Vote progressive on election day

By Jessica Bell

Doug Ford has hurt Toronto. Ford slashed Toronto’s wards from 47 to 25 in the middle of an election, and threatened to suspend our Charter rights and freedoms by invoking the notwithstanding clause for the first time in Ontario’s history.

Why did Ford trample on Toronto? Because he wants to get back at the “downtown elites” and keep conservatives in control at Toronto City Hall.

[pullquote]There is nothing more persuasive than having a local resident talk to their neighbours about why they are supporting a candidate.[/pullquote]

Doug Ford got his way at Queen’s Park. Let’s make sure Toronto wins on election day.

Here’s the plan. We need to strategically help progressive candidates so we can have a progressive voting majority at City Hall. That means we need to win at least 14 of the 26 races.

By help, I mean voting, volunteering, and giving money to candidates. Campaigns need people who can volunteer on evenings and weekends to canvass and phone residents. In this era of fake news, distrust of institutions, and political apathy, there is nothing more persuasive than having a local resident talk to their neighbours about why they are supporting a candidate. At this stage, campaigns don’t need people to provide policy or communications advice. Early donations are the best, and the good news is you get up to 75 per cent of your donation back.

Here’s who to help.

Help new candidates win battleground races. Some races are not competitive because a longtime incumbent is running. Other races have two progressives running against each other, which is heartbreaking because Toronto did not need a Hunger Games election.

And then, there are some competitive races that could have a huge impact on the balance of power at City Hall. Here’s three candidates who are running serious races in winnable wards. These candidates are women, young, or people of colour — all voices that are sorely needed at City Hall.

Elementary school teacher and community advocate Felicia Samuel is running in Ward 23 Scarborough North. Samuel is running in an open-seat ward with no incumbent. Incumbents have an unhealthy advantage over new candidates.

Chiara Padovani is running in Ward 11 York South Weston. Padovani has been running a year-long powerful community-led campaign that could have the momentum to unseat conservative incumbents Frances Nunziata and Frank Di-Giorgio. Both incumbents have voted against improving TTC service, more affordable childcare spots, and measures to address the inequities facing York South Weston. They have to go.

Amber Morley is running in Ward 3 Etobicoke Lakeshore. Electing a progressive councillor in Etobicoke-Lakeshore is important if we want to unseat Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament Christine Hogarth in 2022 and take back Queen’s Park.

Keep our downtown councillors: Mike Layton is running in University Rosedale, Joe Cressy is running in Fort York Spadina, and Kristyn Wong-Tam is running in Toronto Centre. These councillors have always stood up for the issues that matter. From voting for two-hour TTC fare transfers, to stopping Walmart in Kensington Market, to ensuring the Honest Eds development has some community benefits, to bike lanes on Bloor and Sherbourne streets, to approving fair regulation of Airbnb, these councillors consistently advocate for good public services, affordable housing, livable neighbourhoods, and safe streets.

Jennifer Keesmaat for mayor because she has the vision and policy knowledge to lead Toronto in the right direction. I attended the mayoral transit debate in Scarborough on September 26, and listened to Keesmaat share her vision, her deep understanding of our city, and her bold policy platform that includes building 100,000 affordable housing units, community benefits agreements for major infrastructure projects, building the relief line, and a luxury surtax on $4 million homes. I left that debate convinced that Keesmaat was the mayor for me and Toronto.

Here’s my simple dream. After a long day of encouraging people to vote, I hope to spend the evening of October 22nd watching the election results roll in and cheering because progressives finally won on election night. Let’s roll up our sleeves and make it happen.

Jessica Bell is the Member of Provincial Parliament for University-Rosedale.

READ MORE ON THE ELECTION:

FOCUS: Putting candidates to the Gleaner test (City Election 2018)

FOCUS: Should the public and Catholic boards be amalgamated? (City Election 2018)

FOCUS: TCDSB candidate queries remain largely unanswered (City Election 2018)

Time to stop subsidizing cost of garbage

By Terri Chu

“I’ve got more freezer packs for you,” my friend said as she handed me a gigantic bag. She recently started using those meal delivery services where they pack and portion ingredients for you, include a recipe card, and you cook it when you’re ready to eat. Sounds like a great idea except for the box of garbage she generates weekly from it. When I heard she had excess freezer packs, I asked if I could have a few. She gets so many she’s told to snip the corners, pour the contents down the drain, and “recycle” the plastic. Her weekly meal delivery is more like a weekly waste delivery.

