Narayever synagogue’s private sponsorship builds community

PHOTO COURTESY NARAYEVER SYNAGOGUE: Narayever members Mona Kornberg and Ricki Sharpe greet the Syrian family at the airport.

By Clarrie Feinstein

It took almost two years, but in March the First Narayever Congregation on Brunswick Avenue was finally able to welcome a Syrian refugee family into their community. When the couple and their five-year-old son arrived in Toronto, they became one of 14,000 privately sponsored families now living in Canada.

For the congregation, the journey began in September 2015 when its Social Action Committee made the decision to sponsor a Syrian refugee family. For the determined committee members, it was an easy decision.

[pullquote]“We want them to know that there is a strong support group for them here, they are not alone”—Lia Kisel, Jewish Immigrant Aid Services[/pullquote]

“We did it for a number of reasons,” says Pippa Feinstein, chair of the Social Action Committee. “As Jews we felt it was important to take a stand for other people who were being displaced and persecuted because of the Jewish history of displacement and persecution. There was a moral obligation.”

The committee created an active listserv with 100 people from the congregation who were eager to aid the sponsorship.

“Some days I would get up to 80 emails from the community on how to help with the sponsorship,” says Feinstein.

“This really brings the community together,” says committee member Micky Fraterman. “I also do work with the Church of the Redeemer, [whose congregation is a] seasoned sponsor and we have so far brought in three other refugee families from Iraq and Burma.”

This activism also allows members of the Jewish community, who are not necessarily religious, to use their professional skills to connect with the community in an active way, as some social workers and lawyers contribute their expertise to the difficult process of sponsoring refugees.

The Narayever partnered with the Jewish Immigrant Aid Services (JIAS), which is a government- and community-funded immigrant service organization providing comprehensive services to 8,000 immigrants a year. JIAS is a Sponsor Agreement Holder, a group that has signed an agreement with the Government of Canada that allows them to support refugees from abroad when they come to Canada. The Narayever and JIAS submitted their paperwork over two years ago, and the family arrived this spring.

“We offer settlement and integration services, which encapsulates everything,” says Lia Kisel, director of Language and Settlement at JIAS. “This includes English-as-a-second-language classes, literacy workshops, employment counselling, healthcare, school enrolment, and bank account and phone account set-ups — you name it. And we have capable social workers who can help with the psychological trauma and cultural shock the families are experiencing. It is an extremely difficult adjustment and transition they are making.”

There are volunteers around for 24 hours of the day, providing counselling and social services to the families. “We want them to know that there is a strong support group for them here, they are not alone.”

While there are translators offered and English classes are mandatory, the language barrier is the hardest obstacle to tackle in the transitioning period. Without this skill, the employment rate is low and economic alleviation is almost non-existent. Government-assisted refugees receive $9,500 as a start-up and $1,600 a month for the first year, providing barely enough money for basic necessities.

But what Kisel has found since working with JIAS for the past 13 years is that the families are just relieved to be safe.

“We focus specifically on family reunification and they are just happy to be reunited with their loved ones and to be in an environment where they do not have to fear for their life. They are always so grateful.”

While members of the Narayever volunteer their time to assist with the transition period for their sponsored family it is only the beginning of an arduous journey ahead.

“You are dealing with some people who are not literate in their native language,” explains Fraterman. “It is such a difficult process acclimatizing them to Canadian society. You’re teaching them the concept of rent and bank accounts, because it’s completely different from their own communities.”

Even though the work is taxing, Fraterman finds the experience to be ultimately rewarding, a sentiment shared by Kisel.

And while the support from the Jewish community was overwhelming it was not surprising for Kisel: “when people want to come together and help others in a desperate situation it impacts the relationship the Jewish community has with other communities. Reform synagogues are working with orthodox synagogues; we have a mosque and a synagogue working together…. It just speaks to our shared strengths, values, and principles.”

