Three Annex veterans recall war service

By Annemarie Brissenden

Georgette Caldwell remembers the exact moment she decided to join the Women’s Royal Naval Service. It came after the first firebombing of London. Walking along the churchyard of St. Paul’s Cathedral, “you could smell the wood burning, and the cobblestones underneath my feet were still steaming.”

“That sealed the deal,” remembers Caldwell from her home on Tyrrel Avenue. “I joined the Navy, I was so enraged.”

At the beginning of her service, she was part of a group of women whose job was primarily to “release men who would normally be doing shore service to go do active shore service,” but after becoming an officer candidate, she was part of a large group who planned the invasion of Europe.

Despite the horror that surrounded her, it was still an exciting time for Caldwell, who admits it “was one of the best five year sequences of my life. I enjoyed it.”

Stanley G. Grizzle, however, was less enthusiastic about joining Canada’s forces in World War Two. As the Palmerston Square resident recalls, “I got this very kind invitation in the mail.”

And notes Grizzle, “none of us Black boys were happy about being conscripted.”

Once in the army, he went on a three-day strike after being forced to do latrine duty for four weeks because he refused to be an officer’s batman.

“Seeing so many bombs, and so many bodies,” Grizzle didn’t think he was coming home, so he “didn’t tolerate any justice.”

He was paraded to his Commanding Officer, whom he told he wanted a “discharge because the principles we are fighting for don’t apply to me,” and consequently was posted to the Quartermaster’s stores, a plum assignment.

“I should have raised more hell,” laughs Grizzle now.

“Unlike Grizzle, Dr. Don Harrison of Wychwood Park was afraid he’d miss the war. Only 14 when war broke out, he remembers thinking, “I’ll never get into the war; it will be over before I’m old enough.”

He was accepted to the Royal Roads naval college in B.C., and upon graduation joined the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve, known as the “wavy navy” for the wavy stripes that adorned their uniform instead of the straight stripes for members of permanent navy.

By the time he sailed for England on the Aquitania in August of 1944, D-Day had already happened. There was still, however, much work to be done. Harrison was assigned to a Motor Torpedo Boat in the 65th Flottila, stationed in Ostend, Belgium. Their main task was to “try to open up the convey route to Antwerp.”

“It was an exciting time,” says Harrison of his war experience. “You would go for a walk in the park, buy candy, and that night you’d go out to sea, and all hell might break loose. You never knew.”

These days, he doesn’t think much about his time in the Navy, but, “I usually try to go to the ceremony at Hart House” on Remembrance Day every year.

Caldwell generally spends November 11 privately because “I find it a very upsetting day. I had so many friends back home who perished. I just have this overwhelming sorrow that out of the 12 young men I knew since childhood, only two came back.”

For his part, Grizzle says he used worry that Remembrance Day glamourized war, but “I don’t feel that way anymore. Not if it’s done right.”

He, like Harrison and Caldwell, are speakers with the Memory Project, a Dominion Institute initiative that sends veterans into schools to speak with students throughout the year. For Grizzle, it’s an opportunity to underscore the importance of continued participation in the political process, “because I want young kids to know not only about the war but why we have the kind of system we have today.”

He says his time in the army taught him, “to stand up for what is right.”

Caldwell feels she emerged from her experience as an entirely different person.

“You were away from home, and grew up so quickly,” notes Caldwell. “I started out as a girl in school and came out as a married woman.”

“A time of loss, horror and excitement” originally appeared in our November 2002 edition.

Crossing Bathurst Street with A Different Booklist

Itah Sadu says some of the books gracing her new storefront window might include Viola Desmond’s Canada, in honour of the woman who will grace Canada’s new $10 bank note, They Came Before Columbus by Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, as a reminder of how deep African roots in North America truly run, and something by Thomas King or Sherman Alexie, so that “we are mindful too while we are having conversations about our roots in Canada, that we are also standing in the land of our Native brothers and sisters”.

By Annemarie Brissenden

The Postman, a 2015 play about Albert Jackson, Canada’s first Black postman, opens with an invocation.

