the indented parking design is ever implemented since the City is unable to plow out the snow of these parking bays and thus everyone parks further out into the roadway to squeeze the cyclists badly.

The falsehood of “widening” sidewalks is less realized – it is only at corners that there are bulb-outs, and cyclists will still have door prize risks. And given your weakness at even thinking of pushing car parking off of Harbord Street despite the high bike traffic, it is most unlikely that with a small reduction in parking through the indented bays occurring, that you would push to remove on-street parking altogether on the other side of the street for bike safety.

The streetscaping portion of the BVS is very bad for cyclists, even though the intensity of the bike traffic and parking is amongst the highest in the City, and the risks are very well known and documented, and of all the places to put in bike safety in the City, it should be the easiest with all the mobility of the subway, as well as the great amount of off-street parking.

If Harbord were made continuous, I personally would relax about bike lanes on Bloor in this portion, and settle for a wider curb lane with sharrows and perhaps a center median to aid in informal crossings as it is simply extra width to a travel lane that makes it much safer for cycling in my view.

And to your last point of supporting overall cycling, yes, I am somewhat wrong in that there are a lot of procedural and bylaw things that can help support cycling that are not obvious on-road things. But I am very focussed on the actual reality of biking on the roads, and how cyclists get to the bike parking, and travel through the ward, and reach the ward, and things are rough, and deteriorating, and dangerous and the realities do NOT match your rhetoric, nor anybody elses’ either.

The proof is in the painting and the paving, and there are scads of documents showing that the real needs for bike travel safety are east-west.

And given how tightly the CU Ward 20 group is with your office I am less sure of how well it really represents cyclists’ opinions, and in my view, we really need to have the Network subcommittee restored to the TCAC (Toronto Cycling Advisory Committee), as well as having it expanded.

So I am somewhat wrong in not acknowledging that you have supported many “off-street” bike initiatives and some on-street like the bike parking, but in terms of actually making a difference for many hundreds, if not thousands, of cyclists from the west end especially, nope, I don’t see it.

And cyclists do have a set of risks that pedestrians don’t have; pedestrians already have a fairly dedicated space called a sidewalk and yes, that is transgressed upon by cyclists who often fear for their lives on the road, or seek a smoother set of conditions off-road.

It would be interesting to actually chart/measure the numbers of pedestrians hurt by all forms of other mobility along Bloor between Bathurst and Spadina, and also measure the harms to cyclists, if the police can be bothered to actually respond, as I’ve heard some complaints about near-doorings etc. that no blood, no need for response.

Perhaps tomorrow I will find time to revisit that letter to the Gleaner, depending on their publishing schedule, but for the most part I feel it is fair comment and fairly accurate.

And thank you for your time again in response—and I’ve heard that the darned summit may well be removing a lot of the post and ring bike parking? Incredible!

Hamish Wilson