Last year saw a drop in crimes committed by young people across the Region of Peel.
Behind the positive trend, teenagers continue to be caught in gang violence. In Mississauga, one councillor is working on a project aimed at keeping young people on the right track from an early age.
Council members remained silent when staff pointed out a major dilemma facing the plan to introduce speed-calming photo radar cameras across the city: a lack of available judicial resources means the cameras would lead to too many tickets for the overburdened local provincial court to handle.
It’s one of many conundrums facing councillors who voted unanimously to move forward with the multi-million dollar project.
When the novel coronavirus ravaged the homes caring for some of the most vulnerable people in the province, many asked why proper protections weren’t put in place earlier.
Some advocates in Peel are asking similar questions about how to stop the rapidly rising rates of elder abuse.
Last week Education Minister Stephen Lecce released more details of the PC government’s plan to destream students who have previously been placed into educational pathways that deny them of future opportunities.
The move came after the province found PDSB routinely harmed Black and other visible minority students by unfairly placing them into “applied” streams that do not lead to university or college.
After years of back and forth, the City has approved work for the withering area in partnership with the Region of Peel, which is emphasizing the need for improvements. It’s a story downtown business owners have heard before, only to see City Hall ignore its responsibilities, leaving some wondering if change will ever come.
The City of Mississauga has pledged to increase its bicycle lanes by roughly 30 percent before the end of 2020.
The move is part of a broader plan to incorporate walking and cycling into the city’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Mississauga Steelheads are one of Ontario’s feeder teams, a place where young hockey players learn the ropes and work toward their dream of playing in the NHL.
But the COVID-19 pandemic has robbed future stars of precious development minutes and thrown plans into disarray.
Many police organizations will not argue that more money needs to be directed to social programming, which is the core ideology behind the “defund” movement.
However, for specialized teams battling increasingly complex, and increasingly common crimes like Peel police’s Internet Child Exploitation unit, defunding could make an already desperate situation even worse.
Since March, medical experts have made clear that the best way to contain an outbreak of COVID-19 is to test, test, test.
With Brampton continuing to be a hotspot for the virus in Ontario, the William Osler Health System has only run one screening facility in the city, while it has managed two in neighbouring Etobicoke which has little more than half the population.
The proposed construction of Highway 413 between Milton and Vaughan has been an extremely divisive issue for residents and environmental campaigners.
The developer-driven project was scrapped in 2018 by Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government, before the PCs revived it immediately after taking office. Now, despite its route along one of the most ecologically sensitive areas in Southern Ontario, they are pushing legislation to speed up the highway’s Environmental Assessment so it can be built faster.
As the city begins to contemplate how to deal with the financial impact of the pandemic, the first report on the 2021 budget outlines a number of options.
They include things never discussed before, such as redirecting capital contributions to other crucial needs, and pausing tax levies that collect much needed funds for transit and infrastructure projects.
The lion’s share of Mississauga’s population is not white, a reality not reflected in its council composition or senior leadership at City Hall. A diversity and inclusion committee established to hear marginalized voices has had meetings cancelled due to a lack of attendance while the municipal government has failed to properly reflect one of Canada’s most cosmopolitan cities.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce this week said the province plans to end streaming in Grade 9 and stop suspensions of younger students across Ontario.
However, critics say the move is a political play to capitalize on calls for change and argue it has not been properly planned.
Despite increasing disparities between the number of constituents each Brampton councillor represents, as the city’s population continues to mushroom in certain areas, a motion to alter Ward boundaries landed with a thud.
Council decided not to move forward with changes that would align political representation with future growth, to ensure all constituents get an equal level of service.
When the completed Mississauga Transitway launched in 2017, significantly over budget, many marvelled at the empty stops that littered its route, even at peak times.
A push by Metrolinx to expand Toronto’s Eglinton LRT westward into Mississauga and north to the airport could provide a shot of life to the isolated rapid transit route.
Through the month of June, Brampton continued to struggle in its fight against the novel coronavirus. Poor testing and results that refused to trend downward plagued the city. In the face of the worrying numbers local health officials green lit the reopening of patios, hairdressers, leisure facilities and other businesses. The question is: why?
Anti-Black racism and other forms of potentially devastating discrimination within the Peel District School Board have been a feature of the organization for decades. Parents, many of whom were hurt by PDSB a generation ago, were relieved when the province took over governance of the board and former director Peter Joshua was promptly dismissed, but some say sweeping reform will still be a battle.
In 2018, the Liberals scrapped a highway that had been planned to run between Milton and Vaughan. The project was shown by experts to be an environmental disaster that did little to alleviate congestion.
However, after taking office, Doug Ford immediately revived the developer-driven plan. But now, with transportation patterns around the world thrown upside down by the pandemic, the new highway makes even less sense.
