Catch da Flava On-Line

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. Having i

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 during the revita

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 restaurants would

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 for bl

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

The coronavirus pandemic has put thousands of people out of Canadians out of work, especially lower-income people and minimum-wage workers. The financial strain has made it nearly impossible for many to pay rent. Here in Downtown East Toronto, including such neighbourhoods as Regent Park, Moss Park and St. Jamestown, many residents are renters who may be working minimum-wage jobs in non-essential businesses. Bill 184 is a new piece of provincial legislature that seeks to address some of these issues, but it has been met with criticism and controversy. We talked with Toronto Centre MPP Suze Morrison to learn more about the bill and how it can affect renters.  Bill 184 is an omnibus bill, meaning it contains a number of different topics. One of the most important changes lets landlords and tenants discuss payment options without the involvement of the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB). In theory, it’s supposed to make the negotiation process easier and more efficient. As Morrison points ou

Here at RPTV, we're committed to keeping you up to date on new construction in the Regent Park community. As buildings are readying for occupancy, it's important that we reach out to developers to learn more about these projects. We talked with Senior Construction Manager Robert Boyd to learn more about the new development at 150 River St.   This development is part of stage three of a five-stage plan to revitalize Regent Park. The end goal is to replace Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s (TCHC) old buildings with newer, safer housing. Though they have the option to leave Regent Park, all community housing residents are guaranteed a unit in one of TCHC’s new buildings. Located at the corner of River St. and Oak St., this 11-storey building contains 158 TCHC community housing units with 33 affordable housing units. The TCHC units are rent-geared-to-income (or RGI), meaning your rent is based 30% of your annual income before taxes. The affordable units, though they are cons

The COVID-19 crisis has forced non-essential businesses to close, particularly targeting the retail, hospitality, and service industries. Women, new immigrants , and people of colour are over-represented by these jobs, which usually pay minimum wage. As a result of the pandemic, many employees in these sectors have been laid off and unemployment rates are significantly higher than recent years. These employees often live paycheque to paycheque, so losing a job can have drastic consequences--especially in Regent Park, where many come from lower-income families or live in subsidized housing. One of the major and most necessary expenses is food--Torontonians spend an average of over $280 permonth on groceries (not to mention eating out at restaurants). For an employee working at the $14 minimum wage, that equals 13% of your net income. Many people may not be homeless, but they are still struggling to make ends meet. So where do you turn when you struggle to afford the most basic nece