After a report found widespread anti-Black racism pervasive within Peel CAS, the government of Ontario has stepped in. An operational review of the organization will be conducted, investigating workplace culture, policies and practices, as well as considering if Peel CAS, led by CEO Rav Bains, is meeting its legislated responsibilities.
After only a year, Sunny Kalkat is no longer the director of internal audit. Her sudden removal right before the first audit committee meeting of the new year raises more questions about the stripping away of oversight under CAO David Barrick and Mayor Patrick Brown.
For Peel residents, the name Suze Morrison might not ring a bell. But for many Torontonians, she’s a familiar local elected official passionate about holding power to account, showing residents what she’s doing in office and calling constituents to action. Her deployment of social media should be a model for politicians in constant campaign mode who treat social platforms like a shiny new toy used for little more than grabbing the attention of voters.
Gagan Sikand, who represents about 118,000 constituents in Mississauga’s Streetsville area, has not voted or spoken in the virtual legislature since late-October. Staff at his office say he is away on an unspecified medical leave and are unable to provide a date for his return.
When Regional Council approved the 2021 budget for Peel Regional Police, questions around dealing with mental health crises dominated the discussion.
Mental health crises are rapidly rising in Peel but a program that has shown its potential to help both police and those suffering in the community is drastically underfunded in the region.
On Wednesday morning, councillors in Mississauga will convene a special council meeting to officially approve the 2021 budget after agreeing in principle on Monday. The financial blueprint maintains a two-percent infrastructure levy, but leaves many future investments on hold until after the COVID-19 pandemic subsides.
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Three more survivors have added their voice to the fight to hold Pornhub and its Canadian parent company MindGeek accountable for maintaining what one lawyer called the largest collection of child porngraphy in the continent.
Canada’s parliamentary information, privacy and ethics committee will continue to hear testimony today.
The world’s largest swath of protected greenspace has been under pressure for decades. Under threat right next to the rapidly growing GTHA, the Greenbelt has repeatedly needed advocates to fight against developers and the politicians who serve them.
The latest fight aims to stop a new 400-series highway set to run along, and sometimes through, its southern edge, so more sprawling subdivisions can be built.
The ECHL team could never establish a fan base in the city and this week the Beast finally called it quits, leaving Brampton without a pro hockey club. The country’s ninth largest city was once a hotbed for the sport, but that was a lifetime ago, and so much has changed since then. One thing hasn’t – the game’s grip on those who will always be mystified by its beauty.
Despite a gradual reopening on the horizon, Peel’s personal care industry has been left to fend for itself. Three months after Peel’s second lockdown, multiple meetings with government and elected officials, and the rise of an organized body to represent the interests of owners in the region, the salon and beauty industry has struggled while others offering similar services have been given unfair advantages.
With Caledon’s recent decision to request the federal government step in to study the GTA West Corridor, following in the footsteps of Environmental Defence and Ecojustice, confusion is swirling around local support for the highway, and the flip-flopping positions of local councillors.
A lack of evidence from the complainant and the limited jurisdiction of the integrity commissioner played key roles in the report’s findings.
The commissioner, Muneeza Sheikh, made a point to only examine the events of a single day, given the request of the complainant, and didn’t address a number of inconsistencies in Brown’s story.
Hundreds of businesses across the region have halted their reopening plans as a result of the Province’s eleventh-hour decision to delay moving Peel into the grey zone. While the move is welcomed by Peel’s medical officer of health, Dr. Lawrence Loh, small business owners brace for another two weeks of lockdown restrictions, but the move will hopefully benefit everyone in the long run.
The report by Muneeza Sheikh found Dhillon violated the City’s Code of Conduct when allegations of sexual harassment on a City-sanctioned trip to Turkey were investigated.
Dhillon has strongly denied the allegations and has filed an application for judicial review to have the report repealed.
Despite weeks of declining case numbers thanks to a stay-at-home-order, new clusters of the U.K. and South African novel coronavirus strains threaten to undo the recent progress made in the fight against COVID-19, possibly foreshadowing a third wave.
The first-time MPP is an active poster on social media, but the content is tailored to deliver the specific messages put out by the current PC government. There’s a clear lack of messaging mirroring the pressing issues constituents in his riding face daily, which is in line with his lack of leadership when dealing with these problems beyond social media.
We have been steadily falling behind in the race against COVID-19 as the number of vaccinations administered per capita in Canada is now behind dozens of other countries.
As new strains of the novel coronavirus continue to spread, and provinces begin to reopen, it’s clear inoculation is the key to returning to normal life.
With roughly 20 months remaining in the current term, City officials have endorsed a list containing more than a dozen priorities, including some projects council members have been talking about since they were sworn in.
