#AfterMeToo report proposes nine recommendations to wipe out sexual assault

10:46 am

The #AfterMeToo movement has gained significant traction in Toronto, and is still picking up speed. The individuals behind the initiative released a report on March 9 outlining nine recommendations to wipe out sexual assault and abuse within the entertainment industry. Days later, stars took to the red carpet for the Canadian Screen Awards (CSA) sporting pins to show solidarity for the cause.

Mia Kirshner, who hails from the Casa Loma area and has acted in TV shows such as The L Word and Defiance, spearheaded the campaign along with co-founders Aisling Chin-Yee and Freya Ravensbergen.

“The report proposes essential reforms to culture, procedure and policy that the entertainment industry needs to adopt in order to keep workplaces safe,” Kirshner said.

The recommendations came about as a result of a symposium that heard from victims of sexual assault, labour lawyers and other industry professionals on how to end sexual violence in the industry. The report highlights the need for a national body to oversee investigations, a database that not only tracks blacklisting of victims in the industry but keeps a record of all allegations that are brought forward and a safety fund for survivors to cover the cost of legal and mental health counselling.

Kirshner said it also outlines “clear meaningful repercussions” for sexual perpetrators. “An apology letter doesn’t quite cut it,” she added.

Emma Phillips, a human rights and labour lawyer in Toronto, provided legal counsel on the #AfterMeToo report. Phillips has also consulted on independent systemic harassment reviews of both the military and RCMP.

Phillips pointed out two main benefits to introducing a national body to oversee allegations: it would be free of any conflict of interest and could co-ordinate between different stakeholders and across legal jurisdictions.

“It requires real political will from all the stakeholders. Certainly it is an ambitious proposal, but if it’s ever going to be achievable, it’s going to be at this particular moment,” Phillips said. “If we want to have systemic change, then we need to institute some real mechanisms of accountability.”

Kirshner said the next step will be to take the recommendations to the guilds and unions and ask them to make some changes to their policies.

“We have a meeting at the end of April, and we’re beginning to meet with the guilds and unions now. I hope they are receptive to this,” she said.

Until then, Kirshner said the support #AfterMeToo has received — Margaret Atwood and the cast of Schitt’s Creek were just some of the stars who chose to wear pins at the CSA — has been encouraging.

“Leaders in the industry wearing our pin and speaking about the movement shows the need for a change,” she said.

The full report can be viewed online at AfterMeToo.

Cafe Diplomatico celebrates half a century in Little Italy

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Italian mainstay Café Diplomatico was first opened in 1968 by Rocco Mastrangelo Sr. Today, Rocco Jr. has taken over the family-run restaurant, with his wife Connie. She shares their story in honour of the resto’s 50th anniversary.

What’s the secret to the café’s longevity?
We know a lot of our customers by name and we know what they’re having. Which, you know, you don’t get so much anymore.

Tell us one of your fondest memories of the Dip.
When Italy won the World Cup in 2006, people were standing on tables, running out into the streets. We made quite a bit of a noise in the city that year, so everybody knows us as soccer central. We’ve always celebrated the final cup game, and it doesn’t matter whose made it, we still run a full house and put on the big party with the street closure and video wall, so you can actually watch the game outside.

Which celebs have dined at the Dip?
We’ve had quite a few over the years. Harrison Ford’s been there, Rob Lowe, Matt Dillon, Nelly Furtado, Shawn Desman, Sofia Loren, Marcello Mastroianni. Atom Egoyan [movie director] is one of our really good customers. They shot Chloe [the movie starring Julianne Moore and Liam Neeson] out of the restaurant. He comes by a lot.

How are you planning to celebrate the big 5-0?
On August 10 and 11, we’re going to do a street closure. We’ll extend our patio all the way to the street, to accommodate about 400 people, and we’ll put up a bandstand. To commemorate the different decades, we’re going to have music for each decade throughout the day. We’re also working on a wall of fame to commemorate the 50th, to share different moments from the Diplomatico. We’re asking patrons to submit their favourite memory of the restaurant for the chance to win our grand prize

Café Diplomatico, 594 College Street, 416-534-4637

Entire Richmond Hill residential block appealed to the OMB

12:09 pm

This past February, unit owners at 18 Harding Blvd. near Yonge Street and Harding Boulevard received a letter from their local Ward 5 councillor, Karen Cilevitz, concerning their neighbouring block. It stated that developers had not only purchased the entire block, but had also taken their application directly to the OMB as opposed to bringing it before Richmond Hill Council. The subject lands are currently zoned to allow low-to-medium-density residential developments along Yonge Street.

