The Ontario Government was bound and determined to have its way in forcing a 25-ward system on the City of Toronto, regardless of how disruptive its actions have been on the City’s election process.

This has come at great cost to the City and also to the many new candidates for municipal office whose hopes were dashed with this abuse of provincial powers. For a brief moment, the courts tried to protect our local democracy under Charter Rights, but in the end, the courts upheld provincial authority, which the Premier was prepared to impose legislatively in any case through the unprecedented use of the notwithstanding clause.

We regret to announce the need to cancel the panel discussion on critical issues facing Toronto’s seniors with Mayoral candidates John Tory, Jennifer Keesmaat, Sarah Climenhaga, Saron Gebresellassi, and Knia Singh. The panel discussion was scheduled for Monday, October 1, at Metro Hall, but will now not be held.

The event sponsors did invite additional mayoral candidates who could be reached to make a one-minute statement at the end of the panel discussion in accordance with the City of Toronto’s facility use policy. The sponsors would not and did not, however, extend invitations to several candidates who espouse policies and beliefs that violate their organizations’ core values and principles, and, for that matter, the City’s anti-discrimination/anti-harassment and hate speech policies. For this reason, it was necessary to make the difficult decision to cancel the event.

Event sponsors are in the process of trying to contact the 200+ seniors registered for the event to advise them of the cancellation.

While disappointed at this missed opportunity to discuss the issues with the leading Mayoral candidates, we urge all seniors to get engaged in the municipal election, bring your issues to the candidates directly, get out to vote, and bring others with you.

Social Planning Toronto is an incorporated and registered non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to:

• independent social planning and community development,
• social research and policy analysis,
• community education and advocacy, and
• the development and coordination of human services.

SPT is governed by a 15-person, volunteer Board of Directors elected by its individual community and organizational membership at the Annual General Meeting.

We currently have 2 vacancies on our Board of Directors and are seeking nominations to fill those vacancies—one for a term that runs until May 2019, and another that runs until May 2021.

Thankfully, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms can be applied to protect democracy from the brutal use of a Parliamentary majority. More often called on to protect the rights of minority groups that make up our society, the Charter today upheld the importance of ensuring the democratic rights of all citizens.

Thursday, September 6, 2018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Three candidates for Mayor — incumbent John Tory, challenger Jennifer Keesmaat, and newcomer Sarah Climenhaga — are among more than 50 candidates for Council who have signed a “prosperity pledge,” committing to fully fund and implement TO Prosperity, the City’s poverty reduction strategy unanimously adopted in 2015.

Toronto City Council's modest actions "have hardly put a dent" in poverty reduction, say two former members of the City’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Advisory Committee.

In an op-ed in The Toronto Star, community advocates Michael Polanyi (a community worker at the Children’s Aid Society of Toronto) and Leila Sarangi (Executive Director of Springtide Resources), examine the City's record over the past four years to fund and implement TO Prosperity, the poverty reduction strategy it unanimously adopted in 2015.

Toronto, it's time to defend local democracy!

Join others who care about our city at an important public meeting to raise the voices of Toronto in defense of democracy and a City government that works for all its residents.

Commitment TO Community and Faith in the City mailed out letters today to over 200 Mayor and Council candidates asking them to support the implementation of City Council commitments on poverty reduction.

“Too many people in Toronto are struggling to make ends meet,” says Adina Lebo, Chair of Commitment TO Community. “Voters want to know which candidates will follow through on City plans to improve access to affordable housing, transit, child care and recreation programs.”

Social Planning Toronto (SPT) is a non-profit, charitable community organization that works to improve equity, social justice and quality of life in Toronto through community capacity building, community education and advocacy, policy research and analysis, and social reporting. Formally known as the Community Social Planning Council of Toronto, SPT has spent over 60 years providing critical social research and reporting, community capacity-building and engagement as well as evidence-based advocacy for Toronto and its communities.

Social Planning Toronto is committed to building a "Civic Society," one in which diversity, equity, social and economic justice, interdependence and active civic participation are central to all aspects of our lives — in our families, neighbourhoods, voluntary and recreational activities, and in our politics.

Social Planning Toronto issued the following response today to Premier Doug Ford's move to reduce Toronto City Council by half. 

We urge you to contact your local Member of Provincial Parliament to express your disagreement with this hasty action against local decision-making, which will have a highly disruptive and confusing affect on this year's municipal election.