Wednesday 7am Hour - School Photos Proposal

0:00Where some see heroes and other see egos, Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. A fad to some, the future of money to others. We see crypto's trillion dollar swings. The end of jobs, or the end of human struggle. We see the endless funds fueling the AI hype. While others follow the noise, we follow the money. Learn more at Bloomberg.com. This is the Toronto today podcast. I'm your host, Greg Brady. Last day of September, it's truth and reconciliation day across Canada. We'll get 23 degrees later on today. Sunny, check your local listings. The movies only in selected cities, but actually check your local listings about what's open and what's closed. There is an element of confusion to the holiday factor. My kid doesn't have university classes today. I didn't know that, but yeah, high schools are obviously open. It's on shirt day in elementary schools and all that. Our next guest, good friend of the show, he's not going to want to talk sports.

1:01His beloved leaves lost the opener last night. His beloved red socks got Claubord 9, NIL in game one of the ALDS. And his beloved tiger cats are four and 11. So who knows what kind of moody's going to be? And Steve Paken joins us now. I'm look, you know me. I look on the bright side of things. Well, Hamilton get a high pick in the CFL draft. Absolutely. Absolutely. Absolutely. Is that the silver lining we're looking at the morning? I don't know. The red socks can battle back. Did you give up at a certain point in time when Cam Schlitler was shutting down your red socks lineup? You must have waved the white flag at some point. Given those Yankees Red Sox playoff games taken average of three hours and 48 minutes, no matter what the score is. I certainly waved the white flag, but I stayed to the end. And I watched the whole game as that pitcher who's originally from Massachusetts. Absolutely knocked the slid out of the red socks last night. That was tough. Yeah, that's rough, but they lived a fight a new day. Primetime tonight game two. I love the speed that the wild card gets done. Everybody plays in the same time slot in the same stadium and you just move forward.

2:02Move forward. Let's hope so. That was pretty bad last night. That was really, I mean, it was such a good game for a little while. It was really close. It was one nothing to nothing for a long time. And then boom, all of a sudden it was nine, nothing. And I thought, good night, Irene. Now you have you have reached you reached out to me yesterday. You were listening to me talk about the prime minister's handling of I don't know, but the Steleco file, but just the the consequences of a lack of trade certainty. And I probably pinned Steleco deciding to leave and some of the other factors as well. Not just to US tariffs, but to an awful lot of stuff. So you were listening yesterday to me. First of all, I listen every morning. Thank you. I'm not going to try to adore you, but yeah, no, I quite enjoyed that interview with the Steelworkers Union Head. I, what took me back yesterday morning during your conversation was I recall when Canada signed its original free trade agreement back in 19, you know, what was it? They won the the conservators won the 88 election.

3:03So I guess it was 89 when Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney signed the original free trade agreement. And I remember almost immediately after that agreement was signed. We used to have on the waterfront in Toronto an English washer dryer manufacturing plant. And almost immediately after the agreement was signed, that plant was shut down. And I remember the media in the country and I was working report at the time instantly began to think, oh, my goodness, is this the result of this fantastic new free trade agreement? Is this what's going to happen? And it sort of took everybody we had to pause a beat. And I guess this was what went through my mind yesterday. We had to pause a beat to realize that not every single plant opening or plant closing subsequent to the signing of the agreement was going to be directly related to that free trade agreement. There were businesses that would open. There were businesses that would close that had been happening for decades and decades. It would continue to happen for decades and decades.

4:06And I suppose there's always a danger of over interpreting that every single thing is as a result of that very specific thing that happens to be in the news that day. And I thought of that yesterday, Greg, because we've subsequently learned that the Steelco story is a little more complicated than what we knew yesterday, right? In particular, because the company, which is American owned now, for whatever reason, left hundreds of millions of dollars on the table and didn't apply for relief that they could have applied for. Now I'm confused about that and I bet your union leader is too. Yeah, he might be for sure. And he documented there's been it's been more than just a bit of a drip drip. They've been the industry anyway has been begging Canadians to kind of be more protective. We've been very protective about our auto industry. That was a real red line even the Chinese EVs that are coming. That was a real red line for even Justin Trudeau and Christopher Elin. They're like, that's not going to happen. We won't allow Chinese electric vehicles here. They will show up here.

5:06By the way, I think about that because you wrote this amazing biography of John Turner. And I saw a video the other day where he was like, you know, some of the commercials were very incendiary. You know, there's a map of candidates broken up. There was a little bit of 51st state stuff from John Turner going, you've sold us out. This is what's going to happen to our country. He was a little right, not on the sovereignty front, but maybe the business front. And Brian Mulroney was a little bit right saying, you know, times are changing. And we've got to get with the times where we'll lose industry. They both could claim a little bit of a win in terms of how they how they played that 88 election. I agree with you. And the interesting thing as you have the benefit of almost 40 years of hindsight with that 1988 election is that Brian Mulroney was right in as much as we did not become Americans just because we signed a free trade agreement with the United States. We have very much held on to our sovereignty. It still matters to us. We still think of ourselves as being different people from the United States. And we have no desire as the last year and a half years show.

6:08Yes, we have no desire to be sucked into any kind of, you know, 50 for state nonsense, not of that kind of stuff. But, but you're right. The ads that John Turner ran during that 1988 campaign on behalf of the Liberal Party of Canada. His performance at the leaders debate where he said to Mulroney with one signature of the pen, you know, you've drawn us into a north south vortex through which surely we will lose our levers of sovereignty. You know, the free trade agreement made a lot of sense Greg as long as there was somebody saying in the White House who wanted to be an ally of Canada's. We don't have that anymore. And I mean, of course it's more complicated than that. And of course we can go on and talk about the problems that we are the authors of our own misfortune in Canada with inter provincial tariffs and all of that kind of stuff. Interprevental trade barriers. But Mr. Turner was not wrong to point out that if somebody in the White House is not a friend of ours, we could be in a big heap of trouble as a result of this.

