Toronto’s War on the Bike

Today Toronto city council voted in favor of spending $440,000.00 to remove existing bike lanes from Toronto city streets. Somehow spending that kind of coin to actually remove progressive infrastructure has become the “conservative” thing to do. While Toronto struggles to balance their budget with looming cuts proposed to everything from child care to other basic services, Council believes this expense to cut bike lanes is justified. This type of thinking falls under the category of wasteful “gravy train” spending. How do you tell a single mother living on a low fixed income that her child care subsidies are being dropped because Rob Ford wants to get rid of bike lanes? This whole mess coined “the war on the car” was created by sensationalist journalists who believed that “the war on the car” made for great headlines. Rather than challenge this divisive, backward thinking, the media repeated this message over and over again until the greater public actually believed there is a war on the car. The simple fact is that these bike lane detractors cannot wrap their brains around the concept that the more cyclists we have, the less cars there will be on the streets, making it easier for cars to travel. That’s just one of many collective benefits of encouraging bike riding as means of transportation. Its mind boggling that we are even debating this point. I would like to know how many councilors who voted in favor of this expense actually consulted with the local communities who will be affected by the removal of these bike lanes.  My guess is none; however Mayor Ford did say he is responding to people “calling into his office.” The reality today is that Toronto, like it or not, has intensified residential properties everywhere downtown. This means more and more people call downtown home and they have a right to have a say on the future of their local communities. What Mr. Ford and his minions at city hall don’t understand is that there are many residents who have no car and rely on public transit or their bike to get around. Rather than rewarding cyclists for making streets more open to cars, they are punishing them by making it more dangerous for bike travel. It seems our current Mayor and council prefers to look backwards instead of looking to the future. Toronto will continue to grow in population – this we know. A forward thinking mayor should realize that one day every street in this city will have bike lanes and streets like Bloor, King and Queen will have no parking. This is what every other large city around the world has already done. Why? Simple, to relieve car traffic congestion (perhaps a little too simple for Mayor Ford’s brain to handle).  To the journalists out there who believe in headlines over sustainability – thank-you for dividing our city. To the people out there who actually believe that bikes are best off the roads – get used to it. As the population continues to grow in Toronto, there will inevitably be more cyclists choosing a bike over a car.  And to the cyclists, keep riding and thank you for setting a positive example to everyone in our city.



 

Thanks to good old Don Cherry, the world has another word to refer to cyclists.



Stupid Is What Stupid Does - Stop the Quarry Now

For many years politicians, urban planners, professors even journalists have condemned urban sprawl. They say the popular model of paving over the landscape indiscriminately into suburban pockets of housing is just not sustainable. This view is widespread among many groups and organizations and yet we continue to allow the ongoing, systematic destruction of valuable land. In places like the GTA (greater Toronto area), urban sprawl is out of control. Municipal leaders who lack vision continue to be bought by land developers. They are convinced that the predicted population growth in southern Ontario needs to be met with more of the same suburbs we’ve condemned for years.  These mayors and councilors have been bought into believing traditional development is the only way and if you don’t build it, they will simply go over to your neighbouring municipality, and they will. It’s time to put a halt to this madness. Municipalities have not recognized past failures and are not willing to change development towards more sustainable approaches. Because of this and how easy it is to buy politicians (by developers), we need to take the powers of appropriating land away from municipalities. We need a provincial plan that looks far into the future and ensures independent, sustainable communities.

It’s extremely concerning that Ontarians import some $4billion worth of food more then we export. Our dependence on other jurisdictions for our food supply has grown to an extremely dangerous level. In the event of a natural disaster, a pandemic, terrorist attack or a blackout (like the 2003 blackout) even the abrupt closing of the US boarder for whatever reason, the city of Toronto would have just 3 days of fresh food supply. We can’t simply ignore these facts; we have been confronted with these alarming stats for some time now but fail to respond.

