John Tory resigned for cheating on his wife, but not for failing the people of Toronto
*nor did he resign for abusing his power by having an affair with someone who works for him.
There are a lot of discussions about John Tory recently, but not around the stuff we should be critical of him about.
Most recently, on Wednesday Feb 8th, Toronto council rejected the Board of Health's recommendation to keep warming centres open 24/7 in a 15-11 vote
Council also rejected the Board of Health's recommendation to declare houselessness a public health crisis - which is immediately sus.
Politicians across the country keep showing us, time and time again, that they do not care if unhoused people live or die. And because of this new political scandal, it's falling off the news cycle—again.
“We are facing one of the worst public health emergencies, other than the pandemic … it’s certainly the worst it’s ever been in my life,” said Perks. “If the mayor wanted to, he could find the money to meet this urgent and deadly crisis.”
Instead, Council has decided to call on our provincial and federal governments for more assistance to address houselessness - once again, politicians unwilling to do the jobs they signed up to do are playing political hot potato while people's lives hang in the balance.
We don't understand how this is allowed. In a crisis shouldn't the focus be on solutions now, and share costs, blame, etc., later?
We thought Canada was against issuing death sentences, but we were clearly wrong.
Some councillors are arguing that we should be focusing on long term housing solutions rather than 'Bandaid fixes.'
Um, what? How are these the people in charge?
How about both, considering this is literally a matter of life and death?
Each person sitting on that council wanted this job. They chose to run for public office.
This is a malicious, callous and inhumane decision.
It also begs the question, what private interests are at play here? Who (read: developers, public support of police budget) benefits from refusing to call houselessness a public health crisis?
Recall, Doug Ford is currently in hot (warm?) water for being the father of a bride who sat next to developers at his own daughters wedding. Clearly corropt politicians with their primary interests being themselves and profits are not uncommon.
Two weeks ago the Supreme Court denied the Region of Waterloo's request to remove encampments on account of it violating individual's Section 7 Charter Right, as there weren't enough shelter beds within the city.
We just saw a very similar decision in British Columbia, (not to mention its common fucking sense) that individuals must have the right to seek their own shelter when the number of unhoused folk exceeds available shelter spaces.
The City of Toronto's own data shows that over 700 people sleep outside every night - and that even the additional 142 shelter spaces they opened during the extreme cold last week were at capacity.
Council: we are asking you the very real question, where do you want these people to go?
Here are the people who signed up to work in public office despite clearly not caring about the public.
Where do we go from here?
Donate to your local charity for Houseless People, some examples are:
Raising the Roof
Toronto Indigenous Harm Reduction
Shepherds of Good Hope
Sound Times
Anishnawbe Health
The Period Purse
Homes for Heroes Foundation
Hands Up Canada
Contact your city councillor and your MP
Here are the councillors who voted for keeping warming stations open - Call and ask how you can help!
We grew up watching Breakfast Television every morning before running to catch a school bus, so we want to say that writing this isn't about attacking BT but inviting them to know better and do better.
Houselessness is, without a doubt, a public health emergency (there is ample evidence from experts). The way this question is framed is the equivalent of is the climate crisis real? or Is racism bad?
Legacy media is well-resourced and therefore uniquely positioned to help Canadians contextualize the complexity of these issues in a way that invites more of us to participate in the critical discourse in this country - so framing a question of life or death in a trivialized way is a giant public disservice.
For legacy media that is working to become more inclusive, On Canada Project is more than just an IG account, and we would be happy to have our consulting arm support your work by creating more compassionate convos around the stories you are sharing!