The future for the Syrian family is uncertain, but it is one that at least guarantees basic security from the life-threatening situations they were experiencing during the Syrian conflict.

“It’s still early days for the family,” says Feinstein. “We can’t predict what the future holds in store for them.”

Pippa Feinstein, chair of Social Action Committee, is the writer’s sister.

READ MORE:

HISTORY: Yiddish sign evokes rich history (October 2016)

NEWS: Building community over fattoush (June 2016)

NEWS: A warm welcome for new arrivals (January 2016)

EDITORIAL: Embrace refugees (December 2015)

NEWS: Churches raise funds for refugees (November 2015)

HISTORY: First Narayever marks 100 (February 2015)

Royal Conservatory of Music marks Canada 150

By Heather Kelly

May is a month of fantastic festivals and concert season finales on the Bloor St. Culture Corridor. It is also Museum Month, and there is no better time to visit the Bata Shoe Museum, Gardiner Museum, and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).

Festivals

From May 10 to 18, the Miles Nadal JCC presents the ReelAbilities Toronto Film Festival, the largest film festival in North America dedicated to the lives, stories, and art of people with disabilities.

Photography exhibitions that are part of Scotiabank CONTACT Photography Festival include Alliance Française’s Making An Offering photos by Alexander Rousseau, and the Gardiner Museum’s ARTIFACT by fashion and celebrity photographer Deborah Samuel. The group exhibition The Family Camera at the ROM explores the complexity of family photographs. Women of the Bimah by Victor Helfand looks at gender-equal participation in Jewish religious services at the Miles Nadal JCC. National Treasures at Todai-ji Temple, Nara photographs by Miro Ito, is now on at the Japan Foundation. Struggles with Images by Parker Kay, a site-specific installation that addresses the shift from images being analog objects to digital entities, is at the Toronto Reference Library.

The Royal Conservatory of Music presents the 21C Music Festival May 24 to 28, marking Canada 150 with nine concerts and 31 premieres in five days. Highlights include the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra conducted by Johannes Debus, the Canadian Art Song Project, Cecilia String Quartet’s commissioned compositions by Canadian women, Montreal violinist Angèle Dubeau, and Bang on a Can All-Stars’ “Bang on a Canada”. Soundstream’s last concert of this season, The Music of Unsuk Chin, is the Festival finale on Sunday, May 28, at Koerner Hall, with a humorous exploration of opera styles across history and a world premiere by Canadian composer Chris Paul Harman, re-imagining the 1930s jazz standard “It’s All Forgotten Now”.

Festivals this month cap off with the Miles Nadal JCC’s annual Downtown Tikkun Leil Shavuot: All-Night Jewish Learning Festival on Tuesday, May 30, from dusk until dawn, and the return of the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Festival, kicking off a series of four concerts starting May 30 at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre with Delightfully Baroque.

Concert season finales

Of all the concert season finales this month, one is by far the most significant: the Talisker Players have announced that their May performances will be their final concerts. Ever. At A Mixture of Madness, May 16 and 17 at Trinity St. Paul’s Centre, soprano Ilana Zarankin and baritone Bruce Kelly join the Talisker Players in an exploration of the fine line between revelation and insanity. It will feature a selection of Henry Purcell’s Mad Songs, a new commission from Alice Ho, and Peter Maxwell Davies’s gripping Eight Songs for a Mad King. This final production marks the culmination of Talisker Players’ 17 years in the Annex.

Additional concert season finales — by ensembles that will return — include The Toronto Consort’s final performance of this season, Helen of Troy by Francesco Cavalli. The world’s first great comic opera, it runs May 12 to 14 at Trinity-St. Paul’s Centre.

