Serenity Rainbow Sig 2008 by Kelly Krogman!
Have a phenomenal day, please!
Welcome!!!
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For anyone who would like to get involved and join us – here is the information you would need!!
We need people with all sorts of skills. Taking minutes, leafleting, canvasing for petitions… making banners, decorating bulletin boards, any creative idea you can come up with to raise awareness!!!
The meetings are open – anyone can come along and join in. You don’t need to call ahead. If you are interested in receiving information, or meeting minutes, upcoming events, please leave me a message and we can get in touch. 
955 Queen Street East
Toronto, ON M4M 1K7
(416) 461-1925
Click here for our new website!! Under construction!
PLEASE BE ADVISED!!! THE PAPE BUS WILL BE USING PAPE STATION AGAIN AS OF MAY 8TH!!!
Also – for more information on what we’re involved in right now, you can check the next two links. One is the website for Put Food in the Budget, and the next is the blog that goes with it… we’re on a Provincial campaign – trying to raise rates for every person on social assistance and make the process of deciding what money people get more transparent and in line with the ACTUAL cost of living!
2011 in review
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The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 7,800 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 7 trips to carry that many people.
DIGNITY
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Want to give the Gift of Dignity this Holiday Season??
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/put-food-in-the-budget.html
Sign our petition to Put Food in the Budget of our neighbours on social
assistance. An immediate increase of $100/month to enable people to purchase
healthy food is a gift that:
- combats hunger and injustice
- reduces reliance on our already over-burdened food banks and volunteers
- is a start at eliminating some of the wasted time and energy that goes
into maintining our systemic, second rate food system for the poor.
- is a first step towards raising rates to adequate levels that reflect the
real cost of living in Ontario.
- restores the right of individuals to purchase their own healthy food
- is simply the right thing to do.
Thanks to all of you who sign this petition and help to restore some balance
in a world where Charity cannot redress poverty and inequity.
Holiday Cards!
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Click here to get your own verion of the invitation! Dec 19th Invitation
Click here to print off your own cards to mail!! DearDalton card
TTC Rally with Fair Fare Coalition!
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Yesterday we gathered with Fair Fare Coalition and had a rally and march.
Our asks are:
Free transportation on smog alert days and hot / cold weather alert days.
Lowered metropass rates.
Lowered rates for places like South Riverdale Community Health Centre that buy tokens in bulk
so that people can access important services in the city.
Eventually – free transportation for all! No fare is fare!
We met at Dundas Square and had drummers to march with.
Five of us dressed up as a streetcar…
(That’s me, second. lol Later I was in the front..hot!)
It was a huge success!
We then boarded three streetcars and refused to pay… we got people to read our postcards and sign them!
All in all over 250 cards were signed today!
After this we all marched to City Hall, with drummers and chants… and five of us dressed as a streetcar.
Everyone felt that it was a terrific day and we look forward to our next action!
Here’s hoping you can join us, and terrific job to those of us that were there!
A cure for the common hospital meal
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JESSICA LEEDER — GLOBAL FOOD REPORTER
From Saturday’s Globe and Mail
In the bowels of an east Toronto hospital lined with aquamarine tile and vintage Garland ovens, a star chef has begun a year-long experiment to revolutionize the most mocked and inedible of institutional foods.
Joshna Maharaj built her reputation whipping up healthy feasts at disparate venues, from a food bank to a high-end cooking school. The challenge of restoring palatability to in-patient food is her most daunting yet – and whether she succeeds is likely to influence the future of hospital food across the country.
Free Transit!
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Fair Fare Coalition
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Pride BBQ!! June 23rd, 2011!
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Fair Fare Coalition
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The Fair Fare Coalition , the Greater Toronto Worker’s Assembly Free and Accessible Transit and DAMN 2025 call on our City to take a Lead in creating a
Public Transit System that is Accessible for Everyone – Lets Start with Free Travel on Heat and Smog Alert Days
We are concerned about the impact that the high cost of riding the TTC has on the physical health and economic, mental and emotional well-being of people trying to get to medical appointments, job interviews, school or training programs, family or community events, food banks, etc.
Toronto claims to be a world class city and yet it is one of the few major Canadian cities that does not offer a low cost travel solution for our most low income residents. We are asking for a subsidized transit pass for all low income residents of Toronto.