The federal Department of Justice dubs the number of hate crimes never reported as “dark figures”, with reason to believe such incidents are on the rise. It’s a trend seen in areas across the world, and a recent report says Mississauga and Brampton are commonly hit by these disturbing acts of intolerance, in two cities where people of different backgrounds share the same spaces in every facet of life. Social media, particularly Facebook, has allowed hate to flourish around the world.
Conservation Authorities play a vital supporting role in many municipal environmental projects.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created financial uncertainty for these organizations, and it’s putting further strain on the Region of Peel.
A raft of human traffic charges around the world, including in Ontario, has highlighted how brazen criminals are taking advantage of the pandemic. While drug and gun smuggling have been thwarted by the air and border restrictions, domestic and international human trafficking have continued unhampered.
Peel is the epicentre for the heinous crime in Ontario, but service providers and the Region of Peel have been forced to delay efforts to help survivors, leaving many without the help they need.
Public health officials have made clear that regions and cities need two weeks of consistent decline in new COVID numbers before it’s safe to loosen social distancing restrictions. In many parts of Peel this is not happening despite the lifting of safety measures that creates a much rosier picture.
The region continues to struggle with new cases of COVID-19. Data from the tail end of June shows Peel experiencing levels of infection similar to those in Toronto, despite having half its population.
The affordable housing crisis across much of Peel is getting worse.
In a recent staff report, the Region admits it can’t handle the problem, and points to higher levels of government as the solution. But it leaves out a key fact – council’s repeated unwillingness to allocate funds for housing because it simply isn’t a priority for Peel’s highly-paid elected officials.
Peel police officers will be equipped with body-worn cameras soon, after members of the board that governs the force voted to adopt the technology.
The move, touted to improve transparency and accountability, came during a meeting Friday that saw almost 100 letters sent by community members, most calling for police reform or defunding, which the board chose not to address, for now.
Nine years ago, the Region of Peel presented ideas to improve Brampton’s aging downtown infrastructure to help revitalize the withering area. Backtracking on projects and a lack of political will to fund them put plans on hold for almost a decade.
More permanent projects for the downtown core are still being discussed, but the region can no longer wait, and has proposed a temporary solution that might have to be redone depending on the city’s LRT decision.
A Mississauga-based realtor is taking legal action against the City of Mississauga and Outfront Media, the company that manages advertising on municipal bus shelters. Court documents show that, when approached by the realtor with a complaint, the City took no action to resolve the issue between him and its advertising vendor, which A.J. Lamba alleges is unfairly advantaging other competing firms.
After months in battle with the novel coronavirus some long-term care homes won’t be getting a break any time soon.
Numerous homes caring for Peel's seniors have suffered from tragic outbreaks, some more than once, with homes appearing on the list in recent weeks for a second time, despite measures to keep COVID-19 out of these vulnerable spaces.
Darren John says he’s been harassed by the police and stopped hundreds of times while going about his daily life. Dozens of charges against him have either been dropped or he’s beaten them in court. Sometimes judges have displayed overt discrimination toward him.
His story, an extreme example of the treatment many people face at the hands of police just for being Black, highlights systemic issues within the criminal justice system that might finally be overcome by the Black Lives Matter movement.
Healthcare is a necessity, a foundation of society. When COVID arrived to shake up our lives many industries had to adapt. Canada’s universal health care is praised by people around the world, however, there are some glaring areas in need of improvement that physicians, nurses and administrators have known about for years. The pandemic has sped up the race to get better, and it all starts with technology.
The current school year abruptly ended classes in March as the province announced learning would shift online. But a new school year is around the corner, and as officials begin to share details on what that will look like, questions and concerns are mounting over how the plan will work.
A violent crash that killed a Caledon mother and her three young daughters on June 18, stirred emotions across the country. The 20-year-old driver of the car that hurtled into the family vehicle is now facing multiple dangerous driving charges. It’s the latest tragedy in a region where speeding has become a common killer.
A letter sent by a Peel District School Board superintendent to staff apologizes for a shockingly racist remark toward the mother of a student, and the entire Jamaican-Canadian community, made by a Mississauga elementary school’s principal last year. It is unclear if any action was taken to discipline the principal, who is listed as retiring at the end of June.
Demands to defund the police have grown louder since the death of George Floyd at the end of May and the shooting of a Malton man by Peel officers on Saturday.
As Peel Regional Police prepare to enter discussions for its 2021 budget, almost all of the nearly $500 million allotted to the force, for salaries and benefits, can not be touched.
