Don Cherry made it easy for Rogers’s-owned Sportsnet to fire him on Nov. 11. His attack on newcomers for not wearing symbols of allegiance (the poppy) advances a very non-Canadian agenda that is entirely contrary to the values that our soldiers and allies fought for over several wars. It’s not so much that times have changed and Cherry’s views have failed to evolve, but that we believe Cherry is advancing views that were never very Canadian. The fact that he was fired on Remembrance Day is the real tribute to those troops.
This long-standing face of Canadian hockey has represented, unabashedly, a right-wing, nationalistic, white male-centred viewpoint that divided the world into “us” and “them”. A Nov. 9 televised rant on Coach’s Corner went on the attack against “you people” who come to Canada and in Cherry’s view must toe the line and wear poppies on Remembrance Day.
No elected official, of any stripe, has come to his defence. Cherry’s words were so inappropriate and divisive, they really cornered conservatives who would normally have stood by him. Even the Royal Canadian Legion, which one might think of as “poppy obsessed”, tweeted “Mr. Cherry’s personal opinion was hurtful, divisive and in no way condoned by the Legion”. Every moment of peace we have in Canada is a testament to the veterans who have fought and to those that have fallen. We live without fear of oppression and have freedom of choice. The choice to not wear a poppy for whatever reason, ignorance of the tradition, disagreement about whether or not it must be worn on one’s lapel at certain times of year, should not be imposed by Cherry or others, otherwise the choice is not real. His comments lead to inciting hate towards identifiable groups and the possibility that the poppy itself might become a fascist symbol, which would negate the very honour we seek to bestow upon veterans because those were not the values they fought for.
Cherry’s view is as objectionable as Quebec demanding by law that people NOT display any symbol of religious affiliation. He tried to clarify his comments following his firing by saying instead of “you people” he meant “everybody”. That does not jibe with the rest of remarks that were “you people … that come here, you love our way of life, you love our milk and honey, at least you can pay a couple of bucks for a poppy, these guys paid for the way of life that you enjoy in Canada”. He also singled out Toronto and Mississauga, whose populations are now majority non-white. Even if we give him the benefit of the doubt and allow that he was speaking not only about Syrian refugees but also families of “Scottish and Irish” descent, a real stretch, this still smells like an entirely assimilationist regime seeking to impose a totalitarian view of a one-colour world that should be long gone, and really should never have existed in a country consisting mostly of immigrants of many origins and traditions.
Cherry and his online supporters touting their own intolerant views have argued his freedoms have been taken away but they have taken the principle of freedom of speech and have twisted it and demeaned it in such a way that it is no longer meaningful. Freedom of speech is not freedom from consequences. And now, Mr. Cherry, your long career of rants is bookended in disgrace for essentially being very non-Canadian.
Layton seeks a more “robust” approach to snow clearing
By Mike Layton
Before the weather goes below zero, and the fall rain turns into ice and snow, I thought I could take a moment to talk about a topic that will be top of mind for many Ward 11 residents in the coming months – snow removal.
In early 2019, City Council requested a report to review winter operations, after an onslaught of issues in the downtown related to the safe clearing of sidewalks, parking restrictions, and streetcar disruptions from the previous winter. Recommendations from the resulting report made clear that Toronto needs a more robust approach to snow removal, and that 96 per cent of Toronto residents would support increased sidewalk snow removal services.
Snow clearing is an issue of equity and accessibility. When a sidewalk isn’t cleared, there are large groups of people whose lives become incredibly disrupted. Whether you are someone with accessibility requirements, an aging person, or new parents with a stroller, our services need to evolve alongside the growing needs of our residents. Further, as we have committed as a city to taking action on climate change, we need to continue to implement services that allow residents to build a greater reliance on active, or public, transportation.
At the last Infrastructure and Environment Committee, I brought forward an amendment to be voted on at City Council that would have pushed our winter services forward in a way that would actually address significant problems outlined in the original report.
Firstly, I wanted to increase the scope of the sidewalk clearing pilot, and push forward the kind of clearing residents are asking for and need in a bigger and broader way. This is an issue of equity and access for many in Toronto, especially as our population ages.
Secondly, I wanted to enhance snow clearing for bike lanes – ensuring that action would be taken within the first 48 hours of snow fall, and that staff use finer tools, such as brushes and narrower plows so as not to damage the existing infrastructure.
