Survivors know best. The knowledge of those with first hand traumatic experiences of human trafficking is widely accepted as the best pathway to understand how trafficking operates, how to disrupt it and how to help survivors escape and rebuild their life.
On Human Trafficking Awareness Day, The Pointer is providing a platform for three survivors of human sex trafficking to share what they believe needs to change in Canada, and what candidates in the provincial election and the upcoming federal election should prioritize if elected.
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The Metamorphosis Network in Peel has launched its ‘Cut in Half’ campaign, asking candidates in the provincial election to sign a pledge, vowing to dramatically reduce the almost $870 million annual gap in social services funding across the region, created by inequitable allocation of taxpayer dollars by the provincial government.
A young German shepherd is found running down a suburban roadway in Niagara Falls. Her mouth is muzzled shut, she’s bleeding, dragging a rope and metal pipes.
She collapses and dies.
It took months of sustained advocacy by witnesses and animal rights defenders to force the provincial Animal Welfare Service into action.
The case reveals the disturbing reality of a system that is under-resourced, disjointed, hidden from public view and mostly unaccountable to the taxpayer.
Early in the week, Liberal leader Bonnie Crombie strongly condemned the now-former Liberal candidate, after his social media posts published 18 months ago were unearthed, revealing shocking comments by Bansal.
He condoned the 2023 assassination of a Sikh-Canadian advocate, which the Indian government was allegedly behind. He also used a homophobic reference against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Crombie has now dumped him from the Party.
The Green Party leader is pledging to provide Ontario’s municipalities with a new deal that would upload shelter and housing back to the province while also covering 50 percent of the operating cost for transit.
Mike Schreiner spoke with The Pointer about his plan to make life more affordable for Ontarians.
Able-bodied Ontarians might not think twice about walking into their local polling station on February 27. The ability to mark their X with ease, something often taken for granted, is not the same for many living with disabilities across Ontario.
Barriers still exist for some who want to exercise their democratic right. Despite a complaint filed more than six years ago to the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal attempting to force improvements, the backlogged system will not be able to hear arguments in the case until September, months after the snap winter election.
A multi-billion dollar highway, a government selling the dream of congestion-free commutes and the reality that so much about Doug Ford’s plan for transportation, has nothing to do with effectively moving Ontarians around.
For opponents, Highway 413 has become a political symbol of everything that’s wrong with today’s politics of smoke and mirrors, as the PCs sell a plan with no benefits, other than the billions of dollars in profits powerful developers playing Ford like a marionette stand to make.
The Freedom of Information process to obtain documents related to the decision to remove 15 parcels of land from the Greenbelt has been rife with delays and questionable denials that possibly violate provincial legislation.
As voters get ready to vote on February 27, party leaders are calling for complete transparency around the Greenbelt scandal after Ontario’s auditor general found some of the province's most wealthy developers, who also happen to be significant PC donors, were favoured.
As the February 27 provincial election fast approaches, Brampton voters are looking for concrete solutions to fix the city’s woefully underfunded healthcare system. While Doug Ford committed to ending hallway healthcare when he was first elected in 2018, Brampton’s situation has only worsened since.
The PCs have left the community to face long wait times in emergency rooms, delayed critical mental health support and have failed to match explosive population growth (pushed by Ford) with desperately needed hospital beds.
Since Doug Ford’s 2018 campaign, when he promised to tackle Ontario's housing crisis, his governments have systematically weakened planning laws and stripped conservation authorities of their power in favour of builders.
A scandal involving backroom dealing with powerful developers, including Greenbelt land swaps and questionable approval processes, exposed Ford’s secretive plans to do what he promised: open up Ontario’s protected greenspace for sprawl development that makes housing even less affordable.
The Ontario NDP and World Sikh Organization are calling for the resignation of Oshawa Liberal candidate Viresh Bansal. In September of 2023 he wrote an outrageous post on his X account, condoning the assassination of Sikh advocate Hardeep Singh Nijjar while simultaneously using a homophobic remark against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
He also threatened Conservative MP Tim Uppal. Bansal’s posts, supporting disturbing actions by the Indian government while attacking Canadian politicians who criticized them, raise more concerns about ongoing foreign interference in our politics.
The Liberal leader is vowing to fix a broken healthcare system, restore confidence in public education and make Canada’s largest province affordable once again.
The former Mississauga mayor, who helped transform her city from a sleepy suburb into an economic engine, sat down with The Pointer to talk about her plan to defeat Doug Ford and lead Ontario back to prosperity.
Pietrangelo has taken part in several discussions and votes surrounding the South Niagara Falls hospital project, despite owning land with his family directly across the street. The land’s value certainly increased with the launch of the hospital project, raising questions about why the councillor has not routinely declared a conflict and steered clear of decision making that could possibly benefit him personally.