The problem is, many packages labelled “recyclable” are not (it can vary by municipality what is actually accepted) and Torontonians are some of the worst offenders for contaminated recycling. So much so that the City of Toronto is looking at an increase in our garbage fees to absorb the cost of people recycling badly.

[pullquote]What if we reduced or eliminated the flat garbage fees and instead had it charged by weight at the till?[/pullquote]

I thought it was ridiculous how much waste is generated: if waste wasn’t a subsidized cost and they actually had to pay for it, it would become economically feasible for them to use reusable containers and pick them back up when they drop off the next box.

And there was the crux of it.

Garbage is free for companies to produce. We pay for it as a line item on our taxes, but we essentially don’t have to think much beyond that. There’s very little incentive for anyone to reduce generated waste because it is so cheap. It is cheaper to provide freezer packs with every new box of delivered food than it is to pick up old ones and reuse them.

So, what can big cities do about their garbage problem?

For one thing, stop subsidizing the cost of garbage!

Garbage is charged a flat fee and nobody thinks about it beyond that. What if we reduced or eliminated the flat garbage fees and instead had it charged by weight at the till? Consumers would start making decisions differently and businesses would start to adapt very, very quickly. The reality is that municipalities have a lot of influence on how much garbage is generated, how much people drive, how much electricity is used, and in general, how much we contribute to climate change.

Granted, the premier could just decide to un-incorporate Toronto and completely take over, making all these arguments moot, but in general, a city has a lot it can do to change behaviours, much of it starting with hitting people in their wallets.

We saw the resounding success of charging for plastic shopping bags.

The five-cent fee cut use by half. The city could just as easily demand fees for plastic cutlery, straws, and food packaging.

Manufacturers know exactly how much packaging weighs. One only needs to look at product specifications on Amazon to understand the level of details that manufacturers know their products.

They know every dimension, product weight, and shipping weight. If the difference between product weight and shipping weight was charged a fee per gram, the race for manufacturers to package their goods smartly and reduce waste would be on.

When consumers are faced with a marginal cost they can control, their behaviour is startlingly different from when they face flat costs that they can’t.

Surely lobbyists will be descending on Toronto if we did this, but we are long past the time for action. There will soon be more pieces of plastic than fish in the ocean, 500-year storms are now nearly an annual occurrence, and this year, British Columbia alone lost 1.2 million hectares of forests to fire. Cities need to take proactive roles in the battle against climate change. We’ve already lost a lot, it’s a matter of preserving what we can now.

Though transit is on the top of everybody’s mind this election, be sure to ask the candidates for council what they would do to curb municipal waste. There’s a lot in their power. It’s only a question of whether or not they dare to use it.

Terri Chu is an engineer committed to practical environmentalism. This column is dedicated to helping the community reduce energy and distinguish environmental truths from myths.

READ MORE BY TERRI CHU:

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)

TDSB candidates weigh in

Only four of the 13 candidates running for trustee in the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) Ward 10 — which includes city wards 11 and 13 — replied to our questions. We did not receive answers from Mahbubul Alam, Ted Crysler, Kate Frischkorn, Baquie Ghaza, Jooheon Lee, Aaron Macgregor, Chris Moise, Alamgir Muhammad, and David Oliver. We reached out to the candidates by phone and email, and gave them a week to provide answers, asking them to keep each answer to 100 words or less.

The questions below were developed by the residents’ associations and BIAs in our coverage area. We’ve published all the answers we received, editing only for length, grammar, and style.

Compiled by Ellie Hayden

Do you support amalgamating the public and Catholic school boards? —Annex Residents’ Association

Fos Ashkir: Amalgamation of public and Catholic school boards should include engagement from families and community members. It should also include further conversation with higher levels of government, which would subsequently be responsible for making any decisions regarding amalgamation. I certainly support further dialogue and conversations regarding this.

Susan Gapka: Not at this time. This would be a decision that is a provincial responsibility. At the moment, due to provincial legislation impacting ward boundaries, mechanisms and procedures on managing the new ward system should be a careful and important priority consideration.