Lastly, I wanted to see the removal of parked cars (a “friendly tow”) to clear parking spaces adjacent to bike lanes, where necessary.
These amendments, did not carry, but I will continue to advocate for these necessary changes through the budget process in the coming months.
With Toronto constantly having to adapt to the impacts of climate change, it is critical that we continue to review and update service levels to provide a safe and reliable transportation network for everyone in our city.
The city’s snow-clearing services must continue to respond to this change, and I will continue to do everything possible to find a way to make enhanced snow clearing a reality for residents in Ward 11 and beyond.
Mike Layton is councillor for Ward 11 University-Rosedale.
December 9th, 2019 · Comments Off on FORUM: Ford’s backtracks show our resistance is working (Nov. 2019)
With his popularity in free fall, the premier tries reverse gear
By Jessica Bell
Over the past year, Doug Ford has hacked away at our schools, hospitals, and communities. He’s made devastating cuts to OSAP, ambulance services, and cancer-screening programs. Under his term, class sizes have ballooned, wait times at emergency rooms have increased, and university has become more expensive. It’s a bleak picture. But the good news is we have been fighting back – and Ford is now forced to listen.
While these victories are important to celebrate, none of them would have happened without a fight.
With Queen’s Park finally back in session, it’s important to recognize the progress we’ve made. Parents, advocates, teachers, young people, and politicians have all stood up to fight for a better Ontario. Over the past few months, Ford has been forced to backtrack on a number of destructive cuts and ill-advised actions such as:
Transition Child Benefit Cuts.
Ford was set to eliminate the Transition Child Benefit – a $230 monthly benefit to assist vulnerable low-income families, including refugee claimants, who aren’t eligible for other forms of child benefit assistance. After public outcry led by refugee advocates and organizations, including University–Rosedale’s Christie Refugee Welcome Centre, Ford reversed this cruel cut.
TTC Upload
As part of his back-of-the-napkin transit scheme, Ford announced that the province would take over the entirety of the TTC. For the past year, we’ve built a coalition and fought hard for the TTC to remain in Toronto’s hands. In October, Ford finally backed down, agreeing to end his hostile takeover if Toronto supports the Ontario Line.
Sex-Ed Curriculum
Ford campaigned on repealing the updated sexual education curriculum in an effort to appease far-right Conservatives. But after thousands of parents, educators, and students – including those at Harbord Collegiate, Central Tech, Central Toronto Academy, and St. Joseph’s College – demanded the right to a comprehensive sexual education, Ford backed down. The “new” curriculum he introduced in August is almost identical to the one he swore to destroy a year ago.
Autism Support
Rather than provide families with much-needed assistance to help pay for support and therapy, the Ford government attempted to overhaul the system by slashing funding for high-needs children. After months of demonstrations and testimonials by impacted families, Ford reversed his position and has said he’ll increase funding and use a needs-based approach to determine support. We will hold him to this promise.
Vaping Regulations
Ford made sure that Ontario was “open for business” to vaping companies by loosening advertising restrictions. After hospitalizations and sustained pressure from the NDP and the health community, Ford has finally backed down and admitted that vaping companies shouldn’t be advertising to children.
Public Health Cuts
In the spring, Ford announced huge cuts to municipal public health services that would have cost Toronto up to $1 billion over the next decade. After thousands of people signed petitions, protested at Queen’s Park, and wrote to their public officials, Ford finally relented and halted this year’s cut. However, funding reductions are still planned to go forward for 2020 – unless we continue the pressure.
?While these victories are important to celebrate, none of them would have happened without a fight. Doug Ford has shown us what his priorities are, and what he’ll cut without a second thought, if he can get away with it. With a new legislative session upon us, it’s more important than ever that we continue to organize, work together, and stand up for a better future.
I’m committed to continuing to fight Ford’s cuts to education and teacher layoffs. I’m committed to pushing for investments in good quality public transit and affordable housing, and to forcing real action on our climate crisis.
If you would like to join me, please contact my Community Office at 416-535-7206 or by email at jbell-co@ndp.on.ca to get involved. I also encourage you to join your local residents’ association, parent group, or advocacy organization that is fighting for bold change. Together, we are stronger – and we’ve shown that we can win.
Jessica Bell is the Member of Provincial Parliament for University-Rosedale. Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy is MPP Bell’s Legislative and Policy Advisor. With files from Wyndham Bettencourt-McCarthy.
