tonight on the agenda that's how people who receive social assistance and ODSP describe it as being trapped in a web you're stuck there's no way out then later on the agenda I haven't paid rent for almost a year it's sitting in the bank waiting to be paid it's not that I don't have it and we've asked people to save it we have it it's we're asking for better living conditions in 2017 the then liberal government introduced a three-year pilot program to assess the merits of giving people what's cal
led a basic income people in Hamilton thunderbay and Lindsay Ontario jumped at the chance to take part but the tides turned just a year later when the newly elected conservative government cancelled the pilot program now the Ontario superior court of justice has certified a class action claim against the provincial government for that decision with us for more in Nimo British Columbia Wayne luchuk professor emerus of the school of Labor studies and the department of Economics at McMaster Univers
ity in thunderbay Ontario Bonnie chriso coordinator of the thunderbay poverty reduction strategy at Lakehead social planning Council in Lindsay Ontario Dana Bowman a basic income participant and one of the plaintiffs of the claim and here in our studio Steven Maro partner at the law firm cavalo LLP and one of the lawyers of the class action claim Steven thank you for coming into studio with us and thank you so much for those joining us on the line now before we get into the conversation we wante
d to remind our viewers what Ontario's basic income pilot project was the pilot included 4,000 residents in the Hamilton Thunder Bay and Lindsay areas of the province to qualify participants had to be lowincome earning less than 34,000 as a single person and less than 48,000 as a couple a single participant would receive up to almost 17,000 per year and a couple would receive up to a little more than 24,000 per year the first phase of enrollment was completed in the spring of 2018 Dana thank you
so much for joining us again we're going to start with you you were one of the participants for this pilot project can you remind us why you decided to sign up for the basic income pilot project well with signing up to the basic income pilot they were looking to gather some data and to be able to measure if this program would possibly work so it was a study uh for our mental health uh healthy foods uh just work if that applied to folks so it was getting involved in gathering data and out of tha
t my Hope was to help change and the St and show a need for basic income Bonnie you worked closely uh with people who for the pilot project is it a similar story that Dana had had sort of just told right now as to why people in Thunder Bay were signing up for the program definitely and of course one of the other reasons was people were hopeful to be lifted out of poverty they were hopeful that a decent income over the next three years which is how long the pilot project was supposed to last woul
d be enough income and enough time for them to go back to school get an education a degree or a diploma start a small business so there were dreams and there were hopes and that's what I heard mostly from participants that entered the project from Thunder Bay I do want to ask you Bonnie you know you were on the grounds signing people up reportedly there was some skepticism about the program when it first started um was it challenging to find people to sign up initially not at all actually at the
lake K social planning Council where I work we have a community volunteer income tax program that does where volunteers complete taxes for income taxes for people that earn a low income and many of those people wanted to hop on now of course some of them who were receiving possib possibly ODSP the disability support program income in Ontario were fearful that some of their expenses might not be covered if they were flying to Toronto every two weeks for treatments or whatever the case may be the
re were some people that decided not to join but the greater percentage of people did join and they weren't skeptical when they joined they were hopeful Dana I actually saw you nodding your head when I was asking that question C was there a little bit of skepticism in the beginning or was it that uh sort of description that Bonnie had given for myself I found a lot of it was anybody that was on ODSP I I'm myself a recipient of ODSP with when the pilot was launched so a lot of people thought that
they would be punished or be L their ODSP so it was definitely reassuring people that there was was with informed consent it's like this is what this is going to happen for you you're not going to lose your ODSP if you decide to sign on you will not have it removed from you when the program is over so it was definitely going around my community and confirming with people this is not what's going to happen because of myself and let them know my steps with being an ODSP recipient and the informat
ion was shared lost to to let people know because there was a lot of rumor there was a lot of people fearful to step away from I I guaranteed what they think is their income so they were very fearful of uh that those steps all right Wayne I'm going to bring you in we've talked about the Ontario Disability Support Program ODSP there's also Ontario Works ow uh these are just some of the province's uh support social assistance programs how are these different from basic income yeah I mean certainly
basic income uh covers all of those uh uh programs that are in existence but basic income was was far more I mean Not only was it delivering uh money to those kinds of folks it was also covering a whole new group of uh of of Ontario citizens who were engaged in insecure uh low-wage precarious employment uh these are the people who are working in the gig economy uh they were on short-term uh contracts working through temp agencies um and they didn't have any real income security so they weren't
on ODSP but they also were in a very insecure situation so the basic income gave these people people who were working a floor below which they they they couldn't fall and that floor then gave them opportunities I think as both uh Bonnie Dana has pointed out to to to be a bit entrepreneurial to go back to school uh to take long-term strategies to be maybe a little bit more selective about what jobs they took uh and to try and find a job that better match their skills and also their long-term uh a
