BY GURPREET GHAG Local residents met on the second-floor meeting room of the Perth/Dupont Library (1589 Du- pont St.) on August 16 to discuss plans to expand their branch, only to fittingly realize that the 33-per- son capacity was not sufficient to accommodate the meeting. Having moved across the street to ‘Sporting Clube Portuguese de Toronto’ (1650 Dupont St.), the approximately 60 people in atten- dance listened to resident Kevin Putnam discuss the lack of space at his branch. “I’m a regular user at the library with my kids and I’ve always no- ticed that it was a packed library,” said Putnam who spearheaded the notion to expand. “ere are a lot of renovations going on at other libraries and I thought that our neighbourhood would benefit from a bigger library.” Listed at 3,600 square feet, Put- nam said that the actual space used by the public regularly... the BLOORDALE press http://www.thebloordalepress.com SEPTEMBER 2011 vol.1/issue.4 Residents plan to expand Perth/ Dupont Library I N S I D E THE CLOSING OF A HISTORIC BLOORDALE SITE Kent Senior Public School 103 years later Page 11 DOCUMENTARY PUSHES POLITICAL ISSUES Diesel trains are coming and politicians want change Page 02 Community News from Ward 18 INSIDE THE NEW 11 DIVISION POLICE STATION 11 division poised to move to 2054 Davenport Rd. Page 03 see LIBRARY, page 10 MEET YOUR PROVINCIAL CANDIDATES, PAGE 6
Transcript
BY GURPREET GHAG
Local residents met on the second-floor meeting room of the Perth/Dupont Library (1589 Du-pont St.) on August 16 to discuss plans to expand their branch, only to fittingly realize that the 33-per-son capacity was not sufficient to accommodate the meeting.
Having moved across the street to ‘Sporting Clube Portuguese de Toronto’ (1650 Dupont St.), the approximately 60 people in atten-dance listened to resident Kevin Putnam discuss the lack of space at his branch.
“I’m a regular user at the library with my kids and I’ve always no-ticed that it was a packed library,” said Putnam who spearheaded the notion to expand. “There are a lot of renovations going on at other libraries and I thought that our neighbourhood would benefit from a bigger library.”
Listed at 3,600 square feet, Put-nam said that the actual space used by the public regularly...
HISTORIC BLOORDALE SITEKent Senior Public School 103
years laterPage 11
DOCUMENTARY PUSHES POLITICAL ISSUES
Diesel trains are coming and politicians want change
Page 02
Community News from Ward 18
INSIDE THE NEW 11 DIVISION POLICE STATION11 division poised to move to
2054 Davenport Rd. Page 03
see LIBRARY, page 10
MEET YOUR PROVINCIAL CANDIDATES, PAGE 6
News
02 The Bloordale Press SEPTEMBER 2011
BY GURPREET GHAG
A few politicians at the free pre-miere of Jeff Winch’s ‘Bending the Rails’ urged community members to get in touch with the provincial Liberal party and let them know diesel trains will not benefit any-one.
A large crowd packed the Revue Cinema (400 Roncesvalles Ave.) on August 30 including the likes of Ward 18 councillor Ana Bailão, Davenport MP Andrew Cash, Parkdale–High Park MPP Cheri DiNovo and Davenport MPP hopeful Jonah Schein.
Winch’s 45-minute documentary explained how 464 diesel trains would be chugging in and out of the Junction Triangle area daily by the time Toronto hosts the Pan Am games in 2015.
The film said that the transporta-tion authority behind the project, Metrolinx is looking to use ‘Tier 4’ diesel trains, which it claims will produce fewer emissions than tra-ditional diesel trains. These trains would then be converted into elec-tric trains over a period of twenty years.
The film’s perspective was to get electric trains on the rails from the beginning, explaining that the gov-
ernment chose the more harmful medium because it was more cost efficient.
The film outlined the problems that come with diesel engines and more specifically, what it meant for the triangle, which is surrounded by railway lines. In an area that was built by the railways, the film touched on how ironic it would be that the same tracks would be bringing in so much harmful smog.
In the first half of the film, Winch attempts to get current Davenport MPP Tony Ruprecht to speak on the issue over the phone, but Ruprecht failed to provide any substantial comments, citing that anything he had to say was already said in a letter written to Winch.
Further on in the film, Winch finds Ruprecht at a community meeting. Local resident and mem-ber of the Junction Triangle Rail Committee, Richard Mongiart, asks the politician why he does not stick up for the people who voted him in and stop what will ultimately be a devastating project.
Ruprecht failed to answer the question and told the people at the meeting that they should continue doing what they are doing and keep on trying to get the message
out about electric trains.Following the screening, a panel
made of up Winch, Bailão, And-Cash, DiNovo and Schein fielded questions.
The most obvious of questions was the first to be asked: What can we do?
DiNovo was the first to speak and said that the biggest thing that could help the cause is the upcoming provincial election on October 6.
“A shift in power in Queen’s park,” said DiNovo, could be the only way to save this project.
Andrew Cash added that a peti-tion was in progress and would be brought to the attention of the provincial government.
Throughout the question pe-riod, the majority of the panel urged people to call the provincial party and make themselves heard at upcoming all candidates’ meet-ings, and to, perhaps, cast a vote for a party who disapproved of the situation.
Anyone wanting to sign the pe-tition can do so at Andrew Cash’s office (1162 College St.) or at Jonah Schein’s (993 Bloor St. W).
For more information about the film, you can visit http://www.jeffwinch.com.
Documentary puts spotlight on provincial electionLocal filmmaker Jeff Winch’s documentary gets politicians talking about change
BY GURPREET GHAG
A few months after his mural was accidentally classified as graf-fiti and painted over by the city, local artist Joel Richardson will be back at the Dupont St. underpass, working on a new mural.
The new 300-foot long mural will feature the original suit-man and an infusion of elements of Eastern meditation.
The plans for the new mural were unveiled at St. Luigi Catholic School (2 Ruskin Ave.) in front of roughly fifty people on July 28 and Councillor Ana Bailão said they were well received by the commu-nity.