7:08I'm glad you are. And that's where we are now. You said that. And I think from Ronald Reagan onto George Herbert Walker Bush, Canadians were like they they took Turner at face value with some of the scary commercials. Those guys they don't seem to if they talked the talk that the incendiary volatile unpredictable rude and crude current US president did. We might have been a little more scared in 889, but we're like no, they don't they don't see that they just want to make business deals and they and they're well within their rights to go what benefits us US trade wise. If again, if we had somebody not named Trump and he was making deals and I mentioned that that I played that clip of an opening up a steel plant in Iowa that's going to give thousands of jobs. And I go, well, yeah, any any president, any governor, any senator would get praised for bringing jobs home to the US. But all the volatility and all the rhetoric I get why people are bothered by it. I always have no. And I appreciate that point of view and you know, I guess good for the folks in Iowa. Trump is going to bat for them in a major way to help bring that business there and I'm not sure that's going to be a wonderful thing for the United States.

8:17If it happens, if it happens, let's not take the whole thing at face value. There's a lot of time between now and then where things could fall apart. We've seen that in Ontario with some of the agreements that we thought we made with the auto industry, which are now starting to fall apart. So you never know how these things are going to go. But you know, the Trump situation. I know I'm listening, you know, I listen to all the time. So I know, I know your views on this. And I think it was reasonable for most Canadian prime ministers over the years and we go back as far as any of them in my lifetime. Let's go back to Lester Pearson and the auto pack. You know, we can go back 60 years on this stuff. It has been kind of a normal way to do business between a Canadian prime minister and an American president to think about the benefit of both countries. It was always in America's interest to have a good and peaceful and reliable neighbor on the north side of the border because that was that was very distinctive from what the Soviet Union had to deal with.

9:17But we don't seem to be living in that world anymore. And it's it's hugely disappointing. And as much as there are stuff that we ought to be doing as the author of our own this as sometimes the author of our own misfortune. You know, I think I can get you to sort of go along with me and saying, this isn't normal. What's going on down there right now is normal. So I get that they want to reshore jobs that they've lost over the years. But the way that this current administration treats its friends and the way that it gets along with existential enemies is not normal. So we're in a new normal. Yeah, we are. I also I'm not confusing a prolonged stalemate with this trade with some kind of success. I think politicians are recognizing. If I stand up to Washington or stand up to Trump, the poll numbers swell. And I just look back and I go, the current prime minister staked his credibility on locking down a trade deal by the middle of last year.

10:19And he missed that target. And now we're in an active trade war. And we were promised a lot more stability and calmness. I saw I give him an FF on the on the report card. I get you. But here's the difference here. The prime minister is dealing with a population that is white hot furious right now. And it's one of those rare moments in Canadian history where the people are actually far more infuriated with what's going on than the actual political leaders that they are supposed to be following. So you've got a prime minister who if he were to make a deal with the United States right now, the public might not accept it. The public might, you know, depending on what's in the deal, obviously, but the public might say, wait a second. This is not what you promised us. You promised us elbows up and that you were going to be way tougher on these guys. And we're giving up too much here. So that's the other side of the coin that he's got to be very careful with right now because if. Is he benefiting from fueling some of that though? Sorry. Is is carney benefiting from fueling some of that anger and fire.

11:23And there's nothing new about that in political. No, on an open mic with Gil Clinton said, you know, every now and then I got to say something nasty about you because it's good domestic politics. Nothing new under the sun there Greg. Come on. No, not not in the least. I better blast time wise. But let's let's extend this out next time around and good luck to your both sucks tonight. Amen. I'll take that love here and from you Steve Payton joins us from the Payton podcast every Wednesday around six 20 in the morning. Thanks for giving us your time this morning are seven o'clock hour. One interesting story. We're just talking with Lucy Hargraves about from build Canada about voting. And no country pays you to vote that I can find anyway. Maybe there's some under the table moments. Why? What have you heard? Anyway, I don't see that but there is sort of a system in Australia which Lucy referenced that if you don't vote in a election you got to have a valid reason. I don't know what your reason would be. I'm working maybe they would give you the day off. I still wonder if does that happen. I don't work in conventional nine to five you just notice that right and I'm not sure that you're allowed to ask for time off work when there's four days of advance voting.

12:35I think I told you in Durham in 22 we voted online. Easiest thing you'll ever experience and yeah you go line up and you do your own votes. I voted advance in the federal election. You'd be surprised at that. And provincially I think I voted in the advance as well. I'm taking advantage of that advance voting. We had all of it was by the way if you're an incumbent and as I suppose we could argue Mark Carney and the Liberals were they made advance voting that entire Easter weekend. So smart lineups were crazy as out banging on doors on good Friday. People were already gone to vote and then you you started to see a sliding scale of people you knock on the door high already voted and you actually believe them for a change. They're like we voted earlier today. I can prove it but in Australia if you don't vote and don't have a valid reason you get fined about 20 bucks like about 20 American dollars. Now you're going to get that in the mail. They're going to know that you didn't vote. But I can't find an example where you get a stipend or a provision. We go and give blood and we get what cookies.