An appeal was filed at the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB) in November 2017 for a development at 9839 Yonge St. that Cilevitz and Town of Richmond Hill staff know few details about.

“I’m largely in the dark about this,” said Cilevitz.

She acknowledged this action was within the landowners’ rights but added, “I find that to be really unconscionable because I am the elected official who’s supposed to be able to speak to my residents and give them all the information necessary.”

Typically, a development proposal will involve pre-submission discussions with the town’s planning department before it is officially filed. Following a thorough assessment, a staff report is issued to town council, and community consultations would be held to inform local residents.

However, in this case, according to Kelvin Kwan, commissioner of Planning & Regulatory Services, Town of Richmond Hill, the owners first submitted their application in November 2016 for a 15-storey mixed-use building, an eight-storey residential building and townhouses for several municipal addresses at Yonge, Harding and Church Street South. Several months later, the owners asked the town to put the applications on hold pending another OMB decision at the neighbouring 9825 Yonge St. After the OMB rejected the application at 9825 Yonge St., the owners at 9839 Yonge St. appealed their own application to the OMB on the basis that no decision had been made by council.

"I have no idea what they’re asking for and whether or not that would be acceptable to the municipality.”

“It was unexpected from the perspective that there had been a lot of inactivity at their request,” said Kwan, “so we didn’t put it through the full public process that we would have normally done for an application had it proceeded along the normal timelines.”

At a March 2 prehearing for this OMB application, town staff was advised that the applicant had acquired the additional lands at 9825 Yonge St. and 11 Harding Blvd., which comprise the entire residential block.

“I can speculate that it’s going to be highrise residential, but beyond that I have no idea.… I have no idea what they’re asking for and whether or not that would be acceptable to the municipality,” said Kwan.

Since the Province of Ontario announced plans to overhaul the OMB last year in favour of a system that would give local municipalities more control, developers had the deadline of December 2017 to submit their applications in an attempt to file under the old rules.

Now that the applicant has purchased additional land, the town is awaiting a new proposal.

“This is upsetting a lot of people, especially those of us that have to face [the development],” said Sharen Bruck, who has lived in the building opposite the proposed block since 2009. “It’s all sort of cloaked in secrecy.”

Despite the prospect of an entire block in the hands of the OMB, Kwan believes that once proposals have been publicly disclosed there will be sufficient opportunities for public consultation. Cilevitz also remains hopeful about the outcome of this hearing.

“My belief is that the OMB will honour our approved official plan and York Region’s official plan and ensure that what ultimately comes here … is in keeping with our approved land use planning documents,” said Cilevitz.

Metroview Developments declined to comment for this article.

Shenae Grimes-Beech on Acting, Blogging, and Growing Up Degrassi

10:13 am

Growing up on the set of Canada’s longest running teen drama comes with its own set of pros and cons. For Shenae Grimes-Beech, who got her start playing Darcy in Degrassi: The Next Generation at age 13, the job shaped her into the strong actor she is today, despite making her somewhat of an outsider during high school.

“I was not technically a regular character on that show until my fourth year on it,” Grimes-Beech says. “So I started really tiny and I had to work my way up, and then they gave me my own storyline for the first time, and that’s when I won the Gemini for it, and then they gave me a contract to be a regular on the show. So I really had to earn it, but it was good because it was like boot camp for me. You had to earn your stripes.”

Grimes-Beech spent her first two years of high school at Forest Hill C.I., then switched to Vaughan Road Academy’s Interact program for students with outside commitments. She says growing up Degrassi presented its own set of challenges, especially before she switched to a school with other working kids.

“When I was working, that kind of made me not fit in because girls are catty and I was all of the sudden on TV, so it was kind of like ‘let’s push her out’ kind of vibe, so I was really happy when I switched to Interact because kids were doing the same thing I was doing so I wasn’t weird,” she says.

After graduating from Degrassi High, Grimes-Beech moved on to star in the CW’s upgrade of 90210. When the show ended after five seasons in 2013, she retired from acting to pursue other interests in the fashion world.

Two years later, the Toronto native started to venture back into acting, but making a comeback proved to be more of a battle than she had anticipated. Grimes-Beech wanted to give voice to the twenty-something angst so commonly felt amongst millennials while sharing her love for fashion, so she started her blog, Lost in Lala, where she shares fashion, beauty and décor inspiration.