spirations all right let's talk legal talk Stephen uh the announcement came down to the cancellation in 2018 took effect in the spring of 2019 that's when you come into the picture what happened after that in terms of a class action claim so I am the lawyer U one of many lawyers acting on this class action a class action was commenced Dana who who you sp spoke to is one of four individuals who started the class action and what she's contending is that this uh pilot project was also a legal contr
act that binding legal contract was entered into between her and the 4,000 or so basic income recipients that they would receive the three years and that in exchange for the three years they would give themselves entirely to this program we hear of the hopes and the aspirations from some of the other guests here they had the participants had to give themselves to this program and they had to be convinced to join this program for we claim three years and when you cancel a program like that one ye
ar into the three years that is we claim a breach contract all right the court has recently certified the claim can you tell us a little bit about how how is that different from years ago well 5 years ago we had started the claim and uh just as the class members had hopes that were dashed we had hopes that the class action would be some way to remedy some of the some of the problems uh and uh class actions take time so where we are today is Dana and the three other plaintiffs have now been told
that they can represent the 4,000 individuals it sounds very technical and I guess it is technical but it's it's also Monumental so they get to act for the 4,000 they get to turn to to Ontario and say we are going to take you to court we are going to get uh we hope a remedy uh for for what you did not just for us but for all who participated in this program all right Dana I'm going to bring you in what was life if you can paint the picture for us what was life like before you started the basic u
h income pilot I like the question thank you uh standing in food banks shopping de olds stealing from Paul to pay Peter and then back from Peter to pay Paul I call it like living like a millionaire when I would receive my ODSP by the time you're done your bills groceries you it may be a treat be something very small you'd be broke you were really struggling after after that 24-hour period because it's such a the income at that time for me before the pilot was $600 and some dollars for my what's
called basic needs from right ODSP that's what I live off of a month so it is a real struggle to be able to you know um haircuts buying things over the- counter medications there's a real struggles there that are so invisible and outside like I've mentioned with getting basic income was buying new bras and underwear not secondhand so it's there's a lot of things that aren't talked about too with low income so when you're standing in a lineup you're really trying to make sure there's so much sham
e on your heat on your you you're afraid to know have a knp at the tail and then people beside you might be going oh because of the time of the month that you're shopping judging what you're putting on that conveyor belt so there was a lot going into this do you mind helping us paint the picture of what it was like while you were on the project uh I know you you it was a lot of family time from the stories that I've read you got a chance to really spend some quality time with your family tell us
what how much were you how much were you getting uh when you were on the project a month and and what were you able to do with that so when I received the basic income I'm a single person so and I have a disability so I qualified for the full amount entitled to my group so I received $1,915 and7 some cents I think I can't remember the last two digits um after I paid my rent I was left with because I'm fortunate that I live in uh social housing so my rent was adjusted according ly to my income s
o that went to my rent went to $65 that left me with $1,400 and x amount of dollars and oh I could eat healthy I could go to my farmers markets and even buy um herbs and bedding plants to continue growing things that you I wasn't doing before so gave me so many more opportunities including I wanted to get my daughter up on her feet she lived over an hour away I wasn't buying a car so I wanted to be able to have that she's an hour away so you get driving you get your vehicle and you can come get
n so and then once she I was babysitting for her to take her driver's education so I was being able to afford to come to my daughter's home look after those kids bring food contribute to that table and not take away from them this Easter weekend's been tough just I couldn't do it um sorry that's all right so it uh and then once I got her going it was me to get back into school I wanted to go back to college and get my social work and go after well get go after it that's for sure but um yeah sorr
y I just no that's all right I'm gonna actually pick up Bonnie uh when Dana was explaining the story you were nodding your head uh because I know that you know a lot of people who've had the same sort of experience can you tell us some stories of people in the community in Thunder Bay who've kind of had all that hope had some really great things happen and where they are right now absolutely I I think also too what Dana said about feeling trapped I I just want to reiterate that's how people who
receive social assistance and ODSP describe it as being trapped in a web you're stuck there's no way out but with this program there was a way out and Dana talked about buying brand new underwear and brand new bras and there was a woman who was um in her 50s and had never in Northern Ontario bought a brand new coat and she was finally able and you know after 50 odd years able to buy a coat there was a young couple who were earning minimum wage and both working and they decided they were going to