13:43It's probably best not to give you alcohol. That's an incentive probably that centuries ago was probably given to incentivize attendance for elections or town halls. You know when they were deciding whether to hang somebody or not you probably show up and be like oh there's free booze here. So Australia's got something going there and yes their voter participation is much higher. I can see how that would go over for the ruling party to go if you don't come out and vote will find you that might nobody would want to do that because you'd be mad at the party that decided and the politician prime minister premier whomever that decided to end up making that decision. That that would have some risk to it. I'll give you that much. A note by the way if you're a parent of a stutus to notes one today will be orange shirt day at schools because it is the national day of truth and reconciliation. But orange shirt days been around now. I think this is either the 13th or 14th year and the concept is where the orange shirt let's recognize so much of what we've done wrong in the past.

14:50Let's have a conversation and a reflective one at that to honor on you can honor your past as a country you should always do that. Shouldn't ignore our achievements. You know I'm not really for all the the era where we're like let's take this statue down and that statue down and that statue down. I think we can take pride in our collective accomplishments while also kind of talking about the darker chapters of who are his of what our history is and who perpetuated some of that history and we can just be honest. I think that's the only way you get credibility here and it doesn't seem performative. I get it today by the way an awful lot of people who aren't doing much to help your current circumstance will fall over each other and be very performative on national day of truth and reconciliation. But I do think it it has a purpose and I'm glad we have this holiday and I actually wouldn't want it to be a holiday where we don't send our kids to school every November 11th we have this debate about remembrance station we should be a holiday should you get to skip school should you be at home.

15:51Should we all just sit there and reflect and I don't think so and I've got that I'll tell the story again six seven weeks from now on a remembrance day that happened to me in seventh and eighth grade and what our school did. But but it's for another day it's for it's for the remembrance day broadcast so that's that's a tease to not something that's coming in five minutes but seven weeks from now on November 11th I'll tell you the story but yeah or in shirt day is a thing for schools one of the other things I want to get to in a little bit is school photos and speaking of free I think for a long time we just paid for school photos it just put money back in an envelope ordered some things. Thinking grandparents year after year after year would want to see the evolution of their grandkids I think that's that's for the most part who they're for and a candidate I guy I know as well for Pickering City Council he's running for Pickering City Council and so I will talk a little bit about the election and what what he's seeing on the streets I think that's interesting for any candidate but he had the most unique idea I've ever heard for school photos ever so I want to I want to give it to you.

17:02I want to I want to give him some floor time to expand on that in a little bit because I think it's utterly utterly fascinating we had a conversation with Amber Mac yesterday. She's got a very successful podcast tech expert Ted talks she's she's very well known for getting in on this super smart about AI about technology about the gap between people and unplugging and plugging in and all that stuff but she put a post up a few days ago. And actually I was a bit surprised we know each other a little bit and I was surprised she came on the air to talk about her safety concerns about transit and she noted the second you do anything with framing something to be about safety on transit people are going to jump on you and go oh you lean this way oh you lean that way and I just I just there's some things I just don't think should be. Frame politically but we box everybody in and you know I think you know I don't like this is left this is right this is centrist this is this this is that I just think I wish there were better conversations about it and putting people like Amber in front of a microphone who's incredibly articulate and bright and all that stuff but as she noted for her family for her female friends.

18:17Safety on the TTC specifically is a massive massive issue she listed a bunch of things that were were quite frightening to her that have discouraged her and other she knows as a parent she's been put put off in terms of how transit is she said this about safety in the city. And it being a huge priority for anybody who's going to be the next mayor the current mayor city counselors I think it's a I think it's something that should be listened to. And I think that the public health side can go down and yet in terms of hate crimes and harassment and issues like I think a lot of people are facing those things can go up and I think we've seen both of those things happen and one of my issues and one of the reasons that I posted this obviously we're coming up to an election in just a few weeks here in Toronto but also I think what happens when we actually invest and fix public transportation it has a ripple effect in our city that's been proven time and time again you know we can help in terms of.

19:18In increase in productivity if more people are taking public transit there are fewer people on the roads driving cars can help us get to work faster it helps with our economy if more people are moving around our city more efficiently there are a whole bunch of reasons that investing in public transit to make it safer and make it comfortable for the average person I think this becomes something that really is the backbone of Toronto yeah it has to be an important issue right now my own eyes ears as well. I'm hearing one can to one candidate who can win Brad Bradford another candidate who can't in Chris Alexander I don't know where Alexander will finish but it's very evident from polling he has no shot at being elected mayor and there will be a lot of discussion about it I never like telling people what to do and when to do it I don't. But there will be a lot of discussion about whether I'll Alexander will or should drop out of the race his name is going to be on the ballot no matter what but if he pulls pulls out and says vote for Olivia Chow or Brad Bradford he's been critical of both that would be quite a turn but it may end up happening there's a lot there's a lot to consider there but I'm seeing one candidate document that there's something wrong on the TTC and it's not as safe as it should.

20:40I'm hearing another candidate not say that at all I can't describe it anymore vividly than that one person recognizes there's a problem can he solve it don't know don't know there's a lot of and there's a lot of different levels of government and levers to be pulled that could make that happen I want to get to this because it's a local story for me anyway yesterday two people were charged following a fraud investigation into the financial system. So I think that's a lot of the financial statements of the Ajax soccer club now I promise you this will hit home for you as a parent of a kid playing you sports a lot of times you're paying money and I think you you gain a confidence early on right and you get a confidence early on the money I'm giving this this not for profit private entity to put my kid on a GTHL team or to pay for uniform or pay for a trip or do a fundraiser there's plenty of those oh my gosh my kid played eight years of competitive soccer for this very club and the fundraising was just as soon as you finish one you got to start another one.

