Victim of his Neighbourhood, Revite Rezoning and SDP Funding - RPTV Weekly News #11

By Fred Alvarado and Adonis Huggins
(Fred and Adonis are journalist with the Focus Media Arts Centre)

Hosted by Fred Alvarado and my Co-hosts are Murphy Browne, and Jabin Haque, the Regent Park TV Weekly presents news that impacts on Regent Park and other surrounding communities located in the Down Town East neighbourhoods of Toronto.  

Episode 11 for the week of November features segments on:

* •    Victim of his Neighbourhood - Innocent man killed in 2017
* •    220 Oak Street Fires
* •    Priority Report Presented at the 2nd Community Benefits Learning Session;
* •    10 Projects Recommended for Funding in the 2021 SDP Deep Dive Session.
* •    Revite Rezoning Process Presented at Nov 4th, SDP Planning Committee
* •    November 8, 2021, Executive Directors Meeting Explores Support to the SDP and Community Benefits Coalition.
* •    City of Toronto says 31,000 appointments still available for COVID-19 booster shot;
* •    Remembrance Day: Honouring Canadas Black Military Battalion
* •    The St. James Town Corner celebrated 10 years of community achievements;
* •    Events in Regent Park.

Here are a few of the featured stories:

Victim of his Neighbourhood - Innocent man killed in 2017
The Toronto Police homicide investigation has made it clear that Samtar Farah was shot dead based on where he lived, not who he was.
The 24-year-old Humber College student was shot and killed four years ago on Easter weekend in Chester Lay, a Scarborough neighborhood that grapples with poverty and gun crime.

After talking to Farah’s family, watching surveillance videos and checking her electronic equipment, Det. Jason Sankaran concluded that this was another shocking case of the death of an innocent young man in a neighborhood brawl that had nothing to do with him.

“It was not personal, he was not targeted,” Detective Sankaran said on Monday after 24-year-old Taufeeq Stanley, one of Farah’s shooters, was given a life sentence. After deliberating for a day and a half, a Toronto jury convicted him of first-degree murder on October 30 after a six-week trial.

Stanley had no known connection to Farah.   In court on Monday, Farah was described by the family as a respectable, humble and generous young man who was “the light of our house.” He was “the embodiment of what is right in the world”, his family said in a written statement. “We are sad and heartbroken about all the hopes and dreams for Samtar Farah.”

Killers targeting victims because they live in the neighborhood is not new or isolated to Toronto. Sometimes they are attached to decades-old beef.

But Detective Sankaran believes that acts of violence directed toward a community rather than an individual are increasingly common and adds that the case provides a window into this type of crime. Following Stanley’s arrest, Sankaran told reporters that the “stupid” murder was the result of an ongoing feud between Toronto community housing complexes: one in Chester Lay, near Victoria Park Avenue and Finch Avenue East, and the other at Parma Court. approx 10 kms. Just south of Victoria Park, just off Eglinton Avenue East.

Sankaran said in 2017, “I would not say that they were targeted, but the community of Chester le Boulevard was targeted by these individuals who came from the Parma court and sought some sort of vengeance for something so alleged minor.”

Farah was living in the TCH townhouse complex with his family in the spring of 2017 and went out to smoke around 1am. He left the front door a little ajar, wearing pajama pants and not carrying his wallet, keys or phone. He walked about 20 to 30 meters into a parking lot on the back of a minibus into a secluded area that others used to smoke cigarettes or utensils.

Abundant video surveillance played for the jury included segments showing the two gunmen “roaming the Chester Lay neighborhood like vultures, waiting for the moment to strike.” Crown’s position was that they deliberately moved to the outskirts of the neighborhood “in search of the right prey, no out in the open, no direct (surveillance) cameras, no lonely.”

Seeing Farah, the pair approached, drew guns. They opened fire and Farah was gunned down in the head and back before fleeing.

When he testified, Stanley admitted that one of the fleeing shooters looked like him and appeared to be dressed in a similar fashion. But, Stanley said that is because he lent his entire outfit, jacket, pants, shoes, jewelry and cellphone to a man who is dead “and is unable to defend himself against these allegations.” Kelway said during his closing speech.

Crown also presented evidence that Stanley had access to two firearms that killed Farah and that his cellphone was in the vicinity of the murder.

The senseless shooting of Samtar Farah in Chester Lay neighbourhood is not unlike the shooting of the triple shooting of three men who were shot as they sat in their car in a parking lot in the Regent Park neighbourhood at the corner of Oak and Sackville in February of 2021, or the shooting death of 27-year old, Thane Murray, that occurred in Regent Park at Oak and Sumach Street, by four unknown suspects in September, 2021.

10 Projects Recommended for Funding in the 2021 SDP Deep Dive Session.

A total of 10 projects were recommend for the fourth and final session of the Annual 2021 SDP Deep Dive that took place over Zoom on the evening of Wednesday November 3, 2021.

The Deep Dive is a unique consensus decision making model, designed by the Regent Park SDP Planning Committee, to determine how $500,000.00 of yearly City funding towards the Regent Park Social Development Plan will be spent.   

