A World Cup of caring

The World Cup of soccer is here, and that means Torontonians will have this fabulous distraction. That's one full month (June 11- July 11) of great football matches we can collectively obsess about.

It's a time to slough aside the daily drudgeries we all have to wade through; a time to temporarily ignore impending Carney-ian interest rates hikes, delayed TTC trains and buses not running on schedule and a Canadian sports media fraternity that sadly and singularly supports hockey around the clock, much to the chagrin of sports fans who follow the faster growing sports in Toronto and around the globe (basketball, football).

Not to get overly philosophical during this time of great sporting fervor, but do the World Cup festivities really bring Torontonians together, or does it just further expose the divisions amongst us?

I've borne witness to bushels of misguided nationalistic acts across cultures, from Yonge St. to College St. and St. Clair Ave. too. Sadly, what I've seen happen within our not-so subtle neighborhood divisions, a failed pseudo-multicultural living plan at work – there's a Little Everything, or a Town attached to most ethnicities, a Little Italy, Little India, Greek town, Chinatown, Little Portugal, Little Jamaica...the list is endless - is football fans foaming at the mouth, almost exacerbating these dividing lines in our minds, and on our streets.

It's something I was contemplating during the last World Cup, while the flags of a few nation states were being flung in my and my terrified daughter's faces around the Dufferin/St/ Clair area, while I was out shopping with my family.

In fact my 10-year-old daughter Shiloh's lasting memory of that day, is she was wondering why one half-dressed chap in particular was screaming at the top of his lungs, veins bulging out of his neck, editorializing about how a competing nation "sucks", near taunting area residents who happened to be from the competing "enemy" nation.

I'm still not sure why members of many communities drive up and down city streets taunting one another, and why juvenalia reigns supreme for a one-month period. There's cultural pride, and then there's nationalistic tomfoolery, the former I'm more interested in.

In fact, I would suggest that this World Cup hysteria creates an opportune time to educate ourselves on the plight of many of the 32 countries involved - once we have a winner (which will be Brazil by the way), the civil strife continues, and other battles will be fought. For basic human rights. Civil rights.

I’m doing my part this year, on the pitch coincidentally, taking my terrible cardiovascular conditioning and near lifeless legs to go and kick some rock and roll behind to raise monies for the Right To Play organization (members of the media dubbed "The World" are playing against a motley assembly of rock and rollers "The Rockers" to include Broken Social Scene's Brendan Canning and Great Big Sea's Murray Foster in a game called "Put The Boot In" happening during the NXNE music festival), bearing in mind during the World Cup, that for millions of school-aged children in developing nations, the right to play football and engage in sporting activities, which is a great way to boost self esteem and strengthen familial relations, is a privilege. Donate what you can, please, at the link below. A loonie, a toonie, every cent counts. I will personally contact and thank you, every single one of my donors!

http://righttoplay.akaraisin.com/p/higgins.aspx

What I'm doing is not that unusual. Soccer has always been used as a political tool, to help even the playing field (quite literally) between the haves and have-nots. So why not now?

In the early 60s African nations forced FIFA, the game’s world governing body, to suspend South Africa because of its racist apartheid policies. In fact, while I cheer on Cote D'Ivoire, Brazil and Argentina, I will in the back of my mind hope that the public funds that were used to build stadiums and upgrade airports, that monies generated by the World Cup will be used to provide proper food, shelter and clothing to all South Africans.

As I watch Mexico advance to the second round, it will be a time to reflect on the draconian anti-illegal immigration measures being put in place in Arizona, a state I will never find a reason to attend. There is life after the World Cup indeed.

About Dalton Higgins

Arts setting the agenda

For the past 17 years, ArtsVote has been working to mobilize the arts and culture community to make the most of their democratic power by voting for candidates who support the cultural sector in the City of Toronto.

The ArtsVote committee is comprised of artists and cultural workers in Toronto, each representing a different discipline. Their work has provided a sector-wide voice on key arts and culture issues; and their approach has been to educate candidates about the arts in their particular ward, and the challenges of the sector as a whole.

To foster the discussion, ArtsVote today outlined three priorities they believe will contribute to a better Toronto.

1. Toronto leads Canada in arts and cultural activity. It should lead the country in per-capita cultural investment, starting with an immediate increase in investment to $25 per citizen. Toronto currently invests $18 per Torontonian in arts and culture, outperformed by Vancouver and Montreal.

2. Toronto needs to position itself as a truly creative city and global cultural capital. Toronto needs to commit to a new generation of the Culture Plan, with clear targets for the next decade and new investments to reach these targets.