21:53That was a great success what's our next one you're like can I can we have 48 hours to talk about pizza night and what went right and right now we need to have another fundraiser and let me fully disclose I was a manager of my kids team through a couple different coaches know less and that's where this this is getting interesting to me anyway fascinating is the word. I was a manager with this Ajax soccer club for eight years eight years probably from 2018 all the at six years my kid played there eight I was manager of the team for six what do you do when you're a manager well now and then you are handling money the coach would rather you paid the referees you get money to pay the referees for a match you are organizing and entering tournaments you're putting your own credit card down and there is a team credit card a lot of times as well which was a BM master card I remember well. And you got to put stuff on the credit card that is later you got to chase people for money you got to give people uniforms no it's not a thankless job people do say thank you and when I saw this story yesterday I had heard about an investigation of fraud investigation that dates back even a couple years well my kid didn't play for the team after

23:04the end of summer 23 played for another club and he's a university doesn't play anymore so when I heard about this let me give you the amount here's I'm reading from Durham region dot com falling a comprehensive investigation and analyzing several years of financial statements more than 650 thousand dollars of league funds were found to have been transferred from the Ajax soccer club account to various accounts spanning from early 23 to 24 police set. They don't deep they found they had reports of irregularities found in banking transactions for the Ajax soccer club now I make no bones about the fact that I know some Durham region cops I would know some Durham region investigators I asked is there an investigation going on after I left the club and they said yes there is and I said I am available with any help you possibly need. Now I don't know if anyone's getting convicted here and I don't know what the punishment will be should they get convicted but a 50 year old woman from with being named Vicki Scott is charged with fraud over five thousand dollars laundering the proceeds of a crime and breach of trust a 47 year old man from Ajax named Richard Kerry Kerry interestingly enough by the way a former CFL player his numbers retired by Saint FX is very good defensive back and played in the CFL he is charged with fraud over five thousand dollars possessive

24:27action of the proceeds of a crime and breach of trust both the more released you would expect that I mean everybody gets bail I didn't expect them to be held until the until this case gets heard. But two things quickly I am not surprised that there was an alleged crime can commit it I am not surprised by the names who have been arrested and charged with these crimes and I hope that the trial the hearing is well prosecuted and I hope if the subjects are prosecuted they are punished to the fullest extent of the law. The charges don't surprise me the people don't surprise me and I will leave it at that except to say that it is one of the most disgusting things you could do is rip off a family putting their kid into use sports. A lot of money goes here goes there and sometimes you wonder is this just utter incompetence in this case I wondered that a few different times as a manager for six years of this team know it is not just utter incompetence allegedly according to the fraud investigators with the Durham police.

25:42But it's gross and six hundred fifty thousand dollars. That's a lot of kids that's a lot of house sleek that's a lot of competitive that's a lot of this a lot of that some of his head are suspicions but six hundred fifty grand. Let's get this on the fifth the state I'm available to sit down and do that microphone adjusting thing for a Netflix interview bring it on but I'm not surprised this story has made the landscape I think it will be a national story. I'm not saying it's the tip of the iceberg but I think there is more to come stay tuned on this story regarding the fraud alleged fraud committed by the police. Barbie absurd nonsense. I'm not horrified. I'm pissed off, but there you have it. I'm all for a lot of sentiment and tradition in schools.

26:45I like the idea of dances. I was very angry when a few Durham high schools, Brooklyn being won, canceled their proms and they canceled them after the school year started. So the students, especially at Brooklyn organized their own. I think they have to do the same again this year. I'm all for some of the traditions that may seem a little antiquated. I'm a sentimental person. And here's what I know. Every person and student and parent and mom and dad has a high powered camera in their pocket. So school photos and school pictures kind of survive and are almost entirely on tradition and not practicality. And I would make the case strongly that the times of change were still doing school photos a little bit like we did in like 1986 municipal candidate and Pickering for council there for war two and Pickering had the most brilliant idea regarding school photos. And maybe just maybe it could be a win-win for everybody. He is John Malaus and he joins me now on Toronto today.

27:46It's lovely to have you on, John. Thanks for the time. Good morning, Greg. Thank you for having me. Well, you got a great idea here and I don't know that you can take this, you know, really. We need every prime minister and premier to I don't know that they've got bigger fish to fry. Sposed than the school photo, but I loved reading your idea. Will you lay it out for our audience? What made you think of this and why people like me are going, no, this could really work? Well, the reality is I have two kids myself who I'm seeing through grade school right now. So everything that I do is amplified by two. My neighbors behind me have five kids, so I feel their pain as well. Right now families are being squeezed from every direction and what frustrates me more is this creeping sense of opportunism around everyday things that are that used to be really simple and school pictures are perfect example for that. We live in a high tech world. A photographer no longer has to develop photos. They don't have to print them. They don't have to package them. People nowadays mostly want them digitally and DDSB serves more than 80,000 students across

28:50the region and that's a huge scale. So why aren't we using that scale and today with today's technology to give families a simple, more affordable digital option? And that would mean, as you said, like right now for people who don't know or just getting into this, this goes every year from JK really all the way through grade 12. They send kind of an envelope home a sealed envelope and they're like pick a package and you check a box and you put a credit card down. They even let you pay online but we can't get the photos online but you end up paying online through all these school cash apps and whatnot. So everything except the photos themselves, John, is kind of modernized. Well, I'm also not asking the photography industry to invent digital photography. It's actually been available for many years now. I'm just asking about the price and the accessibility of the basic digital product because right now to get into the seat of a digital photo, you have to buy prints and my package, it's

29:50at least $41 per kid. So that's, is that what's it going to cost you as a parent for you to your two kids this year for school photos? Probably more than 41 bucks per kid because my wife also wants the prints but with digital printing options at Walmart and different places, the most economical way to get your pictures done is to get the digital print. And I think we would frown now. Schools will probably frown if Emily's mom comes in with her with her camera sets up a tripod beside the actual photographer and takes a shot of her kid or the class on her own. Like that would really be going rogue. That's frowned upon because I will make the obvious point. That doesn't bring in any money for the photographer. I tend to agree. In fact, I tried to do that last year but we tried to do it at home. There was an ugly incident. I think it led all the newscasts. Yes. Everybody remembers that. No, that's not true. You did that. So like how would you sort of bridge the gap between the school and the photographer?