From policing to healthcare, funding in Peel is inadequate. Add education to the top of that list. The funding formula used by the province to distribute money to school boards has been a concern of educators and parents for years, as students in Peel receive considerably less than their Toronto counterparts and far fewer dollars per capita compared to much smaller boards in Ontario.
A spotlight was placed on sexual and gender-based violence at the start of the pandemic when isolation measures forced people to stay indoors, often with their assailants.
But as measures begin to ease, there’s a worry the other crisis will be forgotten. Interim Place and Hope 24/7, two organizations helping victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, warn that these problems will not go away when COVID-19 wanes.
In its first meeting to sort out the financial chaos created by the pandemic, Mississauga’s budget committee heard the dire reality facing the city. Staff stopped short of specific recommendations, but – without funding from higher levels of government – cuts and delayed projects seem inevitable, even though growth pressures in the booming municipality show no sign of letting up.
Ontario’s Fire Marshal shared news of the dangerous trend in the number of house fires days before Brampton was hit with tragedy.
He’s urging people to stay attentive and safe while spending more time at home, often while distracted or under increased stress because of the disruption in their life.
Two days after a wellness check ended in the death of a father of four, questions and anger continue to swirl, as the family demands answers.
Police are often forced to deal with individuals suffering mental health issues, which raises concern about their lack of expertise, but when there’s a risk of danger to others, sometimes use of force is the only option.
After two alarming ministry reviews, a historic vote to hand over control of the board and the forced withdrawal of legal action against Black advocates, Peel District School Board’s director of education, Peter Joshua, has been removed by the provincial supervisor now in charge.
While activists celebrate a symbolic victory, they say the real work to dismantle a system of institutionalized discrimination, that has harmed students for decades, is about to begin.
The city has become a sore spot in the region’s battle to move onto the second phase of the province's reopening schedule. But while the number of new cases increased over the past week, compared to the previous one, Mayor Patrick Brown channelled Donald Trump while offering inflated testing numbers that included Etobicoke facilities, claiming they were done by "our hospital”.
After a frustrating week, left behind by most of the province, Mississauga and Brampton will enter Stage 2 of Ontario’s reopening framework on Wednesday.
With Brampton still seeing a high number of new COVID-19 cases every day, is the move to open things like patios and personal care services coming too soon?
On the same day Education Minister Stephen Lecce named a supervisor to take control of the Peel District School Board, Director of Education Peter Joshua has confirmed the board is cancelling legal action aimed at Black advocacy groups.
The lawyer representing those groups says the withdrawal of the threat does not go far enough, with more concerning issues about a deeply troubled organization raised by its intention to litigate against proponents of racial equality.
Police reform won't happen if people like the current Peel board Chair Ron Chatha, a real estate agent with zero background or experience in policing, keep getting appointed to oversee the budgets and many of the governance issues that determine policies for local forces.
Saturday's fatal police shooting of a man in Malton, who reportedly suffered mental health issues, raises more questions about the way we fund police and whether a new model for dealing with "upstream" issues needs to be considered, to prevent crime and tragic altercations, before they ever happen.
Just days after trustees at Peel District School Board unanimously voted to bring in a supervisor to take over, The Pointer has learned the board has commenced legal action aimed at Black advocacy groups in the region.
A Notice of Application asks Twitter to identify the users behind various Black social media accounts to help PDSB take legal action against the individuals.
The uncertainty of students deciding if they should enrol in university or college for the fall has left many institutions planning creatively for the start of the academic year. Accommodating students who expect in-person classes, juggling innovations to make remote learning meaningful and salvaging all the other campus activities central to postsecondary life make it clear that things will look very different this September.
Natural infrastructure has been suffering in the region for years as municipalities struggle to keep pace with their exploding population, which needs a healthy tree cover for a range of reasons.
In an effort to underscore how important natural urban canopies are, the Greenbelt Foundation’s new framework highlights the economic benefit going green could have for Mississauga and Brampton.
A recent audit of the Rose Theatre, one of Brampton’s staple cultural venues, has found a lack of proper management and oversight led to thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
It’s not the first time an audit has found glaring problems in the management of the downtown theatre, but this time councillors chose not to say a word about the damning findings.
When the novel coronavirus hit Canada, everyone who could was told to work from home. Fear of the virus stopped many from taking public transit. Not everyone had that choice, meaning transit remained a vital lifeline for many. Now, as the world looks to recover, experts say cities should double down on their transit investment and innovate for a safer, more luxurious future.
It appears Peel District School Board’s refusal to take proper action to stop anti-Black racism and other forms of systemic discrimination within the board, has led to self-implosion. Trustees unanimously voted late Wednesday evening to have a provincially appointed supervisor step in to take over the board. The move could pave the way for the removal of Director Peter Joshua, as calls for his resignation among a growing list of diverse and influential community organizations get louder.
