Saturday, Nov.
4
An amazing all-live tribute show
WEATHER HIGH 7 C | CLOUDY, SHOWERS | MAP A20
ISRAEL-GAZA CONFLICT
Gaza toll rises as war widens
Israeli forces fire artillery shells into Gaza on Sunday from a position near the border with the besieged Palestinian territory.
A N A LYS I S
If Israel destroys Hamas, what happens next?
A L L A N WO O D S
S TA F F R E P O R T E R
Israel has killed the head of the
Hamas military council.
It has killed the first woman elect-
ed to Hamas’s political bureau.
In retaliation for the Oct. 7 massa-
cre that killed 1,400 people in Israel
and saw more than 200 others tak-
en hostage, the head of Hamas’s
national security force has been
killed, as has its chief hostage nego-
tiator, its economy minister and the
THE KIDS ALL RIGHT
Hungry for a better start in Canada
Aryna’s family fled war in Ukraine. The food bank is her grocery store
A LYS H A H H A S H A M
S TA F F R E P O R T E R
There is a children’s play area in
one corner of the food bank. A toy
kitchen with a little red spatula. A
basket of books by a small table
with mismatched chairs.
Seven-year-old Aryna is uninter-
ested. She prefers to stick close to
her mother’s side.
“I like to help my mom pick out
different things,” she says.
Most mental illnesses develop during childhood and early adolescence.
Half begin by age 14, and three-quarters by age 24, making the early
years a crucial time to prevent or lessen the impact of mental illness.
Donate to help us change mental health care forever.
heads of general intelligence, of
weapons production and of inter-
national relations.
Numerous commanders of Ha-
mas’s military wing, the Qassam
Brigades, have also been “eliminat-
ed,” as the Israel Defence Forces
says in announcing the deaths on
social media.
These deaths are, of course, but
handfuls among the thousands of
Palestinian civilians, women and
children who have died during the
Israeli bombardment of Gaza.
Apples are a favourite. Aryna had
two small ones for breakfast but
that’s all she would eat before
school. Her mom, Iryna, shakes her
head. It’s hard making sure her fam-
ily has enough to eat and harder still
getting a strong-willed child to fill
her belly when options are limited.
Aryna is certain she knows every-
thing. She’s been that way since she
was two. She insists the Harry Pot-
ter movies aren’t too scary. She re-
fuses to practice her reading be-
GI L COH E N -MAGE N AFP V IA G E TT Y I M AGE S
And there are Israeli bombs and
bullets that have been set aside for
Hamas’s more elusive top leader-
ship: political chief Ismail Haniyeh,
and military head Mohamed al-
Deif and Yahya Sinwar, who runs
the Gaza Strip.
As Israel embarks on a military
campaign to destroy and dismantle
Hamas, one thing grows clear: kill-
ing individual members of the
group is, in many ways, the easier to
achieve part of that mission.
SEE HAMAS, A10
cause audiobooks are better.
But her mother is grateful for one
thing: Aryna doesn’t know what a
food bank is. She doesn’t know that
her parents worry about putting
food on the table.
Aryna didn’t choose to be here.
She didn’t want to leave her home in
Ukraine, her hamster Businka
named for her beadlike eyes, her
family’s goats that she loved to feed
and the goat cheese she loved to eat.
SEE KIDS, A6
8:00 p.m.
p
Roy Thomson Hall
Tickets available
Call 416-872-4255
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023
Canada urges ‘truce’
in effort to allow
humanitarian aid,
release of hostages
TO N DA M ACC H A R L E S
OT TAWA B U R E A U C H I E F
OT TAWA Canada is calling for a
humanitarian “truce” after a week-
end where Israel’s army expanded
its ground operation in Gaza and
the U.S. stepped up diplomatic ef-
forts to prevent the deepening con-
flict from spreading more broadly
in the region.
“We need an agreement from all
parties to get foreign nationals out,
including Canadians, to release all
hostages, and to allow food, fuel and
water into Gaza,” Foreign Minister
Mélanie Joly said in prepared re-
marks for a foreign policy speech
Monday.
According to a draft of her speech
shared with the Star, Joly said the
Canadian government is trying to
assist the exit of about 400 Canadi-
ans trapped in Gaza, and is still
searching for two missing Canadi-
ans who could be among an esti-
mated 239 hostages that Israel says
were kidnapped by Hamas during
what Joly condemned as “terrorist
attacks” that launched the latest
war.
“As a government, we have a duty
to bring them to safety. And that is
why we need humanitarian pauses,
INSIDE ahumanitarian truce, in Gaza,” Joly
said.
Desperation The use of the term truce by Joly
in Gaza does not appear to mark a major
Thousands shift for the Trudeau government.
break into A senior government official,
warehouses in speaking on background on condi-
search of basic tion of anonymity in order to speak
needs from candidly, said it is an effort to com-
trickle of aid municate Ottawa’s intention more
shipments A3 clearly given many were confused
by the use of the term “humanitari-
an pauses” last week.
SEE GAZA, A4
C U LT U R E
Friend indeed
to those in need
FULL
INDEX
A2
ON0
Perry hoped to be
remembered most for
helping others battling
with addiction B8
ON0 ON
A2 | NE WS
G R E E N B E LT S C A N DA L
New documents
to be revealed
Freedom of information request expected
to shine light on controversy around PCs
ROBERT BENZIE
Q U E E N ’ S PA R K B U R E A U C H I E F
Premier Doug Ford’s $8.28-billion
Greenbelt land swap scandal — al-
ready under criminal investigation
by the RCMP — is about to enter a
new phase that has Progressive
Conservatives worried.
Thousands of pages of documents
are expected to be released Monday
under freedom of information leg-
islation that could shine more light
on a controversy preoccupying the
government.
As first disclosed by the Star last
week, Municipal Affairs and Hous-
ing Minister Paul Calandra has
been moving quickly to clean up the
mess he inherited from predeces-
sor Steve Clark, who resigned from
cabinet in September.
“Paul’s doing the right thing, but
you can’t really pre-empt what’s
coming,” said a senior Tory, speak-
ing confidentially in order to dis-
cuss internal deliberations.
That was a reference to Calandra’s
surprise cancellation last Monday
of Clark’s changes to official city
plans in Hamilton, Barrie and Otta-
wa, as well as Peel, York and Dur-
ham regions, among other munici-
palities.
Those boundary amendments —
against the wills of local councils —
were designed to increase the
amount of urban land zoned for
housing development.
But Calandra expressed concern
about how the properties chosen to
S T. L AW R E N C E S E AWAY
Unifor says COVID-19 vaccine available
tentative
deal reached
to end strike
THE CANADIAN PRESS
A strike that shuttered operations
through the St. Lawrence Seaway
for the past week came to an end on
Sunday as both the union and em-
ployer announced they had
reached a tentative contract with
help from federal mediators.
Neither the St. Lawrence Seaway
Management Corp. nor Unifor
shared details of the proposed
agreement, but both sides were un-
der pressure to resolve the strike
that halted the shipment of cargo
through the heavily travelled corri-
dor.
The premiers of Ontario and Que-
bec had called on Ottawa to inter-
vene if federally mediated talks
failed to bring about a quick end to
the walkout by Unifor members.
Terence Bowles, president and
CEO of the Seaway Management
Corp., said the agreement was “fair
for workers” and “secures a strong
and stable future for the seaway.”
INDEX
Sections
A News & Business
B Business & Culture
Regular features, puzzles
Bridge, B7 Opinion, A13
Comics, B9 Scoreboard, A19
Crossword, B10 Sudoku, B10
Deaths, B4 TV listings, B7
Editorials, A12 Weather, A20
Horoscope, A20
Columnists
Cox, A16 Mallick, A13
Lisi, A20 Watt, A13
be included were selected.
“Ultimately … what we should be
guided by is the provincial planning
statement. The reason I made the
decisions to reverse some of those
changes to official plans is because I
didn’t feel that they met the spirit
that is important to bring public
trust with you,” he said last week.
“When reviewing how decisions
were made regarding official plans,
it is clear that they failed to meet
this test.”
The Tories have been scrambling
to undo the damage caused by the
Greenbelt affair since the summer,
Ford’s most politically miserable
season since winning power in
June 2018.
In August, separate reports from
the auditor general and the integri-
ty commissioner concluded “cer-
tain developers” were “favoured”
when the premier decided to open
up 7,400 acres of the two-million-
acre protected Greenbelt for hous-
ing construction.
The legislative watchdogs ex-
posed a flawed process in which
Clark’s chief of staff, Ryan Amato,
personally selected the properties
chosen to be removed from the
Greenbelt after meetings with de-
velopers.
Amato resigned two weeks before
his boss finally stepped down on
Labour Day.
Another minister, Kaleed Rash-
eed, and a top aide, Ford’s housing
policy adviser Jae Truesdell, have
also been forced to quit.
Free flu shots and updated
ABHIRAJ LAMBA
S TA F F R E P O R T E R
The Ontario Ministry of Health
says that starting Monday, resi-
dents across the province will be
able to receive a free flu shot and
the most recent COVID-19 vaccine.
All Ontarians six months and old-
er can receive their next COVID-19
dose if it has been six months since
their last dose or confirmed CO-
VID-19 infection, the ministry says.
It is safe and convenient to receive
both a COVID-19 vaccine and flu
shot at the same time, according to
the ministry. They added that the
new COVID-19 vaccines now avail-
able — approved by Health Canada
this fall — are specifically designed
to target the XBB variant.
Public health officials expect to
see a “tripledemic” of COVID-19,
respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)
and the flu in the coming year.
“With the expected co-circulation
of influenza, COVID-19 and RSV
over the fall and winter, I encourage
Ontarians to get their COVID-19
vaccine and flu shot as soon as they
can,” said Dr. Kieran Moore, Chief
Medical Officer of Health.
In a released statement, Sylvia
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MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR
Premier Doug While Rasheed was defenestrated
Ford and from the PC caucus, Clark still sits
Housing as a Tory MPP.
Minister Paul On Sept. 21, in a major policy flip-
Calandra in the flop, a chastened premier finally
legislature this cancelled the Greenbelt land swap
month. The scheme.
expected “It was a mistake to open the
release of Greenbelt. I’m very, very sorry. I
thousands of made a promise to you that I
emails from wouldn’t touch the Greenbelt. I
Steve Clark’s broke that promise,” Ford said that
time leading day.
the housing “As a first step to earning back
ministry has your trust, I’ll be reversing the
the Ford changes. We moved too quickly and
government we made the wrong decision … it
skittish. caused people to question our mo-
tives.”
While his contrition appears to be
ST E VE R U SS E L L helping the Tories bounce back in
TO RO N TO STAR public-opinion polls, the expected
F IL E PH OTO release of thousands of emails from
the Clark-era minister’s office has
the government skittish.
Adding insult to injury, NDP
Leader Marit Stiles on Monday
morning is expected to outline how
some developers who attended the
Jones, Deputy Premier and Min-
ister of Health for Ontario said,
“Getting your COVID-19 vaccine
The new and flu shot is the best way to keep
COVID-19 yourself, your loved ones and your
community healthy.”
vaccines now “As one of the most accessible
available — points for care for most Ontarians,
approved by pharmacy professionals are proud
Health to play a critical role in vaccinating
Canada this Ontarians against the flu. With al-
most 5,000 community pharma-
fall — are cies across the province, with many
specifically open early and late, we encourage
designed to every Ontarian who wants a flu
target the shot to get one,” said Justin Bates,
CEO of Ontario Pharmacists Asso-
XBB variant
ciation.
The Ministry of Health also added
that Ontario has introduced its first
publicly funded RSV vaccine pro-
gram for older high-risk adults.
Through this program, they cover
the full cost of the vaccine for adults
aged 60 and older living in long-
term-care homes, Elder Care Lodg-
es and retirement homes licensed
to provide dementia care services.
Ontarians can book a COVID-19
vaccine through participating
pharmacies, public health units or
the Ministry of Health website.
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ACCURACY
The Star’s Public Editor welcomes reader
wedding of one of Ford’s daughter
last year received minister’s zoning
orders (MZOs) that made their
land more valuable.
Reviving an issue that first explod-
ed in February, Stiles denounced
the “corrupt pattern of gifting …
MZOs to well-connected insiders.”
At his news conference last week
to cancel the municipal boundary
changes, Calandra confirmed he
was reviewing all of the MZOs, but
stressed “the vast majority I’m not
concerned with.”
Since taking office five years ago,
Ford has used the orders that over-
ride local planning authorities
more times than the previous Lib-
eral, Progressive Conservative and
NDP governments did in three de-
cades.
Last week, Stiles made Tory MPPs
visibly uncomfortable during the
legislature’s question period when
she taunted them by recounting
that Ontario PC Fund chair Tony
Miele sold $150 tickets to the bach-
elor party for the fiancé of Ford’s
daughter.
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LOT T E R I E S
Sunday midday
Pick 2: 4 4
Pick 3: 1 5 6
Pick 4: 5 4 1 9
Encore: 3923521
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TORONTO STAR MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023
ISRAEL-HAMAS CONFLICT
Thousands storm aid warehouses
Gaza residents rush to secure basic needs as Palestinian death toll surpasses 8,000
WA FA A S H U R A FA ,
S A MY M AG DY A N D
K A R E E M C H E H AY E B
D E I R A L- B A L A H , G A Z A S T R I P
Nearly three dozen trucks entered
Gaza on Sunday in the largest aid
convoy since the war between Isra-
el and Hamas began, but humani-
tarian workers said the assistance
still fell desperately short of needs
after thousands of people broke in-
to warehouses to take flour and ba-
sic hygiene products.
The Gaza Health Ministry said the
death toll among Palestinians
passed 8,000, mostly women and
minors, as Israeli tanks and infan-
try pursued what Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
called a “second stage” in the war
ignited by Hamas’ brutal Oct. 7 in-
cursion. The toll is without prece-
dent in decades of Israeli-Palestin-
ian violence. More than 1,400 peo-
ple have died on the Israeli side,
mainly civilians killed in the initial
attack, also an unprecedented fig-
ure.
Communications were restored
to most of Gaza’s 2.3 million people
Sunday after an Israeli bombard-
ment described by residents as the
most intense of the war knocked
out phone and internet services
late Friday.
Israel has allowed only a trickle of
aid to enter. On Sunday, 33 trucks
carrying water, food and medicine
entered the only border crossing
from Egypt, a spokesperson at the
Rafah crossing, Wael Abo Omar,
told The Associated Press.
After visiting the Rafah crossing,
the chief prosecutor of the Interna-
tional Criminal Court called the
suffering of civilians “profound”
and said he had not been able to
enter Gaza. “These are the most
tragic of days,” said Karim Khan,
whose court has been investigating
the actions of Israeli and Palestin-
ian authorities since 2014.
Khan called on Israel to respect
international law but stopped short
of accusing it of war crimes. He
called Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack a seri-
ous violation of international hu-
manitarian law. “The burden rests
with those who aim the gun, missile
or rocket in question,” he said.
The Israeli military said Sunday
that it had struck more than 450
militant targets over the past 24
hours, including Hamas command
centres and anti-tank missile
launching positions. Huge plumes
of smoke rose over Gaza City. Mil-
itary spokesperson Rear Adm.
Daniel Hagari said dozens of mil-
itants were killed.
Hagari, who said ground opera-
tions were intensifying, also reiter-
ated calls for Gaza residents to
move south, saying they’d have bet-
ter access to food, water and medi-
cine there. “This is a matter of ur-
gency,” he said.
Israel says most Gaza residents
have heeded its orders to flee to the
southern part of the besieged terri-
tory, but hundreds of thousands re-
main in the north, in part because
Protesters lend voices to Palestinian cause
B E N CO H E N
ANDMAHDIS HABIBINIA
S TA F F R E P O R T E R S
Anti-Israeli slogans of pro-Pales-
tinian protesters reverberated
through the downtown core Sun-
day as they marched to the beat of a
drum, some crying, while waving
placards and flags.
The sprawling and boisterous
four-hour rally followed similar
protests Saturday. The demonstra-
tions took place as a deadly war
rages in the Middle East that has
reignited fierce public debate over
the decades-old conflict between
Israelis and Palestinians.
On Sunday, numerous groups lent
their voices to support the Palestin-
ian cause.
“From Turtle Island to Palestine,
occupation is a crime,” organizers
proclaimed over loudspeakers as
the protesters joined in.
The event began peacefully in
front of the U.S. Consulate on Uni-
versity Avenue. Protesters cleared
Smoke billows from buildings in the Gaza Strip Sunday following an Israeli bombardment.
Israel has also bombarded targets
in so-called safe zones. More than
1.4 million people in Gaza have fled
their homes.
The Hamas military wing said its
militants clashed with Israeli
troops who entered the northwest
Gaza Strip with small arms and an-
ti-tank missiles. Palestinian mili-
tants have continued firing rockets
into Israel, including toward its
commercial hub, Tel Aviv.
The aid warehouse break-ins
were “a worrying sign that civil or-
der is starting to break down after
three weeks of war and a tight siege
on Gaza,” said Thomas White, Gaza
director for the UN agency for Pal-
estinian refugees, known as UNR-
WA. “People are scared, frustrated
and desperate.”
UNRWA spokesperson Juliette
Touma said the crowds broke into
four facilities on Saturday. She said
the warehouses did not contain any
room for young families and se-
niors. Organizers, leading chants
from the bed of a truck equipped
with a speaker system, guided the
procession through major down-
town arteries.
At points, floods of protesters
overtook several blocks of Yonge
Street, from sidewalk to sidewalk —
and up scaffolding, too.
Early into the march, the crowd
neared Queen’s Park, where a small
contingent of counterprotesters,
waving flags, sat quietly. The group
was no more than two dozen peo-
ple surrounded by a protective
band of police officers that out-
numbered them three-to-one.
In the wake of the Oct. 7 Hamas
attack against Israel, politicians
and advocates in this country have
bitterly debated protests in support
of Palestinians. Some said such ral-
lies were inflammatory in the wake
of the Hamas assault and seemed to
minimize the suffering of its vic-
tims. Others insisted these protests
serve to draw attention to the plight
fuel, which has been in critically Injured
short supply since Israel cut off all Palestinians
shipments. arrive Sunday
Israel says Hamas would use it for at Nasser
military purposes and that the mil- Hospital in
itant group is hoarding large fuel Khan Yunis,
stocks for itself in the territory. Gaza. Among
That claim couldn’t be indepen- the thousands
dently verified. of Palestinians
One warehouse held as much as killed in the
80 tonnes of food, the UN World conflict so far,
Food Program said. It emphasized most have been tors.
that at least 40 of its trucks need to women and
cross into Gaza daily just to meet minors,
growing food needs. according to
U.S. President Joe Biden in a call the Gaza
with Netanyahu on Sunday “under- Health
scored the need to immediately and Ministry.
significantly increase the flow of
humanitarian assistance to meet
the needs of civilians in Gaza,” the A H MA D
U.S. said. H A S A BA LL A H bodies were brought to the nearby
Israeli authorities said they would G E TT Y I MAG E S Nasser Hospital, according to an
soon allow more humanitarian aid
to enter Gaza.
of Palestinians, who’ve lived under Sunday’s
Israeli occupation and blockades protest began
for decades, as well as the human
toll of Israel’s bombardment of Ga-
at the U.S.
za, which has claimed thousands of Consulate on
lives. The international community University
has warned of a growing humani- Avenue and
tarian crisis in the region. continued
The weekend’s demonstrations,
here and globally, drew supporters through major
from numerous communities, who downtown
offered widely disparate reasons arteries
for attending and articulated a
range of views on the conflict and
their hopes for the region.
Organizers of the Palestinian
Youth Movement, which led the
rally, demanded that Ottawa end all
aid to Israel, called for a ceasefire in
the mounting war and an end to the
“17-year siege in Gaza.” It plans to
stage protests every week until
Canada acquiesces.
“The people of Gaza are effective-
ly living inside an open-air prison,’”
said Yara Shoufani, one of the orga-
nizers. “We are calling on Canadi-
ans to join us in the streets.”
ON0
NE WS | A3
FA DE L S E N NA A F P V I A G E TTY IM AG E S
But the head of civil affairs at CO-
GAT, the Israeli defence body re-
sponsible for Palestinian civilian af-
fairs, provided no details on how
much aid would be available. Elad
Goren also said Israel has opened
two water lines in southern Gaza
within the past week.
Meanwhile, crowded hospitals in
Gaza came under growing threat.
Residents living near Shifa Hospi-
tal, the territory’s largest, said Is-
raeli airstrikes overnight hit near
the complex where tens of thou-
sands of civilians are sheltering. Is-
rael accuses Hamas of having a se-
cret command post beneath the
hospital but has not provided much
evidence. Hamas denies the allega-
tions.
The Palestinian Red Crescent res-
cue service said nearby Israeli air-
strikes damaged parts of another
Gaza City hospital after it received
two calls from Israeli authorities on
Sunday ordering it to evacuate. The
rescue service said airstrikes have
hit as close as 50 metres from the
Al-Quds Hospital where 14,000
people are sheltering.
Israel ordered the hospital to
evacuate more than a week ago, but
it and other medical facilities have
refused, saying evacuation would
mean death for patients on ventila-
“Under no circumstances, hospi-
tals should be bombed,” said the
director general of the Internation-
al Committee of the Red Cross,
Robert Mardini.
An Israeli airstrike hit a two-sto-
rey house in Khan Younis on Sun-
day, killing at least 13 people, in-
cluding 10 from one family. The
AP journalist at the scene.
THE A SS OCI ATE D P R E SS
A handful of marchers were vis-
ibly moved to tears during the
chanting.
Biniizhii Animkii Kwe, of Fishing
Lake First Nation Treaty 4 in Sas-
katchewan, was one of them. She
told the Star it’s important for her
to be at the protest because Indige-
nous struggles mirror Palestinians.’
“I’m an Indian residential school
survivor,” she said. “I should have
died in there. But I didn’t, I fought
to live. They tried to slaughter us.
Now, look at the Palestinians,
they’re fighting for their lives be-
cause they know they’re trying to
slaughter them. I can’t stand it.
Can’t stand the wickedness.”
Among those joining the protest
Sunday were members of Indepen-
dent Jewish Voices Canada.
“We stand in complete solidarity
with the Palestinian people,” said
Gur Tsabar, a member of Indepen-
dent Jewish Voices, a national Jew-
ish organization that opposes what
it describes as Israeli oppression of
Palestinians.
ON0 ON
A4 | N E WS
ISRAEL-HAMAS CONFLICT
Canada has not supported ceasefire
G A Z A F R O M A1
The official clarified that Joly’s call
is not conditional on all three of
those expectations — access to aid,
liberation of hostages, and exit of
foreign nationals — being guaran-
teed, although the official said all
three elements are what Canada is
seeking.
Any cessation in hostilities —
whether a formal negotiated cease-
fire agreement or a temporary
pause in hostilities that is generally
understood by diplomats as a truce
— would presumably require the
agreement of Hamas and possibly
other Palestinian fighters in Gaza,
such as the Islamic Jihad group.
The Trudeau government has not
supported a ceasefire, believing it
compromises Israel’s right to de-
fend itself militarily against ongo-
ing Hamas attacks.
Canada also does not engage with
Hamas (which it has designated a
terrorist organization) and the offi-
cial said Joly has been working to
encourage Israel and Egypt to facil-
itate such a truce because aid needs
to cross into Gaza at the southern
Rafah crossing.
Public and private diplomacy con-
tinued Sunday as U.S. President Joe
Biden spoke with Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of
Egypt, emphasizing to both the
need to step up the pace and
amount of humanitarian aid get-
ting into Gaza, and the importance
of protecting civilian lives, and pre-
venting a widening war in the re-
gion, according to readouts from
the White House.
Joly’s office said the minister had
been in touch over the weekend
with her counterparts from Qatar,
Israel, Jordan, Australia, the U.K.,
France and Germany.
On Sunday, an official said Joly
also spoke by phone to a Canadian
Israeli army in Gaza who had been there visiting
buldozers cross family, and “heard directly from
into the Gaza them about the dire situation on
Strip on the ground, as well as their anxiety
Sunday. The and frustration about the inability
Trudeau to leave.”
government Joly’s office declined to identify
has said calling the person, for privacy reasons, but
for a ceasefire said the minister conveyed that she
would shared “their frustration” and
compromise spoke about the work she and Can-
Israel’s right to ada’s teams were doing “around the
defend itself clock to secure agreement from all
militarily parties to find a window for Canadi-
against Hamas. ans to leave.”
The Star reported last week Glob-
al Affairs Canada faces sharp crit-
MEN AHEM icism from those trapped in Gaza
K AHAN A for their inaction and insensitive
AFP VI A G ET T Y response to calls for help from in-
I MAGES side Gaza.
The speech Joly is set to deliver at
the Economic Club of Canada in
Toronto sets out what the minister
said is her view of “pragmatic diplo-
macy” — what she defines as en-
gagement with non-aligned coun-
tries or those with “different per-
ON SPECIAL COLLECTIONS
UNTIL NOVEMBER 6TH
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR
spectives” that Canada doesn’t usu-
ally talk to — that she said is
required to confront or prevent
global tensions and conflicts.
The speech also reiterates that the
Trudeau government will defend
Canadian “sovereignty” in the face
of challenges abroad, whether they
are digital or informational, or
whether they are physical or eco-
nomic threats.
All of that is easier said than done.
Ayear after Joly’s revamped Indo-
Pacific Strategy pegged China as an
increasingly disruptive player and
aimed for warmer ties with India,
Joly’s speech Monday acknowledg-
es the India relationship “is facing a
difficult moment.”
She insists the government stands
by its decision “to inform Canadi-
ans of credible allegations” that
agents of the India government are
linked to the killing of a Canadian
citizen.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
revealed to the House of Commons
on Sept. 18 that he raised with Indi-
a’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi
the allegations about the shooting
death of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a
Sikh separatist whom India has
designated a terrorist, and asked
India’s co-operation with the inves-
tigation.
“This is, at its core, a question of
protecting our national sovereignty
and Canadians’ safety,” Joly’s
speech said.
She said the government remains
“engaged with the Indian govern-
ment.”
Yet Ottawa’s efforts have not
yielded many concessions from In-
dia. When India threatened to
withdraw diplomatic immunity
from two-thirds of Canada’s diplo-
matic corps, the Trudeau govern-
ment pulled out 41 of 62 Canadian
diplomats posted there.
In a slight thaw of the troubled
relationship, India modified its visa
suspension for Canadians last
week.
But Joly’s speech does not elab-
orate on how the Trudeau govern-
ment sees pragmatic diplomacy
helping in its India challenge.
Ottawa convinced international
allies to rally to its cause and sign a
protocol against China’s “coercive
diplomacy” as Canada fought for
the release of the “Two Michaels,”
Michael Spavor and Michael Kov-
rig.
But Joly and her department have
not launched a similar effort to
shame India, mainly because Cana-
da’s western allies are averse to a
direct challenge of the Asian de-
mocracy and rising economic pow-
er they want to court as a counter-
balance to China.
Joly’s speech reiterates previously
announced pledges, such as in-
creasing Canada’s defence spend-
ing once the long-awaited defence
policy update is released — some-
thing that falls to Defence Minister
Bill Blair to deliver.
Mayor Chow
Premier Ford
Prime Minister Trudeau

THE WATERFRONT EAST

LRT IS AN OPPORTUNITY
TO SEIZE NOW
On October 31, the City of Toronto’s Executive Committee will be
asked to advance the Waterfront East LRT. We encourage all orders
of government to work together to ensure we build the eastern
waterfront and Port Lands with public transit and maximize the
potential for housing, jobs and new public spaces for the people of
Toronto.

