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5 Things To Know Before Partying In Toronto In 2021

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We’re still in the midst of the largest known health crisis of the modern world, but we’re slowly, but surely, getting past it. One of the most obvious signs that we’re ready to come back to living life as we used to know it is the fact that many countries across the world are lowering the restrictions on movement and social gatherings and also restarting some of the activities that were put on hold due to the global pandemic.

One of the cities that have entered the reopening phase is the city of Toronto. Ontario’s capital, Toronto, as well as the entire state of Ontario, had entered the reopening stage only a few days ago. Reopening Ontario Act has been instated and many have started wondering what that means when it comes to parties that we all dearly miss. Well, there are some good and some not-so-good news, but hey, baby steps.

Here’s what you need to know when it comes to partying in Toronto.

1. Clubs Are Still Shut Down

If you were hoping to go out and have some fun in some of Toronto’s world-renowned clubs, well, you’re out of luck. While it is inevitable that clubs will be reopened in the near future, it’s still uncertain when that is going to happen.

As of now, the clubs are still closed. There’s little to no chance that you’re going to be popping bottles in the following month or two, so if that’s your idea of partying and having a good time, we’re sorry, you’re going to have to wait for a few more months. However, don’t lose hope. Various countries across the globe have already opened their nightclubs for people to party in and we feel like it’s only a matter of time before clubs open up in Toronto, too.

2. Live Shows And Concerts Are Still Not Permitted

If you were planning on visiting www.TorontoClubs.com, and booking a ticket for a live show in Toronto, you might have noticed there is only one ticket to be purchased and that is for a music festival taking place in 2022.

As you might’ve guessed, live shows and concerts are still not permitted in the Toronto area, or anywhere else in Ontario for that matter. For now, you’re still going to have to wait before you listen to your favourite performer live and on stage. On the bright side, this could change in the near future if the health situation continues to get better.

On the other hand, concert venue, theatres and cinemas are allowed to open outdoors, but only for the sake of rehearsing or performing a recorded or a broadcasted event without any spectators. Also, there can only be ten performers on stage, all of them maintaining at least 3m of the distance between each other. It’s not much, but at least you might be able to enjoy a concert from the inside of your home.

We still have to wait and see the results of the Reopening Ontario Act before we can make any assumptions and predictions about when will live shows and concerts with the audience be permitted again. For now, you’re going to have to settle for some of these fun activities and try and turn them into a party of sorts.

3. Fun Activities You Can Do In Toronto Today

With certain restrictions in place, primarily physical distancing, these outdoor recreation activities and facilities have reopened:

  • Parks and playgrounds
  • Baseball diamonds and batting cages
  • Basketball, football and other sport courts
  • Skate park
  • Outdoor picnic sites
  • Horse riding facilities

Now, none of these scream party and you are limited to groups of under ten individuals, but it’s how you spend your time, not where, is what makes a party.

A solid game of pickup basketball can be just as fun as a night out in the club. You could even listen to music while playing. Also, an outdoor picnic can quickly turn into a party-like gathering, provided that there are less than ten people in the group and you’re all practising safe social distancing. The same thing applies to all the other activities and facilities on our list.

The most important thing you should know how is to keep your distance and stay safe. The better you do that, the sooner the clubs and venues will open.

4. Weddings Are Back – Sort Of

Weddings are always an excellent place for a party. However, they’re still not back in full swing.

As of now, both indoor and outdoor wedding ceremonies are allowed, but the keyword here is ceremony. Religious services are permitted, both indoors and outdoors, naturally, with certain restrictions, but the receptions and parties are still off, both indoors and outdoors.

This means that you can get married with your family and household members present, albeit at a safe distance, but you can’t party with them afterwards.

5. Facemasks Are Still Required

For any indoor activity, a facemask must be worn at all times. How long will that last – we’re not sure, but for now, you still have to cover up your face when indoors, regardless of the event you’re attending.

Naturally, there are exceptions to that rule. For instance, individuals with certain medical conditions that make mask-wearing difficult aren’t required to wear a mask. Children under the age of two are also not required to wear a mask.

Furthermore, the city of Toronto strongly urges its residents to wear a facemask or a face covering even in the outdoors, in case they can’t maintain a safe physical distance.

Conclusion

As you see, not much has changed when it comes to partying like in the old days. The clubs and shows are still not permitted and we still don’t know when they’re going to be. However, we’re optimistic. It could very well happen in a few months if all goes according to the plan. For now, you just have to be patient and wait.

Until it all opens back up, have your party in your home with your household members or enjoy some of the other fun activities that have been made possible a few days ago.

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How Canadian churches are helping their communities cope with the wildfires

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As wildfires burn across Canada, churches are finding ways to support their members and the broader community directly impacted by the crisis.

According to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, as of June 13, there are 462 active fires across Canada – and 236 of them classified as out of control fires.

Whether it’s through phone calls or donations to community members, here’s how a few churches across Canada are handling active wildfires and the aftermath in their regions.

Westwood Hills, N.S.: St. Nicholas Anglican Church

In Nova Scotia, St. Nicholas Anglican Church and other churches in the area are collecting money for grocery cards to give to families impacted by the Tantallon wildfire. 

