RPTV WEEKLY NEWS – (Episode 44) Regent Park's Miguel Avila Free of Charges of toppling statue.

Welcome to RPTV Weekly News Show, Episode 44. In this weekly news show hosted by RPTV reporters Allanis Inguillo, Ryan Field, Fred Alvarado, Jabin Haque, Kedar Ahmed, and Victoria Nanneti, we present news that impacts on Toronto's Regent Park and the surrounding areas.

Episode 44 features segments on:
* Report of the January 17th SDP planning committee meeting (01:41 min);
* The Employment and Economic Development Working Group Meeting of January 17, 2023 (17:16 min);
* Regent Park community receives a $60,000 Opportunity Fund from the Metcalf Foundation (26:21 min); Relocated Swansea Mews Tenants Prioritized Over Regent Park tenants for Revitalized Units (32:34 min);
* Regent Park activist Miguel Avila free of charges in toppling of Sir John A. Macdonald statue (35:38 min);
* TTC fares will increase by 10 cents per ride (37:17 min);
* MPP Krystin Wong Tam speaks to Regent Park Community about urgent issues facing area residents (38:55 min); Covid-19 and Vaccination Update:
*  1.    City of Toronto reflects on pandemic response three years after Toronto’s first confirmed case of COVID-19 (43:37 min)
*  2.    2. The Burn: reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic through art (46:22 min); Events, Jobs and Employment Opportunities (48:35 min).

This week’s lead story:
Activist Miguel Avila of Regent Park, who participated in the removal the  Sir John A.
Macdonald statue from Gore Park in Hamilton, has had his charges dropped.

In August of 2021, Miguel Avila-Velarde was one of approximately 200 demonstrators who had gathered in Hamilton's Gore Park to protest the city council's decision not to remove the statue of Sir John A. Macdonald. Protestors pulled the statue down using ropes tied to the statue's neck. The statue was further vandalized by a  grinder, hammer, and had the face was painted red. As a parting gesture, cedar was scattered over the face.

Macdonald, who was Canada's inaugural Prime Minister, was one of the key architects in the creation of the residential school system. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2007), has since declared that residential schools participated in a form "cultural genocide" against First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples. As a result of his actions in toppling the statue, Miguel Avila-Velarde  was  charged with  mischief exceeding $5,000 in relation to the incident after surrendering to Toronto police following the release of his photo by Hamilton police.

Although Avila-Velarde was one of four people suspected in the incident, that the Hamilton Police were investigating originally as criminal mischief, he was the only one charged.

In the final episode of the case against  Miguel Avila-Velarde, Charles Spettigue, a Hamilton lawyer (who represented Miguel) confirmed that Crown has determined that “it wasn’t in the public interest to proceed” with the case against his client, and more to the point, the police were unable to locate any of the other suspects.