Any resident, organization or group residing in or serving Regent Park could submit a proposal to the Deep Dive for any activity, so long as that activity is deemed to improve the lives of residents in Regent Park.

The following is a report on how the 10 projects were selected.

The fourth and final session of the 2021 SDP Deep Dive was hosted by Walid Khogali, who is Co-chair of the Community Building Working Group. Walied had the assistance of Michael Rosenberg, another member of the Community Building Working Group as well as Denise Soueidan-O’Leary from Centre for Social Innovation and Agency Co-chair of the Communications Group.

After introductions, Walied reminded everyone present that if they were a member of staff or receiving honoraria above $500.00, that they would be in a conflict and not be able to participate in any voting processes related to decision making. After some clarifications on who could vote and not vote the meeting continued.  

The task of the evening was to find a consensus way of reducing the budget to $500,000. Taking in consideration of two projects (the safety certificates and the parent training) that were withdrawn and the reduction of Youth Empowering Youth ED salary, the current budget of the projects was approximately $616,000.  

To bring the budget down to $500,000, the facilitators insisted that each group would be asked to make further reductions over and beyond deductions made at the last meeting.  

With $92,000 left to cut and time running out, the facilitators felt that it was time to move from the consensus process to a voting process, the goal of which was to eliminate the least liked project or projects until the budget of $500,000 was reached.  

For the first round, each voting member was given 3 dots to place on their top three projects. After the first round the dots would be compiled and the top four projects would be considered safe. The remaining projects would be forced into another round of voting to determine the ranking of the projects. The lowest ranked projects would likely be cut.

Following the first round of voting, there was some confusion among members on how to proceed.  Some members felt that since all the projects were now ranked that there was no need to proceed to another round of voting.  

Others felt that there should be a second round of voting among the remaining projects.  In the midst of this confusion, a representative whose proposal did not garner much votes in the first round, decided in disappointment that he would withdraw his project and left the meeting.  Without this substantial costing project, the budget was 490, 285.00 and only one remaining project had to be eliminated. The lowest ranked in the second round of voting was the Conversation Pods.  

The project ranking from top to bottom was:

1.Youth Empowering Youth & Youth Enrichment Academy
2. Regent Park TV and Women Engagement
3, Building Leaders, Healing as One and Women’s Health
4. SDP Promotion
5. Regent Park Tours
6. Hawlas Food School
7. The Conversation Pods

10 of the projects will be going to the application stage to the city with the Conversation Pod as a back up in the event that one or more of the projects don’t meet the city’s eligibility.

Revite Rezoning Process Presented at Nov 4th, SDP Planning Committee

The Social Development Plan also known as “SDP” is a major community wide initiative in the Regent Park community. The aim of the SDP is to build social cohesion.  The SDP is led by a Planning Committee comprised of city representatives, market and TCHC residents and community groups and organizations who in turn reports to a larger body known as the SDP Stakeholders Table.   

Tereza Todorova from TCHC began the business of the on-line  November 4th meeting with a presentation on the Rezoning Application for phase 4 & 5 of the Regent Park Revitalization.

According to Tereza, over the next 12 months, TCHC will be consulting extensively with the community to submit a rezoning application next January.

Once the application will be submitted, there will be multiple opportunities for additional feedback and engagement including a city led community consultation that is required by law.

The rezoning application also involves a three-part process and the rezoning submission will be followed with a site plan application and then a building application, both of which require city approval before any construction could begin.  

Tereza reported that architect teams have developed a few ideas for grid design regarding street
and block layout that they would like feedback on and will be continuing with their engagement strategy to seek input.

Towards the end of the meeting, it was proposed to move the SDP Stakeholders Table meeting to December 14 to accommodate community benefits coalition presentation on the terms of reference.  

The end of the year Stakeholders progress update will be held on February 11, 2021,

The Corner celebrated 10 years of diversity and community belonging
The St. James Town Community Corner at 200 Wellesley celebrated its 10th anniversary last Saturday with distinguished guest speakers and outstanding performances from the residents of St James Town.

In May 2011, the Community Corner opened its doors with a fully accessible set of offices, meeting spaces, program rooms and community kitchen dedicated to local initiatives and services to benefit the neighbourhood. This collaboration between residents, public and private funders and service providers is a remarkable St. James Town community success story.

The Corner operates on a unique and flexible grassroots model of service delivery where both service provider and community-led programming co-exist. It is an innovative and collaborative space to inspire change.

Operating out of the Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) building, at 200 Wellesley St. E., the facility was formed by a local steering committee after consulting with the community, committed to improve access for St. James Town residents to services, supports and opportunities to meet, plan and build a strong, healthy neighbourhood.

The main services that are being delivered from the Corner are employment, settlement and health promotion for individuals, families, youth and seniors.
 
The success of the Corner was made possible by Toronto Community Housing, which made the space available to the community, provided staff assistance and a Social Investment Fund grant to support governance training.   Happy 10th anniversary!