July 21, 2009, 11 e-mails

M. G. wrote:

This email came yesterday and I found it really interesting. If it is true, then I feel this is really telling of how our government operates. I find it really surprising that they really thought the Christie Pits neighbourhood would just sit back and let it happen.

Friends of Christie Pits Park has been watching the strike and the garbage piling up in parks around Toronto for the past 29 days. Please don't mistaken our silence for acceptance. I think we are all suffering from PROTEST FATIGUE.

Residents have been forced to do with less for much too long. Christie Pits Park is missing three outdoor pools, a vibrant wading pool, a pizza oven to have picnics around, day camps for over 300 children, a working water fountain and any public washroom.

We want to see a resolution to the strike soon. Voice your opinion
Mayor David Miller
mayor_miller@toronto.ca
Phone: 416-397-CITY (2489)
Fax: 416-696-3687
Mail: Toronto City Hall, 2nd Floor, 100 Queen St. West, Toronto ON M5H 2N2

Councillor Joe Pantalone
councillor_pantalone@toronto.ca
Phone: 416-392-4009
Fax: 416-392-4100
Mail: 100 Queen Street West, Suite C47,Toronto, ON M5H 2N2

Councillor Adam Vaughan
councillor_vaughan@toronto.ca
Phone: 416-392-4044
Fax: 416-392-4130
Mail: 100 Queen Street West, Suite C50, Toronto, ON M5H 2N2

Other councillors:
http://app.toronto.ca/im/council/councillors.jsp
Call on the Medical Officer of Health to intervene to prohibit dumping of garbage in parks:
Dr. David McKeown
publichealth@toronto.ca
http://www.toronto.ca/health/mohmessage.htm
416-338-7600

A. K. wrote:

Thanks for sending Monica. Not surprising information though great to have this info leaked to us. Thanks to whomever sent that email as it has lifted by spirits to know that we are not the silent, non-voting demographic they thought we were.

Shall we gather people together for a 2nd attempt at a Bloor Street and Park clean up on Saturday? Perhaps10am, meeting outside Banjara? The last clean up effort was during a pretty big thunderstorm!

Please let me know who is interested so we can organize and coordinate.

C. M. wrote:

I myself hesitate to accept anonymous emails as fact, especially one that makes this kind of very serious allegations.

J. N. wrote:

Perhaps this information should be shared with the Press for them to do some digging on this story.

I always wondered why the original 19 dumps were scattered in only 10 wards. My suspicions have been answered.

B. S. wrote:

The disclosure by "R" appears no more or less Kafkaesque than the situation in which we find ourselves in.

This is the real fallout of the strike: "R"s e-mail appears plausible today

E. B. wrote:

I question validity of some aspects of the email (anonymous email) given the fact that there are some degree of embellishing that is happening. How is it possible for City of Toronto to obtain copies of tax returns.

Having said that, we do need to recognize that there is a problem with how the City runs things - how is it that places like Forest Hill and Rosedale did not end up getting a dumpsite in their backyard?

S. G. wrote:

Hi - I agree with E. and C. that caution is advisable with anonymous messages. However, the income tax factor may be poorly worded rather than untrue. StatsCan income data from the 2006 census is included in the City's demographic data down to the ward and neighbourhood level - 140 neighbourhoods! Check out actual data at http://www.toronto.ca/demographics/ "Population density, population change, visible minorities, household income and low income and other key demographic indicators reveals the changing fabric of the city." There us also a large report on pollution and poverty: "poverty rates at the census tract and neighbourhood ( group of census tracts) level." See neighbourhoods 93 (west of Christie), 95 (east of Christie) and 80 (south of Bloor).

"Census tracts include several city blocks and have on average about 4,000 people." The city would have that data also, and likely combined it with the political and other public and non-public factors listed.

To say it's very disappointing and undemocratic if true is a huge understatement!!

Kudos to those in this FCPP group keeping the very real public health issues in the public's mind. I agree with Monica and others that it's time to increase the political pressure.

C. L. wrote:

hi all, tomorrow i will be going to campbell park with the kids participating at La Muse Modern art camp, to an install POP ART works created by the kids. it is a reflexion about parks being used as dumps, where we will be hanging in trees small pertinent creations and also using words sending a positive message describing why the kids love their parks. we should come around lunch time.