start a small business they were I have to smile when I think about them because of the amount of hope they had they had a really good business plan they had gone to the bank um they had discussed with the bank the amount of money that they needed and how they would pay that back it was going to to work um and then of course after a year those dreams were gone um and there were other um stories of single parents that were able as Dana said to share share the wealth literally with their families
people that were able to help support their brothers their sisters their children their grandchildren I mean this is what parents and grandparents want to do is is is make sure that their kids and their grandkids are doing okay and that costs money most of the time so again these are the stories that personal stories that were um you know just people filled with hope and then of course just gone immediately and we had no explanation that was really tough that I think was hard as an organization
that was uh instrumental in making sure people hopped onto the pilot project we had no answer for them afterwards well I'm going to bring Wayne in Wayne you completed a study of those in the Hamilton area who were of the project help us uh understand what were your findings well I think not surprising almost everybody who was on the on the on the basic income uh reported uh positive outcomes uh their physical health was better uh their mental health was better uh they adopted healthier Lifestyl
es so they they were able to to fill their prescription drug um scripts fully they ate better uh they SM smoked less they drank less um they had a better outlook on life and I I I think you know Dana has really pointed out this the sense that if you're in poverty you know you're feeling like a secondary citizen in your own society and suddenly with basic income there was a sense that you know people cared about us uh and that there was a path to a better future and to be frank that just made peo
ple you know more employable it gave them you know they they they did better things they contributed to society some of that may have been through the labor market but also you know they they took care of sick children and sick sick Partners um you know they contributed to society and in all it was just a positive experience and it's a real tragedy that this was uh interrupted uh uh prematurely to be very honest with you Stephen I'm imagining this claim has picked up some steam I'm assuming othe
rs have reached out to you because of the claim what else have you heard from those folks similar stories similar stories to what you've heard from the from these guests uh stories of starting businesses and having to throw the product away uh stories of starting schooling and having to stop the schooling uh because you can't commit you can commit when you think you have the money's coming in for three years when you've been guaranteed the payments for three years and then you can't maintain tha
t commitment when the monies are no longer coming in and the promise and our and our respectful submission was broken so those are the kinds of stories we're hearing we're hearing those kinds of stories very same stories that you're hearing from Dana and from the other guests I know you can't give me specifics on the numbers but I'm imagining there are a lot more people who are calling you I mean uh hundreds maybe thousands I can't give you the precise numbers there are 4,01 individuals who were
paid monies from the from from the class action uh it's not easy for some of these individuals to even get a hold of us uh we have to go out into the communities to find these individuals and I've certainly met uh my colleagues have met hundreds uh possibly over a thousand uh just in in our in our touring of the province and uh the stories they tell are just are just heart uh heart-wrenching and uh it's an honor to to try and find a way to help and it's an honor that we're we're getting there a
ll right Wayne there have been studies to show that basic income might not fix the issues that create poverty how well do we know whether basic income could be effective in the long term well certainly the all the evidence we have not only from our study but also from other studies the experiment in in Dophin in in Manitoba shows that you know giving people a floor below which they can't fall economically opens up opportunities for them uh and it's not going to solve everyone's problem uh there
you know there are some people who are are going to be participate in in our current labor market but it's pretty clear that basic income opens doors for a lot more people to become productive in our society to participate in our society to have uh a positive experience and so I I don't think you you know it's not going to solve everyone's problem but it is going to solve a lot of people's problems Bonnie the basic income project was an estimated at $150 million uh that's a big chunk of money uh
doesn't matter how how you look at it um but the provincial government at the time said it could not support it at the time what would you say say to those who say the province can't afford it well first of all ethically speaking The Province can't make profits off of the people's backs who are living in poverty so enough money has to go towards people who are not meeting the social determinance of Health as was mentioned already um you know the other thing is that um we also need to understand
that poverty costs a lot of money it costs this country about 8 billion dollars a year so when we're comparing apples to oranges here when we talk about 150 million to8 billion dollar and you know each taxpaying citizen in Ontario is paying a few thousand dollars a year towards poverty so it's economically a wise decision um and again just people meing the social determinance of Health being able to participate in society um happy to go to work being able to raise their children in an environme
nt uh where there's opportunities and good experiences um is always a good thing I'm going to come back to you how is you you sort of shared a little bit about this but how is life different now than before you were part of the pilot uh you know when when you were given hope and it was sort of Taken taken from you they it's actually a lot tougher than it was before because I knew I had that money to live healthy and when it was cancelled my mental health took a major nose dive so and with the pr