Olivia Labonté: I support amalgamating the public and Catholic boards in order to save $1.3 billion in estimated costs per year. We can put that money directly back into front line programming, reducing class sizes, and conducting school repairs. While I understand that Catholic programming is appreciated by a number of parents, I believe that this programming could be fulfilled in institutions outside of school, and that we could instead use this public funding to improve schools for all.

Arnella Tarantino: I would be interested in amalgamating the Catholic and public school boards on one hand and keeping them separate on the other hand. The only difference is public starts the day off with O Canada and separate schools start off with a prayer. Joining the two would increase the power, a broader spectrum having much more money to spend in the classrooms fixing the older schools, therefore making it easier to manage properties.

What background and experience do you have in educational and institutional financial management? —Harbord Street BIA

Gapka: My experience is from a wealth of academic and community boards including the York University Board of Governors and Senate.

I helped lead a campaign to persuade the Minister of Health to fund sex reassignment surgery for trans people in Ontario, helped change the Vital Statistics Act sex designation so that trans people’s legal documents more accurately reflect their lived identity, and amended the Ontario Human Rights Code to include gender identity and gender expression.

More recently I have been employed at the 519 in the education department as a training and education facilitator. I also have been elected to the CUPE Ontario Pink Triangle Committee in 2017 and appointed to CUPE National Pink Triangle in 2018.

Labonté: I have a Masters in Applied Economics from the University of Montreal and have significant experience overseeing budgets and sitting on various boards including the World Urban Campaign standing committee and being the North American representative on one of UN-Habitat’s advisory boards.

Combined with my professional background doing business process improvements in the public sector, I know I can bring financial and facilities related expertise to the table should I be elected to the TDSB.

Tarantino: I have extensive experience having worked in a financial institution since the 1980s then getting my real estate licence in 1987 and working extensively with bankers and citizens. I’m self-taught over the years; I bought and sold properties for myself, my family, friends, and clients. I understand the financial market really well. I know what to look for and I understand corrections and adjustments quite well. I would like to see kids learn ways to make money and save money for big rewards in the future. I’m all about the kids, helping them to succeed. Starting young is the key.

Ashkir: For over 14 years, I have been on TDSB school councils, running workshops for parents and, with the help of community members, worked to bring families, trustees, and the school administration together to tackle issues. I continue to strive for an education system that families deserve. I currently serve as the chair and president of the Jarvis Collegiate Institute Public School Parent Council and chair of the Lord Dufferin Daycare Board, which provides me with insight around the administrative management of the school, along with the quality of education our students are receiving.

How will you address violence in the classroom towards both children and teachers? —Palmerston Area Residents’ Association 

Labonté: I was shocked and saddened by the results of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario workplace survey on violence in schools released earlier this year. It revealed that 70 per cent of public elementary school teachers have personally experienced violence and witnessed violence against another school staff member. It is entirely unacceptable that any staff or student feels unsafe in their school and this trend must be reversed.

Schools need the resources to effectively deal with violence in all its forms — this includes educational assistants, social workers, counsellors, and children’s mental health supports for students. It is incumbent upon school administrators to address resource gaps by working with TDSB to ensure the most appropriate solution is applied to a given situation.

Tarantino: I grew up with the strap and the ruler. I don’t agree in going that far, though kids need to know more about respect. It’s a lost art from both sides. I have seen some pretty rude teachers whose jobs are very secure push both parents and their kids around. Not fair. Kids too need to be respectable though they need to know it’s earned and not given freely. A few tweaks at both sides. Kids only know what they’re taught and teaching them early is the key. Some pretty rude kids out there. Somewhere along the line kids weren’t being heard and I believe this caused the noise. We need to have respect for the rest of our lives for one another.

Ashkir: As someone who raised both of my children in Ward 10 — specifically, in the Regent Park area — I take the safety of our students very seriously. In fact, I have previously run workshops for parents to boost parent engagement, and have encouraged the use of mentorship programs as a method of strengthening the safety in our schools. I myself have been a strong advocate of the Sister 2 Sister mentorship program, which helps to turn young women into leaders. Afterschool programs are also a critical resource for the enhancement of school safety and, if elected, I will call for its expansion.