3. The arts are a catalyst in economic development, tourism and civic participation and should be at the centre of all of the city’s strategies and planning. Toronto must include culture in infrastructure planning, and take a leadership role to leverage private and government support.

In addition to releasing the priorities, ArtsVote continues to work on its Report Card that will grade candidates and challengers on their support for the arts.

According to ArtsVote organizers, this has been a particularly interesting campaign thus far. With all new mayoral candidates, and with many incumbent councillors choosing not to run, the field is wide open. Already, several candidates (new and old) appear ready and willing to learn about arts and culture in their ward.

It will be interesting to watch candidates respond to this articulate, artful call-to-action.

About Gillian Hewitt Smith

Whack the HST and climate change

Come August, when you open up those hydro and gas bills, you’re going to see an 8 per cent increase since the HST will apply to energy purchases. Some (most?) will just suck it up, but the smart ones will get even. They will get their money back by lowering their energy use by at least 8 per cent. The government will still get its half pound of flesh, but it will be relatively painless for those paying slimmed down bills.

Sounds too easy to be true? Not really. Most residents and businesses can cut their energy use by at least 10 per cent with very little effort. More efficient lighting and appliances, ensuring things are off when not in use including those “always on” devices that suck power 24/7, programmable thermostats, signing up for Hydro’s PeakSaver, caulking and draftproofing, adding insulation. None of this is terribly hard and the investment pays back, especially as the HST adds 8 per cent and energy rates go up.

Prompting some of us to stop wasting so much energy would be an upside. But as a way of getting us to dramatically reduce climate and air pollution, the HST is a fairly blunt instrument. What we need is a clear, significant financial signal that burning fossil fuels and wasting energy are unacceptable. The dominant view among both climate scientists and leading economists is that putting a price on carbon is what it will take to get us to take energy conservation and renewable energy seriously.

Cities are going to take it on the chin from climate change, but the big sticks for quickly and decisively driving down greenhouse gas emissions – taxation and pricing – are generally considered the domain of senior governments. The federal government is sitting on the sidelines on this issue, waiting (possibly in vain) for our neighbours to the south. Ontario made a commitment to carbon pricing (and carbon trading with a several provinces and U.S. states) but seems to have stalled out on this file.

Senior governments are moving glacially while the ice caps melt. Probably a good time for Toronto to pick up the big stick, and get the financial upside for investment in solutions to protect our rapidly unravelling environment.

About Julia Langer

Bugged

It's odd, the things that inspire gratitude in a person.  Reading about MPP Michael Colle's intention to introduce private member's legislation called  The Tenants Right to Know - forcing landlords to disclose bedbug infestations- really affected me.  It's so rare that  issues plaguing the poor find their way into the public discourse and public policy, and bedbugs are a deeply creepy subject that, at least for now, only torments those who have little power and no voice.

It infuriates me when workers and administrators, all pulling down fair salaries (and some more than fair), seem to shrug off their responsibilities to their tenants, to their jobs, and instead feel themselves to be victims when a hero like  Joe Fiorito- mostly on his own- writes his damming columns. It's like the head of BP whining that he wants his life back when others have lost and will lose theirs.

I have sat across from a public housing executive who characterized Joe's last column on the subject as "one perspective." I looked at this well-dressed woman, who would never ever tolerate a family member being tortured nightly by these creatures, and I was instantly transported across the decades, back to a private boarding home stuffed with ex-psychiatric patients, back to a dark and gloomy hallway where eighty year old Anna  still stands eternally in my memory, shivering and humiliated in a greying full slip, her arms crossed over her chest, black spots racing over the thin material, waiting to be doused with chemicals to kill the lice.

No workers or administrators cared about her, either. Though she had been someone's daughter, had been someone's friend.  That is what makes everything so much worse, the notion that people know, even as they sit in fancy offices, or drive in expensive cars, they know and still, still,  men and women are left to their plight.

Imagine being afraid to lie down, afraid to sit, afraid to turn out the lights. 

Vulnerable people, decent people, people like you and I, not a separate species with different sensibilities, need champions.  Colle has stepped up, and I for one salute him. 

About Pat Capponi

Time to serve up food policy on the municipal agenda

I couldn't help but pay attention to the recent debate on Toronto Council to ban soft drink sales from municipal facilities with a bit of both amusement and dismay.

To be sure, the policy intentions are good. But replacing sugary soft drinks with sugary juices is going to do very little to combat obesity or improve public health in anyway whatsoever. The debate appeared to be driven more by idealistic positions than any real concern over what Torontonians are consuming or where it comes from.

