What does the emergence of Marie Kondo mean?

By Terri Chu

Few celebrities have given me hope about the fate of the planet quite like Marie Kondo has. We literally created a mega celebrity out of a woman who teaches you how to throw stuff away. Did coffee just come out your nose? Stop to think about this. A person who teaches you to throw things away is a social media superstar making millions from Youtube, Instagram, and books. 

Can we say FIRST WORLD PROBLEM? “Help! I have so much stuff I need to pay someone to help me throw it away!” 

We need to make a choice between over-consumption and survival. It shouldn’t be so hard.

My hope for humanity doesn’t so much lie in her existence, but rather in the response to her sudden fame. At least according to my social media feed, people are questioning why they need so much stuff in the first place. There hasn’t been nearly as much introspection about the resources, greenhouse gases emitted, and plastic packaging that went into those goods, but the fact that people are now wondering what the point of shopping for sport is… well that’s a welcome shift. 

As consumers start rejecting the “buy buy buy” lifestyle that has been sold to us the last half century, policy makers will need to adjust for a low employment, low carbon economy. This is OK! We obviously produce far more than we need and isn’t the point of automation to give us free time to pursue sports, literature, the arts? Maybe we can finally relax and get to know our neighbours? 

Adapting to climate change means we have to change our ways. We don’t need “stuff”. We don’t need to be constantly busy. Yes, this will all hurt current metrics of success, but that is OK, we just need to create new metrics. 

It means we have to fundamentally change how we measure success in our lives. When people are no longer buying things they don’t need, retail will inevitably suffer, GDP will decrease, and no doubt jobs will be lost.  Though jobs can and will be created in other areas, manufacturing, retail, and supply chain jobs will need to be transitioned. 

It is hard to understate the role that Universal Basic Income will have to play in a low carbon economy. Low carbon also means lower consumption, lowering waste, and lowering the number of hours in the work week. Not having to work should be a blessing, not a death sentence. 

Politicians need to be ahead of this curve and start preparing for alternate metrics that they can boast about. We also need to value work differently. If monetary value was assigned the same for a stay at home parent cleaning the bathroom the same way it is assigned for a professional cleaner, the GDP wouldn’t fall at all. If we valued washing a spoon the same way we valued buying a piece of single use plastic and throwing it away, we wouldn’t  have this problem in the first place. 

The sexist nature of how we value work plays into environmentalism as well. Work like cleaning and child minding have never been valued in an economy committed to buying trinkets and disposables. Every disposable diaper I buy contributes to GDP and goes on to measure my economic contribution. 

We are so addicted to consumption that we need to pay people to help us throw stuff away. Our standard of living will shift when we kick our consumption-based lifestyles to the curb, but we’ll thrive in a whole new way. We need to make a choice between over-consumption and survival. It shouldn’t be so hard. 

Marie Kondo does great work, but the need for her speaks volumes about what we’ve become. It’s ugly, it’s pointless, and it’s devastating to the planet. It’s time to listen to Kondo’s deeper message, and to find the things in life that truly spark joy – and ditch the rest.

READ MORE BY TERRI CHU:

• GREENINGS: Preventing chaos, mass starvation (Dec. 2018)
• GREENINGS: Municipalities should flex their green muscles (City Election 2018)
• GREENINGS: Short-term solutions haunt future (October 2018)
• GREENINGS: Urban under-representation (Aug./Sept. 2018)
• GREENINGS: Nurture the neighbourhood by cultivating green canopy (Summer 2018)
• GREENINGS: Results beg for electoral reform (July 2018)
• GREENINGS: Choosing the lesser evil (Election Special 2018)
• GREENINGS: Reduce, reuse, and then recycle (May 2018)
• GREENINGS: Car-free parenting is not rare (Spring 2018)
• GREENINGS: The science of board games (Mar. 2018)
• GREENINGS: Driving fuelled by unseen subsidies (Jan. 2018)
• GREENINGS: No solutions for nobody’s problem (Dec. 2017)
• GREENINGS: Celebrate science not milestones (Nov. 2017)
• GREENINGS: Down to the data (Oct. 2017)