30:51A lot of these are contracted things, right? I would think with a photo company and the school and we don't want people to be out of business but there's got to be more equitable and reasonable way to do it in the digital age than how we're doing photos now. Well, this has already existed at other schools. There was East Gale Collegiate which had a program where some of their students offered a $5 photo shoot for some of the graduates to get their photos done. They still offered the ability for edge photo to be able to do the photos if they wanted to but it was actually quite a popular program and it was only five bucks a digital image and quite successful. Every school has at least four or five, maybe even 20 different photographer parents that exist. I'm not asking that we have volunteers come in but if we just focused a little bit of energy on how can we make this more cost effective in today's digital age, there's no question that we'd be able to find some sort of pilot program that could lift off. This does feel right.

31:52I think to some parents, nobody wants to be called a cheap skate but it does feel like a bit of an added, almost a hidden tax on parents. Nobody wants to be left out and you know and I know there's more than enough fees and they ask for money for this and that and some of its wonderful stuff who doesn't want to be able to afford to pay for their kid to go on a field trip or play a sport or get that musical instrument, you know, firmed up but like I do think there's a better way to do this and it's a drain on some parents as you say who have three or four or five kids especially. Well, school pictures they shouldn't preserve memories, not create a financial burden for families and technology has completely changed photography. And I think it's fair to ask if the business model needs to change with it. John Malashe's our guest. He's running in ward two Pickering. Just use the megaphone for a minute. Tell us why you put your name for it. You've been politically active for quite a long time in Pickering and how are things going at the doors?

32:52What are you hearing? What are the big issues among voters? For me, it's almost completely about the cost of living and taxes to me. I feel like we're in a tax emergency. If you recall taxes were originally brought in as a temporary measure but today they seem almost punitive. At the doors for me, it seems to be a very common thread that people believe in Durham, their taxes are going up astronomically. Investments are being made into the wrong places and sometimes things feel opportunistic. So for me, it's been quite a win at the doors. I'm getting a lot of support because I'm focused on the money and I think that most people that's their biggest concern right now. I think one of the big struggles as well, municipal politicians I would urge. I don't see sometimes enough action or activity, not just working with the other levels of government. When I mean working, I mean, you don't just show up as at a photo op. You don't just show up to make sure you get your picture taken here and everywhere. You meet regularly with those other levels of government, MPPs and MPs and you kind of

33:55work them a little bit to go, we need this. Right now, this is everybody's problem and I just find things get put into boxes and well, this is federal jurisdiction, provincial jurisdiction, municipal jurisdiction. I just think you should be in on all the issues at any level of government. What would you say to that? I wholeheartedly agree. Actually, when I first got involved in politics as a volunteer, it started federally. Then I moved to provincial and recognizing that municipal is really where the rubber meets the road. I've been building relationships all along that way. I think it's important to be able to work with all the parties as well because in municipal politics, there really are no sides. The only side that you have is your side of the road. Yeah, that certainly resonates with me. I think the photo thing's a great idea. I know you got a few weeks left to continue banging on doors and getting the word out, John, but thanks for this this morning. Thank you Greg. Have a great morning. There's John Malas running for Ward 2 in Pickering. I think there's a way to it. It's very antiquated. I got teachers texting me and nodding stop going, yes, someone writes, what would happen?

35:00Why won't parents take pictures in front of the schools themselves? I don't think they'd be allowed. I think they'd get shunned and shamed. Someone writes great class project for a class to take on the photos themselves. Absolutely. There's so many kids interested in photography. You imagine the pride you put on a resume? Well, I took our school photo. Our class photo. That's a big thing. I'm not trying to put professional photographers out of business. There's a way to do. There's always going to be a wedding for you. Thanks for giving us your time this morning at 736. My name's Greg Brady. The show is called Toronto Today. This is not only the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, but September. And our last day of September wraps recovery month. And today has been deemed recovery day. We have a lot more attention on how we're handling and helping people who are suffering from addiction. And this is everything.

36:01We are debating greatly addiction treatment. We have debated safe supply. We have debated the hard hubs. We've debated what we need to do that we're simply not doing right now. Renaissance is one of Ontario's largest, not for profit addiction treatment providers. So they give a lot of perspective to individuals, to families. And obviously voluntary treatment. There's two, it takes too long. It takes so long. And right now there's a great divide among people talking about voluntary treatment and wondering what it looks like and why the access is so hard to get. But Renaissance slogan is the road to recovery starts here. It is a very, very true statement joining us on the line. Someone who's been on both sides of this fence and come through it with flying colors. He's a Renaissance alumnus and an addiction's counselor. Brad F joins us now on Toronto today. It's great to have you on and thank you very much for the time. Hi, good morning, Greg. Thank you very much for having me. Really happy to have you. Tell our audience me as well.

