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Volume 51 No. 14
BEACHMETRO.COM
October 4, 2022
SCARBORO SUBARU • 2590 EGLINTON AVE E. SCARBOROUGH ON M1K 2R5 • 416-265-4411
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Beach Citizen of the Year David Brown honoured
By Erin Horrocks-Pope
MEMBERS OF the Beach community gathered at Woodbine Park’s Millennium Garden on Saturday to celebrate David Brown, a fellow local, the owner of Fearless Meat, and now in recognition of his outstanding community involvement and support, the most recipient of the Beach Citizen of the Year award. The annual award, first presented in 2001, honours a community member who has shown a long-standing commitment to their neighbours and the community as a whole. The award is sponsored by Community Centre 55, the Beaches Lions Club, and Beach Metro Community News. Brown was honoured at the Oct. 1 ceremony with words from his peers, including past award recipients Gene Domagla (2001), Pat Silver (2010), and Barbara Myrvold (2022), certificates and acknowledgements from local politicians, and the unveiling of a plaque on the Millennium Garden’s Walk of Fame. The numerous reasons for Brown’s award were summarized by last Continued on Page 24
Toronto Votes 2022: See our profiles of candidates running for Toronto Council and the Toronto Catholic District School Board starting on Page 7. Please see our Oct. 18 edition for profiles of candidates running for the Toronto District School Board.
BEACH METRO COMMUNITY NEWS 50TH ANNIVERSARY 1972•2022
SAFETY
Local students honour Indigenous peoples at Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day By Amarachi Amadike, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
THE NATIONAL Day of Truth and Reconciliation took place on Friday, Sept. 30. To commemorate this day, the Toronto District School Board paid tribute to the First Nations, Métis and Inuit families and communities who lost loved ones as a result of Canada’s residential school system. The event, which occurred at Withrow Avenue Junior Public School continued a national movement towards reconciliation with Canada’s Indigenous peoples. “We can’t achieve reconciliation without first recognizing our land, and the land in which our school sits,” said Beverly O’Brien, Principal of Withrow Avenue Junior Public School and the adjoined Quest Alternative Senior
Public School. After a moment of silence in which students were encouraged to reflect on the residential school survivors, their families and those who were murdered at the schools, they then proceeded to honour the traditional keepers of the land through land acknowledgment rituals. Students transformed special objects of their choice into art and placed them in a circle, signifying the promise they’ve made to be stewards of the land and an acknowledgement that we are hosted on the lands of the Indigenous peoples. “We also recognize the enduring presence of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples,” they said as they collectively made the land acknowledgement. O’Brien said that over the last
few years “Withrow and Quest have been on a journey to learn more about Indigenous ways of knowing”. “We acknowledge that there’s much to learn and continue to do so together,” said O’Brien. “We are grateful to everyone for gathering at our school for the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day.” Students in attendance sported bright orange attire, an ode to residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad. The reason for the colour choice was explained to them by relating Webstad’s experience in a residential school. In 1973, when Webstad was six years old she went to a churchrun residential school in Williams Lake, B.C. Her grandmother had gifted her a new orange shirt for
her first day of school which she proudly wore. Upon arriving at the school, much to her surprise, the orange shirt was confiscated and her hair was cut. “This made Phyllis feel that no one cared for her and that her feelings didn’t matter,” explained the student. “Phyllis’ orange shirt is a symbol of so many losses experienced by children who were sent to residential schools.” The student’s were engaged creating their art tributes in the circle, and many showed a clear comprehension of the day’s purpose. “I think that the importance of this event is that we are recognizing what happened and we are trying to take steps forward to ensure that the horrors of the residential schools never happen again,” said Noelle Koffman, Continued on Page 2
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Students at Withrow Avenue Junior Public School and Quest Alternative School on Bain Avenue took part in ceremonies Friday, Sept. 30, during the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation and Orange Shirt Day.
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