B. K. wrote:

I am not as skeptical as C. about the authenticity of this e-mail, but that could be my conspiratorial leanings. I was saying to someone recently how it is strange that some neighbourhoods [Forest Hill, Rosedale] do not have temporary dump sites, and others have more than one. Now that they have started closing various sites, I guess we will have to wait until the temporary sites are so far away from the influential areas, that the influential people will start to complain to the people who matter, that the sites are too far away for them to be taking their garbage in their [insert far too high priced car here] and something needs to be done about it. Or it could be that people in Forest Hill and Rosedale don't make any garbage. Who knows? Just a thought.

R. wrote:

I certainly can vouch for the authenticity of the email your received but I also found it very strange the more affluent neighbourhoods have been spared 'dump sites'.

While I realize you've been working tirelessly to protest the use of parks as dump sites and get the message out to the media, I wonder if this new angle would interest the media. It could certainly keep the issue and story alive and perhaps put more pressure on the city. (I'm not suggesting you mention the anonymous email you receive as I'm not sure how helpful that would be but simply making the observation re: locations seems fairly logical to me.)

H. S. wrote:

With everything going on, I hadn't realized I did NOT update this list on what I did on Tuesday July 21, so belatedly, my report back :

I made hard copies of "that" email

I then headed to the 2:30 p.m. Briefing at the Members Lounge behind and above council chambers in City Hall. They'd moved it there from the Original Metro Hall location to prevent CUPE from making a public demonstration on the outside through the windows.

I was not allowed into the Media briefing, they only allowed city hall accredited reporters.

I witnessed at least one other person from the "public" who was also turned away, despite his having an email on his blackberry from someone higher up asking him to attend the media briefing.

Hence, I could not ask the Mayor directly.

I waited and caught media as they were walking past the ground floor security desk.

Handing them a hard copy of the email.

Interest and attention was mixed.

CFRB radio recorded a minute of me for potential broadcast.

GlobalTV did as well, though initially they dismissed it as an "anonymous" email.

At first CP24 didn't care.

BUT, they had anti-miller city counciller John Parker there giving interviews on the square. He was live on CP24 at 4 pm.

Councillor Parker actually agreed with me off camera that it is at least possible that the contents of the email might be correct, but he could not comment further as he has never even imagined this could happen.

He also agreed that it is not beyond one's imagination that if it is true, then yes, hard drives and emails would be deleted to prevent any data trail to confirm it. A public inquiry would be the ultimate remedy.

I found I actually had more strike information that he did, so that's disturbing in itself, as he is a City Councillor and I am not.

CP24 asked me for the 4:30 pm live report. They gave me 4 minutes.

I repeated that single statement from the email :

"Christie Pits was NOT chosen simply because of the superficial environmental excuses that were given.

Your area was chosen because we analyzed your income levels, voting behaviours and ethnicity and decided you would be a soft touch. "

on air, Nathan Downer, the reporter played devil's advocate, I responded with the trust/believability angle, emphasizing not the veracity of the author of the email, but the validity of the questions raised in the email. Those same questions are being asked by many many Torontonians. The email seems at least plausable.

Within a minute or two, Miller's deputy of communications, showed up demanding to know who sent the email etc etc.

I gave him a hard copy of the email, CP24, now off camera, waited to see the exchange between he and I.

He called it "nonsense" but his reaction didn't convince me, in my opinion.

I "agreed" with him in principle, but raised the other angles of trust and the validity of the questions raised in the email. He ended up "agreeing" with me that forget the author of the email, the questions raised are valid.

He apparently at least superficially agreed with my point that the email is display of the lack of trust on the part of citizens in the elected officials because of recent events.

Nevertheless, That was not aired. Me reading the above two sentences was aired.

Initially I decided not to tweet nor blog anything else about this.

But, it appears, the mayor's office took this serious enough to send someone senior immediately down to where the interview took place.

Their immediate denial and use of the word "nonsense" is instructive in itself. It is an oft repeated word that lately, with the passage of time, has become "sense".

Anyway, I know I must blog this properly as an op-ed kind of piece, then just blast it out there online.

Rita, unless anyone saw or heard me live on air, they don't know I did this.

It would appear, the media, at present do not care about the email nor its questions.

At moss park on friday from 5 pm on, I will still ask those questions.

p.s. On Tuesday afternoon, I always identified to the media that I was speaking in my individual capacity and not as a representative of any group nor organization of the matter of this specific email. despite it being originally being sent to FCPP.