Mississauga and Brampton, two cities that pose unique challenges for parents, are planning programming for children at community centres in the event of a walkout by school support workers on Monday. Many parents were blindsided by an abrupt announcement by the Peel public and Catholic school boards that schools will close if CUPE and the province fail to reach an agreement before the strike deadline at midnight Sunday.
With societal changes, libraries are taking up the new challenge of becoming community hubs — with a particular mission to be safe spaces for vulnerable and homeless people. Mississauga now employs social worker Kevin Berry to work with library staff to offer support, help and services to people who walk through library doors every day. Berry is asking Brampton to consider adopting the same strategy to help its growing homeless population.
Tens of thousands of parents across Peel are scrambling after Thursday’s alarming announcement by Peel’s public school board and its Catholic board that they will shut all students out Monday if 55,000 CUPE education workers across Ontario go on strike. The union has stated that is what will happen if a contract deal can’t be struck by then. The Pointer heard from parents across Mississauga and Brampton, who are now desperately trying to figure out what they will do if the shutdown happens.
Carmen Spada, a multi-instrument musician who leads local nonprofit B-Jazzed, spoke before council this week, asking why three community organizations are being told they may no longer need to compete for grants, while others must meet even higher criteria for funding than before. He said the City of Brampton initiated a meeting with a group of eight to 10 organizations in June, asking for feedback on how to conduct a review of its Community Grants Program.
Chief Nish Duraiappah has officially taken on his post as head of the Peel Regional Police. Just before his swearing-in ceremony, he shared his vision for the future of policing in Mississauga and Brampton. With rising violent crime on the minds of an anxious public, there are many challenges that face the young chief, who takes over after the controversial tenure of Jennifer Evans.
For the second time in as many weeks, the NDP’s five Brampton candidates gathered together to announce healthcare plans for the city Monday night. Mostly, the plan combines previous nationally focused promises with a new pledge to “create a national autism strategy.” But the barrage of NDP media events in Brampton does reveal the importance the party leadership is placing on the city’s five ridings.
Dirtier hallways, less help checking in at the office and an absence of early childhood educators could all become a reality come Monday, when 55,000 school support staff across the province, already engaged in a work-to-rule campaign, are set to walk off the job entirely. The planned walkout follows a failed round of negotiations with the province and the Council of Trustees’ Associations. Questions are being raised about the timing of the action, with the federal election in the backdrop.
Accusing the provincial PC government of “dragging their heels” on disbursing money from Ottawa intended to help quell crime involving guns and gangs, the Liberal Leader is now promising to give municipalities money directly. It’s not clear how much of the five-year funding pledged within the Liberals’ “stronger gun control” platform would end up in Peel Region, which has been dealing with a rapid rise in violent crime and received funding for anti-crime initiatives well below that of other large municipalities.
Social media has revolutionized the way we communicate, as young people in particular rely on platforms such as Twitter or Facebook to receive news and communicate with brands or individuals. However, as the federal election approaches, candidates in Mississauga and Brampton have done very little to engage younger voters using alternative or modern forms of communication. Where traditional telephone canvassing and door-knocking bypasses younger voters, social media provides a golden opportunity for engagement which, so far, political hopefuls are passing up.
When the public is clamouring for answers and crime is surging, what are police to do?
In Part 2 of this three-part series, The Pointer analyzes the violent summer of 2018 that saw shootings and violent crime in Mississauga and Brampton spike.
At the time, elected officials were staring down the barrel of a municipal election in the fall, and with the public demanding answers, there was an urgent need to act.
For a Peel District School Board custodian, underfunding of basic school operating costs is at the root of failed negotiations between non-teaching staff unions, the province and the Council of Trustees’ Associations. If a contract agreement is not reached soon, the work-to-rule job action could result in dirtier schools and office areas, among other effects.
The Conservative leader’s Monday campaign stop in Brampton included a pledge to provide federal relief from the growing gap between the city’s booming population and its infrastructure and public safety needs. But that promise was light on details, whereas he has promised more specific support for high-ticket projects in other major cities.
Yet again, the man trying to get re-elected to the highest office in the land is not speaking to local issues in the places he’s campaigning. Though Mississauga and Brampton often provide the backdrop during this federal election campaign, Trudeau’s carefully crafted messages avoid the specific needs of cities. Sunday’s event at UTM in Mississauga was no different.