“The new mural will have ele-ments of the old mural, you will find some parts of the equation, but it will have a big meditation
piece in the middle, somebody meditating. It’s very interesting,” Bailão said.
Richardson was commissioned to do the original mural in 2008 by the city. His mural consisted of a man in a suit as a part of a math-ematical equation.
However, in May, amid Mayor Ford’s crackdown on graffiti, the mural was classified as graffiti and was painted over.
Bailão said that the mural had been painted over because it had not been documented correctly and that the final product looked different from what was proposed.
Richardson was unavailable for comment but it is believed that he will get to work on the new installation in early September and should be finished in approxi-mately three weeks.
Artist redoing mural work
Left to right: Ana Bailão, Cheri DiNovo, Andrew Cash and Jonah Schein field questions after the screening. PHOTO By GURPREET GHAG
The businessman featured in Richardson’s old mural, which was painted over. PHOTO COURTESY MARTIN REIS
Joel Richardson getting back to work at Dupont underpass
BY JUSTIN MILLERSON
On August 28, the 11 Division Police held an open house at their soon to be new headquarters (2054 Davenport Rd.) which, before be-ing purchased by Toronto Police in 2008, was the south building of Carleton Village Public School.
Still located at 209 Mavety St., 11 Division does not officially move into their new home until September 26, but the doors were open prematurely for anyone who wanted to take a look inside the building and learn a thing or two about how it will operate.
Small groups of about 15 people were taken in at a time to take a tour of the new building. Staff Sgt. Bruce Morrison of the Community Response Unit began the tour by giving general information about the building in the new ‘community room’; a space open to the public.
The community room, he said, will be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to anyone who wishes to use it. The former kinder-garten classroom, he said, can be booked at the front desk once 11 Division officially opens.
“We are here to be good neigh-
bours,” said Morrison.The new building which totals a
whopping 70,000 square feet, will feature top of the line equipment including brand new holding cells, which no longer use the traditional bar set up. Instead, thick steel doors have been installed, which are built to last over 50 years. Just outside the cells are pressure sensitive walls that will alert police of any move-ment when touched.
A strong environmental agenda has also been implemented for the building with the biggest initiative being the geothermal grid under-neath the building that will provide heating and air for the building.
Architect Tom Kyle said despite the new technology and the size of the building, it is nothing extravagant.
“It basically meets the needs of the police service; the city is pretty cost conscious, they were careful of making sure that no one went beyond what was needed function-ally,” said Kyle who worked with a number of architects from design and consulting firm Stantec.
The Police needs are no longer met at 209 Mavety Street said To-ronto Police. The building, built in the 1950s, has become obsolete and
it is written on the Toronto Police Services’ website that a new building is “long overdue.”
Forty-two additional officers will be added to 11 Division once the new building is open and division boundaries will be extended East to Dufferin Street (instead of Lans-downe Ave.) and North to St. Clair Avenue (instead of the CPR tracks).
03The Bloordale Press SEPTEMBER 2011
News
BY GURPREET GHAG
On September 24, Toronto will join 400 cities across the world in what will be the largest poetry reading in history, with a few loca-tions in Bloordale.
Starting at 10:30 in the morn-ing, The House of Lancaster (1215 Bloor St. W) will host a poetry breakfast, where guests will have the chance to have breakfast, listen to some poetry readings and mu-sic, and meet the poets.
Designed to promote environ-mental, political and social change, the worldwide event allows each location to focus on their own specific area of change within the overall framework of peace and sustainability.
Event coordinator, Dyan Marie, who will also be reading at the House of Lancaster and later in the day at the TTC bus shelter at Paton Rd. and Lansdowne Ave., said she hopes this event will con-
nect people in the area and engage them in discussion over a variety of different issues.
Marie previously brought awareness to the undeveloped land behind the bus shelter with her in-stallation of several silhouetted hu-man figures with vines protruding from them. The idea to now read at the bus shelter is to resurrect discussion on how the community would like to use the space.
“I hope people will begin to think about what they want to see there,” she said, “it’s a site for devel-opment in the future and whatever happens I hope it’s something in-teresting.”
As for The House of Lancaster, Marie said she liked the idea of it being used for something rather than what it regularly is.
“It has a nice stage and plenty of seats, it’s a great place for a lot of people to gather,” she said.
After the readings, Marie plans to laminate the poems and hang
them from the blue light polls on Bloor Street.
The poetry reading at The House of Lancaster is a pay-what-you-can event with proceeds divided be-tween Savard’s Women Shelter, the Perth/Dupont Library expansion project (see page 1) and the poets.
For more information on the event, you can find the Facebook event group by searching ‘100 Thousand Poets for Change at The House of Lancaster’ or the website htpp://www.100tpc.org
New 11 division police station unveiled to public
Bloordale to participate in largest poetry reading ever
“I hope people will begin to think about what they
want to see there,” she said, “it’s a site for develop-ment in the future and
whatever happens I hope it’s something interesting.”
Dyan MarieEvent Organizer
The worldwide event aimed to promote change will be held at two locations in the area
11 dvision will officially move into the former school, located at Davenport Rd. and Osler St. on September 26. PHOTO By JUSTIN MILLERSON
A few visitors having a look at the geothermal roof. PHOTO By JUSTIN MILLERSON
About
04
The Bloordale Press is published monthly and is distributed within ward 18’s boundaries and in its neigh-bouring areas. Copies are delivered door-to-door in the ward and also at local businesses and other areas of interest. Call or email us with your story leads or to inquire about sub-scriptions and our advertising rates.
Well... for one, your candidate just ruined my new rug
and whyyyyy would you not be sure about my candidate ?
would you rather he close your swim-
ming pools? maybe raise your taxes? CUT HEALTHCARE?? OR HOW ABOUT HE EATS YOUR CHILDREN?
Hmmmm... I’ve been o�ered these promises before....
