I'll make this short and sweet. These are the consequences for me not supporting the top five corporations on the Greenpeace polluters list.
Nestle can produce a bit of a challenge to everyone. Myself included. If the general population stopped using Nestle products all together the impact would be far greater than simply avoiding their bottled water products. It's far easier for me to stay out of Tim Horton's locations as I'm not like 99.99% of the population that are hopelessly addicted to coffee. I never acquired a liking for the bitter liquid. To some people's surprise I have more of a sweet tooth than a bitter streak. Their creamy chocolate chills, on the other hand, may provide a bit of a challenge. But I'm willing to sacrifice them until such a time as Tim Horton's does the right thing for the environment by providing a refillable 22 ounce cup to fit their large size cold drinks. All their refillable containers focus on hot beverages only. In my opinion Starbucks is too pricey. So, that's not even a temptation. McDonalds is only for the French fries. My body tells me I don't really need them anyway. Trying to avoid Coca-Cola products may prove difficult to some. But I have acquired a taste for tap water and fresh fruit home made smoothies. So my adjustment phase would be remarkably shorter than most. Otherwise, for these corporate giants to have deadlines of five or ten years to implement significant changes to product packaging is simply not good enough when many see the damages done now as irreversible within that five to ten year period.
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In the photo above are Scott Fraser, President, Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities, Tanya Mruck, Executive Director, MLSE Foundation, Nichola Bynoe community resident, and Julio Rigores from Toronto Community Housing Corporation A week ago today I received a media advisory from Toronto Community Housing indicating there would be a press conference/photo-op the following day at 40 Gordonridge. In attendance would be representatives from the community, staff from TCHC, MLSE (Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment) and Canadian Tires Jumpstart Foundation. Apparently, they were hosting a ground breaking ceremony for a new multi-sport court. Great! I figured I'd ride my bike over early enough to get a prime spot for photos among the mainstream media that were invited. Only to find out I was one of two photographers in attendance. The other photographer worked for MLSE. That was a bit of a shock to me. But maybe it shouldn't have been. Mainstream media seems to be focussed on tearing down institutions by providing lopsided often inaccurate soundbites and calling that news coverage. Enough about them. I'm more than happy to attend a media event about a good news story in TCHC. I wish there were more of them. The new multisport court will give over 1000 youth the opportunity to play sports including basketball, table tennis, track and skateboarding in a safe place acting as an athletic hub for youth in the Gordonridge community. Maybe they would be so kind as to call me back if they decide to have a ribbon cutting ceremony. At that point may I suggest they include the city of Toronto Mayor John Tory, and the Toronto Community Housing CEO Kevin Marshman if they really want that mainstream media coverage. Below: Nichola Bynoe Community Resident speaking about who will benefit from this new project. Despite the rain on September 28th, 2019 the participants at the SickKids GetLoud event raised $2.2 million that will go towards the $1.3 billion fundraising campaign to build a new Sick Kids hospital.
My favourite part of the day was when one of the youngsters provided tips on how to maximize your fundraising efforts. The main piece of advice was to not provide change if you are hosting a bake sale or operating a lemonade stand. Otherwise, there was great free barbeque, great activities, and great musical performances by the Mini Pop Kids, Dwayne Gretzky, and Serena Ryder with Noemie (in the photo above). On September 23, 2019 there was a press conference at the head office of Toronto Community Housing Corporation. All the mainstream media was in attendance. Then there was me. I'm not sure how many more of these they are going to allow me to actively criticize before they rescind my invitation. For now, I will enjoy the privilege.