One could argue that we have protection in place today with the creation of initiatives like the Green Belt protection plan. While the Green Belt does protect valuable farm land, wetlands, forests and watersheds, it says nothing about the massive shortfall of farmland needed to support our own needs let alone this valuable land now being swallowed up by urban sprawl. The point here is to use the land we do develop in a more sustainable manner and build our communities so that we do have access to local food, public transit and amenities.

To meet the needs of developers and their urban sprawl, the Ontario government is proposing to build the second largest quarry in North America.  This open pit limestone quarry will be 1 by 3 kilometers in size and as deep as 200 feet below the water table – that’s the size of about 200 football fields as deep as Niagara Falls! Because it falls at the headwaters for 5 major rivers, the company bidding the proposal will have to pump 600 million liters of groundwater each day – the equivalent of a ¼ of what the entire city of Toronto consumes daily. If built the people of Ontario will be adding 300, 40 tonne trucks along HWY’s 124, 10 and 89 EVERY HOUR. This will inevitably cost us millions in highway upgrades and maintenance and create massive amounts of dust and pollution, which in turn will cost you and I in our health (and the expenses associated with health care) not to mention the unknowns as to water supplies to literally millions of Ontarians. All these issues arise and there has been no environmental assessment.  The Minister of Natural Resources (MNR) can simply say yes or no without the valuable information garnered by an environmental assessment.

Do you want to do your part in helping to stop urban sprawl while protecting valuable land and a precious water supply? Here’s how…

Compliments of Rob Strang, Candidate, Dufferin Caledon, Deputy Leader – Green Party of Ontario

There are four days left to register a comment to MNR in opposition to the quarry via the Environment Registry. Please submit your comment under the Environmental Bill of Rights here before July 11.

You can also write John Wilkinson, Minister of the Environment, asking him to designate this project for a full Environmental Assessment.  A sample letter is available here and may be sent to the address below.

Notes

The comment period on the mega quarry has been extended until July 11, 2011.  To submit formal comments to the MNR’s posting on the Environmental Registry, please visit www.ebr.gov.on.ca and search under posting #011-2864. For information about the posting, please contact Mr. Craig Laing, Aggregate Resources Officer, Midhurst District, Ministry of Natural Resources, at 705-725-7532.

Request that the mega quarry be subject to a full environmental assessment by writing:

Hon. John Wilkinson, Minister

Ministry of Environment

11th Floor Ferguson Block

77 Wellesley St. West

Toronto, ON M7A 2T5

Jwilkinson.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org

416-314-6790

There are various organizations working to fight against this project, including:

http://www.ndact.com/NDACT/Welcome.html

Citizens Alliance for a Sustainable Environment (CAUSE)  www.citizensalliance.ca/

The Council of Canadians http://www.canadians.org/

Avaaz has also launched a petition which can be signed here,

http://www.avaaz.org/en/stop_the_quarry/?vl

Canada’s Eroding Democracy

It was no surprise that virtually every mainstream media outlet in our country dismissed the 2011 Harper budget as “the one released before the spring election…but with a couple minor additions”. Once again, they (the Canadian media) blindly disregarded vital electoral changes that will affect every Canadian. The newly added plank of phasing out party funding may not seem like much on the surface, but the ramifications of this decision will make Canada much less democratic. John Tory of CFRB1010 radio in Toronto downplayed this policy and the budget as “not going to affect Canadians.” In fact, Mr. Tory and many other news reports that used a similar tone can’t be any further from the truth.

In 2004, PM Jean Chrétien introduced new election rules around party funding and fund raising. The idea was to make funds available to all ideologies that Canadians deemed to be worthwhile.  With the changes, a party must receive at least 2% of the popular vote to qualify for this funding; two per cent represents approximately 400,000 votes. There was a clear disadvantage to any party who represented the interests of individuals or groups of individuals who may not have the financial means to support a political party. It was recognised that this disadvantage was not democratic, so Parliament voted to allow Canadians themselves to make the decision on who will or will not receive funding. This meant parties that qualify for the funding would receive it according to the way the people of Canada decide through their vote. This policy put the power of funding directly in the hands of the people. This fair and democratic system was scrapped by Harper in the release and implementation of the 2011 federal budget. 

