I’m okay with not being able to afford a $2 million home. I don’t think many of us can. But I’m not okay with Liberals and Conservatives making bad policy decision while Canadians get left behind.
I’m ready to stand up to make sure that everyone can afford a place to call home. Are you with me?
The Climate Emergency cannot be ignored. I stand behind the fight for strong intervention by strong public programs provided by a strong public service.
I pledge to make addressing the Climate Emergency a top priority – will you join me?
I am committed to fighting for national pharmacare in Canada. Will you join me and commit to Pharmacare for all Canadians?
We can’t trust the Conservatives to work for 2SLGBTQ+ Justice. And we can’t stand for more broken Liberal promises toying with our lives and loved ones.
We have to stand up and fight for 2SLGBTQ+ justice now. Like every generation before us has done, we have to be willing to be bold and envision a world where we can be who we are and love who we love.
Will you commit to 2SLGBTQ+ justice with me?
Will you join me in demanding evidence-based policy and decision making?
I will always stand strong with working-class, everyday people. Will you join me?
I'm ready to build a truly universal healthcare system in Canada – will you join me?
Many years ago a poverty activist described privilege to me as the ability to plan ahead. That privilege is tied to scarcity of resources – money, housing, food, healthcare, and more. This ability to plan is vastly different for folks in precarity versus those with stable life situations. With so many folks struggling with lack of access and privilege, our approaches to these differences cannot be one-size-fits-all. What we should want for all people is the privilege to plan ahead as far as possible.
For a 45-year old with a high-paying job and a mortgage-free home – privilege allows them to plan ahead by years to their next month-long trip to Thailand and even by decades to retirement and winters in Palm Springs.
For a third year undergraduate student paying for their education with student loans, they are planning out the next year of their studies before they can start to look for full-time work and tackle their debt.
For a 17-year old in foster care, they can only plan for the next year until they turn 18 and tumble out of the system.
For a houseless person with a short-term shelter bed, they can only plan the next day ahead before they have to line up again and potentially be turned away.
For someone with a substance use disorder, they are planning their next hit. This can be a few hours or even a few minutes at a time.
Privilege is the ability to think well into the future.
We cannot treat all people the same because their privileges are vastly different.
The goal must be to help those with the least privilege, who are literally days and hours and minutes away from death. Conflict amongst community members is often at its worst when multiple levels of privilege interact. We must hold space for all people.
For those of you with the privilege to plan far ahead, I want you to know that I understand and know that you are working hard for a better tomorrow and years into the future. At the same time, the focus and goal has to be to help those who cannot plan far ahead – because they should have a chance at a better tomorrow.
I cannot offer you a prescription for every exact solution that will get us out of the poverty, healthcare, housing and houseless crisis in the Downtown Eastside. But I can offer you this as my philosophy and approach.
Many times over the last few months, I've been out on the streets of Toronto, standing alongside supporters of justice and human rights to make our voices clear – protect the people of Gaza. Our demand has been for Canada to pressure Israel to provide the most basic of human rights to safety, shelter, food, and dignity. While people continue to take a stand on the correct side of justice, Justin Trudeau and the Liberal government dither and wallow in inaction while more and more lives are lost each day.
As charged by the Government of South Africa before the International Court of Justice, Israel is committing acts that "are genocidal in character because they are intended to bring about the destruction of a substantial part of the Palestinian national, racial and ethnical group,.. The acts in question include killing Palestinians in Gaza, causing them serious bodily and mental harm, and inflicting on them conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction. The acts are all attributable to Israel, which has failed to prevent genocide and is committing genocide in manifest violation of the Genocide Convention.”
In its provisional orders, the International Court of Justice was clear in stating that Israel must do everything in its power to prevent genocide. That same standard should be held to Canada. The Canadian government should be doing everything in its power to prevent genocide, but it is not.
The Liberals are inconsistent on the issue, speaking of the humanitarian disaster caused by Israel, but unwilling to do anything to pressure Israel to cease its attacks while continuing the sale of weapons and military goods to Israel, knowing full well they are being used to commit genocide. The Conservatives are content to let violence escalate and instead focus on attacking the United Nations and aid groups all while stoking white supremacy, which exacerbates Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia here in Canada.
The October 7th attack was terrorism and was conducted by a political group with the aim of inciting political violence against Israelis. But this cannot be used by Israel and western countries, like Canada, as justification for genocide in Gaza. As the legendary Jewish organizer Marshall Ganz has said "The reality is that the tragedy of October 7 did not begin on October 7." The issues of prejudice and violence against Palestinians is long-standing. As Amnesty International has concluded: “Israel has established and maintained an institutionalized regime of oppression and domination of the Palestinian population for the benefit of Jewish Israelis – a system of apartheid.” Israel is an apartheid state that has forcibly occupied and displaced Palestinians for generations. Human Rights Watch categorizes the apartheid state in three elements:
The detail of inhumane acts is widely known and documented:
Finally, the violence in Gaza is directly resulting in a disproportionately gendered effect. I was proud to participate in International Women's Day 2024 which centered Palestinian Women under the theme "No One is Free Until We Are All Free."
Tens of thousands of women and children have died as a result of the violence; 70% of the deaths in Gaza have been Women and children. Ignoring the genocide is resulting in the disproportionate loss of life amongst the Palestinian Women and children of Gaza. The violence is resulting in reproductive harm to countless Women giving birth in inhumane conditions.
I am committed to standing stalwart on the side of justice and against genocide. Our path forward must be through multilateralism and commitments to international peace and justice.
This includes: