On Sunday night, the second-term MP issued a statement saying she had travelled to the United States for a family memorial service. The Pointer contacted family members who said they did not know about any such service. Her office said she would not answer questions about why she considered the trip essential.
Peel Region is home to one of the world’s most diverse populations, with about 130 languages from almost every region of the world spoken in Brampton and Mississauga. This remarkable display of pluralism, pairing such diversity with Canada’s “value system” often fools many outside observers who believe intolerance is rare. Unfortunately, in Peel, and across many parts of our country, our own loved ones often play a starring role in the ongoing hostility that routinely unfolds between fellow citizens.
After a slight decline in cases throughout the region was finally seen for a couple days in late December, following the lockdown that took effect near the end of November, infections have climbed since Christmas.
After 2020 introduced the world to COVID-19, many have been holding out hope that 2021 will mark a turning point in the world’s battle against this novel disease.
Two days into the new calendar, the novel coronavirus appears to be spreading faster than ever, with case numbers reaching a new daily high across Ontario led by numbers in Peel Region.
Resigning after public outcry over a Christmas holiday to St. Barts in the Caribbean, Rod Phillips’ behaviour which misled the public about his whereabouts raises concern about how social media is being used by elected officials. It highlights how tax dollars can be used to spin voters instead of informing them.
Youth are exposed to a wide range of hate speech that is pervasive across digital platforms. Decades-old religious and political divisions between older generations who trace their roots to the same places and the rhetoric of intolerance have found a space to thrive in the unchecked corners of our virtual world. Communities, including young people in Canada and around the world are being influenced to view neighbours as the other because of differences they often don’t even understand. Many are pushing back to break the cycle of hate.
COVID-19 has challenged the present and future prospects of pro and amateur sport franchises alike in major cities around the world. But two of the most significant teams here in Peel seem to be striking out because of an ever-shrinking fan base. Meanwhile, the rabid support for the Raptors proves how passionate residents here are about sports.
Rod Phillips is facing heavy backlash and promised to return home immediately, as more than 2,500 new viral infections were reported in the province Tuesday, a week after Mississauga and Brampton’s three full-service hospitals already reached the threshold for critical care capacity, leaving the region’s frontline healthcare system vulnerable as COVID-19 cases continue to mount.
United Way Greater Toronto, which supports 280 frontline agencies, is in the final few days of a major fundraising campaign. The dollars it’s able to collect are funnelled to the residents who need help most, after a range of charities already stepped up like never before.
It’s unclear if published daily case counts since Christmas are underreporting actual numbers. Meanwhile, hospitalizations including those COVID-19 patients in intensive care continue to put pressure on the province’s strained frontline healthcare system. Both Mississauga hospitals are reportedly trying to hire more physicians as capacity is stretched close to the limit.
Will a short-term fix for smaller businesses, especially in our retail sector, help close a digital divide, and help thousands of stores modernize their way of doing business? Or have government-imposed shutdowns due to COVID helped addict us to online shopping and home delivery? Has the old in-store model of retail become passé, and will this forever change the look and feel of our downtowns?
Part 1 of a 2-part series: COVID-19 has created a reckoning for businesses around the world, forcing the hand of those not upping their digital offerings. A private-public sector program called Digital Main Street now offers small businesses, especially retailers, a chance to play catch-up and close the profitability gap.
In April of this year, 26-year-old D’Andre Campbell was shot dead by police after he called 911.
The SIU decided there is no evidence to lay criminal charges against the officer, but the Director notes the case highlights systemic issues in how police respond to calls involving those with mental health issues.
Following a petition asking the City of Mississauga to reconsider its plans to demolish a rare outdoor ice rink, staff are now weighing alternative locations for the beloved local skating pad. A successful campaign led by resident Joe Galati can be credited for the move, which pushed the mayor and local councillor to get behind plans to keep skating and hockey in the community alive.
A former officer who had questionable ties to at least one known criminal while he served on the force, has been charged by the SIU with sexual assault in an alleged 1992 incident. The charge comes after crimes inflicted on a Brampton boy by a sexual molester on the force five decades ago. The horrific acts seem more obscene considering Frank Kohler was allowed to dodge justice for 50 years, despite admitting his guilt to police investigators in the mid-70s. After he was finally confronted last year and recently pleaded guilty, he will be sentenced in March. But others need to be called out and investigated, and if complicit in wrongdoing, should face the full force of our criminal justice system, even if it thoroughly failed citizens in the past.
