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: Afro-Canadian, Religion | Tags: Afro-Canadian, Audi A6S, black, BMW 7 Series, canada, Canada Revenue Agency, Canadian Council of Christian Charities, christian, evangelical, Florida, Gospel, Jane and Finch, Lexus RX 330, Mercedes-Benz CLK 320, Ontario, Paul Melnichuk, pentecostal, Pentecostalism, Porsche Cayenne, Prayer Palace, the Melnichuks, Tim Melnichuk, Tom Melnichuk, Toronto
A Star investigation into Toronto’s Prayer Palace congregation finds that despite the members’ dutiful tithing, the church spends little on charitable projects.
After worshipping at the Prayer Palace this morning, Hyacinthe Houghron will, as she does every second Sunday, stuff her tired green minivan with a small feast: six coolers of homemade soup, a mountain of sandwiches, cakes and sweets.
Loaded down with second-hand clothes pulled from the ceiling-high piles in her hair salon, she’ll give out the goods to homeless people on downtown Toronto’s grittiest streets.
Missions like this aren’t cheap for people like her and other volunteers at the church. “We’re poor folks,” says Houghron, describing the majority of the 3,000-strong congregation who attend the spaceship-shaped church at Hwy. 400 and Finch Ave.
The hairdresser scrapes together $600 of her own money each month to keep up the program because the Prayer Palace – one of Canada’s largest evangelical churches – stopped running it five years ago. Other charitable works, like a promised orphanage in Brazil, either dried up or never materialized.
Meanwhile, the three white pastors – Paul Melnichuk and his 40-year-old twin sons, Tim and Tom – lead lavish lives in contrast to the mainly working-class black families that make up the bulk of the church.
Between them, the pastors have amassed a real estate fortune worth about $12 million. Each owns a multi-million-dollar country estate north of Toronto (Tim’s is worth as much as $5.5 million), they share a Florida vacation villa, and the pastors and their wives drive luxurious cars – among them a Porsche Cayenne SUV, a Lexus RX 330 SUV and a Mercedes-Benz CLK 320 convertible.
Congregants are largely unaware of the pastors’ extravagant lifestyles.
Filed under: Issues | Tags: asian canadian, discrimination, ethnic, fishing, harassment, Ontario, violence
So, north of Toronto there have been instances of racism against Asian Canadians. It’s unfortunate that, hear in Ontario, this issue has not had a lot of press in the media. We like to assume only happens in the United States of America. Racism is something we must face and deal with. As far as I am concerned there is no excuse for targeting any ethnic community. We are all Canadian, and the accounts of racism are greatly disturbing and must be taken seriously at all levels. Fishing is not a right only to be bestowed upon certain Canadians. Asian Canadians should be able to enjoy fishing like everyone else, without fear of discrimination, harassment or violence.
Filed under: Issues | Tags: anti-Semitic, asian, Asian Canadian anglers, B'nai Brith Canada, canadian, Chinese Canadian National Council, Georgina, homophobic, Lake Simcoe, Ontario, racism, vandalism
Mayor apologizes for assaults on Asian Canadian anglers, anti-Semitic and homophobic vandalism. The mayor of Georgina has denounced recent attacks on Asian Canadian fishermen, as well as anti-Semitic and homophobic vandalism, and has apologized on behalf of his community.
“The people that I have the privilege of representing are shamed and embarrassed that this would have happened in our community,” Robert Grossi said yesterday after meeting with leaders of B’nai Brith Canada and the Chinese Canadian National Council.
Grossi’s comments came after swastikas and anti-Semitic and homophobic slurs were painted on nine vehicles in Keswick, while York Region police investigate a series of attacks on Asian Canadian anglers at Lake Simcoe.
“From what we’ve heard so far, they’re isolated incidents,” said the mayor of the lakeshore community of 40,000 north of Toronto.
Grossi was praised for meeting with local faith groups and educators about the attacks.
“We see leadership from the mayor on this,” said Victor Wong, executive director of the Chinese Canadian National Council. “We’re quite appreciative of it.”
Grossi noted that police are investigating the attacks, and have stepped up patrols around the lake.
“York Regional Police have been very responsive, very respectful.”
Immediately after reports of the incidents last week, Grossi’s office issued a public statement saying that “broad-stroke painting of our community as a place that is unwelcoming to some groups or nationalities is unjustified.”
Yesterday, he said he still considers his community to be tolerant.
“We are a very welcoming community,” Grossi said.
In one of the recent incidents, a man was left in a coma after a violent confrontation between anglers and community members.
In other recent incidents, a man and a boy were pushed into the water while fishing.
Two related cases are before the courts, including one involving a high-speed chase that began when youths approached anglers fishing off a pier, and demanded to see their fishing licences.
The youths began shouting racial slurs and then chased the anglers as they fled, ramming their car from behind with a pickup truck.
Meanwhile, in the town of Westport on Big Rideau Lake, police are investigating at least two incidents in which locals have allegedly attacked Asian-Canadian anglers in the past two months.
In one incident, a man who was fishing with his 73-year-old father-in-law on a bridge at midnight was beaten up and thrown off the bridge by a group of young men.
In another incident, men wielding baseball bats and an axe forced some Asian-Canadians to give up their fishing spot on a local bridge.
In both cases, the victims were said to be from Toronto.
Residents of this hamlet say while they are fed up with people poaching fish from local reservoirs, they deny the incidents have anything to do with racism.
“People are really angry and I’m afraid sooner or later someone is going to get seriously hurt,” said Charlie Jones, who heads a local group of conservationists.
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: News | Tags: asian, ignorance, Ontario, racism, simcoe, York
York Regional Police defended themselves yesterday amid a growing controversy over accusations they have dragged their feet while looking into allegations of racist assaults on Asian fishermen on the shores of Lake Simcoe.
At a press conference at Toronto City Hall yesterday, Chinese-Canadian and anti-racism activists accused police of failing to recognize that a series of recent assaults in Georgina were motivated by racial hatred and failing to take similar past complaints seriously.
“Even with such clear evidence staring them in the face, there are still some members of the police who are denying that these incidents have anything to do with racism,” said Avvy Go, a lawyer with the Metro Toronto Chinese and Southeast Asian Legal Clinic.