The councillor’s situation shines a light on a widespread issue in Ontario about the ineffectiveness of laws meant to protect against conflicts of interest, and the ability of residents to hold elected officials accountable for transgressions.
In Peel, where the largest South Asian-Canadian community in the country thrives, the unique cultural and demographic landscape has created a perfect storm of conditions for human traffickers. Canada is currently without a national strategy to guide anti-human trafficking efforts. A review of the previous five-year plan showed mixed results, and a significant lack of investment.
Advocates are urging Ottawa to prioritize the approval of a new strategy that addresses the rapidly changing dynamics of human trafficking.
The provincial election is officially underway.
In the coming days The Pointer will be gathering information about the candidates seeking election across Brampton and Mississauga to inform readers about their background and experience as they vie to represent you inside Ontario’s legislature.
With candidates vying for support ahead of the February 27th provincial election, crime and community safety have become the burning issues for many voters across Brampton.
In the north of the city crime has taken on a dark dimension, with a range of concerns including shootings, auto thefts and break-ins that residents have raised to local and provincial leaders who ultimately make decisions about the use of taxpayer money to keep those same residents safe.
As campaigning ramps up ahead of the Ontario election on February 27th, democracy advocates and resident groups are wondering why the PC Party has absented its candidates from debates, other events and media interviews.
Ghost candidates are creating questions about how voters are supposed to know what to expect if local PCs running for office are elected, and how they would address specific issues unique to a riding.
The controversial proposal to expand Brampton’s Emerald incinerator, one of Canada's largest waste-burning facilities, has drawn concern over potential health risks, including increased exposure to cancer-causing chemicals. Despite claims of "clean energy" experts argue that incineration only adds to environmental harm, releasing toxic pollutants like mercury, dioxins and furans into the air.
Local advocates, health professionals and environmental groups are calling for a halt to the expansion plan, urging the provincial government to reconsider its policies and prioritize more sustainable, cleaner alternatives for managing waste.
Meghan Nicholls, the CEO of Food Banks Mississauga, is calling out elected officials.
Forced to shutter vital programming due to a lack of funding while demand continues to rapidly increase, she says food banks can no longer fill a widening gap created by ongoing government failures.
While EV sales explode in some parts of the world, the number of Ontarians transitioning to electric vehicles has slowed considerably under Doug Ford, whose government has repeatedly rolled back key incentives that once supported a growing market. From rebates to public charging infrastructure, the cuts have stymied EV growth, leaving the province behind others like British Columbia and Quebec, where key policies and incentives have driven adoption.
Ontario still has an opportunity to catch up by investing in rebates, expanding charging infrastructure and supporting used EV incentives, but experts are wary of a government that makes “evidence-free” decisions.
Human Rights issues were raised at a recent council meeting, where a proposal to avoid using the Notwithstanding Clause to clear homeless encampments was brought forward.
In the end, with the mayors of Niagara’s largest cities firmly behind Doug Ford’s plan to forcibly remove those staying in encampments, efforts to act with compassion were defeated.
In Part 2 of Traffick Stop The Pointer looks at the dedicated service providers helping survivors heal and move on from one of the most devastating forms of exploitation.
These organizations operate in a space that is underfunded, as politicians all too often are more concerned with offering empty words than taking real action to fix a flawed system.
The Brampton mayor’s mother-in-law is running against the Ontario Liberal leader in the Mississauga East—Cooksville race. Allegations have been raised against Patrick Brown, accusing him of using staff paid by Brampton taxpayers, including two who work in his office, to help with Silvia Gualtieri’s campaign.
Brown has previously directed City staff to help candidates including himself. A whistleblower provided evidence of the mayor’s inappropriate use of Brampton taxpayer funds to work on a federal campaign while an integrity commissioner complaint revealed Brown had used City staff for his own bid to become federal Conservative leader.
Following an internal investigation into the misuse of municipal funds, the Region of Peel has launched a lawsuit against former caseworker Hamza Dualeh alleging he was sending money for made up expenses to various benefits recipients and splitting the proceeds under Peel’s Homelessness Prevention program. A statement of claim filed on February 4 alleges that over an 18-month period, Dualeh issued approximately 1,300 fraudulent payments totalling more than $4 million through the Homelessness Prevention Fund.
In a 9-1 vote, trustees at the Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board recently held up a long-standing ban of the Pride flag. The decision has laid bare a significant disconnect between many local parents and the students whose schools do not feel welcoming to them.
That is not stopping them from advocating for representation and recognition in the spaces built for young people to learn in a supportive environment. Obstacles posed by older generations continue to drown out the experiences of students across the board.