HVRA lane-naming project leads to The Postman

In March of 2015 the Gleaner featured coverage of the pending play, The Postman, that was staged on neighbourhood porches in the summer of that year. The Harbord Village event commemorated the life and times of Albert Jackson, Canada’s first black postie. On the occasion of Canada Post issuing a stamp in Jackson’s honour, we are reprinting this article 

By Annemarie Brissenden

There are nearly 500 miles between Miliford, Del. and St. Catharines, Ont. These days, it would take approximately 10 hours to drive a highway that meanders through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and then New York, before finally reaching Ontario. One hundred and seventy-five years ago, it would have been a different matter altogether.

Imagine bundling up your seven children, ranging in age from three to 16, gathering your meagre possessions, and making the journey on foot. You travel at night, because you’re escaping slavery, and are being hunted. Should you not evade capture, you would be returned to a life in chains, or worse.

For Anne Maria Jackson and her children, who would eventually walk the equivalent of 20 marathons along the Underground Railroad, freedom would not be elusive. They would make it north and settle in Toronto, where the family would prosper.

The youngest child, Albert, would grow up to become the city’s first African-American postman. But that success would not come without struggles of a different sort. Albert Jackson’s white colleagues refused to work with him, and it would take the intervention of Canada’s first prime minister, Sir John A. Macdonald, to secure Jackson’s position at the post office. Jackson would remain in this role for the rest of his life, buying several houses in the greater Annex, which was also home to his postal route.

“It’s the largest family group ever to come to Canada [via the Underground Railroad],” explained David Ferry, the artistic director of Appledore Productions, which debuted The Postman, a promenade-style musical play that recreated Albert Jackson’s life along local streets.

Ferry first learned of the story following media coverage of the Harbord Village Residents’ Association’s Laneway Naming Project, which unearthed Albert Jackson’s story. Inspired as much by Jackson’s mother as by Jackson himself, Ferry promoted the play, in which different scenes will be performed from different porches along Jackson’s postal route in Harbord Village and the Palmerston Avenue area, with infectious enthusiasm.

In workshops, he bubbles with energy, and just can’t help himself from dancing along as the cast rehearsed the musical numbers. Such ebullience is necessary as he marshals community members to help with logistics and volunteer their front yards for performances, and collaborates with seven playwrights of diverse backgrounds on the script.

“It’s my first experience working almost in a collective. You’re trying to be distinct in your writing, yet finding a singular voice,” explained Leah Simone-Bowen, Obsidian Theatre’s artistic producer, one of the play’s writers. Layne Coleman, who played Sir John A. Macdonald, also spoke about Ferry’s unique approach. “There’s not harmony in the way the story telling usually is,” said Coleman, “but David is threading it all together with music, [which] adds some unity.” Coleman, who has played Sir John A. several times before, believes there is “something particularly mythic about the Jackson family.” Like Ferry, he’s inspired by their horrifying and remarkable journey.

“Consider what it’s like to walk 500 miles at night in the northeastern states pursued by very unscrupulous people,” he said, adding he’s learned so much about the history of Toronto, and the deep roots of the city’s Black community thanks to the play.

“Learning that there was so much history, and Black history, was stunning to me,” echoed Simone-Bowen. In some ways, “[Jackson’s] story is such a specific story,” but in others, “it’s very similar to every immigrant story ever,” she added.

“It is such an empowering story overall,” said Laurence Dean Ifill, the actor who played Albert Jackson. Not an at-risk youth while growing up (“my father was and still is a beautiful role model”) he believes “stories like this should be told. “Would it make a difference to someone?” wondered Ifill, who has always been interested in historical pieces when it comes to theatre.

He has been involved in The Postman ever since Ferry brought the idea to him while they both working on a Eugene O’Neill play three years ago. “[The play] is like a journey for me,” said Ifill.

Moved by the life Jackson and his wife built in the Annex, the actor notes how the end of Jackson’s journey is as inspiring as its beginning. Jackson and his wife achieved so much, and built such a life here. “They made a beautiful team,” he said. “All because his mother decided to escape. That’s beautiful.”

