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Report of the August 6th, 2020, Regent Park Community Benefits Virtual Townhall The Regent Park Community Benefits Virtual Townhall meeting was put together as an opportunity for residents in the community to learn about the Community Benefits and Phase 4 & 5 Revitalization, hear from RPNA’s Community Benefits Coalition and Toronto Community Housing and how to get involved and make a difference in the community. The virtual meeting also included interactive components such as polling and Q&A with the panelists. Some of the panelists included: Walied Khogali Ali, Suzanne El-Makkaw (RPNA), Deany Peters (Regent Park Health Centre), Kelly Skith (TCHC), Jonella Evangelista, Sean Major (TCHC), Marlene DeGenova (RPNA Advocacy Co-Chair), Annisha Abdul, Touhida, Miguel, Wendy Belcourt, Sam Maloney-Lee (TCHC), Ismail Afrah, Daniel Amin (Revite Working Group) and youth from Regent Park. The Virtual Townhall Meeting started off by giving a history of the various committees that were forme...

 Community Pods in Regent Park During the COVID-19 pandemic social distancing has been an incredible success in combating the spread. However, the lack of social interaction is proven to negatively impact people's mental health. During these times it is important for communities to find safe ways to socialize and one effective method is the Regent Park Pods Initiative. Neighbourhood Pods are a safe way to support and meet neighbors online through Facebook groups, WhatsApp and other online chat rooms. Throughout the pandemic people have used the pods not only to socialize but to share resources as well. Whether it be extra food or offering to pick up someone's groceries, pods have been a productive way to grow communities safely during the pandemic. Regent Park residents, Nayeon Kim and Maseeda Majeed, initiated one of three pods currently operating in Regent Park. Both Nayeon and Maseeda are a part of the Regent Park Social Development Planning table which is where the two firs...

Nelson Mandela Park Public School, renamed after the anti-apartheid crusader and former South African president, was built in 1917. The school, located in Regent Park, prides itself in using culturally relevant and responsive pedagogy and promoting anti-oppression. Unfortunately, for a city half composed of immigrants, most school class curriculums are extremely lacking in culturally relevant pedagogy that are inclusive to Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) or honor their contributions in building Canadian society. Even Canada’s own horrific relationship with First Nations Peoples are brushed aside, in favor of sharing the falsely heroic narrative of how the British sailed the seas and colonized this land. In the exclusion of BIPOC subjects, our school boards continue to perpetuate the idea that only European histories are worth telling. If BIPOC stories, histories and contributions from the past are not worthwhile, then how can we, as a Canadian society, truly respect th...

It was my privilege to speak with City Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam who represents Regent Park and the broader community of Ward 13. We discussed some of the highlights of her political career and her professional philosophy. This article is a profile on a successful public figure originally from Regent Park and about the takeaways from her career from the perspective of this reporter. Whether or not you agree with her politics, this article is about following through on your beliefs.  Elected in 2010, Kristyn Wong-Tam has spent a decade as councillor, formerly representing Ward 27 and later Ward 13, working alongside of community organizations and partners to focus on the idea of Community Resilience. “ Being able to ensure that the communities I represent have all the resources that they need to build stronger safer more inclusive neighborhoods is important to me. I take that very personally because I was an immigrant and came to Canada with my parents.” said Wong-Tam. Havi...

Regent Park is a low-income, culturally diverse neighbourhood located in the downtown east area of Toronto. Although Regent Park is undergoing transformation to a mixed-income and mixed-use community, there still remains a significant population of low-income families on a limited budget. To assist low-income families in the area, there are a number of food banks that operate in the area. Unfortunately, Regent Park is not alone and food banks have become institutions in low-income communities across Toronto. In light of Black Lives Matter Movement, the Covid-19 Pandemic and a recent report that the demand of food banks is significantly raising, many are realizing the different ways racism and oppression has seeped into every corner of our communities. One way that this has manifested into our daily lives is through the issue of food insecurity. Many Canadians suffer from a lack of fresh, nutritional food within their households. However, as food banks and soup kitchens alr...

