What you loved and loathed last month
Future Perfect
Our giant September cover package on “The Post-Pandemic Future of Everything” provoked a lot of discussions on a variety of topics. The majority of readers were encouraged to see hopeful ideas emerge from the crisis.
“I love the premise of these articles about a city emerging better with ambitious ideas. Nicely done @torontolife!”
—@barbtassa, Twitter
“This is a great collection of thoughts on how Toronto (or any city, for that matter) could change for the better after the pandemic. What is your favourite? Number 24 [‘A basic income will bring millions of people out of poverty,’ by Michael Coteau] would be an amazing start...so many others that are great, too!”
—@WWongtweet, Twitter
“How Toronto could change—for the better—after Covid. THIS. IS. A. MUST. READ.”
—@CorbinSeligman, Twitter
“The wide-ranging articles on how to improve Toronto really boil down to a single, overriding view: Toronto needs to copy the successes of Nordic states like Finland, Sweden, Denmark and, to some extent, Holland. They have all implemented and successfully used for generations the ideas proposed by your contributors. This is nothing new. What is new, however, is that our obsolete and destructive ideological belief in capitalism as the only useful ideology must be tossed out as garbage, and a human-centred, instead of profit-centred, view of politics has to replace it.”
—Hendrik S. Weiler, Port Perry
We ran 20 essays in print and closer to 30 online, and the subject range was vast and varied, but some readers quibbled with what they felt was missing from the package.
“The future of EVERYTHING? Really? No live music? No musical theatre? No opera? No ballet? No symphony? Just the film industry? And of course the ever-present laser focus on restaurants. Hardly everything.”
—Lou Pomanti, Toronto
“I was utterly shocked that the post-pandemic article in your September issue completely failed to mention the brutal effects of this virus on the arts and the changes that will inevitably occur within arts organizations. Twenty essays later and no discussion of what the ballet, opera, symphony, live-music venues and theatre companies that survive will need to do to come back stronger after the toll and devastation this virus has had on the lives of all artists. Shame on you for ignoring this huge sector of economic importance in Toronto. You can’t call yourself Toronto Life if you exclude the best parts of life in Toronto.”
—Bridget Hunt, Toronto Symphony violinist
“Did you have to ask all the lefties? Couldn’t you find one dissenting voice? Jeez Louise…”
—the_raoul_duke_99, Instagram
“Cool illustrations! Just missing a few tents, maybe a needle or two… chainsaw?”
—2kmd2, Instagram
And at least one reader wondered where all the money would come from to execute the ideas.
“Going over the different ideas, I was surprised that most required government spending in the billions. Low-cost Internet, child care, pharma care—these endeavours may be worthy of consideration when Canada is flush with cash, but that is not the case.
“With a huge (and ballooning) deficit, there are only two ways to pay for these programs: more debt (unsustainable) or a huge
increase in taxes. None of these projects seemed to address a simple question: Where will the money come from?”
—Marcelo Sagel, North York
Boat People
People love to hate Kevin O’Leary, so “Tragedy on Lake Joe,” which looked at what happened the night of the O’Leary boat crash in Muskoka last summer as well as the aftermath, evoked a lot of unpublishably angry responses. The PG version here.
“This was a really interesting read on a boating accident, but also rich people have a different definition for ‘cottage’ than I do, apparently.”
—@sesmith, Twitter
“If it’s true that the O’Learys didn’t identify themselves, that troubles me. How we choose to react in moments of crisis betrays our view of the world. With obvious injuries to fellow cottagers, the O’Learys chose to look after themselves, demonstrating little concern for the welfare of the others.
“I have witnessed people in tragic accidents whose first concern, if they were okay, was to do everything in their power to ensure the safety of the others. Sure, the O’Learys may not have been able to help much, but could they have given their names and cellphone numbers, could they have called 911 immediately, could they have followed the boat to the resort or offered that the group dock at their cottage a few feet away and have the ambulance come there? What the O’Learys did was hunker down in their estate and pay lawyers to clean up their mess. That decision tells me all I need to know about their character.”
—Jackie Powell, Kingston
“Love or hate O’Leary, there’s good indication that the other boat didn’t have its navigational lights switched on. I would venture to say that switching off the lights, if that is what in fact occurred, was the proximate cause of this incident. I feel sad for the lost lives, but being out on a lake at night in a boat with no lights is a grossly negligent action on behalf of the boat’s operator.”