READ MORE:

• ON THE COVER History delivered (Spring 2019)
• CHATTER: Albert Jackson stamp issued (Spring 2019)
• ARTS: Delivering history in Harbord Village (April 2015)
• ARTS: Resident costumes Postman cast (July 2015)
• BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Moving to the centre (FEBRUARY 2017)
• CHATTER: Plaque commemorates Canada’s first Black letter carrier (JULY 2017)

Developers, city planners, hold meeting

By Ahmed Hagar

Annex residents packed into Bloor Street United Church’s McClure Hall on December 17 alongside planners and developers to express their continuing concern about the development plans for the church, known as 300 Bloor Street West.

The development will include 256 residential units, spaces for offices, community programs, retail and cafe space on the ground floor, and a renovated multi-faith worship space. The project will also maintain the historic stone facade of the church, which has been a part of the community since 1886.

The proposed height of the project, which started at 38 storeys and has been decreased to 27, remains a point of concern for many locals. City planner Barry Brooks says that the height change, which amounts to a decrease of 45 metres, was proposed and reviewed at a previous Working Group meeting, and presented at a community meeting in September 2018.

“However, as mentioned at that meeting, there are still some outstanding planning issues about the massing and height of the tower base, tower floor plate size, and the proximity to the existing church roof and structure to be addressed,” Brooks said. “Both these proposals will be further discussed by the Working Group in January 2019 prior to any further planning reports being completed. The two options would have similar densities and number of units.”

During the question and answer period, a number of people living in the neighbourhood expressed a concern that the proposed building was still too tall.

“We just want it to be lower and reasonable,” said one such resident, Margaret Hoffman. “It is a domino effect. Once a tall building goes up, it sets a precedent and another one goes up and another one goes up.”

The 300 Bloor Street West project is a partnership with BSUC, Collecdev Inc., and Northrop Development. Collecdev president Maurice Wagner responded directly to one concerned neighbour’s question about how much profit developers would lose by cutting the height of the building.

“With 10 storeys less, or even a couple of storeys less than the 27 storeys, we do not see this as a viable project,” he said. “In the perspective of the sources of capital that are required to get a project like this off the ground, we would not get financing for a project that does not have the type of margins it requires on costs.”

Councillor Mike Layton said that the initial proposal was “very ambitious” and commended the developers for making changes and listening to the residents’ feedback. He added that a conversation about the building’s height should focus more on how it impacts the neighbourhood.

“Is it the density that the concern is, or is it the shadow impacts?” he asked. “Height is not always the first thing that impacts how great a development can be. It is related to the tangible things people can feel and touch.”

Locals have also taken issue with the development’s impact on traffic since the entrance to the underground parking garage will be on Huron Street. Brooks says that the developers are proposing to have fewer parking spaces than what is required by the zoning by-law.

“The required parking is 174 parking spaces and proposed is 109 parking spaces,” he said. “The applicant’s transportation consultant for the development has indicated that they believe traffic will have a minimal impact at the intersection within the study area based on a taller building with more dwelling units than is currently proposed.”

Some residents have voiced support for the project as it includes affordable housing and accessible community spaces. Paul McLean, chair of Palmerston Area Residents’ Association, spoke about his experience working with developers to get affordable housing in the Mirvish Village project and the importance of having it as a part of the project.

“We happen to believe that the opportunity of living in this neighbourhood needs to be shared by a broad spectrum of income levels,” he said. “Your absolute best choice is to have it in the building. The second choice would be to take your money, section 37 or whatever else the developers are willing to put on the table, to make affordable housing in other parts of this neighbourhood.”

Brooks said that the council and city staff will consider whether section 37 contributions can be used to fund social housing during further negotiations.

Layton will oversee the latest working group on this project and Brooks will provide a report to the community council by March.

“I do not think you will see a completed project for three years,” says Layton. “It takes 18 months to build an eight-storey building, so building a 20- or 30-storey building adds on some time.”

