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Until the recent provincial elections, Toronto Centre was considered one of the safest Liberal strongholds in the province. This all changed with the historic election of NDP candidate, Suze Morrison. Morrison was comfortably elected with 23,537 votes. Liberal candidate David Morris came second with 11,934 votes, and Progressive Conservative candidate Meredith Cartwright finished last with 6,194 votes. Morrison is a resident of Regent Park, and she is recognized for her work on healthcare, indigenous issues, inclusion and diversity. Her passion is inextricably linked with her personal experience of growing up in poverty and witnessing gender-based violence. Morrison has held communications and engagement roles in both the health sector and the indigenous non-profit sector, and she feels she can bring an indigenous policy and anti-poverty lens to Queens Park: “Something that's been absent from our governance for a very long time,” said the elected candidate. Morrison feels t...

Looking for a delicious vegetarian restaurant in the east side of the city? Well, look no further. Located in the heart of Regent Park, Toronto, at the corner of Sackville and Dundas, is the Paintbox Bistro Restaurant. Founded in 2012, the Paintbox Bistro and Catering Restaurant offers an array of unique and fresh vegetarian dishes including green curry tofu, collard green enchiladas, forest mushroom pappardelle, “meat-free” burgers, and a Caesar-style kale salad with coconut “bacon”. For those that are quick to brush off the Paintbox as another example of the area’s gentrification, it is important to note that the Paintbox Bistro is a proud Certified B Corporation. Certified B Corporations are businesses that strive to meet verifiable social and environment objectives to help fight poverty and climate change. The Paintbox was the first caterer in Canada to receive the designation in 2013; it was also recently named “Best for the World” in 2016, landing in the top 10...

In May of 2018, residents of Regent Park were informed for the first time about the possibility of a new developer moving into the area after years of building a relationship with the Daniels Corporation. Many reacted angrily, “We don’t want to start over again” residents stated repeatedly. Development Manager of TCHC, Kelly Skeith, sparked resident anger with the May 4, 2018, community announcement that Toronto Community Housing will be inviting developers to send proposals for the next four and five phases of the Regent Park Revitalization. “ We are proud and thrilled that Daniels has worked so closely with us, but we have a certain procurement policy, we have a certain way that we must sell land because we are a public agency,” explained Skeith. However, many residents are now asking why this critical information was withheld from the community? In a follow up residents’ meeting on May 15, 2018, organized by the newly formed Regent Park Neighbourhood Association (...

Community-based policing is a proactive law enforcement strategy that focuses on building ties and working closely with a community’s members to create partnerships and plans for preventing and reducing crime. While community policing will look differently depending on the community it serves, a central feature is that the same officer patrols and works in the same area on a permanent basis. Currently there are 17 community-based police programs in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), but what most people don’t know is that Toronto’s community policing started in Regent Park in May of 2017. We know this because the original officers involved in setting up the Regent Park community policing program continue to work here today. The officers are PC Mircea Biga, PC Farzad Ghotbi, and PC Edward Parks; the newest officer assigned to the Regent Park community is PC Nigel Thomas (who is replacing PC Melissa Huntley while she is on maternity leave). Symptomatic of the increasing diversity...

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