In addition, as an immediate measure we recommend free travel in the City on smog and heat alert days. This will actually save lives! This summer will be marked by dangerously hot, humid, polluted days. During Extreme Heat Alerts, the City of Toronto counsels people to seek shelter and opens cooling centres across the City. People who are living on a low or fixed income are particularly at risk of ill health and even death during these alerts – especially senior citizens, people living with chronic illnesses and disabilities, people living in substandard housing and those people who are homeless, because they are more exposed to the heat and have fewer options for escaping it. Public transit makes it possible to travel to cooling centres or other places where temperature is regulated and stay safe during alert days.But without the financial means to travel, many people will have no way to escape the heat and smog.
In North America, heat kills more people than all other weather-related calamities (i.e. lightening, earthquakes, tsunamis, extreme cold, hurricanes etc) combined. In Toronto alone, extreme heat is responsible for 120 deaths annually, compared to 105 from extreme cold. Yet, the majority of heat-related deaths and illness are preventable.
The reality of growing urbanization, a changing climate and an increasingly elderly population mean that Toronto faces high heat-related risk trends.(From Heat Registry Manual – funded by City of Toronto, Shelter, Support and Housing Administration and Public Health Dept.)
We call on City of Toronto Public Health, City Council and the Toronto Transit Commission to make public transit free on heat and smog alert days. People can ride for free on New Year’s eve and morning. Lives can also be saved during these extreme weather alerts.
We believe that the City of Toronto can lead the way to accessible transit. We are one of the only large cities in the country that does not have a subsidized travel pass, nor do we make meaningful accommodations to ensure everyone can travel.
Examples of other jurisdictions who have implemented a subsidized pass:
Hamilton – Affordable Transit Pass Program is to help City of Hamilton residents who are living on a low income purchase an adult month bus pass for half the price
Calgary -Low Income Transit Pass Program offers a monthly pass to people living on a low income at a fixed rate of $40.00 (less than half the regular price of $90)
Ottawa–Reduced Transit Pass for people on fixed income (Ontario Disability Support Program or ODSP) – less than half the cost of a regular priced pass (reg. $84.00, reduced to $30.40)
Oshawa/Duram– Reduced Transit Pass for people on fixed income (ODSP) – less than half the cost of a regular priced pass (reg. $97.00, reduced to $39)
Vancouver – Reduced Transit Pass for people on fixed income (Disability Allowance) – less than half of a regular priced pass (reg. $99, reduced to $45)
Kingston –Affordable transit pass for everyone living on a low income – Discount established using the Low Income Cut-Off by Statistics Canada (reg. $65, reduced to $44)
North Bay – Reduced transit pass for Senior Citizens and people on ODSP. Also free travel for CNIB service recipients (reg. $80, reduced to $55)
Hello…am I still Vanished?
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I feel like I’ve vanished. I feel quiet and I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to do anything at all. I can’t seem to speak up loud enough for folks to hear me on the phone. I don’t want to write. I don’t care to read. I most definitely don’t want to speak. Have I vanished? I feel vanished… I feel like I’m hiding. Ha ha…and if I can’t see you, then you can’t see me!
People talk, talk, talk..what are they saying? How important is it, what they say? Do they say anything? Or is it a comfort to themselves to hear themselves… to let them know they have not vanished. Talking in circles – same topic as last week. Same dilemma same decisions same same same same. I know it’s important to them. I don’t mean to be rude. While they discuss the price of gas I’m thinking people are starving. They talk about a spouse not helping out and somewhere, someone is being beaten to death. A child misbehaving as another child takes up arms. Their child won’t eat their vegetables, but they have the choice to buy vegetables. Silly, I know… people aren’t happy. They drag themselves along, day after day, moving from the box they call home, to the box that takes them to their work box. Don’t they / we know that life is short? Life is what you make it, the chances and changes you take and make? What if you make none. What if you come here, and go…and when you go – that’s all.
I would scream, but I’ve no energy as I’m vanished. I will be back… this is just today.
My answer? It’s funny how life works. I wrote this and not five minutes later, Sue Dreamwalker came to me… and through her, I found this gem! Thank you Sue.
And you see? Another miracle… all in one day. How lucky am I? This is a beautiful world. Thank you Ravy, and thank you – to the men that made this video.
I am not vanished. I am found and I’m in love with life, and the people in it. It didn’t even take a whole day..ask.. all you have to do is put it out there, ask it.