Bank note features activist Viola Desmond

By Ahmed Hagar

People of all ages and backgrounds celebrated the life of businesswoman and civil rights icon Viola Desmond at a commemorative breakfast hosted by A Different Booklist Cultural Centre (ADBCC) at 777 Bathurst St. shortly after the bill came into circulation in November.

A Different Booklist is one of the black-owned businesses in the community known as “Blackhurst,” found in and around Bathurst and Bloor. The community’s roots go back to the 1860s, and black-owned businesses and media have been critical in serving the black community there. Blackhurst was also the home of the city’s first black city councillor and acting mayor, William Peyton Hubbard, elected in 1894.

The only black person currently serving on Toronto’s city council, Michael Thompson from Scarborough Centre (Ward 21), came to the bookshop and cultural centre to celebrate Viola Desmond with the Blackhurst community.

In a short speech, he said that Canada’s new $10 bill, which features Desmond’s image on one side, shows how much has changed in our society.

“We will all succeed, not individually, but together as a people, not as blacks, not as whites but as a people,” he said. “When we use this currency it will remind us … that we will never accept a situation where we belittle someone based on the colour of their skin.”

Thompson spoke about the importance of telling history through “the symbols of our society” and how Viola Desmond’s image on the bill provides “a sense of empowerment” to young Canadians.

“And moving forward, our children can see their reflection in the history and growth of our city, our province, and our country,” he added.

Representatives from the Bank of Canada unveiled the new bill in Halifax on International Women’s Day last March. Aside from being the first piece of Canadian currency to feature a black woman, the new $10 bill is also notable for the fact that it is the first vertically aligned banknote.

Viola Desmond founded the Desmond School of Beauty to tutor black women when other beauty schools discriminated against them. In 1946 she made her mark on history when she refused to sit in the balcony section of a movie theatre and was subsequently dragged out by the police. She was charged and jailed for failing to pay the full price of the ticket when in fact the theatre’s cashier had refused to sell her a regularly priced ticket — because black people were expected to keep away from the main seating area.

Nova Scotia’s first black lieutenant-governor, Mayann Francis, granted Desmond a posthumous pardon in 2010, 64 years after her arrest.

The ADBCC showcased old photos of Desmond alongside court documents relating to her case and books about her life story. 

George Randolph, a board member of the ADBCC, says the inclusion of Desmond is “incredible for African Canadian history.”

“There are many firsts to this: the first black woman, the first vertical bill, respect to the Indigenous people and the hope and perseverance it gives to our young people,” he said. “It is just an extraordinary accomplishment.”

Melissa Brereton, an analyst from the Bank of Canada, attended the event and spoke about her involvement with the focus group that helped bring Desmond’s image onto the new bill.

“It has been a passionate project for me, I am just happy to be involved,” she said. “Being a black woman myself, it is so inspiring and it means a lot.”

While everyone in attendance at the celebration seemed to agree on the symbolic importance of Desmond’s photo on the banknote, Councillor Thompson insisted that the change represented by her image needs to be firmly reflected by government policy.

Police apprehend multiple “drug-dependent” individuals

By Hannah Alberga

January has brought a spike in commercial crime around Bloor and Brunswick streets, with four restaurants experiencing break-ins on one day.

Between 3:30 am and 6:30 am on Jan. 7, the  St. Louis Bar and Grill, Crafty Coyote Ale House, Vietnam Lovely Noodle, and Gong Cha teahouse were victims to break and enters.

“Someone with 100 convictions should be serving a fairly lengthy custodial sentence” —Sergeant Darren Worth, Toronto Police 14 Division.

Detective Sergeant Brian Kelly, the crime manager at Toronto Police 14 Division, says that in the past month, police have taken three offenders into custody for crimes of this nature.

He described these individuals as “unsophisticated” and “drug-dependent,” mainly looking for objects they could make money from to buy drugs. Kelly says he can’t be specific about when police arrested these individuals, or which acts they were responsible for.

Detective Sergeant Darren Worth, also from 14 Division, says that after these offenders are caught they often quickly end up back on the streets repeating similar acts.

“We need appropriate sentencing in order to get these people into programs that remedy whatever their ailment is,” he says. “It’s a revolving door.”

