Filed under: Politics | Tags: Catholic, Christian schools, dalton mcguinty, education, election, faith-based, fundamentalist, funding formula, Global, hindu, Howard Hampton, Human Rights, islam, Islamic, jewish, john tory, Liberal, liberals, NDP, Ontarians, Ontario, Ontario Liberals, PC, racism, schools, terrorist
The faith based funding issue should have been about simple human rights. The U.N has already indicated that the practice of funding only Catholic schools in Ontario is unjust. John Tory hoped to address this issue by fixing the problem and allowing fairness. Fund all or fund none, and he opted to fund all. Unfortunately, reality occurred and we found out that Ontarians are actually a lot more racist, ignorant and bigoted then they like to believe. Not all Ontarians are like this, but based on call-in shows and the general mood of people, many are. In reality the question should have been “would you like Islamic schools to get public funding”. Many Ontarians have extreme stereotypes about Islam, to some no fault of their own. The images they see, and are bombarded with, tend to be on the extreme. On the radio comments, in regards to faith-based education, revolved around fundamentalist Islam elements and “terrorists”. I have even heard a voter say that they do not what terrorist schools to get funding. Now a lot of this is based on fear, since 9/11, but in essence we still extremely fearful and ignorant in Ontario. Now the question is, does that fear show how successful the media has been in planting the wrong image about Islam in the minds of Canadians? Because it’s absolutely amazing how clueless people are about various religions in Ontario. Rather than be properly educated about any group of people, we like to remain in our sheltered domain; ignorant to the facts around us.
Filed under: Politics | Tags: 905ers, dalton mcguinty, election, immigrants, john tory, Liberal, minorities, mmp, NDP, Ontario, PC, referendum
The fact that Dalton McGuinty and his Liberals will probably win this election is actually not about anything he did. As he said, he would let the people view his record and judge him accordingly. He has constantly said that there is more work to be done. Added with a long list of broken promises, the choice would seem to be clear? No, in fact it is not! The problem is not on the Liberal or NDP side, but the PC side. The reasons that the Liberals are leading in Ontario polls are actually due to problems faced by John Tory. John Tory’s problems are actually three-fold, along with additional problems of Ontario history.
Faith-based funding
This has been a “Pandora’s Box”, issue in Ontario. What John Tory is trying to do is admirable and just. We need to, in Ontario; face the issue of only funding Catholic based education with public dollars. It is wrong and the status-quo is not good enough anymore in our changing mosaic. John Tory said himself “the fact is that we must either FUND ALL or FUND NONE”. I would have preferred that this issue had been brought to the legislature as an open vote, within parliament. A straight-forward question, which would have required all MPP’s to vote on the issue as a ‘Yes’ or a ‘No’, would have settled this issue. However, it is too late for that now. John Tory decided to support the fund all option, since the other option would have been political suicide. A fund ‘none’ option would have brought out the majority of Catholics to challenge their rights under the constitution of Canada. In addition, people in John Tory’s own party have come against the issue. This does not bode well in the GTA. Not that their stance on the issue is admirable. I mean, just because it is unpopular within their constituency, it does not mean they should change their principles. What is ironic is that amongst minorities in the GTA it makes them look “ignorant” and against minority rights in Hindu, Islamic and other communities. Unfortunately, people do not want to hear conservatives say that they are against funding, however unfair that label is. But lets be honest, all political parties would have faced difficulties if they decided to deal with the issue. So again, I do applaud Mr. Tory for bringing this issue into the limelight, since we MUST deal with the problem. Albeit, this one issue alone has greatly affected the campaign in Ontario; causing people to lose focus on the other pressing issues. In the end, another party may bring this issue to the surface during parliament, with the focus on removing funding, which would be ironic.
The ignorant thorns within the PC party
No matter how you cut it the Progressive Conservatives still look too “Conservative”, in the immigrant communities. Sorry to offend those right-wingers, but it will almost be impossible for them to get a foothold within these communities; unless it is by force. The legacy of Mike Harris has not helped either. Within many immigrant communities, right or wrong, he was seen as anti-minority and a bit racist. I do not feel that he is at all, but this was the image and impression left imprinted in the minds of the voters. They say that the election will be decided amongst the 905ers. With that being said, the PC party needed to have a somewhat ‘Red Tory’ feel. However, again, with candidates, like Bill Murdoch speaking out against the faith-based funding issue, it does not make them look good. Some individuals I have spoken with, in various communities, have even said that they are getting racist comments like “I will not support any south-Asian or Asian candidate”. The sad thing is that these are card carrying PC members. So again, no matter how much a person may have a fiscal conservative swing, the issue becomes, “do I want to associate myself with that”. In addition, websites like http://www.freedominion.ca and campaigns from within to support conservatism, and not John Tory only show how right-wing elements of the PC Party scare 905ers into sticking with the Liberal red, regardless of the corruption problems. I think that Dalton McGuinty knows this. They know that the election will be decided by 905ers, so what do they have to lose? The sad thing is that polling shows that John Tory would have made a better leader than Dalton McGuinty; however the party support is way back of those numbers. So essentially, they are comfortable with Mr. Tory, just not the Tories themselves. Maybe he should have run for leadership of the Liberal party of Ontario?
