PHOTO COURTESY NICHOLAS WONG/TORONTO CITY OPERA: The Toronto City Opera, now in its 50th season, performs A Merry Widow by Franz Lehár at the Bickford Centre (777 Bloor St. W.). This season’s performances also include a staging of Carmen by Georges Bizet.

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ARTS: Drink L’Elixir d’Amore on Bloor (February 2016)

Toronto for Everyone celebrates Honest Ed’s

By Geremy Bordonaro

For 68 years, Honest Ed’s welcomed all those who came to its doors. While the store made its last sale on the final day of 2016, it will play host to a grand wake before it closes its doors one last time. And organizers hope the celebration will be a tribute to the spirit of inclusivity that they say was a hallmark of the discount emporium.

Running for four days, An Honest Farewell will include a cocktail party, a community hub, an immersive art maze (clearly a reflection of just how easy it was to get lost in the labyrinthian store), a bargain bash, and, of course, shopping.

“The Honest Ed’s farewell, also the launch of Toronto for Everyone, is an event that is meant to bring together everyone to honour and respect the legacy of the building,” explained Stefan Hostetter, a community director with Toronto for Everyone.

An initiative of the Centre of Social Innovation, Toronto for Everyone is a collaborative team of city-builders, marketers, artistic directors, event planners, and community organizers who are working together to foster inclusivity and a sense of wonder.

“There are some aspirational goals to take Toronto, which is statistically the most diverse city in the world, to a place that is a handy and inclusive example for the world,” continued Hostetter, who saw Honest Ed’s as a bastion of inclusivity in the Annex. When researching how best to send off the store he found that there were many who shared his opinion.

“We found that there was a ton of people speaking of Honest Ed’s as [the] first place where they felt welcomed and accepted in the city,” he said. “With Honest Ed’s they felt like they were actually welcomed and brought into the space.”

It’s a sentiment that rang true for Timna Ben-Ari, a member of Toronto for Everyone’s inclusivity committee. When she arrived in Toronto eight years ago, she experienced first-hand how Honest Ed’s was “an example of what makes Toronto as amazing as it is”.

Ben-Ari believes the closing will bring changes, and that it’s important to mark the occasion with a large-scale event.

“It has had a huge impact. That’s a big part of why this event is not just a celebration, but a recognition of what Honest Ed’s was and what it means that it is closing,” Ben-Ari said. “A lot of this event is around ensuring that there is space for all of those feelings. There will be grieving and that’s understandable.”

While Honest Ed’s may be the key focus, Hostetter wants to honour the local shops and businesses that will also be taking their leave.

“It’s not just Ed’s. It is the entire Mirvish Village…. This is not just the local grocery/everything else store. It’s your local pub, favourite place to eat, art gallery, and dentist. It’s your entire neighbourhood of services that is leaving. To expect that to not be massively destructive would be foolish.”

Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) has fond memories of what Honest Ed’s was like in the past.

“I grew up in the Annex. As a kid I used to go and play tag and hide and seek in there,” Cressy said. “This is part of the lure of Honest Ed’s. We all had a connection to it. Whether it was as a shopper, as a kid playing, or somebody in the neighbourhood who would take photos in front of it. It was a fixture.”

Such connections will make it hard for people to move on from the store but ultimately Cressy thinks that the city moving forward is good as long as events like An Honest Farewell keep us reminded of the past.

“The birth and rebirth of cities and neighbourhoods is part of what allows us to continue to grow and mature,” he said. “There is a loss with an end of an era but ultimately if we do our job right by honouring the history and reflecting on it then we will have done well by Honest Ed’s.”

READ MORE:

CHATTER: Bird was the word for giving (January 2017)

ARTS: Capturing the Ward (October 2015)

U of T receives final report recommending response to TRC

By Clarrie Feinstein

The Steering Committee for the University of Toronto Response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada has answered a call to action. On Dec. 31, 2016, it released Wecheehetowin, a final report on how the university should respond to the dozens of educational reforms recommended by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Taking its title from the Cree word for working together, the report’s recommendations aim to create a more welcoming environment for Indigenous students by having their presence more widely acknowledged in campus spaces. At the heart of the report is a recognition that the university must acknowledge its own role before any meaningful reconciliation can begin.