“Toronto the Good. Toronto, the White. Toronto the Christian, Irish, Scottish, English. This is happening right here in this neighbourhood: Harbord, Major, Palmerston, Brunswick, Euclid, Borden,” says Jackson. “Good solid White names. No ‘Albert Jackson Lane’ then, I can assure you. These are the rivers I crossed every day. Downtown further, Queen and Broadview, country then — city now, there’s a sign on a bridge today says: The River I Step In is Not the River I Stand In.”

Performed in the Annex from the very porches he delivered mail to, from the very place he called home, the play invites the audience to cross times as it relates the story of barriers crossed and miles were walked.

“We are a community of people who have crossed over so many things, important things before,” explains Itah Sadu, wanting to underscore the importance of crossing over for the Black community.

Earlier this month, A Different Booklist, the bookstore she owns with husband Miguel San Vicente, relocated to a new location to make way for the Mirvish Village redevelopment. An army of volunteer helpers supported the move, creating a parade of patrons crossing Bathurst Street toting boxes of books on Feb. 4.

“It is exciting that we could have a movement, an extended family of people involved in this movement of people,” says Sadu, adding that the backyard is the only thing she’ll miss about the old place. “We had the coolest backyard ever. We called it the island. We’ll miss the opportunity to be outdoors, ‘on the island’ with a little flavour of back home.”

The bookstore will remain in the area, just across the street in fact, a cultural marker of a time when the neighbourhood was known as “Blackhurst” for the concentration of Afro-Caribbean stores and restaurants serving the Black families that lived nearby.

“At one time, Jewish people rented houses to us because nobody else would,” Sadu says. “There’s a rich legacy of people of colour in the Annex: Rosemary Brown, Stanley Grizzle, Austin Clark, Albert Jackson. A lot of people who opened doors; we have to keep those doors open, so people can keep walking through.”

Sadu is a careful custodian of that legacy. She curates historical walks along Bathurst Street, and reaches out to students in the local high schools. And she and Miguel San Vicente were awarded the Premier’s Award for Excellence in the Arts last October.

“A Different Booklist has been a remarkable contributor to our cultural tapestry, bringing people together and celebrating literature from African-Canadian and Caribbean writers,” said Eleanor McMahon, the provincial minister of tourism, culture and sport, in an email. “Because of leaders like Miguel San Vicente and Ita Sadu, our youth are able to better explore multiculturalism and Toronto benefits from having a meeting point where generations and ideas intersect freely.”

Sadu says she was both humbled and proud to receive the award.

“When I looked around the room, I saw the cultural industries of Ontario. And to be in the society of those institutions is not something we took lightly. It’s an honour to know the tentacle and outreach of the bookstore has extended far and wide from Bathurst and Bloor [streets].”

She also tells a story that illustrates how there is still work to be done in crossing divides.

“When we came in, the security guard asked us for an invitation. He didn’t ask anyone else,” Sadu says. “Then for us to emerge as a winner. Maybe we are supposed to be in the room. We don’t need an invitation to the party.”

Reflecting on the moment, she references American activist and writer bell hooks, who wrote of having to move from the margin to the centre.

“We have moved to the centre.”

A wealth of activities for kids of all ages

By Heather Kelly

February is a month of celebrating love and making time with family members.

Valentine’s Day really is Valentine’s “week” in the Annex. For a special Valentine’s Day date night on Feb. 14, plan a fun dinner and enjoy a film, concert, or exhibition on the Bloor St. Culture Corridor. The Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema is screening its True Crime Tuesdays film Capturing the Friedmans at 6 p.m. and a special screening of Harold and Maude, the quirky and romantic cult classic comedy featuring all of your favourite Cat Stevens tunes, at 9 p.m.