Worth adds that many of such alleged criminals are sent to drug treatment mental health courts, or receive reduced sentences. Often the police cannot monitor these offenders as they don’t have fixed addresses.

On Monday, Jan. 7, James Coates arrived at his restaurant, St. Louis Bar and Grill located at 376 Bloor St. W., to find the front door shattered, a tablet stolen, and a few expensive bottles of alcohol missing.

Next door at Vietnam Lovely Noodle, $1,500 in cash was stolen from the till, their front door was broken, and their tablet was also taken.

Nick Ndreka, the owner of Crafty Coyote, says he was replying to emails in the basement of his restaurant at around 3:30 that morning when he heard the side door open.

Security footage shows that a man attempting to break into the restaurant saw Ndreka and then immediately ran away. Ndreka chased after him and threw two empty kegs in his direction.

“I’m just doing my job and protecting my staff and my workers. We don’t want this sort of thing to spill into the neighbourhood,” Ndreka said.

On Nov. 10, Ndreka was in his other restaurant, the Victory Café, when he heard a noise from the back alley door around 3:30 am. A man with a bag of tools and a gun was in the basement, Ndreka said. He reports that he came to the first floor of the bar to find that a man had forced the side door and was in the premises with “a bag of tools and a gun”. The Gleaner was able to view security footage of the incident which involved an altercation between the owner and the intruder. The intruder was forced to remove his pants by Ndreka and was kicked out of the restaurant. 

Then, on Jan. 10 a man threw a brick through the side window of the Victory Café.

Ndreka estimates that he has lost around $6,500 in sales and damages because of these incidents. The owner of St. Louis Bar and Grill estimates a loss of approximately $3,000. The manager of Vietnam Lovely Noodle estimates a loss of more than $2,300.

“If you’re a first, third, fourth, or tenth offender, I don’t think you should be on the street. I mean, they should be locked up somewhere,” Ndreka said.

The two 14 Division police officers agreed that this type of offender should be dealt with more severely, but say that it is their job to track suspects down and it’s the court’s job to determine how to discipline them.

“Someone with 100 convictions should be serving a fairly lengthy custodial sentence in my opinion, and they’re not,” Worth said.

Having recently completed renovations, the Davenport Road Women’s Shelter is now permanently residing at 348 Davenport Road, near Dupont Street. The shelter is owned by the City of Toronto and run by YWCA Toronto. It provides transitionary housing for 56 homeless women, transgender or gender non-binary-identifying persons.

The location previously housed a shelter offering temporary respite, having urgently opened during a time of extreme cold weather as a response to the city’s ongoing housing shortages. The respite centre operated under a model that worked to place people in emergency temporary housing.  The new model answers many community concerns, including an increase in violence and drug use in the neighbourhood. Managers of the new shelter are working hard to connect with members of the Annex neighbourhood in the hopes that they can succeed in finding permanent housing and other forms of social support for women in need.

The shelter started operating in mid-January. According to Nina Gorka, YWCA Toronto’s Director of Shelters, Girls and Family Programs, the shelter is already housing clients and is set to reach capacity in mid-February.

At a community open house on January 19, locals had the chance to learn about the kinds of services offered by the shelter, as well as who it will house. Members of the Annex Residents’ Association (ARA) and Councillor Mike Layton attended the open house.

“This is a good way for the community to see the conditions that clients of these services live in and what the realities are like for many people in the city,” says Layton. “Services like these are essential to have in cities like Toronto, that often face housing crises as they experience exponential growth.”

According to Gorka, the idea of hosting an open house at the shelter was that it would address the concerns expressed by many locals while the respite was operating. Many people often misunderstand the difference between respite centres and shelters, as they operate very differently. Shelters often house longer-staying clients seeking social support; and women in particular are often fleeing from domestic violence and may be seeking assistance in finding more permanent housing. Gorka states that when the local community is able to visit the site, people can see their neighbours and it “demystifies” the operation.