[pullquote]“When we were forcefully removed from Toronto, people celebrated. This has to be reminded”—Lee Maracle, Traditional Teacher[/pullquote]

“U of T has played a role in the oppression of Indigenous peoples as the university educated generations of political leaders, policy makers, teachers, and civil servants who were a part of the system that created residential schools,” reads the report, which emphasizes the vital importance of evaluating the relationship between the university and the Indigenous community in an honest way.

“The biggest problem the Indigenous community faces at U of T is representation at all levels,” says Jonathan Hamilton-Diabo, co-chair of the steering committee and director of Aboriginal Student Services at First Nations House and coordinator of the Council for Aboriginal Initiatives. “They need to find a place, community, and people on campus, and if these are not readily available then it makes it very difficult for them to feel a sense of belonging.”

The report strives for increased representation and awareness of Indigenous issues in regard to five specific areas: Indigenous spaces, Indigenous faculty, Indigenous curriculum, Indigenous research ethics and community relationships, and Indigenous co-curricular education. Five individual working groups created the recommendations for each of these categories. In total, the report outlines 34 Calls to Action, and recommends specific ways the university can implement certain initiatives in order to make this vision a reality.

“We wanted different approaches and to expand the number of people participating in the process,” says Hamilton-Diabo. The committee included staff, faculty, and students, as well as two Indigenous Elders, Traditional Teacher Lee Maracle and Elder in Residence Andrew Wesley.

There are 500 to 600 students who self-identify as Aboriginal on all three campuses, but Hamilton-Diabo says this is a conservative approximation.

And although First Nations House (the third floor of the North Borden Building on Spadina Avenue) and the Indigenous Studies program offer a space for Indigenous students, such spaces have limited resources and are not centres of focus at the university. The final report outlines ways to make Indigenous spaces more central on St. George campus, and provide opportunities for spiritual practice.

“It goes beyond the physical space,” explains Hamilton-Diabo, “it’s not just about dedicating a building. There has to be more enhanced Indigenous presence for people to see there is an Aboriginal community that is very vibrant here. This can be done with outdoor spaces holding events and ceremonies outside, like a sacred fire or cleansing ceremonies. It’s all about visibility and acknowledgement.”

But visibility is a systemic issue that extends to faculty and staff.

There is no available data on how many Indigenous faculty are hired at U of T, but historically they have been underrepresented. The need for greater representation amongst faculty is essential in enhancing the University’s Indigenous curricular offerings and academic support for Indigenous Students, reflected in the 11 Calls to Action focused on Indigenous faculty. These comprise the largest section of recommendations.

“Hiring practices are starting to change,” says Traditional Teacher Lee Maracle. “There’s no reason why other departments cannot hire Indigenous professors. But we need to make the Indigenous studies program a department, where we can have tenured professors in our own program and expand it.”

The university must develop strategies in close consultation with the Indigenous community on forming hiring targets, which could improve if the Indigenous community realizes that working at an institution like U of T is an attainable goal. “Not everyone who works in the academic world needs a Ph.D. You can work with the campus police, registrar, student services,” says Hamilton-Diabo. “These connections need to be made and if people cannot see the vibrant community that is here people will not want to apply for jobs or student positions.”

As the title of the report suggests, working in tandem with the Indigenous community is an integral step in moving forward and will build the right kind of relationships that historically have not been made.

“People need to see that non-Native students have been placed before Native students in every way,” says Maracle. “We were always dealt the leftovers and left out of the conversation. When we were forcefully removed from Toronto, people celebrated. This has to be reminded. And when people accepted this during the process of writing the report, we managed to have a positive attitude going forward.”

READ MORE:

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)

Site recommended for heritage list—impact on development unclear

PHOTO BY GEREMY BORDONARO/GLEANER NEWS: Heritage Preservation Services has recommended that 698 Spadina Ave., home to Ten Editions Bookstore, be protected.

By Annemarie Brissenden

City Planning announced its intention to designate 698 Spadina Avenue under the Ontario Heritage Act and list the property on the City of Toronto’s Heritage Register last month. The announcement came four days before a community consultation meeting on the University of Toronto’s application to build a residence at the corner of Spadina and Sussex avenues, an area that includes the site.