“I was just full of insecurity, so I started the blog because I was like, ‘surely I’m not the only twenty-something female feeling this way,’ and I said ‘you know what, if five people come here and feel some sense of camaraderie in all this and we can laugh at ourselves together, then great, I’m going to feel better.’”

She’s now garnered 335,000 Instagram followers, and recently soft-launched her own quarterly subscription box called The Badass Box. Grimes-Beech also launched a YouTube channel in October so she can create more video content—another talent she honed while working as a host with POPSUGAR Now.

“I was just saying this morning, I want to host a show in Canada. The POPSUGAR stuff was cool because it was different, having to present yourself with a certain kind of energy all the time,” she says. “It’s a lot of work, I think it would keep me on my toes but I would love to do it on home turf. I love the talent that comes out of Toronto. I’m still like the girl at Our Lady Peace who’s jumping up and down, so I would love to support the homegrown talent.”

Grimes-Beech has been back on home soil recently filming and promoting her new female-driven police drama, The Detail. In the series, she plays Detective Jack Cooper, a rough-around- the-edges homicide detective with workaholic habits and a tendency to colour outside the lines.

“She’s a rule-breaker and I love that about her. I love how unapologetic she is about it, she gets in trouble and she’s like, ‘sorry not sorry,’ like ‘whatever, did I get the bad guy, did I figure it out? Yes I did, so what’s the problem?’ and I love that attitude,” she says.

As an actor who’s been in the limelight from a young age, Grimes-Beech says her character reminds her to be herself unapologetically, and she can relate to many of Jack’s more rebellious traits.

“As someone who has been in the public eye for the majority of my life, it’s hard sometimes because it can feel very stifling. You need to fit a certain mould and tip-toe around certain things and you can’t be unabashedly yourself or swear like the sailor that I do,” she says. “You get older and you finally embrace that you don’t have to apologize for all those things because they’re the things that make you your wonderful self and if people don’t like it then c’est la vie. So I definitely identify with a lot of Jack’s qualities and she inspires me to embrace those qualities more.”

With two other powerful female characters played by Angela Griffin and Wendy Crewson, The Detail is hitting the airwaves at just the right time, and Grimes-Beech says she’s definitely an advocate of the ‘women supporting women’ movement.

“I believe in being very encouraging to one another,” she says. “It’s about cumulatively taking over the world, not just every woman for herself, and I think that’s the way the characters on this show function and behind the camera, that’s the way our cast and crew function, so I definitely am proud to be a part of it.”

Scenes in the show were filmed in various locations around the GTA, and Grimes-Beech says coming back to film in Toronto was a refreshing experience for her—besides getting a chance to hit some of her favourite destinations like Café Crepe, Aritzia and Zara, she says she felt so fortunate to return to the city where she got her start.

“This is my city, this is the city that really made me and has supported me so much in my success out in L.A.,” she says. “And now I get to come home and still feel like this warm welcome. It’s a total honour getting to be back here.”

The Detail premieres on CTV March 25 at 9 pm.

An American In Paris is a nostalgic and romantic musical for the entire family

11:15 am

The Mirvish production of An American In Paris, on at the Princess of Wales theatre until April 29, does not contain that one show-stopping song and dance number, that one performer that is so incredible that it brings people to their feet en masse.

What it does is transport the audience, slowly but surely, to another time and place. The leads win over the audience in increments and then take it to the next level of showmanship with a deliciously intricate and absorbing second half. It’s a musical of substance and style that is wholly satisfying and lingers long after the house lights come on.

An American in Paris has a long history dating back to a George Gershwin orchestral composition in 1928 and made famous by the incomparable Gene Kelly in the 1951 musical film. This stage musical version with choreography by Christopher Wheeldon premiered back in 2015 on Broadway, and won a few Tony Awards on the way to this Toronto production.

Set in Paris in the days following the end of the Second World War, An American In Paris tells the story of American soldier Jerry Mulligan who is inspired to remain in the city of lights and pursue his passion for painting after bumping into a mysterious girl on the Paris streets. After wandering into a café, he strikes up a friendship with fellow American and composer Adam Hochberg and Henri Baurel, son of a prominent French family and closet cabaret singer.

Mulligan and Hochberg, helped by an American benefactor, begin work on a ballet of which, most coincidentally, the mysterious girl, Lise Dassin, happens to have landed the lead. As the story unfolds, we find our two Americans falling in love with Dassin for different reasons and Baurel set to announce his engagement to her. As the love square plays out, we learn more about Haurels relationship to Dassin and the true nature of love and art.