The duration of stay for each client will be different and highly dependent on their immediate needs: stays may range from a couple of nights to six months. Layton says that the clients for these much-needed services will be embraced by the community, no matter how long they stay.

“The Annex has a really proud community. They love their area, and they love their neighbourhood. We want to be seen as an addition to their community,” says Gorka.

—Lena Sanz Tovar/Gleaner News

By Brian Burchell

This female Eastern White Wild Turkey, dubbed “Rose” by neighbours, seems to enjoy her mini-range consisting of Christie Pits, Bickford, and Art Eggleton parks.

Though the species is more often than not shy of humans, Rose seems to like children but can be very defensive with dogs that charge her.

About the height of a 5-year-old kid, she favours the areas around playground equipment.

Eastern White Wild Turkeys were almost extinct in North America one hundred years ago but now are estimated to have a population of 7 million. Roughly 70,000 of them reside year-round in Ontario.

Many jurisdictions are to be credited with the species’ revival including the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR). In the early 1980s the MNR started a wild turkey restoration project which  involved the trapping and transfer of wild turkeys from Missouri, Michigan, New York, Vermont, and New Jersey, to Ontario.

In 1984, the MNR released 4,400 wild turkeys at 275 sites across the province. In exchange, Ontario sent otters to Missouri and Nebraska, partridges to New York, and moose to Michigan.

Though Annex residents have been feeding Rose, she is also happy to scour the ground cover for nuts and seeds, though the turkeys are technically omnivorous and will consume insects and invertebrates.

Their high adaptability in terms of both landscape and diet are credited with the birds’ resurgence. The MNR now allows a limited hunting season.

­Rose’s Annex refuge appears to be a mutually satisfactory arrangement for humans and fowl alike.

Premier Doug Ford’s latest plan to restructure funding for post-secondary institutions would mean the average college student can look forward to saving $340 in tuition fees this September, while the average arts and science student in university can look forward to saving $660 per year. The plan, however, is little more than a reckless ruse that does nothing for the people it purports to help. The ten per cent cuts to tuition fees for colleges and universities effective in Sept. 2019, and locked down for 2020, are nothing but a shiny populist penny on a regressive policy pie.

About one-third of university revenues comes from tuition, which means these cuts will cost $360 million. Colleges, on the other hand, stand to lose $80 million. These losses will not be made up elsewhere by the government. It seems we may be witnessing another “buck a beer” moment, Premier Ford has not thought this through.

Merrilee Fullerton, minister of Training, Colleges, and Universities, said the tuition cut and cap will “keep more money in the pockets of Ontario students” and even billed these measures under the banner “for the students”. One day later, the government announced drastic cuts to the OSAP student aid system. The program offering free tuition to families with incomes of less than $50,000 disappeared in an instant. The new program also converts grants to loans, and eliminates a post-graduation “grace period” on interest for student loans. But Premier Ford has no grace, and no understanding of the important role OSAP has played in helping kids from low-income families break the cycle of poverty through education.

The PCs at Queen’s Park have converted the OSAP policy, with their radical increase to potential interest-bearing student debt, to a revenue tool. The idea that OSAP is a vehicle to allow low-income families attend college or university to help break the cycle of poverty without being burdened by unsustainable debt is lost on this government.

According to the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, it does not appear that the government consulted stakeholders on these changes. Minister Fullerton told the CBC that the government spoke to “many many people about it,” but was unable to specify which people. Had student organizations and colleges and universities been directly consulted they would no doubt have argued that any revenue reduction would almost automatically result in a reduction of service, reduced staff, increased reliance on contract instructors, larger class sizes, and fewer course options.

For years now colleges and universities have sought to augment their revenue shortfalls by turning to international students who pay much higher fees unregulated by the province. What has emerged is a culture where the educational institutions see the students as paying customers.

For many decades, Ontario taxpayers were the primary funders of the post-secondary education system. The dividends of that investment should not be squandered.

