WOMANvoice 2006 & Status of Women Canada

It was a priviledge to attend WomanVoice, an event created to celebrate women's voices that was originally born of the Montreal Massacre. This event is a celebration of women's lives as well as a peaceful protest against all forms of violence against women. It was celebrated on December 6th at Ellington's Cafe on St. Clair Avenue. This was an excellent example of local community members bringing their talents together for an issues that affects women locally, nationally and internationally.

Honey Novak, of the Toronto based Creative Vocalization Studio hosted 14 diverse women artists were invited to participate in an evening of spoken word, theatrical impromtu and song. The evening included a multicultural line up of Japanese, Chinese and African Canadian voices. The evening's fun was brought to a peak with the female clown and the sex'd up Granny talk that brought the house to its knees in laughter about the upfront and honest sexual issues that face seniors.

Looming over the positive contribution of the evening was the distastrious news that the federal government was cutting the majority of funding to Status of Women Canada. It had been known since the beginning of the month that the organization which was mandated to work on all facets of women's struggle in this country would no longer be mandated to advocate on Women's issues.

The Green Party of Canada position in the 2006 federal election places itself at direct odds with the direction in which the conservative government is taking Status of Women Canada. The Green Party of Canada 2006 platform called on the strengthening of Status of Women Canada so that it can focus in on issues such as eliminating institutional racism for aborignal women.

The focus on the Green position would see a strengthening of advocacy and action on a number of fronts including education, shelters and ensuring the issues get discussed at mulitple levels of government including municipal, provincial and federal departments.

The Greens also recognize the fact that we may need to work on women's issues in Canada but we would also get the country working on it from a global perspective throught the United Nations and reinforce our support for the the UN's global initiative for the elimination of discrimination and violence against women.

What A Race to the finish in Ward 17 Davenport

"Alejandra Bravo (Ward 17, Davenport) is the perfect example of a 21st century Toronto — she speaks four languages and has a load of experience dealing with social justice and equity issues. We agree with the Toronto Star’s and NOW’s assessment: she offers the energy and intelligence in this less-than-affluent but vibrant west-side community. Our city needs more people on council with her qualities." - spacing.ca


It was right down to the bedtime hour for the two rival candidates in Ward 17 Davenport on Monday night to find out who was going to carry our issues to city council. The Hungarian House on St.Clair West @ Winona was the host of the Bravo/Mendes and Mihevc celebrations. Andrew Burke of Digital Contruction, my partner Veronia, step -daugther Bailey and I were there to check out the civic action on a very exciting evening.




Bravo was poised to be part of a new group of municipal councillors. A strong indicator that she was an appropiate choice for Greens and the candidate for the many cyclists in our riding came with the endorsements of both Pam McConnell – Ward 28 (Toronto Centre-Rosedale) and Paula Fletcher – Ward 30 (Toronto-Danforth).




I had the pleasure of meeting both of them two Sunday's ago on an afternoon walk with my step-daughter Bailey heading down Alberta Ave to grab a coffee at the Alcoa Bakery. Both are considered by spacing.ca to be strong advocates on cycling issues.

On an evening that saw Adam Vaughn victorious in Trinity Spadina and the near removal of Case Oates on the danforth, it seemed that the two time candidate would be on the move to a new office. Alejandra Bravo, an advocate for change with a wide breath of issues that have appeared on the municipal radar stepped out on the stage at around 9pm to concede defeat and thanked her supports for an excellent campaign.

She has created a local arts organization, advocated on immigrant issues and has a history of environmental concerns here in the community and in 2003 for the Toronto Bike Plan . We live in a beautiful part of the city and the environment is an important issue in Ward 17.

At 9:20pm on Monday night, the Hungarian Hall errupted as the doors at the far end burst open with cheers, clapping and chanting!! An ally of Bravo, Joe Mihevc a local champion of public transportation and cultural events on St. Clair returned to City hall with a huge victory last night in Ward 21. It appears that good ol Joe knows a thing or two about politics with a renewal of 57% of the vote. It was a great night to see citizens of st.clair and st.clair west enjoying food, good cheer and local democracy.

Several Green issues will be on the agenda for city council. An example of the work ahead would be the Tooker bike lane. Hayley Easto, the Toronto Representative on GPO Council and a strong advocate on cycling issues in Toronto participated on a ride last Saturday to draw attention to this issue. Hopefully, the city councillors identified as supporting cycling issues will come onboard to recognize a remarkable person and alternative tranportation.

The party that is now poised to work with cities and these re-invigourated city councillors is the Green Party of Ontario. Hot off the presses is Envisioning Sustainable Cities & Towns in Ontario that shows that the party understands the issues and policy decisions that need to be put in place to work with cities.