With the clock ticking, and a mayor fixated with tax freezes popular during election season, the City is running out of time to secure funds for these ambitious projects and make good on their promises to taxpayers.
Peel’s two publicly funded school boards will reopen classrooms tomorrow, but some educators have mixed emotions about the decision. Training to accommodate the need for non-traditional learning has been poorly handled, some say, while concerns over viral transmission have still not been adequately addressed.
The Malton People’s Movement, a group based in Mississauga, has protested regularly in its campaign to bring change to Peel. In the wake of several police shootings in Brampton and Mississauga, members and supporters say they’re angry and scared. The advocacy is critical in forcing decision makers who claim to want change to actually meet at the table. But how can society be protected without a strong police presence?
Dr. Lawrence Loh, Peel’s medical officer of health, says the Province’s reopening plan goes against the guidance he offered. Loh has stressed reopening retail and schools too close together will make it difficult to isolate the cause of spread if cases begin to rise.
The former Mississauga mayor is an ageless icon who becomes a centenarian on Sunday. Her legion of fans will fete her with a giant online celebration – restricted somewhat because of the ongoing pandemic. But this won’t diminish how she ‘transformed’ her adopted city.
The majority of businesses in the country and throughout Peel have been impacted negatively by the pandemic in one way or another.
Meanwhile, some startups and early-stage companies have been able to prevail despite the odds. Resourcefulness and a creative pivot strategy have allowed these businesses to continue generating impressive revenue despite all the obstacles.
Late drama during the Region of Peel’s budget process concluded Thursday with the approval of a 1.02 percent property tax increase in the Region’s share of the bill and a 5.5 percent utility rate hike.
Councillors from Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga disagreed over a budget change worth $20 to the average household, before reluctantly settling on a compromise.
After a year of controversy encircled Pornhub and its Canadian parent company MindGeek, allegations of child pornography and other non-consensual material published and monetized on their websites forced company executives to explain themselves.
MPs were “disgusted” and “gobsmacked” by what they heard, with one politician commenting on the company CEO’s “staggering level of recklessness”.
The hiring of the City’s chief administrative officer and director of strategic communications, two high-level positions filled after Patrick Brown became mayor in 2018, remains shrouded in secrecy.
The Ontario ombudsman found the winning candidates, prior to their arrival at Brampton City Hall, had been complicit in the fraudulent Niagara “Inside Job” scandal, meanwhile key questions around their hiring in Brampton shortly after remain unanswered.
When Justin Trudeau picked Omar Alghabra to become his new Minister of Transport in January, the MP for Mississauga Centre was given a huge platform to deliver for the city that elected him.
But, since transitioning onto the front bench, Alghabra’s social media has put his role as a minister forward and seems to have left Mississauga behind.
In Brampton, Caledon and Mississauga, rental and purchase prices for housing are out of reach for 80 percent of residents. In Ontario, it falls to the Region to provide affordable housing.
It is a duty Peel’s elected councillors are struggling to meet, praying for help from the other levels of government and the private sector, while the crisis deepens.
A review of Brampton’s parking strategy, to reduce the number of parking spaces required for new developments, likely won’t be finished until late next year. In the meantime, the City is planning to remove parking minimums downtown, and along Queen and Hurontario Streets under certain conditions.
With Peel Region confirming its first case of the South African variant of the novel coronavirus, and cases of the highly transmissible U.K. variant, slowing community spread is crucial to protect those in high-risk long-term care settings.
Advocates say restricting the movement of staff to one type of setting, either homecare or long-term care facilities, as seen in British Columbia, can help reduce transmission.
The construction of a bypass corridor for freight trains to remove them from the Milton GO line would deliver big-city train service to multiple stations in Mississauga that currently sit empty for hours at a time. After years of advocating, Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie has slowed the effort, fearing other local priorities could be in jeopardy with a deficit-shy Province and heavily burdened federal government.
Students in Sheridan’s early childhood education program were disappointed after learning they are expected to complete in-person placements this month, despite uncertainty around the risk of viral transmission.
The college has refused to provide an online alternative, saying those who are uncomfortable face delayed graduation and additional fees.
Since the first vaccine arrived in Canada, Premier Doug Ford stated many times, he will do everything in his power to get needles in the arms of people who need inoculation most.
As of January 31, roughly 59,000 long-term care residents were vaccinated, but seniors who don’t live in such facilities for cultural reasons are still waiting for a delivery date, leaving many to question if the Province grasps the demographic reality in Ontario.
The city’s large Sikh community has joined movements across the globe.
The Hindu nationalist Indian government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is once again trying to marginalize one of the country’s most prominent religious minorities, many advocates say. Local residents have spent hours planning and executing events to show protestors in India they are not alone.
Some of the safety measures announced by the Minister of Education on Wednesday, including advanced screening protocols, were put in place in Peel schools by the Region’s Medical Officer of Health in early December.