Another idea is to visit the Royal Ontario Museum in February for Wildlife Photographer of the Year, a showcase of 100 striking landscape and biodiversity images from the world’s most prestigious nature photography competition. Only a few tickets are left to see the unmistakably joyous and uplifting South African a cappella vocal ensemble, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, at Koerner Hall on Feb. 14. The Royal Conservatory of Music is offering an add-on post-concert soirée with chocolates and cocktails to top off the night. On your way out for the evening, stop at Alliance Française to see the Encounters with the Sublime featuring images by photographers Sebastião Salgado and Bradford Washburn on view from Feb. 8 to March 4.

If you’d like to share the sentiment with a special person on another night that week, you can celebrate Valentine’s Day at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre, a.k.a. “the J”, with timeless love songs in The Kings of Swing: A Valentine’s Day Concert on Feb. 16. The J is also presenting a new take on Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream in Ahuri Theatre’s What Dream It Was installation in the Al Green Theatre Feb. 16 to 19.

The University of Toronto Faculty of Music is presenting the Cecilia String Quartet and tenor Lawrence Wiliford at Walter Hall on Feb. 13 with a program of Mozart, Rubbra, and Schubert, and on Feb. 16 the Musicians from Marlboro will perform Thomas Adès’s Arcadiana, Brahms’s String Quintet in G Major, and piano trios by Haydn and Fauré. On Feb. 16, the Gardiner Museum will unveil the special exhibition, Janet Macpherson: A Canadian Bestiary, where hybrid animal creatures stand in for the complexity of human experiences. The exhibition, which the Gardiner commissioned to commemorate Canada’s sesquicentennial, both celebrates and questions notions of Canadian identity.

Family Day is Feb. 20, and there is an abundance of arts and culture activities to enjoy with family members of all ages throughout the long weekend.

On Family Day Monday, the Bata Shoe Museum will be a winter wonderland with arts and crafts, ISpy games, shoes to try on, and a special screening of the children’s movie The Snow Queen. The Gardiner will present special programming inspired by A Canadian Bestiary, where visitors can explore the new exhibition featuring Janet Macpherson’s curious hybrid animals and create creatures out of clay, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema is screening Strike a Pose at 1:45 p.m., about the group of Madonna’s Blond Ambition tour dancers and their impact on LGBTQ culture. The ROM’s Family Fun Day Weekend features Asafo flag maker from Ghana, Baba Isaaka, leading Asafo Flag workshops, and a performance by the School of Atelier Ballet in a Dance Through Time on Feb. 20.

The Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre is also planning Family Day festivities for all ages from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Feb. 20.

If you are looking for family activities throughout the rest of the weekend, visit the Japan Foundation’s gallery 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Feb. 18 to see the exhibition Legendary Loyalty: The 47 Ronin in Japanese Prints. The Bata Shoe Museum offers hands-on activities for kids in the galleries every Saturday 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.

The Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema will be showing the hilarious exposé My Scientology Movie and Kedi, a film that explores the lives of seven Istanbul street cats (in Turkish, with English subtitles) with multiple screenings throughout the weekend.

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

READ MORE:

NEWS: Conservatory receives debt relief (October 2016)

NEWS: A permanent home for storytelling (July 2016)

ARTS: Making her mark (July 2016)

ARTS: Creating growth through the arts (January 2016)

PHOTO BY BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS: Two city councillors want to make Toronto’s laneways available for housing. bpNichol Lane — shown above — hosts a variety of uses including residences and Coach House Books.

READ MORE

NEWS (JANUARY 2017): Laneway living

Should infill take precedence over upward building?

By Brian Burchell

With affordable housing at a premium in Toronto, two councillors are proposing to open up the city’s 2,400 laneways to infill development.

Arguing that residential growth in the city must not only be vertical and sprawling, Mary-Margaret McMahon (Ward 32, Beaches-East York) and Ana Bailão (Ward 18, Davenport) see the back lanes as a place for people to live. Although not currently permitted by the city, the councillors believe what they term “laneway suites” could transform underutilized spaces like rear garages and parking pads into sensitively-scaled housing that allows for adding second storeys to garages.

It’s not a new concept.