The future plans for Toronto’s eastern waterfront project at least

75,000 new homes for 130,000 more residents, and 50,000
more jobs by 2040. Building the Waterfront East LRT will unlock
this housing and employment potential. This is an opportunity
to help build a more affordable, sustainable, and prosperous
city, province and country. Base map by Stephen Velasco

Each year across the waterfront, the number of new residents continues to grow. The number of visitors is rebounding to pre-pan-
demic levels. Offices and educational institutions are expanding or relocating to the waterfront. With flood protection work in the
Port Lands nearing completion, close to one-third of the waterfront revitalization area will be unlocked for development.

New neighbourhoods can only fulfill their potential if the people who live and work there can come and go easily. Seamless transit
connectivity is vital to make homes, jobs and attractions for visitors accessible. This transit line is critical to connecting some of the
most exciting development opportunities in Canada, from the eastern waterfront through the West Don and the Port Lands. There
are significant affordable housing opportunities where plans call for up to 30% affordable units and density could be increased
significantly with transit connectivity.

The time is now to fund and build the Waterfront East LRT.

Signed,

Basin Media Studios LP Marah Braye, CEO, Nadia Todorova, Executive Director,
Harbourfront Centre Residential & Civil Construction
Jeff Brenner, Partner, Alliance of Ontario
Castlepoint Numa Inc. Dr. Suzanne Bober, Owner,
Harbourfront Chiropractic Max Davidson,
Mike-Paul Neufville Acting Director of Communications & Internal,
& Marya Qasem Zada, Owners, Ken Tanenbaum, Vice Chair, Student Association of
Café Le Neuf Kilmer Group George Brown College

Mark Russo, Corey Persic & Katie Yamamoto, Owners, Ilana Altman & David Carey,
Local Union Coordinator, UBC Local 27, Kinetic Labs Co-Executive Directors,
Carpenters' Regional Council The Bentway Conservancy
Yung Wu, CEO,
Dani Reiss, MaRS Discovery District Carolyn Vesely, Interim Director,
Chairman & CEO, The Power Plant
Canada Goose David Crombie Contemporary Art Gallery
Mayor of Toronto, 1972-1978
Mary Rowe, President & CEO, Andria Babbington,
Canadian Urban Institute Art Eggleton, President & Vice Chancellor
Mayor of Toronto, 1980-1991 Toronto & York Region Labour Council
Marketa Evans, President & CEO,
Colleges Ontario Barbara Hall, Chris Campbell, Chair,
Mayor of Toronto, 1994-1997 Toronto Community Benefits Network
Mitchell Cohen, President & CEO,
The Daniels Corporation John Tory, Giles Gherson, President & CEO,
Mayor of Toronto, 2014-2023 Toronto Region Board of Trade
Drs. Amir & Ali Khadivi, Cindy Caklos,
DentalCentres.com Peter Menkes, Junior Sritharan, CEO,
President, Commercial/Industrial Reign Company
Michael Cooper, Menkes Developments Ltd.
Chief Responsibility Officer, Reece Martin,
Dream Unlimited Christina Iacoucci, President, RMTransit YouTube Channel
NAIOP Greater Toronto
East Waterfront Anjuli Solanki, Program Director,
Neighbourhood Association Armen Nazarian, STEPS Public Art
Founder & Principal Lawyer,
Udo Schliemann, Nazarian Law Professional Corp. Jim Ritchie, President,
Principal Creative Director, Tridel
Entro Communications Inc. Neil Pakey, CEO
Nieuport Aviation Scott Mabury, VP,
Don Boyle, CEO, Operations & Real Estate Partnerships,
Exhibition Place Toronto Jeffrey Maddox, President University of Toronto
Nokia Canada Inc.
Neil Vohrah, Peter Gillis, General Manager,
President, High Rise North America Tim Hudak, CEO Westin Harbour Castle
Great Gulf Ontario Real Estate Association
West Don Lands Committee
Dr. Gervan Fearon, President, Anson Kwok,
George Brown College VP of Sales & Marketing, Arthur Fleischmann, Country Manager,
Pinnacle International WPP Canada
Troy Burtch, Senior Manager,
Great Lakes Brewery Michael Deluce, President & CEO York Quay
Porter Airlines Neighbourhood Association
Shey Clark, Vice President,
Great Lakes Schooner Company RJ Steenstra, CEO Kevin Currie,
PortsToronto Co-Owner & Chair, Waterfront BIA,
HousingNowTO Wheel Excitement
Nathalie Lalonde, General Manager,
Hines Canada Radisson Blu Tim Kocur, Executive Director,
Waterfront BIA
ON0 ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR

A6 | NEWS
THE KIDS ALL RIGHT

Food bank lines getting longer

K I D S F R O M A1

She doesn’t understand how it

could be too dangerous to go home,
when her grandparents are still
there.
Aryna and her family fled with
two backpacks and two suitcases
after war broke out in early 2022.
When they first arrived in Toronto,
they were lucky enough to stay with
a Canadian woman who offered
them refuge.
But they didn’t know how expen-
sive it would be to live here.
Aryna’s dad found a job in IT mak-
ing about $3,000 a month. But most
of his pay — $2,000 — is spent on
rent for their one-bedroom base-
ment apartment in Etobicoke.
Her mom, Iryna, tried to write out
a budget for the rest but it was too
depressing to look at. She didn’t
need a spreadsheet to tell her that,
after internet, household essentials
and Aryna’s dance classes — a small
piece of joy from back home her
parents are determined to hang on-
to — there isn’t much money left
over for food.
So about two or three times a
month, Aryna’s mom heads to a
food bank.
This makes Aryna one of nearly
18,000 kids between six and 12 who
use Toronto’s Daily Bread food
banks annually, a number that has
more than doubled over the last five
years amid growing need.
We know what happens when
kids go hungry — the research,
heartbreakingly, is both endless
and conclusive. It’s harder to learn
and harder to deal with stress. It
increases the risk of health prob-
lems, including asthma, depression
and suicidal thoughts, and makes it
more difficult to manage chronic
illnesses like diabetes.
And yet the number of children
who don’t have enough to eat is
growing. Nearly a quarter of kids in
Canada live in food-insecure
households, according to the most
recent Statistics Canada data.
That’s almost 1.8 million hungry
children. And they are more likely
to be Black or Indigenous and in TORON TO STA R I LLU STR ATI O N U S I NG PHOTOS BY R .J. J OHNSTON A ND H AN DOU TS
households with a single mother as
the sole provider.
Food bank lines are getting longer ABOUT THIS SERIES to. Iryna was shocked at the price of Aryna is Then she giggles.
and some social service workers say apples, among the cheapest things proud of the The past year-and-a-half has been
they have begun filling kids’ back- If Nelson Mandela was right that to buy in Ukraine. hard for her.
packs with food and slipping in gro- Their $2,000 basement is some-
dreamcatcher
there is no keener revelation of a Though Aryna says she likes
cery gift cards. Among the reasons: society’s soul than the way in how a steal. In August, the average above her dance because it is difficult, her
rents that have skyrocketed to re- which it treats children, Canada Toronto one-bedroom listing on bed, made in mom wants the rest of her life to be
cord highs and grocery prices that has reason to worry. Our kids are rentals.ca was $2,630 per month. a summer a little easier. More about catching
are 20 per cent higher than they struggling — and no wonder. From To comfortably afford that home, a camp from a bugs, planting flowers, eating pizza
were two years ago, the latter in education to health care, climate household would have to make at and popsicles, and climbing at the
part due to food production dis- to housing, we are leaving them least $105,000 per year — tens of paper plate playground. Fewer nightmares.
rupted by the very war Aryna’s fam- an inheritance of crisis and anxi- thousands of dollars above the me- and bright One thing Aryna loves about her
ily fled and climate crisis-driven ex- ety. The Star looks at how our dian income recorded in the last string. Asked new home is that she is allowed to
treme weather events. country is failing a generation, the census. if it works, if collect pretty rocks again. There is
Advocates have flagged an abun- toll it’s taking on our kids — and It’s little wonder the proportion of it catches bad no risk of setting off Russian land-
dance of possible solutions. The how we can turn things around. children who rely on food banks mines hidden in the grass at her
federal government could increase For more in this series, go to hasn’t gone down. It hovers consis- dreams, she favourite park.
the Canada Child Benefit for low- thestar.com/news/kids/ tently from 25 to 30 per cent based shakes her Iryna, who was a copywriter in
income families. Politicians could on Daily Bread data but the total head firmly. Ukraine, has been looking for work
take further measures to stabilize numbers have more than doubled but needs to find something that
food prices. All levels of govern- meals for her daughter. They are in five years as more locations have will let her be available for her
ment could do more to create af- among the priciest grocery items. opened. daughter. An attempt to get Aryna
fordable housing. Canada could Iryna can’t recall the last time she The need isn’t equal across the to attend after-school programs
create a national school food pro- ate fruit herself. Apples, oranges — city. A Toronto District School went terribly. She doesn’t like to be
gram; we are currently the only G7 those are for Aryna. Board survey from 2020 found that away from her mother for too long.
nation without one, a failure called Meat, milk and fresh bread are at a in two wards, the majority of fami- Canada is still too new, too unfamil-
out most recently by Mayor Olivia premium, with limited quantities lies with elementary school kids iar. She needs to feel safe.
Chow and Toronto’s city council. allowed to be taken. The beef cuts worried that food would run out “I don’t think we are living a bad
Kids don’t have control over are already gone, so Iryna is left before they could buy more. In oth- life,” Iryna says. She is thankful for
much, including how they are fed. with ground chicken and cans of er wards, it was less than 10 per cent. the donations that furnished their
When they go hungry, it usually sardines. A bag of 10 roti seems heft- The wards in which the need is cosy home. She is waiting for the
means something has gone wrong ier than two pieces of naan. greater are those with more racial- day she can contribute to the food
in the lives of the adults who care When she considers how to use ized kids, reflecting the pattern of bank instead.
for them, and in the social safety net her final points, she is torn. Should inequality made all too familiar But she worries every day that she
that is supposed to catch them. she get more fruit or pick some- during the pandemic. is failing her daughter.
That they suffer anyway is unfair. thing off the treat shelf for Aryna? “I can’t give you your childhood
It’s unjust. Easy concepts for a kid Five dried fruit snacks. A bag of Aryna is old enough to know what back,” Iryna says one day when Ary-
to grasp. It is much harder to ex- Goldfish crackers. She chooses a she had before and what she na can’t hear. She didn’t mean to
plain why no one will fix it. carton of fruit cups. doesn’t have now. A room of her start crying but her tears fall into
The money Iryna does spend on own, rather than a bed in the living her mug of tea before she can wipe
It takes three buses to get to the food goes to things more difficult to room where a couch should be. No them away.
food bank in South Etobicoke. find at food banks: Ukrainian buck- matter how fluffy or pink her blan- Iryna looks at her fridge, adorned
Aryna isn’t a fan of buses. “They wheat, chicory or beets for borscht. kets are, no matter how many stuf- with paintings from a family art
take so long,” she says. Cottage cheese is expensive, so Iry- fies stand guard at the foot of her therapy class where they used
All food banks work a little differ- na learned to make it herself with a bed, it’s not right. Perhaps that’s chalk to finger paint scenes. One of
ently. Some provide prepacked gifted starter culture she now tends why she recently rejected pink as Aryna’s began with a bright rain-
boxes. This one allows users to shop to like a little house pet. her favourite colour. It’s now black. bow of colours. Then it’s smeared
by appointment. Keeping Aryna connected to her Her mom lined the wall by her bed with black. That’s anger.
When Aryna is in school, Iryna culture means a lot, especially with with photos of family, travels, hap- SCAN THIS CODE To finish it, Aryna tried to wipe the
goes alone, biking the 10 or so kilo- all the changes in her young life. py moments. Aryna objects to this FOR ADDITIONAL black away, revealing the colours
metres instead of taking the bus. Food isn’t just vitamins and miner- wall. It doesn’t look like a kid’s bed- STORIES IN THE beneath. Then she healed it the best
She loads up her backpack and pan- als and protein and carbs. It’s love. room to her. SERIES way she knew how. By covering it
niers with as much as she can carry. It’s home even when you’ve been She is, however, proud of the with glitter.
She’d take more if she could. forced to leave. dreamcatcher above her bed, made THE STA R H AS US E D ONLY TH E F I R ST
The food bank assigns each item a Iryna and her husband thought in a summer camp from a paper NA M ES OF C HI LDR E N A ND FA M ILY
point value. Iryna gets 12 points for they would be in Toronto for a cou- plate and bright string. Asked if it M EM BE R S PA RTI CI PATI NG I N THI S
produce, eight for protein, six for ple of months — they brought no works, if it catches bad dreams, she S ER IE S TO AVOI D POTE NTI AL
grains and three to use however she winter clothes. Now, it’s starting to shakes her head firmly. NEG ATI VE R EPE RCU SS IONS IN THE
wants. She loads up on fruit and veg- look like a new home. “It doesn’t help,” she says, her CHI L DR EN’S LI V ES , B OTH TODAY
etables so she can prepare healthy But some things are hard to adjust fairy-pool blue eyes open wide. A ND IN THE F UTU R E.
 Most mental illnesses develop during childhood and early
adolescence. Half begin by age 14, and three-quarters by age 24,
making the early years a crucial time to prevent or lessen the impact of
mental illness. Donate to help us ensure no young person is left behind.
ON0 ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR

A8 | N EWS
S TA R E XC L U S I V E M E X I CO

Deported family stuck in limbo

Forced to return to Czech Republic, Ottawa has since granted residence
NICHOLAS KEUNG
I M M I G R AT I O N R E P O R T E R
Sarka Cervenakova knew she and
her family would have nothing to go
back to in the Czech Republic if
they were to be deported from Can-
ada.
With just a few belongings they
packed from 13 years of living in
Toronto, the Roma family had no-
where to go but loitered in the air-
port for weeks upon arrival in
Prague.
Cervenakova and her husband,
Patrik, had to beg from passersby
for money to buy food for their two
children, Ronaldo and Michaela,
then 15 and 13, and to buy train
tickets to get to her sister in Ostra-
va.
“It’s embarrassing to have to beg
in front of your children,” said the
45-year-old mother, who allegedly
fled the threats of far-right skin-
heads in her homeland for asylum
in Canada in 2009. They were de-
ported two years ago.
She said she and her husband have
been begging outside malls and do-
ing whatever odd jobs they could
while moving between her sister’s
and a friend’s small apartments at
night.
Then came the twists in the case.
In August, her lawyer in Toronto,
Richard Wazana, forwarded her a
letter from the Canadian immigra-
tion department, telling her the
family’s humanitarian application
for permanent residence has been
approved.
“I was sitting at my friend’s apart-
ment and I started crying my heart
out of my mouth,” said a beaming
Cervenakova. “We feel vindicated.”
But she quickly learned that the
family’s return to Canada comes
with a hefty price tag.
To be precise, said Wazana, it’s go-
ing to cost the couple and their two
children $12,630 in fees before they
can get back to the country and
claim their permanent residence.
The fees include $1,600 for their
authorization to return to Canada;
repaying the $6,000 they incurred
for the deportation; $1,000 for their
medical exams; $1,030 for the rights
of landing fees for the two adults, as
well as an estimated $3,000 for the
airfare.
It’s money that the family said it
doesn’t have and won’t be able to
find, said Wazana, who has been
assisting the family on a pro-bono
basis.
“It’s quite rare to maintain contact
with clients on a regular basis after
they’ve been removed from Canada
because most clients simply as-
sume it’ll be refused. Many clients
just give up,” said Wazana, adding
lianna, her second oldest child, said Sarka
there’s no way for her family to pay Cervenakova,
all the fees to come back. back left,
A single mother herself, Lilianna husband Patrik, with muck and debris from the
is raising her four-year-old son with centre, and
the support of the child’s father. children
“Life has been horrible for my par- Michaela, left,
ents and siblings in the Czech Re- and Ronaldo,
public. It’s just heartbreaking,” said lived in Toronto and rock tumbled down onto their
the 23-year-old Toronto woman. for 13 years
“My sister and I do as much as we before being
can to help our family back home forced to return dren ranging in age from two to 21.
but we are barely making it our- to the Czech
selves.” Republic last
On behalf of the family, Wazana year. They had brother also remained missing.
has recently requested Canada’s vi- no home to
sa post in Vienna to grant an ex- return to and
emption for all the associated fees, were forced to
except airfare, for their return. A work odd jobs
Sarka’s daugher Lilianna, shown decision is pending. and live with
with son Romeo, who still lives in “We have been telling the Canadi- friends. Two
Toronto and says she’s tried to an government that this is what months ago,
help her family financially but it’s would happen if the family had to their
not enough. go back. And yet they were forced to humanitarian
go back,” said Wazana. application for open caskets in the back of hearses.
In assessing that application, an In a response to the Star’s inquiry, permanent
immigration officer agreed it’s in the immigration department said residence in
the best interests of Ronaldo and the family will be notified of the Canada was
Michaela to be in Canada, where requirement for the authorization granted, but
they could have “a normal upbring- to return to Canada if they meet all the cost of
ing free from discrimination” the other permanent residence re- returning is
against the Roma. quirements. At that point, their re- beyond their
It cited testimony from Cervena- quest to waive the fees will be con- means.
kova and documentary evidence sidered.
that Roma students were over-re- “This sort of fee would not be re-
presented in special schools for quired to be paid upfront as the S ARK A
children with intellectual disabili- exact amount would be determined C E RV E N A KOVA
ties or being placed in segregated once (the department) begins pro- P H OTO
classrooms within mainstream cessing the (authorization to return
schools. to Canada) applications,” said a
“Michaela had to be wrongly spokesperson. “The family’s re-
placed in a school for children with quest for the fee waiver will be con-
Hurricane
death toll
climbs
Families hold
funerals for victims
as cleanup begins
FELIX MARQUEZ
A N D M E G A N JA N E T S K Y
AC A P U LCO, M E X I CO At least 48
people died when Category 5 Hur-
ricane Otis slammed into Mexico’s
southern Pacific coast, most of
them in Acapulco, Mexican author-
ities said Sunday as the death toll
continued to climb and families
buried loved ones.
Mexico’s civil defence agency said
in a statement 43 of the dead were
in the resort city of Acapulco and
five in nearby Coyuca de Benitez.
Guerrero state’s governor had earli-
er raised the number of missing to
36 from 10 a day earlier. The death
toll increased after authorities had
raised it to 39 on Saturday.
In Acapulco, families held funer-
als for the dead on Sunday and con-
tinued the search for essentials
while government workers and vol-
unteers cleared streets clogged
powerful Category 5 hurricane.
Kathy Barrera, 30, said Sunday
her aunt’s family was buried under
a landslide when tonnes of mud
home. Her aunt’s body was found
with the remains of their three chil-
Her uncle was still missing. Sep-
arately, Barrera’s own mother and
“The water came in with the
rocks, the mud and totally buried
them,” Barrera, who was standing
outside a local morgue, said of her
aunt’s family.
On Sunday, authorities released
the bodies of her aunt and the two
youngest children to relatives. Bod-
ies in white bags were loaded into
The eldest daughter had already
been buried the day before.
As she prepared to lay her rela-
tives to rest, Barrera — who had
hardly even had a chance to search
for her own mother and brother —
expressed desperation and frustra-
tion at the aid and personnel she
had begun seeing in tourist areas of
the city — but not in their neigh-
bourhood high on a mountainside
hit by landslides.
“There are many, many people
here at the (morgue) that are entire
families, families of six, families of
four, even eight people,” she said. “I
want to ask authorities not to lie …

that few humanitarian applications
are granted and only under com-
pelling circumstances.
“But in this case, I always main-
tained contact because I felt ter-
rible about their removal. I felt they
were really hardly done by in Cana-
da for the various administrative
decisions they’ve received.”
According to immigration re-
cords, the family arrived in Canada
in 2009 and their asylum claim was
refused four years later. They were
issued temporary resident permits
in 2014 that allowed them to re-
main until 2017.
In late 2019, they were slated for
removal after an official assess-
ment concluded their lives would
not be at risk if deported back to the
Czech Republic. Due to a delay
caused by the pandemic, the family
was deported in September 2022,
two months after they submitted
their humanitarian application.
“
cognitive impairments and/or sidered at that time.” there are a lot of people who are
learning disabilities since she did Cervenakova said she’s willing to arriving dead.”
not have a fixed address,” said the take it as a government loan and During a short time outside the
report dated July 31. work hard to repay it if Ottawa gives morgue Sunday morning, at least a
“A return to the Czech Republic her family a chance to to claim their half-dozen families arrived, some
would be detrimental to the chil- permanent residence. We have been looking for relatives; others identi-
dren’s social, emotional and intel- “So many doors have been closed telling the fying bodies and still others giving
lectual development and thereby to us. There’s no future for Roma Canadian statements to authorities.
compromise their best interests.” people in the Czech Republic with- government The sombre convoys of hearses
The officer overseeing the in-Can- out education and jobs,” said Cerve- and relatives crossed much of bat-
ada humanitarian application also nakova, who is a dropout from mid-
that this is tered Acapulco en route to the cem-
acknowledged the discrimination dle school and whose husband nev- what would etery, passing ransacked stores,
the family has faced in housing, er had a formal education. happen if the streets strewn with debris and sol-
health care and employment — and “All we want is a better life for our family had to diers cutting away fallen trees.
at least one incident of physical vio- children, so they can be safe and be go back. And Otis roared ashore early Wednes-
lence against Patrik — based on eth- free from discrimination.” day with devastating 266 km/h
nicity. She said both her younger son and yet they were winds after strengthening so rap-
Returning to the Czech Republic, daughter have spent most of their forced to go idly that people had little time to
said the report, would very likely life in Canada and are having a back. prepare.
place the family in “social and eco- rough time in the Czech Republic The federal civil defence agency
nomic disadvantage” as a result of because they speak little Czech. tallied 220,000 homes that were
discriminatory treatment. Ronaldo, who finished Grade 8 in R IC H A RD damaged by the storm, President
Cervenakova has been separated Toronto, has dropped out and is W AZ AN A Andrés Manuel López Obrador
from her two adult daughters and unemployed because he refused to L A WY E R F OR said.
two grandchildren in Canada. Li- go to a special school. F AM IL Y T H E ASSO C IAT E D P RE SS

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NE WS | A9
THE FIXER

City ends mechanical leaf collection service

$1.6M program that served heavily treed areas of Etobicoke, Scarborough was cut from budget

JAC K L A K E Y submission to council from Holy-

CO N T R I B U T I N G CO L U M N I S T
It’ll surely be an unhappy surprise
to residents who were accustomed
to the service, but the city won’t be
coming this fall to scoop up your
leaves from the curb.
After decades of providing me-
chanical leaf collection in heavily
treed areas of Etobicoke and Scar-
borough, the $1.6 million in funding
for it was axed from the 2023 city
budget, and a last-ditch effort to
restore it failed to get enough votes
this month at city council.
It was always a contentious ser-
vice — taxpayers in parts of the city
that have to rake and bag the leaves
on their properties resented those
who did — that was carried over
from the amalgamation of Toron-
to’s boroughs in 1998.
The city would send out dump
trucks, front-end loaders and lots of
staff with rakes to collect leaves that
had been pushed to the curb by
residents, usually twice each au-
tumn.
And there were good reasons for
it: It made it less likely that leaves
would plug storm drains and cause
flooding, and also recognized that
residents of areas with the most
trees in Toronto would otherwise
have to bag a lot more leaves than
other people, often from trees not
A last-ditch effort to restore mechanical leaf collection to parts of Etobicoke and
Scarborough failed to get enough support this month at city council.
on their properties.
But for years it was vulnerable to
cost-cutting and grumbling from
city councillors whose constituents
didn’t qualify for it, and it finally got
the chop in this year’s budget.
Its greatest defender was Coun.
Stephen Holyday (Ward 2, Etob-
icoke-Centre), who brought a mo-
tion to council this month, backed
JAC K L A K E Y PH OTO
by Coun. Brad Bradford (Ward 19,
Beaches-East York), to have it re-
stored for 2024.
“The mechanical vacuum leaf col-
lection program is a highly valued
service by residents in many parts
of the city, and in particular Etob-
icoke, due to the dense mature ur-
ban forestry canopy which covers
city streets and public places,” said a
day.
“The mechanical vacuum leaf col-
lection program provides an easier
and less costly way for residents to
ensure leaves that have accumulat-
ed on the public right of way in
front of their homes are efficiently
collected without the need to pur-
chase and fill paper collection bags.
“The efficient collection of leaves
promotes safer streets and helps
avoid blockages of storm water and
snow melt water. It is also a service
which enhances the support by res-
idents for planting additional
trees.”
But it failed to sway enough coun-
cillors to bring it back. Only eight
councillors voted in favour, while
13, including Coun. Paul Ainslie
(Ward 24, Scarborough-Guild-
wood), voted against it. Ironically,
many of Ainslie’s constituents (in-
cluding yours truly) were provided
with the service.
The bottom line is that those who
got it won’t be getting it. They’ll be
bagging their leaves and toting
them out to the curb like everybody
else.
W HAT’S BROK E N I N YOUR
NE IGH BOU R HO OD? W HE R E V E R
YOU A R E I N G R E ATE R TO RONTO,
W E WA N T TO K NOW. E MA I L
J L A K E Y @TH E STA R .CA OR FOL LOW
@TOSTA R F I XE R ON TW I TTE R

Sale of Land by Public Tender

City of Toronto Act, 2006
Take Notice that tenders are invited for the purchase of the lands described below and will be received until 3:00 p.m. local time on
Tuesday November 28, 2023 and must be dropped off in the tender box at Revenue Services, Lower Level, North York Civic Centre,
5100 Yonge Street,Toronto, Ontario, M2N 5V7.
The tenders will then be opened in public on the same day at 3:30 p.m. in Committee Room #4, 5100 Yonge Street,Toronto, Ontario,
M2N 5V7.

