Wait for it.  You are NOT going to believe this.  So I was just doing a casual stroll of a TCHC property where a fellow anti-poverty advocate lives on the Saturday of Easter weekend.  This BMW really stood out.  This is top of the line wheels.  (Blue Book value of at least $25,000)
Immediately my thoughts started racing.  This is a long weekend.  Friday was a holiday.  I couldn't see TCHC staff leaving wheels like this in one of our parking lots over night. That would be begging for trouble.
Speaking of trouble, whenever I see a high end car in a TCHC parking lot over night I automatically think that the owner has a criminal record and undeclared income of some type. (Honestly, if they have THAT much money shouldn't they be in a market rent unit somewhere?)  The only other wheels near that spot was a bike (with a milk crate for a trunk and plastic bag to keep the drivers seat dry) chained to a tree.
Then I notice the vanity plate.  "5CARLO" No way! This can't be.  That's not possible.  He's not that arrogant.
I asked my friend if this car belonged to our not so esteemed off again/on again tenant representative on the Board of Directors of TCHC Robert Carlo. 
She answered in the affirmative.
WOW ... I was speechless.  (Trust me that doesn't happen very often)
I was thinking about all the community money or resources that I know my tenant rep has never been held accountable for.  No matter who I reached out to for an audit it never happened.  All my tenant rep is driving around in is a beat up minivan that she shares with her live-in boyfriend.  (Is he on the lease yet?  After thirty years one can only hope.) 
Having an on again/off again status on the Board of Directors at TCHC is an exponentially higher rank than a lowly tenant rep.  Would that not automatically mean that with rank comes privilege?  How many perks has he received?  (Are the rumours really true?  Has he only allowed agencies or programming into his building if there was an upfront incentive for him to do so?) 
Thankfully, March 31rst, 2018 was officially the end to all TCHC tenant reps terms . That is until Toronto Community Housing Corporation rolls out the new tenant engagement system. 
My concern is what if some of these old school fraudsters already have plans in place to dominate whatever associations may be created in it's place?  Will there by rolling community audits?  Will there be an effort to enforce the TCHC employees Code of Conduct or the Board of Directors Conflict of Interest Policy?
Previously Tenant Reps were only obligated to hold monthly community update meetings with TCHC staff.  Maybe now it is time to include equal accountability to the communities within which they live.  No more of this one or twice a year general meeting crap. 
​Maybe now they will ensure that those representing our communities have minimal financial accounting training so that they can include accurate assessments of accounts for all groups, clubs or associations that they are currently operating. 
How long ago was it that I initially asked for that training.? Oh yeah.  When I made the decision that I didn't want to be cleaning up after the previous tenant rep.  (Money in torn envelopes that had ineligible hand writing on them in plastic baggies stashed in a filing cabinet in the tenant reps apartment that was supposedly the previous years Garden Club money.)  
Back to that BMW sitting in a TCHC parking lot ... You can't fault me if I honestly believe it is the result of a lot of ill-gotten gains.  Maybe when they roll out the new tenant engagement system they will have measures in place to prevent tenant reps from exploiting their own  communities.  Maybe ...

This started over some personal angst about not being approved yet for the TCHC media contact list and noticing that TCHC had the audacity to pull off a press conference in the hood just east of me. When I saw the clips on the evening news I noticed over the shoulders of the politicians that the exteriors of the townhouse units weren't finished.  

​Then up pops this post on Facebook with a selection of photos attached that reads in part- "The homes are part of Toronto Community Housing’s commitment to clean, safe homes for tenants."  ​I just had to go see for myself.  

​On the one hand, I wasn't disappointed because I came home with pictures of exactly the opposite of a clean and safe neighbourhood.  On the other, I was hugely disappointed because of what appears to be complete construction chaos.  

TORONTO, ON - Today MusiCounts, Canada's leading music education charity, is celebrating a successful 2018 JUNO Week filled with numerous exciting events and initiatives. The week saw MusiCounts honour Canadian music icon Jim Cuddy, the 2018 MusiCounts Teacher of the Year Award recipient Laura Lee Matthie and featured performances by the MusiCounts StarBand, MusiCounts TD Community Music Program recipients and special guests Dear Rouge, Scott Helman and The Beaches.

"MusiCounts was thrilled to be involved in many 2018 JUNO Week initiatives, and to have the opportunity to recognize our program recipients and supporters", Said Kristy Fletcher, Executive Director, MusiCounts. "Thank you to everyone who attended and supported MusiCounts' JUNO Week events".