[pullquote]“We have done three charrettes that were very well attended and the response has been very positive, which is almost never the case for development issues”—Mary-Margaret McMahon, city councillor[/pullquote]

Croft Street (technically a lane), near College and Bathurst streets, is a legacy from a previous period of rapid growth — 1870 to 1930 — when laneways were home to workshops, lumberyards, and even housing. The 15 laneway houses were originally commercial, and the properties were severed into parcels that legally distinguish them from the houses that front the streets on either side.

It’s a bit different, however, from the vision proposed by the councillors in which the land would remain in common ownership with the main house. It would mostly see the conversion of existing garages into living space, and all services would be fed from the main house.

McMahon says this is long overdue for Toronto.

“Vancouver, Ottawa, and Regina are way ahead of us. We have done three charrettes that were very well attended and the response has been very positive, which is almost never the case for development issues. Realtors, builders, homeowners with lanes, students, and seniors were all supportive at these events.”

The proposal does not contemplate severing property (as it does in Vancouver), and the idea is to create rental housing. Proponents argue that these new residential spaces will be occupied by seniors and students, but McMahon admits that bylaws do not extend to setting demographics. She also couldn’t say whether a proposed bylaw would cover only existing structures or if a homeowner could construct a new building, and noted these were details to be ironed out. She is hopeful a policy would be put in place by the end of the year.

“This is win-win. We have so much underutilized geography in the city where we have 2,400 laneways.”

But not everyone sees the plan as win-win.

The Harbord Village Residents’ Association (HVRA), for example, has a long-standing policy against laneway infill.

“Most laneways are not serviced specifically in the form of sanitary sewers,” explains Gus Sinclair, the association’s chair. “Laneway housing means more load on a tenuous [sewer] connection…. This is a stable built form community and the [existing] laneways are a critical amenity to how this neighbourhood works.”

Laneways, which are prevalent in Harbord Village, are wed to the shape of the existing built form.

“The height is at the street and then you drop down to green space across the lane and then you have the opposite. It’s a bowl effect and you fuck with that at your peril. Adding [second storeys on garages] on either side of a narrow lane will create a canyon,” he adds.

Laneway infill has also been tested at the Ontario Municipal Board at least once before. In 2009, it denied an application by a Brunswick Avenue homeowner to build a second storey right back to the rear lane, recognizing that preserving the backs of the houses and lanes were as important as streetscape.

“I can see the attraction, they are like dollhouses, but we are against it,” says Sinclair. “The way that people have lived here for 120 years involves the commerce between the front and the back, and across the laneway. You cut that off at your peril.”

He’s also concerned about adding additional density to an already dense area. In Harbord Village, the above grade density of living space can be equal to the square footage of the lot compared to most other residential neighbourhoods where the above grade coverage is only 60 per cent of the lot.

“We are already doing the density thing by the density that was put here by the Victorians,” argues Sinclair, adding that the city should solve its population growth problem on Spadina Avenue and at transit points, as is mandated by the Official Plan.

For his part, Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) takes a middle ground.

“Laneways are a tremendous untapped resource for downtown Toronto,” says the councillor, whose ward includes a lot of them. “Every laneway requires animation that is suitable to that laneway. In some cases, it is infill housing, in some cases it’s greening, and in others it’s cultural animation (such as the CBC’s Rick Mercer rant lane south of Queen Street West). It’s not just housing, and it should not be a cookie cutter approach.”

This nuanced approach to the possibilities for laneways may be what’s needed to get wider support for the plan on city council. “Right now, it’s hard to do anything in a laneway. Making our laneways viable requires us to adopt rules that give us flexibility,” he says.

McMahon believes that it may come down to priorities about people and things.

“We have great spaces for our cars often with windows [in garages] and we put humans below ground in basement apartments, and isn’t that a little strange?”

READ MORE:

City seeking street greening opportunities: Harbord Village plan targets laneways, parkettes (February 2016)

FORUM: Untapped potential (February 2016)

Incubating micro-retail: Laneways untapped realm of urban design (December 2015)

Landlord shuts Pacifico Life storefront

PHOTO BY GEREMY BORDONARO/GLEANER NEWS: Pacifico Life’s Bloor Street West location remains boarded up. Landlord Yong Jo gave Tamara Hirsh three hours to move her marijuana dispensary out of the building shortly before Christmas.