Description of Lands Minimum Description of Lands Minimum

Tender Tender
Amounts $ Amounts $

Assessed Address: 87 Isabella Street Rear $159,595.26 Assessed Address: 4438 Sheppard Ave. E., Unit 351 $107,578.23
Assessment Roll #: 1904 06 8 400 01600 0000 Assessment Roll #: 1901 12 3 010 01850 0000
Last returned Assessment Roll value: $1,079,000 Last returned Assessment Roll value: $94,000
PIN: 21108-0127 (LT) PIN: 12644-0158 (LT)
Part Lot 9, Plan D106,Toronto as in CT720585; Unit 38, Level 3,Toronto Standard Condominium Plan No. 1644 and
S/T Execution 98-015966, if enforceable; City ofToronto its appurtenant interest, City ofToronto
Commercial Vacant Land Retail Unit
Note: Subject to the Condominium Declaration registered as
Assessed Address: 4438 Sheppard Ave. E., Unit 206B $149,538.49 Instrument No. AT668563 and particularly the restrictions contained
Assessment Roll #: 1901 12 3 010 01805 0000 in Schedule “N” as amended by Instrument Nos. AT688032 and
Last returned Assessment Roll value: $115,000 AT3170809
PIN: 12644-0112 (LT)
Unit 41, Level 2,Toronto Standard Condominium Plan No.1644 and its Assessed Address: 4465 Sheppard Avenue E, Unit 28 $73,599.81
appurtenant interest, City ofToronto Assessment Roll #: 1901 12 1 225 01529 0000
Food Court Unit Last returned Assessment Roll value: $40,000
Note: Subject to the Condominium Declaration registered as PIN: 12098-0028 (LT)
Instrument No. AT668563 and particularly the restrictions contained Unit 28, Level 1, MetroToronto Condominium Plan No. 1098 and its
in Schedule “N” as amended by Instrument Nos. AT688032 and appurtenant interest. Parcels A-3, A-4, Section M1340, Part Block
AT3170809 A, Plan 66M1340 Being Part 1 66R10383, Parts 2 & 4, 66R10286,
Scarborough, City ofToronto
Assessed Address: 4438 Sheppard Ave. E., Unit 212 $184,465.94 Commercial Unit
Assessment Roll #: 1901 12 3 010 01777 0000 Note: Subject to the Condominium Declaration registered as
Last returned Assessment Roll value: $95,000 Instrument No. D478767, as amended by a Court Order registered
PIN: 12644-0082 (LT) as Instrument No. D488274, and subject to the restrictive covenants
Unit 11, Level 2,Toronto Standard Condominium Plan No.1644 and its registered as Instrument No. D482802
appurtenant interest, City ofToronto
Food Court Unit Assessed Address: 69 Twelfth Street $132,341.82
Note: Subject to the Condominium Declaration registered as Assessment Roll #: 1919 05 2 290 00300 0000
Instrument No. AT668563 and particularly the restrictions contained Last returned Assessment Roll value: $605,000
in Schedule “N” as amended by Instrument Nos. AT688032 and PIN: 07610-0130 (LT)
AT3170809 Part Lot 4, Concession 1 Broken Front (also known as Con 1 Southern
Division Fronting Lake Ontario) as in NT13375; S/T &T/WTB459762;
Etobicoke, City ofToronto
Residential Property

Tenders must be submitted in the prescribed form and must be accompanied by a deposit of at least 20 per cent of the tender amount,
which deposit shall be made by way of a certified cheque/bank draft/money order payable to the City ofToronto.
The City ofToronto makes no representation regarding the title to or any other matters including environmental condition, relating to
the lands to be sold. Responsibility for ascertaining these matters rests with the potential purchasers.
The lands do not include mobile homes or other moveables situate on the lands.
This sale is governed by the City ofToronto Act, 2006 and theTorontoTax Sales Rules made under that Act. The successful purchaser
will be required to pay the amount tendered plus accumulated taxes, relevant municipal and provincial land transfer tax, and applicable
HST.
The City ofToronto has no obligation to provide vacant possession to the successful purchaser.
A copy of the prescribed form of tender is available on the website of the Government of Ontario Central Forms Repository under the
listing for the Ministry of Municipal Affairs.
For further information regarding this sale and a copy of the prescribed form of tender, contact:
Tenzin Wangchuk, Manager, Revenue Accounting and Collections, Revenue Services, City of Toronto, 5100 Yonge Street,Toronto,
Ontario, M2N 5V7 at (416) 395-0174.
For more information, please visit toronto.ca/saleofland
ON0 ON
A10 | NE WS
ISRAEL-HAMAS CONFLICT
A resident examines the aftermath of an Israeli airstrike on the Al Ansar Mosque, where two Palestinians were killed, in West Bank last week.
Military overthrow a risky calculus
‘‘
H A M A S F R O M A1
The harder part — perhaps the
impossible part — is replacing Ha-
mas-the-government, Hamas-the-
I hear a lot fighting-force, Hamas-the-ideolo-
of people, gy with something else, something
better, something not so murder-
especially ously bad.
in the Arab Something in which traumatized
world, quietly Palestinians can put their faith and
saying, ‘Go aspirations. Something that will al-
ahead and low a traumatized Israel, someday
far in the future, to let its guard back
crush Hamas, down.
but do it very
quickly and What is Hamas?
do it with no Hamas was forged in the flames of
cost. If Israel the first Palestinian Intifada, or up-
rising, in 1987. Founded by a wheel-
had a clean chair-bound Sheikh Ahmed Yassin,
set of options it espoused the belief that Palestine
to get rid of should be an Islamic state governed
Hamas, it by Islamic law and taken back from
Israel by force.
would do “In face of the Jews’ usurpation of
that. … That Palestine,” Hamas’s 1988 founding
would be charter said, “it is compulsory that
great. It’s just the banner of Jihad be raised.”
that it’s not Despite peace deals negotiated
and agreed to by the Palestinian
possible. Liberation Organization, Hamas
stuck to militancy and watched its
D EN N I S RO SS
stature and influence grow when
FO RM ER U . S .
those celebrated Israeli-Palestin-
AM BA SS AD O R
ian handshakes failed to bear their
AND MIDDLE
promised fruit.
E A ST P E AC E
A sign of Hamas’s growing influ-
NEG OT I ATOR
ence, and of Israel’s growing worry,
came with Yassin’s 2004 assassina-
tion, but the killing of the group’s
elderly leader only hastened Ha-
mas’s growth. Two years later, it
had diversified from the exclusive
domain of armed resistance and
terrorism tactics into the world of
electoral strategy.
Running on a platform of anti-
corruption and good government,
it handily defeated the rival party,
Fatah, led by Mahmoud Abbas, and
took control of the Gaza Strip. The
message to the world from Ismail
Haniyeh, a top party official who
now heads Hamas’s political bu-
reau, was simple: “Don’t be afraid.”
But that message didn’t make it to
Israel — not in the post-election
glow and not in the 17 years since.
The Israeli government has block-
aded Gaza since 2007, choking off
deliveries of vital supplies to a
sworn enemy and the ordinary Pal-
estinians living under Hamas rule.
In return, Hamas’s military wing
has kept up its campaign of attacks,
using rockets, suicide bombings
and hostage takings to peck away at
Israel’s fearsome security appara-
tus and the average Israeli’s sense of
safety in the Jewish state.
Every war it instigated worked to-
ward this goal, which peaked with
the Oct. 7 attacks — an event that
Israel has noted is the deadliest
massacre of Jews since the Holo-
caust.
There have been many attempts
and little success answering the key
question of how to solve the prob-
lems posed by Hamas.
Israeli heavy armour tanks sit in a staging area near Sderot, Israel.
Israel, which occupied Gaza until
2005, tried blockading the 41-kilo-
metre enclave on the Mediterra-
nean Sea, and Hamas turned to
smuggling everything from food,
gasoline, medicine and vehicles
through underground tunnels.
The United States government
has tried both praise and punish-
ment to have Hamas reform its
methods.
Former U.S. president Barack
Obama, in a 2009 speech, acknowl-
edged that “Hamas does have sup-
port among some Palestinians, but
they also have to recognize that
they have responsibilities.”
He urged the group to renounce
violence and recognize Israel’s right
to exist. But Washington has also
punished the group with hundreds
of sanctions against its entities and
leaders.
Others have tried diplomacy.
Jimmy Carter, the ex-U.S. presi-
dent and democracy activist who
was among those to characterize
Israel’s treatment of the Palestin-
ians as “apartheid,” travelled twice
to Gaza to meet with Hamas lead-
ers and emerged optimistic after a
2015 meeting with then-politburo
chief Khaled Mashal.
“I don’t believe he’s a terrorist,”
Carter said of Mashal, who now
runs the group’s Palestinian diaspo-
ra office from Qatar. “He’s strongly
in favour of the peace process.”
Hope prevailed for a time that the
burden of governing a desperately
poor territory would have a moder-
ating effect on the group.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu defended a 2018 deci-
sion to allow Qatar to send Hamas
hundreds of millions annually to
pay government salaries and pro-
vide services as a means to “return
quiet to the southern communities
(of Israel), but also to prevent a
humanitarian crisis (in Gaza).”
That was amidst protests against
Israel’s Gaza border wall in which
more than 200 Palestinians were
killed. It was after several rounds of
clashes, skirmishes, conflicts and
short-lived wars between Israel
and Hamas.
But it was ahead of the massacre
three weeks ago in southern Israel
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR
MA RCU S YA M
LEON N EA L G ET T Y IM AGE S
that has shaken the earth below
Israel’s feet, sparking retaliatory
airstrikes that have killed more
than 8,000 Palestinians, according
to the Hamas-run Palestinian
Health Ministry, and vows to elim-
inate Hamas once and for all.
Post-Hamas plans
This is not the first time Israelis
have imagined a world without Ha-
mas.
In 2015, after a 50-day war in Gaza
and with some Israeli politicians
calling for Hamas to be dismantled,
a top general warned there was “no
alternative” ready and able to rule
the Gaza Strip.
“Aside from (Hamas), there is no
one else who can hold things to-
gether,” Maj.-Gen. ShlomoTurge-
man said, according to the Times of
Israel. “The alternative is the IDF
or chaos.”
Nearly a decade later, the options
do not look much better, though it
is not for lack of searching.
A few years ago, an Israeli advoca-
cy group sought to sketch out a so-
lution to Israel’s existential the Ha-
mas-or-chaos dichotomy. It
brought its best minds to the prob-
lem — experts with a ground-level
view of the challenge and Israel’s
national security at heart.
Commanders for Israel’s Security
is made up of former officers and
agents of the Israel Defence Forces,
of Mossad, the foreign intelligence
agency, and Shin Bet, which han-
dles internal security. In 2019, it
produced “Gaza: An Alternative
Strategy for Israel” and gave a
warning to the Netanyahu govern-
ment and the Israeli people.
“The absence of a clear policy and
a long-term strategy concerning
the future of the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip jeopardized Israel’s fu-
ture as a secure and democratic
state with a solid Jewish majority
for generations to come.”
Its plan envisaged signing a cease-
fire with Hamas and helping its
more moderate West Bank rival,
the Palestinian Authority, which is
led by 87-year-old Mahmoud Ab-
bas. Israel would help build up the
Palestinian Authority’s legitimacy
and governance capabilities until SEE NEXT PAGE
TR IBUN E NE WS S E RVI CE
such a time as it could take over
Gaza.
Continued peace would be re-
warded with an easing of the eco-
nomic blockade, reconstruction of
Gaza’s infrastructure, the construc-
tion of a seaport to boost Gaza’s
moribund economy, and the re-
lease of Palestinian prisoners serv-
ing time in Israeli jails.
If all worked out — and even the
report’s authors admitted that the
large-looming “if” relied on factors
that were out of Israel’s control —
the goal was that most elusive of
end states: peace in the Middle
East.
The Oct. 7 attacks have cut the
knees out from the Israeli security
establishment’s plan. A ceasefire
and a long-lasting peace appear un-
thinkable to those in such quarters,
given the current climate.
What the current circumstances
have not changed is the risky calcu-
lus for a military overthrow of Ha-
mas, something the Netanyahu
government is now pursuing.
“Killing leaders does not undo a
popular movement, nor will over-
throwing Hamas rule eliminate the
organization,” the report warned.
Israel now faces the prospect of
Gaza as Afghanistan after the fall of
the Taliban in 2001, or Gaza as Iraq
in the vacuum of Saddam Hussein’s
iron-fisted rule, or Gaza as Libya
after Moammar Gaddafi.
“Instead of an organized group
with a centralized leadership con-
trolling the territory and popula-
tion, Hamas will wage a guerrilla
war with decentralized terror
cells,” the 2019 report predicted.
It is a problem not just for Israel
but for its neighbours in Egypt,
Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and
other countries which, with the Ar-
ab Spring, the Islamic State, the fall
of regimes and popular uprisings,
have had enough of instability, inse-
curity and the gusting political
storms that have blown across the
region.
Like it or not, Israel’s Arab neigh-
bours should brace for those com-
ing winds, said Dennis Ross, a for-
mer U.S. ambassador and Middle
East peace negotiator.
“I hear a lot of people, especially in
the Arab world, quietly saying, ‘Go
ahead and crush Hamas, but do it
very quickly and do it with no cost,’”
he said in a briefing organized by
the Jerusalem Press Club.
“If Israel had a clean set of options
to get rid of Hamas, it would do that.
… That would be great. It’s just that
it’s not possible.”
Another scheme that has gone in-
to heavy circulation — and at high
levels — in the three weeks since
the attack on Israel seems equally
implausible and just as fraught with
“ifs” as the one put forward by the
retired Israeli soldiers and spies.
Laid out in the influential policy
publication Foreign Affairs by Ste-
ven Simon, a former member of the
U.S. National Security Council, it
TORONTO STAR MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 ON0

NE WS | A11
ISRAEL-HAMAS CONFLICT

Handover of power is no simple task

FROM PREVIOUS PAGE

starts with what seems like an

achievable scenario — an Israeli
romp over an outnumbered and
outgunned Hamas force.
Then the building blocks of the
plan grow shaky, filled with “buts”
that could cause the whole thing to
come apart.
Step two, for example, is a post-
invasion transition or stabilization
period during which Gaza would be
run by the United Nations.
But one would be hard-pressed to
see Israel accepting the protection
of a UN force. It has long seen the
UN as ineffective and biased, and
went so far as demanding last week
that UN Secretary General António
Guterres resign after he said the
Hamas attack “did not happen in a
vacuum” — comments Israel has
taken as justification for the Hamas
violence.
Step three is a massive interna-
tional reconstruction plan for Gaza.
But Palestinians, or the UN, or
whichever body agrees to oversee
this gargantuan effort, will have a
tough time drumming up donors
and investors if an insurgency takes
hold in Gaza, if the violence and downs that make life more difficult solution as the last viable chance for A Palestinian little as possible. This is survival in
destruction continues, and if the for ordinary Gazans have increased the world to avoid the inevitable man slings a the Middle East.”
money put forward ends up as kin- support for Hamas.” explosion that’s going to come rock at Israeli He said Israelis are marked by
dling for the fires of a continued And when Palestinians claim that down on us if this main problem forces during a scenes of Palestinian celebrations
conflict. Israel is making no attempts to isn’t resolved,” said Dan Tschirgi, protest in the over the Hamas attacks on Israel
Step four — if it gets this far — is a avoid civilian casualties, that it is professor emeritus of political sci- West Bank this and feel no great responsibility to
handover of power in Gaza to the targeting hospitals and schools, ence at the American University in month. Even ensure a better future for the Pales-
Palestinian Authority. that it is punishing the entirety of Cairo. “Realistically, I don’t have as western tinians of Gaza, if only to deliver
But the PA is deeply unpopular, the population for the sins of the much hope.” leaders have peace for Israel.
lacking in credibility and hobbled militant few, that it is carrying out a Israel has been silent on how it urged restraint “It’s our problem as well but we
by allegations of corruption in the genocide of the Palestinian people, plans to measure success or to in Gaza, Israeli don’t have the means to solve it,” he
West Bank, where it holds power. It Israel might be wise to heed that paint its vision of Gaza’s future. airstrikes and said.
is viewed even more unfavourably warning. Which is no surprise and poses no ground He noted that the Americans tried
in Gaza, and risks being chased And this one, too, from Salam Fay- great problem for Efraim Inbar, incursions are “political engineering” when its
right out of the territory if it is seen yad, a former Palestinian Authority president of the Jerusalem Insti- intensifying. forces invaded Afghanistan and
as Israel or America’s hand-picked prime minister: you can kill people, tute for Strategy and Security. Iraq.
successor to Hamas. but you cannot kill an idea. “Whoever will be there will not be “With all their might and money,
This is not to say that nothing “Even if all that is said about the friendly to Israel,” he said. “We have M ARC U S YAM they failed,” he said.
should be tried — only that the odds need to get rid of Hamas happens, bad neighbours and we have to put T R IB U N E N E WS “We have to be realistic. There are
of success, with the blood of thou- there will still be the need to deal fear in them for them to harm us as S E RV IC E no good options.”
sands spilled across contested land, with the underlying causes of this,
look long and slim. and the underlying grievances,” he
“The alternative is Gaza as eternal said in a discussion organized by
dystopia, with violence metastasiz- the Princeton School of Public and
ing around the broader region, and International Affairs.
states less able to deal with all man- Israeli settlers in the West Bank.
ner of social and environmental Economic starvation of the be-
disarray,” Simon wrote. “In other sieged Gaza Strip. Travel restric-
words, a Middle East transformed, tions. Political prisoners. Human
but not quite as Washington envis- rights. Political power.
aged it.” “These are not Hamas-only griev-
ances. They are the grievances of
What Gazans themselves want any and all who are interested in #SCAAwarenessMonth
Under torrents of Israeli bombs, seeing this region coming to a bet-
seeking shelter, food, water, medi- ter place for both Israelis and Pales-
cine and escape from the horrors of tinians alike,” Fayyad said.

war, the residents of Gaza them-
selves are not exactly in a position
to take to the streets and demon-
strate for the type of future they
would like to see.
When homes are flattened and re-
duced to rubble, it’s hard to imagine
the contours of a Palestinian state.
Without a shelter from the coming
war, how can one be expected to
chart a course to peace?
Arab Barometer, a polling and re-
search organization, released sur-
vey results this week showing the
Hamas government in Gaza was
deeply distrusted by the popula-
tion, but the study’s authors
warned that “past Israeli crack-
Sudden fainting
Israel is more focused right now
preparing a response to the Hamas
attacks than on responding to Pal-
estinian grievances. Even as west-
ern leaders increasingly urge re-
straint amid the rising death toll in
during exercise is not
Gaza, airstrikes and limited ground
incursions are intensifying.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant normal.
has said the ground invasion will be
a lengthy operation, taking time to
attack Hamas underground tun-
nels and attempting to recover hos-
tages.
“I think it’s optimistic to conceive
of the possibility of ending this hor-
rible situation that exists, and I
clutch at the idea of the two-state

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ON0 ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR

A12 |
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TORONTO STAR, ESTABLISHED 1892 — JOSEPH E. ATKINSON, PUBLISHER 1899 - 1948

T H E S TA R ’ S V I E W

Striving for
a better future
for our kids
It is a collective goal that society strives to ensure a future for its
children better than the one enjoyed by the parents and grandpar-
ents.
Some aspirations for the future are daunting, like the fight
against climate change. As individuals we strive to play our role
and press political leaders to enact measures that will make a
difference over time. But even when we work hard to do our part,
the goal of curbing global warming can sometimes feel out of
reach.
The same applies for the horrors of conflict, like the Israel-
Hamas conflict and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. We feel helpless
in the face of deadly natural disasters.
But a host of actions to make life better and safer for children is
well within our grasp, their future dictated by the choices we make
today.
We need to make better choices.
In a new series titled, “The kids aren’t all right,” Star journalists
reveal the myriad of ways we are making daily life worse for
children and imperilling their future. These are issues that have M I CHA EL DE A DDE R FOR THE TORONTO STA R
not been seriously addressed and are growing worse, such as LETTERS
surgical wait times, a mental health crisis, the sparse availability of
affordable housing and the rise in youth-involved gun crime.
Canadian adults are letting today’s children down in ways that
Question CBC, ment to spend the time with the
really important task of solving
of the federal government’s new
gun control measures and has
affect them now and throughout their lives. Together, they are
telling indicators of misplaced priorities that affect the collective
not Sainte-Marie opioid and drug problems
among teenagers. Protect them
not acknowledged the endemic
of intimate partner violence.
health of our communities and bodes ill for the future. Family, birth certificate raise from the real evils in our world. Dr. Ron Charach, Toronto
The stories profile challenges faced by individual children, put- questions about Buffy Sainte- Marion Bartlett, Singhampton
It goes without saying that guns
ting a spotlight on specific issues. One tells the upsetting experi- Marie’s Indigenous claim, Oct.
and people with serious mental
ence of Amina, 12. Forced out of a public housing unit after a ceiling
collapse, her family has bounced among temporary accommoda-
27
Ijust read CBC’s “investigation”
City needs help health issues are a lethal combi-
tions, meaning three different schools in three years. “I don’t like into Buffy Sainte-Marie and on housing plan nation. So why was Robert Card
out on the street with a loaded
change,” Amina said. “And this is a lot of change.” thought it was a cheap hit job. firearm when he recently re-
Her story puts a spotlight on the reality for so many Torontoni- There are significant pieces of Chow’s affordable housing plan
ported that he was hearing voic-
ans who are frequently moving in search of affordable rents. journalism out there that have is certainly ambitious. But
es, made serious threats to
Mikayla, 18, has spent six years navigating Ontario’s mental revealed ugly truths of figures there are reasons to be skepti-
“shoot up the National Guard
health system for help with a number of serious mental illnesses. we have long admired, but I feel cal, Oct. 26
Base in Saco, ME” and had
Her story details the frustration of not being able to get the needed it has now become an aspira- Mayor Olivia Chow’s plan is a spent two weeks in a mental
assistance and the lack of support for individuals and families in tion to cancel someone, like a very modest first step to meet health facility this past sum-
the face of growing demand. badge of honour for young jour- the housing needs of Toronto. mer? No one saw him as a
Bahar, 11, has been waiting for the latest in a series of surgeries to nalists. Sainte-Marie hurt no The city is noticeably short of threat to society, or to himself,
correct a congenital leg-length discrepancy. Her story highlights one. A person’s identity is theirs the housing needs of its citizens when he needed to be in care. In
the reality that thousands of children in the province are waiting to hold and share. It is their and the expected growth will the meantime, until the U.S.
months for needed surgeries, delays that only got worse due to truth. Not to mention the truth only exacerbate the severe government finds a way to keep
pandemic-related backlogs. of the Indigenous elders who shortfall in affordable housing. firearms out of the hands of
The individual stories of these children highlight the findings of a have embraced her. I cannot be- The federal government has an those with mental health is-
2020 report that warned that the pandemic was exacerbating lieve amid so much ugliness in obligation to financially support sues, random massacres at any
problems such as mental illness, food insecurity, child abuse, this world that needs coverage, Toronto because its policy on given place at any time will con-
physical inactivity and poverty. the national broadcaster we pay immigration will ensure that tinue to be the norm. All we can
One-third of children do not enjoy a safe and healthy childhood; for produced this. more people will come to live in do is pray that we are not in the
one in three Canadians has experienced abuse before the age of 15; Rachel Griffin, Ancaster the city. Likewise, the provincial right place at the wrong time.
and one in five children live in poverty, according to the report We live in a society where iden- government has an obligation JoAnn Lee Frank, Clearwater, Fla.
published by Children First Canada, the University of Calgary tity and gender are non-binary to financially assist Toronto be-
Cumming School of Medicine’s O’Brien Institute for Public cause they themselves have em- One side of the American pop-
and fluid. Surely, if Buffy Sainte- ulation (including Canada, I
Health and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute. Marie says she is Indigenous- phasized the dire need for new
And it said circumstances are “particularly stark” for Black, housing. It is time that the three suppose) wants as many guns as
Canadian, rather than Italian- possible available to its citizens.
Indigenous and other racialized children. “These children are American, that is her preroga- levels of government co-oper-
more likely to be exposed to adverse childhood experiences such ate to do what is essential for all The other side, my side, wants
tive and her truth. For society at as few guns as possible available
as poverty and abuse, being overrepresented in the child welfare large to publicly question that Canadians and build affordable
and juvenile justice systems and being suspended or expelled from housing. In doing so, we will be to its citizens. My side is right.
truth reeks of intolerance and is The other side is insane.
school because of systemic racism and discrimination,” it said. downright disrespectful. taking concrete steps to solve
These problems often don’t exist in isolation. For example, the many of our social problems. Kevin Murphy, Thornhill
Mick Welch, Toronto
dearth of affordable housing can impose a devastating worry on a Charles Campisi, Oakville
child — living in substandard housing and the stress of moving
Denying We need a
from one home to another — that chips away at their mental We are ignoring ceasefire for all
health, impairs their school work and can make them physically ill.
“How the government chooses to respond will change the trajec-
pronouns is startling statistics
tory of children’s lives,” Sara Austin, founder and CEO of Children
First Canada, said at the time of the report’s release.
denying rights on gun violence Families with loved ones in
Gaza urge Canada to act, Oct.
That remains true today. The fight over pronouns in 26
The solutions to these problems are not unknown or out of reach. school is part of the ancient Fearful Maine residents stay As a Jew with Israeli friends
No moon shot projects are needed to improve mental health war between adults and kids, home amid massive search for and family, I urge Canada to
supports or tackle surgical backlogs. All it takes is money and Oct. 27 suspect in killing of 18 people, embrace the United Nations
focus, driven by the harsh truth that failure to respond will cost a I couldn’t agree more regarding Oct. 26 Secretary-General’s call for a
generation of kids their future. the current sense of ownership Once again the good citizens of ceasefire. Never has it been
We can blame politicians for the failure to make the necessary that some parents feel when America, this time from nor- more important to follow in-
investments. But in truth, we are all blame. Politicians react to dealing with their children. mally peaceful Maine, have suf- ternational law and strengthen
pressure and the priorities set by those who elect them. So we all While the world explodes in vi- fered a Portapique’s worth of the United Nations. Canada’s
have a role and a responsibility here. olence and opioids destroy lives tragedy and misery, and the refusal to support the Secretary
The stories of Amina, Mikayla, Bahar and others should compel in many societies, we in Canada enormous psychological and fi- General weakens the UN as an
us all to take action to ensure a better future, for the children and have an argument about name nancial costs of a complete lock- institution. I also urge other
ourselves. calling. Children often struggle down as the search for the sus- Jews to speak out for a cease-
with how their fellow school pect continues. According to fire. As we mourn the tragic loss
mates treat them. Bullying is Gun Violence Archive, there of Jewish life, and pray for the
ongoing and the internet has have been some 566 mass hostages’ safe return, we must
given fuel to do great psycho- shootings in the U.S. this year work to stop the killing of in-
logical damage. To be able to alone, plus nearly 30,000 sui- nocent Gazans. Even now, we
affix a personal label that these cides by gun. Some 1,500 chil- cannot think only about our
young individuals can hold on- dren and teens were killed in own community. All non-com-
to in the minefield of their so- gun violence this year and near- batants must be protected.
cial strata is such a small thing ly 4,000 injured. Yet, we see in Gideon Forman, Toronto