37:01I know a bit about you, but flesh out your story and sort of we'll go from low point to high point, not the talking to me as the high point of anybody's day, Brad, but I'll let's start at your low point and why I'm talking to you right now. Well, I can tell you it's been the high point of my day so far, Greg. So I appreciate it. Yeah, so I mean, I so I fell into addiction quite early in my life. You know, before I was 20, I was I was in addiction and I lived that way for almost 25 years. And for those that aren't familiar with addiction, it progresses. It doesn't start as some life devastating thing. It progresses through the years. So subtly sometimes that you you hardly notice it. Eventually it gets to a point and eventually got to a point in my life where I just couldn't I just couldn't handle life anymore. I didn't know how to live with or without the drugs.

38:03Were you downtown here, Brad? In Toronto? I was like I'm from Cambridge. So that's where that's where everything started for me. I came to Toronto in about 2013, 2014. And it just followed me everywhere I went. So, let's circle back to Cambridge. Again, I think what I've noticed living where I live in Ajax or Durham, you can imagine what I see when I go to downtown, Asha was heartbreaking that the addiction issues are well documented and they're easy to spot. But you've also probably seen I would guess in Cambridge, I would guess in some of these smaller towns, the idea of seeing people struggling with mental health or addiction in a big city, it's probably not anything new. But it's new to people in Cambridge and Ajax and you know downtown London, Ontario, which was pretty idyllic. If you grew up in Cambridge, you know what London used to be like. We're seeing so much of this present now. Tell me about how that was to be in a much smaller town without services and without help

39:05for you. Exactly. You've really helped a very good point there, Greg. It's the lack of services and help that caused this to become. It's, you know, it's it's talking to see it and it is sad. And I've been there and I know people who are still there and you know, it's the it comes to the surface. It first came to the surface in the big cities and now it's coming to the service in the smaller community. And it's a lack of services and lack of understanding and certainly a lack of funding. There's so many people that are asking for help. They're asking for help. There's a wait list for rennocent, right? So for and this is for people that are like voluntarily saying, Hey, I need help and the wait list is so long that people can get the help that they need when they ask for it and we're losing lives and families are being destroyed. How did you get better? How did I get better? Well, I asked for help and fortunately I survived until I was able to go to renison.

40:07So, you know, as you when you introduced me, I am an alumnus at renison. I went there in 2021, August and September, 2021. And I'd been to treatment before. It was actually the second treatment center that I attended in 2021. But this time I was I was like ready to engage with it, you know, and then it was a, you know, and the counselors there, they showed me compassion and love and it gave me a little bit of a start, you know, and they gave me direction on how to continue afterwards. And so next week on Thursday, October the 8th, I'll be proudly celebrating five years of clean done. Incredible. And so obviously the pandemic starts as well and everything, the world shuts down right, we're all in our houses. We don't know what to do with ourselves. We all, you know, I tried not to show weakness, but I scream into a pillow. I ate too much. I might have even dragged it like we all were. We're with our vices and not knowing what was normal and what wasn't.

41:09Couldn't have been, it couldn't have been easy to battle through that. And I bet you a lot of what happened during the pandemic and how long it lasted here in Ontario, especially created a lot more addiction in certain households. Wouldn't it have? I think it, well, I don't think it helped anything. You know, I think it, I think it, you know, magnified a lot of people's mental health issues, whether that be addiction or something else. But, you know, I mean, it certainly didn't help me, you know, not being connected, right? Like that's what the pandemic did. It disconnected us from each other. You know, it told us that we can't, we can't be as connected as we were before. And that's what we're trying to do at Renison, right? We're trying to connect people together that are working towards the same goal. Everybody that works at Renison, like myself included, we have lived experience. So we know what it's like. We know what it's like to have been there to get through it, right? The damage that it does to us as addicts and to our families and our loved ones.

42:13Yeah, so that's what we offer at Renison. And we've been doing it for a long time and we have a lot of pride in what we do. And it's, you know, it's so fulfilling for me to have made this career change throughout my recovery to come and work at a place that saves lives and saved my life quite frankly. I bet we're talking to Brad, who went through addiction, came out the other side. He's now a counselor at Renison. It's a great story. Today is recovery day in Canada, which focuses on celebrating recovery, pushing through some of those stigmas and letting communities know, yeah, you can get better. The public conversation I mentioned around addiction and recovery in Canada has kind of shifted over the last six or seven years. Where are we still failing to break the stigma? I hear that word a lot and I go, but I also want to help people that are on the street. It's not normal to sleep in a subway station and it's not normal to be passed out in broad daylight on the street. I want policies that will help those people and I know people say, don't stigmatize them.

43:16I'm like, I want them to get better. That's not the same thing as stigmatizing them. I agree, right? So it starts with understanding that addicts and people that are suffering this way are not bad people. We're unwell, we're sick, right? We need help finding a way out. That starts with services. There's just simply not enough funding or not enough services available for people that are asking for help. It has to be there for when people are ready because when you're stuck in a cycle like I was with addiction, I could be ready to accept help one minute and then refusing at the next. If I don't get it, it'll make me feel like nobody cares. People walk by me, don't care. I feel alone, I feel disconnected, I feel judged and I'm just unwell and I just need

44:19a hand, right? That's such a great point. I want to broaden that given your depth of experience here. For families or friends listening to this, they're listening to this and they're like, I know someone's struggling right now. I saw them yesterday, I'll see them today. What's a great piece of advice you would give them when they feel I can't do this anymore? They're lying to me, they're letting me down, they're not doing what they need to be doing. What's the most important piece of advice you'd give a loved one who's watching someone struggle? Be ready for when they ask for help. Be ready because you can't force somebody to ask for help. You can offer the help and oftentimes it comes from a very loving place. I want you to be better. What are you doing? Get help, right? But just telling them that it's okay, there's help out here and when you're ready to ask for help, I'll be here for you.