Right outside of Halifax, N.S., the Tantallon wildfire destroyed 151 homes. More than 16,000 people evacuated the area due to the fire.

The fire is now considered contained, but Tanya Moxley, the treasurer at St. Nicholas is organizing efforts to get grocery gift cards into the hands of impacted families.

As of June 12, four churches in the area – St. Nicholas, Parish of French Village, St Margaret of Scotland and St John the Evangelist – raised nearly $3,500. The money will be split for families’ groceries between five schools in the area impacted by the wildfire.

Moxley said she felt driven to raise this money after she heard the principal of her child’s school was using his own money to buy groceries for impacted families in their area.

“[For] most of those people who were evacuated, the power was off in their subdivision for three, four or five days,” she said. “Even though they went home and their house was still standing, the power was off and they lost all their groceries.”

Moxley said many people in the area are still “reeling” from the fires. She said the church has an important role to help community members during this time.

“We’re called to feed the hungry and clothe the naked and house the homeless and all that stuff, right? So this is it. This is like where the rubber hits the road.”

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Is it ever OK to steal from a grocery store?

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Mythologized in the legend of Robin Hood and lyricized in Les Misérables, it’s a debate as old as time: is it ever permissible to steal food? And if so, under what conditions? Now, amid Canada’s affordability crisis, the dilemma has extended beyond theatrical debate and into grocery stores.

Although the idea that theft is wrong is both a legally enshrined and socially accepted norm, the price of groceries can also feel criminally high to some — industry data shows that grocery stores can lose between $2,000 and $5,000 a week on average from theft. According to Statistics Canada, most grocery item price increases surged by double digits between 2021 and 2022. To no one’s surprise, grocery store theft is reportedly on the rise as a result. And if recent coverage of the issue rings true, some Canadians don’t feel bad about shoplifting. But should they?

Kieran Oberman, an associate professor of philosophy at the London School of Economics and Political Science in the United Kingdom, coined the term “re-distributive theft” in his 2012 paper “Is Theft Wrong?” In simplest terms, redistributive theft is based on the idea that people with too little could ethically take from those who have too much.

“Everybody, when they think about it, accepts that theft is sometimes permissible if you make the case extreme enough,” Oberman tells me over Zoom. “The question is, when exactly is it permissible?”

Almost no one, Oberman argues, believes the current distribution of wealth across the world is just. We have an inkling that theft is bad, but that inequality is too. As more and more Canadians feel the pinch of inflation, grocery store heirs accumulate riches — Loblaw chair and president Galen Weston, for instance, received a 55 percent boost in compensation in 2022, taking in around $8.4 million for the year. Should someone struggling with rising prices feel guilty when they, say, “forget” to scan a bundle of zucchini?

https://broadview.org/stealing-groceries/
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The homeless refugee crisis in Toronto illustrates Canada’s broken promises

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UPDATE 07/18/2023: A coalition of groups arranged a bus to relocate refugees to temporarily stay at a North York church on Monday evening, according to CBC, CP24 and Toronto Star reports.

Canadians live in a time of threadbare morality. Nowhere is this more obvious than in Toronto’s entertainment district, where partygoers delight in spending disposable income while skirting refugees sleeping on sidewalks. The growing pile of luggage at the downtown corner of Peter and Richmond streets resembles the lost baggage section at Pearson airport but is the broken-hearted terminus at the centre of a cruel city.

At the crux of a refugee funding war between the municipal and federal governments are those who have fled persecution for the promise of Canada’s protection. Until June 1, asylum seekers used to arrive at the airport and be sent to Toronto’s Streets to Homes Referral Assessment Centre at 129 Peter St. in search of shelter beds. Now, Toronto’s overcrowded shelter system is closed to these newcomers, so they sleep on the street.

New mayor Olivia Chow pushed the federal government Wednesday for at least $160 million to cope with the surge of refugees in the shelter system. She rightly highlights that refugees are a federal responsibility. In response, the department of Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada points to hundreds of millions in dollars already allocated to cities across Canada through the Interim Housing Assistance Program, while Ontario says it has given nearly $100 million to organizations that support refugees. But these efforts are simply not enough to deliver on Canada’s benevolent promise to the world’s most vulnerable.

The lack of federal generosity and finger-pointing by the city has orchestrated a moral crisis. It’s reminiscent of the crisis south of the border, where Texas governor Greg Abbott keeps bussing migrants to cities located in northern Democratic states. Without the necessary resources, information, and sometimes the language skills needed to navigate the bureaucratic mazes, those who fled turbulent homelands for Canada have become political pawns.

But Torontonians haven’t always been this callous.

In Ireland Park, at Lake Ontario’s edge, five statues of gaunt and grateful refugees gaze at their new home: Toronto circa 1847. These statues honour a time when Toronto, with a population of only 20,000 people, welcomed 38,500 famine-stricken migrants from Ireland. It paralleled the “Come From Away” event of 9/11 in Gander, N.L., where the population doubled overnight, and the people discovered there was indeed more than enough for all. It was a time when the city lived up to its moniker as “Toronto, The Good.”

Now, as a wealthy city of three million people, the city’s residents are tasked with supporting far fewer newcomers. Can we not recognize the absurdity in claiming scarcity?

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