An edited clip of a debate between Brampton West candidates hosted by Prime Asia Television appears to show Conservative Murarilal Thapliyal answering “no” to a question about whether he supports women’s and LGBTQ rights. But the clip being blasted out on social media by Kamal Khera cuts off attempts by the moderator to get clarification as well as her opponent's response, which clearly states he supports equal rights and a woman's right to choose. The manager of the outlet says he was pressured into releasing the video and that it was misused by Khera’s campaign on her social media platforms.
Candidates from the NDP, PPC, Greens and Communist Party turned out to a town hall held in Brampton on Sunday. The event, missed by all Liberal and Conservative candidates, highlighted Brampton’s healthcare issues and provided comprehensive explanations of the Canada Health Act and federal responsibility. Through several presentations, speakers offered their detailed information and testimony on healthcare issues that matter to Bramptonians ahead of the Oct. 21 election.
Residents of the Mississauga community of Malton have reason to be hopeful that they’ll see a return of their community police station following a horrendous shooting on Sept. 14 in which a 17-year-old bystander died. Mayor Bonnie Crombie’s move to review police operations in the neighbourhood — including response times — was carried unanimously on Friday.
After a recent week of incidents that have shaken many to the core, voters are looking to local leaders for actual leadership. We know federal policy and money is there to help solve local crime. We don’t need backbench MPs who mouth the party line between public photo opportunities. We expect more – real advocates for change.
The idea of hosting an official Diwali fireworks celebration in the city was first suggested to council in January. However, a significantly delayed staff report was only considered in September, leaving it too late to organize festivities for this year. Council, though, have supported delaying the event until 2020, where it could join Nuit Blanche in an exciting cultural calendar next fall.
Greta Thurnberg arrived in Montreal Friday to lead a mass climate demonstration, while Bramptonian school children skipped class to protest in favour of their future. At an event organized by a group of 20-year-old activists, candidates from the Greens, Liberals and NDP turned out to talk to young voters about their concerns. After the event, Liberal incumbent Ruby Sahota spoke to The Pointer about climate change and how she plans to address it on a local level.
Fires in basement apartments are not uncommon. Yvonne Squires had to deal with one next to her neighbour’s secondary suite and feared she was going to lose her own home.
With estimates of as many as 50,000 of these suites in Brampton and as many as 30,000 in Mississauga, the pillar of her community is not a fan of illegal two-unit dwellings, which she says allow landlords to take advantage of vulnerable international students and avoid taxes. She praised the City of Brampton for making headway in the battle against illegal basement units, but it's an issue that will only get worse if the region doesn't find solutions to its affordable housing crisis.
Nishan Duraiappah said his transition to top brass of the Peel Regional Police Service has been “remarkable.” But when he starts officially on Tuesday he will have a lot to contend with — rising gang violence, increasing homicides, and an outcry from the community of Malton to re-establish a police station there after a recent mass shooting. The badge may shine bright, but there is a certain darkness hanging over the region right now.
A new provincial dental care program being rolled out this fall will cover nearly 7,000 low-income seniors, a big boost from the 800 or so served by a regional program that preceded it. It’s being hailed as a good thing by councillors, particularly because it’s funded entirely by the province. Bad oral health leads to more than toothaches — it’s the reason for many ER visits, making preventative care one way to alleviate the “hallway healthcare” problem.
Court documents show the Brampton West MPP pleaded guilty this month to having two unregistered secondary suites in two properties in Brampton. The charges under the provincial Planning Act were laid just weeks before his election in June 2018. Sandhu told The Pointer the units were present when he bought the houses and that the city brought “a few inconsistencies” to his attention.
Disagreement between the Wards 7 and 8 councillors surfaced over a motion prompted by resident concerns about an assisted-living group home application in Ward 7. Fortini, who says the city’s group homes bylaw hasn’t been updated since 1993, isn’t sure it still complies with provincial regulation. But Williams contends there may be unintended consequences of a drawn-out review in a city that needs more housing for seniors, not less.
Non-teaching staff represented by CUPE plan to begin a work-to-rule campaign next week, after issuing a formal notice of job action on Wednesday. What that means for kids and families in Peel Region schools isn’t clear yet. Meanwhile, negotiations between the province and teachers’ unions continue, after their contracts expired at the end of August.