December 9th, 2019 · Comments Off on FOCUS: Defacement or marginalia? (Nov. 2019)
The question of writing in library books at U of T
Defacement of library books inconveniences readers.
Nicole Stoffman/Gleaner News
By Nicole Stoffman
Judging by the state of many books one finds at the University of Toronto Libraries, writing in library books is a U of T tradition. In long-held parts of the collection, especially in books used for course readings and essay research, one finds almost every sentence underlined or highlighted.
Do University of Toronto Library (UTL) staff and librarians notice the state of these books? One front line staff member, who did not wish to be named, told us it is a big problem without a clear solution. University College librarian Margaret Fulford agrees, and says the cost of replacing defaced books would be huge.
“The whole purpose of libraries is that they’re there for everyone and you are highlighting or underlining only what interests you,” says Lisa J. Sherlock, chief librarian of the E.J. Pratt Library at Victoria College. “It’s a selfish use of a library book, which is a shared resource.”
Writing in books is not just an inconvenience for fellow users, it challenges accessibility. Accessibility librarian Katya Pereyaslavska gets her staff to erase markings in books for digitization for readers with a learning disability or visual impairment. Back in November she participated in a social media campaign to draw attention to the extra work writing in books creates for her team. “People didn’t realize the tediousness of erasing that we must do to make this material accessible,” she noted.
Could staff at least erase underlining in pencil? “Once I had a student at the front desk go through a book and erase, but it consumes too much staff time,” says Fulford.
What about catching book vandals when they return the book?
“Even if they return the book, we never pin a fine on them, because there’s no way to track who did it,” explains David Hagelaar, associate chief librarian at the John M. Kelly Library, at St. Michael’s College. “What if it was a user who never checked the book out who is responsible?”
If the task of cleaning U of T’s existing collection is vast, managing the issue of book defacement on a yearly basis is possible. In the last year, only six or seven books had to be replaced at the John W. Graham Library, and only one book replacement fee was issued, after a coffee spill. Similarly, at the E.J. Pratt Library only three books were replaced last year. Fortunately, not all types of books are equally likely to be victimized. John Papadopoulos, director of the John W. Graham Library at Trinity College, has only had complaints about defacement when one particular chapter of a book has been studied many times over. Ms. Fulford has never seen writing in her literature, bestseller, or graphic novel collection.
Surprisingly, graduate students are the biggest culprits.
“They think, ‘no one else is doing this kind of work, so no one else will notice,’” surmises Mr. Papadopoulos.
Fulford says she was shocked to learn that a graduate student would do such a thing, and the single book vandal she was able to catch was a graduate student who borrowed a new acquisition.
“I phoned her and asked, ‘Is this something you did?’ and she said, ‘I write in all my books, and I guess I did it again.’ I bought a new one and charged her a $50 book damage fee. She felt guilty, and probably won’t do it again.”
On the other hand, there is a long history of considering the commentary written in the margins of books “marginalia.” It is the sign of an active reader. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote marginalia so copious it was published in its own volume and is considered a completely different aspect of his life’s work.
How to distinguish between marginalia and defacement? For Papadopoulos, the distinction is one of time.
“If a book is recently underlined, it’s defacement. If it’s been underlined 100 years ago, it’s marginalia. It’s interesting to see historically how the reader engaged with the book.”
For Hagelaar, the marginalia of famous people is very valuable, but he says he’s willing to consider a student’s commentary marginalia as well. For him, marginalia does not interrupt the flow of text, and is therefore not grounds for replacement, whereas underlining and highlighting does.
“I loved it in high school, when you got a Shakespeare book, and people had written notes for you,” says U of T undergraduate, Jodi Pereyaslavska. She adds that students are often happy to come across marginalia and consider it a form of “peer mentoring.”
Writing in books at U of T may not be a plague, yet UTL could be more proactive in discouraging it. After all, online forums may not have diminished the temptation to underline or write in the white space of actual books. At the E.J Pratt Library, for example, while the practice has not increased over the last 10 years, it has remained a fairly consistent issue.
The problem is not unique to UTL, but their collection, used for study and research, is more vulnerable to defacement than the public library system, where books are being taken out for leisure reading.
UTL’s social media campaigns and “Library Conduct Regulations” pamphlets are praiseworthy initiatives, but are less visible than posters in washrooms and common areas could be. At the smaller college libraries, front desk staff could be empowered to conduct random spot checks. Should they note that a book is clean upon being signed out, they could insert a reminder slip, advising the borrower that it has been noted the book is clean, and that defacement incurs a fine. Notices pasted to inside covers of new acquisitions could be another low-tech, proactive step towards ensuring an accessible collection for all scholars, now and in the future.