“CAT IN THE BAG” By Les Gilles
‘OCTOBER SIXTH’
If there is anything I have learned in my life, it’s that elections make for some really exciting times
(and yes, I do get out quite often). If the soap opera that was the last federal election were to happen
every night, I would be right there, front row, centre. The rise of the late Jack Layton and his NDP,
the dissolve that was the Bloc and the resignation of leader Gilles Duceppe thereafter, the fade that was
the Liberals and then the resignation of their leader Michael Ignatieff, the first seat ever won by Green
Party via Elizabeth May and right here in our own Bloordale where we had Mario Silva and his liberals
lose what was a forty-nine-year stronghold on the riding; you can’t write stuff like that! Besides all the
edge-of-your couch, nail-biting action, there is also, of course, the ability to make a change in the world
in which you live. It’s a time for you to look at the policies of the available parties and make the best deci-
sions for you and the ones you care for. This year you can vote for a change in your taxes, you can vote
for the environment, vote for the public transit, vote for businesses, vote for healthcare, vote for families
and if you really want, you can try and vote for a cat (thank you for the cartoon, Gilles!). Whatever you
do, just remember: October sixth! See you at the polls!
Gurpreet Ghag
BY ANA BAILÃO Ward 18’s Councillor
This month, I would like to
take this opportunity to talk about my role as Chair of the City of Toronto’s Affordable Housing Committee. Afford-able housing is a critical issue that impacts the lives of so many people in our city.
The Affordable Housing Com-mittee oversees the activities of the Affordable Housing Office, which help federal and provin-cial government investments
in new affordable rental and ownership housing in partner-ship with private and non-profit developers. We also facilitate the implementation of Housing Op-portunities Toronto, the City’s 10-year affordable housing ac-tion plan.
Today, Toronto is experienc-ing a housing crisis and while many organizations and indi-viduals work with us to provide solutions, much more needs to be done. More than 79,000 households are waiting for social housing and this number has grown by over 6,000 households in the last year.
Some 28% of families and in-dividuals in Toronto are strug-gling to pay rent and we know that when people don’t have enough money to afford the rent, it means having to choose between paying for shelter, food and other necessities. To-ronto has a housing plan to deal with these issues and it’s called Housing Opportunities Toronto – a 10-year plan for affordable housing.
The report provides direction for dealing with the City’s hous-ing issues and includes building new housing, helping people afford rent and repairs and help-
ing people become homeowners in partnership with federal and provincial governments and lo-cal organizations.
As Chair, one of the first things I did was get myself a pair of construction boots so that I could go out and personally ex-perience what we can accomplish together. Recently, I visited the YWCA-Elm Centre that is under construction. In October, when it opens, the building will pro-vide new affordable homes for 300 women and their children. It will also provide important community amenities including a women’s community meeting room, a large auditorium and a restaurant. This initiative is a shining example of how having a plan for housing - the neces-sary funds - committed partners makes our city livable.
I also recently attended a ground breaking event for a new Habitat for Humanity Toronto development. This project in Scarborough included participa-tion by our Emergency Services, which demonstrated the impor-tance of our community part-ners that are producing positive results for affordable housing and low income families.
I know that housing impacts
our health, environment, the economy and people’s ability to work and participate fully in our communities. That’s why it’s so important that we have contin-ued leadership and investments from the senior levels of govern-ment.
In the last two years, the fed-eral and provincial governments directed more than $500 million of economic stimulus funding to housing in the GTA. These in-vestments support the repair and renovation of more than 1 000 social housing buildings. These funds are also creating more than 2,200 affordable homes and assisting more than 800 low and moderate income households to buy their first home.
Last year, the provincial gov-ernment released the first Long-Term Affordable Housing Strat-egy, which established Ontario’s interest in affordable housing and provides a framework for future housing investments.
The Province has taken a leadership role in committing 20% affordable housing in the Pan-Am Village, which is being developed for 2015. We’re also hopeful that the federal and pro-vincial governments will release details of an Ontario housing
agreement that will provide $100 million over the next three years to assist in housing Toronto resi-dents.
In the short time I’ve been elected, I’ve learned that part-nerships are an essential part to addressing our housing needs. This was demonstrated last Feb-ruary when I organized a Sym-posium on Poverty, Housing and Homelessness in partnership with the Toronto Board of Trade and the United Way.
Over 150 people attended to share their ideas and urged us to continue to make housing a priority. As a follow-up, I’ve created a Private Sector Hous-ing RoRound-tableo bring more people together and am plan-ning to dialogue soon with Civi-cAction who have made housing a priority to make Toronto a more liveable, prosperous and more economically sound.
With the upcoming provincial election, I encourage you to ask the local candidates when they knock on your door, where they stand on housing and if they will abide by the agreements that Ontario’s current government has signed on to. It is imperative that we ensure that housing is on the agenda.
05The Bloordale Press SEPTEMBER 2011
The Councillor’s Corner
The MP’s Corner
BY ANDREW CASH Davenport’s Member of Parliament
The unprecedented outpouring of emotion and celebration of the life of Jack Layton helped get NDP caucus members like myself, and many Canadians across the coun-
try, through that surreal week of shock and grief at the sudden loss of our leader and friend. Indeed, greeting mourners who for hours lined up around Nathan Phillips Square to pay their respects, I was deeply struck by the diversity and range of people who had taken
time out of their Friday to wait in line in the hot sun. They brought their own messages of condolence and personal stories of Jack. As well as the deep connection Jack made with Canadians everywhere, and particularly here in Toronto, folks came out in droves – creating that spontaneous chalk message board at Toronto City Hall that even the daily rains could not erase – because of what he stood for, the values he dedicated his life to pro-mote and to fight for literally right to his last hours on earth.
To borrow from Stephen Lewis’ outstanding eulogy at the state funeral at Roy Thompson Hall, Jack’s message was a manifesto for social democracy. The idea that we can create through collective generosity a fairer, more equal so-ciety; one that cares for the elderly; looks after its children; helps create good jobs; welcomes and supports newcomers; ensures that greed is checked and decisions are made in the best interests of the common-
wealth; a country where ‘no one is left behind’ is a vision that deeply resonates at the core of who we are as human beings. The notion that we could do all this as Jack tried to with civility, respect and good humour hits a deep seam in the Canadian consciousness.
