Mississauga—Malton is facing a range of social ills, including precarious housing and public safety. Yet during the 42nd Parliament, Liberal incumbent Navdeep Bains has been using his words and bills to fulfill his duties as minister of innovation, science and economic development rather than support his riding.
This is the first in a series ahead of the federal election on the parliamentary record over the past four years of 10 incumbent MPs in Mississauga and Brampton.
Thursday night’s meeting of Peel District School Board trustees was brought to a standstill. Members of the Black community demanded to know what will be done with Trustee William Davies, who they say referred to McCrimmon Middle School as McCriminal — a problematic nickname because the school is mostly composed of racialized groups.
Many will look back on 2019 as a year of education revolution, as Ontario’s teachers rise up against millions in funding cuts and an increase in class sizes. After finally coming to an agreement with school support staff this past Sunday, the province will now have to dance with the teachers despite their frayed relationship.
City council began exploring the feasibility of allowing seniors to travel for free on Brampton Transit back in March. A staff report released this week puts the cost of that at $750,000 and rising, and Mayor Patrick Brown’s hopes of finding a sponsor to cover the loss have been dashed. Another report dismissed the idea of free travel for youth as too costly. Even so, officials say they aren’t giving up the hunt for opportunities.
That benchmark moment from 1960 remains with us today, as style over substance created a paradigm shift in politics. Modern debates are just as focused on political gunslinging and showmanship, but while last Monday did have its moments, the spark has been lost. Without even entertainment value, what purpose remains?
Gathered at the downtown Brampton theatre, federal candidates offered little clarity on most issues but added a few big pledges. Those included funding for a Main Street LRT, a cultural education centre and support for the Cybersecurity Catalyst. Not all parties came prepared with new promises, however, and some didn’t come prepared with answers.
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If the campaign of the country’s first-ever visible-minority leader didn’t cement race as a key theme of the 2019 federal election, the discovery of Justin Trudeau’s history with blackface and brownface certainly did.
Now that racist and islamophobic grafitti has appeared on two NDP signs in Peel, candidates like Brampton's Saranjit Singh are grappling with how to combat hateful attitudes in the country’s most diverse cities.
The Brampton-born NDP candidate helped Singh hold on to power before supporting his rise to party leader. Though the odds are stacked against him in Brampton Centre, Boswell is committed to getting the city the support it needs to manage its rapid growth — starting with a second hospital.
During a campaign stop in Mississauga-Lakeshore, the Conservative leader reminisced about time spent in the riding during his youth. Though he said he spent many hours on the city’s buses and trains, Scheer refused to commit to any individual plans, including a critical $200-million project on the mayor’s priority list.
Few sights are more horrifying than your chosen representative mindlessly shuffling into the House of Commons to groan the party line. While some MPs do go rogue, speaking for themselves or their constituents, they have rapidly become outnumbered by the echoing hordes. One politician who suffered for speaking out tells The Pointer that today’s candidates will have to decide early whether to become a maverick or monster.
The federal NDP added funding for a downtown campus to its list of promises for Brampton on Wednesday. While the party left a number of questions unanswered, including which university might inhabit the space, how much the plan will cost and whether it is a simple restoration of the deal Doug Ford cancelled last year, the sheer scale of the “New Deal for Brampton” could win over many skeptics.
Two of the lowest scores in the new Mississauga Citizen Satisfaction Survey relate to cycling and affordable housing, with residents distinctly unimpressed. However, Mayor Bonnie Crombie welcomed the results, telling The Pointer that affordable housing and cycling were two priorities for council and that solutions are already on the table.
Physically and mentally drained, Jamie Peddle wants the federal government to help ease the strain by implementing a national autism strategy and including autism treatment in medicare. To that end he’s tried to bend the ear of politicians, including party leaders at recent campaign events — but he’s making less headway than he’d hoped.
In the wake of a recent shooting on the 410, public safety remains at the centre of the federal election debate in Brampton. On Friday, the Conservative candidate for Brampton East, Ramona Singh, held an event to coincide with the reveal of Andrew Scheer’s plan for a “safer Canada.”