It’s still not clear what, if any, impact the listing will have on the university’s plans. The report dated Jan. 12, 2017, still needs to be reviewed by Toronto and East York Community Council (TEYCC) on Feb. 22. If approved, the report will go to Toronto City Council on March 9.

[pullquote]“This is a residence, not a fraternity”—Matthew Thomas, U of T students’ union[/pullquote]

“If council adopts the designation,” said Tamara Anson-Cartwright, a program manager with Heritage Preservation Services (HPS), “then I would say there is another chapter in this project.”

The site has been home to the Ten Editions Bookstore, which since 1984 has been a much-loved fixture of the area.

The report dates to Aug. 12, 2014, when TEYCC directed HPS to assess the heritage value of 698, 700, and 704 Spadina Ave., as well as 54 Sussex Ave. Of the four properties, only 698 was deemed appropriate for a heritage designation.

Built in 1885, the three-storey Victorian block was originally a grocery store topped by residential units. The report highlights it as “an example of a late-Victorian-style, neighbourhood corner store with commercial use at grade and residential units above, featuring decorative brick and wood detailing and a diagonal corner entrance which are characteristic of the type”.

Characterizing the building as a 130-year-old neighbourhood landmark, HPS argues that it is associated with the late nineteenth-century origins of the South Annex and Harbord Village.

Wendy Duff, a member of the family that owns Ten Editions, spoke at the community meeting on Jan. 16.

“There has been a bookstore there for close to 40 years. We should continue to have a bookstore there; it might even be good for the undergraduates,” said Duff. Her mother, Christine, had taken over the store from Atticus Books in 1984, renaming it in honour of her ten children.

But city planner Michelle Knieri cautioned that while a heritage designation would support keeping the building’s nineteenth-century storefront intact, it has little to say about the use of the building itself.

While the university’s representatives admitted they were still digesting the intended heritage designation, they went to great lengths to demonstrate the changes they have made to the application resulting from community feedback.

Anne Macdonald, the university’s director of ancillary services, said the application now features a mix of undergraduate, post-graduate, and faculty housing, a lower student to adviser ratio, mixed room types, and areas that will be accessible to the community.

But what hasn’t changed is the density. “Five hundred and forty beds is the number that we need to make the residence affordable and viable in the first place,” said Scott Mabury, vice president of university operations.

Many in the audience were unconvinced.

Robert Street resident Edward Goudreau argued that profit — both for U of T and the Daniels Corporation — was the motivating factor.

“We’ve only heard what your needs are. How does [this proposal] fit in this place and balance the interests of the community,” asked another audience member, while a third said, “We were never asked if this was a good idea for our historic neighbourhood. It will destroy the eastern entrance to this neighbourhood.”

Matthew Thomas of the U of T students’ union spoke in favour of the proposed residence. Stressing the vibrancy and cultural enrichment he believes the university brings to the area, he acknowledged that “there will be gatherings”, but that “most of the time students will be working.

“This is a residence, not a fraternity.”

“I find it difficult to accept that this is a destruction of our neighbourhood,” said Catherine Bragg, a Harbord Village resident. “This is on a wide avenue on the fringe of our neighbourhood. We’re forgetting about why we are downtown in the first place, and all we can derive from it.”

Conceding that “some important changes have been made over the course of the years,” Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) said the height was still not appropriate.

But, he pointed out, “we’re three years into this process, and we’re not at the Ontario Municipal Board. While what’s here doesn’t have our support, Daniels and the university are still here.”

READ MORE

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)

PICTURE COURTESY ORI DAGAN/KMJF: Order of Canada member Don Thompson performs with his Vibes Trio at Trinity Common on Augusta Avenue on Jan. 22. Following on the heels of their popular Kensington Market Jazz Festival, organizers Molly Johnson, Genevieve Marentette, and Ori Dagan have curated a series of Sunday jazz brunches during January and February.

READ MORE:

ARTS: Molly Johnson launches new jazz festival (September 2016)

Speakers as diverse as historian Charlotte Gray, sex columnist and activist Dan Savage, Emmy-award winning-actress Tatiana Maslany, and musician Tanya Tagaq will participate in the Curious Minds Weekend at the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema from March 3 to 5.