Imagine on the other hand if Jack’s life work was as an apologist for the captains of global industry who demand corporate welfare on the one hand while moving their factories and their profits offshore; if his legacy was in the project of building more prisons while closing libraries, daycares, rec. centres and schools; if his policies celebrated tax cuts for wealthy cor-porations while raising the cost of living for middle and working class people, if he aligned with those who deny the existence of climate change or who dismiss the idea that we should work to leave the planet to our grandchildren in bet-ter shape than we inherited. Well if that were the case then there may
have been a laudatory obituary here and there in the pages of our corporate media but that kind of a man’s passing would likely not bring people out on to the streets.
Two weeks before Jack died we hosted the official opening of my constituency office at 1162 College St. – just west of Dufferin. The event drew close to 500 residents of Davenport. Elderly seniors, new immigrants, single mothers, postal workers, students, children and lo-cal business people passed through the doors. Musicians with roots as far flung as Ethiopia, Portugal and the U.K. came to perform. It was an incredible day, one I won’t soon forget in part because the event underlined one of Jack’s main mes-sages: everyone is welcome. That is the kind of Canada many of us here in Davenport want to live in, one that together I know we can build. That is also the kind of constituency office we’ve just opened. So please give us a call 416 -654-8048– or come by. Our office is your office.
Davenport Votes: 2012 Provincial Election October 6, 2011
06 The Bloordale Press SEPTEMBER 2011
Eglinton Avenue West
Rogers Road
St. Clair Avenue West
Davenport Road
Dupont Street
Bloor Street West
College Street
Dundas Street West
Queen Street West
Lavendar Road
Dovercourt Road
Du�erin Street
Lansdowne Avenue
Ossington Avenue
Holland ParkAvenue
Oakw
ood Avenue
Keel
e St
reet
C.N.R./C.P.R
Winona D
rive
Old W
eston Road
NBOUNDARIES: According to a 2006 census, the electoral district of Dav-enport has a population of 104,610 people with 63,773 registered voters. It encompasses roughly thirteen square ki-lometres and is bordered by the CN line, Keele Street and Lavender Road in the west, Eglinton Avenue West, Dufferin Street, Rogers Road and Holland Park Avenue in the North, Ossington Avenue and Winona Drive in the east and King Street West at its most southern point.
MOTHER TONGUE: Davenport is one of the most culturally diverse ridings in the province. According to the census, it has an immigration population of 53 percent, whereas the provincial aver-
age is 28 percent and the national is 20 percent. 57 percent of residents speak a language other than English or French.Portuguese, Italian and Spanish are the most spoken.
HISTORY: The riding has remained un-der the Liberal watch of Tony Ruprecht since he first was elected in 1999. All three of his victories (1999, 2003 and 2007) have come over three different NDP candidates, with Peter Ferreira be-ing the closest in 2007, losing to Rupre-cht by just over 1,500 votes.
NEW FACES: This year’s election, however, will see a new Member of Pro-vincial Parliament elected as Ruprecht has left his seat to open up the floor for
Christina Martins. Newcomer Jonah Schein will be replacing Peter Ferreira of the New Democrats and the Conserva-tives will have former municipal hopeful Kirk Russell taking the place of Antonio Garcia. The only returning candidate from the 2007 election is the Green Party’s Frank de Jong who finished the last election with just under ten percent of the votes.
KEY ISSUES: Key issues in this elec-tion include tax relief for families, pub-lic transit funding and the freezing of transit fares, job creation and rewarding those who create the jobs, HST off of hydro and heating bills, the lowering of small business taxes and the promotion of a sustainable health care system.
Davenport Results 2007CANDIDATE VOTES %
TONY RUPRECHT 12, 368 42. 45
PETER FERREIRA 10, 865 37.29
FRANK DE JONG 3, 061 10.51
ANTONIO GARCIA 2, 841 9.70
Total votes: 29, 135 100 %
DAVENPORT POPULATION AVERAGES PROVINCIAL NATIONALUnemployment Rate 7.3 % 6.4 % 6.6 %Average Age 36.8 39.0 39.5Senior Population 12.24 % 15.56 % 13.71 %Population 14 and under 15.6 % 19.1 % 18.5 %Home Owners 20.98 % 26.61 % 26.92 %Average Family Income $67, 596 $ 90, 526 $ 82, 325Immigrant Population 53 % 28 % 20 %
Post-Seconday Degrees 29.36 % 33.54 % 33.25 %
- source: 2006 census, StatsCan
Meet Your Candidates
BY GURPREET GHAG
On July 5, Liberal Tony Ruprecht, Davenport’s MPP since 1999, an-nounced that he would be leaving politics. A few months after this an-nouncement, Cristina Martins went
through a series of interviews and became his replacement.
Born in Portugal, Martins moved to Davenport in 1970 and attended St. Rita Catholic Elementary School (178 Edwin Ave.). She went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree in ap-plied chemistry and biology and then worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 15 years in Canada, the U.S., and Europe. Her website reveals she is currently the president of the Federation of Portuguese-Canadian Business and Professionals as well as the director of the Greater Toronto Business Association and the Euro-pean Union Chamber of Commerce in Toronto.
Martins said that the riding holds a place close to her heart for a number of reasons.
“It is a riding that has a lot of meaning to me, as a mother of two young children I care about their future, I care about their well-being, I care about the society that they’re going to be growing up in, and I care
about my own well-being and that of my parents,” Martins said.
Ultimately, Martins said that she would like to continue the work that the Liberal party has done and be-lieves she will do a good job because of her conviction, her voice and be-cause she cares.
