McGuinty sends hostile message to TDSB about black-focused schools, Kevin Lyman tells Vancouverites that Warped Tour is not playing this year in YVR
The issue behind black-focused schools still erupt and it will likely to do so for some time until the TDSB (Toronto District School Board) obeys Dalton McGunity’s message telling them to stop starting black-focused schools. This story is like the “Young and the Restless” to me. This story came after the TDSB came in favour on starting a pilot project on black-focused schools and this has angered some people, even Dalton McGuinty the premier of Ontario and most of all, Kathleen Wynne the minister of education. McGunity gave a message to all Torontonians about the issue. This is what he said in an interview: “The good news for Torontonians is they have now 18 months … to put a stop to this,”
Still, the opposition criticizes Dalton McGuinty for being a “hypocrite”. John Tory, the Conservative leader for Toronto (who currently doesn’t have a seat in the legislature at the moment) told in an interview that the board made a honest mistake. He still criticize Mcguinty for not taking any action “to back up his own words”. This reminds me about Tory’s plan to provide funding to faith-based schools, which a number of large people greatly opposed at. McGunity is not prepared to put a stop on black-focused schools, but he’s also against the plan at all.
The government will not fund the project set up by the TDSB, which is valued at $850,000 CDN (or $855,260 US using the rate of $1 CAD = $1.00619USD at the time of the posting of this blog). It’s up to the school board to fend for themselves, despite suffering an deficit of $41 Million CDN ($41,253,710 US or roughly £435,000 GBP).
By all means, this is all about segreation. We don’t want to happen all over again 40 or 50 years ago, when there was a clash about white people and coloured people in the United States. That’s when the late-Martin Luther King stepped in and change the way how African-Americans deal with the way of life. We don’t want a similar scenario happen in Canada, ever.
Changing gears, I had stumbled an article on the Warped Tour website posted by the founder of the tour, Kevin Lyman. He announced that there weren’t unable to secure a venue for the Vancouver date of the 2008 Vans Warped Tour. This marks the 3rd time that the Warped Tour wasn’t held in Vancouver in 7 years. The only times that the tour wasn’t held in Vancouver was in 2000 and 2001. This had dismayed many Vancouverites who think that the tour is a “lifeblood” of the Vancouver music scene, but others think that management has gone too far. I felt sorry for all of those Vancouverities. Now it’s up to them to go down to Seattle, Washington (2 hours away) for the Warped Tour date or Calgary, Alberta (8 to 10 hours by car!!!). To see the official statement from Mr. Lyman, please read there: http://www.warpedtour.com/warpedtour/news.asp?id=1437587
The dates for the Warped Tour meanwhile have been posted. You can do so here: http://www.warpedtour.com/warpedtour/news.asp?id=1437579
While the drama about black-focused schools continue and at the same time that Vancouverites felt sad about the Warped Tour not being held in their city, I’m just going to relax at home away from the bad weather we had today. Keep warm, guys!!!
References:
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/299431
http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20080131/Africentric_school_080131?hub=TorontoHome
http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/National/2008/02/01/4805784-sun.html
http://www.thestar.com/News/article/299106
http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5iz6YzAEXwt9_HD7HRHyQQ9ZnghHw
http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_19096.aspx
http://ca.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idCAN3022622920080130
http://www.canada.com/windsorstar/news/editorial/story.html?id=2fd27dc4-1a83-4695-8998-0fd2760c518b
And all my, all my faces are alibis, And me, I’m half the man I wanted to be.
With people with disabilities on the spotlight, I have decided to profile two people whose disabilities could not stop them from performing their profession they love. Those people are David Onley, a former journalist for CityTV and currently Lieutenant Governor of the Canadian province of Ontario, Sam Sullivan, the mayor for the City of Vancouver, British Columbia and Stephen Hawking, a famous physicist known for his research about “black holes”. I know this is a very serious topic, guys but they are many people all across the world who has a disability, either they are seeing/hearing impaired, quadriplegic, austic, aspergers syndrome, A.D.D., P.D.D. and other disabilities not listed on this blog. Many of those people need to deal with the challenges everyday and needed a way on how to overcome those challenges. So onward, I’ll talk about the three famous people with disabilities.
First off. I want to start with David Onley. You people might recognize him long time ago, when he was a journalist for CityTV in Toronto. At some point, you might see him on his electric scooter when he is doing a newscast. Other times, he uses his leg braces and canes to walk, but not that far. He is now the Lieutenant Governor of Ontario. From my experience, he is the first and only person with disabilities taking that role. His plan for future is to make places in Ontario accessible for people with disabilities. That means, all physical barriers to all 1.5 Million Ontarians and focus on other issues affecting the disabled and many other things. For his part, I would like to send my thanks to Mr. Onley for the role.
Sam Sullivan, on the other hand is somewhat completely different, to my humble opinion. For those of you who don’t know who Sam Sullivan is, he is the mayor of Vancouver, British Columbia. You might see him waving a big flag that he accepted on behalf of all Canadians, when he appeared at the 2006 closing ceremonies in Turin, Italy (at that time, it was the Winter Olympics). He became quadriplegic at the age of 19, when he broke his neck in a skiing accident. He is a very powerful advocate for the physical disabled. For my part, I believe that Mr. Sullivan has all the willpower to survive for the challenges he faced everyday, like Mr. Onley.
And last but not least, who can no one ever forget, Stephen Hawking. He is known for his role about “black holes”, quantum gravity and cosmology. Using his computer attached to his wheelchair, he can control things all with his body movements. The generous support he received was very overwhelming. Hawking suffers from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis or in simple terms, Lou Gherig’s disease. Back then, he was in an accident when he fell down a flight of stairs, hitting head on. Doctors performed a diagnosis when Hawking was 21 years old and feared that he wouldn’t survive. Over time, he lost his ability to use his voice, legs and arms. He is now (almost) paralyzed from the effects. But those effects wouldn’t stop him from doing the research about astronomy and he is very known about his research about the “Black hole”. To my contrary belief, he is very popular.
Overall, that’s my opinion about these people with disabilities. I was planning to cover one more person who has disabilities, but i don’t want to spoil this particular blog posting. I’m talking about Mr. Aaron Solowoniuk, a drummer for the Canadian band, “Billy Talent”. I will cover that on my next blog posting. Anyways, I can imagine if Mr. Onley, Mr. Sullivan and Mr. Hawkins were to organize a special summit about people with disabilities, that will raise awareness. Finding out where the summit should take place is anyone’s guess.
References:
