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People in Ontario who drive or deliver for apps such as Uber, Lyft and Skip the Dishes are calling on Premier Doug Ford's government to grant them basic workers' rights by classifying them as employees. It's an issue that directly affects hundreds of thousands of people who work in the province's gig economy, and could have implications for all workers across Ontario and in other provinces. The app companies are profiting from having a workforce at the ready, yet don't provide those workers the rights and benefits of employees, says Brice Sopher, who delivers for Uber Eats and serves as vice-president of the union-backed group Gig Workers United.   Since app-based workers are currently classified as independent contractors under Ontario's Employment Standards Act, they are not entitled to minimum wage, vacation days or statutory holiday pay. The companies they work for do not have to pay Employment Insurance premiums or Canada Pension Plan contributions. &quo

Executive Directors of Regent Park hold their monthly meeting. The monthly meeting of the Regent Park Executive Directors Network took place on Monday October 18th over Zoom. The Executive Directors Network is a network comprised of Executive Directors and senior decision makers representing agencies that serve the Regent Park Neighbourhood. The Network has been in existence since 2005. The current chairs are Paulos Gebreyesus, Executive Director from the Regent Park Community Health Centre and Adonis Huggins, Executive Director of the Focus Media Arts Centre. The October 18th, ED Network meeting was chaired by Adonis Huggins as Paulos was not able to attend. The meeting began with Covid 19 and Vaccine Updates. Much of the discussion related to staff participant vaccination policies that individual agencies have adopted to deal with unvaccinated staff. Following this Mercedes Watson, Executive Director from Dixon Hall led a discussion on Data Fusion related to sof

People in Ontario who drive or deliver for apps such as Uber, Lyft and Skip the Dishes are calling on Premier Doug Ford's government to grant them basic workers' rights by classifying them as employees. It's an issue that directly affects hundreds of thousands of people who work in the province's gig economy, and could have implications for all workers across Ontario and in other provinces. The app companies are profiting from having a workforce at the ready, yet don't provide those workers the rights and benefits of employees, says Brice Sopher, who delivers for Uber Eats and serves as vice-president of the union-backed group Gig Workers United.   Since app-based workers are currently classified as independent contractors under Ontario's Employment Standards Act, they are not entitled to minimum wage, vacation days or statutory holiday pay. The companies they work for do not have to pay Employment Insurance premiums or Canada Pension Plan contributions. &q

The recent announcement on October 21, 2021 by the Ford Government to remove the work certification for immigrants comes as a much-welcomed move for many newcomers, and also various Ontario job sectors that have seen an increased demand for skilled workers. Currently there is a labour shortage in Ontario with 300,000 jobs unfilled - the consequences for the government mean billions of dollars in lost productivity. Canada as we know it is a land of immigrants. From the first European settlers who arrived here at the beginning of the seventeenth century to the most recent influx of immigrants from Afghanistan, newcomers have been the lifeblood of Canada’s development. Labour Minister Monte McNaughton framed the issue in terms of unnecessary bureaucratic red tape. He stated that the new legislation, if passed, would: Eliminate Canadian work experience requirements for professional registration and licensing unless an exemption is granted based on a demonstrated public health and

The Peel District School Board passed an anti-Islamophobia strategy with approval from community groups. The motion, calling for an anti-Islamophobia strategy, was brought forward and passed at a Peel District School Board meeting on September 30, 2021, by trustee Nokha Dakroub. The plan is being put in place with the intention of making schools safer for Muslim staff and students. In a video posted to twitter, Nokha Dakroub said: “It is meant to include the delivery of mandatory anti-Islamophobia training to all staff, accountability measures, and regular communication with the broader community.” Many community groups are supportive of the plan. Aasiyah Khan, Manager of Education Programs at the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM), said: “As for mandatory anti-Islamophobia training for staff, such education is a way to eradicate misunderstanding around Islam, to bring in "diverse narratives" about Muslim communities, and to make sure educators have the tools t