*****
Next time you are passing through the St. George Campus, step back in time and enjoy some famous marginalia. Here are two notable examples from college libraries:
John W. Graham Library at Trinity College:
– A copy of Dante’s Divine Comedy from 1497. This rare book, a gift of Guy and Sandra UpJohn, features marginalia “noting that the book has been reviewed by the Expurgation Commission of the Spanish Inquisition at Toledo Spain, 1614.”
– Annotated Frye, a collection of over 2000 books by the famous literary scholar, academic, and former Chancellor of Victoria University. Some of the richest marginalia is to be found in The Complete Writings of William Blake. Frye’s writing is so tiny and cramped that the library will offer you a magnifying glass.
NOTE: Advance notice of 24 hours is required for special collection use. Retrievals take place at 10 am, 1 pm, and 3 pm daily. The collections are available for use from 9:30 am until 4:30 pm Monday to Friday.
Happy Marginal Reading!
Comments Off on FOCUS: Defacement or marginalia? (Nov. 2019)Tags:Annex · Life
December 9th, 2019 · Comments Off on ARTS: Arts light up November nights (Nov. 2019)
The Arts Corridor is waiting for you – all of it within walking distance
By Meribeth Deen
No need for the lull between the excitement of Halloween and the festive lights of the darkest month to get you down. The Bloor Street Arts Corridor has plenty of story, spectacle, and audio enjoyment to keep your spirits up as the days grow shorter.
First stop has got to be the Gardiner Museum (111 Queen’s Park) for Savor: Food Culture in the Age of Enlightenment. This exhibition will take you into the steamy and transformative kitchens of 17th century France, the gardens of Versailles, and an exploration of newly invented kitchen wares. The story these tell show the roots of contemporary western food trends and philosophies. If you just can’t get enough, you can take home the accompanying cookbook, The King’s Peas: Delectable Recipes and their Stories from the Age of Enlightenment by Meredith Chilton (curator), with contributions by Markus Bestig, executive chef, the York Club, Toronto.
Next, head to Testra and Chambafelmusik Baroque Orcher Choir November 14 – 16 to recover the legacy of Antonio Lotti. While Lotti, a Venetian, is not well known today, the libraries of both Bach and Handel hint at the fact that he was a significant feature in his day – both famous composers wrote out his Mass by hand. Tafelmusik Orchestra and Chamber Choir help to recover Lotti’s place in the world of baroque music by pairing his work with Bach, Handel, and Lotti’s famous student – Johann Zelenka.
For a different form of audio stimulation, plan to make your way to Ted Rogers Cinema November 6 – 11 to see your favourite storytellers on stage as part of the HotDocs Podcast festival. More than 12 chart-topping podcasts will be performed live, including The Splendid Table, Still Processing, and The Allusionist. Stick around for a Creators-Forum conference for podcast makers and industry pros.
The Bata Shoe Museum has declared November Wizard of Oz month, to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the original film’s release. On November 5, you can hear about the challenges of preserving the iconic ruby slippers and other stories about working with some of the most famous footwear of all time in the Founder’s Lecture. The movie will be screened every weekend at the museum, and kids can dress up in Wizard of Oz inspired costumes and make Oz-inspired crafts. Be sure to bring along a new pair of socks to donate to the Warm the Sole Sock drive taking place at the museum all month long.
If you’re into movies, there will be plenty shown in the Corridor including a weekend of Horror-Rama at 918 Bathurst (November 30), and a screening of Persepolis at Alliance Française (November 14). Music, photography, dance, books, and lectures are all on the agenda at various venues throughout the month. With so much to do, there is no excuse not to get out. The Arts Corridor is waiting for you, and all of it is in walking distance from your doorstep.
Comments Off on ARTS: Arts light up November nights (Nov. 2019)Tags:Annex · Arts
Bling bling! Jaws dropped and the media was bedazzled by the newly unveiled Toronto Raptors championship rings on October 23. For the team’s opening game, each player was awarded a golf-ball of 10 karat gold covered in 14 carat diamonds, and the nearly 20,000 fans watching at Scotiabank Arena were given replicas. Instead of being star struck, I feel sick. Instead of celebrating the making and baring of those rings, we should be denouncing them and the culture that clouds the story they really tell.