The change is the latest update in an ongoing saga that started in October, when the organization asked families who rely on complex chronic care to find alternate options for their loved ones.
Officials have said the move is necessary to make room for more patients in the city’s lone hospital, which is chronically overcrowded, but families are demanding the changes be halted.
With viral spread continuing across Peel, parents and other residents want information about their neighbourhoods and schools in the surrounding area.
The Pointer’s updated interactive map shows all schools located in Brampton and Mississauga neighbourhoods and the per capita infection rates for those areas.
Peel students will join others across the province in an extended winter break from the classroom under the new pandemic restrictions, which call for virtual learning until schools reopen later in January.
Premier Doug Ford defended his decision to delay the start of the province-wide shutdown until after Christmas, in order to give businesses in those regions not currently under lockdown a chance to prepare.
The report targets the education sector, social services, healthcare and the justice system. The goal is to move past pointing out the problem while simply saying change is needed. Policy makers need a clear, uniform strategy that can be effectively implemented to tackle institutionalized discrimination, which has far-reaching implications across the province.
A Region of Peel bylaw has been approved that will see two additional Brampton councillors elected to the Region in 2022. The decision moves Peel closer to representation by population and leaves Caledon licking its wounds, despite still being overrepresented around the regional council table. It’s the latest sign that regional governance no longer works for any of Peel’s three municipalities.
The Wise Elephant Family Health Team has been told by the Ministry of Health to shut down, under a clause in its funding deal that requires no explanation.
Shocked by the news, the organization’s current executive director fears the move will end investigations taking place into allegations of financial mismanagement by the previous board of directors, and he now alleges staff at the ministry are behind a cover-up.
Regional staff are in contingency planning mode.
Come April, there will be no more funding to support COVID-19 emergency programs for the Region’s homeless.
As the Peel Regional Police and Peel District School Board begin early work to address decades of harm to Black and racialized residents, the local child welfare organization has deep problems of its own.
Staff say management is blind to the experience of Black workers, choosing instead to use them for “photo ops, so the organization can appear to celebrate diversity”.
The warning comes as case numbers across the province hit an all-time high and hospitalization rates mimic those seen during the first wave.
With Peel leading the rate of new infections, it’s not clear what hospitals in the region are doing to prepare for the coming months, before vaccinations will have any impact on the pandemic.
Details in the provincial Auditor General’s annual report show significant cuts to the Hurontario LRT will result in longer gaps between service, even during rush hour.
The revelation was included in a document that shows construction costs for the project increased 26 percent over initial projections before shovels went into the ground.
Peel Region has spent less than half the $28.9 million in homelessness support funding, secured from higher levels of government, so far.
Staff are cautioning Regional Council that COVID-19 services provided to these communities so far cannot be maintained beyond March without additional funding.
Council cited the freeze as a positive for the many residents struggling during the pandemic, while ignoring its ongoing impacts in the new year.
The move does nothing to help renters, while many comfortable homeowners including council members will benefit, even though the public health emergency has not impacted them financially.
A new report from the Toronto Region Board of Trade has laid out a carefully constructed zonal system for GTA transit. The proposal would eliminate the extra costs of riding the TTC for Peel residents and would better integrate GO Transit across the region. The primary obstacle is cost, with an estimated bill of $165 million annually.
Plans to overhaul a Ward 3 community centre in the city’s west end will result in the dismantling of a covered outdoor ice rink. The move has upset residents who see the skating surface as an important recreational, and cultural feature in their community and hope to stop its conversion into a swimming pool.
Across Ontario, hospitals can’t wait for the widespread vaccination of residents that is set to begin through a months-long process shortly.
They are already facing surging rates of admission as the province’s healthcare system tries desperately to hang on until the second wave starts to subside.
Molester Frank Kohler pleaded guilty Thursday to two counts each of indecent assault and gross indecency in a case that spans back over 50 years. A Brampton man suffered horrific abuse and decades of torment afterward, before he took his own life last year.
Health Canada approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine Wednesday, with the first shipment of doses expected to arrive as early as December 14.
As a COVID-19 hotspot, Peel is a priority destination for vaccine shipments. While the Region’s health authority mobilizes for vaccine distribution, Mississauga councillors continue to debate paths to loosening lockdown restrictions to help small businesses.
Conservation authorities provide vital services to regions across the province; this week the PC government stripped many of those vital powers away, and handed a veto power for municipal planning to the Province.
The approval of Schedule 6 has left many politicians, citizens and environmentalists concerned for the future of the province’s green spaces.