Gapka: Violence in the classroom impacts children and teachers negatively and requires a focused series of interventions to ensure safety and security so that children are able to gain an excellent education. Addressing social determinants of health such as accessibility, food security with nutritional programs, and having a well-rounded broad-based educational curriculum including consent and healthy relationships and cultural competency is just a beginning.

Students must be supported with appropriate social work counselling, nurse practitioners, and, when needed, community policing which operate as crisis intervention teams within the school systems. Finally, children require strong adult role models in schools as well as at home and in society.

READ MORE ON THE ELECTION:

FOCUS: Putting candidates to the Gleaner test (City Election 2018)

FORUM: Take back Toronto on the 22nd (City Election 2018)

FOCUS: TCDSB candidate queries remain largely unanswered (City Election 2018)

Only one hopeful responded to Gleaner questions

Seven candidates are running for trustee in the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) Ward 9: Norm Di Pasquale, Iola Fortino, Alfredo Garcia, Denise Gracias, Angelo Harrison, Marnie MacCallum, and Sandra Weber. Ward 9 includes city wards 10, 11, 12, and 13.

The questions below were developed by the residents’ associations and BIAs in our coverage area. We emailed the questions to all candidates, and gave them a week to respond, asking them to keep each answer to 100 words or less. Only Di Pasquale responded to our calls and emails; his answers are below.The answers were edited only for length, grammar, and style.

Compiled by Ellie Hayden

How will you address violence in the classroom towards both children and teachers? —Palmerston Area Residents’ Association 

I would ensure that the Catholic board implements all recommendations from the Provincial Working Group on Health and Safety. The recommendations include ensuring all parties understand the requirements of the Occupational Health and Safety Act, ensuring staff understand any potential risk of physical injury in their school, and streamlining requirements to report incidents of violence in schools. Also important are ensuring there are up to date resources for bullying prevention, as well as progressive discipline while promoting positive student behaviour.

What background and experience do you have in educational and institutional financial management? —Harbord Street BIA

I ran an IT company for 10 years, setting a monthly and annual budget for the corporation. As a Virtual CIO for companies I worked for (including governmental organizations), I would take companies’ annual IT budget and determine the best way for them to spend that budget for maximum business value. As the chair of the successful community group NoJetsTO, I was responsible for setting and determining our budget, ensuring we didn’t overspend to meet our goal, which we did.

Do you support amalgamating the public and Catholic school boards? —Annex Residents’ Association

I do not support amalgamation of the school boards. All schools must be defended against being shut down, as they are critical community hubs. Amalgamation would certainly lead to schools being shut down. I am also concerned at the potential loss of jobs amalgamation of the boards would bring. Finally, I ask rhetorically, how well did Toronto’s amalgamation go with respect to saving costs?

READ MORE ON THE ELECTION:

FOCUS: Putting candidates to the Gleaner test (City Election 2018)

FORUM: Take back Toronto on the 22nd (City Election 2018)

FOCUS: Should the public and Catholic boards be amalgamated? (City Election 2018)

Travel round the world through the arts

By Heather Kelly

The end of October is a creepy, crawly, spooky fun time of year. With that in mind, everyone can get up close and personal with some of the biggest and baddest arachnids in the world, including new additions to the Spiders: Fear & Fascination exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Related spider-themed programming with exclusive evening access to the exhibition includes the talk Spider-Man: Legend & Legacy on October 30, where comic giants Chip Zdarsky and Adam Kubert discuss the history of Spider-Man in popular culture.

On October 26, adults have the opportunity to check out the creepy and crawly world of arachnids at ROM Friday Night Live “Wicked” and enjoy psychobilly band The House of Haunt and Scarlett LaFlamme Burlesque’s show Monsters.

At the Bata Shoe Museum’s “Halloween Spooktacular,” children ages 3 to 12 can decorate a Halloween-inspired cookie, make a special craft, and play ISpy in the galleries, and kids in costume get in to the museum for free, October 27-28.

The Gardiner Museum is offering a Jack-O-Lantern Workshop, September 29 to October 13, where you can make a Jack-O-Lantern out of clay to put in the window for Halloween.

Horror Rama returns to 918 Bathurst Centre for a two-day festival of all things horror, November 3-4.