It is now time to turn our eyes to the 2007 provincial election where Frank Dejong and the emerging Green Party of Ontario will be advocating for the issues that make for a better Ontario- air, transit, renewable resources and plenty more of where that comes from!!!!

Two Davenport Greens in London North-Centre

Veronica and I rolled into the Elizabeth May campaign office on Saturday November 11 and hit the ground running in our efforts to assist for the afternoon. The campaign office was buzzing with volunteers from right across the country, from Montreal to Victoria.

Elizabeth had arrived earlier in the morning from Toronto fresh from the Matthew Day fundraising event which I had wanted to be at but wasn’t able to go. It sounds like it was good event for him.

I spent the next 4 hours with Elizabeth May and two other volunteers campaigning in 3 different neighbourhoods that were on a list for her to cover. Little time to talk about how she was doing but I did get the chance to mention our EDA meeting on December 5th.

A woman from London named Kelly and I walked ahead meeting people at the door and then Elizabeth would seal the deal with her charm and persuasive conversations about why people should vote Green. We were able to post signs, get some polling information and did a brief stint of mainstreeting with honks of support.

The afternoon campaign session took us right into the heart of areas that had both Liberal and NDP support including a chance meeting with the Liberal candidate Glen Pearson. His team had been in the same neighbourhood only a couple of hours prior to us. He pulled over during the mainstreet event to say hi and things were kept in good form and even got a picture of the two rival candidates.

Veronica was put on the phone canvass and for a women that just became a Green Party member, this turned out to be a successful first campaign event with over 200 calls made on behalf of Elizabeth May. This allowed her to meet and greet with various people in the office.

The person who we really wanted to highlight from our time in London was Sharon Labchuk and her efforts at coordinating events in the busy campaign office.

Digital Divide: Citizen Internet and CAP

During the week that countries from around the world are meeting in Greece to discuss the Internet, it is worth a revisit to a recent debate about internet access in Canada. There have been several articles coming out of the east coast and other parts of the country outlining the disassembly of the Community Access Program. It is a disassembly because these centres are not just about free internet access but also the people and communities it serves.

Brief Introduction

What is being discussed is the funding of internet access by the Canadian government in partnership with provincial governments and local communities. The Community Access Programs (CAP) and their youth counterparts Canadian Youth Community Access Programs (YCAP) stretch from across the country from Newfoundland to British Columbia and up to our third coast. It was created by industry Canada and has most visibly impacted libraries, community centres and not for profit organizations from a wide spectrum of political issues.

The title link(drag the mouse over it) is meant to highlight what the Canadian Government already knows about the Community Access programs. This program is working!! It can be stated a success even from a Return on Investment model since it is working with the people it should be working with and doing so really efficiently. Who could argue with that??

Empowerment & Access to information

In this digital era, the internet serves as a source of personal empowerment. It is fast becoming a focal point for public education, government services, jobs and electronic commerce. Greens are not just about the environment, Greens support the efforts of organizations and government initiatives that go towards strengthening local communities and people's ability to understand social, cultural and intellectual issues in their own way.

Two key Green principles need to be brought into the context on a fight for continued support of the Community Access Program in Canada:

Individual autonomy: The ability to participate fully in the society around us is what is meant by the phrase in the statement. CAP sites provide opportunities for citizens to participate and for youth to gain job opportunities working with the electronic economy.

Inclusive Democracy: The second theme that is quickly entering the Canadian political scene is inclusive democracy. Not everyone can quickly bounce between the Toronto star, Blogger and say, Garth Turner and his website. More so than ever has the political debate in this country gone online. Average citizens need access to make informed decisions. There are a series of political briefs and case studies that can be found at dowire.org which focus on people, projects and accessible project for electronic democracy that may bring more context to this discussion on internet accessibility. I wrote a relevant piece on community portals.

Financial Implications

It is a privilege to be able to have full access in your home for internet services. In a research paper for Statistics Canada, George Sciadas wrote on the digital divide and the potential for a gap when looking at household incomes, education and general access to information communication technologies. One of the simple statements that I found coming off doing a brief read of his paper was that an emerging issue would be one of “affordability”.

If we did the math, not very many people would be able to afford the cost of obtaining internet access at internet cafes on a daily basis. Even if we go with the average cost of a day pass or unlimited day access for $10 to$12. Follow this cost to a full conclusion and it shows a different number. Let us show a bare minimum of what is taken for granted for those of us that have internet at home based on 15 to 20 hours of internet usage: $20 a wk/$160mnth/$1920 a year.

So, it is worth considering that the Community Access Programs and the role it plays is a substantial bridge for people that don’t have the economic means to get on the net. It isn’t just about finances. Again, it is about education, accessibility and community building. This program serves as the foundation for each of these things to succeed.