Starting with education, Martins said that the recently announced Liberal platform will continue full day kindergarten, introduce more before and after school program-ming for younger children, and said that they will be giving post-sec-ondary students from middle-class families a 30 percent tax credit for tuition. Martins added that voters should note that under the Liberal reign, Ontario has not had a teacher’s strike and that the number of teach-ers has grown.
As for health care, Martins said the Liberals are on track and she wants to continue their progress. She said that 1.3 million more families in the province now have a family doctor
and the number of nurses has in-creased by 11,500. As part of the new platform, the Liberals plan to bring back medical house calls.
“I think it is very important to the residents and the constituents of Davenport where we still have a lot of people who are of a cultural back-ground where putting your parent or your grandparent into a long-term care facility or into a nursing home is not culturally accepted,” she said.
On the topic of transit, Martins said that her party would continue to invest in the Eglinton Crosstown LRT (http://www.thecrosstown.ca) and continue to provide two cents of the gasoline tax towards transit.
As for the diesel trains coming to Southern Ontario (see page 2), Martins believes that they have been receiving a bad rap.
“These are not huge trains, they aren’t cargo trains,” Martins said. “I think it’s important that we imple-ment them this way so that we can actually make the commitment to
the Pan-American games, which will bring many, many jobs to Ontario, it will bring a lot of money to Ontario, about 250,000 tourists are expected.”
Martins said that these trains, which can be electrified, are the cleanest available, and if elected she will ensure that there will be no delay in converting them to electric.
The last point in her platform is for small businesses. The Liberals plan to give a tax credit of $10,000 to businesses that want to hire and train foreign workers.
She said that this would help make Ontario an appealing desti-nation for immigrants.
“I think that we need to ensure that we remain an attractive and viable option for people coming to Ontario.”
For more about Cristina you can go to her website at http://www. votecristinamartins.ca or the On-tario Liberal Party site at http://www.ontarioliberal.ca
LIBERAL PARTY: CRISTINA MARTINS
Your Riding Profile
07The Bloordale Press SEPTEMBER 2011
Meet Your Candidates
BY MATT LOPES
Representing the Green Party of Ontario, Frank de Jong has built a political platform aimed at tackling many prominent issues in Davenport, including everything
from Catholic funding Education to strip clubs in the Bloordale vil-lage, traffic flow, and environmen-tal accountability to name a few.
Having lived in Davenport for nearly 15 years, and having run for ward 18 councillor in last year’s municipal election de Jong said he has watched the community grow into what it is today and currently works as a public school teacher in the neighbouring ward.
“I think one of the biggest issues is Catholic funding education,” said de Jong, “the provincial gov-ernment continues to fund two education systems when there should be just one.”
De Jong said that with no other religious education funded by the province, Catholic schools should not be funded either, he also added that by stopping catholic funding, students and taxpayers would see
the benefits.“It would be a great advantage to
the citizens of Davenport because kids could travel much shorter distances to get to school, plus it would be fewer taxes to pay for the taxpayers,” said de Jong.
De Jong said he is an avid sup-porter of local businesses by shop-ping at Dufferin Grove Organic Market fixing his bike at the bike shops around town, and eating at local restaurants, but two busi-nesses he wants to see out of Dav-enport are Bloor street strip clubs, The House of Lancaster and Club Paradise.
“We don’t want our daughters and our children seeing this kind of thing. Why is it in Davenport, and why are none of these strip clubs in the Bloor West Village or in the Annex?” said de Jong, “it’s a huge embarrassment, it objectifies
women and it has no place in our community.”
De Jong said the strip clubs are a sleeper issue because people do not realize that their community is being sacrificed.
The owner of The House of Lancaster Gentleman’s club, Spiro Koumoudouros is also Chairman of the Bloordale BIA. De Jong said Koumoudouros would be consid-ered a hero in the community if he turned his business into something community oriented.
“I suspect Lancaster would be a much more profitable space for Spiro if it was welcoming to people from the neighbourhood and if it was a different kind of business that is up and above the board instead of shady. I think the whole community would consider him a hero if he turned it into a com-munity oriented type of building,”
said de Jong.Shutting down strip clubs and
relocating funding for education can be a long process if elected but de Jong said one of the first things that needs to be done is to add bike lanes on Bloor and slow down the traffic in the riding’s major streets.
“Streets like Bloor, College and Dundas are like freeways with people from outside of our com-munity screaming through twice a day, and that’s wrong, this is our community,” said de Jong, “we should have ‘walkability’ so our kids and seniors can be safe cross-ing the streets.”
De Jong also takes a strong stand on banning handguns, creating a self-sustaining infrastructure, and having land value taxation in the city of Toronto. More on his political platform can be seen on his website at http://www.votefrankdejong.ca
GREEN PARTY: FRANK DE JONG
BY JUSTIN MILLERSON
Born and raised in west-end To-ronto, Jonah Schein, NDP candidate
for Davenport, is taking his first crack at running for office on Octo-ber 6.
Schein, who worked closely on Davenport NDP MP Andrew Cash’s campaign, points at affordability as the main problem facing Davenport and points toward the city’s unfair taxes as the cause.
“We need a fair method of taxation and the province has to play a role in that,” said Schein. “The province has to make sure we have revenue for the city.”
The fair method, according to Schein and the NDP, is to stop the corporate tax giveaways and start reducing taxes for the people, which is the exact opposite of what has happened through the current Mc-Guinty and previous Harris govern-ments.
The HST tax, introduced by the McGuinty government in 2010, is a prime example of the unfair taxation that has squandered public dollars, said Schein.
“Income tax is a fair way; the amount is dependent on the amount of money made. HST on the other hand, everyone pays the same amount no matter how much they make, it’s not fair,” he said.
If elected, Schein said he will cast his vote in support of cutting the HST tax on Hydro and home heat-ing. The NDP also plan to start the process to remove gasoline taxes.
While public taxes have risen, corporate tax rates have steadily fallen, down 3.5 percent since 2008.
“So there is more revenue generat-ed on people’s home essentials from
the HST, while the biggest corpora-tions and the biggest banks are not paying,” said Schein.