A short-sighted and outdated pandemic recovery plan under Doug Ford could cause environmental damage for decades to come. A new report by Environmental Defence highlights Ontario’s broken climate promises, noting emissions rose in 2018 for the first time in years.
As Brampton and Mississauga councillors mull over their own budgets, staff at the Region of Peel are adding the finishing touches to their annual financial document. Regional government is responsible for a host of programs for low-income residents, and it is unclear if property tax breaks are an effective way to provide relief for those who need help most, or just a short-term gain for many unaffected by the pandemic.
Calls from public health officials in Toronto to explore the potential of decriminalizing simple drug possession were quickly shot down by the Premier.
But as more Peel residents die of overdose than at any other time during the ongoing opioid crisis, innovative solutions are needed to protect those using drugs to cope with the pandemic and other mounting pressures.
With COVID numbers across the province putting severe pressure on the healthcare system, Peel's situation grows increasingly dire. Mississauga councillors are worried their neighbour's particularly bleak picture might cause unfair damage to local businesses, while a group of Brampton professionals is confronting stigmas being spread about their city's largely visible minority population, many of whom do the essential work needed to keep society running.
While many can’t relate, the COVID-19 pandemic has stripped families of their income and forced residents in Mississauga and Brampton to the very edge.
A new report released by Feed Ontario shows the scale of this devastation and predicts food insecurity will get much worse for families across the GTA.
Under the guise of COVID-19 recovery, Premier Doug Ford and the PC government are making moves to strip power away from conservation authorities and make it easy for developers to build in some of Ontario’s protected and most environmentally vulnerable places.
Many have moved away from watching daily infection counts. It’s the patterns we’re now looking at. When will they provide a clear signal that the worst is behind us? Data over the last week show numbers, while not trending upward, remain extremely high, as infection spread continues to make Peel one of the worst hit areas in all of Canada.
A new concept of media has been shaped over the past decade. Social publishing platforms unrestrained by libel laws or any rules of responsible journalism have elevated serial liars and fabulists. The outgoing president of the United States, devoid of policies and even a passing familiarity with the ways of effective leaders, has gamed these networks. His remarkable success, just like the rise of other dictators and thugs whose singular focus is their grip on power, coincided with the failures of democratizing conventions. Journalism is a guilty party and Barack Obama has put the institution on notice. If citizens are not understood and empowered so they can mount their own defence, democracy will continue to crumble.
Councillors say the freeze is needed to help families struggling during the ongoing pandemic.
The move raises questions about how the City will pay for a growing list of unfunded projects that are needed to move Brampton forward, while the infrastructure deficit will add to hefty future tax increases needed to cover the costs of a hyper-growth municipality.
The need for better frontline care has been an unfortunate feature of Brampton for decades.
The City has called on the Province to fix the glaring funding disparities, and promised residents improvements will come. But some are questioning if it’s all talk and no action.
The City has promised downtown business owners that the withering area is a priority. After decades of neglect, change will come soon, they have been told.
But there’s little mention of plans for the city centre in the 2021 budget proposal, leaving businesses with more questions than answers.
Those with loved ones suffering serious maladies who receive constant care in the program were given just over two months to find an alternative. With the deadline around the corner families are racing to find help during the middle of a pandemic. It’s the latest bleak illustration of a city whose healthcare is utterly failing its residents.
At Mississauga’s two hospitals, ambulances have been unloading curbside since the spring to make space for extra beds inside. Now, as frigid temperatures and the first snow storms of the season threaten, paramedics are concerned about patient safety and their own well being, battling the elements in emergency situations.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has been the subject of review, analysis and reform since its inception in 1990. Many recommendations, particularly from Coroner’s Inquests after a police-involved death, have called for improving police training to deal with those in mental health crisis.
Despite these recommendations, and decades of review, police are ill-equipped to deal with many in crisis, leaving devastated families to pick up the pieces.
Ensuring Peel Regional Police can deal with the increasing complexity of modern crime and meeting demands to rethink how police are funded is the delicate balancing act that begins today as the Peel Police Services Board starts discussions on the 2021 budget.
As the city met for its first discussion of the 2021 budget, there was a notable concern among councillors about the possibility of taxes not being raised once again.
While the opposition to another tax freeze was strong, others questioned if an increase during the pandemic would be appropriate.
In some Brampton and Mississauga neighbourhoods, the positivity indicator that shows the percentage of tested residents infected with the novel coronavirus is even higher than the rate across each city.
Many Peel neighbourhoods have among the highest rates of infection in the province.