Inspired by Hot Docs’ Curious Minds Morning Speaker Series, which are six-week courses on a wide range of subjects, the first ever festival includes panel discussions, presentations, lectures, and a film screening.

Naomi Klein will open the weekend with a conversation about how to sustain green policies in the age of Donald Trump, and Gigi Lazzarato AKA Gigi Gorgeous, David Lazzarato, Barbara Kopple, and Scott Fisher will present their documentary This is Everything: Gigi Gorgeous, about Gorgeous’s coming out as a transgender female.

Lee Maracle, Joseph Boyden, and Cecil Foster will join Gray to talk about writing Canadian history, while New Yorker chief political correspondent Ryan Lizza will discuss American politics.

—Geremy Bordonaro/Gleaner News

READ MORE:

NEWS: Building a stronger relationship (February 2017)

NEWS: A permanent home for storytelling (July 2016)

ARTS: Making her mark (July 2016)

Her Majesty’s Loyal Opposition is contributing little of use to the debate over how best to deal with the hundreds of refugees walking across the Canada-US border through fields and forests. Thanks to Donald Trump’s barrage of rashly conceived executive orders, immigrants to the United States seeking to stay there have become increasingly nervous that they will be deported without due process and are understandably seeking sanctuary in Canada. In Quebec alone, there was a 250 per cent increase in illegal crossings in January.

The Honourable Tony Clement, member of Parliament for Parry Sound-Muskoka, gave an interview recently to CBC Radio that should remind Canadians why they evicted Stephen Harper and his colleagues from government in the last election.

[pullquote]“Clement’s apparent inability to articulate a coherent alternative strategy on how to handle asylum seekers wading across the border in waist deep snow speaks volumes.”[/pullquote]

This country’s attitude toward refugees and immigration in general was as pivotal then as it is today. Clement’s apparent inability to articulate a coherent alternative strategy on how to handle asylum seekers wading across the border in waist deep snow speaks volumes. As the critic for the public safety ministry for the Conservative Party of Canada, he has a duty to be informed and to explain to Canadians and the government alike what the government should be doing differently.

Yet when the CBC Radio show Montreal Daybreak reached out to him on Feb. 21 to get his views on how the police and government should be dealing with people crossing illegally in Manitoba, Quebec, and New Brunswick, he proved himself to be woefully unprepared or unwilling to make a constructive contribution to the debate.

The live interview started cordially enough with Clement acknowledging that we are a welcoming and compassionate society while expressing concerns about the safety of people crossing outside of official points of entry. After that, radio host Mike Finnerty asked Clement to explain his recent post on Twitter: “Illegal crossings are unsafe and a burden on local communities. Our laws should be enforced.” Which laws, challenged Finnerty, were not being enforced? Unable to answer, Clement simply kept repeating ad nauseum that the government needs to apply the law.

Clement was also asked about the Safe Third Country Agreement that Canada has with the United States. That agreement assumes that an immigrant having entered the US or Canada from a third country will seek refugee status in the US or Canada and not be able to move between the two. The agreement, signed in 2002, assumes that both countries will give refugee applicants a fair hearing. But with Trump contemplating mass deportations, that assumption is now up in the air.

The agreement has inherent flaws, however, beyond this new imbalance. If an immigrant can dodge the official point of entry, then the agreement does not apply. Hence the folks crossing through ditches and snow. So police in Canada are welcoming families with open arms, dutifully arresting them, fingerprinting them, and then releasing them into the general population where they will await years for a refugee hearing. They aren’t allowed to work in the meantime, but they can collect social assistance.

In contrast, there are applicants for Canadian citizenship that wait for years in their home countries, paying large fees and filling in endless forms for just the chance of living here. Those that just walk across the border have effectively jumped the queue.

Did Clement offer any of this? Are these not legitimate concerns for the public safety critic to espouse? Instead he just hung up on the broadcaster and sulked off to tweet “Way to go CBC. Taking a serious issue (illegal crossings) to shout me down on the air. Your tax dollars at work.” There was no shouting, just Clement refusing to answer even the most basic questions about his views.

It’s this sort of petulance that was Harper’s undoing. Once in a while at least, a little intellectual honesty goes a long way. Maybe he does not have an answer, but it’s going to take a lot of good will from all sides of the political spectrum to find the right response to this emerging border crisis.