in this complex world. Most
parents are kidding themselves
if they think that their children
reveal every aspect of their ac-
tivities, thoughts and beliefs to
them. By respecting their
choices during their most vul-
R .J. JO H N STON TORO N TO STA R F I L E P H OTO nerable and tumultuous years,
The Star’s “The kids aren’t all right“ series reveals the many you show your children that
ways we are failing our children, on issues such as surgical you provide a safe haven for
wait times, a mental health crisis, the sparse availability of them. It would have been better
affordable housing and the rise in youth-involved gun crime. for the Saskatchewan govern-
‘‘
the recent tragedy in Sault Ste.
Marie (where four people were
killed, including three children)
that we are not immune from
gun madness, or rather, from I also urge other Jews to
the enhancement of violence by
guns. All of this, and the Nation- speak out for a ceasefire …
al Rifle Association nor the Ca- All non-combatants must
nadian gun lobby have not been be protected.
supportive of gun control mea-
sures. Also of note, Premier
Doug Ford was not supportive GIDEON FORMAN, TORONTO
TORONTO STAR MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023
Fractured
GOP is
a danger
to the U.S.
and world
JAIME
WATT
OPINION
My granny, who was the wisest person I knew, always
said that if you lived long enough anything can happen.
And happen it did this week when the United States
House of Representatives finally elected a new Speak-
er, Rep. Mike Johnson. But only after the country
endured three weeks of rudderless political chaos.
The contrast could not have been more stark. Just
when President Joe Biden, sitting at the precipice of
history, delivered a rare prime time address from the
Oval Office outlining a plan to support allies in Ukraine
and Israel, Republicans in congress were busy holding
a circular firing squad, forcing the chamber into paral-
ysis. If anyone thinks the new Speaker’s coronation
will end the political theatre, they’re sorely mistaken.
Once again, the vindictiveness of Trumpians within
the GOP has been laid plain. And, let there be no doubt,
the infighting and witch-hunts orchestrated by the
former president will only continue as the race for the
Republican nomination in 2024 heats up.
What’s more, while Johnson was quick to promise
aggressive and urgent action to get the legislative
branch moving, it may all be for naught as he faces the
daunting task of avoiding a government shutdown in
November.
Canadians have become accustomed to these antics
south of the border. But this time was something else.
This was not just another embarrassing machination.
It caused very real concern to those who rely on Amer-
ica’s strength to defend them. And more troublingly —
it surely delighted Iran, Russia, China and North Korea.
While those autocracies fail time and again to inspire
each other in unity, America, at its best, can inspire
other democracies in unity. But it exists as that beacon
for the free world only when it acts like it.
Right now, as the world looks to the U.S. for exactly
that, it gets partisan squabbling, name-calling and
gridlock — with the potential for more to come.
Such dysfunction isn’t just disheartening — history
shows it’s dangerous. The political disagreements and
disunity that bogged Britain and Prime Minister Ne-
ville Chamberlain down in the buildup to the Second
World War proved to be catastrophic for stemming
Nazi Germany’s aggressive incursions into Eastern
Europe. And those internal quarrels were far more
civilized than those we are seeing today in the U.S.
America not only has to lead its allies in this time of
global uncertainty, it also has to work urgently to
protect the deep exposure it has in both the Middle
East and Ukraine. These duties appeared to count for
nothing when compared to personal political ambi-
tions of those who jostled to replace Kevin McCarthy.
As Johnson takes the gavel, he must, of course, work
first to avoid a shutdown, which would paralyze their
whole political system. But that is literally the first step.
More existentially, he must lead the Republican politi-
cal class in a serious self-examination of its most recent
embarrassing and irresponsible episode. Good luck.
The American ideal is built on prioritizing national
interest over partisanship. And, more importantly for
its allies around the world, an understanding that
America’s edge over its adversaries is its potential to
unite disparate nations under shared values and mu-
tual interests. But that is only realized if the world sees
America’s democracy as functioning and capable.
Once the party of Abraham Lincoln, who preserved
the Union and signed the Emancipation Proclama-
tion; Theodore Roosevelt, who
championed progressivism and as-
The infighting serted America’s global role; and
and the Dwight D. Eisenhower, who deli-
cately balanced strength with di-
witch-hunts plomacy during the Cold War; the
orchestrated GOP seems to have irreparably lost
by former its way.
president What happens next in American
Donald Trump politics may well come to define the
future of the global competition be-
will only tween democracy and autocracy.
continue as Trump, under whose presidency
the race the U.S. brokered unprecedented
for the diplomatic accords in the Middle
Republican East, knows this, but continues his
harmful puppeteering regardless.
nomination in As Biden looks to lead through the
2024 heats up tumult, his opponent will clearly try
anything to scupper him, rather
than do what is right. It might be
the greatest test for American de-
mocracy, and its ability to inspire
unity across the free world, we have
seen in a generation.
JA IM E WAT T I S T H E E X EC UT IVE
C H A I R M A N O F N AV I GATOR LTD., A
CON S ERVAT I VE ST R AT EGIST AND A
F R E E LA N C E CON T R I BU TING COL -
U MN IST FOR T H E STA R. @JAIMEWAT T
Employers would be wise to accept that termination is not an appropriate response to social media activity
that is politically contentious at best, Muneeza Sheikh writes.
Social media posts
on war are tricky
MUNEEZA SHEIKH
CO N T R I B U TO R
Judging from six cases I have seen
in my law practice involving em-
ployee reaction to the war between
Israel and Gaza, two things are
clear, to me at least: Canadian em-
ployees are riddled with frustration
and employers are either getting
poor legal advice or no advice at all.
Of these six cases, one resulted in
employer failing to accommodate a
work-from-home request, two em-
ployees were disciplined and three
were fired. Let’s look at two of them.
The first case involved a Jewish
client, who despite losing friends in
the Oct. 7 attack, was told he had to
come into work. My client was dis-
traught and depressed and simply
asked to work from home for a
short while.
On his first day back, while deny-
ing his claim for a work-from-home
accommodation, his employer
chose to make comments that
made it clear that she had little
sympathy for the attacks. Her own
views clouded her legal obligation
to accommodate my client. He will
sue and, in my view, he will win.
The last case involved a Muslim
client who posted online a slew of
images and quotes that largely
spoke to peace in Palestine and Is-
rael. Her employer fired her be-
Our politicians
deserve protection
H E AT H E R
MALLICK
OPINION
The just-revealed $30.9-million
yearly cost of protecting Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau seems
strangely low given the violent tem-
per of the times. It’s rising, but one
hopes it will rise more, along with
more security for individual MPs
and anyone who dares run for office
at any level, both urban and rural.
Canada has always seen American
attitudes float north in various
forms. The U.S. love of guns is the
ugliest symptom of political polar-
ization and we see something of
that vile reaction to Liberal anti-
assault weapon legislation here.
But Canadians are also displaying
extreme responses to climate
change prep, feminism, identity
politics, religious quarrels, infla-
tion, the pandemic, and a waterfall
of other matters that we could once
perhaps have dealt with better.
And in 2020, Armed Forces re-
servist Corey Hurren rammed his
armed pickup truck into the Rideau
Hall gates and tried to hunt Tru-
deau down. How had the RCMP let
that even begin to happen?
Canada’s prime minister no lon-
ger has an official house, the previ-
ous one built in 1868 but having
O PIN IO N | A13
SEA N K I L PAT RI C K
cause the posts, while “seemingly
peaceful,” were not, because she
had “failed to condemn Hamas” in
any of them. Her failure, in her em-
ployer’s view, meant that she sup-
ported the attacks on Oct. 7. They
simply would not accept her posi-
tion that she had not. She will sue
and, in my view, she will win.
Employers are fiercely tethered to
their own views on this war. Their
views are clouding their legal judg-
ment and causing operational tur-
moil. They are issuing internal and
external statements that demoral-
ize and sometimes isolate their em-
ployees. They are obsessively mon-
itoring employee social media ac-
counts and are encouraging other
employees to spy on their col-
leagues as well (this can be seen as
harassment).
Most concerningly, they are mov-
ing to quickly fire before consider-
ing other options.
Speech or social media activity
that incites hatred toward any
group (even if none in that group
are employees with the company)
must result in a termination. Hate-
ful speech does cause irreparable
damage to employment relation-
ships and employers have a legal
obligation to keep their employees
safe from toxicity. Hate in the work-
place is toxic.
In some circumstances, however,
fallen into disuse because of de-
cades of politicians too scared to
spend public money on repairs to
the place, ridden with asbestos, cat
pee, drafts and lousy wiring. As re-
altors say in code, it looked “tired,”
but it had been comatose for de-
cades.
It was a false economy for which
every prime minister, Liberal or
Conservative, can be blamed. Or is
it us? The CBC, whose home page
grows increasingly peculiar as it
grows too nervous to report news
clearly and candidly, says security
costs have “shot up.”
But the headline saying just that
reads like an attack because all
headlines read like attacks these
days, especially to the Angry Pyja-
mas the CBC makes room for in the
comments. This is how we live now.
It turns out that costs have risen
mainly because RCMP officers got
a raise and the Trudeaus, like the
rest of us, didn’t get out much dur-
ing the pandemic. As well, they are
a large family with a large extended
family.
As the story points out, previous
prime ministers’ families were old-
er and not nearly as outdoorsy.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper
flew two armoured limos and a bul-
letproof SUV to India for his visit to
the country, which seemed ludi-
crous at the time but in retrospect
seems sensible.
Harper was not a social man. He
ON0
T H E CA NA D I A N P RE SS F I L E P HOTO
employers would be wise in accept-
ing that termination or discipline is
not the appropriate (or lawful) re-
sponse to social media activity that
is politically contentious at best.
The court will look at a number of
factors in determining whether a
termination or discipline was the
right response:
■ Is the post in question an anomaly
or a small part of coverage on a wide
range of topics on the employee’s
social media platform? Is the trou-
bling post buried somewhere be-
tween commentary on non-con-
troversial issues? Is it “information
sharing” or long diatribes filled
with odious references against a
group of people?
■ Does the employee understand
the problematic nature of the
posts? Are employers asking em-
ployees to remove the posts before
they consider any penalty at all? In
some cases, a termination may be
seen as far too severe a penalty for
an employee who is not public fac-
ing. It will be far more difficult for
public-facing and senior-level em-
ployees to argue that their posts
could not objectively be seen as
publicly linked to the company.
When the courts look at social me-
dia posts, in my view, they will only
find a termination or discipline ap-
propriate if those posts “taken as a
whole” reflect an assiduous vilifica-
tion of a group of people.
An employer who does not con-
sider this very basic analysis before
disciplining or terminating an em-
ployee runs the small risk of being
sued and the large risk of demoral-
izing staff as a whole by creating
instability and fear of job security.
M UN E E Z A S H E I K H I S A N E M P LOY-
M E N T L AW Y E R I N TO RO NTO.
took a darker view of human nature
— his support for Hungarian
strongman Viktor Orbán has always
been in character — and in this era
we might all lean more that way too,
towards cynicism and gloom.
Trudeau always has been social, a
traveller and a kayaks-to-canoes
athlete, and a campaigner, never a
snob, never remote. It’s a danger-
ous way to be now, when normal
small-town political rallies attract
primitive people who throw gravel.
Trudeau camps out at Rideau Cot-
tage while Sophie Grégoire Tru-
deau, post-separation, apparently
lives in an Ottawa condo. It must be
difficult to run a government and
two households. Imagine how hard
it is for security officials to prepare,
watch and plan.
It would be sensible to put the
Governor General in Rideau Cot-
tage and the prime minister in Ri-
deau Hall. The monarchy has no
place in Canada and its degraded
family members aren’t even pop-
ular in their own country.
We have postponed the monarchy
problem just as we postponed up-
keep at the PM’s house and look
where that got us. I can scarcely tell
you the name of the current Gover-
nor General, having spent all my
energy on forgetting the previous
one, another of Trudeau’s good-na-
tured appointments based on opti-
mism rather than research.
Keeping politicians safe is surely
one of the basics, along with medi-
care, climate change prep, and all
the rest of the earlier list. But may-
be not. Is everything up for grabs in
Canada now?
HE ATH ER M A LL ICK IS A TORONTO-
B AS E D COLUM NI ST COVER I NG
CU R R EN T A F FA I R S FOR T HE STAR .
FOL LOW HE R ON TW IT TER :
@HE ATH ER M A LLI CK
ON0 ON
A14 | N E WS | WOR L D
U N I T E D S TAT E S
More than 1,000 people pay
tribute to Lewiston victims
T H E A S S O C I AT E D P R E S S
L E W I S TO N , M A I N E More than
1,000 people packed a cavernous
church Sunday night, and hun-
dreds more spilled outside, to hug,
sing, weep and seek comfort in the
wake of Maine’s most deadly mass
shooting.
The crowd gathered for the vigil at
Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in
Lewiston, where days earlier a gun-
man fatally shot 18 people.
Some people put their heads in
their hands and wept when the
names were read aloud. At one
point, members of the crowd raised
their hands to say “I love you” in
American Sign Language to honour
the four members of Maine’s deaf
community killed in the shooting.
“We will not be defined by the
tragedies that happened,” said the
Rev. Todd Little from the First
United Pentecostal Church. “Fear,
anxiety and trepidation will not
dictate our present or our future.”
The vigil came two days after the
body of suspected gunman Robert
Card was found. The 40-year-old’s
body was discovered in a trailer at a
recycling centre in Lisbon Falls.
Card died of an apparent self-in-
flicted gunshot wound, though it
was unclear when, authorities said.
Card was also suspected of injuring
13 people in the shooting rampage
Wednesday night in Lewiston.
Christian leaders, a rabbi and an
imam spoke of the pain from the
shooting but how the city of about
37,000 can become stronger. Little
told the crowd their community is
bigger than the tragedy and will
emerge not just “Lewiston Strong”
but “Lewiston Stronger.”
Kevin Bohlin, a leader in Maine’s
deaf community, addressed the
crowd through American Sign Lan-
guage as an interpreter delivered
WA R I N U K R A I N E
Moscow downs drones over Crimea
T H E A S S O C I AT E D P R E S S
KY I V Russian air defence shot
down more than 30 Ukrainian
drones over the Black Sea and the
Crimean peninsula overnight Sat-
urday, Russia’s Defence Ministry
said Sunday.
“The air defence systems in place
destroyed 36 Ukrainian unmanned
aerial vehicles over the Black Sea
and the northwestern part of the
Crimean peninsula,” the ministry
wrote on Telegram.
Local authorities in the southern
Krasnodar region bordering the
Black Sea said that a fire broke out
at an oil refinery in the early hours
of Sunday, but did not specify the
cause. “The reasons for the incident
are being established,” local author-
ities said, amid claims in local me-
dia outlets the fire had been caused
by a drone strike or debris from a
downed drone.
Drone strikes and shelling on the
Russian border regions and Mos-
cow-annexed Crimea are a regular
occurrence. Ukrainian officials
never acknowledge responsibility
for attacks on Russian territory or
the Crimean peninsula.
In Ukraine, the country’s air force
said Sunday it had shot down five
Iranian-made Shahed exploding
drones launched by Russia over-
night.
The kids are
all right.
his message. Several in attendance
could be seen signing to one anoth-
er throughout the vigil.
The victims are now gone, Bohlin
said, “but they are directing us to
come together and make a differ-
ence in this world.”
Another pastor encouraged Main-
ers to compassion borne of the
tragedy, and to avoid unhealthy de-
bate of the details surrounding the
crime that are sure to emerge in
coming days.
“Let’s stay focused on the things
that invite peace into our commu-
nities,” the Rev. Allen Austin said.
Earlier Sunday, several church
services were shaped by the shoot-
ing and subsequent lockdown that
lasted days. At the morning mass
for the basilica, several women
wore black veils to mark what a
church official called “the horrible
events in our small town.”
Close to the front line in the coun-
try’s east, where Ukrainian and
Russian forces are locked in a
grinding battle for control, four po-
lice officers were wounded when a
shell fired by Russian troops ex-
ploded by their police car in the city
of Siversk, located in the partly oc-
cupied Donetsk province.
British intelligence assessed this
weekend that Russia had suffered
some of its biggest casualty rates so
far this year as a result of continued
“heavy but inconclusive” fighting
around the town of Avdiivka, also in
the Donetsk province. The U.K.
At Lisbon Falls Baptist Church,
worshippers greeted each other
warmly but the atmosphere turned
sombre when the Rev. Brian Ga-
nong brought up the tragedy. He
prayed for those fighting for their
lives, those who lost family and
friends, first responders and med-
ical workers, and others — includ-
ing the Card family, who he said had
ties to some members of the
church.
Authorities recovered many guns
while searching for Card and be-
lieve he had legally purchased
them, according to Jim Ferguson,
the special agent in charge of the
Boston office of the Bureau of Alco-
hol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explo-
sives.
Investigators are still searching
for a motive for the massacre, but
have increasingly focused on Card’s
mental health history.
Ministry of Defence’s regular in-
telligence update Saturday morn-
ing noted Russia had committed
“elements of up to eight brigades”
in the area since it launched its
“major offensive effort” in mid-Oc-
tober.
Also on Sunday, a prominent ally
of Russian President Vladimir Pu-
tin warned Russia might take ac-
tion to seize assets of European
Union member states it considers
hostile if the EU proceeds with its
plan to “steal” frozen Russian funds
to support Ukraine’s postwar re-
construction efforts.
A new exclusive series from
the Toronto Star
The Star looks at how our country is failing a
generation, the toll it’s taking on our kids — and how we
can turn things around.
Tomorrow: Environment
Truth we need for the world we want.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR
Police make
arrest in
Tampa mass
shooting
T H E A S S O C I AT E D P R E S S
TA M PA , F L A . A man has been
arrested in Tampa, Fla., in a mass
shooting that erupted during Hal-
loween festivities early Sunday.
Two people were killed and 18 in-
jured, police said.
At least two shooters opened fire
just before 3 a.m. in the Ybor City
area, Tampa Police Chief Lee Ber-
caw said. Later Sunday, he said de-
tectives arrested Tyrell Stephen
Phillips, 22, in connection with the
shooting. He was charged with sec-
ond-degree murder with a firearm.
“My heart goes out to the fami-
lies,” Bercaw said in a news briefing
posted online. He called the gun
violence “extremely tragic” and
said police would not tolerate it.
Earlier, authorities said one sus-
pect was in custody and at least one
other was being sought, but Bercaw
Police tape did not immediately say Sunday af-
surrounds ternoon whether police were seek-
Schemengees ing anyone else after Phillips’ ar-
Bar & Grille rest. “We make arrests quickly,”
in Lewiston, Bercaw said in the briefing. “We
Maine, have a sense of urgency and, if you
on Sunday are going to be out there with a gun,
as services you are going to pay for it.”
were held It was not immediately known if
for the victims Phillips had an attorney, and he re-
of last week’s mained jailed pending an initial
shooting that court appearance Monday, accord-
left 18 people ing to officials and local reports.
dead in the The early morning fight occurred
community in an area with several bars and
of 40,000. clubs that was once the centre of
Tampa’s cigar industry. In more re-
cent years, the area has been known
MAT T YO R K for its lively nightlife, and Tampa
T HE A SS O C I AT E D police spokesperson Jonee Lewis
P R E SS said “hundreds” of people were on
the streets at the time of Sunday’s
shootings because numerous
nightspots had just closed.
FRANCE
Macron
to enshrine
Ukrainian
war veterans
the right
take part
in “The World’s to abortion
Longest
Marathon”
in Kyiv
on Sunday. T H E A S S O C I AT E D P R E S S
The event helps
raise funds PA R I S President Emmanuel Ma-
for Ukraine’s cron promised Sunday to enshrine
military. a woman’s right to an abortion in
the French Constitution by next
year.
ALE X B AB E N KO The president said a bill making
T HE A SS O C I AT E D this possible would be presented to
P R E SS his cabinet by the end of this year so
that, “in 2024, the freedom of wom-
en to have an abortion will be irre-
versible.”
Abortion in France was decrimi-
nalized under a 1975 law, but there
is nothing in the constitution that
would guarantee abortion rights.
It was the rollback of abortion
rights in the U.S. after the Supreme
Court overturned a 50-year-old
ruling last year and stripped wom-
en’s constitutional protections for
abortion that pushed France on a
path toward guaranteeing such
rights. Macron said he wanted to
change the constitution in order “to
enshrine the freedom of women to
have an abortion, to solemnly en-
sure that nothing can stop or undo
what will be irreversible.”
Scan for
more info
TORONTO STAR MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023
AUGER-ALIASSIME IS ‘BACK’
Defending champion Félix Auger-Aliassime defeated Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5) on Sunday to win the Swiss
Indoors for his first ATP Tour title of the season. The 23-year-old won four tournaments last year and reached a career-high
sixth in the world rankings. But injuries have been a problem at times this season and his ranking has slipped to No. 19. “I’m
definitely back,” Auger-Aliassime said in his on-court interview. “I let my racket talk.”
R A P TO R S
Talent going to waste
First three games show Raptors need to create better chances for Siakam
DOUG SMITH
SPORTS REPORTER
There is much to be worked out as
the Raptors try to find some sem-
blance of a smooth-running half-
court offence. That’s no surprise —
though there shouldn’t be any the-
sky-is-falling dread after just three
games — but there is an issue that
needs to be addressed.
Pascal Siakam has to get more
good shots in his comfort zone or
the Raptors will be a wasting a truly
valuable scoring threat.
“We need to definitely find more
opportunities for him,” coach Dar-
ko Rajakovic said after Saturday’s
loss to the Philadelphia 76ers.
“Some of those are really coming
from us … we did not do a good job
of cutting.
“We’ve got to be able … to open
more room for him to attack down-
hill, to get shots at the rim.”
Shot distribution, and playing to
the strengths of the team’s best
players, is something still being
worked on in the infancy of the
NBA season. It’s been a particular
issue for Siakam, who hasn’t
seemed comfortable as the Raptors
slog through half-court set after
half-court set.
The small sample size notwith-
standing, and with no disrespect to
Precious Achiuwa, the Raptors
aren’t going to win many games
when Achiuwa has 10 field-goal at-
tempts in 18 minutes and Siakam
has eight while on the court for
twice as long.
“I think (Siakam) was involved,”
Rajakovic said.
“I thought he was making right
decisions, I thought he was finding
open guys.”
Rajakovic keeps saying that the
ball in his movement-based offence
will always “find” the best players
but that hasn’t been true often
enough in the first week of the sea-
son.
There is an equitable distribution
of shots: Scottie Barnes, 15.3 per
game; Dennis Schröder, 14.0; Sia-
kam,13.3; Gary Trent Jr.,13.0; O.G.
Anunoby, 10.5 are the team leaders.
But an egalitarian offence might
not be the best use of personnel and
it would be best if it tilts more to
Siakam as the season progresses.
Whether it’s an early-season over-
reliance on playmaking coming
from the elbow or the top of the key
instigated by one of the team’s cen-
tres, or everyone trying to figure
where to cut and when, Siakam has
been an observer d in unfamiliar
spots too often.
He has taken 15 three-pointers in
three games — making six of them,
to his credit — but only 18 shots in
the paint, according to NBA.com
shot tracking,
Someone one with his skills in
traffic shouldn’t be taking 37.5 per
cent of his shots from behind the
arc. It should be much closer to the
22 per cent he took from long range
COX , A16
WO R L D S E R I E S , A17
N F L , A18
FA BR I C E COF FR I N I AF P VI A G ET T Y IM AGE S
Pascal Siakam last season. He leads the Raptors in
has been free throws taken, so things are
averging 13.3 happening when he’s on the move
shots per game with the ball. It’s just not often
so far this enough.
season for the “It’s a new system, we just keep
Raptors. adjusting each and every game,”
Barnes said Saturday. “Still feeling
out, trying to find what our go-to is
C H AR L ES R EX and getting (to) it, finding those
AR BOG AST right ball movements, where we
T H E A SSOC I AT ED need to get the ball to slow the of-
PR ESS fence down for where we’re gonna
create it at.
“It’s still early in the season, so
TO N I G H T we’re gonna find it. Trust and be-
lieve in each other and just gotta
Trail Blazers stay together.”
at Raptors There is a lot of time to get it
7:30 p.m., together and games are coming
TSN4 rapidly to provide live opportuni-
ties to work things out. After start-
ing the season with three games in
four nights, the Raptors have an-
other three-in-four stretch begin-
ning Monday at home against Port-
land.
ON0
A15
HOCKEY
‘Freak
accident’
on ice kills
ex-NHLer
Johnson cut by
skate while playing
for team in England
T H E A S S O C I AT E D P R E S S
N OT T I N G H A M , E N G L A N D
American hockey player Adam
Johnson, who appeared in 13 NHL
games with the Pittsburgh Pen-
guins in 2019 and 2020, has died
after his neck was cut by a skate
blade during a game in England on
Saturday, his team said. He was 29.
Johnson was playing for the Not-
tingham Panthers in a Challenge
Cup game against the Sheffield
Steelers when he suffered the skate
cut during the second period of the
Elite Ice Hockey League game at
Sheffield’s Utilita Arena.
“The Nottingham Panthers are
truly devastated to announce that
Adam Johnson has tragically
passed away following a freak acci-
dent at the game in Sheffield last
night,” the team said Sunday.
“The Panthers would like to send
our thoughts and condolences to
Adam’s family, his partner and all
his friends at this extremely diffi-
cult time. Everyone at the club, in-
cluding players, staff, management
and ownership, are heartbroken at
the news of Adam’s passing.”
A Minnesota native, Johnson
spent 13 games over parts of the
2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons play-
ing for Pittsburgh in the NHL be-
fore spending the 2020-21 season
in Sweden with the Malmo Red-
hawks. He had a goal and three as-
sists for the Penguins.
“The Pittsburgh Penguins join the
entire hockey world in mourning
the life of Adam Johnson, whose
life tragically ended far too soon,”
the Penguins said Sunday in a state-
ment. “We offer our deepest condo-
lences to Adam’s family and friends,
as well as all of Adam’s past and
present teammates and coaches.
Adam will always be part of the
Penguins family.”
Johnson played college hockey at
Minnesota-Duluth, helping the
Bulldogs reach two NCAA tourna-
ments. He scored an overtime
game-winner in the 2017 tourna-
ment, sending Minnesota-Duluth
to the Frozen Four by beating Bos-
ton University.
He also played for three American
Hockey League clubs during his ca-
reer and in Germany with the Augs-
burger Panther in 2022-23 before
agreeing to join Nottingham this
season.
“Our thoughts are also with the
fans and staff of both clubs, espe-
cially those who attended or were
following the game, who will be
devastated following today’s news,”
the team said.
“The Panthers would like to thank
everyone who rushed to support
Adam last night in the most testing
of circumstances. Adam, our num-
ber 47, was not only an outstanding
ice hockey player but also a great
teammate and an incredible person
with his whole life ahead of him.
The club will dearly miss him and
will never ever forget him.”
The league announced that games
scheduled Sunday were postponed.
Ian Laperriere, who coached
Johnson with the AHL’s Lehigh
Valley Phantoms, said it was tough
news.
“Great kid (and) teammate,” La-
perriere said in a text message. “On-
ly great things to say about him.”
Adam Johnson
played 13
games in the
2018-19 and
2019-20
seasons for the
Penguins,
scoring one
NHL goal.
ON0 ON
A16 | S P O R T S
A BATTLE OF ALBERTA BLOWOUT
Calgary’s Dennis Gilbert, left, Jonathan Huberdeau and Matthew Coronato try to stop Edmonton’s Connor McDavid on Sunday in the Heritage Classic in front of
57,167 fans at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton. Evander Kane had a goal and two assists as the Oilers snapped a four-game losing skid and beat the Flames
5-2. It was much warmer (3 Celsius at puck drop) than at the original Heritage Classic 20 years ago when it was -30 C with the wind chill.
MAPLE LEAFS
Blue-line depth put to test
Injuries to McCabe, Liljegren give other defenceman chance to impress
DAMIEN
COX
OPINION
Every year, it seems, defensive rein-
forcements arrive in winter for the
Maple Leafs.
It was Jake Muzzin in 2019, Ben
Hutton in 2021, Mark Giordano
and Ilya Lyubushkin in 2022, then
Jake McCabe, Erik Gustavsson and
Luke Schenn last winter. The Leafs
have been viewed as a contender for
a number of years now, and con-
tenders generally need to make
sure they have extra bodies on the
blue line in case their post-season
turns into a long one.
That hasn’t been a problem in To-
ronto for a while, granted. But pre-
pare for the worst and hope for the
best, right?
So while injuries over the past few
days to McCabe and Timothy Lil-
jegren, both of whom may miss
Tuesday’s game against Los Ange-
les, seem to be a mini-emergency,
they’re really not. They’re an op-
portunity for new GM Brad Treliv-
ing to get a look a what blue-line
depth exists in the organization
with an eye toward what may or
may not have to be done to bolster
the back end in the dark months of
winter.
McCabe has a groin problem the
team is now saying isn’t as bad as
initially feared. Liljegren, the for-
mer first-round pick who has been
elevated into the team’s top four
after the departure of Justin Holl,
got smacked hard in the corner by
Nashville’s burly Yakov Trenin on
Saturday night and didn’t return.
Sure looked like a shoulder injury of
some kind.
That forced John Klingberg to ab-
sorb some different duties and for
the 40-year-old Giordano to play
more. Call-up William Lagesson
needed to skate 10 minutes against
the Predators. If one or both of
McCabe and Liljegren can’t play
against the Kings, we may see Si-
mon Benoit, a pleasant surprise
during training camp, or Mikko
Kokkonen.
At this point, this is not exactly an
embarrassment of defensive riches
for head coach Sheldon Keefe to
call upon. That said, the Leafs are
hard against the cap, and one of the
hopes of Treliving this season had
to have been that one of Lagesson,
Benoit, Kokkonen or even Connor
Timmins, when he gets healthy
again, would be worthy of playoff
minutes if required.
So less than 10 games into the sea-
son, the Leafs may get some an-
swers to these questions. That’s not
a bad thing.
They’ll also get some answers on
how much of a load Klingberg is
able to shoulder after coming in on
a one-year contract over the sum-
mer to jump-start his career. So far,
the presence of another puck mov-
er seems to be alleviating a little bit
of the stress on Morgan Reilly, who
played 27 minutes and 48 seconds
against Nashville and looked rock
solid doing it.
The Leafs, by the way, did little to
lose that game, 3-2, other than play
a lousy overtime. Three-on-three
hockey, we can all agree, may be fun
to watch and all, but it isn’t neces-
sarily reflective of the 60 minutes of
competition that came before. In
three periods, the Leafs outplayed
Nashville, but Juuse Saros was out-
standing and Ilya Samsonov was
just good, and that’s why the game
went to overtime in the first place.
Gradually, the new additions up
front, Tyler Bertuzzi and Max Do-
mi, are getting into the flow of
things, while Auston Matthews and
William Nylander continue to be
brilliant and the best is yet to come
from Mitch Marner. Keefe and Tre-
living continue to want to waste a
roster spot on Ryan Reaves, but
otherwise the forward units are
generally moving into top gear.
Goaltending, or a battle for play-
ing time between Joseph Woll and
Samsonov, was last week’s story.
This week, it’ll be the defence be-
cause of injuries.
When you consider the utter tur-
moil the Leafs were supposed to be
in last spring after being eliminated
from the playoffs by Florida, a solid
road trip after a mushy start was
another mark of organizational sta-
bility. Brendan Shanahan and com-
pany just don’t panic, and they rely
on the talent of their core group to
get them through just about all reg-
ular-season jams.
Right now, the game of hockey is
surrounded by some difficult is-
sues, including the proper way to
recognize diversity and to deal with
gambling by all professional ath-
letes, including hockey players.
You’d like to think the NHL Players
Association, meanwhile, is at least
considering a call for mandatory
neck protection following the
weekend’s tragedy in England in-
volving former NHLer Adam John-
son, but the union has not tradi-
tionally been very proactive when it
comes to health and safety issues.
Within that constantly shifting
landscape, and in a league generally
defined by streaks and slumps, the
Leafs have been able to emerge
again this fall as a steady organiza-
tion. So has Boston, and the Bruins
are once again looking to be the
class of the Atlantic Division. A con-
frontation in Boston this Thursday
with the Leafs will provide some
information on exactly where both
teams are early in the season.
The Leafs, with an eye on compet-
ing with the Bruins for top spot in
the Atlantic, almost certainly will
add to their blue-line crew again
before the 2024 playoffs. There will
be lots of players with good rep-
utations and experience available.
You have to believe a lot of top
teams already are starting to check
out defenceman Marc-Édouard
Vlasic of the woeful San Jose
Sharks to see if he has anything left
in the tank. The 36-year-old Vlasic
has been benched this year already
and his $7-million (U.S.) cap hit is
unpalatable for most teams. He was
a buyout candidate last summer.
Still, he has a good pedigree, and a
change of scenery might change
things if the Sharks are willing to
eat a lot of salary.
Other trade candidates will
emerge in the coming months.
Right now, in Toronto, a few de-
fencemen already in the organiza-
tion get a chance to prove they can
fit any blue-line needs the team has.
TWI T T E R: @DAM O SP I N
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR
JA S O N F RA N SO N T HE CA NA D I A N P RE SS
N H L N OT E B O O K
Colorado
not happy
with play
on Makar
S TA R W I R E S E R V I C E S
The Colorado Avalanche weren’t
happy with a play that forced star
defenceman Cale Makar out of
their 4-0 loss to Buffalo on Sunday,
even if he returned for the third
period.
The Avalanche were on a power
play when Makar retreated to his
own end to retrieve the puck. The
Sabres’ Kyle Okposo followed and
put his forearm on Makar’s back
before he reached the goal-line.
Makar fell awkwardly into the end
boards.
Losing Timothy Makar took some of the blame —
Liljegren, top, “I think a lot of it’s on me, going
and Jake back slow” — but teammate Devon
McCabe to Toews wasn’t buying it.
injury will be a “It’s a penalty in my books,” Toews
test for the told Altitude TV. “You learn that
Leafs’ play in bantam (hockey), how to get
defensive on the hips of a guy to get him off
depth. balance (when he) is up against the
boards.
“When you do it six feet away
from the boards at speed, it gets
dangerous. That’s a dangerous play
… and something that needs to be
addressed.”
Okposo told The Buffalo News
that he spoke with Makar.
“I obviously wasn’t trying to push
him there,” Okposo said. “I knew he
was tired, so I was trying to close
the gap and once he went, I was
honestly just trying to go around
him. Then, he goes down and it’s
like, ‘Oh no.’ You never want to see
that.”
Do you know the way, San Jose?
It’s already a long year in San Jose,
and the season isn’t even a month
old.
Washington’s Tom Wilson broke a
tie late in the third period and the
Capitals beat the visiting Sharks 3-1.
The Sharks fell to 0-7-2 and have
lost 15 straight games going back to
last season.
The one bright spot Sunday? Luke
Kunin scored in the first period to
end San Jose’s 163-minute, 10-sec-
ond scoreless streak.
TORONTO STAR MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023
WO R L D S E R I E S
Pham gives up shot at history
Letting teammate bat trumps chance to be first to go 5-for-5 in a World Series game
RONALD BLUM
PHOENIX Jace Peterson was
standing in the Arizona dugout be-
fore the ninth inning when Tommy
Pham walked up and told his team-
mate to hit for him when his spot
came up.
Pham said he didn’t know he
could have become the first player
to go 5-for-5 in a World Series game
and added he didn’t care.
“Me and Jace are cool, man. I had
to get my dog in,” Pham said Sunday
before the Diamondbacks worked
out at Chase Field with the series
against the Texas Rangers tied 1-1.
Pham went 4-for-4 with a pair of
doubles in the Diamondbacks’ 9-1
win Saturday night. He is 5-for-9
with a home run in the first two
games.
Pham approached manager Torey
Lovullo with the idea in the eighth
inning after Arizona scored three
runs to open a 7-1 lead.
“Are you sure? One hundred per
cent sure?” the manager recalled
responding. “And I gave him some
contingencies. I said, if it’s 7-1, that’s
the only score I’ll allow it to happen.
(If it’s) 7-2, lefty-righty, I’m going to
reconsider it and I’ll circle back to
you.”
Peterson was added to the roster
Friday after being dropped for the
NL Championship Series.
“I got you. Ready. Appreciate it.
Let’s go!,” Peterson remembered
telling Pham.
Peterson grounded to second on a
full-count pitch from Martín Pérez,
a play turned into a forceout.
Paul Molitor of Milwaukee in 1982
and Albert Pujols of St. Louis in 2011
are the only players with five-hit
games in the World Series, and both
went 5-for-6.
“I’m not on Twitter. I’m not on
LPGA
Boutier prevails in
epic nine-hole playoff
T H E A S S O C I AT E D P R E S S
K U A L A L U M P U R , M A L AY S I A
In fading light and with another
thunderstorm approaching,
Frenchwoman Céline Boutier
made a birdie on the ninth playoff
hole to defeat Atthaya Thitikul and
win the Maybank Championship
on the LPGA Tour on Sunday.
In a marathon playoff, both play-
ers made near identical shots on
several holes and saw potential
winning putts lip out as they stayed
tied through eight tense holes,
which included sitting out a 90-
minute storm delay at the Kuala
Lumpur Golf and Country Club
course.
At the ninth playoff hole on the
par-3 15th, the Thai player narrowly
missed her birdie putt, opening the
door for Boutier, who showed no
nerves in sinking her six-foot putt
to clinch her fourth title of the sea-
son, including wins at the Women’s
Scottish Open and the Evian
Championship.
Both Boutier and Thitikul fin-
ished at 21-under 267 after 72 holes.
The nine-hole playoff tied the re-
cord for the second-longest playoff
in LPGA Tour history.
Brooke Henderson, of Smiths
Falls, Ont., was four shots off the
lead after a 66 Sunday.
Boutier shot an 8-under 64 with
eight birdies, which would have
been nine had her birdie putt on the
18th not lipped out. Had that gone
in the Frenchwoman would have
held a two-shot clubhouse lead over
Thitikul, but the Thai player made
birdie on the final hole for a 68 to
force what became a lengthy play-
off in hot, humid conditions in Ma-
laysia.
“I didn’t expect it to be that long,
to be honest,” Boutier said of the
playoff. “I felt like we were both
very close to winning a few times,
and I just felt like we just had to
make a birdie essentially. I knew
she wasn’t going to make a mistake,
so I had to go for it and give myself
the best chances for birdies.”
social media. But my family will
send me things. And I guess I was
the idiot in the room that took
Tommy Pham out of the game,”
Lovullo said. “This was to me a true
team moment. Tommy Pham knew
— I’m sure he knew, because he’s
extremely smart and pays attention
to some things that you wouldn’t
expect a Major League Baseball
player to pay attention to — I am
guaranteeing you he was aware that
he had a chance to get five hits.”
Pham and Peterson share adja-
cent lockers and feel a kinship. Both
are in the World Series for the first
time, Peterson at age 33 and Pham
at 35. Peterson was acquired from
Oakland on July 31 and Pham from
the New York Mets the following
day.
“This was a moment where it was
a teammate loving a teammate to
JASO N BU T LER GET T Y IM AG E S
Canada’s Brooke Henderson was
four shots off the lead after
posting a 66 Sunday at the
Maybank Championship.
American Rose Zhang, who had a
one-stroke lead going into the final
round, shot a 71 to finish at 19 under,
two shots behind the leaders in a tie
for third with Thai player Jasmine
Suwannapura (70). Chien Peiyun
(68) of Taiwan was fifth at 18 under,
while Henderson and American
Nelly Korda (66) tied for sixth at 17
under.
It was Zhang’s fifth top-10 finish
on the LPGA Tour in just her 12th
event as a professional in her rookie
season.
Thitikul and Boutier were on the
second playoff hole when the horn
blew at 2:48 p.m. because of light-
ning in the area. Play resumed at
4:20 p.m.
The longest playoff in LPGA Tour
history was 10 holes at the 1972 Cor-
pus Christi Civitan Open. The last
nine-hole playoff occurred at the
2012 Kingsmill Championship,
where Jiyai Shin of South Korea
defeated American Paula Creamer.
ON0
S P ORTS | A17
Arizona’s
Tommy Pham
went 4-for-4
with two
doubles in a
win over Texas
on Saturday
night.
CARMEN
MAN DATO
G E TTY IMAG E S
give him an opportunity,” Lovullo that,” Pham said of perception. “My TO N I G H T
said. “He took what mattered most agency has been able to find me a
to him personally — No. 1 on the list job. I haven’t really felt like I lost the Game 3,
—and said, it’s more about the team opportunity because, oh, you know, Rangers at
and my teammate at this moment.” this guy has a bad reputation.” Diamondbacks
Teammates say they love to have Pham played for St. Louis (2014- 8 p.m.,
him in their clubhouse, but Pham’s 18), Tampa Bay (2018-19), San Diego Fox, Sportsnet
public reputation has been shaped (2020-21), Cincinnati (2022), and
by several incidents. Boston (2022) before the Mets and
He was suspended for three Diamondbacks.
games in May 2022 while with Cin- He was 1-for-13 in the NLCS and SCAN THIS CODE
cinnati for slapping San Francisco’s dealing with turf toe when Lovullo FOR GREGOR
Joc Pederson because of a fantasy rested him for Game 5 against Phil- CHISHOLM’S JAYS
football league dispute. Pham was adelphia. Pham detailed his meet- OFF-SEASON
stabbed in the lower back during an ing with the manager. PRIMER
altercation in the parking lot of a “He didn’t think I could get the job
strip club in October 2020 and re- done,” Pham sid. “So it’s up to me as
covered in time for the 2021 season. a player to instil confidence in my
And this past Aug. 19, Pham got into manager, my coaches, so that when
a verbal confrontation with a fan a situation presents itself again,
while in the on-deck circle in San they’re confident in me to do the
Diego. job.”
“I’m not really concerned about T H E ASS O C IATE D P RE SS
PRIME HYDRATION
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ON0 ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR

A18 | S P O RTS | S CO R EB OA R D

WEEK 8 The Battle of New York? It was that and less. The Giants
had minus-9 net yards passing and took the game to OT,
where the Jets strung together just enough plays to win.

A DA M H U N G E R T H E A SS O C I AT E D P R E SS
The Jets’ Breece Hall managed just 17 yards on 12 carries but kicker Greg Zuerlein kicked one field goal to force overtime and another to win the game, 13-10.

Cowboys continue streak

NFL ROUNDUP

B r o n c o s 24
Chiefs 9
Russell Wilson threw three touch-
down passes, Justin Simmons had
Prescott, Bland help S U N DAY ’ S
BEST
two of Denver’s five takeaways and
the Broncos stymied an ill Patrick
Dallas win its 11th Mahomes in snapping their 16-

straight home game 397 game losing streak to Kansas City.

The Broncos (3-5) were serenaded
PASSING off the field to the sound of Taylor
Sam Howell, Swift’s “Shake it Off ” blaring
throughout Empower Field. Swift
S C H U Y L E R D I XO N Commanders wasn’t on hand to witness Travis
Kelce’s six catches for 58 yards.
ARLINGTON, TEXAS Dak Prescott
didn’t lean on his defence quite so
128 Eagles 38
much this time. Still, it was quite RUSHING C o m m a n d e r s 31
the assist from cornerback DaRon Saquon Jalen Hurts threw for four touch-
Bland. Barkley, downs while playing with a knee
Prescott threw two of his four Giants injury, A.J. Brown had 130 yards
touchdown passes to CeeDee receiving, and Philadelphia beat

158
Lamb, Bland recorded his NFL- Washington to move to 7-1. Brown
leading third interception return became the first player in NFL his-
for a score and the Dallas Cowboys tory with 125-plus yards receiving
beat the Los Angeles Rams 43-20
RECEIVING
in six consecutive games. Washing-
on Sunday. CeeDee ton (3-5) lost despite quarterback
Sam Williams blocked a punt for a Lamb, Sam Howell throwing for a career-
Cowboys high 397 yards and four touch-
down. Howell completed 24 passes
Cowboys Rams in the first half.

43 20 M I C HAE L A I NSWORT H T HE ASS OC I AT E D P RE SS

safety before KaVontae Turpin re-
turned the ensuing punt 63 yards to
set up Lamb’s first touchdown grab,
helping the Cowboys (5-2) to a 33-3
lead late in the first half in their 11th
consecutive home victory.
The streak matches the club’s lon-
gest since an 11-game run at Texas
Stadium in 1991-92, almost two de-
cades before AT&T Stadium
opened.
It was a rough-and-tumble home-
coming for Rams quarterback Mat-
thew Stafford, who was replaced by
Brett Rypien late in the third quar-
ter after injuring a thumb on a
failed two-point conversion pass
and aggravating the injury after
catching another.
Coach Sean McVay said he didn’t
know the extent of Stafford’s injury.
The quarterback didn’t speak to re-
porters after the game.
Stafford led scoring drives on ei-
ther side of halftime to help the
Rams (3-5) trim a 30-point deficit
to 16. But the former Dallas high
KaVontae Turpin celebrates his 63-yard kick return with Dallas
Cowboys teammate Jalen Tolbert on Sunday.
school standout, visiting his home-
town team for the first time as a
Super Bowl champion, sent the
Cowboys on their way with an early
mistake.
With the Cowboys sending six
pass rushers at him, Stafford threw
behind Cooper Kupp to a waiting
Bland for an easy 30-yard return
and a 17-3 Dallas lead in the first
quarter.
“We ended up recognizing that
they were in a pressure situation,
and we had a miscommunication
between Matthew and Cooper in
regards to a route concept that has
been one that we’ve activated and
had a lot of success with it,” McVay
said. “That was a tough one for us. ”
Bland brought an interception
back 22 yards for a score against the
New York Giants in the opener be-
fore a 54-yarder in Week 4 against
the Patriots.
The second-year cornerback is
the third player since the 1970
merger with three pick-6s in the
first seven games of a season. The
NFL record for an entire season is
four, last accomplished 30 years
ago.
“I don’t know what to say,” said
Bland, a fifth-round pick out of
Fresno State who is tied with Balti-
more’s Geno Stone for the league
lead with four interceptions. “I
keep finding the ball. I’m just trying
to do my job.”
Bland’s first touchdown was creat-
ed by fellow cornerback Trevon
Diggs, whose big hit knocked the
ball in the air. The last two have
come since Diggs was sidelined by a
season-ending knee injury.
“(Bland is) that guy,” Prescott said.
“Not a lot of guys being able to move
positions like that and make the
impact that he’s been able to make.
Obviously when you lose a guy like
Trevon, people wonder. Then when
a guy like that steps in and he says,
‘Hey, I’m here and I’m ready to play,’
that’s important.”
THE A SSOC I AT E D P RE SS
Vi k i n g s 24
Pa c k e r s 10
Kirk Cousins threw a pair of touch-
down passes before leaving with
what the Vikings fear is an Achilles
tendon injury. This was the first
Packers-Vikings matchup since
2006 in which both teams entered
the game with losing records, but
Minnesota (4-4) got back to .500
with its third straight victory. Cous-
ins has never missed a game be-
cause of injury in his 12-year career.
D o l p h i n s 31
Pa t r i o t s 17
Tua Tagovailoa threw for 324 yards
and three touchdowns, Jalen Ram-
sey intercepted a pass in his Dol-
phins debut, and Miami beat New
SCAN THIS CODE England. Miami won for the 16th
FOR MORE OF THE time in its past 18 home games, and
STAR’S NFL Tagovailoa moved to 6-0 in his ca-
COVERAGE reer against Patriots coach Bill Bel-
ichick. The Dolphins, 6-2 for the
first time since 2001, have a one-
game lead over Buffalo in the AFC
East.
Pa n t h e r s 15
Te x a n s 13
Bryce Young outdueled C.J. Stroud
in a battle of the NFL’s top two draft

Look for Lions to bounce back at home
AV E RY P E R R I
N O R T H S TA R B E T S
The Las Vegas Raiders and Detroit
Lions wrap up Week 8 on Monday
night. The Lions were embarrassed
by Baltimore last weekend but this
is a good football team that should
bounce back at home, even if Jim-
my Garoppolo is back under centre
for Las Vegas.
Best Bet
Lions -8 (-110)
Detroit wasn’t the only team to get
beaten down last week. Las Vegas
picks, and Eddy Pineiro made a 23-
yard field goal as time expired to
give Carolina its first win of the
season. Young, the No. 1 overall
pick, led a winning 15-play, 86-yard
Las Vegas who played Division II ball. TO N I G H T drive that took more than six min-
quarterback And if a Bagent-led offence could utes and helped the Panthers snap
Jimmy put up 323 yards and 23 points, Raiders a 56-game losing streak in games
Garoppolo has imagine what Jared Goff and the at Lions they trailed at any point during the
been cleared to Lions will do. Detroit is averaging 8:15 p.m., fourth quarter, the longest in NFL
play against the fourth-most yards (377.0) and ABC, TSN since at least 1991.
Detroit, after eighth-most points (24.9).
missing the We don’t think Garoppolo will Jaguars 20
Raiders’ loss to provide enough of a boost for Las S t e e l e r s 10
Chicago. Vegas. He has thrown eight inter- Trevor Lawrence threw for 292
ceptions while averaging 215.8 yards with a touchdown and an in-
lost 30-12 to Chicago, putting up yards in five appearances. terception, and Jacksonville (6-2)
just 235 yards of offence. Sure, the beat Pittsburgh for its fifth straight
Raiders had Brian Hoyer at quar- Key stat victory to strengthen its hold on the
terback, but the Bears were starting Detroit is 9-3 against the spread at AFC South.
Tyson Bagent, an undrafted rookie home since the beginning of 2022. T H E A SS O C I AT E D P RE SS
TORONTO STAR MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 ON0

S C OR E B OA R D | S P ORT S | A19
PA N A M G A M E S SPORTS BRIEFS

A U TO R AC I N G

Verstappen sets
mark for wins
Max Verstappen split the Ferrari
front row of Charles Leclerc and
Carlos Sainz at the start to snatch
the lead of the Mexico City Grand
Prix by the first corner, then drove
off to his record 16th victory of the
season on Sunday. The Dutch driv-
er’s 51st career win tied Alain Prost
for fourth in Formula One history.
Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton,
who was second Sunday, leads with
103.

