Bob Baron: January 2002
On behalf of the CCRA Executive, I would like to wish all of you the best in 2002. May it be your best year yet!
Just recently, I attended the official opening of the Heron Park Community Recreation facility. What a wonderful job the city has done fixing this facility up.
For years, Heron Park was badly in need of a major overhaul. The old community centre was getting pretty shabby and the arena was looking more than a little frayed, too. However, after all the years they were used, there is some great history there. How many of you have taken ballroom dancing lessons from Joyce and her husband or attended their Christmas parties in the white building on Lawrence? How many of you have spent so many hours in the arena watching your kids learn to skate or learn to play hockey? Maybe some of you remember learning those same skills there yourselves. At the opening, I was talking with John McKay and he remembered playing hockey there before it was a closed arena. It's certainly greatly improved from a couple of years ago when I was coaching one of the West Hill hockey teams.
There have also been major changes to the pool with one of the most significant being the addition of a huge ramp into the shallow end to facilitate wheelchair bathers.
The grand opening was well attended by both the community and various dignitaries including His Worship, Mayor Mel Lastman, Councillor Ron Moeser, MP John McKay, representatives from Mr. McKay's and Mr. Steve Gilchrist's offices, a large contingent of people who were receiving special awards, many members of the various city departments, Parks and Rec. staff and volunteers and of course, the Port Union Seniors. In addition to the formal festivities, there were various displays, face-painting for the kids, the Seniors' orchestra and some pretty nifty soft-shoeing and free coffee and doughnuts. All in all, I think every one had a pretty good time.
Many of you were notified recently by your children's schools of a situation in our community whereby there was potentially significant danger to our children. A known pedophile with a history of avoiding rehabilitation and repeated violation of parole conditions was released into our community. We received many calls from residents concerned for their children's safety wanting to know what could be done to remove this danger.
We did some investigating and found that there was a lot of conflicting information concerning this pedophile. We were told he had completed his sentence and was free to rejoin society. We were also told that he had completed the mandatory portion of his sentence and was released under the Statutory Release legislation which is part of the overall legislation governing the National Parole Board. Legislation in Canada allows offenders to be released on full parole after serving one-third of their sentence and to be released on day parole six months before that date. In addition, legislation requires that most offenders not released on parole, be released to community supervision after serving two-thirds of their sentence in custody; this is called statutory release. I don't know what the statistical evidence is for the effectiveness of this legislation but in the case of a pedophile I would think it does not satisfy the community at large.
From what I have been able to ascertain, Pedophiles do not rehabilitate well. They usually remain a danger to the community and their crimes escalate in frequency and severity. Therefore, it does not seem to make sense that the Federal Government does not consider them dangerous offenders or at least requiring special attention. Someone who preys on defenceless children can be caught, prosecuted, serve only a portion of their sentence, take absolutely no rehabilitating treatment and then be released into the community they have attacked for that community to supervise them.
This law must be changed! It does not make sense. It doesn't make sense to release them to any community without the ability to neutralize the danger they present.
If you are not satisfied that our children are adequately protected, write or call our MP and/or the Minister of Justice.
By the time you are reading this, our MPP, Steve Gilchrist will have distributed a letter with a reply card addressing legislative matters related to this and other issues. Read and decide for yourselves whether you agree with Mr. Gilchrist. However, if this is an opportunity to let both the Federal and Provincial government know that you want changes to this legislation and want a dialogue opened for community input, then make your voice heard.
The CCRA will be formally petitioning the Minister of Justice to change this legislation. Once the letter has been completed and proofed, it will appear on our website and also in the CCRA News. Any reply that we receive from the Minister will also appear on the website and in the News
We have heard no more feedback on the new Part II Plan for the City of Toronto's Central Waterfront and the development of the Port Union Waterfront.
Further to the pending sale of public property on Holmcrest Trail, the city seems to have ignored its own procedures for the disposal of surplus property. I quote from a writing from the City Clerk: "In order to proceed with the disposal of the Property, the City must comply with the procedures governing disposal of property. Section 193(4) of the Municipal Act requires that, before selling any property, Council must declare the property to be surplus by by-law or resolution passed at a meeting open to the public, give notice to the public of the proposed sale and obtain at least one appraisal…" There was certainly no notification given to the public that the Holmcrest Trail property would be going up for sale. From what I have been able to find, the first any residents heard of the sale was when the actual listing for the sale of the property appeared in the newspaper.
We are trying to stop the sale from proceeding until we can have some public discussion on what alternatives are available. We are also formally protesting the City's failure to follow its own procedures.
Given the performance of the City and our Councillor, we have requested a list of similar properties or properties which could be deemed surplus, in the area, in order to make you aware of what might be at risk.
There has been no further news on the Brumwell Street rezoning application.
I would like to welcome Tony Sibley, who takes over from Mike Osborn as our new Treasurer. Welcome aboard Tony. We're looking forward to working with you.