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LISA QUEEN lqueen@yrmg.com Imam Mohammed Bemat was moved when a woman dropped off flowers and a note at Newmarket’s mosque following Sunday’s mass murder of Muslim men during prayers in Quebec City. "It was very heartwarming," he said, adding the gift was one of dozens of messages of support the mosque has received after six men were killed and 19 others injured in the shooting at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Quebec. The note on the flowers brought to the Newmarket mosque was heartfelt. "To our Muslim friends, not everyone is hateful. I am so sorry for your loss. I am so sorry for the fear you are made to feel," said the message signed by Kathy L. The sentiment was echoed in as many as three dozen letters and emails sent to the Newmarket Islamic Centre, Bemat said. "It made us feel good. It made us feel like we had a strong com-
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Flowers and a hearfelt note were delivered to the Newmarket Islamic Centre following the deadly shooting at a mosque in Quebec.
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l See COMMUNITIES, page 2
EDUCATION
Parents applaud ministry review of school board TERESA LATCHFORD tlatchford@yrmg.com York Region parents are calling it vindication. Education Minister Mitzie Hunter recently announced the launch of an urgent review of the York Region District School Board’s governance and equity processes. Patrick Case and Sue Herbert have been appointed to review and recommend improvements, especially when it comes to equity, accountability and transparency. A final report outlining next steps is to be submitted to Hunter by April 7. "There have been significant and growing concerns from parents and community members regarding governance and equity issues in the YRDSB," Hunter wrote in a statement. "These include allegations of systemic racism, concerns about the board’s equity and inclusive education policies, accountability for spending on trustees’ international travel and deteriorating relationships between the trustees, the di-
rector of education and the board’s senior staff." Unsatisfied that the issues would be addressed following a meeting with the then school board chair Anna DeBartolo and education director Philip Parappally and a submitted action plan proposal, Hunter felt the need to launch the review that will also address rebuilding relationships between the education director, senior staff, trustees and the community. A coalition of community representatives joins the Vaughan African Canadian Association and the National Council of Canadian Muslims in giving the announcement two thumbs up. Last November, the NCCM and VACA filed human rights complaints on behalf of seven York Region families against the school board over the treatment of black students and issues of Islamophobia. Since then, a school board trustee issued an apology letter following a racial slur uttered to describe Woodbridge parent Charline Grant, who was one of
Simone Joseph/Metroland
Parents Garth Bobb (from left), Hilary Neubauer, Shernett Martin and Charline Grant host a media conference in front of Stornoway Crescent Public School in Thornhill Jan. 27. the first parents to file a human rights complaint against the school board. "This has been a long and difficult journey for us, and our family is hoping that there will finally be some accountability for how our son was treated," Grant said.
"Our struggle has always been about ensuring that all students, no matter what their backgrounds or heritage, are treated with fairness and dignity. We welcome this review wholeheartedly." Some parents at a Jan. 27 news
conference shed tears as they stood outside Thornhill’s Stornoway Crescent Public School in Markham and relayed stories of the suffering and isolation their children experienced as they encountered racism from students and staff within the school board. The experiences included a boy being handed a Ku Klux Klan hat by another student and another student being beaten by a peer. On both accounts, the parents felt their complaints were swept under the rug and sufficient consequences were not doled out to the offenders. "We look forward to the findings of the review," YRDSBKids group’s Naeem Siddiqi said. "We hope they will provide the ministry with the necessary information to institute real and meaningful change for all York students and their families." YRDSBKids, a group of York Region parents who have come together to encourage the school board to increase its transparenl See RECOMMENDATIONS page 2
NEWS
Premier Wynne visits region to kill unpopular Toronto road toll proposal LISA QUEEN lqueen@yrmg.com Al Moyer is just the kind of 905 voter Premier Kathleen Wynne is appealing to with her announcement Jan. 27 to kill Toronto’s plans of imposing tolls on the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway. Pumping gas into his vehicle, the Keswick resident admitted he has been disillusioned with Wynne, but applauds her putting the brakes on toll roads, which many commuters outside
Toronto saw as a cash grab by the city on commuters using the main highways into and out of the city. "I think it’s the one thing Wynne-y has done right," Moyer said. "I’ve lost faith in her." "I think (Toronto Mayor) John Tory made the wrong decision to tax the main arteries of Toronto. There’s got to be other ways to raise revenue for the roads other than putting tolls on the main arteries." Smarting from public backlash to hydro rates and
languishing in the midteens in opinion polls in advance of the June 2018 provincial election, Wynne left Toronto for the politically safer pastures of Richmond Hill to officially scrap Toronto council’s toll road plans. She also announced a larger share of the gas tax for municipal public transit systems beginning in 2019. By 2021, municipalities will be receiving 4 cents of the gas tax, up from the current two cents.
There will be no increase in the tax drivers pay at the pumps, Wynne said. This year, York Region is getting $15.3 million from the provincial gas tax, which goes toward the region’s almost $200 million transit operating budget. "By increasing provincial gas tax funding, we will be able to make our service even more efficient and more attractive, ultimately getting a greater number of l See IT’S page 8
Lisa Queen/Metroland
Premier Kathleen Wynne announces plans to impose toll roads on the Don Valley Parkway and Gardiner Expressway have been scrapped.
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