45:20And connect with other people who are living through a similar experience. There's groups for this kind of stuff. At Renaissance, we have a family program that we offer that will help educate family and friends that are close to an addict or an alcoholic that's going through early recovery. And it's an education, it's about educating yourself, right? About what the other person is going through and being available when that person finally reaches out, is your hand there to accept theirs, right? Yeah, that's so massively important. I'm tight for time, but before you go and I can't thank you enough, I hope it won't be our last conversation either on the air because this is so important and you're somebody to celebrate on a day like this. I don't mind a good debate on the best of days. One debate I hate, I'll tell you Brad, is people debate all the time. I sit there, I hear it sometimes and it makes me want to walk away and they debate whether addiction is a disease or a choice. And I just think, I just think every case is unique. It's such an unhelpful debate. There's choice involved with using a substance or engaging in a, in a destructive behavior.

46:26But the repeated exposure to an addictive substance clearly for some people alters their brain. So it's always both. It's never universally one or the other is, is it a silly debate to have or you tell me if I'm wrong? It'd be wrong on that. So I mean, whether or not it silly is not the answer, right? But I can tell you that it's a debate that's already been settled. It's in, you know, it's been settled by people that are far more educated than myself that it is in fact a disease. Right? That wasn't my choice to make. So I don't know why this debate continues. Well, I guess I do know why. It's because of the stigma and the lack of education, you know, people think, oh, well, why don't you just stop? Oh, thanks. I never thought of that, right? Like how do I do that? And I think, I think you're right. You know your experience better than I do. But I think as you say, you made a choice at some time to tackle that disease and go,

47:26I got it, I get a say in this and I'm going to choose to seek help, enter treatment and cope in a different way. And that's, it's something some people can do better than others. They kind of both, that's what I mean. That's they kind of both interplay. There's the disease aspect. I don't quibble with it all. I believe that. And then the choice creates a little bit of a framework for as you've done, get through the other side, but no doubt there's biological factors involved. There's no doubt. Yes, exactly. And again, you know, if you have a disease, like you need to see somebody about it, some kind of expert, right? And then you need to follow up with treatment, right? And that's what we do. And it's hard to understand because there's no like pill to take for it, right? There's no prescription for it, but there is a program and it's worked for millions of people for, you know, approaching close to 100 years. Yeah. So I mean, reach out, ask for help, start the program, you know, and we're here to help.

48:27And I tell you, renaissance it changes lives. We help people every day and we just need some more awareness, education, funding from the government to make sure that our doors stay open for people so that families can recover. Addics can recover and we can live amazing lives because that's what we deserve. We're good people. We're not bad people. We just need some help. We're, you know, we're sick. Totally. I get you. I'm thrilled. I'm talking to you right now, Brad. Thanks very much for this today. I'm foriosaferrin show Euhn sent, tracking dni D a WrestleMania beris uh like Dragon and Raky three bass rehearse so he bomb a little bit that about has that really broke and this is what the times gone and this kind of hza increasingly the whatever thets mellow, you know, Junglers in Canada say a little grapes. JA Simplano madeigs. In Katy Nichols made in broad earned it in the morning. A YT Croatia Bo Han here here on purpose or you can mnie. A YTanas良a says you've done him in 68 things some other months but he was like worrying impact. How do we, how do we have empathy? How do we take something that's actionable?

49:31And how do we get them through the dark tunnel, the dark times, all that stuff. And I can imagine in that counseling field, burnout is probably pretty high. I can't imagine the kind of stuff you're like, this is, I'm just not winning at this. I'm not making a difference. I'm not cracking through to this person or that person. You'd think about the losses, if you will, more than the wins. I want to update you on this story that I think will be talked about a good chunk of the day. Was this a potential terror attack attempt? Was it a hijack attempt? A plane plummeted about six hours ago, actually, 17,000 feet after a violent incident between the pilots. Right now, this plane is on the ground in Saudi Arabia, but two pilots on an Israel bound fly Dubai flight, diverted from Saudi Arabia, landed. It was supposed to go Dubai to Tel Aviv. And in less than two minutes, it plunged plummeted whatever are almost 18,000 feet. That's per the flight tracking data. One passenger

50:32told Israeli media, one of the pilots on the flight was stabbed. They thought one of the pilots was going to die. So this is not your, a normal scuffle. It's not your normal flight, quite obviously, but a violent incident happened between the two pilots that diverted it to northern Saudi Arabia. I think I said it was in, read earlier, but I can see where it is. It's south of, it's south of Jordan in a city called Tabuk, a very small city, very small airport. And people are off the plane, but they be fair game to ask, when can we get to original destination, which was Tel Aviv? Will Israel send a military civilian plane? Will they need military protection to get those passengers home? So Israel's prime minister, their defense minister holding a security consultation right now, was this a terror attack thwarted by one pilot against the other? We don't know yet, but there's, it's just not clear. There's more questions and answers. That's fair. And when we get questions

51:34answered, we will pass them along to you. The captain and co-pilot, I'm just seeing this, we can do hospital with injuries. They're both hurt from this morning, this morning's incident. They got a distress call on the plane requesting an emergency landing, but there was a knife involved. There was a stabbing from one pilot to the next again. This is a fly Dubai flight that was headed to Tel Aviv from Dubai. It lost altitude dramatically. We have this sound. There's some things that are hard to hear. You're going to hear kids screaming. You're going to hear people crying. You're going to hear someone saying in English, sit down at the end of the clip. Here's the audio of that.