An American In Paris is packed with memorable songs and boasts plenty of beloved standards perhaps none better known and adored than “I Got Rhythm” and “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” both of which are sung to delightful affect by the trio of male leads.

The set is uncomplicated; a video screen is utilized in modest fashion as drawings of the Paris streetscape are pencilled in with each changing scene. The River Seine is front and centre at times and a Van Gogh worth starry night at others. It all adds to the transportive quality that makes good use of our already romanticized vision of Paris.

The leads are all capable, to be sure. But they don’t grab you at first, instead they work at it and win the audience over with their unique charms. Former National Ballet of Canada dancer McGee Maddox’s Mulligan is perhaps a bit too much Jim Carrey and not enough Gene Kelly at first but he wins our hearts in the end. Matthew Scott’s Adam Hochberg is maybe a trifle too tragic, Ben Michael bestows upon Baurel an accent that is perhaps a little more Russian than French. But we opt to go on the journey with them and they pay us back in full.

Although already a fine almost nostalgic production, the second half is clearly the most adventurous portion with an extended ballet sequence at the end of the show that is a feast for the senses and stretches a wonderfully long 15 minutes. Truly breathtaking work.

Go, have your fun.

An American in Paris is on at the Princess of Wales Theatre until April 29.

Minister of Silly Walks, John Cleese, pays Toronto a visit this month

10:44 am

John Cleese is one of the most recognizable comedians on the planet, having first put the world in stitches as a member of Monty Python’s Flying Circus, turning out movies such as Life of Brian and The Meaning of Life and a slew of sketches, including the legendary Ministry of Silly Walks.

Following his stint with Monty Python, Cleese and his contemporaries set their sights on Hollywood. He wrote and starred opposite Jamie Lee Curtis in the award-winning film A Fish Called Wanda. And who could forget Fawlty Towers or his role as Q in the James Bond films and so much more over a career that spans almost six decades?

On April 9, Cleese is making a Toronto appearance to share his stories and humorous insights gleaned from a life in comedy.

John Cleese: Why There is No Hope at Roy Thomson Hall, April 9, 9 – 7.30 pm.

Cross-country athlete Martha MacDonald on joining Team Canada

8:42 am

At age 18, Georgetown University runner Martha MacDonald is a member of Team Canada’s junior cross-country team and clinched a bronze medal in El Salvador earlier this year. For her to be so accomplished at a young age, you might guess that she’s been running almost since before she could walk.

But MacDonald says she wasn’t serious about running until Grade 10, when she joined the University of Toronto Track Club (UTTC) after running on the cross-country and track teams at Havergal College.

“Like all kids, I ran at the meets in elementary school,” she says. “I thought it was kind of cool, and when some of my friends joined UTTC together to run, I decided to get into it, too.”

MacDonald knew running was the sport for her after her first Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations (OFSAA) cross-country meet in Grade 10.

“I must have come in 60th or 70th, but I just remember seeing the girls who were up front and how tough they were, and I wanted to be like that too.”

MacDonald has done that and more, becoming the 2016 Senior Girls OFSAA Cross Country champion and the 2017 OFSAA Track and Field Championships runner-up before heading off to Georgetown University.

As a member of Team Canada’s junior cross-country team, she took home bronze at the Pan American Cross Country Championships in February in San Salvador.

She cites her coach Hillary Adamson while at Havergal and Taras Radchenko from UTTC as two huge influences in getting her to where she is now.

MacDonald says she’s grateful to have found running.

“The best part about it is doing something every day that you really love. I don’t think a lot of people get the opportunity to do that until they’re much older.”

However, she notes that running doesn’t come without challenges.

“I think in being a female athlete, especially in running, there’s a lot of pressure put on you to look a certain way. But I’ve been lucky to have some great female role models in the sport that have shown me you have to be healthy to run fast.”

MacDonald will race her first five-kilometre race on the track at the Stanford invitational competition, March 30 to 31, and will be running the Canadian Track and Field Championships in July. She hopes to qualify for the International Association of Athletics Federations World Junior Championships in Finland, which would require her to be in the top two in Canada by the end of the qualifying period.

“Down the road, we’ll see. Everyone always says they want to go to the Olympics. Obviously I do, too,” MacDonald says. “But you never know where a sport might take you, so I’m taking it one step at a time.”

Midtown teenagers targetted in a series of "swarming-style" robberies at Yonge and Eglinton

9:34 pm

The midtown community is on full alert after a dramatic rise in swarming robberies in the Yonge and Eglinton area as young teenagers have been confronted by large groups and robbed, some at knifepoint.