ice of everything that is going up at the grocery stores when I looked at a had a cauliflower for $5.99 the day old now I feel like I got to fight my neighbors and you got to be there when the doors open and it's just I can't handle it I can't I honestly can't handle it I just it is so hopeless feeling because of the price of what's going on in those grocery stores and then like I said I'm fortunate that I live in housing but I look at what's going on for rents for people and what where they're
expected to live how are they supposed to afford this it's the hopelessness has been added majorly layers major layers because everything just keeps going up and my increase my income they say it did increase I went from six something and I and I'm sorry I don't remember the exact numbers to now 700 and something with basic income I'm still earning less than what I was given on basic income I live off of something 700 and some dollars a month God forbid that I need to go and get um poly sporn or
antihistamines or a new bra just even laundry I'm I go to my daughters so I can get caught up on laundry because remember I steal from Peter to pay Paul and Paul doesn't have it left to steal back from so I do my level best and it just yeah it's hard it's tough all right we have couple more minutes Stephen I do want to get some updates from you uh in terms of this case how much longer will this case be in front of the courts and more importantly what's the most important message that you want p
eople to take away from this claim good questions I mean cases like this take years so I can say years it's taken five years in one appeal and back to the Superior Court just to get certified so now we're into a whole other process where we get government uh documents we get government Witnesses we get to learn a little bit more about what happened on the inside and uh so that that just Tes takes time what's the most important takeaway I mean we've heard from the from the other guests about the
importance of basic income RIT large and and so on for the legal side of things I think the important takeaway is when a government makes a promise to individuals in solemn form in this case signed agreements what we allege I think Society also has to exper to AC accept or or expect sort that government's going to keep their promises and in this case uh I know it was change of government I get that governments change hands uh governments uh change policies and that's all fine and good but promis
es in exchange for drawing people into a program like this is another matter I think we think and expect our governments to fulfill their contractual obligations from a lawyer standpoint from a rule of law standpoint from an accountability standpoint that's the big takeaway legally all right speaking of government we also wanted to let people know that we did reach out to the minister of children community and Social Services to join us and for a statement uh but didn't receive a response in tim
e for this discussion all right Dana I have about 30 seconds left and I know that's probably not enough time uh for the the question that I'm going to ask you but what would you like to say to those who may not know the impact that basic income had on your life I got have quality time with my family I got to experience being financially secure and being able to budget and not have the shame and I felt the stigma was gone of poverty low income it felt removed and that was a very empowering feelin
g that I could take control over my life and where it was going um with that with the basic income I had an opportunity to about my own future we are going to leave it there Dana Bonnie Wayne stepen thank you so much for joining us on this conversation for a very important conversation thank you take care thank you amid rent strikes in a number of buildings in Toronto we went to hear from some members of the York South Weston tenant Union about what's fueling their actions people are exhausted p
eople just in their home ultimately and they feel like this big Corporation this landlord wants them gone tenants across the GTA are engaged in rent strikes du to what they say are unsafe and unfair conditions above guideline rent increases are at issue this means landlords raise rents above ENT Aral government rates and although Property Owners say they're within their legal rights to upgrade the buildings some long-term tenants may not be able to afford to stay or pay inflated market prices el
sewhere Charlene Henry is co-chair of the York Southwest and tenant Union representing residents of 1440 and 1442 Lawrence Avenue West and 33 King Street where she has lived for 20 years she and other tenants say the situation they're facing amounts to Legal neglect so our rent and strike um started on June 1st 2023 and it's still going strong we're heading into our 11th month on April 1st oh my gosh time has gone by it means that we have withheld our rent and gave demands to dream unlimited our
landlord our three demands were to do away with the above guideline increases that were pending a commitment to no more above guideline rent increases and rent abatement for the construction that was going on which at that time was our balconies and windows which was about 18 months of no Balon constant jackhammering and the paint job that they did so it was a lot of work happening and even something as simple as us having access to an elevator was very scarce because one elevator would be on s
ervice for the workmen and one would be on service for the maintenance people in the building so we'd have two elevators in a building with 420 units and about a, people living here which is insane 200 units started with us on the rent strike on June 1st there have been hiccups along the way it hasn't been easy to maintain is outlook on what's going to happen we know there's a legal process H going to happen and some folks have a legal process happening but dream unlimited will say there's no re
nt strike in this building the rent strike is still about 150 units in the building very strong they're like concluding myself I haven't paid rent for almost a year it's sitting in the bank waiting to be paid it's not that I don't have it and we've asked people to save it we have it it's we're asking for better living conditions and really something that's affordable and Suits the needs of this neighborhood and the folks who live here dream unlimited sent TVO a statement that reads in part when