Times are good and people are just too comfortable
The Ontario economy is generally strong. The Canadian dollar is high. Real Estate is at an all time high. So what does this mean for the election? What is means is people will stick to the status quo. Ever hear the old saying “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it”? With all of the corruption in the Liberal party of Ontario, and the “slush-fund issues”, you would think people would want change? But in fact they don’t. People are angry with Dalton McGuinty. I have heard card-carrying Liberals say that “Dalton is a liar and untrustworthy”. However they are not angry enough to change political allegiances. Dalton would probably have to threaten to take 95% of their take home income before they would budge. What is truly sad is the problems that occurred under the Liberal government, with money and slush-funds, will probably continue. However, people seem to be willing to give him one more chance. I think another thing the NDP and the PC parties misses is the transit issue. With the Move Ontario 2020 plan, coupled with the “Transit City” plan, by promising to spend over 17 billion (we will see if that even happens), people want to give him a chance. The NDP and Conservatives should have focused on other issues that affect the everyday lives on Ontarians. Unfortunately, the faith-based issue has clouded any other policies they had and people just want the status-quo. Again, times are good in Ontario. However, remember, when the NDP came into power in Ontario the mood was different. When Mike Harris got into power, we swung the pendulum to the other side, opting to fiscal conservatism and an end to waste. When Dalton came to power we wanted to end a Mike Harris era that “cut too deeply and too fast”.
The end-game might actually be the sad part for the PC party. They should stick to John Tory and go forward, however I gander that they will opt to remove him from leadership of the PC party of Ontario. John Tory is the best leader for the party and anyone else just simply will not work. I almost sense a split in the party, internally, similar to what happened federally. This would be devastating for the party, as a whole. On the NDP side, I am not sure what the end-game is at all. The ghosts of Bob Rae still haunt the party in Ontario. Albeit, the label was simply unfair during a recession; they just should have not tried to implement their party policies during this time. It seems like Ontario will be painted red for a long time. In the end Dalton’s smartest moves may have been the preset 4 year elections and the Ontario referendum on electoral reform. All bodes well for the party and baring any major gaffs or if Liberals forgot to vote. Unless something major happens in the next few days, it seems that we will have either a minority or majority Liberal government again.
By: Torontomatic
Filed under: Environment, News | Tags: Arista Homes, canada, dalton mcguinty, Durham, greenbelt, Oak Ridges Moraine, Ontario, Pickering, Seaton, Silvio DeGasperis, TAAC Construction
The Superior Court has ordered two companies associated with developer Silvio DeGasperis to pay the province $702,000 in legal costs, saying they used the false cloak of environmental concern to try to bully the province into allowing development on their own Greenbelt-designated land.n a stiff rebuke to what it called “a vexatious and egregious example of abuse of the process,” the court ruled the companies must pay nearly all of the $761,000 the province claimed in costs.
It is possibly the largest such judgment ever awarded to a government in Canada.
“The conduct of the applicants in bringing this lengthy, complex and expensive application before this court as a tactic in the ongoing war (with the province) … falls well within (the meaning of) reprehensible, scandalous or outrageous conduct,” the judges said, repeating observations made at the close of the legal battle in June.
The issue revolved around a controversial land swap between developers and the province that would preserve environmentally sensitive lands on the Oak Ridges Moraine in exchange for the Seaton lands in North Pickering.
But when the Dalton McGuinty government introduced the Greenbelt – a protected strip of land stretching around the Golden Horseshoe – 400 hectares of DeGasperis’s own land in Pickering went from prime real estate to a no-build zone.
DeGasperis launched a series of costly legal challenges against the provincial plan for Seaton, which envisions a unique community of 15 compact neighbourhoods bordering forests and streams.
He tried to argue that his lands were better suited for development than Seaton, in a legal battle he has said cost him almost $5 million.
The judges said the DeGasperis-related companies, which tried to argue their lands were less environmentally sensitive than those the province chose for development, in fact had “no interest in the environmental assessment of the Seaton Lands.”
“Their sole motive for bringing the application was to frustrate, disrupt and delay the Land Exchange as a further step in their ongoing war with the Province and their attempts to harass and intimidate the province into permitting development on their lands adjoining the Seaton Lands,” the judges wrote.
DeGasperis’s TAAC Construction is one of the GTA’s top construction servicing companies, with its housing arm, Arista Homes, among the top 10 homebuilders. He employs 850 and has told industry insiders his companies gross about $650 million a year.
Filed under: Afro-Canadian, News | Tags: , dalton mcguinty, ghetto, government, government of ontario, ignorance, liberals, racism, U of T
‘Ghetto dude’ email sent by mistake: province
Sender says her message to U of T student awaiting callback for job was copied to him by accident
July 21, 2007
Evon Reid couldn’t believe his eyes yesterday morning when he opened an email from the Ontario government’s cabinet office where he’d applied for a position.
“This is the ghetto dude that I spoke to before,” said the email to the University of Toronto honours student from the very person handling his job application.
That was it. One stark sentence.
“Ghetto dude? It means I’m black. It’s very insulting,” Reid told the Star yesterday. “It’s still pretty shocking to me.”
As he sees it, the email explains why he hasn’t gotten a followup interview for a job as a media analyst. He applied July 3 but missed a July 10 call from Aileen Siu in the cabinet office.
Although he called her back and sent followup emails, there was no response. Until yesterday’s email.
“Based on my resumé I deserved to be called, but I was not worthy of being called back once they heard my mother’s voice and my voice,” said Reid, 22. “She has a Jamaican accent and it’s about the way I talk. There’s a nuance.”
And so he asks: “Is it standard policy in the (Dalton) McGuinty cabinet office not to hire any ghetto dudes?”
The email was never intended for Reid, according to Siu, who learned she had sent it to him only when the Star telephoned yesterday.
An acting team leader in cabinet office hiring, she said she was “multi-tasking” Thursday when she hit the wrong button and copied Reid on an email she was sending to a job-search colleague.
“It wasn’t directed at Evon at all. That was internal … It didn’t have anything to do with any of the applicants,” said Siu, 26, and a recent U of T political science graduate.
She insisted the email didn’t refer to anyone “outside my circle of friends.”
Siu acknowledged the term is negative but said, “I don’t even know what nationality he is, right?” She added she’s of Asian descent and doesn’t want anyone to think she makes racially based judgments.
Reached on vacation in the Maritimes, Craig Sumi, manager of Siu’s department, last night referred to her as “an unclassified, part-time employee … low level.”
“I don’t know where you’re going with this,” he said.
However, he termed the email “totally inappropriate … a complete error in judgment” and said he’d left a message of apology late yesterday on Reid’s voice mail.
According to Siu, Reid is still a candidate for the position he sees as “a dream job for any political science student/political junkie such as myself.”
He had been instantly intrigued by the job posting on the U of T website as a foot in the door at Queen’s Park.
“A very challenging and interesting position which is a critical part of day-to-day media monitoring and analysis for the Government of Ontario,” said the posting.
The work would be “for use by senior levels of government … (applicant must) write high-level summaries of important issues and events … (working in) the most technologically advanced and comprehensive media operation in Canada.”
Reid thought he’d be a good candidate. His resumé appears stellar:
A summer course in international management strategies at the University of Hong Kong; one credit short of an honours degree in political science at U of T; completed project on paradigm shifts in United States foreign policy; working on another to evaluate the effects of electoral reform on public policy.
Extensive job experience; Get Reel Festival organizer; founder of Canadian International Peace project (at U of T’s Scarborough campus); participant in Forum for Young Canadians on Parliament Hill; etc., etc.
In a reference letter, an executive with White Oaks Conference Resort called Reid “truly a valuable asset to our company … a trustworthy, dependable young man that takes initiative in work that has to be done.”
Reid saw another reason for the email. “I’m from Malvern,” in Scarborough, he said. “The community I live in has one of the highest levels of youth unemployment in Canada. I’d hate to think that this (memo) accounts for that.”
Filed under: Environment | Tags: dalton mcguinty, Durham, Liberal, Pickering, Seaton
The Province (Premier Dalton McGuinty and Cabinet) has committed to impose and approve its land swap deal for Pickering’s Seaton lands with developers. In making this deal, Mr. McGuinty will allow the most environmentally sensitive land in Pickering to be destroyed, which will make a mockery of the word sustainability.
Say goodbye to 35 species of fish in Seaton with the last three coldwater streams in Durham.
Say goodbye to Duffins Creek.
Say goodbye to the 111 wetlands in Seaton.
Say goodbye to the 200 plant species in Seaton.
Say goodbye to the three fresh-water aquifers that lie under Seaton (Pickering) whose volumes equal one million Olympic-size swimming pools. What is the point of protecting the Oak Ridges Moraine if you allow clean large aquifers south of the moraine to be polluted?
Say goodbye to the 40 per cent woodlots in Seaton.
Say hello to the widening of the Whites Road expressway to Hwy. 401.
Say hello to higher municipal taxes.
