![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Dec. 18th, 2012
Lansdowne Avenue above Dupont Street has been getting a fair amount of press recently. First the nuclear fuel-processing plant in the area became the subject of much-belated public discussion, then a fatal traffic accident involving a cyclist at Lansdowne and Davenport brought up bike safety. More recently, and more pleasantly, the apartment tower at 1011 Lansdowne Avenue, on the northeastern corner of Lansdowne and Dupont, has overcome a terrible reputation as a crime-ridden high-rise slum courtesy a City of Toronto renewal program to the point that it provides safe housing for deinstitutionalized mental patients. The Toronto Star has it.
Support workers from community agencies work in the building, providing round-the-clock care. The property management built a common area in the basement for counseling, cooking classes and social activities.
Susan Pigott, vice president of communications and community engagement at CAMH, learned a few years ago that new management was fixing up the building. And rent is cheap — around $600 to $650 for a bachelor apartment.
CAMH doesn’t usually partner with private housing providers, but there is a desperate need for affordable housing for people recovering from mental illness, said Pigott. The agency found a willing collaborator in Roslyn Brown, who came to Toronto in 2003 tasked with cleaning up landlord Vincenzo Barrasso’s five notorious highrises.
Pigott said it’s working out.
“We did have misgivings, but I don’t anymore,” said Pigott.
Some patients languish at CAMH for months, even years, at an average cost of $600 a day, not because they require acute hospital care but because they have nowhere to go that offers some support.
There are about 10,000 supportive housing units in Ontario, and the wait-list in Toronto for low- and medium-level support is more than 5,000 long.
Evidence suggests supportive housing for people with mental illness reduces hospital re-admissions, psychiatric symptoms and substance use, according to an October 2012 CAMH report, “Road to Recovery.”
Laurier LaPierre, Xtra!'s Matthew Hays notes, journalist, senator, and gay activist, died yesterday.
LaPierre became forever associated with one of the most famous media moments in Canadian broadcasting history as co-host of the controversial current affairs show This Hour Has Seven Days.
The show, first aired in 1964, became famous for brazenly featuring topics that were considered risqué and occasionally offensive to viewers, including footage of the Vietnam War, interviews with white supremacists, and even a sit-down talk with Nathan Leopold (one half of the child-killing duo Leopold and Loeb).
[. . .]
This Hour Has Seven Days was cancelled amid a firestorm of controversy in 1966, but LaPierre didn’t slow down. He ran for federal Parliament in 1968, vying for a seat to represent the Lachine, Quebec, riding for the NDP. After defeat, he would return to work as an academic, author, journalist and activist.
In 1988, LaPierre publicly declared his sexual orientation at an event on Parliament Hill, and thereafter became an increasingly vocal advocate for the rights of gay citizens across the country.
[. . .]
While in the Senate, LaPierre became a staunch advocate of Bill C-250 to protect gay people from hate propaganda. In 2004, he sent emails to an avowed Christian who opposed the bill, stating, “You people are sick. God should strike you dead!” and “In a book that is supposed to speak of love and you find passages of hatred. You should be ashamed of yourself of reading such books!” LaPierre would ultimately apologize for sending the emails.
In 2009, LaPierre wrote for Xtra, recalling the elation he felt when Pierre Trudeau decriminalized sodomy in 1969.
“Free at last,” LaPierre wrote. “That’s how I first felt when I heard the news.”
[. . .]
LaPierre is survived by his long-time partner, Harvey Slack, two sons from his first marriage, and several grandchildren.
The first two politicians to announce their candidacy for leadership of the Liberal Party, Kathleen Wynne and Glen Murray, are out. A recent Bob Hepburn Toronto Star column makes the point that, while this won't influence the mass of Ontarians one way or another, it will influence certain minorities. Inasmuch as politics in Ontario (as elsewhere) are all about building coalitions of minorities, this could cause serious problems for their leadership campaigns. As for actual provincial elections, well.
During a recent lunch in downtown Toronto, an active supporter of Kathleen Wynne’s campaign to become leader of the Ontario Liberals — and the province’s next premier — raised a question few people dare to ask: Is Ontario is ready to elect an openly gay premier?
It’s an important question because both Wynne and Glen Murray are openly gay politicians seeking to replace Dalton McGuinty as leader of the Liberals.
The winner immediately becomes Ontario’s premier.
It’s “the elephant in the room” that no one wants to discuss, the Wynne activist told me. “We know being a gay politician is an issue for some voters, we just don’t know how many. We call it the silent issue.”
[. . .]
While obviously not a top-of-mind issue in the leadership race, the fact that organizers for both Wynne and Murray are concerned is a sign they are aware of its potential to affect the outcome in this contest and in the next general election, expected as early as May.
Across the country, acceptance of gay politicians is fairly strong. A survey in May of this year by the Environics Institute found 66 per cent of Ontarians strongly approved of gays running for public office, a figure virtually unchanged since a similar survey in 2006.
Still, some 20 per cent of Ontario residents surveyed opposed gays running for elected office. Among evangelical Christians, barely one-third supported gays in politics.
“To wish away the possibility that it (an openly gay candidate) would not influence even a small number of voters is just silly,” says David Rayside, a University of Toronto political scientist who for years has studied attitudes toward gay and lesbian politicians in Canada and abroad.
Taken from Emily Lakdawalla's Planetary Society blog, this picture shows the images of asteroid 4179 Toutatis taken on the 13th of December, 2012, by China's Chang'E 2 probe.
A commenter at the blog translates the official commentary as follows.
A commenter at the blog translates the official commentary as follows.
China's National defense industrial agency today announces a new breakthrough in China's lunar and space exploration. CE-2 has successfully executed a close fly-by of the Toutatis asteroid at a distance of approximately 7 million km from earth; this is the first time any nation has made such close examination of the asteroid. This breakthrough also signifies that China is the fourth country, after the US, the ESA, and Japan, which has the capability to explore asteroids. At 1630 on December 13, CE-2 responded to commands and approached and made a close fly-by of the Toutatis asteroid. Relative speed was 10.73 km/s; closest distance was 3.2 km from the asteroid. CE-2 used its on-board star observation cameras to capture images from the asteroid. Chief lunar exploration engineer Wu Wei-Ren says "We completed our mission very well today; this is our first time exploring asteroid". News anchor: "This is the world's first close-distance image capture of the Toutatis asteroid. It not only proves Ce-2's orbit design and navigation control but it also realizes China's improvement in its reach for space going from 400,000 km (moon) out to 7 million km from earth". Lunar exploration control project's assistant chief engineer Zhou Jian-Liang says "Sending a lunar exploration space ship that has fulfilled its mission to such an orbit is very challenging." "Our propulsion system was designed for long life; using x-band to send data back to earth from such a long distance is also difficult", says CE-2's assistant chief system engineer Wang xiao-Lei says. The completion of the extended mission by Ce-2 also means the satelite has successfully completed its overall mission. CE-2 was launched on October 1, 2010; After it successfully completed its six planned primary engineering and four scienctific missions at the moon; it flew to the L2 point about 1.5 million km from earth then to the Toutatis asteroid about 7 milliom km from earth. Exceeding at each station China's lunar and deep space exploration achievement.
I've a post up taking note of how, in Japan, Tokyo's relative weight is only going to grow. Is this is a good thing? Or, is it a thing that needs to be fought against at a time when Japan is running short on money?