Most troubling about scrapping the right for Canadians themselves to decide who deserves funding is that in the last 5 years Harper has been systematically eliminating funding to organizations who have traditionally represented minorities who haven’t the resources to fund political parties. Organizations including Human Rights Advocacy Organizations, Women’s Rights Advocacy Groups, Immigrant Organizations and others have all lost or dramatically reduced federal funding.   The result of scrapping party funding coupled with organizations losing funding means the interests of all these groups will diminish to a point where progress is impossible – their voice will be lost or dramatically silenced.  Parties representing these interests cannot compete against other parties who back the interests of, for example, the banks, big oil, and corporations in general or the wealthy. These interests have the means to have their message heard while less wealthy interests remain silent.

Silencing parties and organizations that don’t fit the conservative mould isn’t all Harper has done to grasp complete control. He has silenced public service staff or academia who dare to question conservative initiatives. The Ministry of National Resources was this year crowned the Canadian Journalists Code of Silence award for muzzling a leading Canadian Geologist sighting “media lines” must first have minister office approval before speaking to the public or media.

It’s extremely worrisome that no one in the mainstream Canadian media understands the severity of this or at least has the courage to report it. Our democracy has been diminished by Harper in 5 short years and no one in Canadian mainstream media cares and/or has the ability to recognize what has unfolded in such a short time. Prorogation didn’t do it, contempt in parliament didn’t do it, filibustering committees, silencing critics, and now these electoral reforms weren’t enough to capture the attention they deserve. The lack of opposition in parliament has also got me scratching my head. It is so ironic that at a time in history when suppressed nations all around the world rally to improve their countries by moving towards democracy, we are letting ours slip away.

There are measures we can take. When we hear clear political bias on the airwaves, call in and let them know you are on to what they are doing. Write to the papers and email TV stations; be relentless. Let them know what you know and ask them why they are not reporting on these important matters. Hopefully they will cave under public pressure and do the right thing. Our biggest challenge is communicating to unengaged Canadians who have been totally disenfranchised by the whole Canadian political process. In the 2011 federal election there were almost 40% of eligible Canadian voters (9,251,160 people) who choose not to vote at all. If only a fraction of those voters showed up at the polls, the outcome may have been much different.

The lists below were found on the Canadian Center on Policy Alternatives web site. The lists are part of a great article by Maria Gergin posted on April 6^th, 2011.

http://www.policyalternatives.ca/publications/commentary/silencing-dissent-conservative-record

List of organizations which have been cancelled or defunded, followed by a list of individuals who have been silenced or removed from their posts.

(2006-2011)

1.       ORGANIZATIONS

Seventy-nine community organizations, agencies, NGOs, research bodies and programs which have been cancelled, or whose funding has been cut or dramatically decreased:

·         Aboriginal Healing Foundation

·         Action travail des femmes

·         Afghan Association of Ontario, Canada Toronto

·         Alberta Network of Immigrant Women

·         Alternatives (Quebec)

·         Association féminine d’éducation et d’action sociale (AFEAS)

·         Bloor Information and Life Skills Centre

·         Brampton Neighbourhood Services (Ontario)

·         Canadian Arab Federation

·         Canadian Child Care Federation

·         Canadian Council for International Co-operation

·         Canadian Council on Learning

·         Canadian Council on Social Development

·         Canadian Heritage Centre for Research and Information on Canada

·         Canadian Human Rights Commission

·         Canadian International Development Agency, Office of Democratic Governance

·         Canadian Labour Business Centre

·         Canada Policy Research Networks

·         Canadian Research Institute for the Advancement of Women

·         Canada School of Public Service

·         Canadian Teachers' Federation International program

·         Canadian Volunteerism Initiative

·         Centre de documentation sur l’éducation des adultes et la condition feminine