Another piece of Schein’s platform includes investing in small busi-nesses and making sure local jobs are first priority.
“In terms of the economy we need to invest right here in Ontario and make sure small businesses are sup-ported and give them advantages.”
He added resources should not be taken out of Ontario to create jobs somewhere else and that we need to preserve our resources and buy On-tario product, something he said the Liberals have failed to do.
One example, Schein said, was how the Liberals chose to outsource the over 400 trains that will soon run from Union Station to Pearson Airport.
“One of the absurd things about the diesel trains that is going in here is why we aren’t investing in a local company like Bombardier,” said Schein who is displeased with the project all together.
“The train doesn’t serve Daven-port, it cuts right through,” he said.
On the subject of transit, Schein also said that the NDP would restore the old transit model, where half of the operating costs for municipali-ties were covered by the province. This will apply to all municipalities across the province and subject to the condition that the municipalities do not increase fares.
More information about Schein’s Platform can be found at http://www.electjonahschein.com or at the Ontario NDP site at http://ontariondp.com
NEW DEMOCRATS: JONAH SCHEIN
BY GURPREET GHAG
A few weeks ago, Progressive Conservative candidate Kirk Russell did not even have the slightest incli-nation to run for office. Instead, he was content with helping candidate Antonio Garcia with his campaign.
However, after some unforeseeable circumstances with Garcia, Russell was more than happy to take his place.
“It’s time for change,” said Russell, “we have had eight years of Dalton McGuinty, tax increases, secret deals, and it’s time we put an end to that.”
Russell, in accordance with Tim
Hudak’s ‘changebook’ and what he learned from his own candidacy for councillor of Ward 18, said there are several ways that he and the PC party can make Ontario and Dav-enport a more livable and desirable place to live for middle class families and small businesses.
“We knocked on a lot of doors during the municipal election,” said Russell, “and there was this elderly lady that came to me at the door and she had her hydro bill and her tax bill in her hand and she asked me ‘what could I do?’”
Russell said that he did some re-search and then saw that Hudak’s policies could help people like her.
“What we’re going to offer is re-moving the HST from your hydro
bills, taking off the debt retirement charge, income sharing in families, a 5% reduction in your income tax for people making up to $70 thousand,” he said.
As for small businesses, Russell said that the PC party offers a bill of rights that consists of something they like to call ‘red-tape-reduction.’
This process as well as a reduction in small business taxes to ten per cent will make it easier for people to start and maintain a small business.
“Small businesses drive our econ-omy,” said Russell, who stated he learned a great deal through starting his own business a few years after ar-riving in Canada in 1997.
Russell added that he thoroughly disapproved of the Liberal’s plan to
give small businesses who invest in foreign workers a $10,000 tax credit. He said it would make far more sense to help the people who are already in the province.
The last part of his platform in-volves health care and Hudak’s prom-ise to put $6.1 billion into health care with the goal of reducing emergency wait times and getting patients in and out of hospitals as quickly as possible.
“We want to put patients at the centre of health care; first and fore-most and have people spending less time in waiting rooms.”
Russell encourages anyone not familiar with the ‘changebook’ to visit at http://www.kirkrussell.ca, or at the PC party site at http://www.ontariopc.com
PC PARTY:KIRK RUSSELL
BY JUSTIN MILLERSON
Bloorcourt (east of Dufferin St.) officially marked their departure from the Big on Bloor Festival this year by hosting the first annual Bloorcourt Arts and Crafts Street Fair on August 13.
The Street Fair was not really planned for, but because of time
concerns, the Bloorcourt BIA de-cided to not participate in Big on Bloor and instead put on a fair of its own.
“It kind of became its own thing,” said Gary Rideout, board member of the Bloorcourt BIA and owner of The Comedy Bar (945 Bloor St. W).
Rideout was a part of a five-
-person committee that worked vigorously for about three months to put on the event and during that time the group collected a number of crafters and artists to frame Bloor Street from Dufferin Street to Montrose Avenue.
Thirty-four vendors took to the streets during the one-day festival and the crafters were comple-
mented with an assortment of live performances including a perfor-mance by Fight!, a pro wrestling circuit out of Toronto.
Ashley Sixx, director of the company, hosted a free show at the festival with an outdoor ring being set up at the corner of Bloor Street and Concord Avenue.
“Gary Rideout brought it to my attention that he was trying to put something together for the Bloorcourt street festival, so he approached me, we worked some-thing out and made it a family friendly version of what we do,” said Sixx who also wrestled at the event.
A few hundred people stopped by for the free show and Sixx, who normally charges spectators, could not have been happier with
the turnout.“It was awesome. More than I
could ask for; it was a great op-portunity to make more fans,” said Sixx. “I think we made a couple hundred new fans.”
The Piston Bar, located between Concord and Delaware Avenue, provided some musical enter-tainment by hosting a handful of bands to play from their front patio.
The Broken Arrows, a brand new Toronto based band made up of members from a group called Love Method had an opportunity to preview their EP album. Ro Sardana, singer and rhythm gui-tarist of the band was happy he got the gig and was glad to be a part of the street fair.
“I think it’s cool, I think it’s great that this neighbourhood is doing something because this is a great neighbourhood,” said Sardana, a Bloordale resident. “It’s sort of ‘hippyish’ and freakish but it’s laid back.”
This will be the first of many an-nual street fairs Bloorcourt will be hosting and Rideout called the first a success, however he saw some as-pects that could be improved upon.
“I was really happy with the crafts component, but we want to im-prove on the art component,” said Rideout.
Art
08
Bloorcourt Arts & Crafts Street Fair makes its debut
Looking west on Bloor. PHOTO By JUSTIN MILLERSON
The Bloordale Press SEPTEMBER 2011
This way to business salvation. PHOTO By Justin MillersonA performance by professional wrestling circuit, Fight! was put on at the corner of Bloor St. and Concord Ave. PHOTO By JUSTIN MILLERSON
“I think it’s cool, I think it’s great that this
neighbourhood is doing something because this is
a great neighbourhood, said Sardana. “It’s sort
of ‘hippyish’ and freak-ish but it’s laid back.”
