Beach Metro Community News names volunteer board at AGM
Volume 50 No. 9
BEACHMETRO.COM
June 29, 2021
THE VOLUNTEER Board of Directors for Beach Metro Community News was named at the Annual General Meeting (AGM) held online on the evening of Wednesday, June 23. The board members are Mary Beth Denomy, president; Desmond Brown, past president; David Morrow, vice-president; Judith Saunders Allen, secre-
tary, and Douglas Black, treasurers. Named special advisors to the board were Paul Babich and Sheila Blinoff. Thanked for her many years of service to the board at the AGM was Debbie Visconti who has served in a number of roles including president and past president but is now stepping down.
Beach Metro Community News has been serving the community since 1972, and we are proud of the important role we play in keeping residents informed. This year marks our 50th year in operation having started in March of 1972 as Ward 9 Community News. Our 50th anniversary will be in March of 2022.
Celebrating Pride in Scarborough
Safety a concern as holiday weekend approaches by Alan Shackleton
AS CANADA Day and the first full weekend of July approaches, Toronto police and city officials are working to avoid a repeat of the bad behaviour that took place in and around the Woodbine Beach on the Victoria Day weekend. A major concern for Thursday, July 1, and the nights before and after it will be centring around the gathering of large crowds and the illegal use of fireworks in local parks and on the beaches. “After the unprecedented scenes we’ve had at the beaches this summer, especially with the fireworks and Roman candles, police and bylaw officers are ready to respond to crowds and gatherings,” BeachesEast York Councillor Brad Bradford told Beach Metro News. The Victoria Day long weekend saw massive crowds gathering in the evening and at night in the Woodbine Beach area. They were setting off fireworks into the early morning hours, and there were numerous incidents of people shooting fireworks at each other. On the night of Saturday, June 12, a 16-year-old boy was stabbed after a confrontation regarding the shooting of fireworks at people. A 24-year-old St. Catharines man was charged with attempted murder in that incident. Police also charged two 16-year-old boys with assault with a weapon. Bradford said Toronto Council voted at its June meeting to ban possession of fireworks in city parks as a way to hopefully put a Continued on Page 3
PHOTO: ALAN SHACKLETON
Though last weekend’s Pride Parade and other festivities had to be cancelled in Toronto due to COVID-19 safety concerns, there was still a celebration in Scarborough on Saturday. On hand for the Celebrate Pride in Scarborough event at Birchcliff Bluffs United Church on the morning of Saturday, June 26, were (from left) Sherwin Modeste, Executive Director of Pride Toronto; Scarborough Southwest Councillor Gary Crawford; Rev. Greg Daly, of Birchcliff Bluffs United; Ai Yamamoto, of Toby’s Place; Scarborough Southwest MP Bill Blair; and Carmen Llanos, of Dorothy’s Place.
Orange flowers honour lives lost at Residential Schools By Alan Shackleton
BEACH RESIDENT Margot Rockett will be selling orange tissue paper flowers that she has made to help raise funds for Reconciliation Canada and to raise awareness of Truth and Reconciliation Day. Rockett began making the flowers earlier this month after hearing about the discovery of the bodies of 215 children in unmarked graves on the grounds of a former Residential School in Kamloops, British Columbia. She said she felt she had to do something to honour the lives that had been lost. Since then, another discovery
of 751 unmarked graves at the Marieval Residential School site in Saskatchewan was announced. That discovery has made Rockett even more determined to raise funds for and awareness about the issue. She is hoping the tissue paper flowers she has made will help start conversations about Residential Schools and Canada’s treatment of Indigenous peoples. Orange is the colour designated by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada to recognize the impact of the schools on the Indigenous peoples of Canada. Orange was the colour of the shirt worn by then six-year-old
Phyllis Jack Webstad on her first day at a Residential School. All of her clothes were taken away from her, including the orange shirt. It was never returned, but the colour orange always made Phyllis remember her Residential School experiences. “I think we have to face our past in order to heal,” said Rockett. “Generations of children were taken away from their families and culture. We need to educate ourselves and understand that the Residential School System is our legacy too. The survivors of the system were just that: Survivors. They weren’t graduates like most of us. And some never went home.”
A life-long Beach resident, Rockett started the campaign by pledging to make a minimum of 215 of the orange tissue paper flowers, of differing sizes. Proceeds from the sale of the flowers to community members will go to Reconciliation Canada which is working to engage Canadians in dialogue and transformative experiences that revitalize the relationships among Indigenous peoples and all Canadians. Since the discovery in Saskatchewan, she has decided to continue making more of the flowers to honour the lives of the children in the unmarked graves at the Marieval Continued on Page 5