To kick off the opening of the TD Green Room on March 23, MusiCounts TD Community Music Program recipients, the Saint James Music Academy delighted guests with a special performance. They were then surprised with $20,000 in new instruments for the program. 2018 JUNO Award winners for Breakthrough Group The Beaches and JUNO Award nominee Scott Helman also took to the stage as part of the festivities. MusiCounts TD Music Program recipients, The BC Youth Chinese Orchestra then joined multi-platinum JUNO nominee Shawn Hook, on stage during The JUNO Awards Broadcast for a rendition of his hit song "Reminding Me". Visit www.cbc.ca to watch now.  

The MusiCounts StarBand, comprised of over 65 students from seven Vancouver Area schools who had previously received instruments grants via the MusiCounts Band Aid Program, hit the stage on March 24 at Let's Here It! LIVE. Led by Education Chair, 2018 JUNO Host Committee and 2013 Musicounts Teacher of the Year, Mark Reid, the students were joined by guest performers JUNO Award-winning band Dear Rouge. 

At the JUNO Gala Dinner & Awards presented by SOCAN, Jim Cuddy received the MusiCounts Inspired Minds Ambassador Award, presented by Canadian Scholarship Trust Foundation. Cuddy was honoured for his profound support of MusiCounts and is the driving force behind the creation of JUNO Cup Presented By CBC Sports, which has raised over $850,000 to date for MusiCounts.     
 
The 2018 MusiCounts Teacher of the Year Award recipient Laura Lee Matthie from Orillia Secondary School was presented with her Award at the Chairman's Reception Presented By Music Canada, experienced VIP treatment during JUNO Week, attended the JUNO Gala Dinner & Awards Presented By SOCAN and walked the red carpet at The JUNO Awards Broadcast.
 
MusiCounts was also honoured to be supported by many events during JUNO Week including, JUNO Cup Presented By CBC Sports, JUNO Cup Jam Presented By CBC Sports, JUNO Songwriters' Circle Presented By SOCAN in association with the Canadian Music Publishers Association, Stories from the Studio and The JUNO Awards Broadcast.  ​

Be More Kind, out May 4 via Xtra Mile Recordings/Polydor Records/Universal Music Canada, the country’s leading music company, represents a thematic and sonic line in the sand for the 36-year-old. “I wanted to try and get out of my comfort zone and do something different,” says Turner.
After his stripped-down, live-sounding previous album, Positive Songs for Negative People, Turner wanted to try a new approach for his next record. With this in mind, he recruited producers Charlie Hugall (Florence And The Machine, Halsey) and White Denim’s Austin Jenkins and Joshua Block, and the idea of recording a more rock-led album with tints of electronic-pop took shape. Be More Kind was made over a period of seven months, giving Turner the opportunity to turn songs on their head, try different versions, and shake up the dynamics within his band.
Be More Kind was inspired by a Clive James poem called “Leçons Des Ténèbres”: “I should have been more kind. It is my fate / To find this out, but find it out too late.” “It devastated me the first time I read it,” Turner says. “A lot of older, wiser people tend to say things like that, that the things that come out in the wash at the end of a human life are the way you treated the people around you. In the modern world, that’s a lesson that all of us, myself included, could do to learn.” Pre-order Be More Kind HERE.

​Toronto Tour Dates 
​September 19th, 2018     The Phoenix Concert Theatre 
​September 20th, 2018     The Phoenix Concert Theatre

Festival d’été de Québec (FEQ), one of Canada’s largest and most widely attended music festivals, once again announces a long list of internationally acclaimed acts as well as national, local and emerging artists all performing July 5-15. The stellar roster of for the 51st edition includes Toronto R&B pop sensation The Weeknd, national folk-rock treasure, activist, singer-songwriter Neil Young (his only Canadian play this summer) and pop-prodigy Lorde who kicks off her UK tour with the Québec city performance joined by 80s feminist pop-icon Cyndi Lauper.

In addition, returning after their rained out performance in 2015, The Foo Fighters will finish what they started on the Plains of Abraham along with EDM duo The Chainsmokers, genre-bending avant-garde artist Beck, Canadian pop star Shawn Mendes, 90’s jam band legends Dave Mathews Band, and Atlanta rap-god Future, all performing on the legendary Bell stage this summer. 

On July 9, In collaboration with the Center de la Francophonie of the Americas and the Congrès Mondial Acadien, the FEQ will deliver a platform for Francophone artists of all different backgrounds to come together for an evening celebrating our rich cultural history. Highly acclaimed Acadian artists will be joined by a number emerging Acadian musicians. More details of the Québec-Acadie event will be announced in the coming weeks.

​Full list of artists from A - Z is available HERE

​Regular sale of passes begins Thursday March 8th, 2018 at noon HERE .  Passes are $100 until June 4th, 2018 and $110 from June 5th, 2018.