New concert hall, event venue planned
Volume 50 No. 8
BEACHMETRO.COM
June 15, 2021
A NEW concert venue, being built in a partnership with Drake and Live Nation Canada, is coming to Queen Street East in the Beach. The 2,500-person capacity venue is refurbishing the building at 1663 Queen St. E., on the south side between Coxwell and Eastern avenues, that was home to the Champions off-track betting facility. The new live-entertainment venue will be called History.
The plans were announced by Live Nation on June 8. In the announcement, Drake said some of his fondest memories were playing shows in venues of about that size. “Some of my most memorable shows were playing in smaller rooms like History. I wanted to take those memories and what I learned to create an incredible experience for both the artists and the fans,” said Drake. Live Nation Entertainment
president and CEO Michael Rapino said: “We saw an opportunity to bring Toronto a great new venue, and we have so much gratitude and respect for Drake teaming up with us to bring it to life in the best way possible.” History is expected to host 200 concerts and other events annually. Work on the venue is expected to be completed this summer, with an opening date later this year.
Meeting hears plans for 18-storey building at Housing Now site by Alan Shackleton
PHOTO: ALAN SHACKLETON
The Walk Against Hate on Friday, June 11, makes its way to Dentonia Park for a rally and moment of silence in memory of the Afzaal family.
Walk Against Hate held in East Toronto shows support for Muslim community By Alan Shackleton
A WALK Against Hate was held locally on Friday, June 11, to show solidarity with the victims of the hate crime in London, Ontario, last week that took the lives of four members of the same Muslim family. Organizers of the walk included Bangledeshi-Canadian Community Services, Toronto East Anti-hate Mobilization, and the South Asian Women’s Rights Organization. The walk began at Shopper’s World at noon, headed north on Thyra Avenue to Dentonia Park for a rally, and then back to Danforth Avenue. A large crowd took part in the walk and the rally in the park which included a minute of silence in remembrance of Salman Afzaal, 46, his 44-year-old wife Madiha Salman, their 15-year-old daughter Yumna Afzaal and Afzaal’s 74-year-old mother. The four London, Ontario residents were killed after a 20-yearold man intentionally drove his pickup truck into the family while
SAFETY
experienced it herself firsthand when she came to Canada with her family in 1999. “I came to Canada in 1999 and I faced racism the first week. And we are still here talking about this.” How people can be full of so much hate towards others that they would kill them, is beyond her understanding. “We pray for those with so much hate in them that they are willing to kill,” she said. “We need real action to educate people about our peaceful religion.” Both Begum and Berns-McGown expressed confusion as to why the Province of Ontario has not yet enacted into law a bill approved by all MPPs at Queen’s Park more than two years ago to declare Jan. 29 as Day of Remembrance and Action on Islamophobia. The private members bill (Bill 83) was put forward by Berns-McGown in March of 2019. The date of Jan. 29 was declared since it was on Jan. 29, 2017, that six people were killed and 19 others hurt during a terrorist attack at a Quebec City mosque.
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they were walking on the sidewalk on the evening of Sunday, June 6. Fayez Afzaal, 9, was the only survivor and is now an orphan as his entire family was killed. The murder of the family has been condemned across Canada and around the world as a hatecrime and an act of terrorism. Along with showing support for the Afzaal family and the Muslim community, those taking part in the walk and rally demanded action be taken against hate crimes and Islamophobia. Also attending the walk were local politicians including BeachesEast York MP Nathaniel ErskineSmith, Beaches-East York MPP Rima Berns-McGown, BeachesEast York Councillor Brad Bradford, Scarborough-Southwest MPP Doly Begum, and ScarboroughSouthwest Councillor Gary Crawford. “We have to do more than send out our thoughts and prayers,” said Berns-McGown. “It isn’t enough. We need actions.” Begum, who is Muslim, said hate and racism exists locally and she
LIKE IT or not, there is going to be a tall tower (18-storeys high according to the latest plan) built at the south end of a parcel of city-owned land southeast of Coxwell Avenue and Queen Street East. Numerous residents shared their opinions for and against the plan at an online community meeting June 10. The proposal comes from Housing Now, a City of Toronto initiative to increase the number of new affordable rental housing units within mixed-income, mixed-use, and transit-oriented communities on lands owned by the city. The site is on a parcel of cityowned land south of Queen Street East and north and west of Eastern Avenue, and east of Coxwell Avenue. The land is now home to the Coxwell Early Learning and Child Care Centre and the Beaches Employment and Social Services, both of which will be given space to on the site to continue operating. The city-owned land to be developed does not include the six-storey Toronto Community Housing building at the northeast corner of Coxwell and Eastern or the East End Community Health Centre right on the southeast corner of Coxwell and Queen. Also, the site does not include the land where the Harvey’s restaurant stands which gives the lot shape an indentation south of Queen. In a development application submitted on June 1 by city agency CreateTO, on behalf of Housing Now, the proposal includes an 18-storey building (fronting Eastern Avenue), a 12-storey building (in the middle of the site) and a four-to-six-storey building (fronting Queen Street East).
The residences built in this development will all be rental, and will be split between affordable and market-value units. Presently, the plan calls for a 279 units of which between 100 and 139 will be affordable. A key part of the project will be the Kishigo Lane Indigenous Placekeeping public space on the east end of the site. The Indigenous Placekeeping space will honour the Kishigo family, an 18th century Michi Saagig Anishinaabe family who lived near the lands. Input on the space’s design is coming from the First Nations, Inuit and Metis communities. The main points of discussion by residents at the June 10 meeting were about the need for affordable housing in the area, the heights of the buildings in regard to the Queen Street East Urban Design Guidelines (UDG), and the need to ensure this project does not set a precedent regarding building heights when it comes to future development plans along Queen Street East in the Beach. No one at the meeting said the site should not have affordable housing on it. The debate was what building form it should take, and what development precedents it would set for the area. Speaking on behalf of the board of The Beach and East Toronto Historical Society, Uwe Semhrau said the precedent being set for Queen Street East in the Beach was their main concern. “The board is concerned that this is an exclusion from the Queen Street East Urban Design Guidelines, and therefore is a precedent,” he said. The Queen Street East UDG was created in 2012 with lots of commuContinued on Page 16
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