Juno News - Welcome to Olivia Chow’s Toronto

00:00:00.000 When we last checked in with you, True North that is, back in May, we were here at Allen Gardens in downtown Toronto

00:00:07.240 and there was a fair-sized encampment of tents and an Indigenous community at the south end of the park

00:00:15.080 complete with a sacred fire. A few months later, it's early September, and the park has been completely taken over

00:00:22.440 by tents, lean-tos, and the Indigenous have circled off an area with a giant teepee that they call their own.

00:00:30.760 In fact, the homeless and assorted drug addicts, because indeed there are addicts here with a safe injection site

00:00:38.440 just down the street, have made themselves quite at home. They even have chairs and places to sit in

00:00:46.060 outside their tents. Beautiful plants. It looks like they're settled in here to stay, even if the cold weather

00:00:53.320 is on its way. Well, now this is Olivia Chow's Toronto. We can't blame it on any other politicians anymore

00:01:01.940 because she's been in office for two months and has done nothing, absolutely nothing, about clearing out

00:01:09.840 this unsightly encampment. Ms Chow has spent a lot of time glad-handing with various diversity groups

00:01:16.580 and various diversity costumes, and yes, she spent yesterday implementing and getting approval for a

00:01:23.780 variety of new taxes to hit Toronto residents with in the not-too-distant future, including a possibility

00:01:32.120 of a municipal sales tax. So yes, she has been very busy trying to dream up ways to tax and to spend.

00:01:39.840 But as to the real problems, those remain unresolved. She indicated at Council this past week that she has

00:01:48.480 just spent 750 grand housing refugees in two churches over the summer. But these people remain out in the park and

00:01:57.820 other parks and that is indeed a problem for her, not that she's solving anything. So sadly, we are looking at proof of the

00:02:06.640 decline of downtown Toronto. This encampment has only grown and been emboldened by the lack of action at City Hall.

00:02:14.720 I dare say that we will probably see them hunker in over the winter, and I wouldn't be surprised if they built

00:02:22.080 themselves tiny little houses. I think we should all brace ourselves, not just in Toronto, but in cities across Canada,

00:02:28.560 because Toronto seems to set the trend for the rest of the country, that this is the new way of doing business.

00:02:37.200 Leave people out in parks, allow them to occupy parks, tax and spend, and do nothing about solving the crisis.

00:02:46.640 I'm not surprised that Olivia Chow has done nothing about this, because way back in the early 2000s when she

00:02:54.720 was a councillor, she left people, her and her husband, the late Jack Layton, left people on Home Depot lands,

00:03:01.920 down on Cherry Street in Toronto, for three years. Can you imagine if this encampment remains for three years?

00:03:10.640 Well, brace yourselves Torontonians and people right across Canada, this seems to be the new way, and with a

00:03:18.560 socialist council and a socialist mayor, I am very, very sad for this city. We have tax and spend politicians

00:03:28.000 who don't tackle the real problems and allow a city like this once beautiful city to decline. This is proof.

00:03:35.920 This park is a perfect example. For True North, I'm Sue Ann Levy.

Juno News - September 07, 2023