By Geremy Bordonaro

It was 2 p.m. three days before Christmas when she got the telephone call.

Tamara Hirsh was working in the recently opened location of her medical marijuana dispensary when her landlord, Yong Jo, called and told her that the 444 Bloor St. W. storefront had to be vacated by 5 p.m. that afternoon.

It was not unexpected, but it was unwelcome.

“We knew that the landlords in Toronto were getting a letter saying that they were going to receive fines. And we told [the landlord] about that before we took possession and did our renovations,” said Hirsh, owner of Pacifico Life. “However he did not want to let us out of the lease at that point. So he responded to me with a long list of reasons why I wasn’t getting out of the lease. We proceeded to renovate and opened the store and sure enough he got a letter and asked us to close by 5 p.m. that day.”

[pullquote]“I had a lot of upset customers when we closed down”—Tamara Hirsh, owner, Pacifico Life[/pullquote]

What Hirsh hadn’t expected were the police officers the landlord brought in for “peacekeeping” reasons.

“When the landlord came to me to make sure we were leaving, five police officers came as well,” she said, adding “they were very much on side with me. One was very much interested in the product for himself, one was interested in one of my dog treats. [The officers] were really supportive.”

Hirsh said the shutdown of her Toronto storefront means that some of her customers who had found their “tried and true” marijuana product would have to find some place else.

“I had a lot of upset customers when we closed down,” she said. “There were emails asking how they can find tested products like ours…. It let a lot of people down.”

Pacifico was one of a number of dispensaries that have been popping up at an increasing rate in the downtown area of Toronto. And the city is powerless to stop the influx, according to Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina).

“Cannabis is governed under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act, a federal statute. The City of Toronto cannot change federal law,” said the councillor. “The question of when the federal government changes the law and what framework they will put in for distribution, we don’t know for sure yet.”

Though dispensaries are still illegal, the move towards legalization has created inconsistencies when it comes to enforcing marijuana laws.

“We are stuck in a vacuum period where the federal government has said ‘Criminalization is bad but we’re going continue to have a criminalized approach until it is no longer the case,’” Cressy said. “In the meantime we’re all stuck in limbo.”

While this limbo exists it has been left to municipalities — and the dispensaries themselves — to help control the influx and quality of medical marijuana.

“It’s self-regulated. That’s why you’re getting everything under the sun,” Hirsh said. “You’re getting clustering in certain areas. Kensington Market, I believe, at one point had 21 dispensaries.”

The Toronto Police Service is called in to deal with them on a case-by-case basis according to Detective Sergeant Brian Kelly of 14 Division, who said­ investigations are primarily complaint driven.

Hirsh said she thinks some measures need to be taken in the interim.

“It’s going to probably take at least a year until federal legalization happens,” she said. “In the interim there needs to be some kind of regulation.”

The city is looking for ways to manage and contain the dispensaries, but without federal regulation it’s a wild frontier.

“The problem is that the federal government was elected in October of last year. That’s a year and a half ago. We were told that they would table legislation this spring,” Cressy said. “By the time that’s voted on and implemented we’re probably in 2018.”

“A comprehensive legalized framework is good news for public health. But in the meantime cities need the federal government to provide interim measures so we’re not stuck in a position whereby it’s akin to unregulated legalization.”

Hirsh added that it has created a grossly unfair situation where landlords can knowingly rent their spaces for large sums of money to dispensaries, and then evict their tenants after one telephone call from the police. At the end of the day, “There are a lot of people we could help if our doors were open.”

Landlord Yong Jo did not respond to the Gleaner’s requests for an interview.

SEE ALSO:

FOCUS (JANUARY 2017): Should marijuana dispensaries be closed? Bloor Street citizens have their say

READ MORE:

CHATTER: Marijuana dispensary opens (December 2016)

EDITORIAL: Mayo no, marijuana maybe (June 2016)

Without missing a beat, Freeman Real Estate and Spirit of Math spanned wing-on-wing to make sure one of the area’s holiday traditions would continue to fly. Thanks to their efforts, nearly 500 hundred turkeys flew off a giveaway table set up at 988 Bathurst St. last December.