Parents navigating the reopening in Peel District School Board will have to rely on direct communication with staff and teachers for updates, as the board’s website and other resources continue to experience outages following a cyber attack last week.
Peel Regional Councillor Rowena Santos works hard to balance the implications of both her public and personal image. A fake social media account was recently set up by someone to defraud her followers.
Does her particular type of social media use make Santos susceptible to impersonation? And if so, what does that mean for other elected officials?
Joining forces with lawyers and other activists, Environmental Defence has written to Ottawa and asked for a federal Environmental Assessment for the GTA West Highway.
The project, which threatens wildlife and watersheds, will run through west Brampton and carve a massive asphalt corridor across the south of Caledon.
Brampton councillors are questioning why David Barrick took over the City’s freedom of information function while concern mounted over his checkered past.
When he arrived in Brampton to fill City Hall’s top position in 2019, he faced mounting questions about his fraudulent conduct as a bureaucrat in Niagara region’s conservation authority. Since being hired, a number of concerning decisions have been made by the CAO, and councillors are growing increasingly frustrated by the disturbing conduct.
A $3.1 million provincial investment into anti-human trafficking efforts in Peel has arrived at a critical time.
As the pandemic has exposed Peel’s many social issues, it has increased the risk for many vulnerable residents to being exploited by traffickers.
The rapidly growing Region has a $120-million capital investment set aside for its Housing Master Plan to help fund the creation of 2,200 affordable units. Compared to other Canadian cities in the last year, Peel saw the fastest growth in its millennial population between July 2019 and July 2020, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
Trends pointing to longer shelter stays and increased domestic violence occurrences – coupled with the effects of the pandemic – underscore the Region’s need to boost affordable housing supply, Council heard.
In the first part of our three-part series, The Pointer looks at how retirement-living is being completely transformed by baby boomers. The pandemic has forced many of us to reassess our lives and consider dramatic changes. The baby boom generation has already kick-started the process. They are now reinventing retirement. Welcome to a bold new boomer-driven project, The Shores of Port Credit.
After almost a year of pandemic rules, fatigue as the COVID-19 crisis deepens often turns to apathy. With many traditional communication methods beginning to wear thin, it could be time to pivot to show the shocking scenes unfolding in ICUs or embrace art to communicate shared grief.
Public Health Ontario is ramping up screening for new COVID-19 variants, with the results of a prevalence test expected in the coming weeks. Ontario public health experts believe it will be the “dominant version of the virus” by March.
While the province finally reached a two-month low in new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, Peel’s per capita infection rate is still the highest in the province, as health officials continue to investigate a massive outbreak linked to a Mississauga postal facility.
The move to hand over management of the City’s real estate portfolio to an arms-length company has faced mounting questions since the plan was taken over by the CAO’s office.
The first set of red flags was raised when it was revealed the consultant hired to shape the corporation has close ties to Mayor Patrick Brown. Now councillors are concerned that tough questions are not being answered.
The Official Opposition has promised to cancel the controversial GTA West Highway if it forms the government or plays a part in a coalition after the 2022 provincial election.
The project, which threatens sensitive lands throughout Peel Region, was scrapped in 2018 by the Liberals and then restarted by the Progressive Conservatives in 2019.
While councillors tell residents about the low tax increases they have secured, few are talking about the spiralling cost of water in Peel.
After enduring an increase of more than 7 percent in 2020, people in Brampton, Mississauga and parts of Caledon will find themselves paying a further 5.5 percent for utilities in 2021 ahead of an even larger increase in 2022.
Brampton Centre MP Ramesh Sangha has been removed from the Liberal caucus after making “baseless and dangerous" accusations about some of his fellow MPs, the government whip’s office said.
The move means the Liberals will enter the next federal election with a rookie candidate, similar to 2019 when Maninder Sidhu stood for the first time after Raj Grewal stepped aside.
The Brampton-East MPP is no stranger to trends and viral videos, with over 1.4 million likes on his TikTok account.
But quantity does not always equal quality, and while Singh is often a vocal advocate on the issues that matter to Brampton, these messages can sometimes be lost among opinions, and viral trends that are trying to sell constituents on the “Gurratan Singh” brand.
The City will not be the first to explore the option. Some, like Toronto, have already established an in-house ombud to look into complaints related to City Hall practises. What remains unclear is if this is the best option to serve residents and those council members who are growing increasingly frustrated over the lack of transparency under Brown's mayoralty.
Before the pandemic, transit ridership in Brampton grew year after year. Between 2017 and 2018, it increased by 14 percent alone. With the city’s rapidly growing population, all trends point toward this increase continuing. But Patrick Brown’s demands for tax freezes now raise questions about how the City will pay for its own transit expansion plans.