May is Museum Month

At the Gardiner Museum, acclaimed exhibition Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary of curious porcelain creatures, closes May 22. Not to be missed at the ROM is Out of the Depths: The Blue Whale Story, and on May 11 join ROM Mammologist Jacqueline Miller for The Renaissance of the Blue: The Odyssey of the ROM’s Great Whale. The Bata Shoe Museum presents special activities on Mother’s Day, May 14, and celebrates International Museum Day May 18 with pay-what-you-can admission and the opening of a new exhibition Shining Stars: Celebrating Canada’s Walk of Fame. Also May 14 and 18, everyone interested in bespoke shoe-making can watch Peter Feeney make a pair of handmade shoes for BSM Director Emanuele Lepri.

All of these arts and culture events are part of the Bloor St. Culture Corridor, a collaboration of 19 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.

PHOTO BY CLARRIE FEINSTEIN/GLEANER NEWS: A Hart House Map Room exhibition that runs until May 26 aims to educate Canadians on the role of treaties in Canadian history. Canada By Treaty: Negotiating Histories — curated by history professors Heidi Bohaker and Laurie Bertram, and senior undergraduate student James Bird — is a direct response to one of the calls to action put forward by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2015.

As Canada celebrates 150 years of colonialist history, this display presents another vital component to our history, which has forever shaped the relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people. The exhibit delves into the geographic land negotiations — treaties — that predate Canadian Confederation. Each of the 24 panels provides a comprehensive explanation of the complicated history of treaties, with panels providing information on residential schools and treaties, wampum belts and treaty records, the role of Indigenous women in treaty-making, and the University of Toronto’s own complicated affiliations with land negotiations.

The exhibit contextualizes the nuances of these agreements, tracing the shift from alliance treaties initially between various First Nations and later with the European settlers in Canada, which brought on the period of land surrender, and ends with the recent treaties of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement and the Nisga’a Final Agreement — the latter of which was approximately 100 years in the making. The land claims process is still going on: much of British Columbia, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador are the subject of claims that have not yet been settled.

The display strongly emphasizes the important distinction that needs to be clarified: treaties were shaped by negotiation not conquest. The repercussion of treaties has resulted in the displacement and exploitation of Indigenous peoples because colonialists did not follow through on promises made in these land negotiations. The exhibit highlights a history that must come to the forefront in our national consciousness — an accessible room in Hart House teaching this history for all Torontonians is a start, but more needs to be done.

—Clarrie Feinstein/Gleaner News

READ MORE

NEWS: Reclaiming the Anishinaabe past (April 2017)

LIFE: Indigenous Games coming in July (March 2017)

NEWS: Building a stronger relationship (February 2017)

FOCUS ON EDUCATION: Decolonizing our schools (December 2016)

FOCUS ON EDUCATION: Building a respectful future (November 2016)

HISTORY: Honouring those who honour history (October 2016)

NEWS: U of T committee tasked with responding to Truth and Reconciliation Commission delivers interim report (August 2016)

ON THE COVER: Tracking history in the Annex (April 2016)

Local nine look to take next step to winning championship

PHOTO BY R.S. KONJEK/GLEANER NEWS: The Toronto Maple Leafs take batting practice during a spring training session at Christie Pits on April 26.

By R.S. Konjek

It’s a casual April evening at Christie Pits Park.

A handful of locals play a pickup soccer game on one of the fields. An occasional runner pounds up the slopes near the baseball diamonds. Walkers amble past, many of them joined by canine companions who lead the way. The bright afternoon sun has moved low in the sky.

Inside the fences of Dominico Field, young men in athletic gear perform stretches and sprints. There are familiar faces and some new ones.

[pullquote]“Each new season brings the promise of excitement to be had and memories to be made.”[/pullquote]

The Toronto Maple Leafs are holding a spring training session in preparation for their 49th season in the Intercounty Baseball League, scheduled to begin in a few days. The Leafs are coming off a 2016 post-season run that saw them make it all the way to the league championship before falling short of the trophy.

The mood tonight is light. A coach’s instructions mingle with banter and laughter from the players. It doesn’t take long for the players to start up with some good-natured ribbing. It’s as if they never left this place.