[pullquote]“Certainly we want to continue doing it next year”—Ted Winick, owner, Spirit of Math[/pullquote]

The businesses were fowl-ing in the steps of Ed Mirvish, who sent turkeys soaring from his store every year. The Mirvish family, whose Honest Ed’s store is now closed, held their final giveaway earlier in the month.

“It went quite well,” reported Spirit of Math owner Ted Winick, who was happy to talk turkey. “We were able to give them all out. People loved it. Certainly we want to continue doing it next year.

“We got a lot of comments from people, not just from the people who picked up the turkeys, who just felt so good that someone took it over.”

For every turkey given away, an additional donation was made to the St. Alban’s Boys and Girls Club. It was a little bit of gravy for the organization, which provides a wide range of programming for parents and children from its main clubhouse on Palmerston Avenue.

—Brian Burchell with files from Geremy Bordonaro/Gleaner News

The Toronto Police Service is looking for three men in connection with an assault and robbery of a taxi driver near Russell and Robert streets on Dec. 18 at approximately 3 a.m.

It is alleged that the three men were picked up by the taxi a short distance away before asking to stop near the intersection. After stopping they reportedly robbed and assaulted the driver before fleeing.

The three suspects are all described as in their early 20s. One suspect is around 5´8? with a small beard and a black coat with a fur-lined hood. Another is described as 5´10? with a heavy build and the third is only identified by his grey coat. Security cameras caught images of two of the three suspects, and anyone with information is urged to contact the police at 416-808-1400 or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-8477.

—Geremy Bordonaro/Gleaner News

Rise attributed to Entertainment District

By Geremy Bordonaro

Rapid population growth and the proliferation of night clubs within the ever-expanding Entertainment District appear to have led to an increase in crime last year in 14 Division, but that trend has not migrated to the Annex.

According to the Toronto Police Service’s year-end report, violent crime increased by 7 per cent in 2016 compared to 2015 for the division, which includes the Gleaner’s coverage area and spans from Dupont Street south to the lake and Spadina Avenue west to Dufferin Street. Violent crime — including murders, robberies, and theft over $5,000 — was up by only 1 per cent for the rest of the city. Reports of sexual assaults within the division were the exception, decreasing from 169 to 140 incidents.

“Down in our traditional entertainment district, the King/Spadina area, assaults and violence tend to be linked and fuelled by alcohol consumption,” said Detective Sergeant Brian Kelly. “It’s just the way it is. It’s been that way since alcohol has been in existence.”

He notes that areas like the Annex remain relatively stable.

“The Annex is a safe area to live, work, and play,” Kelly said. “Does crime happen there? Absolutely. But we get on it as fast as we can…. It’s a safe place. There’s no disproportionate rise or decrease in crime in that area.”

Police Constable Iris Fleckeisen, 14 Division’s crime analyst, agrees that this year’s statistics aren’t alarming.

“It’s not just looking at the numbers and comparing them from year to year, but putting them into a context to understand what our standard deviation is and what we as a service accept as awry,” she said. “We’re alarmed when there is a huge increase in numbers. We didn’t see that this year.”

Community members like Gus Sinclair, chair of the Harbord Village Residents’ Association, haven’t noticed much in terms of crime during the last year.

“Typically we don’t get people reporting a lot. I’d say maybe two or three times a year. I don’t think last year was anything special,” Sinclair said. “There’s usually a rash of graffiti and little rushes of bicycles being stolen off of porches. Occasionally you’ll find a couple of [break and enters]. I don’t think we’ve had anything special last year.”

Sinclair thinks that though people sometimes hear about terrible crimes happening, this doesn’t mean that it will happen to them.

“You don’t want to build off a single incident, or two, because it tends to panic people.”