After false claims that Mississauga’s population is in decline, new data from Statistics Canada show the opposite. The city is booming.
Numbers from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation over the last five years also show Mississauga continues to see major new developments, with the second highest value in new condos across Ontario last year.
The trucking/warehousing industry is the largest in the city, employing tens of thousands of workers.
Cross-border contracts account for much of the work they do. Insiders warn that if the paused tariffs ever come into effect, the impacts would ripple across Brampton, throwing hundreds of thousands of residents connected to commercial transportation into a potential downward spiral.
Ahead of Ontario’s February 27 election, the Doug Ford government is facing more backlash for its controversial Bill 212, which aims to dismantle bike lanes, a move critics argue puts cyclists and the province’s climate goals at risk. On January 25, Brampton residents and cycling advocates rallied outside Minister of Transportation Prabmeet Sarkaria’s office.
In the first of a four-part series, The Pointer looks at the rising rates of human trafficking in Peel and across the province.
Service providers are grappling with an increasing number of survivors with complex needs, while they are under-resourced and struggling to help survivors.
False promises made by Doug Ford's PC government have undermined environmental laws, favouring developers and expanding the aggregate industry at the cost of Ontario’s natural spaces.
In Caledon, Milton, Burlington and other communities the threat of quarry expansions looms as Ford pushes sprawling developments and highways that need aggregate. Local leaders and activists gathered in Milton last week to rally against these destructive practices.
As Ontarians prepare for the February 27th election, the PC government has once again made bold nuclear energy announcements. The proposed nuclear plant near Port Hope could become the province's largest, yet crucial details are scarce.
Critics are questioning if the vague plans being trumpeted are a calculated political play designed to energize voters while leaving out complexities of the nuclear strategy.
Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie’s former role as Mississauga’s mayor included run-ins with her fellow Peel politician, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown over a number of critical issues, primarily her desire to see Mississauga become an independent municipality, a position Brown aggressively lobbied against.
Less than a day after she announced the riding she’s seeking to represent at Queen’s Park, Silvia Gualtieri, Brown’s mother-in-law, was officially named as Crombie’s PC opponent.
After five years of legislative violations, shelved reports and blatant discrimination, a 2023 review concluded Ontario was in the midst of an “accessibility crisis”. Instead of acknowledging his alarming conduct, Premier Doug Ford—following a pattern of behaviour since being elected in 2018—refuses to prioritize the needs of those living with disabilities.
Advocates are demanding change as the province enters a historically short provincial election campaign.
The health of the Great Lakes is increasingly at risk as Premier Doug Ford's PC government advances two contentious projects: the redevelopment of Ontario Place and the construction of Highway 413. They threaten to exacerbate the strain on an already fragile ecosystem. The Ontario Place project, which aims to reroute sewage into the West Channel, could pollute vital water bodies, while Highway 413 threatens to undermine critical watersheds. The Great Lakes are already struggling from climate-induced pressures.
Despite a ruling by Ontario’s Information Privacy Commissioner, that City of St. Catharines officials argued against releasing documents detailing alarmingly high levels of dangerous toxic chemicals at the former GM site in the middle of the municipality, officials are now claiming they did not try to prevent the release of the disturbing information.
In an effort to fill the gaps in a food insecurity crisis advocates have warned will only worsen without sufficient policy change and government spending, Bill Graham and his wife Shirley have been providing free food tables for Mississauga residents since March 2020, an initiative that now serves more than 2,000 people monthly.
As Premier Doug Ford’s pre-election cheques get ready for delivery, the Association of Municipalities of Ontario warns the province’s homelessness crisis is at a ”tipping point”.
As Ontario faces mounting pressures from climate change, the push for sustainable, resilient and affordable housing has become more urgent than ever. But in the midst of rising costs and regulatory hurdles, some are questioning whether green building standards are worth the investment.
RESCON, the group representing Ontario's home builders, is challenging Toronto’s Green Standard, claiming it's slowing down development. Experts like The Atmospheric Fund argue that far from hindering growth, green standards not only protect the planet and homeowners, they also lower long-term costs.
The Brampton mayor and his local council allies made the claims at a Peel Regional council meeting Thursday where the police budget for 2025, described as reckless and unsubstantiated, was approved despite no detailed financial analysis or policing studies to justify the extra $144 million.
Brown and some of his Brampton allies told stories of residents calling police after violent crimes were committed, without any response, suggesting it was due to a lack of funding and resources. The unproven anecdotes were told to justify a $144 million budget increase for Peel Police that one prominent expert described as “an utter failure of governance”.
The 2025 budget reveals the City of Brampton’s commitment to climate action remains largely symbolic.