Of bigger concern is the fact that such policies are brought forward without the context of a more comprehensive food policy that better connects the food choices we make with overall public health and environmental objectives.

Toronto already has a Food Charter in place that sets out the framework of some basic but ambitious rights that we should be working towards. The Food Charter notes that we should be championing the rights of all citizens to adequate amounts of safe and nutritious foods, encourage community gardens, protect local agricultural lands, advocate for adequate income so that people can make healthy food choices, and support nutrition programs and better diets.

It also notes that Toronto should adopt food purchasing practices that serve as a model of health, social and environmental responsibility.

So where is the comprehensive food policy to go along with the Food Charter? And how did we end up with a such a narrowly focused and ineffectual debate on soft drinks.

Toronto and other municipalities in the GTA need to think more broadly when it comes to developing food and related public health policies. Picking on soft drink companies or banning junk food sales is easy to do but really misses the mark.

Denying people access to unhealthy food choices is only effective if it is done alongside a real strategy to make healthy food choices a realistic and affordable option for most people. This involves real municipal action, not just continued and futile attempts at regulatory solutions. Replacing soft drinks with juices (most of which have as much if not more sugar) is a lost opportunity, as was the failure of the street food debate.

Where are the actions that actually relate to the laudable goals of the Food Charter? Allowing more community gardens in our parks has proved wildly successful wherever it has been implemented. What we also need is improved infrastructure in our parks to allow people to prepare, consume, sell and trade the foods grown in them.

The growth of farmer's markets is only inhibited by the shortage of farmers to supply them. As urban dwellers we need to do a better job at understanding why farmers are reluctant to take part and provide incentives and program that make it easier for them to participate. And when it comes to healthy food choices, we need to have comprehensive policies and not knee-jerk reactions.

I think it's great that Coke will not be available at the City Hall cafe. But so what? The City still allows a french-fry truck to park at the edge of the the children's play area in High Park and promote the most unhealthy of all fast foods to my kids while spewing carbon emissions. Sunnyside Park is littered with two fast-food kiosks, including a Pizza Pizza, that offer not one single healthy food choice (even McDonald's does better than that). The issue is complicated for sure. But if we are going to take action, let's do it properly and effectively.

About Pino Di Mascio

Electric cars need to be rolled out wisely

Ready to plug into the electric car revolution? Having an electric vehicle parked in the driveway is one way to reduce climate pollution. And impress the neighbours. But really, we’d all be better off (and more impressive) if we took the bus or a bike.

Electric vehicles (including plug-in hybrids and all-electric) can definitely play a role in helping Toronto reduce greenhouse gas and air polluting emissions. Given Ontario’s current electricity mix, fully electric vehicles could cut emissions by 87 per cent compared to a conventional car, according to one estimate. As our electricity gets even greener -- as we phase out coal and bring on more renewable power -- this advantage will only grow.

But having commuters simply switch en masse from gasoline powered to electric powered vehicles won’t solve our climate woes. For starters, despite rapid advancements in electric vehicle technology, it will be a decade or two before a wholesale switchover to all-electric cars and trucks could even happen. We need emission reductions now – the ice caps are melting!

Second, in a city with worse traffic congestion than L.A., bumper-to-bumper electric vehicles aren’t going to add anything to our economic efficiency or quality of life. Our love affair with the private car is costly in terms of resources consumed, green spaces paved over and the energy-intensive sprawling development that it encourages.

Electric vehicles do have an important role to play in where there are fewer options for shifting to transit, telecommuting or using other transportation modes (walking, bicycling). Ramping up the use of electric vehicles in fleets -- including corporate service fleets, public works fleets, taxis and car sharing fleets -- is a good way to reduce lots of emissions since these cars get driven a lot, and often locally.

Fleets can also drive the development of supporting infrastructure, like plug-in points and two-way grid capacity because they create a concentrated demand. Toronto Atmospheric Fund has launched EV300 to accelerate uptake of electric vehicles by public and private fleets in the GTA; more information at www.FleetWise.ca

For the rest of us, getting out of our cars is the true solution to climate change, and a key to improving Toronto’s prosperity and quality of life. Cities, provinces and the federal government need to do their part by dramatically increasing support for rapid, frequent and convenient transit -- both capital and operating costs.

We need to do our part by leaving the car at home as much as possible and by encouraging the development of flexible workplaces that support telecommuting, flex hours, and other solutions that take the stress and pollution out of starting and ending the workday.

About Julia Langer