CRICKET

India six for six

Canada gallops its way to Paris at World Cup
Host India extended its perfect run
Eventing gold medal on Sunday punches ticket for full team to compete and defending champion England
continued its dreadful slump at the
Cricket World Cup, undone this
time by an opening spell of pace
bowling from Mohammed Shami
THE CANADIAN PRESS Canada will enter full teams in in the women’s 63-kilogram divi- Canada’s Lois and Jasprit Bumrah. India’s pace
both eventing and dressage in Paris sion. “I wish I could have gone all Betteridge spearheads snared seven wickets
S A N T I AG O More Canadian rid- after the dressage team’s bronze the way and gotten the gold today,” competes in between them to propel India to a
ers and their horses are headed to medal. Traisnel, of Maidstone, Harris said. “I am still proud of the the women's C1 100-run win Sunday, bowling Eng-
the Olympic Games in Paris next Ont., was a bronze medallist in indi- process because it was some really canoe slalom land out for 129 in 34.5 overs. Eng-
year. The eventing team’s gold vidual eventing Sunday. tough fights for the quarterfinals semifinals land is in last place with one win in
medal Sunday at the Pan Am Loach, of Dunham, Que., was Can- and semifinals.” at the Pan Am six games.
Games in Chile ensured Canada ada’s lone eventing rider in Tokyo’s Her teammates Antoine Bou- Games in
will send a full team to compete the Olympic Games two years ago. She chard and David Popovici won Santiago, Chile,
triathlon of equestrian in 2024. posted two clear rounds Sunday. bronze in men’s 73-kg and 81-kg on Saturday. S O CC E R
Canada’s team in Santiago had “My horse is an exceptional jump- classes, respectively. Betteridge
amassed 98 total medals by Sunday
— 33 gold, 30 silver and 35 bronze.
er, so I knew that if I just did my job
he would do his, and that is very
■ Canada’s whitewater canoe and
kayak team collected three silver
earned double
silver medals
City breezes
Canada’s eventing team was sec- confidence-inspiring going in,” and two bronze. Sunday in to derby win
ond after dressage and third after Loach said. “The qualification was Lois Betteridge earned double sil- women’s C1 and
the cross-country event at the our goal today and the rest was just ver medals, in women’s C1 and women’s kayak Manchester City beat rival United
Grenadier Regiment Riding icing on the cake.” women’s kayak cross. Alex Baldoni cross. 3-0 in the 191st Manchester derby,
School. Equestrian Canada will name an was a silver medallist in the men’s and the score did not do justice to
Michael Winter (El Mundo), Karl eventing team of three riders and kayak cross in which four boats City’s superiority at Old Trafford.
Slezak (Hot Bobo), Colleen Loach their horses, plus an alternate, next race head-to-head down the E Z R A S H AW Erling Haaland scored twice and
(FE Golden Eye) and Lindsay year. Show jumping gets underway course. His sister Lea Baldoni and G ET T Y IM AGE S assisted on City’s third goal by Phil
Traisnel (Bacyrouge) won Sunday’s Tuesday. The top three countries in Maël Rivard earned bronze in the Foden. “It looks easy but it is not,”
show-jumping finale for gold and the team event not yet qualified women’s and men’s K1, respective- said manager Pep Guardiola, whose
the Olympic berth. earn Olympic berths. Canada is ly. club is tied with Arsenal, two points
“It was definitely the most impor- among eight countries chasing ■ Rebecca Marino lost her bronze- behind Premier League leader Tot-
tant part of our trip, getting that those spots. medal match in women’s singles tenham. United is in eighth place,
qualification, so we’re very happy to Also Sunday: tennis to Argentina’s Julia Riera, eight points out of a Champions
have done that,” Traisnel said. ■ Isabelle Harris claimed judo silver 3-6, 6-4, 6-1. League spot.
S TA R W I R E S E RV I C E S

NHL MLB PLAYOFFS NBA NFL

EASTERN CONFERENCE WESTERN CONFERENCE WORLD SERIES EASTERN CONFERENCE AMERICAN CONFERENCE NATIONAL CONFERENCE
ATLANTIC DIVISION CENTRAL DIVISION (Best-of-7) ATLANTIC DIVISION EAST DIVISION EAST DIVISION
GP W L OL SL GF GA Pt GP W L OL SL GF GA Pt TEXAS (A.L. 5) VS. ARIZONA (N.L. 6) W L Pct GB W L T Pct PF PA W L T Pct PF PA
Boston 8 7 0 1 0 26 12 15 Colorado 8 6 2 0 0 28 20 12 Boston 2 0 1.000 — Miami 6 2 0 .750 271 204 Philadelphia 7 1 0 .875 224 172
(Series tied 1-1) Buffalo 5 3 0 .625 222 136 Dallas 5 2 0 .714 197 120
Toronto 8 5 2 1 0 29 24 11 Dallas 6 4 1 0 1 17 15 9 Philadelphia 2 1 .667 ½
Montreal 8 5 2 0 1 26 27 11 Winnipeg 8 4 3 0 1 27 28 9
Saturday’s result New York 1 2 .333 1½ N.Y. Jets 4 3 0 .571 126 129 Washington 3 5 0 .375 171 228
Detroit 9 5 3 1 0 36 28 11 Nashville 8 4 4 0 0 23 21 8 Arizona 9 Texas 1 Toronto 1 2 .333 1½ New England 2 6 0 .250 118 208 N.Y. Giants 2 6 0 .250 95 187
Tampa Bay 8 4 2 2 0 29 24 10 Minnesota 9 3 4 1 1 32 38 8 Friday’s result Brooklyn 0 2 .000 2
NORTH DIVISION NORTH DIVISION
Florida 7 4 3 0 0 20 20 8 St Louis 7 3 3 0 1 14 20 7 Texas 6 Arizona 5 (11 innings) Sunday’s results
Ottawa 8 4 4 0 0 32 26 8 Arizona 7 3 4 0 0 20 20 6 Monday’s game Baltimore 6 2 0 .750 202 121 Detroit 5 2 0 .714 174 151
Denver 128 Oklahoma City 95
Buffalo 9 4 5 0 0 27 27 8 Chicago 8 3 5 0 0 18 24 6 Texas (Scherzer 13-6) at Arizona (Pfaadt Cincinnati 4 3 0 .571 131 144 Minnesota 4 4 0 .500 175 162
Atlanta 127 Milwaukee 110
3-9), 8:03 p.m. Cleveland 4 3 0 .571 154 139 Chicago 2 5 0 .286 158 188
METROPOLITAN DIVISION PACIFIC DIVISION Golden State 106 Houston 95 Pittsburgh 4 3 0 .571 113 147 Green Bay 2 5 0 .286 140 156
Philadelphia 126 Portland 98
GP W L OL SL GF GA Pt GP W L OL SL GF GA Pt LATE SATURDAY L.A. Lakers at Sacramento SOUTH DIVISION SOUTH DIVISION
NY Rangers 8 6 2 0 0 25 16 12 Vegas 9 8 0 1 0 35 20 17 DIAMONDBACKS 9, RANGERS 1 San Antonio at L.A. Clippers Jacksonville 6 2 0 .750 193 156 Atlanta 4 4 0 .500 138 161
New Jersey 8 5 2 0 1 33 30 11 Vancouver 8 5 2 1 0 31 19 11 Arizona ab r h bi Texas ab r h bi
Saturday’s results Houston 3 4 0 .429 148 128 New Orleans 4 4 0 .500 171 154
Carolina 9 5 4 0 0 34 35 10 Los Angeles 8 4 2 0 2 35 30 10 Marte 2b 5 0 1 2 Semien 2b 4 0 1 0
New Orleans 96 New York 87 Tennessee 3 4 0 .429 132 140 Tampa Bay 3 4 0 .429 121 128
NY Islanders 7 4 2 1 0 18 19 9 Anaheim 8 4 4 0 0 25 24 8 Carroll rf 5 0 2 2 Seager ss 4 0 0 0
Detroit 118 Chicago 102 Indianapolis 3 5 0 .375 205 229 Carolina 1 6 0 .143 127 199
Philadelphia 8 4 3 1 0 28 25 9 Seattle 9 2 5 1 1 20 31 6 Moreno c 4 1 1 1 Carter lf 3 0 1 0
Washington 8 4 3 1 0 19 26 9 Edmonton 8 2 5 1 0 22 32 5 Walker 1b 5 0 1 0 Grossman ph 1 0 0 0 Washington 113 Memphis 106 WEST DIVISION WEST DIVISION
Columbus 8 3 3 2 0 20 25 8 Calgary 9 2 6 0 1 19 34 5 Pham dh 4 2 4 0 Garcia rf 3 0 0 0 Indiana 125 Cleveland 113 Kansas City 6 2 0 .750 187 129 Seattle 5 2 0 .714 168 138
Pittsburgh 8 3 5 0 0 23 25 6 San Jose 9 0 8 0 1 9 35 1 Peterson ph-dh 1 1 0 0 Garver dh 4 1 1 1 Philadelphia 114 Toronto 107 Las Vegas 3 4 0 .429 112 161 San Francisco 5 3 0 .625 218 140
Note: The top three teams per division and the two next-best records in the conference Gurriel Jr. lf 3 1 2 1 Heim c 3 0 0 0 Minnesota 106 Miami 90 Denver 3 5 0 .375 172 226 L.A. Rams 3 5 0 .375 175 184
qualify for the playoffs; a winning team is credited with two points and a victory in the Thomas cf 5 1 2 0 Lowe 1b 3 0 0 0 Phoenix 126 Utah 104 L.A. Chargers 2 4 0 .333 144 155 Arizona 1 7 0 .125 151 213
W column; a team losing in overtime or shootout receives one point, which is registered Longoria 3b 2 1 1 1 Jung 3b 3 0 1 0 Monday’s games
in the respective OL or SL column. P.Smith ph 0 0 0 0 Taveras cf 3 0 0 0 Boston at Washington, 7 p.m. WEEK EIGHT Tennessee 28 Atlanta 23
Rivera ph-3b 1 1 1 2 Brooklyn at Charlotte, 7 p.m. Baltimore 31 Arizona 24
Sunday’s results N.Y. Rangers 4 Vancouver 3 (OT) Sunday’s results
Perdomo ss 2 1 1 0 Chicago at Indiana, 7 p.m. Carolina 15 Houston 13 Cincinnati 31 San Francisco 17
Buffalo 4 Colorado 0 Vegas 4 Los Angeles 3 (SO) Totals 37 9 16 9 Totals 31 1 4 1 Minnesota at Atlanta, 7:30 p.m. Dallas 43 L.A. Rams 20 Denver 24 Kansas City 9
New Jersey 4 Minnesota 3 Monday’s games Arizona 000 200 232 — 9
Portland at Toronto, 7:30 p.m. Jacksonville 20 Pittsburgh 10 Seattle 24 Cleveland 20
Washington 3 San Jose 1 Anaheim at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m. Texas 000 010 000 — 1
Dallas at Memphis, 8 p.m. Miami 31 New England 17 Chicago at L.A. Chargers
Carolina at Philadelphia, 7 p.m. DP—Arizona 0, Texas 1. LOB—Arizona 8,
2023 HERITAGE CLASSIC Detroit at Oklahoma City, 8 p.m. Minnesota 24 Green Bay 10 Thursday’s result
Florida at Boston, 7 p.m. Texas 4. 2B—Pham 2 (2), Thomas (1).
At Commonwealth Stadium Golden State at New Orleans, 8 p.m. N.Y. Jets 13 N.Y. Giants 10 (OT) Buffalo 24 Tampa Bay 18
Seattle at Tampa Bay, 7 p.m. HR—Moreno (1), Garver (1). SB—Per-
Edmonton 5 Calgary 2 Miami at Milwaukee, 8 p.m. New Orleans 38 Indianapolis 27 Monday’s game
Detroit at N.Y. Islanders, 7:30 p.m. domo (2). S—Longoria (1), Perdomo (2),
Saturday’s results Utah at Denver, 9 p.m. Philadelphia 38 Washington 31 Las Vegas at Detroit, 8:15 p.m.
N.Y. Rangers at Winnipeg, 7:30 p.m. Gurriel Jr. (1).
Anaheim 7 Philadelphia 4 Orlando at L.A. Lakers, 10:30 p.m.
Columbus at Dallas, 8 p.m. Arizona IP H R ER BB SO
Florida 3 Seattle 2 Tuesday’s games
N.Y. Islanders 2 Columbus 0
Chicago at Arizona, 10 p.m.
Montreal at Vegas, 10 p.m.
Kelly W,1-0
Saalfrank
7 3
1 1-3 1
1 1 0
0 0 0
9
0 New York at Cleveland, 7:30 p.m. CFL TENNIS
San Antonio at Phoenix, 10 p.m.
Ottawa 5 Pittsburgh 2
Tuesday’s games Frias 2-3 0 0 0 1 1
Orlando at L.A. Clippers, 10:30 p.m.
EAST DIVISION ATP TOUR
Boston 4 Detroit 1 Texas IP H R ER BB SO
Los Angeles at Toronto, 8 p.m. GP W L T PF PA Pt SWISS INDOORS BASEL
Nashville 3 Toronto 2 (OT) Montgomery L,0-1 6 9 4 4 1 0
Nashville at Vancouver, 10 p.m. SATURDAY y-Toronto 18 16 2 0 591 396 32 At Basel, Switzerland
Montreal 4 Winnipeg 3 (SO) Heaney 2-3 1 0 0 0 0 x-Montreal 18 11 7 0 442 392 22
Dunning 1-3 0 0 0 1 0 Sunday’s results
76ERS 114, RAPTORS 107 x-Hamilton 18 8 10 0 408 461 16
Stratton 2-3 1 1 1 0 1 Singles — Championship
HOCKEY Perez 1 1-3 5 4 4 2 1
PHILADELPHIA (114) Ottawa 18 4 14 0 415 507 8
Felix Auger-Aliassime (6), Montreal, def.
T—2:59. Attendance—42,500 (40,000). Harris 4-10 6-7 15, Tucker 1-1 0-0 3, Em- WEST DIVISION Hubert Hurkacz (4), Poland, 7-6 (3), 7-6
OHL Saturday’s results
biid 14-21 5-6 34, Maxey 12-20 3-3 34, GP W L T PF PA Pt (5).
Owen Sound 5 Kitchener 3
EASTERN CONFERENCE y-Winnipeg 18 14 4 0 594 377 28
EAST DIVISION
Mississauga 4 Kingston 2
Sault Ste. Marie 6 Flint 5 (OT)
SOCCER Melton 1-7 0-0 2, Reed 2-4 0-0 4, House
Jr. 1-3 0-0 2, Oubre Jr. 7-17 4-5 18, Bever- x-B.C. 18 12 6 0 495 439 24
Doubles — Championship
Edouard Roger-Vasselin, France, and
ley 1-2 0-0 2, Green 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 43-86 x-Calgary 18 6 12 0 412 471 12 Santiago Gonzalez (3), Mexico, def. Hugo
GP W L OL SL GF GA Pt Peterborough 2 Erie 1 MLS PLAYOFFS 18-21 114. Saskatchewan18 6 12 0 387 551 12 Nys, Monaco, and Jan Zielinski, Poland,
Peterborough 11 7 2 2 0 35 31 16 Sarnia 3 Saginaw 1 Edmonton 18 4 14 0 367 517 8
Ottawa 11 6 4 1 0 33 33 13 Niagara 7 Windsor 6 (OT) CONFERENCE QUARTERFINALS 6-7 (8), 7-6 (3), 10-1.
TORONTO (107) x — clinched playoff berth; y — division.
Kingston 13 5 8 0 0 38 57 10 Barrie 5 Brantford 1 (Best-of-3)
Barnes 11-16 0-0 24, Siakam 3-8 3-4 11,
Oshawa
Brantford
12 5 7 0 0
11 4 6 1 0
34
35
45
48
10
9
EASTERN CONFERENCE Poeltl 2-5 2-3 6, Schroder 5-14 1-2 15,
Saturday’s results
Montreal 22 Hamilton 20 BETTING
AHL Sunday’s result Trent Jr. 6-16 2-4 17, Achiuwa 3-10 0-0 6, Toronto 27 Ottawa 22 THE ODDS
CENTRAL DIVISION EASTERN CONFERENCE Cincinnati 3 N.Y. Red Bulls 0 Boucher 1-6 3-3 5, McDaniels 0-0 0-0 0, Friday’s result
GP W L OL SL GF GA Pt (Cincinnati leads series 1-0) Dick 5-8 2-2 16, Flynn 2-4 1-1 7. Totals 38- Winnipeg 36 Calgary 13
WORLD SERIES
NORTH DIVISION Saturday’s result MONDAY
Mississauga 13 10 3 0 0 52 36 20 87 14-19 107.
North Bay 13 6 4 2 1 46 45 15 GP W L OL SL GF GA Pt Philadelphia 3 New England 1 Philadelphia 27 29 35 23 —114 FAVOURITE LINE UNDERDOG LINE
Sudbury
Barrie
12 7 5 0 0
12 6 6 0 0
43
43
33
42
14
12
Rochester
Toronto
7 5 1 1 0 33 31 11
7 4 1 2 0 23 19 10
(Philadelphia leads series 1-0) Toronto 36 23 20 28 —107 LIVE TV/RADIO Texas -112 ARIZONA -104

Syracuse 6 4 2 0 0 22 13 8
Monday’s game 3-Point Goals NBA
Niagara 12 3 4 4 1 39 46 11
Cleveland 6 4 2 0 0 21 19 8
Nashville at Orlando, 7 p.m. Philadelphia 10-28 (Maxey 7-9, Tucker 1- MONDAY FAVOURITE LINE O/U UNDERDOG
Wednesday, Nov. 1 1, Embiid 1-3, Harris 1-4, House Jr. 0-1,
WESTERN CONFERENCE Belleville 6 3 2 0 1 16 18 7
Atlanta at Columbus, 7:30 p.m.
BASEBALL INDIANA 3½ (226½) Chicago
Utica 5 1 2 2 0 14 18 4 Melton 0-4, Oubre Jr. 0-6), Toronto 17-32 World Series Game 3: Texas at Arizona, Boston 10 (229) WASHINGTON
MIDWEST DIVISION
Laval 7 1 5 1 0 27 37 3 WESTERN CONFERENCE (Dick 4-6, Schroder 4-6, Trent Jr. 3-5, 8 p.m. SNO, WUTV29 (Fox) CHARLOTTE 1 (228½) Brooklyn
GP W L OL SL GF GA Pt Sunday’s results Sunday’s results Flynn 2-2, Barnes 2-5, Siakam 2-5, BASKETBALL TORONTO 7½ (217½) Portland
Kitchener 13 9 4 0 0 65 40 18 Hershey 6 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 1 Houston 2 Salt Lake 1 Achiuwa 0-1, Boucher 0-2). NBA: Portland at Toronto, 7:30 p.m. Minnesota 2½ (234½) ATLANTA
Guelph 12 8 4 0 0 42 24 16 Calgary 2 Colorado 1 (OT) (Houston leads series 1-0) Fouled Out—None. TSN4, SN590 MILWAUKEE 5 (223) Miami
London 12 7 4 0 1 43 33 15
Springfield 3 Providence 2 (OT) Kansas City at St. Louis Rebounds—Philadelphia 42 (Embiid 9), NBA: Orlando at Los Angeles Lakers, NEW ORLEANS OFF (OFF) Golden State
Owen Sound 12 6 5 1 0 40 38 13 (Series tied 0-0) Toronto 41 (Barnes 8). Dallas 2½ (227½) MEMPHIS
Henderson 4 San Diego 2 10:30 p.m. TSN4
Erie 13 4 7 2 0 42 58 10 Saturday’s result Assists—Philadelphia 25 (Embiid 8), To- OKLAHOMA CITY 5 (226½) Detroit
Hartford 4 Lehigh Valley 1 CURLING
Los Angeles F.C. 5 Vancouver 2 DENVER ½* (231) Utah
WEST DIVISION Coachella Valley 5 San Jose 4 (OT) ronto 28 (Schroder 10). Pan Continental Curling Championship LA LAKERS 3½ (221) Orlando
GP W L OL SL GF GA Pt Ontario 5 Abbotsford 3 (Los Angeles F.C. leads series 1-0) Total Fouls—Philadelphia 18, Toronto 19. Women’s Pool Play: Canada vs. Australia,
S. Ste. Marie 14 9 5 0 0 63 48 18 Saturday’s results Monday’s game Attenedance—19,800 (19,800) at Scotia- 5 p.m. TSN3 NHL
Sarnia 13 8 5 0 0 51 43 16 Calgary 2 Colorado 1 Dallas at Seattle, 10 p.m. bank Arena. Men’s Pool Play: Canada vs. United FAVOURITE LINE UNDERDOG LINE
Flint 12 5 6 1 0 43 58 11 Charlotte 2 Bridgeport 0 States, 10 p.m. TSN3 PITTSBURGH -250 Anaheim +202
Saginaw 11 4 6 0 1 38 40 9 Wilkes-Barre/Scranton 4 Hartford 2 CPL CHAMPIONSHIP FOOTBALL TAMPA BAY -162 Seattle +134
Windsor 12 3 8 1 0 41
Note: Two points for a team winning in
68 7 Milwaukee 2 Iowa 1 (OT) Saturday’s result
Hamilton 2 Calgary 1
FOOTBALL NFL: Las Vegas at Detroit, 8 p.m. WKBW7 Carolina
BOSTON
-194 PHILADELPHIA+158
-166 Florida +138
Hershey 4 Lehigh Valley 0 (ABC), CKVR (CTV2)
overtime or shootout; the team losing in Toronto 4 Belleville 3 (SO) U SPORTS GOLF
NY Rangers -125 WINNIPEG +104
overtime or shootout receives one which
is registered in the OTL or SOL columns.
Rochester 5 Utica 4 GAMES OUA PLAYOFFS NCAA: East Lake Cup, 1st Rd., 3 p.m.
NY ISLANDERS -152 Detroit
DALLAS -255 Columbus
+126
+205
Syracuse 5 Laval 0 GOLF
Sunday’s results QUARTERFINALS ARIZONA -192 Chicago +158
Springfield 5 Providence 2 PAN-AM GAMES MEDAL TABLE HOCKEY VEGAS -240 Montreal +195
North Bay 5 Sudbury 4 Cleveland 7 Chicago 3 Saturday’s results
Through Oct. 28 NHL: New York Rangers at Winnipeg,
Guelph 6 Ottawa 1 Bye: Western
Sarnia 4 Niagara 3 (SO)
Manitoba 6 Texas 5 (OT) G S B Tot
Wilfrid Laurier 69 Waterloo 0
7:30 p.m. SN1 NFL
Rockford 3 Grand Rapids 0 United States 61 44 49 154 TENNIS FAVOURITE OPEN TODAY O/U UNDERDOG
Flint 5 Saginaw 3 Coachella Valley 8 San Jose 2 Canada 32 26 30 88 Windsor 14 Carleton 11 DETROIT 7½ 7½ (45½) Las Vegas
ATP: Paris, Early Rds., 6 a.m. TSN5
Owen Sound 3 Oshawa 2 Bakersfield 5 Tucson 1 Brazil 26 32 29 87 Queen’s 15 Ottawa 10 Note: Home teams in capitals.
WTA: Finals, Rd. Robin, 3:30 p.m. TSN2
ON0 ON
A20 | W EAT H ER
My sister believes her
dogs are her ‘babies’
LISI
TESHER
ADVICE
Dear Readers Unfortunately this question
didn’t make it to us in time for Canadian
Thanksgiving. But I decided to include it
anyway as American Thanksgiving is coming
up soon, and the issue can relate to any
major holiday/family gathering.
Q I have a Thanksgiving problem. I have
two adult daughters in their early 30s. One
has a new boyfriend she’s just decided to
invite to our family dinner. The other is
married with two dogs. The dogs are her
and her husband’s babies. They don’t do
well meeting people they don’t know, and
my daughter refuses to leave them at
home. We put our dog in the basement
when they come over because she fears
her dogs won’t get along with our dog. We
love her dogs and don’t mind doing this,
although it’s a pain.
The problem is that weeks ago I talked to
both daughters and we all agreed they’d
come to our house for dinner. Since then,
our daughter has decided to bring her
boyfriend. My daughter with the dogs
asked us to change plans and have the
dinner at her house because of the dogs’
anxieties with strangers. I have prepared
everything for dinner at our home and it
would be a huge effort to take everything
there (it’s in another city).
They said they’d come to us, but it would
be very stressful and they wouldn’t stay
long. At this point wherever we gather, it
will be awkward and likely uncomfortable.
What do I do?
Tricky turkey
A In light of my recent response to a Christ-
mas-related question, I’m going to start with
this: My go-to is happiness and love, and
peaceful relations among family and friends.
I believe strongly in compromise. Though I
love traditions, I’d rather make sure every-
one is happy than insist on a specific detail or
issue.
Having said that, you sound very easygoing
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR
S TA R S
MECCA
WOODS
H O R O S C O P E S You're doing this just for your-
The morning hours should be
and accommodating, and I hope that you the most productive today. From
found a solution that worked for everyone. sunrise through late morning,
My suggestion would have been that this the timing is ideal for tying up
year, you all go to the daughter’s house with loose ends. After last week's
the dogs. Give them a chance to get to know game-changing eclipse, we may
the boyfriend on their own turf. There are be contemplating decisions
more holidays just around the corner and about our future. If we're want-
hopefully they’ll be OK with him second- ing to move forward, we'll need
time around. to make space for what's new by
As for your prepared foods, if you don’t own closing out unfinished business.
some already, the dollar store has very in- By midday, we might find our-
expensive dishes with lids, in glass or plastic, selves less interested in work
which will help you transport the food with- and more interested in whatev-
out spilling in the car. Perhaps your daughter er's happening in the moment.
with the dogs could make or pick up whatev- However, taking care of respon-
er won’t make the journey. sibilities now may save us a
It’s all about solution-based compromise. headache later.
Q My sister was complaining to me about ARIES
her boyfriend for the umpteenth time. (March 21 to April 19)
They’ve been together on and off for the How can you best support your
past three years. He’s a great guy, with mind and body today? Avoid
issues. She’s also a great girl …. And also scattering yourself in too many
has issues. Who doesn’t?! My loyalty is directions.
obviously to my sister, but I really like her TAURUS
boyfriend. He’s become a part of our fami- (April 20 to May 20)
ly over the years. If you need support, just ask.
Whenever they argue, I stand by her, Don't be unnecessarily stub-
though my relationship with him doesn’t born about doing everything
change. However, if he and I had plans to yourself.
meet for coffee or lunch, I’d reschedule so GEMINI
as not to upset my sister. But I’m actually (May 21 to June 20)
getting so tired of the ups and downs in You might not have much ener-
their relationship. gy today. If there's work to be
How can I be the best sister to her while done, do the best you can, but
not feeling part of their teeter-totter rela- don't overdo it.
tionship? CANCER
Dizzy sissy (June 21 to July 22)
A Get off the ride. I assume you’re all young Don't fixate too much on the
adults with some sense of maturity. State what-ifs, especially if you're
your case to your sister. Tell her that you expecting the worst. Sometimes
have embraced him as her partner, and have you've just got to go through
cultivated a friendship over the years. If at with things and hope for the
some point they part ways, you may have to best.
say goodbye as well. But while they’re just LEO
going back and forth, you can maintain your (July 23 to Aug. 22)
friendship with him as long as your sister An important decision that you
understands where your loyalty lies. must make may be an unpop-
ELL I E T ES H ER A N D L IS I T ES H ER A R E A DV I C E ular one. Stay true to yourself,
CO LU M N ISTS FO R T H E STAR AN D BA S ED I N since it's impossible to make
TO RO N TO. S EN D YOU R R E LATI ON S H I P everyone happy.
Q U EST I ON S V I A EM A I L: VIRGO
ELL I E@ T H ESTA R .CA O R L IS I @T H ESTA R .CA . (Aug. 23 to Sept. 22)
If there's a risk you're ready to
take, go for it. Don't expect
praise or applause, though.
self.
LIBRA
(Sept. 23 to Oct. 22)
Before starting something new,
focus on finishing up what
you've already started.
SCORPIO
(Oct. 23 to Nov. 21)
Don't be afraid of rejection.
Anything that's truly meant for
you will always be yours.
SAGITTARIUS
(Nov. 22 to Dec. 21)
It can often feel good to be
helpful to others. However, be
mindful of giving up too much of
yourself. Know your limits.
CAPRICORN
(Dec. 22 to Jan. 19)
When something doesn't work
out, it can be a bummer, but
don't forget all the good things
you have going for you.
AQUARIUS
(Jan. 20 to Feb. 18)
Be mindful of any self-doubt or
negative mindsets that creep up
on you. Trust yourself.
PISCES
(Feb. 19 to March 20)
After interacting with so many
people lately, you might need to
get quiet and reflect. Nourish
yourself.
FOR TODAY'S BIRTHDAY
You often have great ideas, and
you do the necessary work to
bring them to life. You're a per-
son of substance. Maintaining
your integrity is important to
you. You're someone people can
lean on. You show people you
care about them through your
words of encouragement. At
times, you can be too hard on
yourself, but you're learning the
power of self-appreciation
despite your flaws or failures.
This year, you may be ready to
embrace a whole new way of
life. Get ready for something (or
someone) amazing!
BIRTHDATE OF:
Ashley Graham, model;
Nia Long, actor;
Henry Winkler, actor/author.
SECTION B MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR ON ON0

T H E AT R E T H E AT R E

A throwback Secret history

Alanis Morissette songs meet dark Tarragon Theatre production
themes in ‘Jagged Little Pill’ B6 delves into India’s past B6

S MA RT
MONE Y
S AV I N G S

Breaking the ‘Shop

DEBT
around’
to get the
most out of
your bank

handcuffsMore Canadians than ever before rely on

high-interest credit cards for basics.
MANUELA VEGA
S TA F F R E P O R T E R

If you’re holding your savings at one

of Canada’s big banks, there’s a good
chance you’re not getting the most
bang for your buck. Luckily, there
are many lesser-known avenues
Here’s how to break free that provide higher interest re-
turns.
The Bank of Canada has raised
interest rates several times in just
the last year, meaning mortgages
have gotten pricier, and banks have
made more money.
But the biggest financial institu-
tions generally aren’t passing these
profits to clients, as interest rates
for savings accounts have largely
remained the same.
TD Canada Trust, for example, of-
fers only a fraction of a percentage
— 0.05 per cent interest — on its
High Interest Savings Accounts,
while other banks can offer rates as
high as three or four per cent.
One expert said it’s a deviation
from what has happened historical-
ly.
In the past, banks have offered
higher interest returns on savings
accounts, but they’ve recently ex-
perienced about a decade of “excep-
tionally low prime rates,” which are
based on the central bank’s over-
night rate, said banking expert
Daniel Tsai, who is also a lecturer,
R A MO N F E R R E I R A TO RO N TO STA R I LLU STR ATI O N U S I NG D R EA M ST I ME I MAG E S

lawyer, columnist and the author of

LO R A G R A DY
S P E C I A L TO T H E S TA R
Áine Davis uses her credit card to pay for
everything — except rent.
The 29-year-old arts administrator who
lives in Toronto is able to make biweekly
payments, but only so that she can continue
to use the MasterCard for essentials like gro-
ceries, transit and internet.
“I’m using it like a prepaid credit card,” she
says. Her limit is $2,800 but her balance
owing sits at $1,500.
“I know that’s not a huge amount, but it feels SEE DEBT, B3
PERSONAL FINANCES
two textbooks.
While major banks may not be
offering higher interest rates,
smaller banks and credit unions
are, he said.
“Smaller banks and credit unions
always give more interest on your
money because they want to steal
business away … from the big
like it will never end because every time I pay banks,” Tsai said.
it off, I have to use it immediately.” That’s the bottom line, although
Davis is far from alone. Tsai noted there are other factors at
Amid punishing interest rates and elevated play. For example, credit unions
inflation, Equifax Canada reports that Cana- aim to serve their members, while
dians’ credit card balances hit an all-time banks work to make “as much
high of $107.4 billion in the second quarter of money as possible” for sharehold-
2023. ers.
And the fact that fewer consumers can pay When it comes to choosing
off their credit card balance in full each which institution to go with, Tsai
month compared with a year ago shows that recommends consumers do their
a growing number of Canadians find them- own research and “always shop
selves trapped in a loop of debt. around.”
“Don’t feel like you’re stuck with
your bank because in most cases, if
it’s a big bank, it’s not giving you the
best interest rate,” he said.
Savings accounts are usually
insured up to $100,000 per account
through the Canada Deposit Insur-
ance Corporation, Tsai said.