dream acquired 33 King Street there were three existing above guideline increase applications pending approval these applications were submitted by the previous building owner for work that was largely completed between 2016 and 2018 the ysw tenant Union is encouraging residents to withhold their rent and asking them to breach their obligations under the law they are not acting in the best interest of the residents and they are risking their ability to continue living in their homes it is irresp
onsible and unethical the landlord and tenant board is the appropriate Forum to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants s sadik has lived at 1440 Lawrence Avenue West for the last 5 years he's an active advocate for tenants in his building it's not an individual it's a collective matter here so always we believe that we are stronger together there to me on the rent strike is see I am a person who obeys the land of law of the land I've been paying my rent from 2018 till we started the stri
ke though I was not here I used to pay by auto payment and I have not defaulted even one day till now I used to pay on the first so a person like that should be treated with respect and what I need to live right we are human beings we need to live in a better way here we are living like animals because the condition of the some of the units are so bad you can't even imagine and the rents are soaring the main idea of the landlord is to evict the old people and bring in new people to get more rent
so for me I will be on this R strike till it Whatever It Takes first of all if you see the exterior of the building the street number is not there that itself is a violation as per the Canadian postal code law that's one thing second thing is you could have seen this corridors when you walked out they are so bad the carpet is so old they've never been replaced the smell in the corridor there's no exhaust system there there's no pressure coming in that's actually affecting our health the third t
hing is if you see in reality the bathrooms in some of the apartments are so bad the bathtubs are broken and uh mold cockroaches rodents this is getting on our nerves and again the cupboards are broken most of the cupboards are not fixed our appliances are not fixed properly they in spite of repeatedly asking the landlord to do it and if you see the flooring is Ren flooring and building is about 30 40 years old it's peeling out and coming in our hands children are getting hurt because it hurts t
heir legs if this this kind of floor is going to you know peel here and there since 2021 we've gone under extensive Renovations we've had our balconies redone our windows in all of the units replaced and the building be painted this white gray Cobblestone is this this this look so the building looks completely different um anyone who googles our building will see a brown building um from years ago and we feel as the Ten Association that the renovations are just a look because when you go into un
its it's not the same especially folks who've been here for four plus years they're not getting the same units that new people are coming in unfortunately and when there are repairs to be done feet are dragged to get these repairs done people they're not willing to for me I've been in my specific unit for 14 years now and if I were to ask for my new counters I'd be given a hard time we know that we live with it because it's the way the unit is but it shouldn't be that way people should who are l
ongtime good tenants should be able to get their units renovated and that's what we have in this building people who stay here for a long time they love the community Michael Cooper is the chief responsible officer of dream unlimited owner of 33 King Street he spoke in the House of Commons on 2023 about his approach to affordable housing over the last three decades governments have significantly reduced their investment to create affordable housing for many years purpose-built rental housing for
the private sector was not a viable investment and the government wasn't doing it sehc projects that 5.8 million homes will be needed by 2030 with a supply gap of 3.5 million housing units at an estimated $550,000 per unit it's going to cost 3.2 3.2 trillion to fill that Gap I believe that one of the impediments to solving the crisis is a lack of understanding of how much capital is required to actually address it since 2019 in Toronto development charges for two-bedroom apartments have increas
ed by 47% hard costs have increased by 45% and interest rates have increased by 204% current uncertain markets make it very difficult to attract risk Capital to build new rental housing today these conditions affect all providers of housing where they whether they're not for profit governments or private we recognize that this is a shared problem with each sector having different levers and roles in delivering the solutions to unlock Supply across the housing Continuum this will require coordina
tion among all levels of government and throughout all the various sectors we all live together and I think that there is so many people who don't feel that they belong so we're talking now about housing and I think housing is sort of the the hardware that we need people to have respectful housing so we try to do a lot of things so that people in our communities people who live in our buildings plus the people in the surrounding area feel good and I think it's one thing that's not focused on as
much is is that what does it feel like when you're a resident or you live in an area and when we do our designs we really try to focus on what's it going to feel like for the people who are living there as well as the adjoining areas so it it it's really difficult to deal with the soft side and think about what is it that everybody needs and and I think what we're really missing in a lot of this is people have to feel good about their lives and I think it's all of our shared responsibility to do
that dream unlimited's only owned us since 2021 I believe we've had different owners along the way and the renovations started happening major Renovations so people are frustrated people don't understand when they're going from a percentage increase of 1% a year sometimes nothing to 5 7 8% they don't understand why is my rank going up this this much so the ten Association we decided that we were going to educate people on how the system works how the laws in the landlord's favor and why we keep