In 2015 Brampton Transit figured it would need a third bus storage and maintenance facility by 2021 to accommodate growing demand. A huge leap in ridership since then means the city needs even more buses — and space to garage them in winter. But that plan now faces a three-year delay while the city looks for extra money from upper-tier governments to cover the $150-million-plus cost of an expanded project. Where will all those buses go in the meantime?
Political loyalties are far from set in stone in Brampton and Mississauga ridings, which have flipped as one — twice — in recent elections.
Are the changes as dramatic as our first-past-the-post system make them seem? And why are Peel voters so mercurial?
Brampton’s first Active Transportation Master Plan pays special attention to improving the Flower City’s substandard cycling network, which currently includes only 11.3 kilometres of dedicated bike lanes. The plan calls for much stronger investment from council in new infrastructure. However, while the plan is robust in its suggestions for cyclists, some may feel pedestrians got short shrift.
While candidates and party leaders talk about the need for affordable housing and what they plan to do, the Region of Peel has received a clearer picture of the funding it will be getting from the federal and provincial governments to support affordable housing initiatives and development – it’s a bleak reality.
The nearly $30 million investment is welcome news, as is any influx of cash, but it’s not nearly enough. That will pay for only 144 new units over the next three years. The region wants to bring on 7,500 every year up to 2028.
With ambitious targets for carbon emissions reductions inline with the Paris Agreement on the table, Brampton is considering how best to fulfill its environmental responsibilities. As the Institute for Sustainable Brampton moves closer, one councillor explained to The Pointer that the city would do well to seek help from the private sector.
Meanwhile, plans to join an international coalition of municipalities fighting climate change have highlighted problems with the city’s plans. A staff report lists several key areas the city must deal with before any application to join would be accepted.
The controversy surrounding the unveiling of a picture of Justin Trudeau caught in brownface wasn’t a snapshot of vile racism, but one of white privilege. It exposes the background of a man whose character wasn’t formed on the smithy of hard work or a desperate attempt to prove his worth, but of someone who feasted on the limelight, and was surrounded by those from the same strata – who live in a bubble.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau was in Brampton to let everyone know that he would, if re-elected, work to lower Canada’s notoriously high cellphone rates and exempt Canadians from paying federal income tax on their first $15,000 earned. But he offered no commitment to ensuring that Brampton and Mississauga get their fair share of funding to cope with rising crime and the stress put on city infrastructure and services by an influx of newcomers.
In Mississauga and Brampton, 2018 was one of the most violent years in recent memory. Homicides, shootings, stabbings and many other types of violent crime all increased drastically.
As the violence unfolded over the first half of the year, the public were paying attention, but the police seemed caught off guard and political response was absent.
In Part 1 of this three-part series, The Pointer looks at the violent winter months and how they set the stage for one of the most troubling years on record.
A program implemented in Peel Region has become a model of excellence for long-term care homes across Ontario for how to best treat and look after those suffering from dementia. Known as the Butterfly Model, it puts the patient first and focuses on forging real bonds between patient and caregiver.
The benefits have been nothing short of remarkable.
Four years ago, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party was propelled to power on a series of promises, including a historic commitment to reform Canada’s first-past-the-post voting system. In Brampton and Mississauga, town halls and public meetings in 2016 heralded a nationwide consultation on the issue and asked Peel residents for their opinions. However, in 2017 the party abandoned its pledge and MPs have been silent on the issue ever since.
Less than a week after nine people were shot in separate ambushes in Mississauga and Brampton, leaving two dead, including a 17-year-old boy, the Liberals are promising sweeping measures to clamp down on gun violence.
The party announced Friday that it would ban “all military-style assault rifles” if elected. And, as the NDP has also pledged, they would allow cities to enact their own handgun bans.
Arpan Khanna, vying to win the federal Brampton North riding, hopes to unseat Liberal incumbent Ruby Sahota, who holds a comfortable lead in current polls. In a conversation with The Pointer, the candidate, who has already had to apologize for posting a homophobic slur in a 2010 social media message, was less willing to get over Justin Trudeau’s history of blackface and brownface. On policy questions, he unabashedly toed the party line.