Bling is all about “making a statement”. That statement never seems to have much to say about the devastating cost of getting gold and diamonds into our hands. According to Osgoode Law Professor Shin Imai, between 2000 and 2015, 44 people died from violence around Canadian-owned mines in Latin America, 4 people connected to mines have disappeared, and 403 were injured.
Global Witness, a group that tracks statistics of environmental defenders, documented 185 killings across 16 countries in 2015 alone. One of them, Alfredo Ernesto Vracko Neuenschwander, a Peruvian community forestry worker, was gunned down in his home in Madre de Dios on 19 Nov. 2015. He led a local movement to resist gold mining in an ecologically sensitive area.
The fact that the Raptors sourced the gold and diamonds from Canadian mines means little. Canadian gold is still an environmental catastrophe and the rights of Indigenous people in Canada are constantly trampled upon for mineral extraction. Besides, gold is a commodity and regardless of where it is purchased from, it fuels global demand.
The highest grade Canadian gold mine averages 22.2 grams of gold per ton of ore. This means that for every ounce of gold, over a ton of ore needs to be crushed down and refined to separate out the gold from the rest of the rock. No wonder that according to EarthWorks.org, 20 tons of toxic waste are produced for every 0.333-ounce gold ring with mercury being among the highest pollutants. (There is almost no way these rings are “only” 0.333 ounces of gold.) Somewhere in Canada (probably the Canadian Shield) there is a toxic sludge pond holding the toxic waste from the production of these rings.
While diamond mining is less environmentally devastating than gold mining, it causes soil erosion and dust pollution as mines are blasted with explosives. Let’s not forget that from 1991 to 2002, over 50,000 people were killed in Sierra Leone during their civil war, largely fuelled by “blood diamonds”. It has been almost two decades since governments sat down and tried to stem the flow of these around the world. Two decades later, diamonds still cause human suffering as rights groups complain that the definition of what is tracked by the Kimberly Process (the mechanism created to ensure diamonds are conflict free) remains too narrow.
We the North. We are a country that proudly waves the flag of environmental stewardship (mostly). We are a country that just told the science-denying Conservatives that we didn’t want them to govern us. Nearly two-thirds of the Canadian population voted for a political party that supports a carbon tax. We wear our environmentalism on our sleeves. We are a country that just elected a government that subsidized camping on its platform. It is as if connecting to the outdoors is a patriotic duty. Protecting the environment is our shtick, yet we enthusiastically cheer on our champions for their destructive bling.
We the North need to consider the South: the global south. Environmental destruction should never be fashionable. No one should have to suffer for our bling, drink contaminated water for our gold, or be killed for our diamonds. Statement jewellery needs to be seen for what it is: exploitation. Refusing it is the powerful choice, and needs to be celebrated.
Terri Chu is an engineer committed to practical environmentalism. This column is dedicated to helping the community reduce energy use, and help distinguish environmental truths from myths. Send questions, comments, and ideas for future columns to Terri at terri.chu@whyshouldicare.ca.
October 17th, 2019 · Comments Off on ON THE COVER (Oct. 2019)
Juan Romero/Gleaner News
At right, Jeffrey Brodie tries to regain access to what he describes as his residence at 104 Harbord St. The location is know as CAFE, a popular illegal marijuana dispensary where the city has erected concrete barriers to its entrance way. Brodie recently lost his bid to get an Ontario court to order removal of the barrier. READ MORE HERE
October 17th, 2019 · Comments Off on NEWS: Refugees get Major investment (Oct. 2019)
Major Street residents band together to welcome new Canadians
By Leah Borts-Kuperman
At a Christmas party in 2015, ten neighbours living in Harbord Village decided to contribute $1,000 each to help Syrian refugees. The group, which would eventually call themselves the Major Street Refugee Initiative (MSRI), would go on to raise $80,000 and support a family of eight. That support continues today.
MSRI provided the family with a home rent-free from a man who had vacated to a retirement residence, and helped them to find medical assistance, food, and clothing as they adjusted to life in Canada. Each MSRI member took on a different set of responsibilities.
Gus Sinclair’s job was to take the family members to doctor’s appointments all over the city, as many of them hadn’t seen a doctor for the better part of a decade.
“There was a huge amount of medical issues–getting checkups, finding out what needed to be fixed up, there were serious teeth issues,” he recalls.
