City Council Approves Expansion of Sidewalk Snow Clearing As many of you know, I've been advocating for the harmonization of sidewalk snow clearing services across all City of Toronto neighbourhoods for many years. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing us all to be outdoors, I've been urging my colleagues on Council since September to get [...]

Happy Diwali! For those that are celebrating Diwali this month, I hope you and your family had a joyous Festival of Lights! I love that this beautiful holiday celebrates the victory of good over evil and knowledge over ignorance. During this difficult time, let’s get together on Zoom to celebrate the victory of light over [...]

Dear residents, I hope this finds you and your family healthy and well during these challenging times. My family and I wish you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving. This year, Melissa, Molly and I will be having dinner together while joining our extended family and friends by Facetime and phone. We'll be reaching out [...]

Rosh Hashanah & Yom Kippur To those celebrating in our Jewish community this month, I wish you a Shanah Tovah and a meaningful fast this Yom Kippur! A Safe Return to School As Molly's dad, I completely understand the stress and anxiety families are feeling as they prepare for back to school. Whether or not [...]

COVID-19: Toronto Enters Stage Three of the Recovery Today, the Ontario Government announced that Toronto will move to Stage 3 reopening on Friday, July 31. This decision was based on positive local trends of key public health indicators, including a lower transmission of COVID-19, ongoing hospital capacity, capacity for rapid case and contact management and [...]

If someone had asked me even a couple of months ago whether I thought "defunding the police" was a sound policy choice, I would have likely dismissed it as radical without thinking it was worth much thought. I had also heard of efficiencies, and reallocation, but “defund” was not a word I was accustomed to. [...]

Dear residents, I hope this finds you and your family healthy and well. Although the pandemic’s impact on people has understandably been our focus over the past few weeks, we have actively been working on the many public policy priorities and issues that need our attention in our community. And while the pandemic has been obviously shocking and unprecedented, it [...]

A Call to Reform Ontario's Long Term Care Homes: As Toronto’s Seniors Advocate, I commend the Minister of Long Term Care- Merrilee Fullerton's announcement on a review into Ontario’s long term care system. The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has been particularly devastating to our elder population, especially in long term care homes where, in too many cases, it has [...]

UPDATE: Midtown Supports New Tenants In Critical Need of Housing In my last e-newsletter update, the email address information for the Republic Residents’ Association (RRA), the group organizing a community drive to collect everyday items to support the new tenants at 55-65 Broadway, was written incorrectly. Fortunately, we were immediately able to register that email address to [...]

A Special Public Service Announcement from Molly Matlow: My daughter Molly asked me to share her latest public service announcement with you all. Please click here to view it. Support Needed for Small & Medium Sized Business Owners and Landlords:  I speak with small and medium sized business owners every day of this crisis, and many of of them [...]