The economy is changing. In November, GM announced it would shutter its manufacturing plant in Oshawa. Just two months later, it opened a technology centre in Markham that employs more than 600 engineers. Jobs like this are not easily exportable to jurisdictions where labour is cheap, and cannot be done better by robots. Without a functioning system of  higher education geared to this new economy, Ontario won’t be producing people who can fill the jobs. One would hope that the province can keep pace with these changes and not get side-tracked into an ill-advised battle with what this government perceives as irrelevant left-wing elitists.

READ MORE EDITORIALS: 

EDITORIAL: Blowing smoke on the climate file (Dec. 2018)

EDITORIAL: This premier is not for the people (City Election 2018)

EDITORIAL: Eight weeks lost to Ford’s madness (October 2018)

EDITORIAL: A lost cause worth fighting for (Aug./Sept. 2018)

EDITORIAL: Reclaiming our city (Summer 2018)

EDITORIAL: City staff ignore bike lanes (July 2018)

EDITORIAL: The market has no moral compass (Election Special 2018)

EDITORIAL: Lessons to be learned from Excessive Force (Spring 2018)

EDITORIAL: A social contract is a precious thing (March 2018)

EDITORIAL: Intolerance leading to Quebec’s decline (Dec. 2017)

EDITORIAL (Nov. 2017): Student safety suffers as trustees cave

EDITORIAL: Pandering to religious intolerance (October 2017)

EDITORIAL: Bike lanes, good for business (Fall 2017)

EDITORIAL: Don’t sacrifice safety for political gain (August 2017)

MPP Bell sees glass half-full in year ahead

By Jessica Bell

A new year is an opportunity to renew and recommit to making a difference. Here are three resolutions to help spur positive social change in 2019.

Embrace Hope.

The year 2018 was a hard one.The rise of right wing populist Doug Ford has damaged our democracy, hurt people, and the environment.

The year 2019 will not be easy. There will be cuts to vital public services. Life will get harder for many, especially the poor and vulnerable. People will die. That’s why it’s never been more important to believe a kinder, fairer future is possible, and that our work here in Toronto will help us achieve it. Hopeful people take action. Hopeless people don’t. Hope is contagious. So is hopelessness.

There are many reasons to hope: two MPPs have already left the Conservative caucus and we have held our ground against Doug Ford on some issues.

The Ford government is keeping some safe injection sites open despite his election promise to shut them down. Ford’s appointment of family friend, Ron Taverner, to the head of the Ontario Provincial Police has been delayed. And the $14 minimum wage and rent control on existing homes are in force. These are victories. 

Ontarians are also becoming more politically engaged. Thousands protested the cancellation of the French Language University and the elimination of the French Language Services Commissioner. More than 40,000 students staged school walkouts in protest of Ford’s removal of teaching about consent and the existence of LGBTQ people from the sex education curriculum. Continuing support for these opposition movements stands to grow as more people turn to activism.

Volunteer with a campaign.

A campaign involves people working together to achieve a positive and specific political goal. The goal could be electing a local champion to office or increasing provincial funding to schools.

Good campaigns build the momentum and power we need to make real change. It’s easy for a Conservative politician to ignore a one-off letter to the editor, a door-to-door canvasser, an angry email, a day of protests, or some nasty tweets. But it’s very hard for an elected official to not be swayed when these events are organized in sequence and then repeated by an ever-growing group of motivated and active residents in a politician’s own riding.

Working on a chosen campaign also helps me stay positive. Taking useful action with friends counters the despair and anger I sometimes feel when I am alone listening to the news. Focusing on one cause and doing it well is the best antidote to that drowning urgency to do a million things at once when I scroll through my Facebook feed, scanning headlines of tragedy, despair, shopping sales, and click-bait activism.

Invite people to join and stick around.

Doug Ford has a huge amount of official power. He controls the ministries and he makes the laws, but he is only one person. Over 60 per cent of Ontarians did not vote for Doug Ford, and nobody voted for his vengeful attacks on Toronto or his plan to open up the precious Greenbelt to big developers. 

Our power is people-power. We strengthen our people-power when we encourage people to join our cause, and when we work well together. I strive to provide opportunities for people to take action, and I encourage you to do the same.

