East York Councillors at Odds Over Adoption of City's $8.7B Budget
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AA CHOPCHOP THE EAST TORONTO OFFOFF INSIDEINSIDE THETHE OLDOLD Food banks BLOCKBLOCK OBSERVEROBSERVER need help PAGE 2 PAGE 3 Friday • April 10 • 2009 PUBLISHED BY CENTENNIAL COLLEGE JOURNALISM STUDENTS AND SERVING EAST YORK Volume 39 • No. 5 East York councillors at odds over adoption of city’s $ 8.7 B budget By VICTORIA WELLS disabled, new programs at recreation East York’s councillors sat at opposite centres and extended public library ends of the voting spectrum when city hours. council passed Toronto’s 2009 operating Davis said the tax increase actually budget last week. works out to only 2.5 per cent, after While Beaches-East York councillor breaks for tenants and small businesses Janet Davis voted in support of the are taken into consideration. She said $8.7-billion budget, Toronto-Danforth the budget shifts the tax burden away councillor Case Ootes and Don Valley from the city’s apartment-dwelling West councillor John Parker voted against residents, providing relief during the the plan, which increased homeowner recession. property taxes by four per cent. Still, the new spending plan does not According to Mayor David Miller, the sit well with Parker. He said the city increase adds up to an extra 25 cents a should not add new programs when it day coming out of homeowners’ pockets. cannot afford to balance the budget in Councillors Ootes and Parker said the first place. even that is too much to ask of taxpayers “The way I see it, the City of Toronto with a recession gripping the country, is a ship that’s hit ice and taking on and both maintain the city is spending water,” he said. “We can’t continue to irresponsibly. ignore reality. We’re spending too much “Any tax increase at this point is too money.” much, given that spending is out of Parker and Ootes voted together as control,” Ootes said, “especially in this part of the “Responsible Government difficult economic climate, when the last Group,” made up of 10 city councillors thing you want to do is impose more taxes who classify themselves as fiscally on people.” conservative. They proposed an Parker agrees with Ootes’s position. alternative budget that would raise “The mayor and the councillors who homeowner taxes by only two per cent support him are sleepwalking into by cutting from other areas of spending. disaster,” Parker said. Those areas included freezing employees’ Davis, who sits on Miller’s executive and councillors’ salaries and slashing committee, said she understands her their office budgets by 20 per cent. constituents are worried about the All three East York councillors have additional tax bill, but she believes it is already volunteered to freeze their own necessary. salaries. “I recognize any increase in taxes will Davis called the alternative budget a be a challenge,” she said. “But we need “fantasy,” saying the group’s proposal to ensure the services the community to freeze union staff wages in the needs and wants are available.” midst of contract negotiations was Observer, Elana Saimovici Those services include new programs inappropriate. SCHOOL SPIRIT: Lisa Wight from East York’s St. Anselm school cheers on for at-risk youth, seniors and the See BUDGET, page 8 classmates at the March 26 TCDSB Swim Invitational. (Another photo: page 4) School board cuts leave a void for special needs By MALLORY HENDRY Meagher is the trustee for Ward 13/Don Valley special needs. More funds are poured into Kerry Maloney is concerned about the for Ward 16/Beaches- West, reluctantly voted the higher-need schools and there are a future. Not just her own, but East York East York, and says that in favour, saying the greater number of initiatives in place children’s as well. having an EA in the board is just complying aimed at helping the students. Toronto’s public school board voted classroom provides an with government George Webster is ranked as one of the 10-9 last month to cut funding for 150 additional safeguard for mandates. top 75 inner-city schools by the TDSB. educational assistants (EAs). Maloney is students. “If there was another This means it is a “model school” for an EA at George Webster Public School “When you have some CARY-MEAGHER GERSHON way, I would have inner-city initiatives, programs that on Cedarcrest Boulevard. problems with a shortage supported the other will be affected by the loss of EAs in the “I understand that with the economy of teachers or a kid who’s got particular way,” Gershon said. classroom. Maloney, who has been an EA changes should be made,” Maloney said. learning or behavioural problems, you The