With Brampton's vulnerability to flooding and the growing demand for public transportation, Mayor Patrick Brown has made significant cuts, including to stormwater management and transit funding, while ongoing expansions like the Goreway gas plant and waste incinerator pose new pollution risks.
With collective bargaining discussions ongoing, Peel paramedics are highlighting pay gaps of up to $30,000 compared to other first responders like police and firefighters.
The union is demanding fair wages, better benefits, and comprehensive mental health support.
After a disturbing increase in measles cases across Ontario last year, and Canada's first human case of avian flu, a spotlight is being shone on Peel’s underfunded public health unit and its ability to deal with emerging threats.
Officials are striving to safeguard vulnerable populations, but their efforts are hampered by a backlog of immunizations created by the pandemic, vaccine misinformation and chronic underfunding.
Despite deep cuts to critical services and delayed projects, Brampton Council passed the 2025 budget Monday without a single voice of opposition or meaningful debate by councillors. The session, lasting less than two hours, has residents questioning the lack of accountability and transparency under the leadership of Mayor Patrick Brown who is forcing a 23.3 percent increase for Peel Police.
With all the cuts to the city’s services and infrastructure, despite a provisional 8.4 percent tax hike for the total 2025 property bill, many Brampton residents are questioning what they are getting for the stiff increase.
As the controversy around Peel Police’s crippling 23.3 percent budget increase heightens, Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish now claims she voted against the financial request while she was still on the police board, despite the record showing that she abstained from the vote late last year.
On Thursday, a motion being presented by the Mayor to the Region of Peel’s budget committee calls for the police budget to be limited to a 14 percent increase. But after the police services board already flatly rejected any reduction, the move seems like a waste of time.
With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s resignation, Canada faces uncertainty about its environmental future. While Trudeau framed climate action as a cornerstone of his governments and delivered key early policy wins, critics have pointed to a series of controversial decisions over recent years, accusing him of prioritizing political points over climate progress.
As the country heads toward an election, advocates warn that without strong leadership committed to climate action, key initiatives like the Oil and Gas Sector Emissions Cap Regulations and the Clean Electricity Regulation could be sidelined, jeopardizing the nation’s environmental future.
The Ontario government has paid out $23 million in lawsuits to sweep aside allegations of sexual and physical abuse within schools for the deaf and blind.
There has never been a review of the board responsible for these schools, despite piles of evidence of mismanagement and harm. It’s time for the Auditor General to step in.
The controversial mayor’s lack of a financial strategy is creating serious issues for the City of Brampton and its residents. Ignoring critical spending in order to freeze the budget in previous years has left key projects like the chronically delayed downtown revitalization underfunded or ignored.
In 2025, Brown is cutting even deeper, while residents question what happened to all the promises he has made during election time.
After facing several delays, the Region of Peel confirmed to The Pointer that its regional reception centre, meant to provide shelter and wrap-around supports to asylum claimants, would not open in the fall as scheduled. As frigid temperatures arrive, those without shelter are once again at risk, roughly a year after two asylum claimants perished outside a Mississauga shelter while waiting for a spot to open up.
Despite receiving $22 million in federal funding specifically to open the reception centre with hundreds of shelter beds before winter, the Region has refused to explain why it failed to do so.
The federal government’s decision not to designate Highway 413 for a full impact assessment has drawn sharp criticism for its reliance on provincial legislative mechanisms to address environmental and Indigenous concerns.
Ottawa claims the Highway 413 Act and Ontario's Endangered Species Act offer adequate oversight—Premier Doug Ford’s government has been condemned for systematically weakening environmental protections and ignoring safeguards set out in these laws.
A recent report from Peel staff confirms that no one at the Region has seen the financial or labour projections made by the PC government’s now dismantled Transition Board to justify sweeping changes to the two-tier municipal system.
The Province's failure to provide transparency throughout the reconfiguration process has created confusion at the Region, where staff retention has been a struggle amid uncertainty about the future.
Shunning recommendations in the City’s financial plan, Mayor Patrick Brown’s 2025 budget proposes cuts to areas in desperate need of funding, including transit, the library system, key infrastructure and climate change mitigation.
His proposed salary hikes alongside budget cuts to services and infrastructure will force residents to pay dearly in the not-too-distant future.
Alok Mukherjee warns the increase, described as “ludicrous” and “unsustainable”, could have larger implications for police budgets across the province.
The unprecedented size of the police budget increase suggests a reckless approach to the use of public funds, raising questions about the need for so much more money in one year and how the board could possibly justify being so blindsided that its irresponsible oversight led to a shortfall equivalent to almost a quarter of its budget, and about 40 percent over two years.