getting these increases that are above what you Google and say what is allowable for the province of Ontario this year and I feel like that 2018 2019 2021 agis which is what we call it cuz we know it so well frustrated the heck out of people we went into a pandemic we had two then Doug Ford went on TV and said no rent increases in 2021 but we had some because above guideline increases were the loophole for it and we just felt like it's a way of getting around rent control because we are a rent
control building we're built before 2018 we're built in the 60s a way for them to charge us more rent especially to longtime residents like myself was to give above guideline increases Rasheed lmata has resided at 1440 Laurence Avenue West since the 1980s during the strike he's received several eviction notices for withholding rent and asking for repairs to his two-bedroom apartment where he lives with his wife and four children I feel we have to be all together and we have to fight to back all
tenant right and I know York Southwestern ten Union strongly support us right and my associate support very and I hope we are to get a fight and back we resolve this matter so the landlord tenant board when we do our training and we let people know about the process at the landlord tenant board be it for anything you're taking your landlord to court saying that they don't repair your unit we always say landlord comes first there's a reason the landlord usually wins the landlord comes in with the
ir high price lawyer and a tenant will come in sometimes just on their own a tenant will come in with maybe some sort of Legal Assistance or even a tenant Union like us just trying to walk them through the process right now we are in a process where people have been served with l1s which are noticed to evict due to irar in rent that is pretty serious and we know it's due to holding back funds for the rent strike so people need to be educated a lot of people people don't know um unfortunately wha
t happens at the landlord tenant board I because of the tenant Union I've have been on many in person at the landlord tenant board and on many calls um on Zoom with folks who just are going in and thinking if I say this it'll be okay it's such a legal process and as tenants we don't have enough um organizations out there that are supporting tenants this is why our tenant Union started to support tenants not only through a legal process but something as simple as getting a pipe fixed in their uni
t because some people just don't know how to go about it and are afraid most tenants that I speak to are afraid of their landlord the corporation the person the mom or pop they're afraid because they need somewhere to live they don't want to be homeless so they'll do whatever it takes to remain where they are starting from October we have made a lot of progress because I just want to give you a feedback of what the building was the the other building which is 1442 uh Canada Post stopped deliveri
ng mail for last 3 years because the condition was so bad and then uh the few people who are vulnerable who can be you know easily attacked by this notices of N5 N4 N15 or whatever the from LTV some renters have received eviction notices these include an N4 a notice to evict due to non-payment of rent or AAR an N5 a notice for interfering with others damage or overcrowding and L1 eviction due to non-payment or arar Carmen codell was locked out of her home without proper notice she hadn't receive
d an N4 due to Canada Post refusing to deliver mail to her apartment in response The Building Association arranged to occupy the 1440 Lawrence Avenue S property management office until the situation was resolved we had a very peaceful sitting it was a 72-hour all deal it was national news in fact in many channels it came and of course we wanted to give them a message that you know we you cannot just tell something and get away with it so we were uh in the office till we got the keys there were a
bout six batches of police coming and trying to convince us and everybody when they came they came with Force they were they were very annoyed they said you have to go out or we'll arrest you but when they heard our case when we gave them the representation they understood the police was with us they said fine as far as it is uh peaceful we're not going to disturb you so after 72 hours the case was heard in LTB and the we won the case and a keys was given back right TVO reached out to Barney Riv
er the owners of 1440 1442 Lawrence Avenue asked for comment but they failed to respond see this is already Gathering momentum we had a meeting last last month this is from all the unions tenant unions across the country so this is catching momentum and everybody is involving in this this is the need of the A and this is the Talk of the Town now so what I would say from others is we have to be together to be stronger if you're going to not fight this together we never going to mean this because
these landlords are corporate people and theyve got a lot of say because of their wealth and their power my message to all tenant please join together we have to stronger together and we fight back for our rights whatever our rights we win if we join together we win former leftenant governor of Ontario Lincoln Alexander saw something profound in the Young Troubled Quinton versetti before anyone else did 20 years later that's who's been commissioned to create a sculpture of the late great man her
e's that story so it's really significant that I was commissioned to make this statue now and this Monument now because it's at the end of a 10year period uh when the United Nation declared service towards the black community around the globe and is also during the time period where so many monuments are being taken down of colonial figures and oppressive figures uh that were put up without public consent and so to make this statue of a Great Canadian who has such a big impact is so important th