This can look like personally inviting people to attend a local protest, organizing an event at your local school so parents, students, and teachers can connect with people who are leading campaigns to improve education in Ontario, or simply listening to a colleague who would like to see improvements to the local group’s meeting culture. People join when they are invited. People stay when they make friends.  

Join me in making 2019 the year where we work together to make a change for the better.

Jessica Bell is the MPP for University Rosedale. Her office is at 719 Bloor St. W., #103. For help or to volunteer please contact her at JBell-CO@ndp.on.ca.

Moise opposes the “hack and slash system of anything goes” of Premier Ford

TDSB Trustee Chris Moise talks about local politics, keeping schools progressive, and fighting Premier Doug Ford in court (and winning).

By Chris Moise

When I first ran for Toronto District School Board (TDSB) Trustee in 2016, I did it because I wanted to make a difference in our education system. At the time, there was an over 3.4 billion-dollar deficit in repairs needed to fix our schools’ crumbling infrastructure due to lack of funding. There was also a disproportionate number of black and Indigenous students being expelled from the classroom in contrast to their white peers, and equity seemed like a progressive fantasy that would never come to fruition. 

Within the first few months of being elected, I hit the ground running. Not only did I join the board’s Enhancing Equity Task Force (an initiative designed to empower all students and provide greater access for future opportunities) but I was elected vice chair of the TDSB. In the months that followed, I worked closely with our senior team around repairs. This included channelling resources into improving Jesse Ketchum Parkette and the community use of the school, improving Church Street JPS field and getting air condition systems installed for students in every classroom during the hottest of summer months.  

I also made some tough decisions for the betterment of our students that attracted a lot of backlash from some parents. I put forth legislation to remove SROs (School Resource Officers) from some of our schools, after receiving numerous complaints from students who felt both threatened and alienated by the presence of police standing outside their classrooms. Now, I am in no way anti-police (having once been a police officer myself), but I felt that this was something that had to be done. We did it and it worked.  

In January of 2018, I announced that I would run for Toronto City Council in the new 47 ward system (an increase of three wards from the previous year). I was so committed to the cause that I changed my whole life: I sold my house, purchased a condo in what was to be my new ward (25), and intended to step down as trustee. My poll numbers for council were high, and I had the support of my peers at the board, incumbent councillors, and prominent residents in the community.  

Then Doug Ford happened. 

As we all know, the 47 ward system was decimated down to a mere 25. I, along with countless others, risked and lost everything. Other council hopefuls lost even more than I did. Some quit six figure jobs in order to run, only to be left with zero ground to stand on. 

We decided to take the provincial government to court over Bill 5. Thanks to the ruling of Judge Edward Belobaba, who saw the move by the premier as both undemocratic and highly suspect, we won. 

In response, Ford threatened to invoke the Notwithstanding Clause. The rest, as they say, is history.  

I was devastated, and even considered leaving public office behind entirely. I became darkly contented with the fact that we live in an unjust world, and that I should just accept this and move on. 

Then Ford introduced a regressive amendment that targeted our students and teachers by re-instituting the 1998 Sex-Ed curriculum, replacing and downgrading the modern and inclusive 2014 model implemented by the Wynn government. I decided that there was still more I could do, even if I wouldn’t be doing it at City Hall. I ran again as TDSB trustee, this time in the new ward of Toronto Centre-University Rosedale. I won my seat on the board, and once again, I was intent on hitting the ground running. 

This term, I am focusing [so far] on two major issues: continuing to address the repairs backlog, and fighting Doug Ford’s reinstatement of the dangerously outdated Health & Physical Education Bill. Taking a look at the recent disturbing events at St. Mike’s private school makes it clear that keeping crucial terminology in the classroom, terminology removed from the 2014 model, could have possibly shifted a seemingly consent-anemic culture where sexual bullying appears to have been the status quo.   

There are dark days ahead, but there are also brighter days to follow. We trustees must advocate on behalf of all students, especially during a time when progressive voices are being silenced by those who misinterpret their responsibility for carte blanche power, and disregard democracy in favour of a hack-and-slash system of anything goes. 

For more information or to contact Chris Moise, please visit www.chrismoise.ca.