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Volume 51 No. 4
BEACHMETRO.COM
April 19, 2022
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The Easter Bunny returns to the Beach, and thousands turn out for the parade
PHOTOS: DONNA BRAYBROOK
The Toronto Beaches Lions Easter Parade returned to Queen Street East on Sunday after a two-year absence due to the pandemic. Big crowds of enthusiastic youngsters and adults alike lined Queen Street East to welcome the Easter Bunny back. For more parade photos, please see page 25.
Toronto Community Housing working to help tenants hit by federal government tax ruling By Alan Shackleton
TORONTO COMMUNITY Housing Corporation (TCHC) says it will be working to help a number of its tenants who have been impacted by a recent federal tax ruling that could see them lose provincial benefits. Late last year a number of TCHC residents started receiving letters from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) telling them they owed a significant amount of back taxes con-
BEACH METRO COMMUNITY NEWS 50TH ANNIVERSARY 1972•2022
SAFETY
KAM BABULAL was recently presented with the 2022 Agnes Macphail Award for her many years of volunteer work in the East York community. Babulal has held many volunteer social justice leadership positions in East York over numerous years. Some of her many contributions to the community include serving as coordinator for the East York Seniors Christmas Day Dinner, organizing a Community Breakfast program at Calvin Presbyterian Church, as well as activities at William Burgess School, the East York Soccer Club and other local organizations. The annual Agnes Macphail Award honours an individual or individuals from the East York community who exemplify the causes that Macphail championed in her long and distinguished career.
Macphail (1890 – 1954) was the first woman elected to the Canadian House of Commons (1921) and the first in the Ontario Legislature (1943). During her years in political office, which included representing the East York area provincially, Macphail focussed on issues of equality rights and social justice. Those who win the award must be residents of the former Borough of East York and be an outstanding volunteer leader in community life in areas including, but not limited to: women’s rights, fairness to seniors, criminal justice and penal reform, international peace and disarmament and to adequate housing, health care and education. Toronto-Danforth Councillor Paula Fletcher said Babulal is an extremely well-deserved winner of Continued on Page 5
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PHOTO: ALAN SHACKLETON
Kam Babulal cracks an egg while volunteering at the Community Breakfast program at Calvin Presbyterian Church.
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nected to payments they had been receiving under the Ontario Trillium Benefit. They were also told they would no longer be eligible for a portion of that benefit payment. The reason given was that they had failed to report on their tax returns that the TCHC buildings they lived had been made exempt by the City of Toronto from municipal education and property taxes. The tenants say they had never been told by TCHC that their building (and there 383 of them according to TCHC) had been given such a tax-exempt status. The decision to grant the status to TCHC building was made by the city in 2011, and then pretty much forgotten about until the tenants receiving Ontario Trillium Benefits started getting letters from Continued on Page 5
Kam Babulal named East York’s Agnes Macphail Award winner
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