by Noaman G. Ali
“We said we would be willing—and this was just dialogue, wasn’t offers passed back and forth—that we’d take this,” Bob Kinnear makes a zero with his fingers, “provided that the Toronto Transit Commission maintains the level of service.”
But according to Kinnear, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113 (ATU 113), which represents over 10,000 TTC workers, the City’s negotiators rejected the proposition during bargaining last year.
“You know why? Because for Mayor Ford it’s all about an ideology that they have.” Rob Ford and his crew would rather give a pay increase, so that in the end they can blame tax increases on the workers.
Promises of community access to new sports complex go unfulfilled
by Barry Marsh and Peter D’Gama (Issue #27 – Dec 2011 / Jan 2012)
When Rexdale residents in the Finch and Martin Grove area first learned in 2009 that Father Henry Carr (FHC) Catholic Secondary School was being “revitalized” with millions of dollars in infrastructural investments – with a new artificial turf multi-purpose field, a six-lane rubberized track, night lighting – the people must have been pleasantly surprised. Surprised, because the investments came with no forewarning or community consultation. So imagine the disappointment in the community now that the ‘Field of Dreams’ sports facility has been completed (June 2011) and is barred from public use and fenced in for paying users only.
Prior to renovation, the track was widely used by the community for more than a quarter of a century. On any given day people could be found running, walking or playing during non-school hours in the early morning, evenings and on weekends. This usage was consistent with community use of school property all throughout the city. The track and field was an important community recreational asset for Rexdale residents. Read more…
by Errol Young – BASICS Issue #27 (Dec 2011 / Jan 2012
After predicting for years that school enrolments will drop drastically, TDSB staff are now saying that the opposite is true. This according to official TDSB reports projected enrolment numbers through to 2036 (see tables below). These new statistics pose a serious problem for the TDSB because it still stands by its ‘Big Plan’ for a massive sell-off of schools.
The Board (TDSB) has told and will tell many communities that their enrolment numbers are crashing so badly that their local school must close. But the anticipated closure of over 50 community schools and the sale of the land to developers – potentially bringing in several hundred million dollars – is primarily motivated by the need to start addressing a series capital deficit that was created by the province government. This deficit is estimated to be over $2 billion.
Oh, by the way, no one calls this the Board’s ‘Big Plan.’ But it’s clear enough to me – and anyone else who is watching closely – that that’s basically what’s going on. And it’s where the Board has been heading for years. Read more…
by Megan Kinch – BASICS Issue #27 (Dec 2011 / Jan 2012)
When said we were heading to the ‘occupy’ protest, the cab driver turned off the meter. He told us he came here from Iran, that he had three degrees, and that he had to drive a cab every single day to make ends meet. “At least I don’t have a family to support,” he said. “Isn’t that sad, that a man is happy he doesn’t have a family…I don’t want you thinking I’m a communist, because I’m not, but this system is not working.” We offered him money for the fare, and he absolutely refused, saying he could never take money from people like us, and that he wished he could be there. I had tears in my eyes as we left the cab and entered the occupation, which hummed with energy and activity.
The ‘Occupy Toronto’ encampment at St. James Park lasted 40 days and 40 nights before being evicted. In its slogans – “99% vs. 1%” – and its class composition, the movement was fairly ‘middle class’. Read more…
by Diamond Wisdom
As of October 31, 2011, Housing Connections (a subsidiary of Toronto Community Housing Corporation) had its waiting list at a record of 150,858 names.
When the one-man TCHC Board of Case Ootes announced in April 2011 the sale of 22 TCHC homes, the great sell-off of public housing was formally commenced. When Oates left his position, he recommended selling an additional 900 units. On October 21, 2011, Rob Ford’s newly appointed TCHC board members voted on the sale of an additional 706 single-family homes. Most of these homes can house large families that can’t be accommodated in apartments, as suggested as a cost saving measure.
Despite hearing deputations against the sale of homes, only the two tenant-appointed board members voted for a more detailed report from staff before they could on vote on a policy that would impact so many families.