—Patrick Vieira, Facebook
School Daze
There was mixed reaction to Raizel Robin’s exposé on education in the time of Covid. Most readers agreed that the TDSB’s rollout of online learning was lacking.
“This is the best article I’ve read on the disaster that was TDSB remote learning, and 100 per cent reflects my experience with my kids this past spring.”
—Clare Hein, Facebook
“It was and is a shit show, and I’m furious. We should be withholding our school taxes.”
—Eleni Kapetanios, Facebook
“A cosmic disaster. If we’d asked middle schoolers to run and implement online learning, they would have done a much better job.”
—Edward Nixon, Facebook
Many readers (teachers and trustees among them) felt the article was unduly critical of school boards and teachers, and rushed to their defence.
“Let’s not forget that Lecce gave teachers five days’ notice to begin online learning. They had to learn how to use it, ensure all students could log in, had Internet, etc.”
—Dee Marie, Facebook
“Online learning was the ministry’s plan and idea. If anyone should be blamed for its failure, it’s them, not the school boards or teachers who were just doing as they were told.”
—helenvera7, Instagram
“I did online lessons and had weekly meetings and homework help meetings. Eighteen out of 20 kids showed up right to the end. All the teachers I know did the same. I never gave up on the other two until I felt that I was putting too much pressure on their parents. We are fighting for public education, and this article has done a big disservice to the effort.”
—katefynn1, Instagram
“This author formed an opinion and then sought out stories that supported that opinion. Not our experience at all—my daughter’s teachers provided guidance, work and feedback. Teachers made the best of a tough situation.”
—Glenda MacFarlane, Facebook
“Ontario has had many public institutional issues to grapple with thanks to Covid-19. When problems in long-term care homes and hospitals came to light, we did not fault front-line workers or their unions and professional associations. Instead, we blamed those responsible—senior management and government. It’s difficult to understand why ‘Class Dismissed’ took such sharp aim at teachers and their unions.
“Ontario’s governments have been creating chaos in our publicschool system for over 25 years. Against this backdrop, Education Minister Stephen Lecce’s announcement that marks could not be lowered from where they stood prior to the Covid shutdown gave students licence to prematurely disengage from school, undermining the efforts of teachers throughout the system.
“Teachers are union members, but we are also children to our parents, and parents to our children. During the pandemic, we have
watched over our aging parents, cared for and homeschooled our children and still continued to meet our teaching responsibilities.”
—Joel Gardner, high school math teacher, TDSB
“Good summary of education in the TDSB, but the article seems unnecessarily harsh on teachers. In my humble opinion, the real culprit is the Ontario government. The province provided little leadership on how to reopen schools, leaving it to school boards to decide. That was fine until they kept rejecting the TDSB’s plans.”
—Joel Hertz, former school trustee
“As a parent and an educator, I was astonished at ‘Class Dismissed.’
All parents who were working from home had to adjust their schedules and lifestyles due to the closure, teachers included! And they also had to find a balance between teaching their classroom and their own kids.
“The school closure was a time for parents to work with teachers toward a common goal: their children’s education. We didn’t ask for a school closure. Honestly, it’s easier to be inside a classroom, educating children. And do you know why? Because children don’t whine and complain as much as their parents do about working as a team to accomplish something.
“I cannot believe the amount of complaining that I have heard from parents. So what did they do? They stopped having their children learn instead of spending a few hours with them to assist with their learning. These are the things we do in a classroom every day, along with managing behaviour, large-group and small-group instruction, taking care of socioemotional needs, providing a safe environment, feeding them...
“Yes, live, synchronous teaching is important! However, it’s not the be all and end all that Lecce sold it as. Anyone who took the time to listen to the impact it could have on an educator’s personal and professional life could understand that.”
—Libby Ricci, Toronto
“Let’s be clear: spring was not online learning; it was emergency learning. Teachers’ hands were tied due to ministry guidelines, technology limitations and more. Teachers were also guided in twoweek chunks, which made it difficult to plan. This was an unprecedented pandemic, and no one knew what to do. Many teachers worked hard to do the best for students, with little guidance or support. Let’s not vilify all.”
—Sarah Kinney, Facebook