READ MORE:

EDITORIAL: Pot a remedy in opioid crises (January 2017)

EDITORIAL: Grappling with growth (December 2016)

EDITORIAL: Freeland got it done, with flair (November 2016)

EDITORIAL: Stealth rate hike may work (October 2016)

More how nice!

EDITORIAL CARTOON (JANUARY 2017): Not really! It’s actually nice! by Stumpy the Subway

The stages of voting reform! by Joe Proportion (December 2016)

Previously rejected police car designs! by Designed Without Public Consultation (November 2016)

The sincerest form of flattery! by Dow Indepols (October 2016)

A warm carbon blanket! By Hock Estique (September 2016)

Canadian cities receive only 10 cents for each tax dollar they pay

By Mike Layton

With all the talk about tolls and taxes, I feel I need to admit something: I don’t mind paying taxes.

The reason I don’t mind paying taxes is simple — taxes are the price we pay for living in a great city like Toronto, the city I think we can make even better.

Yes, I want to make sure my taxes are going to important things: transit, roads, parks, shelters, and childcare for families. Our society and economy are made more prosperous by the taxes we pay to support them.

[pullquote]“Our taxes are not keeping pace with the increasing costs. Can you believe that Canadian cities receive 10 cents of each tax dollar they pay? This is simply not enough to deliver the day-to-day services we expect and deserve.”[/pullquote]

Yes, I want to make sure my taxes are not being wasted. I want to make sure taxes are fair and everyone is paying their share based on their personal benefit and what they can afford.

After three years on the Toronto Budget Committee, I have come to learn a couple of things that I’d like to share with you.

First, no matter what you hear on talk radio or read in the newspaper, Toronto has a revenue problem — not a spending problem. Sure, some long-term decisions seem frivolous, like spending billions to maintain an elevated expressway east of Jarvis Street and building a one-stop subway in Scarborough where more people could be served by a seven-stop at grade rail system for less money. But these are only two very politicized decisions, ones whose alternative solutions would also cost money, and only two out of thousands of ways the City of Toronto spends our money for our benefit.

Each year city staff and councillors identify more efficient ways of delivering services for less and find between $100 and $300 million in savings. But despite these savings, we still struggle to meet the increasing costs to deliver and expand services to meet the growing needs of our communities. This is because our taxes are not keeping pace with the increasing costs. Can you believe that Canadian cities receive 10 cents of each tax dollar they pay? This is simply not enough to deliver the day-to-day services we expect and deserve.

Second, promises to freeze taxes without lowering services is a farce. We all know costs of services will keep going up; even if we find millions in efficiencies (which we regularly do), and if we don’t raise the money to pay for existing services, service levels will eventually suffer. We might be able to last a year or two on our reserve funds, but once they run out (and they quickly are), we will be hit with the hard reality of a city without resources to provide services people depend on and expect.

To make matters worse, the main source of revenue for cities is property taxes, but they don’t increase with inflation. The federal and provincial governments not only have greater taxing powers, but many of their taxing sources increase automatically with inflation. So, cities without the power to raise needed revenue must contend with a decreasing share of revenues. And, unless we keep our taxes at least at pace with inflation, we will keep falling behind.

Third, while tolls sound great, they are not the best way to raise money. Tolls are terribly expensive to collect (every $1 collected costs about $1.40 to collect) and they disproportionately impact those who live in the outer areas of our city and depend on their cars because they don’t have access to transit. Property taxes, sales tax, and income tax are all revenue tools that are much easier to collect and can be implemented more fairly than tolls.

Toronto City Council recently voted in favour of a regional sales tax, tolls on city maintained expressways, and a new hotel tax. I supported all three. Council did so because the Toronto mayor and councillors were under the impression that the Province of Ontario would grant Toronto the power to implement tolls, but not any other tools. Sadly, despite whatever agreement the mayor and premier had, the premier has decided not to give Toronto the power to implement its transit and affordable housing agenda.

Don’t get me wrong — the new gas tax revenue will be helpful, but it will barely cover the maintenance costs of the Gardiner and the Don Valley Parkway. Far more concerning is the fact that the province is rejecting the city’s request for powers that will help to make Toronto more financially stable.