·         Centre for Equality Rights in Accommodation (CERA)

·         Centre for Spanish Speaking Peoples (Toronto)

·         Child Care Advocacy Association of Canada

·         Childcare Resource and Research Unit, SpeciaLink

·         Climate Action Network

·         Community Access Program

·         Community Action Resource Centre (CARC)

·         Conseil d’intervention pour l’accès des femmes au travail  (CIAFT)

·         Court Challenges Program (except language rights cases and legacy cases)

·         Court Commission of Canada

·         Davenport-Perth Neighbourhood Centre Toronto: (Funding cut by CIC in December 2010).

·         Democracy Council

·         Department of Foreign Affairs, Democracy Unit

·         Elspeth Heyworth Centre for Women Toronto

·         Eritrean Canadian Community Centre of Metropolitan Toronto

·         Ethiopian Association in the Greater Toronto Area and Surrounding Regions

·         Feminists for Just and Equitable Public Policy (FemJEPP) in Nova Scotia

·         First Nations Child and Family Caring Society

·         First Nations and Inuit Tobacco Control Program

·         Forum of Federations

·         Global Environmental Monitoring System

·         HRD Adult Learning and Literacy programs

·         HRD Youth Employment Programs

·         Hamilton’s Settlement and Integration Services Organization  (Ontario)

·         Immigrant settlement programs

·         Inter-Cultural Neighbourhood Social Services (Peel)

·         International Planned Parenthood Federation

·         KAIROS

·         Law Commission of Canada

·         Mada Al-Carmel Arab Centre

·         Marie Stopes International, a maternal health agency

·         MATCH International

·         National Association of Women and the Law (NAWL)

·         Native Women’s Association of Canada

·         New Brunswick Coalition for Pay Equity

·         Northwood Neighbourhood Services (Toronto: (Funding cut by CIC in December 2010).

·         Ontario Association of Interval and Transition Houses (OAITH)

·         Ontario Association of Transitional Housing (OAITH)

·         Ontario Coalition for Better Child Care

·         Ottawa Chinese Community Services Centre

·         Pride Toronto

·         Réseau des Tables régionales de groupes de femmes du Québec

·         Riverdale Women’s Centre in Toronto

·         Royal Canadian Mounted Police External Review Committee

·         Sierra Club of BC

·         Sisters in Spirit

·         Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada

·         South Asian Women’s Centre

·         Statistics Canada long-form census

·         Status of Women

·         Tropicana Community Services

·         Womanspace Resource Centre (Lethbridge, Alberta)

·         Women’s Innovative Justice Initiative – Nova Scotia

·         Women’s Legal Action and Education Fund

·         Workplace Equity/Employment Equity Program

·         York South-Weston Community Services Centre Toronto

INDIVIDUALS

Fourteen civil servants, scientists, and organizations/watchdogs whose staff have been fired, publicly silenced, or who have resigned in protest:

·         Rémy Beauregard, President, Rights & Democracy  (International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development)

·         Chief Supt. Marty Cheliak, Director General, Canada Firearms Program

·         Richard Colvin, diplomat, Foreign Affairs

·         Yves Coté, Ombudsman, Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces

·         Linda Keen, Chair, Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission

·         Paul Kennedy, Chair, RCMP Police Complaints Commission

·         Adran Measner, President and CEO, Canadian Wheat Board

·         Kevin Page, Parliamentary Budget Officer

·         Sheridan Scott, Commissioner, Competition Bureau

·         Munir Sheikh, Deputy Minister, Statistics Canada

·         Col. Pat Stogran, Veterans Ombudsman

·         Steve Sullivan, Ombudsman, Victims of Crime

·         Peter Tinsley, Chair, Military Police Complaints Commission

·         Earl Turcotte, lead negotiator, Mine Action and Small Arms Team, Foreign Affairs