They split into groups for some long tossing (pitchers) and infield practice (fielders).

Leafs owner Jack Dominico huddles with field manager Damon Topolie near the home bench. As they watch practice, they review the team roster and discuss a player who finds himself caught between baseball and work. The player wants to commit to the team, but only if his employer allows him enough time to be able to play regularly.

In this working man’s league, players come and go. Some leave for school. Some get married. Some start jobs in new cities. There are holes to fill at the start of every season. The owner and manager face these challenges every year. By opening day, they’ll have it figured out.

While the pitchers head to the bullpen, the crack of a bat heralds the start of batting practice for the other players. They take turns smashing baseballs over the fences, where team volunteers dutifully retrieve them.

A few curious passers-by have stopped to watch. Soon, these moonshots will be cheered by masses all around the park. For tonight, it’s only the players who howl after each blast.

Jonathan Solazzo is back for a third season with the Leafs. The third baseman says it’s always great to see his teammates again after the off-season.

“Everyone does their own off-season training, if it’s at the gym or baseball facilities,” he says. “Once we see everyone, it’s all family back again.”

A swashbuckling slugger and fan favourite, Solazzo is modest about his goals: “Stay healthy and be able to come and play every day.”

As far as team goals are concerned, the Leafs have lofty ambitions. Solazzo’s time with Toronto has seen the club progress deeper into the post-season each year.

“We were always one step closer to the prize,” he says. “[In 2015] we lose in the semi-finals in game seven to Barrie. [In 2016] we lose in the finals against Barrie. We’re hungry. We know what it takes to win the trophy, so hopefully this year we’ll take that next step.”

Based at one of the smallest ballparks in the league, the Leafs have always been a big-hitting team. On this night, it’s good to see that there are some new additions to the pitching staff, offering the hope that the Leafs will have all the pieces necessary to win it all this year.

The historic ballpark at Christie Pits has been the scene of baseball thrills for almost a half-century, and each new season brings the promise of excitement to be had and memories to be made.

Fans will be pleased to know that the park’s restrooms — located in the building behind centre field — have been upgraded. This follows on some revitalizations of the park that began in 2015. While the restroom facilities may have resembled something out of the Middle Ages before, they positively gleam now. Go with confidence.

The Toronto Maple Leafs’ 2017 schedule includes home games at Christie Pits every Sunday afternoon from May through July, plus a handful of Wednesday night games. Admission to Leafs games at the Pits is free.

READ MORE

SPORTS: Late summer blues (September 2016)

Governments need to change behaviour through policy

By Terri Chu

This past Earth day, the planet surpassed 400 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. I remember being taught in primary school that 350 ppm was the magic number we weren’t supposed to reach. We sang songs about loving the earth and all the little individual things we can do to lower our environmental footprint. Despite all the singing, we blew through that target, so then the politicians decided that the next target would be 400. Having blown through that, I’m thinking the political response is to sit down and wait for self-annihilation (oh wait…that’s pretty much what we’ve been doing this whole time).

If you’re losing faith in governments to take meaningful action on climate change, you are not alone. Somewhere there must be a support group.

[pullquote]“Creating waste has never been easier, yet no politician dares raise a hand to tax garbage for fear of upsetting people’s right to have pre-peeled bananas in plastic packages.”[/pullquote]

While the Great Barrier Reef suffers a second mass bleaching event, buildings in Canada’s north are destabilizing due to lost permafrost, and Western Quebec is still under flood water, our government has pretended we can continue on with business as usual just because we have a carbon tax on a limited number of things. Kinder Morgan pipelines got the go-ahead, our high-emissions agricultural sector continues to enjoy subsidies (a pound of local organic beef is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than taking pretty much any vegetable-based food, slapping it on an airplane, and flying it around the world), and transit users continue to flee back into their cars due to the lower marginal cost of driving.