Among those standing in support of the message from left to right are City Councillor Ana Bailão, Mayor John Tory, Minister of Municipal Affairs & Housing Steve Clark, and TCHC CEO Kevin Marshman. I said "standing in support of" because we didn't hear a single word from City Councillor Ana Bailão. For the record, we may begin with the Ontario government's press release itself. There is one sentence in it that concerned me most. "Starting today, housing providers have the discretion to turn away prospective tenants who have been evicted from community housing for … illegal activities and who pose a threat to the community." Now, when the notions around tenant safety are discretionary, and neither the Ontario government, nor, TCHC have an implementation plan, there is no real effort to keep the criminal element out of community housing. In addition, people that apply for TCHC technically have to fill out an application form at Housing Connections. That is a similar system of warehousing applicants as what would be available at a temporary staffing agency. In other words, the most effective way to eliminate the return of criminals into community housing (preventing them from applying in the first place) is not a feasible option. All tenant application procedures have been outsourced. Now, if the Ontario government (aka Doug Ford) really wanted to seriously make systemic changes, that would directly impact the ability of criminals to return to live in community housing across the province, they would grant more funding to Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board in order to expedite the decisions that lead to evictions. There also needs to be an overview of what the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board considers evidence in the event of an application to evict a tenant. To require another tenant within community housing to testify (in writing or in person) to the level that a neighbours behaviour is impacting their enjoyment of their unit comes with the very real risk that the OLTB won't evict the criminal after the first, second, or even, the third appearance in front of the tribunal. Objective forms of evidence like audio recordings and photos need to be admissible to TCHC, as well as, the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board. Otherwise, TCHC doesn't take a tenants concerns seriously enough. Thereby allowing TCHC to avoid any form of enforcement action whether that be simply tracking all police/security incident reports with respect to a specific unit or submitting the paperwork for an eviction application. Lets face it. A large percentage of those persons causing issues in TCHC are not officially on a lease. Further limiting the effectiveness of a criminal ban. On site security would be the most efficient way to ensure that many involved in criminal and/or anti-social activities are kept out of Toronto Community Housing. But that option is only available for when a community is in dire straits. TCHC doesn't seem to think much in terms of risk prevention. Mayor John Tory's claim sounds promising - "Discretion allows Toronto Community Housing ... to exercise that judgement. They are the closest to the building. They are closest to what is going on in the building. They are closest to what the person may have done and when they did it in the past." Leaving these decisions up to community housing "service managers" because they are closer to the individuals and incidents that occurred previously within a community seems ideal. But it can be problematic in communities like mine. After all, TCHC recently announced publicly, that they have fired several operating unit managers. Mine included. There was a brief mention at this press conference about the Ontario government improving how Rent Geared to Income calculations would be changed for tenants in community housing. How they would be simplified. No details were given. I find it highly unlikely they would go ahead with my recommendation of instituting a one time, above the OLTB guidelines increase in rent to reflect the Maximum Shelter Allowance that persons on social assistance would be entitled to if they were renting from private landlords. Honestly, I want to know how many decades ago the Rent Geared to Income amounts were set and what the amounts would be worth in today's dollars? Then again I have the same questions about the woefully inadequate Maximum Shelter Allowance granted to OW and ODSP recipients. All questions for another day. It shouldn't come as any surprise then, that I would declare the whole Ontario Making Community Housing Safer press conference as a non event. Despite the mainstream medias creative editing there was nothing to see here. No real change. On September 27th, 2019 thousands of people took to Queen's Park in support of the Global Strike for Climate Change. It was great to see that this was truly an all ages event. The one fault of this event was that there were no water stations for those attendees who brought refillable water bottles. Otherwise, there were also some stellar performances by Wolf Saga, Sarah Harmer, and Jim Creegan (Bare Naked Ladies).
Above is a photo of one many posters that TCHC and Toronto Fire have posted around the Regent Park community. I wonder how much they cost and if they can get their money back.