board currently employs 700 EAs. for five years, says it’s hard to see schools “But there should be a freeze on hiring, have this cushion of a person who can Until this year, the Toronto District such as George Webster lose that crucial not a cut.” help out,” Cary-Meagher said. School Board (TDSB) had differentiated extra help. Most agree that EAs provide vital Cary-Meagher voted against the cut. between 150 inner-city schools and other “The kids have started to services for schools. Sheila Cary- But her colleague, Gerri Gershon, trustee schools, deeming the 150 as having See BOARD, page 8 Stefanie Rengel’s other Activist speaks out against murderer pleads guilty ‘injustice’ faced by detainee By MONIQUE PLESSAS “Mohammad had to wear an ankle The man who stabbed Stefanie Rengel the prisoner’s box after pleading guilty to An East Yorker near the middle of bracelet, he had a GPS thing that was to death just steps from her East York first-degree murder. The Crown says that a legal drama involving allegations of docked at the house but he carried with home on New Year’s Day 2008 entered a it will seek an adult sentence. terrorist ties and human rights violations him outside, he was watched by agents surprise guilty plea as the Observer went On March 20, D.B.’s girlfriend at the is speaking out. when he went out that followed him,” to press on Thursday. time of the killing was convicted of first- Murray Lumley, a veteran social Lumley said, recalling some of the The 19 year-old can only be identified as degree murder for continually urging activist, says he is concerned about conditions that Mahjoub had to abide D.B., because he was a youth at the time D.B. to kill the 14-year-old Stefanie, a stringent release conditions that he says by. of the murder. His lawyer was quoted perceived romantic rival — who lived near have effectively forced a Toronto father “He was not allowed to use a cellphone as saying that D.B. wanted to save the Denvale Road and Northdale Boulevard. of three back into jail. and could not use the computer if it was Rengel family from the anguish of the The Crown also wants an adult sentence Lumley, a seasoned advocate of connected to the Internet.” trial that was scheduled for October. for the girlfriend, the 17-year-old “M.T.” social causes, says the conditions that Constant surveillance by the Canadian Reports from the University Avenue Her sentencing is scheduled for May 13. Mohammad Mahjoub had to live under Border Services Agency (CBSA) courthouse described D.B. as sobbing in —Observer staff were just too difficult. See STRICT, page 8 Page 2 — East York’s Observer, April 10, 2009 Police beat 5 suspects in home invasion Three residents reported that at about 1:15 a.m. on Saturday, April 4, five men robbed them in their home in the area of Crescent Town Road and Victoria Park Avenue. The victims say that the robbers, who were wearing disguises, forced their way inside, where one of them produced a handgun and ordered the victims to lie face-down. The suspects demanded cash but the victims did not co-operate. The suspects took money, hats and shoes from the premises and then fled the scene. The victims were not injured. Police describe the first suspect as a white male. They describe the second suspect as a black male. They do not have descriptions for the other three suspects. Armed thief strikes twice The owner of the Goodwood Tuck Shop, located at 104 Goodwood Park Court, says his store was robbed on March 23 at about 6:30 p.m. — and again on Saturday, April 4 at about 8:30 p.m. The victim reports that a man wearing a disguise entered the store, produced a knife and demanded cash. On one occasion, the Meri Perra, Observer victim gave the robber money; on the other, the robber fled empty- GREAT LAKE LEASIDE: Murky green water fills a large hole in a vacant lot at the corner of handed. The victim sustained no injuries. Millwood and Rumsey roads in South Leaside. Neighbours are looking for a solution to their Police describe the robber as a white male, 19-20 years old, with water-filled problem neighbour. The developer still hopes to sell five townhouses on the site. a thin build. If you have any information regarding these incidents, police ask that you contact 54 Division. ‘Nasty’ pond worries locals Disguised duo hold up shop By MERI PERRA has also communicated with property and dumping. It seems the only thing being the city several times about the “What I find is that if the site Police are looking for two suspects in the robbery of the Super JC built at the corner of Millwood issue. At this point, he is realistic is paved, people will dump their Variety at 2 Secord Ave., at about 8:50 p.m.