And in the meantime, new consumer “innovations” are here to help us fast-track our pollutions. Take for example the Silicon Valley based Juicero. They raised $120 million to market a $400 “smart juicer” that literally squeezes a juice packet for you into a cup. Creating waste has never been easier, yet no politician dares raise a hand to tax garbage for fear of upsetting people’s right to have pre-peeled bananas in plastic packages.

For years I’ve been writing about the little things we can do as individuals to reduce our carbon footprint. The sad reality is that none of what you, or I, do matters when half the city is still throwing out a dozen K cups a day. For every innovation that helps us reduce our carbon footprint, a Juicero comes along and spits in our faces, edging us closer to the dinosaurs.

There’s no easy solution, and definitely no quick fix. We need structural changes that stop rewarding our own laziness.

It is unconscionable that governments have done so little to curb food-packaging waste. Look at the lowly juice box. In three decades it has remained fundamentally unchanged, unchallenged by either consumers or governments. A three-pack comes wrapped in plastic, each individual box comes with a straw that will never decompose, and each straw is protected by its own plastic sleeve.

If we are to tackle climate change and our rapid destruction of our resources, we need structural changes. Washing something and reusing it needs to be price competitive with mining oil, forming it into a single-use disposable product, and getting it hauled away on the back of a gigantic truck.

Labour, not materials, has become the most expensive part of food distribution. Why pay a milkman to deliver milk and reclaim bottles when we can throw out mountains of containers at near zero cost? Meanwhile, our innovations are decreasing the need for human labour so much that we are looking at a population that’s about to face massive unemployment.

Without the right incentives, we will continue to double down producing garbage that will never decompose and adding more emissions to the air. It is how we have defined progress for over two centuries.

Depending on individuals to save the earth isn’t working anymore. It doesn’t matter how many K cups you and I don’t use when they still produce enough to circle the globe multiple times a year. We need governments to have the courage to enact policies that would effectively put them out of business unless they change their business model from one that treats the earth as a free garbage dump. When dumping onto the earth is no longer free, muscle power to reduce and reuse might actually start making economic sense.

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

READ MORE GREENINGS BY TERRI CHU:

Solving the food waste problem (April 2017)

Kellie Leitch was right (March 2017)

Feeling the carbon tax crunch? (January 2017)

Proposal designates character areas

PHOTO BY BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS: Audience members at a community meeting fear that extending the University of Toronto’s Planning Act exemptions for its St. George campus would lead to additional new development in the area.

By Brian Burchell

The City of Toronto hosted a public meeting to consider expanding the University of Toronto’s exemptions from the Planning Act early last month. Billed as a “pre-application consultation” by the city, it drew community members who questioned the need to broaden the university’s powers.

Approved by the city in 1993 and 1997, the U of T Master and Secondary plans are essentially an area-specific bylaw enabling the university to bypass the Committee of Adjustment when development proposals for its St. George Campus exceed standard restrictions around minimal set-back, building heights, and density.

[pullquote]“We need to keep the institution in the institutional area and out of our nice community and houses”—Bob Barnett, local resident[/pullquote]

The Secondary Plan specified the location of these buildings, and limited the exemptions. The existing bylaw covers 29 potential sites, 16 of which have been or are currently being developed, including the new engineering tower at 47-55 St. George Street north of College Street. It exemplifies the type of infill, height, density, and set-back that the university wants to retain the right to develop under an amended secondary plan.

The proposal covers the same 108 hectares as the Secondary Plan, roughly bounded by College Street, Bloor Street West, Spadina Avenue, and Bay Street. It would apply to building owners in that area, like the Royal Ontario Museum, even though the university owns only 77 of the 108 hectares.

The university has requested carte blanche to build any structure that is consistent with what it has classified as “character areas”: the Historic Campus Character Area, the North Campus Character Area, and the Huron Sussex Character Area. According to the city’s planning department, the planning objectives of each character include conserving and protecting cultural heritage resources, enhancing and expanding the public realm, and identifying opportunities for new development.