 On June 26 th , 2020, a noose was found in a Daniels construction site located on Sumach and Dundas Street, in Regent Park. This Incident sparked a community march against racism and the forming of the Regent Park Black Lives Matter Coalition. The coalition launched an inaugural event on Saturday August 8 th 2020, in the Big Park right in front of the Daniel’s Spectrum. We spoke to Joanne Warner who is a resident of Regent Park and also the founder of Regent Park Black Lives Matter Coalition with the support of school colleague Peter Scott and Walied Khogali, the co founder of the Coalition Against White Supremacy and Islamophobia.   Joanne explained the need of a black lives matter group in Regent Park. In addition to a noose being found in Regent Park, Joanne argued that there are still many black residents in Regent Park and their needs are not being met. Joanne also alleges through the discovery of data that black families have being pushed out of Regent Park dur...

On April 30th 2020, RPTV took a walking tour of the Regent Park neighborhood to view the impact Covid has had on the surrounding business. What they encountered was numerous notices up on business windows noting the temporary closure due to Covid-19. Restaurants have been particularly impact by Covid-19 with a report by Canadian Chamber of Commerce suggesting that more than 60% of restaurant Canada wide could be closed by November. Our reporter had the opportunity to sit down with the manager of one of the restaurants in the Regent Park area. Gushi Japanese Street Food, located on the corner of Gerrard St. East and Parliament, is relatively new to the neighborhood, celebrating their one year anniversary in April. Manager of Gushi, Shinji Yamaguchi, shared his thoughts on operating a restaurant during a pandemic.   In anticipating the arrival of Covid-19 to Canada, one of the first things Yamaguchi did, even prior to the Ontario government’s announcement that all restauran...

As one of the millions of Canadians effected by COVID-19 I was excited to learn that the government would be offering financial support to those struggling. On March 25th the creation of the Canadian Response Benefit (CERB) was announced by the federal government. Under this benefit Canadians would receive $500 a week for up to 16 weeks (extended to 24 weeks in June 2020). To apply, you must live in Canada, be at least 15, have lost your job due to COVID-19, and had an income of at least $5,000 in 2019 or the last 12 months. However this eligibility requirement left many Canadians like me out in the cold. I was one of those Canadians who either did not make enough money, who prior to the outbreak were unemployed, or were still working but had their hours cut down. In my case, I am a Black Woman who graduated out of university in 2019. As I am an inspiring snow boarder and love the mountains, I decided to move to Calgary to join a friend there. Unfortunately, it took me several mo...

Racism is not a new concept to racialized people, talk to almost any black teenager or black young adult resident of Regent Park and they’ll be able to tell you of their or their friend’s experiences of been stopped by police due to the colour of their skin, most often as part of Toronto Police Services TAVIS Program (Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy) for aggressive policing of Toronto’s low income neighbourhoods. In these encounters black individuals are carded and asked to confirm their Regent Park resident status or state the reason for visiting the area. The ten-year TAVIS program ended in 2016.   Regent Park is not alone, today most Black Canadians can also tell you of a negative experience they or someone close to them has had, due to the colour of their skin. Whether it is being unfairly targeted by the police, followed around in a store, being denied housing or employment, being over-looked on a dating site or passed over for a work promotion. Unfortunately fo...

If you’re at all like me you’ve looked around your neighbourhood and noticed the amount of trash lying around, anywhere from the odd food wrapper to the common cigarette butt. Littering is a common occurrence and lets face it we’ve all been there, either guilty of littering ourselves or witnesses to other people littering. Although it might not seem like a big deal to people, littering has a significant effect on the environment. According to the National Geographic there are “5.25 trillion pieces of plastic debris in the ocean”. Staggering as that number is, it will continue to grow as humans consume more and more plastics products that often end up improperly thrown away, or carelessly tossed onto our streets. This is particularly worrying given the shelf life of these plastics. Plastic can take up to 100 years or longer to decompose. For instance plastic bags take 10-20 years to decompose, where as plastic bottles take 450 years to decompose. It is no wonder than that we, as a socie...