READ MORE:

NEWS: Crime down overall in 14 Division (March 2016)

Recommendations for mandating community participation

PHOTO CREDIT BY BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS: Planned by the OMB: College Street is rife with developments denied by the city, only to have been approved on appeal by the provincial agency.

By Annemarie Brissenden

Four local residents’ associations, collectively representing the north end of Ward 20, banded together late last month to submit commentary on the province’s review of the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). In their letter to the Province of Ontario’s planning policy branch, the Annex Residents’ Association (ARA), Harbord Village Residents’ Association, Huron-Sussex Residents’ Organization, and the Seaton Village Residents’ Association determined that neither the City of Toronto nor the OMB have enough resources to manage the overwhelming influx of planning and development applications that are processed on a regular basis. As such, their recommendations are aimed at reducing the number of appeals heard by the provincial body.

“You can’t have a city growing at this pace and not have the [planning resources] to deal with it,” said David Harrison, ARA chair. “It’s all very well to make a blanket condemnation of the OMB, but it’s put in this position because the city doesn’t have the resources to handle [the number of applications].”

[pullquote]“Mediation prevents a win/lose battle”—Paul MacLean, PARA[/pullquote]

The recommendations can be grouped into four categories: strengthening the city’s planning resources and clarifying its jurisdiction on development matters; mandating community participation in the planning process; reforming the OMB itself; and providing a mechanism for appealing OMB decisions.

The residents’ associations highlight the importance of adopting the new Official Plan for Toronto, as well as clarifying which matters are the purview of the Committee of Adjustment, whose decisions will soon be appealed to the newly established Local Appeal Board (LAB). Stressing that LAB decisions should not be subject to appeal at the OMB, they propose increasing the processing timeframe for applications to amend the Official Plan and/or zoning bylaws along with staffing levels in the city’s planning department.

The recommendations include providing the following avenues for engaging the community in the planning process: encouraging all rezoning applications to be subject to community review, making mediation a mandatory first step in the OMB appeals process, and making an appellant pay for the costs associated with granting community organizations status at OMB appeals.

“On balance, mediation was a good experience,” explained Paul MacLean of the Palmerston Area Residents’ Association, whose organization was not a signatory to the letter but is no stranger to development. “Mediation prevents a win/lose battle. Having mediated settlements be more the norm seems to make sense.”

Indeed, hiring professional mediators is another recommendation, along with making the proceedings more transparent, promoting multi-member panel reviews, and opening up the appeals process to other provincial ministries and agencies that may be able to provide expert opinions. The residents’ associations also want to reinstate the mechanism for appealing OMB decisions to a parliament committee that includes the riding’s Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP).

“This review looks at how to give more weight to local communities as well as municipal councils to ensure the local voice is heard when it comes to planning,” said Han Dong (MPP, Trinity-Spadina). “It’s time for a comprehensive review. The process needs to be updated.”

Begun in October, the provincial review of the OMB is aimed at making the land-use planning system more efficient. It held a series of town hall meetings in November and December, canvassing comments on proposed changes that included moving away from “de novo” hearings in which the OMB considers matters as though no previous municipal decision has been made; expanding the authority of local appeal bodies; restricting the appeal of decisions that support provincially-funded transit; and limiting appeals on decisions that are based on extensive study.

“We need to have some sort of appeal mechanism,” said Bill Mauro, the Minister of Municipal Affairs. “We’re not doing anything here that is different, but we are addressing concerns.”

Mauro would not commit to a timeline for when any possible amendments will be announced.

“The current government has been reviewing the OMB since 2003,” laughed Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina). “If the province was serious about protecting good planning, smart intensification, and building neighbourhoods rather than just adding density, they should free Toronto from the OMB immediately.”

He’s among the councillors supporting Cheri DiNovo (MPP, Parkdale-High Park), who last November tabled a private member’s bill to Free Toronto from the OMB.

“You don’t need to consult; this is something the government has been hearing for ages,” said DiNovo. “It makes no sense that the entire superstructure [municipal process] can be brushed aside by 25 unelected members.”