The program hasnt been totally written off but this serves a fair warning that nixing the funding for this wouldn't be appropiate to the hundreds of Canadians that gain internet access through this type of model. The World Summit on Information Technology worked throughout 2003 to 2005 to create an outline for a series of guiding principals and it is worth checking out the new site being managed by the Internet Governance Forum .

Kermit is Green and he is on T.V

The writer on this blog believes that the Greens need as many strong voices as the other parties. I was a candidate in the 2004 federal election and strongly believe in the fact that a minority government would have served the interests of Canadians. The fall of the most recent government shows that we live in a reality of power politics that remind us of school yard bullies rather than elected officals. Hence, my decision to write and reflect on the 2005 election.

Issue of the week: TV Debates and the inclusion of the Green Party leader.

People need to be firmly aware of the fact that our democratic rights to hear other emerging voices is being curtailed by the broadcast consortium in the upcoming Canadian election debates. Televison debates have become a focal point for an electorate that will be focusing on friends,family and travelling during the holiday season. Of all elections, it may be the only time that people consider who they will be voting for on an individual level and party level. We know the evidence on a provincial level. All people need to review is the 2001 BC election and impact it had on the strong Green performance.

On the Green Party website this week:

"Despite a surge in popularity, and even though it receives over $1 million of taxpayer money, the Green Party has been excluded from preparations for the debates to be held during this election. The Green Party believes that any party that achieves over 2 per cent of the vote must be included, as a consequence of their federal funding. “When taxpayers help finance a political party, but cannot see or hear from its leader, it simply doesn’t make sense”, said Harris. “The broadcast consortium’s decision erodes voter interest and participation in the election.”

The Edmonton Journal Article

The encouraging thing about the Green's call to be included in the televised debate in 2005 is that there are outsiders calling for it too. This week saw the publishing of an article in the Edmonton Journal calling for a new benchmark to be established for the inclusion of political leaders. It refers back to the implications of the Green Party of Canada achieving 4.3% of the vote: "The Elections Canada benchmark should be the one the TV networks choose for debate participation, rather than the traditional rule that each leader must represent a party with elected MPs".

Final Thought

Believe it or not, this is an issue that has wide reaching effects that include an impact in your local neighbourhoods and community associations. Why? If a national consortium can dictate that Greens be excluded it sets a precendent for local editorial boards of community newspapers and other organizations to seize the opportunity to exclude an important voice in Canadian politics. Yes, the Greens are on the offensive but it is important to realize that other emerging political parties in Canada deserve fair treatment if they meet the standards. Write or email your local newspaper to ensure adequate and fair treatment for the Greens.

Keeping up with Green Party Issues relevant to Toronto

Connect with Green Issues. One thing I find with the post '80s is that issues are not as standalone as they used to be. It seems that there is an interconnectedness between issues on business, peace and the environment.

These links are part of a package of issues that affect the people born in the early 1970's and havent yet been solved. No nostalgia linked to these issues since they are on going. Have a good week looking at the link I have brought to ONE FUNKY BOWLING SWEATER.



Rocket RidersRocket Riders is a non-profit citizens advocacy group dedicated to public transit issues in the Greater Toronto Area. Please go to their site to learn more about a commitment to efficient, safe and sustainable public transportation for all.

Toronto Region Immigrant Employment CouncilThe Toronto Region Immigrant Employment Council is a multi-stakeholder council that will work to improve access to employment for immigrants in the Toronto region so that they are better able to use the skills, education, and experience they bring with them.

The Conference Board of Canada has issued a briefing on the impact of visible minorities on Canadian economic growth. Read "Making a Visible Difference."

The Toronto DollarThe Toronto Dollar is a symbol of caring, created by community-minded citizens in the hope that it will help to build a more just and compassionate city. The work of the Toronto Dollar is to encourage more spirit-filled social and economic relationships among people from the community, business and government sectors and particularly among those in the community sector in greatest economic need.

UNPAC Women & Economy ProjectA comprehensive website devoted to women's experiences in the economy.

Toronto CED Learning NetworkDesigned to promote and "increase the capacity of voluntary organisations to develop effective, successful & sustainable communtity economic development initiatives".

Tobias House Attendant CareOpportunities for independence and the choice of lifestyle by providing innovative 24-hour personal support services for individuals with physical disabilities.

The Canada Tibet Committee (CTC)The Canada Tibet Committee (CTC) is an independent non-governmental organisation of Tibetans and non-Tibetans living in Canada, who are concerned about the continuing human rights violations and lack of democratic freedom in Tibet.

The Toronto Food Policy CouncilThe Toronto Food Policy Council partners with business and community groups to develop policies and programs promoting food security. Our aim is a food system that fosters equitable food access, nutrition, community development and environmental health.