52:37So I'll jump in. There's a lot there. There were lots of kids on board, almost 200 passengers. Great question via text to from a listener. How does a pilot smuggler sneak a knife past security? Kind of security are we talking about? And did the other person, the other pilot simply stop what was meant to be a crash the plane with no survivors plan by the one pilot? These are things we don't know, but both pilots right now are alive. So it is one of those situations that we don't know everything about right now. Coming up after eight o'clock, I do really want to get into this plan by the city council Brad Bradford in the Merrill candidate to take the land transfer tax off new buys, but specifically for homeowners who will live in that house. This would be off the first 1.1 million of the purchase price. This is a big promise. This is a costly promise. And this is one of those things that is going

53:40to be hotly debated is this a promise that that has financial backing. Is this a promise that can make sense financially and and can it work? That's going to be fascinating. Chris Alexander, obviously in the race, the former HX Pickering MP and immigration minister in the Harper government says just the math doesn't math. You're talking close to $600 million potentially based on home sales that all of a sudden isn't in the city budget. What are you going to do to make up for it? And it's a very fair and valid question. We're going to put Ron Butler on who knows all about mortgages and selling and buying in the market. Never shy with an opinion. Is this a is this a potentially good plan or is it pie in the sky type stuff? This was proposed by Rob Ford when he was running in 2010 and it had a number of problems coming to fruition. So Bradford said yesterday, you're going to start to hear more. I wouldn't call them outlandish, but you're certainly going to start to hear more elaborate promises

54:46as we get closer to election more. It's September. Well, September is over after today. It's once it hits October 1 tomorrow, a lot more people paying attention to this. Real estate board seemed to like the idea less taxes rather than more taxes is good. But the question would be it's a fair question. And if Olivia Chow asked it, I'd say the same thing. What's replacing that money is a very, very valid question about about about that much money and tax revenue being lost. Now and then there's a very weird almost novelty number one to hit on the charts. And I wasn't paying attention to the charts back in 1977. But I'll tell you what I was paying attention to. The only thing you tell me the word 1977. And I think, well, the Canadians won the Stanley Cup, the Yankees won the World Series and Star Wars went into movie theaters and somehow some way. This is a very, very odd one. Now and then there's a novelty song and it gets a hit and then you're like, you never

55:47think about it again. But on this date in 1977, in the fall of 1977 with Star Wars still in theaters, this song, a disco was big and Star Wars were big and somebody, it's sort of like the Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Somebody thought, let's jam and slam these two together and a musician named Miko, that's all we know. His real name's Domenico Monardo. Good thing he went with Miko. Anyway, made an album called Star Wars Another Galactic Funk. Gotta be careful with the pronunciations. And he made the Star Wars theme, a disco theme. Gord Rennie's our technical director. You've heard some odd hit songs. This is still so odd that people are like, oh yeah, I gotta get out to Sam the record man and buy this single because it didn't go too far into the weeds. I guess there's a Star Wars theme just there. You can instantly recognize it. Yeah. And it's just got a little extra frills on the side. A lot of actually a lot of boops and buzzes and you're just, but you're

56:49picturing you're like, where people actually out at Disco's grown up human beings obviously that this was like the era of Saturday and fever where people going out in their long, their long, what are those pants called? Not parachute pants. That's a hell bottom bell bottoms like clunky boot. Nobody wore sneakers anywhere in 1977 because no one was even jogging or working out. And going out to clubs dressed like John Travolta and dancing to this, I guess they were. They must have been. Oh, yeah. But I mean, there's, there's like an 18 minute version of disco and Furnall by the tram. So just, it just repeats the same, same five chords over and over again. Yeah. They put in the noises of R2D to the pew, pew gun sound. I don't like even saying that. And the hum of a lightsaber. I've never noticed that when I was five in the car, going to see Star Wars for the third time, but I did say mom and dad, we need that, we need that eight track. We were still in eight track family in 1977. I hid dating myself this badly, but we were still in eight track family. I'm like, I want to hear that song in the car. That's what it's a number one hit.

57:53Go get that eight track. My dad had an eight track in his Ford LTV with wood on the side. It was, that thing was like the Millennium Falcon that thing. That's, yes. Yes. And it made it couldn't get into hyperspace, but it did look like the Millennium Falcon. Now, now is this is good. I don't know. This is probably an improved version of the Star Wars theme and it's Bill Murray doing Nick the Lounsinger at a fictional ski lodge in Colorado where everybody snows in for the night. I like this one better than the meco theme. Star Wars. Star Wars. Star Wars. Star Wars. If they shoot our wars, please let these Star Wars stay. Yeah. I mean, of course, those would be the absurd lyrics to Star Wars. Every song needs

58:55lyrics. Tom Hanks did that with the entertainment tonight theme, the first time he hosted Saturday live and you're like, yes. And the finishing line was if you're having a very bad day, there's entertainment tonight. And people were like, yes, I couldn't, I couldn't unhear it after I heard it the first time. Thanks for listening to the Toronto Today podcast. We drop the highlights of the Daily Show every weekday morning. Don't forget you can hear the entire show on the radio at home on your smart speaker, ask Alexa or say, hey, Google, play 640 Toronto or Toronto today. You can hear us on between 530 and 9 weekdays on 640 Toronto. Have a great day. Show button here. Football is finally back and prize picks is going crazy with the deals to start the season, giving out promos every day in September. On prize picks, you can make all the picks you want, all in the same app. And now prize picks is available nationwide. So what are you waiting for? Lock in for kickoff because everyone and everything is on prize picks.

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