Simple steps to overcome money trauma SEE BANKING, B3

L E S L E Y- A N N E S CO R G I E
CO N T R I B U T I N G CO L U M N I S T
It could be a divorce, bankruptcy,
being a past victim of fraud or iden-
tity theft, a difficult financial up-
bringing or a previous relationship
where money was at the root of all
arguments.
Unresolved money trauma can
trigger anxiety, depression, a scarci-
ty mindset and unhealthy levels of
risk taking. It can also lead to ove-
rachieving, people pleasing and
chasing the greener grass. Having
coached and supported hundreds
of people moving through financial
trauma over my career, I can share
four specific healing techniques
that seem to help everyone, no mat-
ter the severity of the trauma.
TO DAY ’ S N E W S
n Artificial intelligence may
Acknowledging there’s an issue be an important tool to
is the first step democratize financial litera-
Until you acknowledge a problem cy, but it’s still not sophis-
exists, no level coaching or therapy ticated enough to interpret
will work. Here are some clues you the nuances of life. B2
may be living with money trauma:
■ You’re unable to enjoy activities n InYour Corner
that should be fun; On the brink of filing for
■ You feel ‘jumpy’ when the phone bankruptcy? There is anoth-
rings, fearing creditors. er option. B2
SEE TRAUMA, B2
ON0 ON
B2 | B USIN ESS | SMA RT M ONE Y
T E C H N O LO GY
Financial advice by AI lacks
required nuance, experts say
While artificial intelligence
can be a great resource, it’s
still unable to tailor advice to
individual financial situations
RITIKA DUBEY
A recent RBC As an experiment, Kelley Keehn
poll, conducted asked ChatGPT to suggest a finan-
by Ipsos, found cial plan for a small Canadian fami-
younger ly.
Canadians She prompted the artificial intelli-
were much gence software to craft a plan for a
more likely couple in their 30s who have two
than older young children and want to save for
demographics a house. They’re dealing with hefty
to turn to AI, debt and have zero savings but
like ChatGPT, they’re a high-income household.
to help manage “What should they do first?”
their finances. Keehn, a personal finance educa-
And while AI tor, asked ChatGPT 3.
can offer plenty The software offered more than a
of information, dozen recommendations the fami-
one expert says ly could follow — from building an
its advice could emergency fund to paying down
be misleading high-interest debt to creating a
and result in budget to build up a down payment
suboptimal for a house.
outcomes. But Keehn said the AI-generated
advice lacked specifics for the fami-
ly to achieve financial stability.
D R E A MST I ME Financial experts say artificial in-
telligence may be an important tool
to democratize financial literacy
among Canadians, but the software
is still not sophisticated enough to
interpret the nuances of life and
tailor advice to individual financial
situations.
“AI is a great resource for the aver-
age Canadian seeking financial ad-
vice but just not quite with that
human element yet,” Keehn said,
adding that a financial adviser
would’ve had a different take on the
case. “What I think a human would
say, is, ‘Look, you’ve got young chil-
dren, you’ve got debt, so insurance
probably should be No. 1.’
“Because if that family is left with
high debt, there could be a huge gap
in looking after those children. If
they have a high income, a human
(adviser) might recommend a
strategy to invest in an RRSP, take
that tax refund and use that to pay
down high debts.”
A recent RBC poll, conducted by
I N YO U R CO R N E R O P I N I O N
Bankruptcy is not your only option
S R I V I N D H YA KO L L U R U
CO N T R I B U T I N G CO L U M N I S T
As debt While the Bank of Canada held
becomes its key interest rate steady at five
per cent last week, Canadians
difficult to
are still under stress from mount-
manage, ing bills, with credit card users
experts say holding an average of $4,000 in bal-
exploring ances, according to a TransUnion
options with report.
The rise in price of everyday ex-
a licensed penses and food has led to higher
insolvency debt-servicing costs for Canadians.
trustee or According to an MNP Consumer
certified Debt Index survey conducted in Ju-
financial ly, 38 per cent of Ontario residents
reported being insolvent — when
planner can you’re unable to pay bills or meet
reduce some debt obligations — this year, the
of that burden highest proportion since the index
began five years ago.
As debt becomes unmanageable,
experts sayexploring options with a
licensed insolvency trustee or certi-
fied financial planner can reduce
some of that burden.
Mike Braga, senior vice-president
at BDO Canada, says people be-
come insolvent after exhausting
other options, such as maximizing
their available credit or refinancing
their home.
If you are insolvent, you are left
with two legal options: file a “con-
sumer proposal” or file for bank-
ruptcy, says Doug Hoyes, a licensed
insolvency trustee and co-founder
of Hoyes, Michalos & Associates.
A consumer proposal, crafted
with the help of an insolvency
trustee, is an agreement that lets
you reduce the total debt you repay
Ipsos, found younger Canadians
were much more likely than older
demographics to turn to AI to help
manage their finances.
David Lewis, president of beha-
vioural science consultancy BE-
works Research Institute, says peo-
ple are more likely to be honest
about their financial situation or
admit their lack of knowledge to a
machine. “No one likes to turn to
another human and say, ‘I’m an idi-
ot and I have no idea how a mutual
fund works,’ ” he said. “We’re more
willing to be honest with the com-
puter because we don’t view a com-
puter as judging us, but we view
humans as a judge,” he said.
It is also less expensive than con-
sulting a human financial adviser,
Lewis said.
“For those starting out or in lower
socio-economic classes and don’t
have as much in assets to manage,
AI advice can help have better fi-
nancial outcomes,” he said.
Keehn said AI is “brilliant as an
educational tool to help you un-
derstand your situation and where
you need to brush up on your
(knowledge) before working with a
human adviser.”
She said the software can be a
great tool for preparing to see a
financial adviser and to ask the
right questions.
Jessica Moorhouse, a personal fi-
nance blogger with an Accredited
Financial Counsellor Canada des-
ignation, agrees that AI can serve
an educative purpose, but suggests
cross-checking information
through a payment plan. Filing for
bankruptcy requires you to give up
assets — such as your home or car —
to creditors.
Hoyes adds that in bankruptcy,
payments are dependent on your
income, meaning the amount you
owe could fluctuate.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR
learned on an AI app with a human
adviser to identify potential inaccu-
racies.
“Don’t rely on it 100 per cent,” she
said. “Just as I tell people to not rely
100 per cent on hiring a profession-
al to make a financial plan.”
ChatGPT has a disclaimer that the
results may produce incorrect in-
formation about people, places or
facts.
Lewis said AI-generated financial
advice may be misleading and
could result in inferior or subopti-
mal outcomes.
“One of the reasons is that you
have no idea about the quality of
advice you’re getting from AI or an
online influencer,” he said. “The
challenge with AI and advice is that
you really need the advice, (but)
you’re also in a position where you
have less capacity to understand
the quality of advice. That’s a para-
dox — the more you need it, the less
you know whether it’s good or bad.”
Lewis suggests a hybrid model,
where the computer processes in-
formation and numbers while hu-
mans focus on guidance and long-
term planning, as a perfect mar-
riage of human and machine skills.
“Your computers are not good at
empathy,” he said. “They’re great at
collecting facts and organizing in-
formation.”
He said if humans have to spend
less time on asset allocation and
account administration, it will free
up more time for things they’re
good at — empathy and coaching.
T HE CA NAD I A N P RE SS
Instead, a debtor who owes
$10,000, for example, can approach
creditors with a consumer proposal
to pay $12,000 or $200 in interest-
free installments a month over the
next five years. The average propos-
al pays about 30 per cent of the
debt, adds Braga.
Hoyes says this is a win-win sce-
nario, as debtors avoid losing assets,
and creditors make more money.
“It’s also a good deal for the debtor
because they know exactly how
much they have to pay,” says Hoyes.
“Unlike a bankruptcy, where the
payment goes up and down as your
income goes up and down.”
Given that one of the major rea-
sons Canadians become insolvent
involves a job loss, that makes it
much harder to service your debt,
says Hoyes.
Hoyes says the biggest mistake
people make is waiting too long or
not talking to a licensed trustee.
Braga agrees, adding that people
typically wait an average of six
months before seeking assistance
from a debt professional.
“You have to talk to a licensed
insolvency trustee to go through
the math to determine the correct
option for your situation.”
The Office of the Superintendent
in Bankruptcy, which regulates li-
censed insolvency trustees across
Canada, has a database of trustees
available online. The bottom line:
Don’t wait to get help.
“A consumer proposal or other
options come off the table if you’re
still accumulating the debt,” says
Hoyes.
Talking it
out helps
you move
forward
T R A U M A F R O M B1
■ You can’t sleep with your mind
racing and worrying about money;
■ You fear you’ll be fired, or run out
of work.
The key outcome in this step is
simply to be able to say, “It looks
like I might be struggling with the
relationship I have with money.”
Dealing with your
financial triggers
If you know some of the triggers
that bring on financial stress al-
ready, it can be helpful to jot them
down.
An empty fridge could be your
trigger, and it might be related to
food scarcity growing up, as an ex-
ample.
A friend could be your trigger, and
it might be related to your personal
disappointment with your career,
while they gloat about their suc-
cesses.
Reviewing job postings, but never
actually applying, could be your
trigger, and it might be related to
not feeling like you deserve that
next level position.
If you don’t know your triggers
yet, it’s OK.
When feelings of financial stress
arise, pause for a minute, acknowl-
edge they are present, and observe
what you think may have brought
them about at that moment. Write
it down.
The key outcome here is being
able to spot your triggers, which
puts you in a stronger position to
care for yourself by avoiding finan-
cially harmful behaviours.
Boundaries are a crucial part of
stepping into financial wellness
Boundaries keep all relationships
healthy, including financial ones.
Financial boundaries start with
ourselves, and then spill over into
our social connections. Two uni-
versal boundary setting tools every-
one can benefit from are a balanced
budget where money coming in
matches money going out, and a net
worth tracker where the value of
assets rise and liabilities fall every
month to grow your personal bot-
tom line.
At their core, these two tools,
which you should use with your
partner give you an incentive to try
and keep more of the money you’ve
earned.
Certain other financial issues call
for unique boundaries. If over-
spending is an issue, remove credit
cards from your wallet and unsub-
scribe from email lists that encour-
age online shopping.
If avoidance is an issue, use as
much automation as possible for
things like saving, investing, debt
payments and budget tracking.
If hoarding is an issue, post one or
two items from your house online
for sale each week until your home
returns to order.
If procrastination is an issue, pres-
chedule money dates with yourself
weekly.
Social pressures can exacerbate fi-
nancial stress, especially if there is
one-upping, comparisons or sham-
ing involved (hopefully you’ll un-
friend these folks). If there’s an op-
portunity to spend less money, but
still connect socially, make it hap-
pen.
The key outcome of boundaries is
being able to say “yes” to things that
contribute to your financial well-
ness and “no” to whatever doesn’t.
That’s what financial empower-
ment is all about.
Talk to someone
It could be a friend you trust, a
money coach or a financial thera-
pist.
Talking openly helps you to move
through your financial trauma.
Financial therapy is new practice
and it’s a blend of psychology and
financial planning.
And the goals are simple: reduced
shame, stress and a better financial
literacy.
Millennial Money
will return
TORONTO STAR MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023
Credit card balances hit all-time high
D E B T F R O M B1
For some, it feels never-ending.
Prior to the pandemic in 2020,
Davis had a solid credit score of 800.
Then, lockdowns hit and she found
herself unable to work consistently.
Though living below her means,
her income was less than rent. Over
time, Davis began using her credit
card to pay for items she couldn’t
afford on Canada Emergency Re-
sponse Benefit (CERB) payments
alone.
She dipped into savings, and even
took cash advances from her Mas-
terCard to ensure she had enough
in the bank to pay rent. That’s when
her credit score plummeted to 400.
Today, she is working full time
again and her credit score is back up
to a comfortable 750. But most of
her paycheque still goes to rent, re-
paying CERB, income tax and bills,
plus covering the 21.9 per cent in-
terest on her high-risk MasterCard
(the only one she qualified for at age
21).
She budgets $40 a day for transit,
lunch and an occasional coffee or
cheap sushi dinner with friends.
She’s making more money than she
ever has before, yet she’s still unable
to pay off her debt. “I can survive
paycheque to paycheque,” she says.
“But it scares me that at any mo-
ment, everything can be taken
away.”
Many Canadians are struggling
due to inflation right now, says
Becky Western-Macfadyen, finan-
cial coaching manager for Credit
Canada, a non-profit debt counsel-
ling agency.
“Almost every single thing that
they need to buy (groceries, cloth-
ing, travel) is now costing more and
their income has not gone up,” says
Western-Macfadyen, who finds it
“worrying” that more Canadians
are opening credit card accounts
for the first time. And it’s not to buy
discretionary items, she says. “It’s
often to buy food, or put gas in the
car so they can get to work.”
So how can someone like Davis,
who’s struggling with credit card
debt, gain control?
Ultimately, Western-Macfadyen
says, “it’s not about how much
money you make. It’s about your
behaviours, your expenses and
your actions.”
She says the key is to write the
debt down on a piece of paper or in
a spreadsheet, along with the lend-
er, the amount you owe, the mini-
mum payments every month, the
interest rate and due dates. And be
realistic.
“Get honest with yourself,” she
says. “You’re likely going to have to
make some changes, sometimes re-
ally hard changes.”
Make a plan of action by using
Credit Canada’s three-step “ABC”
Expert suggests negotiating for a better rate
B A N K I N G F R O M B1
And overall, Canada “is a pretty
safe and secure place to invest” —
there haven’t been any recent ma-
jor bank failures.
Ellen Roseman, a consumer ad-
vocate who teaches investing and
personal finance courses at the
University of Toronto’s continuing
studies department and who wrote
personal finance columns for the
Star until 2019, pointed out that
consumers can find out whether a
bank is CDIC insured by checking
the crown corporation’s website.
The big banks and some smaller
banks are CDIC insured, Roseman
said, while provincially registered
credit unions have their own in-
stitutions that insure the deposits.
“If (someone has) more than
$100,000 — which is a very high
amount — you can’t get insured for
more than that,” Roseman noted,
although she explained that having
a joint account and an individual
account would allow for a collective
$200,000 being insured.
When it comes to finding high in-
terest rates, Roseman suggests
checking consumer-friendly web-
sites like Ratehub, Fiscal Agents
and High Interest Savings.
Some bigger banks will say their
interest rates are lower because
they offer in-person branches, so
part of the deal with a higher in-
SM ART MONE Y | B USI N E S S | B3
Áine Davis, approach: analyze, brainstorm,
an arts change.
administrator Start by analyzing your budget;
in Toronto, says take a close look at what’s coming in
the monthly and going out of your bank ac-
debt on her counts, including infrequent ex-
credit card penses, like household mainte-
feels like it will nance and car repairs.
never end: The second step is to brainstorm
“Every time I ideas to create more income. This
pay it off, I isn’t about just cutting out lattes,
have to use it says Western-Macfadyen. You
immediately.” might want to consider taking on a
second job temporarily, asking an
employer for a raise, renting out a
TO RO NTO STAR room in your house, and reducing
your spending dramatically. You
may even want to consider selling
household items, pausing contribu-
tions to savings and taking a break
from kids’ activities.
Other ideas include improving
your meal planning and shopping
‘‘
terest rate may mean that you’re
limited to online banking, Rose-
man noted.
“The thing about the high interest
savings account is that there’s no
The thing guarantee that it will last; the banks
about the are free to raise and lower whatever
they like,” she said. “There’s also a
high interest number of temporary promotions
savings ac- that banks are doing, and they’ll
count is that usually tell you how long it lasts.”
there’s no For example, CIBC has a promo-
guarantee tion for people opening their first
HISA at the bank, offering 5.6 per
that it will cent interest.
last; the Then, the interest on the account
banks are falls to between 0.65 and 1.9 per
free to raise cent.
and lower It could be possible to take ad-
vantage of a deal like this, Roseman
whatever said, for instance by keeping money
they like. in the savings account for the dura-
tion of the promotional period and
then looking for another account to
EL LEN ROSEMA N move the money into when the pro-
CONSUMER motional rate changes.
A DVO CATE However, Roseman said it’s im-
portant to “get into the fine print”
and see if there’s a fee to remove the
money from the savings account.
Tsai referred to such a temporary
promotion as a “bait and switch.”
“That gets you hooked on a promo
rate, but they have no intention of
actually giving you what the market
can actually pay you,” he said.
At the time of publication, other
HISAs in Canada offer rates up to
habits, finding more budget-friend-
ly recipes, reading through the flyer
from the grocery store to see what
meals you can create with sale
items.
Saijal Patel, founder and CEO of
Saij Elle, a global financial educa-
tion platform designed for women,
recommends cutting out unneces-
sary subscriptions (sorry, Amazon
and Netflix), and renegotiating
your plan with your internet pro-
vider.
“You’d be surprised at the negoti-
ating power you may have,” says
Patel.
“Ask them about ways to save.
Maybe there’s another plan you can
switch to that will save you money.
There are often promotions, too.”
If you decide to explore taking on
a second job, she suggests using
sites like Upwork to explore ways to
4.75 per cent.
Roseman also warned that being
“too much of a comparison shop-
per” could lead to difficulty navigat-
ing and staying up to date on vari-
ous different accounts.
“For many people, especially as
you get older, you want to make
sure that you centralize things, that
ON0
use your skills for freelance oppor-
tunities. The third step is where you
decide what to actually change.
“It has to be sustainable,” West-
ern-Macfadyen adds. So don’t sign
a mortgage renewal that you won’t
be able to keep up with; instead,
consider manageable changes like
cutting back on your entertain-
ment budget. Continue to track
your spending as you make changes
so you can see where all your mon-
ey is going.
“Aim to pay off more than the
minimum payment on your credit
card if you can — even double that
amount can save you a lot of money
in interest payments,” Patel says.
If you’re really in over your head
with credit card debt, the ABC
method may not be enough. That’s
when you may want to reach out to
a non-profit credit counselling
agency such as Credit Canada.
They can help you take a look at
your income and expenses, and
make recommendations for a plan.
You may even want to look into a
debt consolidation program, where
an agency works with creditors to
reduce interest rates and payment
amounts. This way, an individual
can just make one payment a
month to the agency, which then
distributes payments to the credi-
tors.
There are monthly fees involved
with this approach, but calling
Credit Canada to ask for some ad-
vice is always free. “We can even
walk you through the ABC method
or help you with creating a budget,”
Western-Macfadyen says.
“If you are drowning in debt, it’s
important to consider your options
and choose the best course of ac-
tion for your situation,” says Ilan
Kibel, a chartered accountant, li-
cenced insolvency trustee and part-
ner at BDO Canada. Beyond debt
consolidation, you can consider
other possibilities including a debt
management plan, a consumer
proposal or bankruptcy. “Each of
these options has its own advantag-
es and disadvantages,” Kibel says. A
licenced insolvency trustee can
help you review your choices to
make the right decision.
None of this is easy, Western-
Macfadyen adds.
“It’s heartbreaking. We empathize
with Canadians — it’s a brutal situa-
tion.” If you ever feel stuck or hope-
less the way Davis does, she sug-
gests choosing an inspiring word
that can be your guiding light,
whether it’s ‘family,’ ‘retirement’ or
‘vacationing.’ “Find something that
empowers you to keep moving for-
ward.”
Most importantly, “be kind to
yourself,” says Patel.
“These are unprecedented times.
Remember that any step toward
paying debt is a positive step.”
you don’t have too many accounts
elsewhere,” Roseman said. “Be-
cause what if something happens to
you? How does your spouse or your
family find out what all your differ-
ent accounts are?”
That being said, she suggested
consumers negotiate with banks
for a better rate.
Still, for even higher interest rates,
Tsai and Roseman suggested
looking elsewhere. The right ac-
count will vary depending on con-
sumers’ needs.
Tsai stressed that guaranteed in-
vestment certificates are offering
rates around five per cent.
If the effects of a recession start to
take hold, locking in a GIC account
at such a rate could be more benefi-
cial in the long run than storing
money in a savings account where
the interest rate can change at any
time.
However, because GICs have a
“locked in period,” they usually
can’t be cashed out early without
losing interest or getting “very little
interest.”
Money market funds can also of-
fer higher rates because they are
invested in the bond market, Tsai
said. However, these accounts
“tend not to be CDIC insured.”
In both cases, “you don’t have to
worry about the volatility of the
stock market, and you’re getting a
pretty decent income,” Tsai said.
ON0 ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR

DEATHS, MEMORIALS, BIRTHS

Death Notices 416-869-4229, Births, In Memoriams 416-777-7777

DEATH NOTICES

Repeat Notices

FORGIE, Dorothy LISHCHYNA, Raisa

JANSEN, Cli ord

Due to space restrictions, the notices may not appear in strict alphabetical order.
Please refer to this index for a complete alphabetical list of the notices appearing in today's paper.

DOROTHY IRENE FORGIE RAISA LISHCHYNA

(nee SHAPKA)
January 16 1926 1936 - 2023
November 26 2023

Peacefully, on October 20,

Dorothy passed peacefully, 2023, at home, at the age of
with family in her 98th year. A 87. Predeceased by her
Toronto native, she was born beloved husband of 57 years,
in St. Clair West to Mason and Leonid. Loving mother of
Gertrude Forgie. After Victor (Ola), Taras (Natalia)
becoming a registered nurse and Svitlana (Stephan).
in 1949 at TGH, she served Beloved daughter of the late
remote home locations near Harasym and Ulana Shapka.
Dryden and Kenora for Sister of Valentina Kit, and the
several years before returning

Share
late Lidia Kiziuk and George
to Toronto, where she worked Shapka. Sister-in-law of Zena
as an obstetrics nurse until Ezechiels (Fred). She will be
her retirement. She then lovingly remembered and
volunteered for Goodwill with dearly missed by her
estate sales.

Memories
grandchildren, Adriana,
Well travelled with a curious Tianna, Alexandra, Andrew,
mind and sharp wit, she was Stephania and Christina; and
well read, loved the music of by all her nephews, nieces,
her youth and classical. She cousins, relatives and friends.
loved the quiet beauty and Resting at the Newediuk
recreation of cottage life with Funeral Home, Kipling
family and friends, card Chapel, 2058 Kipling Avenue
games, laughter and good (North of Rexdale Boulevard),
food. She was a supporter of on Wednesday, November 1,

View the Toronto Star’s

Canadian wildlife causes and 2023, from 3-5 and 6-9 p.m.,
supported nature with Panachyda at 7:30 p.m.
conservation. Funeral Service on Thursday,

complete list of death

Predeceased by her parents; November 2, 2023, at 11:00
sisters, Margaret Bain and a.m. at All Saints of Ukraine
Jeannie Mack; and nephew, Chapel, 1280 Dundas St. W.,

notices and
Bruce Mack. Oakville. Interment to follow
She will be dearly missed by at St. Volodymyr Cemetery,
those who knew her, Oakville. In lieu of owers,

in memoriams at
nephews, Doug (Karen) and donations to Canada-Ukraine
Jim (Vi); and good friends, Foundation or Ukrainian
including Audrey and Anar. Canadian Youth Association

thestar.com/obituaries
Interment service will be ODUM would be greatly
Saturday, November 4, 2023, appreciated.
at 11:00 a.m., following Online condolences at:
meeting at 10:45 a.m. at newediukfuneralhome.com
Prospect Cemetery o ce.