Cressy believes there “may be a role for the OMB in other parts of the province, but for a city as large and sophisticated as ours, there is no reason to have this body”.

He’s skeptical that anything substantial will come of the review, noting “the province will come up with an excuse a day for why they refuse to act.

“We’re more than capable of planning a great city. The OMB is not.”

READ MORE:

YEAR IN REVIEW: A focus on livability, grindertude (December 2016)

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

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

NEWS: “Vertical rooming house” rejected (May 2015)

In December, after just three weeks in business, the Pacifico Life marijuana dispensary at 444 Bloor St. W. was shut down by the building’s landlord. It paid the price for operating outside the current federal law governing the sale of that drug. The government has promised changes to the law including decriminalization, regulation, and retail level access. Meanwhile, not too far away at Bathurst and Queen streets, the City of Toronto awaits federal approval to open a supervised injection drug site, where users like heroin addicts can get help if things go awry with their injection (such as an overdose) and get counselling and treatment. In both cases, it’s a waiting game for the federal government to act.

From the perspective of pain management these two drug issues intertwine. Veteran Affairs Canada has reported a decline in the opioid prescriptions it funds by 17 per cent in the past four years, while reimbursements for veterans’ pot prescriptions have ballooned by comparison. One cause for this shift may be the demonstrated effects of marijuana for dealing with the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

[pullquote]“It’s a widely held misconception that overdoses are only linked to the use of illicit opioids like heroin.”[/pullquote]

It’s a widely held misconception that overdoses are only linked to the use of illicit opioids like heroin. Experts say over-prescribing by doctors is the primary reason people are using and becoming addicted to drugs like oxycodone, hydromorphone, and fentanyl — and accidentally or deliberately taking a deadly dose. After their prescriptions run out, many turn to street-laced versions of these products. According to the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, for the five years ending in 2013, the most recent year for which statistics are available in Ontario, there were 2,879 deaths from opioid overdoses. The study found 638 people died in 2013 from opioid overdoses; a rate of about one death for every 20,000 residents in the province.

The Province of Ontario lags behind other provinces in data collection from overdose deaths, so it is helpful to look at the experiences of provinces like Alberta, whose data is more up to date. In Calgary, for example, the police chief Roger Chaffin urged swift action by government as the current rate of overdose deaths there exceeds those caused by homicides and traffic accidents. The chief says he lacks the resources, and nor is it practical, to deal with these issues on the supply side (the dealers) and that they must be addressed on the demand side (the addiction).

A recent report by the United States National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine drew one hundred conclusions about the benefits and harms of cannabis on a range of public health issues based on 10,000 studies published since 1999. It stated that marijuana can almost certainly ease chronic pain, but it may also raise the risk of developing schizophrenia. But, the report also concluded that for people with pre-existing schizophrenia it helps mitigate symptoms. The federal panel was comprised of representatives from leading U.S. research universities. The Academies are based in Washington, D.C. and were established by a charter signed by Abraham Lincoln in 1863.

Though the aforementioned report called for more research so that the medical community and policy makers alike can make more informed decisions, an undeniable take away is that cannabis and its derivatives can ease pain like opioids do but without the downside of severe addiction and risk of overdose.

We have a lot to learn from the U.S. experience, because many states of the union have legalized pot, thumbing their noses at U.S. federal law which remains quite restrictive. There are studies from the United States that showed fatal opioid overdoses dropped by 25 per cent in states that have enacted medical pot laws. While these studies have not identified a cause and effect, the correlation of these facts is hard to ignore in an opioid epidemic.

The Canadian government must accelerate its approval processes to help addicts safely cope and get treatment in supervised injection sites and connect the dots with legalized marijuana as an alternate chronic pain reliever.

READ MORE:

CHATTER: Marijuana dispensary opens (December 2016)

NEWS: City approves safe injection sites, as council embraces a public health approach (August 2016)

READ MORE EDITORIALS:

EDITORIAL: Grappling with growth (December 2016)

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

EDITORIAL: Stealth rate hike may work (October 2016)

EDITORIAL: Train derailment changes the conversation (September 2016)