The Japan Foundation is presenting free screenings of dark and occult films from Japan. The first part of the series features three films by cult favourite Shinya Tsukamoto, including the beautiful and macabre film Vital on October 23, Nightmare Detective on October 30 where, after a string of suspicious suicides where the victims slash themselves in their sleep, Detective Keiko Kirishima seeks the help of the Nightmare Detective who has the power to enter dreams.

The cyberpunk horror cult favourite Tetsuo The Iron Man screens on November 1, and additional films will be presented throughout November. Note that all of these films are rated R.

The 10th anniversary concert season continues at Koerner Hall with Juno Award winner Quique Escamilla’s Day of the Dead celebration on November 2. The concert will be a high-energy El Día de los Muertos party with theatre, dance, storytelling, and décor. There will be a pre-concert celebration of life where audience members can put photos of departed loved ones on an altar and honour them with food and drinks.

The Native Canadian Centre of Toronto’s culture department and the University of Toronto’s Indigenous student services are presenting an October 29 workshop that corrects the misconception that Indigenous-themed costumes are acceptable to purchase and wear. It will include a presentation and panel discussion about the importance of headdresses, regalia, and sacred items.

At A Different Booklist Cultural Centre, Reaching Intelligent Souls Everywhere presents spoken word on November 1. This month’s notable launches include Randell Adjei’s I Am Not My Struggles on November 3 and “Global Warming and the Sweetness of Life” on November 7.

Daniel Hope and Friends’ “AIR – A Baroque Journey” takes audiences on an outrageous romp through the baroque with a dazzling ensemble of virtuosi minstrels on November 3 at The Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall.

While the origins of the violin can be traced back thousands of years to Mongolia and India, it was the Italians to whom we can almost certainly attribute the creation of the violin in its modern form, as violinists and composers went on a journey seeking more extravagant and original ways in which to express themselves on this fascinating new instrument. AIR sets out to trace one such journey.

At the Istituto Italiano: the exhibition Guido Guidi – A New Map of Italy gathers more than 50 works, from the Canadian Centre for Architecture of Montréal. Guidi focuses on the spontaneous suburban architecture, on harsh secondary roads, on spray-painted walls, abandoned depots, and construction sites to form a complex and stratified portrait of the contemporary landscape.

As part of the Canadian Arabic Orchestra’s Festival of Arabic Music and Arts, Photocopy – Movie is at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema on October 28.

Directed by Tamer Ashry, the film tells of Mahmoud, who lives a traditional life until he settles for early retirement, buys a nearby storefront, and sets up “Mahmoud’s photocopy”.

Then as part of the festival, a concert, “Nur Sufi” with Dalal Abu Amneh, will take place on Thursday, November 1 at 918 Bathurst Centre.

The celebrated singer will take audiences on a holistic spiritual journey that combines Sufi whirling with music set to some of the greatest poetry of Rumi, Ibn Arabi, and Al Hallaj.

All of these arts and culture events are part of the Bloor St. Culture Corridor, a collaboration of 20 arts and culture organizations located on Bloor St. West.

Heather Kelly is the founder and director of the Bloor St. Culture Corridor, one of the city’s leading cultural districts.

Mural and street artists transformed tagged garage doors in the Euclid Avenue-Palmerston Boulevard laneway into animated, colourful canvases on September 15 and 16. The event celebrated the Laneway Light Up project, and was sponsored by StreetArt Toronto, a City of Toronto program that reduces graffiti vandalism by replacing it with community-engaged street art. Other participants included KJ Bit and Open Field Collective. ELLIE HAYDEN/GLEANER NEWS

MORE COVERS:

ON THE COVER: Bringing it to the table for 40 years (Aug./Sept. 2018)

ON THE COVER: Pop up pit stop (Summer 2018)

ON THE COVER: Ghost bike installed (July 2018)

ON THE COVER: The Ballot Bunch (Election Special 2018)

ON THE COVER: Accidental Parkland (May 2018)

Affordable units made possible by development charges

Spadina Road’s Wigwamen Terrace will receive $700,000 from the city to add 24 affordable housing units for Indigenous seniors. AHMED HAGAR/GLEANER NEWS

By Ahmed Hagar

Wigwamen Terrace (14 Spadina Rd.) has received $700,000 to fund a three-storey expansion that will add 24 new affordable housing units for Indigenous seniors. Toronto City Council approved the funding late last month.

