News is what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is advertising.
The city will present the 2019 budget in a “special public presentation” on Monday, February 11th, from 3-9PM at the Etobicoke Civic Centre.
If you have a bit of time to spare, the good people at Pearen Park could use a hand with their free learn-to-skate program.
Our MP faced brutal criticism this week for an first-come, first-served family reunification website that opened and closed in less than 10 minutes. Tens of thousands of people, including those who found it impossible to use the website quickly because of disabilities, will not be reunited with their families because they couldn’t click fast enough.
Who would have guessed that your WPMs would determine whether you’d see your children again?
Hussen, deservedly, got grilled in the House for this complete disaster. His response? Three years after the Liberals were elected, it’s still the Conservatives’ fault:
Mr. Speaker, we inherited a backlog of 167,000 people in the parents and grandparents program. Under Conservative leadership, families were waiting eight years to be reunited with their parents and grandparents.
Honestly, it brings me no joy to report on our MP’s tough times¹. However, Ahmed Hussen brings a fair bit of the trouble on himself. Yes, he has an extremely tough portfolio, but his long-standing habit of attacking instead of understanding has led him into trouble over and over again.
This week, the Canadian Press said (more delicately than I will) that Hussen lied when he told Canadians that the Liberal government has brought more parents and grandparents into Canada as part of the family reunification program than the Conservative government did.
The CP said that Hussen’s statement had “a lot of baloney”, its second-worst ranking, only short of “completely inaccurate”.
Hussen told the House:
We are responsible for quadrupling the number of spaces that parents and grandparents have to come to Canada. We will continue to reunite more families. I am amused by the Conservatives’ new-found passion for reuniting families. However, when they had the chance they failed.”
The CP took issue with the ‘quadrupling’ part of that quote. The number of families brought to Canada under the reunification program actually declined about 5% under the Liberals. The Conservatives brought together about 20,000 families; the Liberals about 19,000.
The Minister’s spokesperson said that Hussen wasn’t making things up: he was including spousal reunification in his numbers. “When talking about family reunification, as the minister does in the second portion of the quote, it is important to not limit yourself to the parents and grandparents program,” he told the CP.
Of course, this isn’t correct either. Hussen said “parents and grandparents”, and said that the Conservatives had brought 5000 families compared to the Liberals’ 20,000,
¹ Fine, a little joy.
The Weston Village developers sent along some details about the homes they have planned at the corner of Church and Weston.
To my untrained eye, the homes look very nice. The smaller homes (Spruce, Hampshire and Willow) are 1250-or-so square feet and start at $710,000. The most expensive homes (Everton, Beech, Hampton and Willington) are about $1,050,000, and around 1850 square feet.
The largest homes are the townhomes. They are between 2100 and 2200 square feet and fall in the middle of the price range.
The police are looking for Manuel Geronimo Banchon, 70, who was last seen on Saturday in the Weston Road and Lawrence Avenue area.
He is described as 5’4”, medium build, with black hair and is clean shaven. He was last seen wearing a dark blue winter jacket, a grey hoodie, and black pants.
Nathalie Cabalfin has been found safe and sound.
Located:
15-year-old Nathalie Cabalfin has been located. She is safe and sound. Thank you for your RTs. @TPS12Div #GO200838^adc— Toronto Police OPS (@TPSOperations) February 3, 2019
Two local groups are looking for volunteers. The MDCA is “VERY short of volunteers” at the Pearen Park skating rink. They are looking for some good people to work in the skate shop, some talented folks to coach skating after school and on the weekends. If you are interested, you can contact Simon.
The Black Creek Alliance is also hoping you’ll stop up to help them with their pollinator’s festival. While all hands are welcome, they are extra interested in hearing volunteer coordinators and entertainers. They’ll be hosting their first meeting at Access Alliance at 761 Jane St on Feb 11th from 6-7:30. They would be grateful if you would RSVP.
Tan Ya Collins of the Black Creek Alliance posted an update on the extended family whose home was destroyed in the fire at 43 Lambton Avenue. While there has been progress–and more than $10,000 has been raised–the families are “frantically looking for another home to rent or 2 apartments ideally in the same building..”
Collins is asking the community for leads. She says “This family is very loving and fighting hard to give their kids a good future. They are very appreciative of all the support the community has given them.”
If you happen to know someone with a place to rent in the range of $2100 a month, Collins would be grateful to hear from you.