Residents in the process of the sell-off have flagged two serious concerns. First, there is a repeated and complete lack of communication from TCHC to the tenants who would be impacted by the home sales. One of the few groups to inform residents about the upcoming sell-off was the organization ‘Tenants for Social Housing: We’re Not for $ale,’ in addition to BASICS Community News Service and Ontario Coalition Against Poverty. Read more…
by Shane Martínez – BASICS Issue #27 (Dec 2011 / Jan 2012)
This ‘NOT FOR(D) SALE’ sign posted up on one of the 700+ Toronto Community Housing buildings and houses slated for sale and/or demolition in the City of Toronto. (Photo by Shane Martínez)
On Saturday, November 26, 2011, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) and its allies held a rally and march in Toronto’s Moss Park neighbourhood. The purpose of the event was to mobilize in anticipation for the city’s announcement of its proposed budget, scheduled to take place the following Monday.
Approximately 100 people took to Sherbourne Street and marched through Moss Park, one of Canada’s poorest urban communities. The location was chosen because this community, like many other marginalized ones in the city, was anticipated to be hard hit by Mayor Rob Ford’s intended cuts to social services, including libraries, childcare and shelters.
While walking behind a banner reading ‘Fight Rob Ford – Stop City Cuts,’ the group chanted “Stop the war on the poor, make the rich pay!” and visited a number of houses alleged to be sites that the city plans on socially cleansing through gentrification. Organizers vowed that “If they don’t build it [affordable social housing], we will take it! We will occupy houses like this!” Read more…
An Interview with D’Bi Young, creator of The Sankofa Trilogy
by Corrie Sakaluk
D’Bi Young’s powerful Sankofa Trilogy played at Tarragon Theatre between October 22 and December 4. This interview was originally conducted for The Dialog, reproduced for BASICS at the request of the author.
What were the seeds from which the Sankofa Trilogy first started to grow?
I think the seed was seeing my mother perform when I was about 5 years old in Jamaica, at the Jamaica School of Drama, which is the school that is at the centre of Word!Sound!Powah. My mother was doing a one-woman show directed by Honor Ford Smith, who is actually now a professor at York University teaching community arts. So Honor Ford Smith was in Jamaica at the time teaching at the Jamaica School of Drama, and my mother was one of the students there between 1982 and 1985. I will never forget being in the audience and watching my mom, only my mom, on stage. It was a silent play about a woman living alone in her apartment, her routine and how she experienced her aloneness, and it had such a profound effect on me. That’s one thing that pops up to me.
The next thing that pops up to me is that I watched this film called The Three Faces of Eve, I must have been 8 years old. That film was a black and white film about a woman who was schizophrenic and she had three personalities, and I don’t know why that stuck with me, but for some reasons I’ve never gotten that film out of my mind. That film always comes back to me. So those two experiences were seeds that were planted in my young impressionable mind long ago. Read more…
New workshop series on indigenous history coming out of Barrio Nuevo
by Santiago Escobar
This past October 12, the First Indian Film Festival was kicked off in Toronto to commemorate the Day of Indigenous Resistance.
From the perspective of the celebrants of European colonialism, October 12, 1492 is viewed as the day Columbus ‘discovered’ the American continent. From the perspective of the colonized, those civilizations and societies in the ‘Americas’ that were more populous than Western Europe in 1492 (100 million people by some accounts), this day marks the beginning of the most atrocious crime in world history: the beginning of history’s greatest genocide. The mass killing of millions of indigenous peoples, followed by the mass enslavement and trade of Africans, went hand-in-hand with the destruction of an untold number of societies that were stripped of their territories, beliefs and social organization. So it was only appropriate that this past October 12 be the day chosen for the First Indian Film Festival to be kicked off.
We mark the 519 years since the beginning of Indigenous Resistance as the victims of European colonization are still paying the price for the dismantling and looting of our already established societies at the hands of those who boasted of having ‘discovered’ the new world. We continue to pay the price for the geographic ignorance of the sailors who accompanied Christopher Columbus on his adventure in search for shorter routes to the Indies (Asia) from Europe.