Finally, it is becoming increasingly common that politicians all want someone else to pay. While it is important that those who benefit from services, even if they don’t live in Toronto, should help pay for them, it will not be enough. Our city needs to find the best tool that will pay for much needed infrastructure while balancing its operating budget and maintaining fairness in how we raise revenue.

Tolls, parking levies, and sales tax can help achieve that, but many politicians simply don’t want to have a difficult conversation with their constituents and admit that we will need to pay for the city we want.

Mike Layton is the city councillor for Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina.

Correction: The original post of this article listed the date as February 2016.

READ MORE BY MIKE LAYTON

FORUM: Seeing our neighbourhood through new eyes (December 2016)

FORUM: We can do better: Dangerous summer for Toronto pedestrians and cyclists (October 2016)

FORUM: Curious story of Christie Pits pool liner ends in extended hours at Alex Duff (August 2016)

FORUM: A tribute to a friend (June 2016)

FORUM: Large problem, small solution (March 2016)

Owner Katalin Koltai reveals enduring appeal of Country Style

PHOTO BY CLARRIE?FEINSTEIN/GLEANER NEWS: Katalin Koltai poses in Country Style, which reopened late last year after undergoing a two-month renovation.

By Clarrie Feinstein

Despite the recent closing of Honest Ed’s and the constant turnover of Annex storefronts, Country Style has stayed firm in its place at 450 Bloor St. W. for 55 years.

The only adjustment made to the Hungarian restaurant was a two-month renovation last year, which owner Katalin Koltai said was sorely needed.

“The place was looking a bit old and needed a new look. We love it.”

[pullquote]“The cooking reminds me of my mother’s cooking. The tablecloths are like the restaurants in Budapest. Every time I’m back, I feel those memories” — Stephen Lugosi, customer[/pullquote]

The new bike lane has also caused some inconvenience for bringing in groceries to the store, but Koltai adjusts to the neighbourhood changes because she must.

In 1971, at a young age, Koltai moved from Hungary to Canada and became a business partner at Country Style in 1980 for four years. The previous owners emigrated from Hungary and had owned the restaurant for almost 30 years at that point. She then worked at a bank for some time, and at another restaurant, Hungarian Rhapsody, before returning to work at Country Style as a server for 12 years. When the business was under threat of being sold in 2002, Koltai bought it and has owned it ever since.

“I could not do the bank job — sitting all day,” Koltai said. “I always wanted my own business and I knew I could do it myself.”

When Koltai began working at the restaurant there was a larger Hungarian community in the Annex that included six other Hungarian establishments along Bloor Street West, where the language was often spoken. Many of the patrons were among the 100,000 refugees who came to Canada in 1956 after the failed revolution against communist rule. The community has long since moved further north and many of its institutions went with it, but Country Style remains as one of the last remnants of the people who used to call the area home.

While the façade has been updated, an essential component has remained the same: the food. The entire menu consists of homemade Hungarian dishes, with customer favourites being the crispy wiener schnitzel and comforting beef broth, gulag soup.

Head cook Tunde prepares all of the food herself, having learned the traditional Hungarian recipes from the cook who used to work at the restaurant. Every morning Tunde starts cooking at 7:30 a.m., just as she has done for 15 years.

“The green pea soup and schnitzel are my absolute favourites!” said Stephen Lugosi, who has been coming to Country Style twice a week for over 40 years. “The cooking reminds me of my mother’s cooking. The tablecloths are like the restaurants in Budapest. Every time I’m back, I feel those memories.”

There are only three Hungarian restaurants in downtown Toronto and Lugosi says Country Style is by far the best one.

“It’s the food that people love and it’s why they come back,” said Koltai. “I mean they love the tablecloths and window front, but the food has never changed, it’s remained the same.”

Country Style’s loyal clientele — 60 per cent of customers are regulars — reflects that continuity.

“We have new customers, a lot come from the university and passers-by see our storefront and want to come in. But, we have customers that have been coming for decades,” explained Koltai. “It’s beautiful to see them grow up from when they were students to now bringing their children and grandchildren.”

While Koltai visits Hungary every year to visit her mother, her home now is Toronto. Once she decides to leave the business her daughter — also named Katalin — will take it over, making her feel assured the restaurant will be in the right hands. Country Style has now become a family business.