Ro SardanaSinger/Guitarist of
The Broken Arrows
09
Art
BY JUSTIN MILLERSON
Robert Kananaj opened his sec-ond art showing on August 13 at the Robert Kananaj Gallery (1267 Bloor St. W) and titled it ‘Group Show.’
It is a simple title, yet the still fresh gallery owner felt something a little more complex the day of his
showing and so did the public.“The work is very serious,” said
Kananaj. “The artists are of a high quantity and I see people are re-sponding accordingly.”
About 40 people showed up at the gallery for its opening, located at 1267 Bloor St. W., to see the art-work of 18 different artists, most of which are local.
All four walls including the front windows of the gallery are covered by different exhibits, and every art-ist has their own section to display five or so pieces of art.
The back wall of the gallery is covered by the art of Canadian iconic artist Claude Breeze.
Now a York University art in-structor, Claude has shown art all over the world, but he has been out of the gallery game for quite some time. He said politics in gal-lery showings have left him sour over the years and if it was not for Kananaj’s convincing qualities, Breeze said he wouldn’t have made a return.
“I said no, no I don’t want to show, I have nothing to do with galleries,” said Breeze who has one piece of art for sale at the gallery for $10,000. “I said I quit showing at galleries. He convinced me, the bugger. He’s a convincing person.”
Breeze is just one of many no-tables that are showing and selling their art at the Robert Kananaj Gallery. Others include Stefan Thompson, Ilir Zefi, Gon Bregu, and one young newcomer.
Sixteen-year-old Clara Bacou from London England has 10 piec-es on display for her gallery debut.
The art consists of pen drawings of animals with abstract qualities that were then painted in an array of bright colours.
“I was really struck by the hon-esty and innocence,” said Kananaj referring to the art. “It’s young and fresh. She is a gift to the show”
Kananaj discovered Bacou’s art when he was doing research on artist Stefan Thompson.
“I was scrutinizing one of these artists, Stefan Thompson, and at some point they had collaborated with each other and that’s how I saw her drawings,” said Kananaj.
Other participating artists are Mike Parsons, Lula Motra, Szonja Vucsetics, Soraya Hutchinson, Paul Dominic Aiello, David Van Drunen, Rebecca Diederichs, Lech Bider, Tony Urquhart, J. P., Nicole Collins, Gordon Rayner, Natalka Husar and Amanda Ned-ham.
The gallery will be open for viewing until September 17 from Tuesday to Saturday. Hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For more information about the art and the artists visit http://robertkananajgallery.com
The Bloordale Press SEPTEMBER 2011
BY JUSTIN MILLERSON
‘Somewhere There’, a music stu-dio hidden from Bloordale’s main streets at 227 Sterling Ave. hosted a non-traditional art exhibit on Labour day.
The theme of ‘process’ was dis-played through the works of two artists and a band of musicians.
Painters, Sarah Cale and Austin Furtak-Cole took the front part of the gallery, which was divided into two sections, and a music group called ‘Ghost Eye’ performed at the back for the 40 people in at-tendance.
The collaboration was meant not only to portray the theme of pro-cess, but to also bring music and visual arts together, said curator Heather White who studied art at Stony Brook University in New York State.
Cale, who usually paints tradi-tional art, brought something to the gallery she had never shown before. Mistakes and accidents spawned from her art studio over a two-year period were transformed into art to show what can come of the process to paint a picture.
“Basically what I have here is ev-erything that didn’t work out and
the aesthetic is a little bit scrappy and tattered,” said Cale, a Toronto artist.
Debris, including paint cov-ered garbage bag material, used canvases and other supplies were prepared artistically for the view-ing pleasure of the public, but Cale, before showing, felt a little anxious.
“This caused me a lot of dis-comfort to produce this, I really wanted to do this installation but I was very unsure about it because I usually do more formal works that have a certain parameter,” she said.
Directly across from Cale’s work stood Furtak-Cole in front of his art.His paintings, three of which were
complete and three that were not, were to help show the stages (or process) of his art.
This was also the goal of one of his more interesting pieces; an animation made from 629 pictures which showed the progress of one of his paintings.
“You see the painting being made and I’m showing it in increments,” explained Furtak-Cole, a native of Vermont who was showing in To-ronto for the first time.
The night was wrapped up by the musical performance of a Toronto based band, Ghost Eye.
The group composed of Simeon
Abbott (piano and sampler), Steve Ward (trombone), Dan Gaucher (drums) and Steve Reaume (visu-als). They used almost hypnotic projected images to compliment their less than traditional sound.
Reaume used a program called the Conway’s Life Algorithm on his iPad to create pixelated images in real time. The basic computer images, draw similarities to the visuals of early 1970s video games, but in a much more abstract man-ner changing every couple of sec-onds.
The band played in front of these projected images stretched across the back wall of the gallery.
“It’s kind of like a collage of ideas coming together and bubbling to the surface,” said Abbott.
“The idea of the project is to em-brace the technological extensions of our instruments, so you’re hear-ing a lot of looping and sampling,” he said.
When asked if he was happy with the event, a modest Abbott credited and thanked Cale and Furtak-Cole for collaborating with them.
For the rest of the month, you can see Cale and Furtak-Cole’s work at the gallery Wednesday and Thurs-day 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Saturday and Sunday 12 p.m. to 5 p.m.
Seeing the process at ‘Somewhere There’
18 artists displayed at Robert Kananaj Gallery
This large painting is the most valuable on sale, for $10,000. PHOTO By JUSTIN MILLERSON
The only sculptures at the gallery are by Stefan Thompson. PHOTO By JUSITN MILLERSON
Artists Sarah Cale and Austin Furtak-Cole debut their work in Toronto. PHOTO By JUSTIN MILLERSON
Ghost Eye from left to right: Simeon Abbot, Dan Gaucher and Steve Ward. PHOTO By JUSTIN MILLERSON
News
10 The Bloordale Press SEPTEMBER 2011
...consists of just over a thousand square feet where library shelf space is shared with a children’s play area and just three computers. He said that this would simply not accommodate a growing neigh-bourhood.