Police have arrested multiple young offenders in connection with the string of robberies that began in January of this year. Since that time, 11 incidents have been reported.

Constable Jenifferjit Sidhu, corporate communications officer with the Toronto Police Service (TPS), said the robberies have been hostile and frightening for victims.

“This has been going on now for a number of weeks. They’re swarming-style robberies where, out of nowhere, victims are approached, some are threatened, and they’re demanded to give up their personal property,” said Sidhu.

Sidhu said that, in total, six arrests have been made and 10 charges have been laid so far in connection with the incidents, and not all the robberies have been related to one another.

She said there are still multiple outstanding suspects.

“We have had six young people arrested in total with regard to these swarming-style robberies, and they are not all linked. These are separate incidents, and we’ve got different groups committing this act of violence,” she said.

The first robbery occurred on January 17.

Allegedly, a 14-year-old boy was walking through the Yonge Eglinton Centre when a group of six boys called out to him, demanding he give up his personal property. One of the attackers pulled out a knife and became physical with the boy and took his jacket before the entire group fled the scene.

Later, on February 1, a 14-year-old boy was charged with robbery with an offensive weapon.

Another attack at the mall occurred on February 5, when two boys pulled another 14-year-old boy around a corner, one of them demanding personal property while the other watched for witnesses.

Eventually, a security guard intervened, but the boys had already taken cash from the victim and fled the scene. Two days later, another 14-year-old boy was arrested and charged with robbery.

On February 8, a 14-year-old boy was selling tickets to a school event in the mall when a group of six boys started following him through the mall. When the victim entered a store in the mall, two of the six boys approached him, threatened him physically and took his backpack, cash and cellphone.

Later in February and into March, three more boys were arrested with robbery and possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000.

Another robbery occurred on February 23, involving a group of boys attacking three boys and a girl in the middle of the Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue intersection.

On March 1, a 17-year-old boy was arrested and charged with robbery with violence and possession of a schedule II substance.

In the most recent incident on March 8, TPS said the perpetrators made references to a handgun and showed a knife to victims.

“The majority of the acts are very violent and threatening, so we are urging the public to be vigilant, especially around Yonge and Eglinton. If anyone is a victim or a witness to these robberies, we do ask that they come to police or call Crime Stoppers if they want to be anonymous,” said Sidhu.

Andy Gort, president of the South Eglinton Ratepayers’ and Residents’ Association (SERRA), said residents are on alert.

“It’s very unusual. We are upset about it, and we’re concerned about it. We don’t have a lot of knowledge in terms of why or who did it, but we do hope that there is enough police presence in our area to make sure that the area is monitored properly,” Gort said.

Police are urging victims and witnesses with information to come forward, so they can put an end to the string of incidents.

Toronto resident launches cannabis delivery service Duber

11:55 pm

Capitalizing on the growth of ride-sharing apps and the coming legalization of cannabis, on April 1 Toronto resident Saul Silver launched Duber, a new app that allows cannabis users to order their legal marijuana products and have them delivered by former Uber drivers.

Silver stumbled on the idea in an attempt to procure some cannabis after finding out his favourite local dispensary was raided by Toronto Police Service. Rather than wait 24 hours for the shop to reopen fully stocked and ready for business, Silver contacted random drivers until he found one that understood his request for “420 at 205 Repton Road.”

According to Silver, the driver was so courteous and efficient that the two struck up a conversation. As it turned out, the driver was a software engineering student at the University of Toronto, who drove to make ends meet. In exchange for a five-star review and a five per cent interest in the company, the driver sketched out the rough idea of an algorithm that would allow users to connect the Ontario Cannabis Store order line with the nearest driver. And Duber was born.

Silver, a Ceramics and Pottery major from Lethbridge, Alberta who was voted Most Likely to Play in a Grateful Dead Tribute Band by his classmates, has already received interest from other cities in adopting his platform and an IPO is pending.

Duber is available as a free download at the App Store. Use discount code: aprilfools for 10 percent off your first order courtesy of Post City.

Anti-fur protestors rally against Drake and his Canada Goose partnership

1:41 pm

Soon-to-be Bridle Path resident Aubrey Graham, a.k.a. Drake, has recently found himself on the wrong side of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) because of his partnership with Canada Goose, the popular outerwear company that uses goose down and coyote fur.