Inglewood Arms rooming house residents facing eviction win their rights to treated as full tenants Residents of the Inglewood Arms, a rooming house in downtown Toronto, located at 295 Jarvis Street, are celebrating after the Landlord and Tenant Board found them to be tenants with full protection of the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 and not hotel guests as their landlord asserted. The order dated October 7, 2021 came after three days of hearings. “ It is a horrible thing to live at the whim of a landlord who slowly erodes the tenant rights that so many fought so hard to attain: even the most diligent and compliant of tenants will feel vulnerable and abused. I’ve lived at the Inglewood Rooming House for over 12 years and know many tenants who’ve lived there many years as well. Despite this, the landlord asserted we were mere hotel guests with no rights. So adamant was the landlord and so important is this cause, I decided to challenge the landlord at the Landlord and Tenant Board

Ontario to offer help to temp workers Ontario is set to introduce legislation that would require temporary help agencies and recruiters to be licensed. If approved, the proposed legislation would require Temporary Help Agencies and recruiters to have a license to operate. It would also spell out penalties for unlicensed temp agencies and recruiters, as well as businesses who use unlicensed agencies. The province is looking at hiring a dedicated team of officers to crack down on Temporary help agencies and recruiters who are exploiting or trafficking workers. Labour Minister Monte McNaughton said there are more than 3,000 agencies in the province and the vast majority operate ethically, but not all. “Unfortunately, some are lawbreakers who exploit their workers,” he said. “This needs to change.” Ministry of Labour inspections have found multiple temporary help agencies that are paying workers below minimum wage and denying basic employment rights, McNaughton said. “The undergroun

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is declining to apologize for comments he made about immigrants. After an unrelated announcement on Monday, October 18, in Tecumseh, Ontario, Ford launched into a familiar line about Ontario’s biggest problem being a shortage of workers, particularly in the trades and construction. He said people who want to come and work their “tail off” like every other new Canadian has done should come to Ontario, but people who want to “collect the dole and sit around” should go somewhere else. The term “collect the dole” which means accessing social assistance is a disparaging term used to describe the act of accessing “government programs that provide a minimum level of income support to individuals and households living in poverty.” New immigrants are often ineligible for many services shortly after immigrating, including being ineligible to receive social assistance. The Canadian immigration system favours the highly educated, highly skilled class of immigrants, yet

  A new subway station is coming to Moss Park neighborhood relatively soon as part of the Ontario Line, a twelve-billion-dollar rapid transit project that will run across 15.5 kilometers connecting the Ontario Science Centre to Exhibition/Ontario Place. Moss Park is one of the fifteen station locations as part of the Ontario Line and with the exception of the station’s entrance located on the northwest corner of Queen and Sherbourne, it will be built underground. Anything constructed above ground for the Moss Park Station will be developed by Infrastructure Ontario and anything built below ground will be developed in partnership with Metrolinx. T he Moss Park Ontario Line station will connect a dense and fast-growing area of the city to the subway network. An estimated 7,300 people are expected to use Moss Park station during the busiest travel hour. However, there are a number of questions and concerns that community members have. ”What are the benefits of this project for the

Regent Park youth discuss philosophical questions related to values, beliefs and ethics. The 4GetAboutIt! TV is a youth-led TV & Radio show produced by Regent Park youth involved in Regent Park TV and the Focus Media Arts Centre. In this third episode of their television studio show, the youth collective reflects on their own personal beliefs while musing on philosophical questions. “Would you rather?”….so begins the host, Saima Islam, asking the other members of the collective the first question. “Would you rather go into the past and meet your ancestors, or go into the future and meet your great grand children?” In answering this question, the youth panel engaged in an interesting conversation about the past, the present and the future. Some of the members of the collective choose to go into the past to influence an ancestor to make different choices or fix a problem that would impact on their present and/or change the outcome of their future. One youth felt that by go