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Stephen Humphrey is a freelance writer and journalist who has lived in Toronto since 1994...
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2009 in review, civic workers strike, , , , , , , Haydain Neale, Igor Kenk, , , , , Michael Ignatieff, , Robert Pritchard

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With the cloud of recession hanging over it, Toronto endured a smelly six-week garbage stike and saw one of its most beloved bookstores close.

Torontonians heard announcements that the city’s approach to transit was being re-imagined for the coming decade, but also that the mayor wouldn’t stick around past the next election. One colourful political figure announced he was leaving provinicial politics to make a bid for mayor, while an Etobicoke MP began his audition for the role of prime minster.

Cancer took the lives of a talented local singer and an admired shaper of cultural events.

Toronto couldn’t get through the year without its share of bad behaviour, as demonstrated by the convication of a pipe-swinging serial bike thief and an altercation between a cyclist and a politician’s convertible which left a bike-rider dead and a political career in ruins.

Experts now claim the economy is rebounding. Here’s hoping some of that good news trickles down during the coming year.

10 – On November 23, Toronto lost one of its brightest local talents. Surrounded by family and friends, singer Haydain Neale, 39, passed away from lung cancer. Neale fronted the Juno-winning funk-soul group, Jacksoul. He died a week before the launch of a new Jacksoul album, SOULmate, the group’s first output since Neale recovered from a devasting traffic injury in 2007.

Proceeds from the album, titled entitled SOULmate, go to the Haydain Neale Family Trust.

9 – Just over year ago Etobicoke-Lakeshore MP Michael Ignatieff was declared leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, to much acclaim and relief when the environmentally conscious but publicly awkward Stéphane Dion stepped aside. Ignatieff swept into the role to much acclaim, but everything since has been anticlimax. Over the past year Ignatieff’s approval declined steeply from 54.8 per cent to 39 per cent according to a Nanos poll.

8 – On August 31 a Queen Street fixture , across from the ChumCity building, closed its doors, leaving the book-buying public bereft. After its rent nearly doubled, Pages Bookstore, a renowned outlet for art books and alternative lit closed up shop after its lease became unafforable. Effects of the recession proved selective enough to hasten the drop of an already declining book market but not to deter expectations of downtown landlords. Some see the closure of the store as further proof of the gentrification of Queen Street West.

7 – The bizarre saga of the bike seller who became Toronto’s most notorious bicycle thief when store owner Igor Kenk pleaded guilty on December 10 to 58 counts of theft and 22 counts of possessing and trafficking drugs after police found more than 3,000 potentially hot bicycles, along with quantities of cocaine and marijuana at his home, his business, the Bicycle Clinic and various garage he rented. Kenk, 50, further exacerbated his situation by threatening two people with a metal pipe while out on bail. Kenk was sentenced to 30 months in jail, less 13 months for time served. Some individuals have called the decision a “slap on the wrist”.

6 – Metrolinx, the provincial agency established to streamline transit in the Greater Toronto Area made a couple of significant changes this year. First of all, in May Metrolinx merged with GO Transit. Then, in October Robert Pritchard, former University of Toronto CEO and Torstar Corp., was tapped to chair the Metrolinx project. Pritchard will start his new job some time in 2010, once his replacement as Metrolinx CEO is found. Some have criticized the choice, fearing that Pritchard may repeat his performance at Torstar, which saw its share price drop from $31.45 to $6, during his seven years in charge.

5 – Artists have been called the “Hidden legislators of the world”. Likewise the founder of Toronto’s largest arts festivals has been called Toronto’s “shadow mayor”. Luminato founder David Pecaut succumbed to cancer in November. The renowned entrepreneur and philanthropist also founded the Toronto City Summit Alliance, responsible for a host of initiatives to improve the city which the Iowa native chose to call his own. Pecaut was posthumously awarded the Order of Canada.

4 – In September former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant was charged with criminal negligence causing death when cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard was killed by the politician’s car. A brief collision with the Sheppard’s bicycle led to an altercation where Sheppard hung from the driver’s side of Bryant’s Saab convertible as Bryant attempted to drive away. Sheppard finally met with death under the back wheels of Bryant’s vehicle. Cycling activists staged a rally at Bloor Street and Avenue Road, where Sheppard was killed. Bryant has since resigned as CEO of the municipal agency, Invest Toronto.

3 – Long lineups became part of daily life around Toronto in late October, as H1N1 vaccinations unrolled across Canada’s largest city. The effort met with controversy when media discovered that hospital board members and sports stars were jumping the line to receive flu shots while children and seniors, officially given first priority, were still lining up to receive their shots. A total of 400 H1N1 deaths occurred across Canada. Toronto had the dubious distinction of seeing Ontario’s first H1N1 death in May.

2 – On June 22 around 24,000 city workers walked off the job. CUPE locals 79 and 416 represented a variety of indoor and outdoor workers including groundskeepers, but most noticeable among them were Toronto’s garbage workers. The 40-day strike caused a stink in more ways that one. Trashed spilled onto city streets as public trash receptacles overflowed. City parks started smelling riper as they became temporary dump sites, which caused a breeding free-for-all for local wasp and rat populations. Mayor David Miller came out of the ordeal smelling not so much like a rose. He became a target of criticism for not resolving the strike quickly enough, either through negotiating or legislation. Toronto Centre-Rosedale MPP George Smitherman was one of Miller’s most vocal critics during the strike.

1 – Whether or not his handling of the civic workers strike was the cause, Mayor David Miller announced on September 25 that he would not run again for mayor of Toronto. Miller claimed he wanted to spend more time with his family, a common refrain among departing politicians, adding that he had accomplished all that he wanted to as mayor. Miller defended his record as a progressive mayor, crediting himself for establishing the Transit City initiative, diversifying the police force and raising Toronto’s profile as an environmentally forward city.

Less than two months following the announcement energy and infrastructure minister George Smitherman announced he was leaving provincial politics to make a bid of the mayorship, himself. Smitherman managed to reserve a few unfriendly remarks for Miller during his last session at Queen’s Park.