After Drake announced, over live stream Twitch, that he had embraced the vegetarian lifestyle, PETA sent him a gift basket accompanied by a letter commending his decision but urging him to reconsider his Canada Goose affiliation.

On Feb. 28, demonstrators with signs bearing graphic images of fur farms and grisly homemade props met to create an “anti-fur flash mob” to protest fur and the 6 God himself. Activists threw his albums in the trash and tweeted at him with the hashtag #DrakeFurShame.

Stintz on Midtown: Is it possible to reduce congestion and pedestrian injuries?

12:36 pm

Mayor Tory has made a number of pledges and commitments; however, there are two in particular that appear to be at odds with each other. Although his commitment to reduce congestion is not necessarily mutually exclusive with his pledge to reduce pedestrian injuries, the two objectives are difficult to reconcile.

The basic question about what constitutes the highest and best use of a public roadway is at the core.

This question is coming up time and time again, most recently with projects such as the Bloor Street bike lanes and the King Street West transit pilot project — even the Crosstown Eglinton plan includes extensive use of bike lanes — and other people-centred planning that inevitably butts up against the need to reduce congestion.

Reducing pedestrian injuries and fatalities and making streets more community focused usually involves slowing down traffic because evidence suggests that when vehicles move at speeds of 30 km/h or less there is a significant reduction in pedestrian injuries.

Is the highest and best use of a public roadway to efficiently move as many cars as possible or to promote a safe environment for the most users?

The tension between the two goals surfaced last month when Toronto City Council Public Works and Infrastructure Committee voted down proposed changes to Yonge Street from Finch Avenue to Sheppard Avenue.

There was a proposal to reduce the number of traffic lanes from six to four and create wider sidewalks and bike lanes. The councillor consulted widely with the community, and the general consensus was that the best option for the area was to dramatically rethink the current road from a major arterial road to a road with less capacity for carrying cars while creating more space for other functions.

The proposal was ambitious and would have had a positive change on that section of Yonge.

Ultimately the proposal was defeated for a number of reasons.

Whatever proposal is finally adopted by city council, street parking should not be a consideration. Street parking is the most inefficient use of road space, whether you are in favour of removing congestion or building safer streets, and should be moved to side roads or parking lots.

There is still a chance that elements of the proposal will be adopted by city council.

At a minimum, the sidewalks should be widened and street parking should be removed. That section of Yonge Street will never be a quiet leafy enclave, but it certainly could be safer.

This balancing act of managing duelling priorities is far from over.

Toronto city council will vote on Transform Yonge project

9:36 am

A streetscaping plan for a North York section of Yonge headed to City Council for a final vote after two years of environmental assessments and community consultation, but not without a last-ditch political effort to derail the plans.

During a Public Works and Infrastructure Committee meeting to discuss the city planning-preferred Transform Yonge design option to decrease the number of lanes on a stretch of Yonge between Sheppard and Finch in favour of bike lanes and wider sidewalks, a new motion was introduced by councillor David Shiner. His motion involved keeping six lanes of traffic on Yonge but moving the cycling lanes to nearby Beecroft Avenue, which would increase the cost of the project by around $9 million.

“I believe this is a safer, more viable option that provides for both of the things that we want: a great pedestrian way and a great and safe cycle way,” said Shiner when he presented his motion.

Councillor John Filion, who has led the project from the beginning, said he had little idea a new motion was being introduced. After the meeting, Filion told Post City he “kind of expected something like that” would happen. “It’s behind-the-scenes-politics,” he said. “It has nothing to do with the merits of the plans. The merits of the plans speak for themselves.”

Opponents of the Transform Yonge option include Mayor John Tory and Coun. Shiner.

“I’ve spoken to councillors who don’t support Transform Yonge because they just don’t,” said Filion. “And I’ve spoken to other councillors who do support it and just won’t vote for it because the mayor’s not in favour of it.

This project comes at a time when Mayor Tory has been involved in a number of road safety measures and is an advocate of the city’s Vision Zero Road Safety Plan. A City of Toronto staff report identified the section of Yonge between Sheppard and Steeles as a “priority safety concern.” Between January 2010 and December 2017, there were 78 collisions involving pedestrians and five involving cyclists. Of these, eight resulted in serious injuries or fatalities.

One of the objectives of the project is to improve road safety by reducing car traffic and making a safe space for cyclists. Shiner’s last-minute motion to keep the six lanes on Yonge got the majority vote in PWIC by three to one. The motion was deferred to city council for a vote on March 27, and Filion believed the vote would be close.

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