“What this does is ensure that Indigenous seniors can continue to live in downtown Toronto and that the Annex can continue to be a truly mixed-income neighbourhood and truly compassionate, complete community,” said Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina), who sponsored the motion approving the funding.

Wigwamen contacted Cressy last year about finding money to expand the building, and raised $1.1 million for the expansion. This also includes funds received from two local developments, including the 666 Spadina development.

Cressy worked with the Annex Residents’ Association (ARA) and the Harbord Village Residents’ Association (HVRA) on bringing the project to fruition.

ARA chair David Harrison said that the association’s planning and zoning committee reviewed the plan to expand the Spadina Road apartment building.

HVRA chair Gail Misra said that Cressy asked her association if it would be okay to use Section 37 money being held for the community for expansion, which she approved because it was an extremely worthwhile project.

(Section 37 is a section of the Planning Act that allows the city to approve projects that exceed height and density zoning limitations in return for community benefits.)

“Even though Wigwamen is outside the boundaries of the Harbord Village area, our board was unanimously supportive of the creation of more affordable housing in our general community, and especially for Indigenous community members,” said Misra.

Built in 1979, the Wigwamen Terrace is a 104-unit apartment building that provides affordable housing for Indigenous seniors. Each unit is a wheelchair-accessible one bedroom with a private balcony. Wigwamen is also part of Open Door, a city program that aims to build up to 7,000 affordable homes to buy or rent by 2020.

The Terrace is owned by Wigwamen Incorporated, a non-profit organization that is the oldest and largest provider of urban affordable Indigenous housing in Ontario. They also have two other apartment buildings in Scarborough, Estorada at 228 Galloway Rd. and Waabnog at 20 Sewells Rd., along with 214 housing units throughout the city.

“The way the building is designed is there is a six-storey section and a three-storey section,” said Angus Palmer, Wigwamen’s general manager. “What this proposal relates to is the addition of 24 units over top of the three-storey section so that it will be built up to the six-storey level.”

The average rent of a one-bedroom apartment in Toronto rose by almost 9 per cent in 2017, and the vacancy rate is at 1 per cent, the lowest in 16 years. The trend continued in the first half of this year, according to a report from Urbanation, a real estate research firm. It also showed that almost half of renters pay more than 30 per cent of their income towards their rent.

Cressy said home affordability and availability is a citywide issue that should be addressed.

“We have a waiting list for affordable housing for about 181,000 people,” he said. “Increasingly, downtown Toronto is becoming unaffordable, which speaks to the pressing need to ensure that we continue to build more affordable housing.”

According to a report by Dr. Janet Smylie, an Indigenous health researcher at St. Michael’s Hospital, there are between 34,000 and 69,000 Indigenous people living in Toronto, which is approximately two to four times more than what’s reported by the census. Her report ascribes this difference to the more than one third of Indigenous Torontonians who live in precarious housing or experience homelessness.

This means Indigenous seniors are at greater risk, said Palmer, and that the Wigwamen Terrace expansion is “one small step towards providing deeply affordable housing for people who are in great need of it”.

“If you take a look at the income profile of Indigenous seniors, you will find the vast majority of them are on pensions,” he added. “In truth, it is not possible for someone to find housing if they rely on [Canada Pension Plan] or [Old Age Security].”

Cressy said affordable housing can solve many of the city’s challenges, and that providing housing is not just the smart thing, but the moral thing, to do.

“When someone has a home, they can go to work,” he said. “When a senior has a home, they can take care of their grandchildren. When a kid has a home, they can go to school. Housing is very much the solution, not just the challenge.”

Palmer said the federal and provincial governments must act to help the Indigenous community.

“It is time to move beyond consultation and it is time to actually roll out an affordable housing program for urban Indigenous people,” he said.

Council cuts a concern

By Ellie Hayden

Local residents’ associations, business improvement areas, and community organizations are concerned that reducing Toronto City Council from 47 to 25 seats will wreak havoc with the business of the city in their neighbourhoods.

“Clearly Ford is going to put his foot down wherever he feels like putting his foot down,” said David Harrison, chair of the Annex Residents’ Association (ARA), of the premier’s threat to use the notwithstanding clause.

The notwithstanding clause refers to Section 33 of the Canadian Constitution, which allows governments to pass laws that may contravene the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, after a judge rules a law unconstitutional.