“It makes me very happy. My daughter will do a wonderful job — we’ll do it together.”

READ MORE:

EDITORIAL: Embrace refugees (December 2015)

Grizzle tried to change system from within

By Paul Lawrie

FROM THE ARCHIVES: In honour of Black History Month, we reprint the following article, which was originally published in our February 2003 edition. Stanley G. Grizzle was one of “Blackhurst’s” many early heroes, and we profiled him twice in these pages. He was also featured in a November piece on local war veterans, which is available on our website. Stanley G. Grizzle, who lived to his 98th year, passed away last November, one day after Remembrance Day.

A lifelong Annex resident, Stanley G. Grizzle has dedicated his life to the struggle for equality along racial and labour lines. A tireless advocate for fighting the good fight, this spry octogenarian is the embodiment of the ethos of the “political as personal”.

[pullquote]“The first time I truly felt Canadian was when I handed out that first set of citizenship papers”—Stanley G. Grizzle[/pullquote]

Grizzle, featured in a Remembrance Day tribute to local veterans, was born in Toronto into a family of Jamaican immigrants. Although the racial climate in Toronto was somewhat more hospitable than in most southerly climes, this was perhaps due more to the relatively small numbers of Blacks than any vaunted sense of Canadian racial equality.

One of Grizzle’s most vivid childhood memories is that of his father being slashed by an assailant while sleeping in his cab outside Union Station. It was a scar that the elder Grizzle carried to his grave.

The Grizzle family belonged to the Bloor Street United Church, and Stanley attended Harbord Collegiate Institute for three years. However, his education was cut short by pragmatic concerns born of the racial reality of the time. As he remembers now, “what was the point of getting an education if it wasn’t going to lead anywhere?”

One of the few avenues available to Black men in the 1930s and 40s was that of a railway Pullman porter. Grizzle soon joined this almost exclusively Black vocation when he became a porter aboard the Canadian Pacific Railway. He made runs from Toronto to Vancouver, Montreal, Chicago, New York, and Detroit. Porters would work in excess of 18 hours a day, catching naps whenever they could. Grizzle recalls that in 1940 he worked approximately 400 hours a month for the sum of $75.

In addition to their hectic schedule, porters suffered the daily indignity of being addressed by passengers with the all-encompassing pejorative term of “George”.

“It was always ‘Hey George, how you doing?’ and ‘George, can you do this,’” recalls Grizzle.

The origin of the moniker dates to George Pullman, the inventor of the Pullman car, who hired Blacks to work aboard his railcars as a helping hand during the difficult time of Reconstruction in the 1870s. It was this practice that inspired the title of Grizzle’s autobiography: My name is not George.

With the advent of World War Two, Grizzle was conscripted, like many other young Black men, into the Army. However, his enthusiasm for King and Colony was less than enthusiastic. Defence of a way of life in which he could not partake was no great incentive for duty. But the army was where Grizzle’s activism began.

After refusing to serve as an officer’s batman, as it was not regimental duty, Grizzle was sentenced to four weeks of latrine duty, after which he went on a three-day strike. Assuming he was not going to survive the carnage of war. Grizzle decided that he was not “going to stand for any injustice”.

As a result of his strike Grizzle was assigned to the quartermaster store and left with a profound sense of individual rights. Returning from the war with the rank of corporal, he was one of the founding members of the Toronto CPR Division of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, Canada’s first and only Black union. In 1959, he ran as a candidate for the Ontario Co-operative Commonwealth Federation in the provincial election, and served as a delegate to the Toronto Labour Council.

In 1962, Grizzle, along with fellow civil rights activist Donald Moore, was instrumental in persuading Ottawa to rescind its immigration laws that had long cited race as an exclusionary category for prospective immigrants, changing the face of Canadian society forever.

Perhaps Grizzle’s proudest moment came in 1977 when the [Pierre] Trudeau government appointed him a citizenship court judge.

“The first time I truly felt Canadian was when I handed out that first set of citizenship papers.”

The only thing that exceeds Grizzle’s numerous achievements is his desire to share them with the younger generation. He understands the alienation that some youth feel, but argues that the only way to change things is to work within the system, rather than forsaking it altogether.

And, as proof, Grizzle points to himself and the changes gained through his own individual activism.