City planner Paul Johnson said that while the city agrees with certain aspects of the plan, it still has significant concerns.

It supports basing the proposed policies on heritage and public realm, “looking at it as more of a cultural heritage landscape”, standardizing the building-by-building analysis, and encouraging more cycling and pedestrian activity.

However, said Johnson, the challenge is to find the right balance between flexibility and precision in the area.

“Right now we find the plan overly flexible. It does not provide enough certainty, does not provide enough protection for heritage elements, and does not prevent the significant intrusion of other uses such as private residential and commercial activity in the area.”

He also questioned whether the existing street boundaries still make sense, or whether they should be expanded.

Pino Di Mascio, a partner at Urban Strategies Inc. representing the university at the meeting, said the shift to character areas as a planning guide “is consistent with what is happening elsewhere in the city.

“So much heritage and low-rise existing institutions [need] to be maintained. [There’s also] a need to create an aesthetically pleasing public realm that meets the needs of the students, the staff, the faculty, and the people that meander through the university.”

But it was the identification of opportunities for new development that concerned most of the speakers at the meeting.

Local resident Ray Wolf said the university should be more transparent, and demanded to know whether it planned to put condominiums in the mixed-use areas.

“The university…has been busy acquiring parcels of land south of College Street and east of Spadina [Avenue] for years,” said Ceta Ramkhalawansingh, former councillor (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina), who spoke on behalf of the Grange Residents’ Association. She also questioned the need for further development when the university’s own documents suggest it has no plans to add students to the St. George Campus, and in fact is planning to change the mix to a more graduate-based student body.

Bob Barnett, a local resident and graduate of the university’s school of architecture in the 1960s, characterized the university’s conduct “as the gorilla escaping, trying to get south of College [Street] and west of Spadina [Avenue]. We need to keep the institution in the institutional area and out of our nice community and houses.”

Barnett praised some the proposal’s language, like “new development will transition into the neighbouring city edges in a context appropriate manner”, but observed that this is not consistent with the U of T’s conduct.

“The university has come to beat up our neighbourhood at Sussex and Spadina and build a 23-storey building right beside two-and-half-storey houses…. There are all sorts of nice words around the room but it ain’t happening.”

The city said it plans to host additional community consultations in the future, each focusing on the plan’s key elements: heritage, open space, active transportation, and built-form. The university is expected to make its formal application in early 2018.

In 1993, Brian Burchell was a governor of the university, and participated in the creation of the original Master Plan. He publishes this newspaper.

READ MORE:

NEWS: New chapter for student residence? (February 2017)

NEWS: Preventing a wall of towers (October 2016)

CHATTER: Two new rezoning applications submitted to city (September 2016)

NEWS: Tall tower before OMB, as city battles back with block study (August 2016)

NEWS: Planning for the future (May 2016)

DEVELOPINGS: Annual review reflects tension between community activism and OMB (March 2016)

Street-naming project highlights a 15,000-year history

By Clarrie Feinstein

How things are named can be loaded with historical, and often political, significance. Consider Toronto: in the Wendat language, Toronto refers to a fishing weir constructed of standing sticks in the water, implying this was an important gathering area for many Aboriginal peoples as the fish from the weirs would not have been for one specific Indigenous group but many. Toronto is often mistranslated as “gathering place”, which simplifies the complex meaning of the word and the cultural exchanges that took place in the region.

[pullquote]“[We] wanted to highlight the importance of the Anishinaabe language in an activist and creative context”—Susan Blight, Aboriginal Student Life Coordinator at First Nations House[/pullquote]

Within the city itself, our street names — many of which reflect early politicians and landowners — also obscure the deep roots that many Indigenous tribes have in the area. But Ogimaa Mikana, a project to rename and reclaim streets to their original Indigenous names in the Anishinaabe language that dates to 2013, is challenging that historical whitewashing.