The provincial government introduced legislation that invoked the notwithstanding clause after the Superior Court of Justice ruled that reducing city council in the midst of an election breached the charter’s freedom of expression clause.

Harrison recently sent a letter to all Members of Provincial Parliament urging them to exercise their free vote to “truly represent the people of Ontario” and to “vote NOT to use the notwithstanding clause”.

“I think there’s shock, I think there’s dismay, and I think there’s astonishment,” said Sue Dexter, who sits on the board of the Harbord Village Residents’ Association (HVRA), of the cuts to council. “The astonishment is that there have been no breaks on a premier who said he wants to rule the roost. But if he’s going to do that, this isn’t the way to do it.”

The issue became moot after the Ontario Court of Appeal stayed the lower court’s ruling, essentially setting it aside pending appeal, and allowing the province’s cut to go ahead.

Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) will now be running in the new Ward 10, Spadina-Fort York, which is south of the Annex, and Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) will be running for councillor in new Ward 11, University-Rosedale.

Brian Burchell, chair of the Bloor Annex and Mirvish Village BIAs (who also publishes this newspaper), characterizes city councillors as the squeaky wheels of municipal government who often kick-start action that’s been delayed by city bureaucracy.

He’s worried that councillors under the 25-ward system will “have too many constituents to serve, on average 110,000 each, and they will have to cherry-pick the files that get their attention.”

“The presumption is that…each councillor will have to have a much larger staff to accommodate the needs of the ward,” said Harrison. “All of a sudden we have to train new people. It’s going to be a lot of work.”

For Sue Dexter more staff isn’t always an effective solution.

“Staff can field some things really well, but if it’s a complicated matter you need the councillor,” she said. “If it’s the councillor who produces legislation, then what you want to do is have a clear line of communication with the councillor.”

That said, an increase in staff seems inevitable if councillors are to continue to serve their constituents effectively. But that means more money, which will eat into the $25 million that will be saved (according to Ford) by reducing council.

“If you’re adding ward assistants, say two ward assistants equal one councillor in terms of income, so in the end, your savings aren’t even there,” said Dexter.

Burchell agreed, saying “councillors will have to hire more staff and the cost to change the 25-ward system is in the millions.”

While the city’s own estimates suggest that cutting council will save approximately $2 per Toronto resident, “the real cost in losing an advocate for your concerns is much more,” he argued.

Still Burchell, Dexter, and Harrison remain hopeful.

“In a way, BIAs are like mini-municipalities, born of necessity, that have taken root and made Toronto as a whole a so much more livable place,” said Burchell.

For her part, Dexter said that “the [provincial] government has done something that is ill considered, but we have to be smarter than that.”

In the same vein, speaking on behalf of the ARA, Harrison said, “It becomes very important for residents to get involved. I think more will devolve to us in a funny way.”

A plan to revitalize Sergeant Ryan Russell Parkette is set to be completed by the end of the year, with construction scheduled to begin next spring. The small greenspace at Dupont Street and Avenue Road — which in 2011 was named after Russell, who was killed in the line of duty that same year near the corner of Avenue Road and Bloor Street — has been neglected for some time.

A working group including representatives of the local business improvement area and residents’ association was formed in March to oversee the park’s redevelopment. A public meeting was held in June and Russell’s family was asked what elements they’d like to see in the park. The current version of the plan, which is still being finalized, will cost approximately $370,000 to implement.

“It has been a very productive and positive process, one which we have proactively thought to bring together the neighbourhood and stakeholders to make sure that this plan works rather than us designing the park,” said Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina).

“It lacked an ability for people to sit and enjoy the park,” added Brian Green, a parks supervisor with the City of Toronto. “There are some benches, but they can be more than that.

“People want a place where they can relax, get a drink, while still maintaining the recognition of Sgt. Ryan Russell who is important to the community and the Toronto Police [Service].”

Russell’s dedication to his family will be at the heart of the revitalized parkette.

“The family [was] keen that including a playground would be especially fitting because [Russell] was all about family and spending time with his son Nolan,” said Cressy. “The tragic death of Ryan Russell is…not lost in the minds of any Torontonian and we hope that in some small way for the Russell family this park does and will provide a space of commemoration and memorial for him.”