James Murdoch’s role was to be the “cell phone and internet” guy, responsible for getting the family all set up with required technologies. All members of the group took on responsibilities well beyond those assigned to them.
Sinclair says that the family had to learn to use the TTC, to navigate a new alphabet, and learn how and where to purchase their food. Pita, says Sinclair, was a staple of the family’s diet. However they were not able to find a brand of pita that was right for the Syrian family and went through 40 brands before finding one that was just right. Once they found the best option, they bought a full garbage bag of the product.
MSRI’s obligations to the family were supposed to wrap up this year; however, one of the family members didn’t arrive in Canada until the spring of 2019. The group continues to work with this individual to help him adjust to his new life.
According to a federal government website, “Canada will resettle 29,950 refugees from abroad through our various programs in 2019, with 19,000 arriving through the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program. This is quadruple the number of privately sponsored refugees that Canada resettled prior to 2015.”
“They invited us out two months ago for a big thank you dinner,” says Sinclair. “It was huge, a humongous amount of food…They’re in charge of their lives now and that’s the point.” Murdoch says he would do it all over again, given the opportunity.
“They keep saying ‘thank you.’ I just keep saying to them, ‘don’t thank us, just get on your feet, become independent, and give back whenever you can,’” Murdoch said. “It’s sort of the Canadian way. And we’ve seen already that they’re really working hard to become independent and part of the fabric of the country.”
Comments Off on NEWS: Refugees get Major investment (Oct. 2019)Tags:Annex · News
October 17th, 2019 · Comments Off on NEWS: Kensington mainstay Zoltan Zimmerman dies at 93 (Oct. 2019)
A Holocaust survivor, “he had no bitterness, always looked at the good”
By Ron Csillag, The Canadian Jewish News
Zoltan Zimmerman, whose Zimmerman’s Discount store was among the last of the old Kensington Market shops that sold a bit of everything and was a mainstay of the cacophonous neighbourhood for more than six decades, died in Toronto on Sept. 4. He had turned 93 just a few weeks earlier.
His was the classic tale of the Holocaust survivor who came to Canada to start afresh and succeeded through a combination of business smarts, bruisingly hard work and having a heart. For example, he freely extended credit. How did he know which customers needed it? “He could tell by their punim (faces),” said his son Danny, who was 13 when he started in the business.
“For over six decades, before there was Costco, there was Zimmerman’s,” said Rabbi Baruch Frydman-Kohl, rabbi emeritus of Beth Tzedec Congregation, in a eulogy sent from Israel. “Breakfast cereal and eggs, vegetables and canned goods, suitcases and jeans, personal care and plastic sandals. The shop grew.”
Situated on Augusta Avenue, Zimmerman’s was a fixture in the multi-ethnic neighbourhood. It helped that Zimmerman spoke Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Yiddish, German and a smattering of other languages. He not only gave credit, but cashed the paycheques of poor newcomers, some of whom could only endorse the cheques with an X.
“He loved his customers,” said his son. “He always said, ‘You learn from your customers.’ ”
But Zimmerman knew the area had changed and, in late 2014, he took the sale of the store – now an organic supermarket – in stride.
Zimmerman was born in 1926 in a Slovak village hard by the border with Hungary and Romania. His father farmed, traded in cattle and ran a grocery and general store. In 1944, the clan was deported to a nearby ghetto and then to Auschwitz, where his parents and a sister were murdered immediately. Zimmerman survived as a stable boy in the sister camp of Birkenau.
He arrived in Toronto in 1951 to join a sister and found work right away at a pickle factory and, later, at a scrap yard. Each evening, he worked some more at a Baldwin Street fruit market, whose owner agreed to sublease the store to Zimmerman and his cousin. They never looked back and, in 1953, sought larger premises on Augusta Avenue.
“The first couple weeks, we sold three truckloads of bananas on a Saturday. It was easy to do business, not like today,” Zimmerman told Toronto Life in 2014. “Back then, there were so many people, you couldn’t move. People were selling rabbits and chickens. It was different. There was a theatre nearby, and at night the people would come after the show, and there wasn’t anything you couldn’t sell. Potatoes, apples, anything cheap you would sell on the sidewalk.”
The simple fruit stand soon started selling meat, fish, dairy products, groceries, clothing and a wide array of household miscellany – “anything we thought our customers would buy,” Zimmerman wrote in a brief biography.
