Charles Roach, human rights advocate, dies at 79

Charles Roach was a human rights activist and lawyer who fought for migrant rights, battled systemic racism and advocated for equality in community halls, on the streets and in court.

A leader in Toronto’s black community, he died of brain cancer Tuesday, still fighting to gain Canadian citizenship without swearing an oath to the Queen. He was 79.

One of the founders of the original Caribana festival, Roach played an important role in creating civilian oversight of the Toronto police force. He also encouraged non-whites to run for public office.

He did this as a landed immigrant of more than 50 years because he refused to take the oath to the Queen as part of Canada’s citizenship ceremony. He began a fight to have the oath removed in 1988, a cause he continued until his death. The uneasy relationship between the TTC and Metrolinx thawed a bit Wednesday, when both sides announced what should have been a no-brainer decision.

But don’t assume it’s now peaches and cream, sweetness and light on the region’s most critical file.

While the province, through its regional transit body, Metrolinx, will own the four new LRT lines in Toronto, and while Metrolinx will seek a privatesector partner to finance, build and maintain the lines, it is the TTC that will operate the sleek new cars and direct all tunnel movements, as it does now with other transit operations.

Yes, the province, Metrolinx and the TTC had to summon the media to TTC headquarters Wednesday to tell us what should have been the absolute minimum arrangement between the region’s transit expert (TTC) and the upstarts (Metrolinx).

Just last week, the province announced it was going ahead with an unworkable plan, sidelining the TTC in favour of the private sector. In effect, you would have the prospects of two operators running side-by-side service, possibly stepping on each other in normal times and conflicting with each other in emergencies.

Then, there was talk of separate fares, different levels of service, two separate transit control dispatching nerve centres; constant conflict. Rightly, TTC chair Karen Stintz was agitated.