To begin with, the press conference (held on September 16th, 2019 at the 325 Fire Hall on Dundas Street East) announcing this new joint venture fire safety campaign involving TCHC and Toronto Fire was headlined by two older white men (TCHC CEO - Kevin Marshman & Toronto Fire - Deputy Fire Chief Jim Jessop.) Now, I'm not sure about many things but last time I checked the majority of kitchen fires were reported to have been in units where there were young adults on the lease. Many of whom would be people of colour. Then I'm left wondering with all the many consultation processes over the last several years if TCHC conducted any type of market research or focus groups to assist with the creation of this message. Specifically, to ensure that it would appeal to the particular age demographic in this particular community. (Sidebar - I loved the TCHC "Don't Be A Flicking Idiot" campaign posters. Just sayin') Maybe in the future the Fire Safety Ambassadors they mentioned at the press conference could be drawn from the demographic that is most likely at risk of leaving food unattended on the stove. In other words, the message needs to be from someone that they would be able to identify with and in their language (lingo). Meanwhile, this poster reads like a challenge. Fires Happen Fast. I have more questions from seeing it than answers. Maybe the next Fire Safety Awareness Campaign could have a photo of the silicone oven mitt and a pot lid. #PutALidOnIt As I have said before this is the issue at TCHC. They are more problem focussed than they are solution oriented. Furthermore, as a little extra promotion of my proposed Fire Safety Awareness Campaign at TCHC they are welcome to raffle off some of those pricey silicone oven mitts at community events. I have a cheap pair of dollar store oven mitts that burn me every time I grab a cookie sheet or bread pan out of the oven. Never mind expecting it to hold up against a pot on fire. Please keep in mind that my deputation to the Executive Committee at the City of Toronto on item 7.1 - Implementing Tenants First - A New Seniors Housing Corporation and Proposed Changes to Toronto Community Housing Corporations Governance was begun at 8:00 a.m. the day of the meeting on July 4th, 2019. Then submitted via email at approximately 9:15 a.m. Cutting it close I agree. Apologies in advance for not publishing written work that meets my usual standards. But I believe you will understand the broad strokes. Here's the link to the complete unedited version that appears on the City of Toronto's website.
A couple weeks ago I spent over an hour and a half outside the front of my #TorontoCommunityHousingCorporation building picking up cigarette butts. (No worries I had gloves on.) Why would I do this? Because I want to reinforce the notion that #TCHC needs to go smoke free ASAP. Every one of those butts represent the possibility of a fire. What's even more interesting is the amount of time it took for that many butts and the crack pipe to appear on the tiny parcels of land that make up the front lawn. Given that the sod was just placed in the late fall 2018 and I collected them at the end of April 2019 that's just a six month accumulation. The small sections of lawn I picked these butts up from is right on front of the daycare. Yeah, that daycare. As if that's not bad enough they want to turn these small grass patches into an infant play space. Good luck with that!
May 5th Part One - So the Gilder Early Learning and Child Care Center (daycare) in my #TorontoCommunityHousing building has decided to upgrade their infant and toddler play spaces. From what I can see these pieces of playground equipment are still in great shape and the one for toddlers has more accessibility features than what is available on the playground equipment used by the #TCHC community as a whole. Has any thought or consideration been given to recycling this playground equipment? There is plenty of room to install the equipment behind the #TorontoCommunityHousingCorporation low rises here on Gilder. I really wish TCHC and affiliates would quit working in silos to have best possible outcome for the community as a whole instead of having competing interests vying for space and funding. #Recycle #Accessible #Playground #Equipment #Silos #hope_still_lives_here May 5th Part Two - I would dearly love to know who gave Gilder Early Learning and Child Care Center permission to commandeer our basketball court. Installing gates at both entrances and placing one of their sheds in the corner of the court without any consultation with the rest of this #TCHC community is disrespectful. Especially given that the daycare was given a seat on the committee that managed to have the basketball court upgraded in the first place. Where was the quid pro quo? Plus, Gilder is not exactly overrun with activities that can keep #TorontoCommunityHousing children and youth busy over the warmer months. Removing access to the one activity that they don't have to sign up to participate in is detrimental to the youth and the community at large. #Children #Youth #TorontoCommunityHousingCorporation #Basketball #hope_still_lives_here
I seem to have acquired a habit of tweeting a stream of consciousness thoughts when I least expect it. This is often how I determine whether or not I have enough for an article. Here's a glimpse at my process.
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