The NDP continued its intense campaign to win in Brampton’s five federal ridings this week, as local candidates promoted a policy to give most Canadians free or subsidized dental coverage as part of national healthcare. The move is part of a broader campaign by the NDP rooted in healthcare issues, arguably to appeal to Brampton’s swing ridings, where hallway medicine has been a huge issue for several years.
Decades-old images of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau in blackface and brownface have rocked his election campaign.
But in Mississauga and Brampton, cities where two-thirds of residents are visible-minorities, attitudes seem largely unconcerned. Predictably, candidate responses broke along party lines.
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, currently consumed by a blackface scandal, has been criticized in recent weeks for failing to make himself available to answer questions about key issues facing voters.
It appears to be a tactic being used by many in the Liberal party, including Brampton’s four incumbents. They have either refused or ignored repeated requests to defend their local record over the past four years and highlight what they promise to do for Brampton if elected again.
A report submitted to council suggests the city is gaining ground against an epidemic of unregistered, and often substandard, secondary units in Brampton.
Fire and enforcement staff presented a swath of data on registrations, complaints, charges, fines and more — including a repellant slideshow of violations — to show that dealing with the plague of illegal units isn’t insurmountable.
Brampton and Mississauga, which host an increasing number of foreign students every year, are grappling with the effects of an aspect of immigration policy largely overlooked in federal election platforms: student visas.
One international student laid out his concerns to The Pointer.
Independent MP Raj Grewal, who officially resigned from the Liberal caucus this year among swirling controversy surrounding his gambling problems, has reportedly decided he will not be seeking re-election in October.
The decision, coming less than two weeks before the official registration deadline, is not a surprise to many in his Brampton East riding, who watched scandal after scandal unfold around their elected representative over the course of 2018.
A recent settlement in Oklahoma awarded the state $572 million in damages against Johnson & Johnson, in response to misleading marketing of highly addictive and often fatal opioids. The award marks one of the largest successes in the fight by governments to hold opioid makers accountable for their role in the addiction crisis.
Now, the City of Brampton is looking to join the fight.
Neighbourhoods in Mississauga and Brampton are in crisis. A mass shooting in Malton Saturday was followed by two more gangland-style ambushes, one in north Brampton Monday and one in central Mississauga Tuesday. In total, two people were murdered and seven others were rushed to hospital with gunshot wounds.
While the bloody attacks and their alarming details are consumed as attention-grabbing headlines by millions across the GTA and, increasingly, around the country, for frustrated local politicians and trembling residents caught in the criminal web, the situation has reached a tipping point.
With typical speeds often reaching dangerous levels, the city is looking into implementing further traffic calming measures to put a leash on Brampton’s speed demons. The move could help bring down the city's sky-high auto insurance rates, which are partly due to the large number of accidents here involving high speeds.
A report will go to council on Wednesday detailing what those projects will entail.
Gunfire erupted outside a busy Mississauga apartment building on Saturday leaving one 17-year-old bystander dead and several others with gunshot wounds.
The fatal act of violence has shaken the city and drawn the attention of federal politicians early in the election campaign, with mixed messages from the party leaders about how to address violent crime, which has spiked dramatically across two of the country's largest cities over the last five years. Local Councillor Carolyn Parrish has for years demanded more resources for policing in her ward.
Two major shooting incidents in as many days, both of which left victims dead and wounded, have rocked residents of Mississauga and Brampton.
Concerned Residents of Brampton hosted a Sunday townhall on the topics of public safety and housing. All five federal incumbents were invited but disappointed organizers with their failure to attend. This despite the fact that national leaders have been commenting on the tragedy.
Provincial backpedalling will spare the Region of Peel some pain, but funding will still shrink by $39 million over three years. The chaos at Queen’s Park, with stark cuts being ordered without much detail and then mitigated or delayed in response to public outcry, is creating no end of headaches for the region’s financial staff and planners. Not to mention councillors forced to decide whether to reduce services residents have come to count on or hike their property taxes — just to keep things as they are.
Saranjit Singh launched his campaign Sunday to win the riding of Brampton East from independent incumbent Raj Grewal. At an event seemingly powered by young people, Singh promised to “fight” for would-be constituents in his longtime hometown.
Speaking to The Pointer after the event had finished, he pointed to ways federal attention to the riding could make life better there — including funding a new community centre to supplement the single one Brampton East’s 120,000-plus residents share.