The colonization and marginalization of our peoples, especially indigenous people, persists into the present. No one can doubt that we are advancing in the fight for true freedom, true independence, and we are now seeing the emergence of progressive governments throughout South America reflecting the accumulation of indigenous peoples’ struggles. But it is still a long way to achieve the desired independence and true freedom.
The Toronto screenings created a space for debate and reflection about the struggles of the indigenous peoples of Central and South America. It must be noted that the films presented were 100% produced and created by indigenous people, transmitting their worldview without intermediaries and without distorting the indigenous and popular struggles. This point is important to stress because normally these kinds of documentaries are produced by foreigners, who are distant to the reality of daily life of indigenous people. Foreigners tend to tell these stories from a liberal perspective and are inclined to represent the Indians as an almost magical subject, perfect, or as a folkloric and romanticized object, ignorant of the deeper meaning of their struggles, which is against colonialism and imperialism – or as it is popularly known, globalization.’ Many of these liberal perspectives overlook or disregard the significance and centrality of the organizational and social formations of indigenous people’s – a basis for the success and achievements of many of these people’s movements.
The attendance during the film festival was vast and generated an awakening of awareness, especially among the Latin American audiences. It created consciousness for public struggles in an historical and cultural context, related to the living spaces claimed by fellow Indians of Central and South America.
The documentaries shown were accompanied by follow-up discussions and analyses from the audience with the aim of understanding and exchanging ideas about indigenous struggles. Recognizing the need to learn more about Central and South American history, the audience unanimously supported the development of a series of workshops dealing with indigenous peoples before the Spanish conquest, during the conquest, throughout the period of the nominally ‘independent’ neo-colonial republics, and the last 30 years of resistance by the indigenous peoples and other social movements from Mexico to Patagonia.
With this wide support from the Latin@ community, we will soon be starting an educational series to address these topics.
To register for this workshop series please write to us at barrionuevo.canada@gmail.com.
by Corrie Sakaluk – A PERSONAL REFLECTION
Over two months since the first Occupy Wall Street protest took place in New York City, and in the face of incredible police violence, protestors are still keeping to the courage of their convictions, holding their ground, and gathering daily.
What started on Wall Street has also spread far and wide: Toronto, Edmonton, Montreal, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco, Cleveland, Orlando, Dallas, Kansas City, Portland, Atlanta, Phoenix, Chicago, Madison, London, Athens, Madrid, Barcelona, Stuttgart, Amsterdam, Tel Aviv, Algiers, Tokyo, Sydney….I’m not sure if this is even all of them. Read more…
by Megan Kinch – Reposted from toronto.mediacoop.ca
Occupy Toronto has been given an eviction notice as of 12:00 midnight tonight, and are forbidden from using the park between 12:01 AM and 5:30 A.M. There will be an all-out rally to save the occupation at 11 PM tonight (November 15th) at St. James Park at King and Church streets.
The City says “The City recognizes the rights of Canadians to gather and protest. However, the City has determined that it cannot allow the current us of St. James Park to continue. In particular, the City can no longer permit the appropriation of St. James Park by a relatively small group of people to the exclusion of all others wishing to use the park and to the detriment of of those in the vicinity of the park. In addition, the current use of the park by Occupy Toronto and others occupying St. James Park is causing damage to the park and interfering with necessary winter maintenance of the park.”
There is a second page to the notice serving official notification of trespass.
Occupiers have been receiving support from thousands of Torontonians, as well as many local residents and local businesses, and have offered to co-operate fully with city staff in winter maintenance. In the minds of protesters and many in the city, this eviction is political.
The City threatens to remove tents and structures as of 12:05 tonight. Please join with occupiers at 11 PM tonight in the defence of our civil liberties and right to create space to build an alternative society.
Stay tuned to this site for updates as we get them (this story will be updated shortly as more information comes in), and to the official occupy toronto site at http://occupyto.org/