“During the height of the Idle No More movement there was a lot of visibility and coverage on Indigenous activism,” said Susan Blight, the Aboriginal Student Life Coordinator at First Nations House, who cofounded the project with fellow artist and activist Hayden King. “[We] wanted to highlight the importance of the Anishinaabe language in an activist and creative context. We came up with the idea of replacing street signs in an interventionist way.”

Blight and King began by covering street signs with Anishinaabemowin street-place names, the first being Queen Street, which they renamed Ogimaa Mikana in tribute to the founding female leaders of the Idle No More movement and Chief Theresa Spence, who at the time was on a hunger strike to protest the treatment of Indigenous peoples in Canada.

“Chief Spence was receiving a lot of misogynistic and racist commentary during this time from the media. As Indigenous activists we felt that reaction towards her in a very visceral way — we wanted to honour these female leaders at the centre of these movements,” Blight explained.

The Queen Street sign was chosen for its prominent and iconic position in the city. By renaming the street in the Anishinaabe language to Ogimaa, meaning leader, and Mikana, meaning path or road, they were paying homage to their ancestral roots and the modern female activists who were taking action to fight injustice.

Bringing historical context to the forefront is a vital ingredient for integrating the strong Indigenous presence and community that is in the city, and this project is a symbolic representation of improving Indigenous visibility.

In 2015, the Dupont by the Castle BIA contacted the Ogimma Mikana project to turn this form of creative activism into a concrete part of Toronto street signage.

“We had put some signs at Davenport and Spadina [roads] because Spadina Road was an anglicised word for Ishpadinaa of which there is a whole history for Indigenous peoples in this area,” Blight said. “Davenport is a vital route as it was the longest road that was used for thousands of years by Indigenous peoples. There is great historical significance in this part of Toronto.”

The renaming of the intersection was brought to the attention of the BIA chair, Stuart Grant, at a BIA meeting by a member of the team.

“We brought this project to the attention of the city,” said Grant, “to see if we could incorporate the Indigenous language on the street signs. Apparently above the street name on the sign there is space for the BIA to use their logo or whatever you want, so we put forth the original Anishinaabe names and the city approved.”

Blight and King acted as language consultants throughout the process and after a year the permanent signs were placed on major streets in the Dupont area. “We wanted to highlight the fact that this area is the site of these ancient trails,” explained Grant. “It has generated interest and conversation.”

The Ogimaa Mikana project is creating visibility and presence on the land that was and is home to many Indigenous peoples. As Canada celebrates its 150th birthday, Blight reminds us that we should also celebrate the 15,000 years of history that colonial and settler history has obscured and eradicated for hundreds of decades.

“We want people to look further into the history and to relearn and speak our languages that hold a central place in our society. And for municipal governments to recognize there are these histories and peoples that deserve a place and visible presence in our city. But this project is ongoing. More will be coming out this summer, so look out for our work.”

Read more

LIFE: Indigenous Games coming in July (March 2017)

NEWS: Building a stronger relationship (February 2017)

FOCUS ON EDUCATION: Decolonizing our schools (December 2016)

FOCUS ON EDUCATION: Building a respectful future (November 2016)

HISTORY: Honouring those who honour history (October 2016)

NEWS: U of T committee tasked with responding to Truth and Reconciliation Commission delivers interim report (August 2016)

ON THE COVER: Tracking history in the Annex (April 2016)

Thomas Fisher Library renovation aims to prevent condensation

GEREMY BORDONARO/GLEANER NEWS: Thomas Fisher’s rare books are now safe from condensation thanks to student ingenuity.

By Geremy Bordonaro

It’s home to a diverse array of rare manuscripts, and the archives of some our nation’s most prominent scribes. Even as the HMS Terror lies under the Arctic sea, its log books are safely stored within its walls.

Opened in 1973 and a fixture of the University of Toronto’s St. George campus, the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library has long had a fatal flaw. Condensation has occurred on the inner walls of the library’s mezzanine levels, threatening the integrity of the library’s collection. But an eye-catching exterior renovation, now underway, is addressing the problem.