—Temi Dada/Gleaner News, images courtesy of the City of Toronto

Exploring the roots of Korea Town

Tour-goers stop at Hodo Kwaja (656 Bloor St.?W.) for a taste of walnut cake. TEMI DADA/GLEANER NEWS

By Annemarie Brissenden

A heritage tour of Toronto’s Korea Town starts — as it should — at the Bloor Street United Church of Canada, once home to the Alpha Korean United Church.

Founded in 1967 when there were just over 200 Koreans living in Toronto, it’s the oldest Korean congregation in the city, and the third oldest in Canada after Montreal and Vancouver.

The history of Korean immigration to Canada is inextricably linked to some of Canada’s early religious institutions and their missions. The first Canadian (that we know of) to visit Korea was a missionary from Toronto, James Scarth Gale. After arriving in 1888, he would become famous in Korea for creating the first Korean-English dictionary and the first Korean translation of the Bible.

Another missionary, Dr. Francis Schofield, sent by the Presbyterian Church of Canada to Korea in 1916, would become involved in the 1919 Independence Movement against Japan and later be the only foreigner buried in the patriots’ section of the Korea National Cemetery.

These are but two of the 184 Canadian missionaries who helped to modernize education and medicine in Korea between 1888 and 1941. But it wasn’t until a 1967 change in Canada’s immigration policy that Koreans started coming to Canada, settling mostly in Toronto, where the Alpha Korean congregation served as a haven of faith and togetherness.

These days, there are approximately 73,390 Canadians of Korean descent who call Toronto home. And while few actually live in Korea Town any more, the stretch of Bloor Street between Bathurst and Christie streets in Seaton Village is still an epicentre of Korean business, culture, and, of course, food.

“We have special places that are Korean [and] that focus on celebrating Korean culture, like my parents’ restaurant [Korean Village Restaurant],” says Jason Lee, who grew up in Korea Town and gives tours of the strip on behalf of Heritage Toronto.

The stops on his tour include KCWA Family and Social Services on Madison Avenue, the Palmerston Library, P.A.T. Central, and the Korean Senior Citizens Society of Toronto.

Each stop has its own significance.

Founded in 1985 by a group of women concerned with women and family issues, the KCWA is dedicated “to building the Korean-Canadian community, one person at a time”, according to its website.

“I didn’t know of the [KCWA],” said Camille Begin, a program coordinator with Heritage Toronto, who participated in Lee’s most recent walk during the summer. “That is the point of this walk; even if you live in the neighbourhood there is still a lot you don’t know and you could learn a lot.”

The Korean Village Restaurant and P.A.T. Central are key stops on the tour because they are emblematic of key aspects of Korean-Canadian culture: entrepreneurship and food.

The Korean Village Restaurant is a traditional Korean family business, while P.A.T. — which calls itself Canada’s first Korean supermarket — supplies everything you need to host a traditional Korean meal, including, of course, kimchi.

The Palmerston Library — once affiliated with the YMCA — was where immigrants took classes to learn how to speak English and got help adjusting to their new city. Still a part of the local Korean-Canadian experience, the branch has over two thousand Korean language pieces in its collection.

Finally, the Korean Senior Citizens Society of Toronto is a drop-in centre that provides counselling, recreational programs, and classes from its location at the corner of Grace and Bloor streets.

This year’s tour came at a time when some people are wondering whether Korea Town is on a decline, with businesses starting to change hands to newer immigrant groups and many Koreans moving north. (Even the Alpha Korean United Church has relocated to a new site near Sheppard Avenue and Yonge Street.)

But Lee remains undaunted.

“As long as those places are still there, we are promoting Korean culture; in my view Korean culture is still alive. People say that it is dying but the way I look at it Korea Town is changing just like any other neighbourhood. We adapt, we survive.”

He wants to keep hosting the walks — glimpses into the immigrant experience — for as long as he can.

“It is a privilege. I do this as a way of honouring the past,” Lee said.

—with files from Temi Dada

Corn, corn, and more corn was on the menu at Jean Sibelius Park for the Annex Residents’ Association’s annual Corn Fest. This year’s festival featured a silent auction that raised money for those affected by the fire at 650 Parliament St. GEREMY BORDONARO/GLEANER NEWS

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