ere's a guy hey Mr Link so my name is Quintin versetti I am a visual story and artivist artivist is is an artist who uses their work to speak on different social issues so essentially it's activism and art going together I definitely want to say the person who really started my journey in social justice with my mom uh who made sure I I learned about different black leaders and and people looked like me and who were making better decisions and how I could follow in their footsteps as well we're a
t the Lincoln M Alexander Secondary School which is named after the great man who I made a statue of I haven't been here over 15 years 109 oh my God oh my gosh I remember this room this used to be where we had detention this was like the behavioral room I was considered what you would say the at risk youth or a trouble team uh wasn't making the best decisions someone who really supported me was my best friend and brother Rory who really was trying to steer me towards the right direction but I wa
s a little bit too stubborn at that time I was kind of trying to be the cool kid but also I was very smart I was very creative but I just didn't know how to apply it in a way that made sense and so I would often skip classes and I was hanging out in the hallways here I ended up being expelled and I witnessed a friend of mine being killed he was shot and the trauma from that really set me into a spiral and you know I went on a long journey of trying to find myself it took me about 3 years to get
back into school it was my best friend Rory was like hey man just get your high school diploma you know and trying to keep me on a positive route and so he convinced me to get back into school and and uh there was an art program called the remix project and then I ended up applying and getting in and I met an amazing person named Amanda Paris who uh connected me with all these amazing people and that is actually the first time that I learned about afro futurism through remix and graduating the r
emix project it inspired me to finally really apply myself and get my high school diploma and during that time period I was doing workshops in the communities and here in m in Rexel uh with with Rory to help Inspire young people like ourselves from doing all that work I got the governor general award and that opened up so many doors I got a burer and a scholarship from there and that led me go to oad university 2017 I was trying to figure out what I was going to do next I was like hey man I feel
like I did everything I traveled the world did exhibitions here and there I don't know what's next you know I got an email from Concordia University and they said they want to offer me a scholarship to do my masters with them to expand on AF futurism I was like man I don't know man I don't I don't I don't know if I want to go back to school and uh Rory and he's like do it man just do it bro I'm so proud of you he's like yo go to Montreal do the thing man keep growing he's like bro this is what
I love about you you're always growing and he said to me in a text message he said just just keep growing cute and that was his last text message that he sent me Rory passed away from a brain anism a few days later and ever since then I just kept going and no looking back just keep growing so that's all my social media handles and that's the philosophy all that really propeled me towards um really building a name for myself in af futurism and so Carnegie Hall in 2020 contacted me and we were tol
d that you are the guy for AF futurism so AF futurism is an aspect of Storytelling and the practice of exploring the future while honoring what came before and it's doing it through an apocentric lens so we're using ideas from ancient Africa and Proverbs and Concepts so things like Ubuntu which means I am because we are which is uh from South Africa or concepts like San kova which is about the connection between the past present and future so there's so many different concepts and uh it's really
exploring some of these philosophies and ideas but with intentions for the future nice to meet you man nice to meet you my man I want to give this to you okay thank you as a token as being a student of the school and just learning about your your life story and your experiences it inspired me because you know coming from a challenging marginalized neighborhood right you had someone to believe in you and apart from your mother God chose you to come out of the come out of the community right and
make something of yourself when students look at that and says hey if he can make it I can make it yeah and it's like Le Alexander said I can I will you will y Hi how are you I remember in your face and I remember you very well Quinton right yes yes yes welcome to your old hunts wow same room right yeah hasn't changed wow so yeah you were in my grade 11 class if you remember the project that we did in class was like a social justice issue and I remembered your artwork that's how I remembered you
cuz I remembered the drawing that you made you did a a drawing drawing of the Black Panther leader really yeah wow so it was always um a social justice topic and I guess that was something that was important to you so when I saw your work I thought wow this is it's come a long way yeah yeah and realize that I wasn't a bad student or a bad person I just was not making the best decisions and thank you for allowing me to to Really tap into uh what later on became my purpose I'm so glad to hear it
it's it's wonderful to see you your work is amazing when I met Lincoln Alexander it was like Queen's par and he said nice to meet you young fellow and he grabbed my hand and it just he his hands was like a a myth a baseball myth and is Eng golf my hand and almost crushed it someone is told me when I shake hands and I'm going to shake hands when you shake hands always put your hand out like that so that your index finger prevents you from being a crush from somewhere and so this is the infamous h
allway right that all of us Cool Cats used to hang out in yeah right by the trophy case y the TR exactly the trophy Cas hang on the trophy case this camera was not here I don't know what it is but something about this this vantage point we used to have a guy right here right who would essentially just peep out and look look to see if there's anyone coming this way and we have another guy over here who also you can't see right and I was with a young lady I was talking to and uh someone's like yo