[pullquote]“We realized some years ago that this was obviously a serious problem for a rare book library”—P. J. Carefoote, librarian[/pullquote]

“The building [is] 40 to 45 years old and in between the inner and the outer wall there was a vapour barrier. Over the years that barrier disintegrated,” said librarian P. J. Carefoote. “That meant that condensation was building up on the inside and it wasn’t being absorbed. We realized some years ago that this was obviously a serious problem for a rare book library.”

He explained the devastating effects of heavy moisture on the rare books if the condensation continued to build up.

“The things that books dislike most of all is fluctuations in humidity and temperature. When you have moisture build-up on the inside there’s a danger that humidity levels are going to go up. When humidity levels go up there’s a danger of mould,” said Carefoote. “Once a book gets mould the treatment is very, very costly, if possible at all.”

Dealing with the problem has proved to be difficult.

All architectural firms suggested the library move all of the books out and close for interior renovations, something out of the question for the library’s manager, John Toyonaga, manager of the library.

“To move that many books, rare books, is a task in itself. Where do you move them to? They can’t just go anywhere,” said Toyonaga. “[They’ve] got to go to a controlled environment. And then if people want to use them they need to be accessible. That is the whole issue why we wouldn’t want to [take] that route. And we didn’t have to.”

It was a group of University of Toronto students who came up with a solution.

“You can give [the university] a problem and [it] groups first year students to come up with options for you. No charge,” he said. “I saw this ad and I went up to my supervisor and said, ‘You know we’ve got nothing to lose. Let’s see what they can come up with.’”

Although the solution has changed considerably from what the students proposed, the group did spark an idea that led to the current work.

“We looked at ways to increase the temperature of the exterior walls. That can be done in a few different ways,” said Jack Albert of RJC Engineers: Structural Engineering, Building Science & Restoration. “The way that it’s being done now avoids the necessity of moving the books. That was one of the big owner concerns.”

RJC has installed purple and yellow layered insulation, and it already appears to be working.

It has also drawn some new eyes to the building.

“The best thing about this is that people at large have noticed that we’re here, which is great. After 40 years, people are starting to realize that there’s a rare book library in Toronto,” said Carefoote. “Oddly enough, having our building turn purple and then turn yellow has really brought it to people’s attention. People have been coming in. It’s a nice side benefit to all this.”

READ MORE:

ABOUT OUR COVER: Arctic amusements (December 2016)

ARTS: HMS Terror found on greeting cards (December 2016)

ABOUT OUR COVER: A red house in winter (December 2015)

The Central Tech Blues came off an outstanding basketball season with a third-place finish in the National Preparatory Association championships. Led by the association’s 2017 Coach of the Year Kevin Jeffers, the Blues beat out the Toronto Basketball Academy 103 to 93 in a tightly-fought game. Point guard Raheim Sullivan scored 23 points for the Blues, and was awarded player of the game. Fellow team member shooting guard Steven Rahwire was named the league’s most valuable player.

—Justin Vieira/Gleaner News

Bateman’s Bicycle Company has opened a third store at Dupont Street and Davenport Road. Express Shoppe (149 Dupont St.) offers a variety of bikes, accessories, and quick tune-ups. The company emphasizes bike safety, ensuring that bikes are road-ready quickly and affordably.

“The Annex is one of the main corridors downtown for bicycle commuters. We knew this was a busy traffic area, so that’s one of the main reasons why we wanted to come over here and service it,” said Robert Bateman, the eponymous owner of the company. He said that many customers have stopped in since the store opened its doors.

“We’re very fortunate that the neighbourhood here has responded quite well to our new shop,” Bateman said. “It’s been pretty exciting to be a welcoming addition here and we can’t wait to see how the business will grow.”

—Justin Vieira/Gleaner News