The event, attended by former attorney general Peter MacKay, shows the kind of resources the party is putting into Brampton East ahead of October 21.
Twelve days ago, Mayor Bonnie Crombie wrote to the federal party leaders asking them to commit to Mississauga’s priorities. Those asks, gathered under the Mississauga Matters campaign, had gone unanswered until NDP leader Jagmeet Singh replied, agreeing to them all, in principle. Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party have also confirmed receipt of Mississauga’s demands, which they say they will answer soon, while Andrew Scheer and the Conservatives have remained tight lipped.
After the end of a violent summer, the 2018 municipal election became a wakeup call for candidates who didn’t realize that crime had become the number one concern for many Mississauga and Brampton residents. The public pushed for action, and they eventually got it; a budget increase and more officers on the streets in 2019. But would it help?
Meanwhile, the controversial chief of police announced she was stepping down.
This is the third and final part of a series on a year of crime in 2018 that has still left politicians and the public searching for answers in two of the country’s largest cities.
In the lead-up to an expected appearance by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney at Pawanjit Gosal’s Brampton Centre campaign headquarters, Mississauga—Malton Liberal incumbent Navdeep Bains, who has been acting as a fixer across the province recently, called a sudden media availability to take place across the street from the Conservative event.
The move caused several supporters who turned out to see Kenney and Gosal break away from the event in an attempt to confront Bains, but he jumped into a car just as an agitated crowd gathered where he addressed the media.
A quarter-century ago, Markham was a satellite community that sat above Toronto like a puffy cloud of vast nothingness. After Yvonne Yeung put her fingerprints on the designs of its future, the municipality in neighbouring York Region is now one of the envies of the GTA, a booming city that bills itself as Canada’s most diverse place. Tech companies and other employers have flocked there, while forward-thinking builders, with the guidance of people like Yeung, continue transforming it into a suburban marvel.
Now, she wants to do the same for Brampton.
In his first week on the job, Peel Chief of Police Nish Duraiappah has a lot of questions to answer, and ask. One of them is how to develop trust with all the communities he now serves in two of the country’s largest cities. His predecessor, Jennifer Evans, was often criticized for creating tension between the force and communities alienated by her leadership style, including her steadfast support of carding, a practice that targeted Black residents in Mississauga and Brampton. Duraiappah is looking to take a different approach, amid the chaos of crime gripping the region.
It was like the tale of Cinderella: before the clock struck midnight, and the possibility of things turning bad for both the province and CUPE education workers, they were able to power through and come to a tentative agreement. The news Sunday evening was much needed relief and comfort for tens of thousands of parents in Peel, as they were bracing for a full-on strike that would have left their kids stranded. Instead, other than some before-school programs Monday morning, it’s business as usual.
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.
Speculation swirled Wednesday about the former head of Peel Region, who earlier this year tried to undermine Mississauga’s desired exit from the two-tier system of municipal government. Councillor Carolyn Parrish suggested David Szwarc might be considering a new position that could hurt the city’s chances of getting the divorce it so desperately wants.
Faced with a growing housing crisis, Mississauga councillors are calling on federal parties to offer long-term housing solutions. Karen Ras and George Carlson tell The Pointer that what’s needed is stable federal funding to allow long-term planning. In the meantime, they’ve been forced to get “creative” in their search for short-term solutions.
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.
When the writ dropped on Sept. 11, the NDP was unable to name candidates in the majority of Mississauga’s federal ridings. This pattern, which played out nationally, was seen by many observers as an indication of internal chaos. Now, with just under a month until the election, the party finally boasts a full complement of candidates in Peel. However, a lack of profile and presence for some, combined with disappointing polling, will continue to worry the party leadership.
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.
Concerns around vaping are making many customers rethink the habit after last week’s report of a London, Ont. teen who was put on life support to deal with a respiratory illness tied to vaping, as well as multiple confirmed deaths in the U.S.. One Mississauga vape shop owner said his sales have declined by 80 per cent in the past three weeks.
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?