who is that I step like this you know and he was looking at me we made eye contact and I was like sh I'm not I'm not leaving this is this is my corner this is my school and uh he walked right up to me even strides and I just remember the pants cuz coming from a Jamaican household you have to press your pants you have make sure that crease is good and he's like young fellow can see you do great things mhm I looked up at him like oh okay sure and then he just made an about turn and and walked away
and it's just full circle that you're creating his bus like how did someone come to you it was off of the success of the Joshua Glover statue which was Toronto's first statue of a person of African descent and uh that got a lot of attention they asked me to to give a proposal right and I think Main it's my connection to Lincoln right uh not just meeting him obviously coming to the school and also just a concept of I had of taking an Al a futuristic approach is really the thing that everyone lik
ed because Lincoln often spoke about thinking about the future exctly right and and how we should work towards a better future right and so uh the way I wanted to tell his story and not just him being the lieutenant governor but also being the first black MP being a foundational trailblazing lawyer and and and being a veteran and all those things I wanted to include all those things well I included all those things in the bus and so they really L that idea and that bus like as I was saying it th
at it the picture doesn't do it justice I have to go and see it it's a 360 experience yeah how' you manage just to get the likeness like I mean the wrinkles and alled obviously all credits to the family they they gave me a lot of great input right obviously a lot of great pictures you know asked his daughter uh his granddaughter and uh and his his daughter-in-law like does this feel right right you know how does this feel do you feel like his presence is here you know um and then also in reading
this book go to school you're a little black boy you know I walked down some of the pathways that he walked kind of really get the sense of his his energy in his life you know I went to his gravide and all those different things you know did all that extra work and really asked him when I went to the Grave side I asked him like how do you want to be represented you know and and uh due diligence you went to his grave site and you spoke to him and he spoke to you back when I entered the school I
have them right in front of my okay link that's what they call them right link I'm starting the day off be with me yeah you know and and it's and it's so empowering because we're creating future Lincoln Alexander future people who want to be successful y the main thing I'll say about the statue and the reason why all a lot of my work is so high detailed is cuz I think about the young men who I was with and the young man I was right and I'm like what can capture that young man's attention so it t
ook me about 6 months to make you and I made it out of bronze and I chose bronze because bronze lasts forever it's a material that uh has its roots in ancient Africa and the bronze color is actually one of Lincoln's favorite colors yeah I mean people keep finding new connections of uh its link to afha futurism but the main con uh connections to AF futurism is a Bas and because Lincoln often is thinking about the future and the base is actually inspired by spaceship in Star Wars which uh Lincoln
actually went to go see uh when it premiered back in 1977 also these medals here were future medals that he would get after became lieutenant governor so this is speaking to his future and then the crest on the back also is a reference to afha futurism as the design is also inspired by a spaceship and then the Adin symbols around the crest or in the crest are also uh futuristic because they speak to this ancient African past but being presented uh in a futuristic context and this left side of hi
s jacket is what is called a Ked cloth this pattern uh was given to him in Ghana when he went in 1960 and it pays homage to his journey being inspired by quami nakuma and he gave this fabric to his wife and so this is also a tribute to his wife who inspired him so the glasses uh were a hybrid of multiple glasses so this also could be seen as being AF futuristic it's based on some of the designs of the glasses that he had when he was lawyer then when he became an MP and then when he became lieute
nant governor and then later on when he became Chancellor of uh University of gu link also refers to his name and also everyone nicknames his Highway in Hamilton as the link and so the design that I have in his eyes is kind of like a signature of mine where I really want to capture the depth of his gaze but also capture his Iris really speaking to this humanness and then also the twinkle in his eyes because it always seems like he's looking into the light and I have him smiling because almost ev
ery picture Lincoln's always smiling he's known as a being a cheerful person he brings smiles to other people's faces and so I really want to humanize him and make it very different from all the other statues here at Queen's Park uh by have him smiling and showing some teeth uh I wanted to put his order of Ontario as a central focus and then have his Order of Canada on his right side to kind of speak to this idea of his service in Canada is is of equal um equal weight per se and kind of balances
out and then obviously his service in the military uh stands alone and it also equivalent to his journey uh and experience in Africa CH chest yeah so the medals on his chest are definitely of great importance especially this uh order of St Lazarus which speaks to his work to help people in need and the less fortunate and how it kind of resem and actually equals out to his Order of Canada and his service here to our country thank you thank you for seeing something in me before uh I saw something
in myself thank you for speaking Truth uh into me and inspiring me to be who I am and giving me a purpose tomorrow on the agenda hmcs aipa has been shrouded in local controversy remember that $6 million price tag to bring the vessel over well the museum took out a loan to pay for it that's tomorrow on the agenda
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