“He worked from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. He was the hardest-working man I ever met,” his son recalled. “But he loved the store.” At its peak, the shop occupied 7,000 square feet and had six delivery drivers.
“He was a happy man,” said Danny Zimmerman. “He had no bitterness. He always looked at the good. But he was tough in business, strong. On his deathbed, he told me, ‘Whatever I went through made me honest, humble and appreciative of what I have.’ ”
Zimmerman is survived by his wife of 63 years, Sara; a sister, Ella Hartman; children Alice Goldberger, Evelyn Farber and Danny Zimmerman; 13 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
Reprinted with permission of the Canadian Jewish News.
October 17th, 2019 · Comments Off on NEWS: Candidates face-off (Oct. 2019)
Conservative candidate absent for climate-dominated debate
Candidates who were present expressed consensus on the need to address climate change but disagreed how it should be tackled. Ahmed Hagar/Gleaner News
By Ahmed Hagar
Every candidate but the Conservative party’s Helen-Claire Tingling running to represent the constituents of the University-Rosedale riding made it to the planned all-candidates forum on October 7. The climate crisis dominated the conversation and all present agreed that implementing policy to combat it was critical, but each expressed different approaches to doing so.
“We need emergency mobilization to enact critically needed legislation. The Paris Agreement gives us 11 years to bring our carbon use down. We do not know if we have that much time.”
— Karin Brothers, Stop Climate Change party
Rory Gus Sinclair, the former chair of the Harbord Village Residents’ Association, moderated the debate. All five local residents’ associations shared the responsibility of hosting the event.
Green party candidate Tim Grant described the election as a “climate election”. Some of the candidates voiced their disagreement with the Liberals approving pipelines, such as Trans Mountain and Keystone XL.
Chrystia Freeland discussed the Liberal party’s commitment to plant two billion trees nationwide, saying “trees are one of nature’s best technologies to fight climate change.”
As a member of the Stop Climate Change party, Karin Brothers said the party’s main goal is to transition Canada to renewable energy. Their plans include making electric cars toll-free and increasing public transportation funding to reduce reliance on vehicles.
“We need an emergency mobilization to enact critically needed legislation,” she said. “The Paris Agreement gives us 11 years to bring our carbon use down. We do not know if we have that much time.”
Hecklers disrupted the event on several occasions, voicing their disagreements with Freeland on climate change, NAFTA, and foreign affairs. In a few instances, audience members argued with the moderator and the audience.
“You can do some heckling, but a bunch of you are doing it every 15 seconds,” Sinclair said. “We are going to ask you to cooperate, otherwise we have got a problem.”
On the topic of immigration, the candidates discussed supporting migrants and refugees. Steve Rutchinski of the Marxist-Leninist party argued for Canada to build international relations based on mutual respect and benefit.
“If you want to stop the migration crisis, you stop the wars,” he said. “Those people who are victims of this should not be further penalized because they find themselves in these intolerable conditions.”
The candidates also answered questions about congestion and transit infrastructure in the city. Tim Grant, of the Green party expressed support for “a new deal” for cities and for tying federal infrastructure funding to transit planning that can be accessible and sustainable.
“The new subway and LRT lines for the past 30 years have been commuter lines that have been empty 16 hours a day,” he said. “The TTC has been in a worse financial condition when the stations were open because there are not enough people to ride them.”
On foreign policy, Communist party candidate Drew Garvie argued that the Liberal party’s lack of oversight over Canadian-based mining companies has led to their impact internationally.
“We have some of the most lax laws that allow these companies to act with impunity,” he said. “That allows for outrageous things, like our foreign policy with Venezuela.”
Freeland said that the Liberal party appointed an ombudsman to monitor mining companies and their international operations. She also said Venezuela was an issue that was about “democracy and authoritarianism”, which garnered a loud response from hecklers.
Another topic of discussion was affordable housing. All candidates supported the notion of housing being a human right. As a local affordable housing advocate, Vajda said that “people are feeling left behind” and the NDP platform would build 500,000 new units across the country.
“I have been on the other side where we are trying to get developers to set aside 10 per cent of units for affordable housing,” she said. “It is a battle and it does not always work.”
With the concluding statements, Freeland supported having a dialogue with various perspectives within the community and said that her focus will be to maintain liberal democracy if re-elected.
“Canada today is the strongest liberal democracy in the world,” she said. “And we, as a community and citizens, need to make our civic fabric strong.”