IN MEMORIAM

CLIFFORD JOHN JANSEN

Peacefully, passed away after

a prolonged illness on
October 21, 2023, at the age
of 88. Predeceased by his
parents, Biddy and Percy FRED ROMAGNUOLO
Jansen; and his sister, Iris April 15, 1931 - October 30, 2014
Mary Jansen of the Little
Sisters of Jesus. Survived by
his wife, Tatiana; children, In loving memory of a dear
Gregory (Helen), and Irene husband, father, nonno, and
(Michael); grandchildren, bisnonno.
Maia, Nicholas, Victor, and Always remembered, always
Vanessa. Cli will be sadly missed and always loved.
missed by the Degands of
Belgium, who he considered Your loving wife Bambina
his second family, and by all and family.
his friends and colleagues,

To place
both here in Canada and
abroad. GAIL SQUIRE
Visitation and Funeral Service
will take place at O'Neill In Loving Memory of our dear
Funeral Home, 6324 Main sister Gail who passed away 1

a death or
Street, Stou ville, on year ago today.
Wednesday, November 1, A loving person, so gentle and so
2023. Visitation will be held kind, none on this earth your
from 11 a.m. - 1 p.m., with equal will nd.
Funeral Service commencing

in memoriam
May the winds of time blow softly
at 1 p.m. The service will be and whisper our remembrance
complete in the chapel, and a and love until we meet again.
private cremation will follow. Loved Barb and Ken
No formal reception is
planned at this time, however

notice
the family welcomes loved
ones and guests to hold their
own toast in Cli ord's honour.
In lieu of owers, memorial
donations may be made to
Eagle Terrace Long Term
Care. Online condolences
may be shared at:
arbormemorial.ca/en/oneill
Visit: starclassifieds.com
To view Call: 416-869-4229
Timing to place a
death or birth notice: obituaries Email: deathnotices@thestar.ca
To publish in the Saturday or to sign a
edition:
Notices must be placed before guestbook,
10:45 a.m. on Friday
To publish in the Sunday to
visit
Friday editions:
Notices must be placed before
thestar.com/
3:00 p.m. the day prior obituaries
TORONTO STAR MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 ON0

WHERE LIVES PASS, LEGACIES

CARRY ON FOREVER.
Celebrate the life
of your loved one
by helping to build
a new SickKids for
future generations.
It’s going to take all of us
to build a new SickKids.
A new SickKids will mean
more lives saved, and allow
SickKids to keep providing
world-class care, not limited
by a 70-year-old hospital.
A new SickKids will mean
state-of-the-art infection
control; privacy and
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patients when they need it
the most; and greater space
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To honour the memory
of a loved one, donate
to SickKids Foundation at

www.StarforSickKids.ca
ON0 ON
B6 |
T H E AT R E R E V I E W
Dillon Klena, left, Teralin Jones, Julie Reiber and Benjamin Eakeley in “Jagged Little Pill,” which is the story
of a dysfunctional family and uses Alanis Morissette songs as a way for characters to express emotion.
An intelligent update
on the jukebox musical
Jagged Little Pill
(out of 4)
Lyrics by Alanis Morissette, music
by Morissette and Glen Ballard,
book by Diablo Cody, directed by
Diane Paulus, movement direction
and choreography by Sidi Larbi
Cherkaoui. Playing at the Princess
of Wales Theatre, 300 King St. W.,
through Nov. 26. W. mirvish.com
or 1-800-461-3333
KAREN FRICKER
T H E AT R E C R I T I C
One of the most iconic alt-rock al-
bums of the 1990s has become a
musical immersed in the social and
personal issues of the 2010s and
committed to evoking deep feelings
in its audience.
Substance abuse, racism, sexual
assault, menstrual activism, homo-
phobia, climate change, workahol-
ism and more: “Jagged Little Pill”
brings them together in the story of
a seemingly thriving Connecticut
family that just under the surface is
dysfunctional and wildly unhappy.
Alanis Morissette’s songs are the
means by which the family and
people close to them express the
gritty, complicated emotions
they’re otherwise repressing.
The show features all the tracks
from the titular album that made
Morissette a global superstar, along
with songs from elsewhere in her
catalogue and two new numbers.
“Jagged Little Pill,” which pre-
miered on Broadway in 2019 and
won two Tony Awards and a Gram-
my, is far from easy entertainment.
It’s long (two hours and 40 minutes
including intermission) and takes
audiences through dark psycholog-
ical terrain. The desired effect
seems that of self-recognition lead-
ing to catharsis: by watching others
work through the challenges of
contemporary life and come out
rocking, so too might “Jagged Little
Pill’s” audiences emerge, emotion-
ally frayed but uplifted.
That tricky balance didn’t entirely
work for me on the opening night of
the show’s month-long run at Mir-
vish’s Princess of Wales Theatre.
What I found missing was the sense
of rebellious joy and abandon asso-
ciated with this music, in large part
because the performers often sang
so loud and hard that the intensity
became unbearable.
The line between the full-throat-
ed expression of high emotion and
shoutiness has always been a fine
one around Morissette’s music and
it seems to me that this North
American touring company, who
have been on the road for more
than a year, may have lost sight of it.
Enjoying the lyrics on opening
night was a challenge at points due
to an uneven sound balance and
low microphone levels, particularly
in the opening and closing num-
bers. That said, in many ways the
show is an intelligent progression
in the development of the jukebox
musical: shows that bring together
an artist or group’s back catalogue
and trade on the popularity of the
music to draw audiences. By re-
presenting the concerns of two
generations of the Healy family —
40-something parents and older
teenagers — the show works to ap-
peal across age groups.
Diablo Cody’s book and Tom Kitt’s
orchestrations and arrangements
cleverly weave the songs into the
family’s story so that they express
dilemmas and allow for the devel-
opment of relationships and char-
acterizations.
Diane Paulus’s direction moves
the action efficiently between brief
scenes of spoken dialogue and
evocative musical numbers. In
most of these the lead performers
are backed by a chorus who,
through Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui’s
pulsing choreography, further de-
liver the intense emotions con-
veyed in the songs.
The production values are an im-
pressive combination of large-scale
and efficient: tall panels on Riccar-
do Hernández’s set move back and
forth along with Lucy Mackinnon’s
projections to shift the action from
interiors to the streets of Manhat-
tan and back.
Justin Townsend’s lights aids in
these transitions while big lighting
instruments attached to an upstage
platform where the band sits give
the musical numbers a live concert
feel. Emily Rebholz’s costumes
look like they could well have come
from Old Navy and Lululemon;
they’re exactly what these charac-
ters would wear.
This dissection of the flimsiness of
the “perfect family” ideal begins, in
one of the show’s smartest strokes,
with the hypocritical ritual of the
family Christmas letter, which
Mary Jane (Julie Reiber) narrates
from her sofa while typing into a
laptop. Following a car accident,
she’s secretly spiralling into opioid
addiction, while husband Steve
(Benjamin Eakeley) spends in-
creasing amounts of time at work
and is not-so-secretly watching in-
ternet porn.
The first number, “Right Through
You,” expresses these hypocrisies
and self-deceptions. “Perfect” is an
outlet for overachieving son Nick
CO M I C S , B 9
P U Z Z L E S , B10
EVAN ZIM MERM AN
(Dillon Klena) to vent about pres-
sure to be the model son and stu-
dent, while “Hand in My Pocket” is
an expression of romantic affection
between Jo (Jade McLeod) and
Frankie (Teralin Jones), the Healys’
Black adoptive daughter.
“Smiling,” in a feat of bravura stag-
ing, has Mary Jane playing out a day
in reverse, from a tense exchange
with hypercompetitive super-
moms at a coffee shop to a SoulCy-
cle class to a street drug deal after
the pharmacist refuses to renew
her Oxycodone prescription.
There’s even winking meta-com-
mentary on some of Morissette’s
most notorious lyrics when Fran-
kie’s classmates call out her creative
writing presentation for the misuse
of the term “Ironic.” This allows
handsome classmate Phoenix
(Rishi Golani) to come to her de-
fence and sparks up a romantic tri-
angle between Frankie, Phoenix
and Jo.
The staging and placement in the
narrative of “You Oughta Know,”
which McLeod’s Jo sings to break
up with Frankie, is clearly intended
to bring the house down. I found
McLeod’s performance so physical-
ly and vocally mannered that it did
not let me into the character’s expe-
rience, but others around me
seemed swept away.
By contrast, Allison Sheppard as
Nick’s classmate Bella, whose expe-
rience of sexual assault becomes
one of the play’s main plot lines,
gives a performance of remarkable
emotional presence and availabili-
ty. Jo and Frankie’s support of Bella
swells into a schoolwide movement
and one of several numbers in
which the youthful chorus hold up
placards with slogans supporting a
wide variety of socially progressive
causes and sing fervently at the au-
dience.
This confrontational spirit came
to alienate me. I found the perfor- SEE A POEM FOR RABIA, B8
mances of Morissette’s gentler
songs more effective, including
“You Learn,” which makes for a re-
demptive finale.
That song recommends biting off
more than you can chew, and Pau-
lus and her team have taken that to
heart in packing so many challeng-
ing experiences and themes into
one musical theatre evening. These
characters cry, lose, bleed and
scream. But thank goodness, they
do learn and eventually the smoke
clears.
KAREN FR ICKER IS A TO RO NTO- BAS ED
T HEAT RE C RIT IC A ND A FREELA NCE
CO NTR IBUTO R FOR T HE STA R.
FOL LOW HER ON T WIT T ER:
@KA R E NF R I CK ER 2
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR
T H E AT R E R E V I E W
A compelling
history lesson
KAREN FRICKER
T H E AT R E C R I T I C
Three fascinating, complicated A Poem
women share food, laughter and for Rabia
wisdom at a dinner party, sub-
merged up to their ankles in water. (out of 4)
This scene from Nikki Shaffeeul- By Nikki Shaf-
lah’s world premiere play “A Poem feeullah, direct-
for Rabia” is historically impossible ed by Clare
— the characters are from the same Preuss and
bloodline but lived centuries apart Donna-Mi-
— yet, in the context of the play’s chelle St. Ber-
poetic storytelling, makes resonant nard. Runs
sense. The placement of the action through Nov. 12
in a shallow onstage pool (design by at the Tarragon
Sonja Rainey) consolidates one of Theatre Extras-
the play’s key themes of journeying pace, 30 Bridg-
over and living in proximity to wa- man Ave. tarra-
ter. gontheatre.com
The scene comes late in the pro- or 416-531-1827.
duction — at two hours and 25 min-
utes including intermission, it’s a
long watch — but the way in which
it draws things together is warmly
satisfying.
Drawing on personal history, re-
search and political commitments,
Shaffeeullah’s ambitions for the
play are huge and it’s been more
than 10 years in development. Clare
Preuss and Donna-Michelle St.
Bernard co-direct the Tarragon
Theatre production in association
with Nightwood Theatre and Un-
dercurrent Creations.
The title character’s storyline is
set in 1853: Rabia (Adele Noronha)
is on a ship from Kolkata to what
was then British Guiana, part of a
generation of Indian indentured
servants shipped off to the colony
to take on the labour of newly liber-
ated slaves.
One hundred years later, Betty
(Michelle Mohammed) works in
the British High Commissioner’s
office in Georgetown and gets
drawn into the national indepen-
dence movement by her Afro-Guy-
anese co-worker Marsha (Virgilia
Griffith).
And, in 2053 Toronto, Zahra
(Shaffeeullah) fights burnout as she
and her activist chosen family work
to support those who were liberat-
ed following prison abolition, weav-
ing a theme of different incarna-
tions of abolitionism.
Preuss and St. Bernard’s direction
embraces the non-linear nature of
Shaffeeullah’s playwriting, inviting
the audience to go with its flow and
wait for connections and relation-
ships to emerge. In between en-
acted scenes, the three central
characters address the audience di-
rectly to narrate their stories and
those transitions are gracefully
handled, aided by shifts in Echo
Zhou’s lighting. The performers
show impressive skill in handling
this sort of dramatic code-switch-
ing, though swapping between ac-
cents is sometimes not as success-
ful.
Zahra’s situation is the least com-
pelling — someone being stuck in Adele Noronha,
their life is not inherently dramatic left, stars as
— and the actors playing her part- the title
ner (Griffith) and close friend (Jay character and
Northcott) are saddled with exposi- Anand Rajaram
tion-heavy dialogue. as Farooq in
Their characters remain underde- "A Poem for
veloped, as are those of the male Rabia."
bureaucrats in Betty’s plot line,
played by Northcott and Anand
Rajaram. CYL L A VO N
T IED EM ANN
TORONTO STAR MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 ON0

C ULTU RE | B7
BRIDGE BY DAVE WILLIS
S P OT L I G H T

‘Five Nights at Freddy’s’ hits it big

It hardly mattered that “Five
Nights at Freddy’s” was re-
leased simultaneously in thea-
tres and on streaming this
weekend. Fans flocked to movie
theatres across the country to
see the scary video game adap-
tation on the big screen, which
made $78 million (U.S.) to top
the North American box office,
according to studio estimates
Sunday.
Universal Pictures bet on a
day-and-date release on the
weekend before Halloween,
sending it to 3,675 theatres in
the U.S. and Canada, while also
making it available for Peacock
subscribers, the subscription
streaming service owned by
NBCUniversal. The movie also
opened in 64 markets interna-
tionally, where it’s expected to
gross $52.6 million, giving the
film a $130.6-million global
launch — the biggest of any hor-
ror released this year.
“It was an extraordinary de-
but,” said Jim Orr, the president
of domestic distribution for
Universal, who praised Blum-
house, the filmmakers and the
studio’s marketing department
for the targeted campaign.
Blumhouse, the company be-
hind “Paranormal Activity,”
“Get Out” and recent horror
hits like “M3GAN” and “The
Black Phone,” produced “Five
Nights at Freddy’s,” which was
directed by Emma Tammi and
stars Josh Hutcherson, Mary
Stuart Masterson and Mat-
thew Lillard. The popular video
game series, in which a security
guard has to fend off murder-
ous animatronic characters at a
run down family pizza restau-
rant, Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza,
was created by Scott Cawthon
and first released in 2014.
T H E A SS OC IAT E D P R ESS
U NIV ERS AL P I CT URE S V I A T HE A SSO CI AT E D P RE SS
Matthew Lillard stars in “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” which made
$130.6 million (U.S.) in its global launch this weekend.
Moll starred in Arrest made in
‘Night Court’ Cole stabbing
Richard Moll, a character actor
who found lasting fame as an
eccentric but gentle giant bailiff
on the original “Night Court”
sitcom, has died. He was 80.
Moll died Thursday at his
home in Big Bear Lake, Calif.,
according to Jeff Sanderson, a
publicist at Chasen & Company.
Moll played “Bull” Shannon
on NBC’s “Night Court” from
1984-92 alongside stars Harry
Anderson and John Larro-
quette. His character formed a
close friendship with the court’s
other bailiff, Roz Russell, played
by Marsha Warfield. Bull was
known for his catchphrase,
“Ohh-kay.” After “Night Court”
ended, Moll contributed his tra-
demark gravelly voice to various
video games and comic book
projects like “Batman: The Ani-
mated Series” as Harvey Dent
and appeared in horror films
like “Ghost Shark” (2013) and
“Slay Belles” (2018).
T H E A SS OC IAT ED P RESS
A Georgia man has been arrest-
ed in connection with the death
of the great-nephew of world-
renowned singer and jazz pia-
nist Nat King Cole, police said.
Tracy Cole was stabbed to
death in Atlanta on Sept. 14. The
31-year-old died at the hospital.
Investigators have charged Ri-
cardo Gayle, 41, with his killing.
He was taken into custody dur-
ing a traffic stop Saturday.
Police said the men knew each
other, according to WSB-TV.
Gayle was booked into the
Fulton County Jail on several
charges, including murder, ag-
gravated assault and armed
robbery.
Tracy Cole was the grandson
of Freddy Cole, one of Nat King
Cole’s three brothers. The pio-
neering jazz star died in 1965.
Freddy Cole was also a famous
jazz singer and pianist who was
inducted into the Georgia Hall
of Fame.
T HE A SS OC I AT ED P RE SS
Briefly
■ A horror comedy set in Mon-
treal telling the coming-of-age
story of a teenage vampire is the
winner of this year’s Windsor
International Film Festival
prize for Canadian film. Quebec
director Ariane Louis-Seize
took home the $25,000 award
for her film “Humanist Vam-
pire Seeking Consenting Sui-
cidal Person,” which explores a
teen’s ethical qualms about
feeding on the human blood
she needs to survive. The panel
of jurors who determined the
winner praised the movie’s deft
handling of multiple genres,
calling it “risky and memora-
ble” with a comedically down-
beat tone.
■ On Friday, Spotify announced
in a post on X that Taylor Swift’s
newly released re-recording of
“1989” — called “Taylor’s Ver-
sion” — became the most
streamed album in a single day
so far this year. Swift also set a
single-day record for streams
by an artist on the 15-year-old
music streaming platform. The
new version has 13 songs from
the original plus five previously
unreleased tracks.
■ Disney updated its theatrical
release calendar on Friday,
pushing the new “Snow White”
starring Rachel Zegler and
pulling Searchlight’s prestige
drama “Magazine Dreams”
starring the embattled Jona-
than Majors. The studio giant
has also delayed another Dis-
ney movie and a Pixar title,
while removing one Disney and
one Pixar project from the cal-
endar as the actors’ strike rages
on, threatening to upend next
year’s film slate.
STAR WI RE SE RV I CE S
East won the ace of spades to
continue with the six as partner
elected to duck declarer’s queen.
South swiftly cashed out eight
more tricks, N-S +400.
South’s 2NT rebid had promised
stoppers in both majors which was
a white lie because he did not own
a spade guard but he survived this
action when partner displayed jack
third of spades.
A club lead would culminate in
defeat since the defense would
score three clubs and two spade
tricks. However, West can hardly be
faulted for leading his longest and
strongest suit.
A switch to the seven of clubs at
trick two would be ineffective since
declarer can win the second club
blocking the suit and drive out the
king of spades to earn the game
bonus.
Double- dummy, the contract
could be defeated when East shifts
to the king of clubs! Declarer will
play low from hand, of course, but
will be in for a surprise when West
wins the continuation with the club
queen and clears the suit by play-
ing a third one.
In this scenario, E-W would col-
lect three clubs and two spades for
a one-trick set.
Author: Dave Willis - visit his website at
www.insidebridge.ca
Questions can be sent with a stamped,
self-addressed envelope to The New
Canadian Bridge c/o Torstar Syndication
Services, One Yonge St., Toronto, M5E 1E6

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ON0 ON
B8 | C U L T U R E
FIRST PERSON
Matthew Perry, top right, may always be synonymous with Chandler Bing on “Friends,” but his ability to play the character so
well while fighting for his life cements his memory as someone who used that fight to strengthen those who needed it.
His legacy reaches beyond
the character he portrayed
Actor hoped to be remembered most for helping others
battling with addiction and mental-health challenges
A N N E T. D O N A H U E
S P E C I A L TO T H E S TA R
Early in the third season of
“Friends,” Chandler Bing grapples
with his own mortality.
After Monica and Rachel’s cur-
mudgeonly neighbour dies, Chan-
dler begins to see himself in Mr.
Heckles and worries that he will
also end up all alone. The episode is
funny and touching but, most im-
portantly, elevates the show from a
standard, ensemble prime-time
comedy to a series willing to ex-
plore tangible parts of the human
experience.
We glean that Chandler’s anxiety
and neuroticism are more than an
avenue for comedic timing. We see
that Chandler is a lot like us.
A show that leaves
you wanting more
A POEM FOR RABIA FROM B6
A subplot of Rabia’s initially trans-
actional and eventually affection-
ate relationship with shipmate
Farooq (Rajaram) is richer and
more satisfying, thanks both to the
writing and the sparky chemistry
between Noronha and Rajaram.
With her warm stage presence and
capacity to convey complex emo-
tions through voice, face and phys-
icality, Vancouver-based Noronha
was the show’s big discovery for me.
Author/performer Shaffeeullah’s
resonant speaking and singing
voice was also a highlight (musical
composition and sound design are
by David Mesiha).
The relationship between Mo-
hammed’s Betty and Griffith’s Mar-
sha is compellingly played, though
the 1950s-set political intrigue sub-
plot could have benefited from
more stage time.
This is implicitly acknowledged in
an out-of-nowhere sequence in
L AN CE STAED LER
Of course, Chandler Bing would
be nothing without the actor who
played him. The late Matthew Per-
ry, who died Saturday at the age of
54, created a character unique to
the mainstream TV landscape of
the mid-1990s. Bing was funny and
sarcastic, sure (like Dave in “News-
Radio” or Ira on “Mad About You”),
but unlike the early incarnations of
Joey or Ross, he wasn’t a lothario or
defined by a divorce (or the
questionable choice to adopt a
monkey).
Instead, Chandler echoed the ex-
istentialism that defined genera-
tion X in a way that made him en-
dearing and even relatable: he used
humour to avoid intimacy, worked Perry’s most famous character can now be the entry
a soulless 9 to 5, and navigated the point for bigger conversations about mental health,
dating scene in novel and humiliat- addiction and the discourse around each.
which the same potentially melo-
dramatic moment is played out
multiple times in different theatri-
cal modes.
The play asks relevant and reso-
nant questions about how people
living now (or in the near future)
can carry the historical work of pre-
vious generations without being
“fairweather descendants,” engag-
ing with ancestry only when it feels
convenient or an opportunity for
superficial catharsis.
This production offers an embod-
ied, feminist and queer response to
these questions. With it, Shaffeeul-
lah and her collaborators counter
what the play calls a culture of se-
crecy about women’s involvement
in difficult histories.
Its storytelling is voluptuous,
jagged and at times excessive. The
characters are human and imper-
fect, struggling to make individu-
ally responsible choices in the face
of situations and phenomena big-
ger than themselves. Particularly
MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR
N B C WA R N ER BROS . VI A T HE A SS OC IATE D PR E SS
BR IA N AC H TH E A SS OCI ATED PR ESS F IL E PH OTO
Playwright and the contemporary characters con-
performer Nikki front challenges with dark insider
Shaffeeullah humour. The activist impulses of
in “A Poem the play don’t always sit comfort-
for Rabia.” ably with its dramatic ones.
All the same, “A Poem for Rabia”
opens up the story of the patterns of
CY L L A VON migration into and out of Guyana
T I E D E M ANN (and more broadly, the Caribbean)
as a result of relentless colonialism.
I knew little about this history and
ing ways. It was easy to root for
Chandler because, arguably, you
were rooting for yourself.
It didn’t hurt that Matthew Perry
seemed like an extension of his fic-
tional counterpart. On the outside
(and in the age before online gossip
sites and social media accounts),
Perry led with a charming, warm
awkwardness that seemed to re-
flect the non-threatening nature of
Chandler Bing.
He starred in romantic comedies
that underscored the persona he’d
cultivated through “Friends,”
which worked to boost his charac-
ter’s likability.
For some of us who grew up in the
’90s, Matthew Perry was a celebrity
crush that didn’t feel intimidating
or age-inappropriate: He was witty,
quick, cute, and Canadian. Through
those traits, he made Chandler
Bing a beacon for anyone else who
said things like, “Gum would be
perfection.”
It was a testament to Perry’s talent
that in real life, he was battling a
relentless addiction to alcohol and
opiates; the details of which he gen-
erously shared in his 2022 memoir,
“Friends, Lovers, and the Big, Ter-
rible Thing.”
In an interview with “Q” host Tom
Power last year, the actor was ex-
plicit about his “tortuous” life, shar-
ing that nearly 20 years after
“Friends” ended, he still couldn’t
watch himself onscreen because
he’d know exactly what stage of ad-
diction and recovery he’d be at.
Yet despite the obvious differenc-
es between Perry and his character,
the vulnerability and warmth that
radiated from Chandler clearly
stemmed from the man who played
him.
It takes guts to open up about
one’s worst moments, but even
more to elaborate on the beha-
viours and realities that define the
pain of addiction. Perry led with
authenticity, explaining in the in-
terview with Power that he hoped
to help people who were going
through the same — and he told the
Star that was what he wanted to be
remembered for.
“ ‘Friends’ was the greatest expe-
rience of my life,” Perry told Aisling
Murphy. “But when I pass away I
want people talking about my suc-
cesses and helping people through
this nasty disease. What I want peo-
ple to talk about is this … there
really isn’t anybody that I can’t
help.”
It is tragic and unfair to lose Mat-
thew Perry, especially less than a
year after he spoke so eloquently
about his legacy. But despite our
culture being quick to list the con-
tents of one’s resumé after their
passing, Perry’s most famous char-
acter can now be the entry point for
bigger conversations about mental
health, addiction and the discourse
around each.
Matthew Perry may always be
synonymous with Chandler Bing,
but his ability to play Chandler so
well while fighting for his life ce-
ments his memory as one who used
that fight to strengthen those who
needed it.
We may all have loved Chandler
Bing, but it was Matthew Perry who
is most deserving of it.
the show made me want to learn a
lot more about it (educational ma-
terials on the Tarragon website are
a great start). Those closer to this
history will likely be gratified to see
it presented in all its complexity.
K A RE N F RI C KE R I S A TO RO N TO - B A SE D
T H E AT RE C R I T I C AN D A F R E E L A N C E
CO N T R I B UTO R FO R T H E STA R .
FO L LOW H E R O N T W I T T E R:
@ KA RENF R I C KE R2
ON0 ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR  B9

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ON0 ON MONDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2023 TORONTO STAR

B10 | P U ZZL ES
CROSSWORD FOR MONDAY WUZZLES BY TOM UNDERWOOD
ACROSS 5 Perceived FRIDAY’S ANSWER
1 Group of workers 6 Rowing
5 Secret store essential
10 Bonkers 7 Bronze and
14 Kind of moth Iron
15 Ready 8 Clergyman
16 Old Roman poet 9 Exhaust
17 Object of devotion 10 Imprisons (2
18 Tall palm wds.)
19 Roman statesman 11 Jelly bean
20 Bother shape
22 One hard to please 12 Refer to
24 Objectives 13 Bad smell
26 Burden of proof 21 Captivates
27 Map 23 Peculiar thing
30 Stray 25 — lily 49 Incompetent
32 Plant disease 27 Trash receptacles 51 Rather modern
35 Little island 28 Put on the payroll 53 Extend to
36 Latest fad 29 Early video game maker
55 Helps a wrongdoer
38 Ladle 31 Happen again
33 Mouth off 56 Drawn out
40 Gun lobbying org.
41 Toast topper 34 Laconic 57 Cookie brand
43 Mine’s output 37 Broad st. 58 Fruitless
44 Calm 38 Presidential monogram 59 Stadium section
46 Takes advantage of 39 Raise 61 On the Atlantic
47 Neighbor of Can. 42 “Dream on!” (2 wds.)
62 Hankerings
48 Platter 45 George’s mother on
“Seinfeld” 63 Brother of Cain
49 Illusionist — Geller
50 Put to rest 66 Bit of paint
52 Oceanside bird
54 Destiny
56 Sofa for two
60 Side roads
64 Exam format TODAY’S WUZZLES ANSWER
65 Dwell
67 “— — what you mean!”
68 Singer — Diamond
69 Gripping device
70 Mailed
FRIDAY’S WORD
71 Vanished SLEUTH ANSWER
72 Flavoring plants
73 Mishmash REPLACE ALL T’S WITH
S’S TO MAKE A NEW
DOWN WORD
1 Movie teaser
2 Offensive
3 Grandson of Adam
4 Matthau or Cronkite

DON’T QUOTE ME THEME

WORD SLEUTH BY KING FEATURES INC. BY WIGGLES 3D INCORPORATED Did You Have a Good
WORDS IN UK NEWSPAPER TITLES www.dontquoteme.com Break?
Today’s unlisted clue: 1ST PLANET FROM THE SUN Rearrange the words below to complete the quotes. BEGIN OVER VACATION WORK YEARN YOUR
LIFE OVERRATED PLEASURE PROVE VACATIONS
“A __________ is ____ when you _______ to _______ for
“__________ _______ that a ____ of __________ is
____ ____.”
__________.”
- Mason Cooley (1927-2002) U.S. author - Morris Fishbein (1889-1976) U.S. doctor and editor

your work.”
overrated.” • “A vacation is over when you begin to yearn for
ANSWERS “Vacations prove that a life of pleasure is

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