Putnam presented three feasible choices for expansion that were identified through earlier col-laboration with the councillor and Toronto Public Library executives.
The first option would be to ex-pand the current location by build-ing an elevator and washrooms on the main floor and where the current garden is, at a cost of ap-proximately $1 million.
The second would be to build a new 6,500 square foot library at the current location at a cost of ap-proximately $3 million.
The final option would be to build a new 10,000 square foot library at a different location at a cost of approximately $4.2 million.
Some residents asked how any of this would be possible at a time when KPMG consultants sug-gested the closure of some libraries as a way for the city to save money.
Putnam responded that the money used for the library would
not be coming from taxpayers, but rather from section 37 fees, which developers agree to pay in exchange for permission to exceed zoning restrictions on the height or densities of projects.
In order to make it more rea-sonable in the eyes of City Hall, Putnam said the plan would be to match those proceeds from section 37 fees with donations from people who have used the branch in the past and have gone on to become successful.
Councillor Bailão said she hopes a large chunk of that section 37 money will be coming from the new condominium development at Lansdowne Ave. and Dupont
St., but she has yet to find out how much money developers will ex-actly pay for the project.
Mark and Lee-Anne Macdonald, who have been using the branch since 1980 and have practically raised two daughters there, said that the branch is a vital spot for many children and home to a va-riety of programs needed by such a culturally diverse neighbourhood.
“It’s in an area where there are a lot of immigrants. There are a lot of people in the area who don’t speak English as a first language and rely on a place like the library. It’s
a place to promote language and literacy,” said Lee-Anne.
The couple favoured the idea of building an improvd two-story branch at the same location.
Alison Urquhart, a resident who has been using the library weekly for 8 years and more frequenly while in school, said that the idea of more resources for younger us-ers would definitely be welcome.
“There aren’t many computers,” she said, “I rarely use them be-cause they are always busy. I think it would be essential for the kids to use for their school work.”
Putnam said that the next step would be the formation of a ‘Junc-tion Triangle Library-Expansion Committee’ to go through a consultation process to see what people like about the library, why and how they use the current space, what they would like to see in the new, bigger branch and how to raise some money.
Anyone who was not at the meeting and would still like to par-ticipate in the process is urged to visit http://www.junctiontriangle.ca to get dates for future meetings and engage in online discussions.“It’s in an area where
there are a lot of immi-grants. There are a lot of
people in the area who don’t speak English as a
first language and rely on a place like the library. It’s a place to promote
language and literacy.”
Lee-Anne Macdonald Long time branch user
The current size of the Perth/Dupont Library is that of a small storefront. PHOTO By GURPREET GHAG
LIBRARY, from page 1
11
News
The Bloordale Press SEPTEMBER 2011
BY GURPREET GHAG
Tuesday, September 6th, 2011108-year-old Kent Senior Public School, Main Office.
8:40 – Secretaries welcomed the few students who did not have a timetable yet and asked them to have a seat. Two girls, who were new to the school, sat on the bench beside each other. As it turned out, they happened to be in the same homeroom. “Hey, look,” said the secretary, “neither of you knew anyone at the school before and now you do.” The two girls exchanged names. Teachers began walking in and out of the office and all were asked, “How was the summer?” by the secretary.
8:55 – The secretaries took the two girls, and the few others who had arrived afterwards, to the gymnasium.
8:57 – A freshly polished gym floor acted as a seat to the roughly 125 grade eights; the soon-to-be 104th and final graduating class of Kent Senior Public School. The staff stood to the side and chatted away. The children were deco-rated in new sneakers and snazzy t-shirts. One of them sported a moustache that must have taken the whole summer to grow. A girl near the front of the gym yelled an introduction to a boy sitting in the back and then waved.
9:00 – The bell went off and im-mediately the 14th principal in the history of Kent, Mr. David Smith, took to the front of the students. Silence fell.
The principal explained that even though this is the final year of the school’s existence, even though there is no grade seven class and the staff has been cut in
half, there will be no compromise in school teams and extra-cur-ricular activities. He then listed safety procedures, protocols for the student council and the morn-ing announcements and that the final team sign-up for the Kent Cobra Football teams (girls’ and boys’) would occur tomorrow.
“We’re going to make this a great year,” he said.
9:15 – Students were taken away by their teachers in groups to their homerooms, where they would stay for the rest of the day except for a period each of phys-ed.
9:17 – An empty gym. Attendance sheets started arriving in the office.
The school circa 1913. COURTESY KENT ARCHIVES
Bloordale Exclusive: The first day of the last year of Kent Senior Public School
A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY*The land on which Kent was built was bought from Captain John E. Denison who received it as a gift from Lord Simcoe, who was governor at the time*The school opened in 1908 after local schools Dewson, Dover court and Brock became overcrowded*It was named after H.A.E. Kent who served as a trustee from 1885 to 1908*Despite still being under construction, the school opened with eight rooms and the original staff of Mr. Spence, Miss Dunlop, Miss Hetherinton, Miss Stanners, Miss E. McBain and Miss Wright*In 1910, a staff of thirty-five teachers governed the finished school*In 1917, Kent was the largest school in the dominion of Canada*On April 6, 1947, a storm did considerable damage to the school and forced the rebuilding of the current structure, resulting in the modern look*In 1950, Kent became a Senior Public School and only served stu dents in grades seven and eight and grade nine and ten commer- cial courses*In 1963, it became the largest Senior School in Canada with a- pproximately 1,000 students *In 1966, the last commercial classes graduated from Kent, making it an independent Senior School*In 2010, the Board of trustees voted to close Kent as of September 2012 because of a lack of enrolment - source: Kent Senior Public School 100th Year Commemorative Program Guide.
Cica 1917, when Kent was the largest school in the dominion. COURTESY KENT ARCHIVES
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