#9005 - Oct 1990

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Digital Archiving Completed by the Ethnography Lab, A University of Toronto Anthropology Initiative and Produced in Collaboration with David Perlman/Wholenote Media Inc between July-December 2015. .._ or ·"' Page 14, Kensington Market Drum, October, 1990 Family Under Siege continued from pg 7 saying" I live here" so I shouted his name out the winpow. He answered that it was okay over andover. I yelled what are you doing· to the police and they responded "it's okay." I jumped onto the floor and threw on a skirt, I then grabbed a shirt and on my way toward the stairs I tried to put it on. Before I got to the top of the stairs I saw the first officer standing half way up the stairs with a shotgun on his hip. I shouted, "what do you think you're doing? That's my son. I called you to report a shot outs~de." I reached the bottom of the stairs and there were two police officers coming out of my living room toward me. "What are you doing, are you crazy, get out of my house." I then stepped out the door and found my son on his knees on concrete with his hands• cuffed behind him and his forehead against the brick wall. A woman officer was standing behind him saying excuse me madame, over aqd over as if she was afraid I might be behaving unreasonably. "Don't talk to me." I said again and again. My son just kept saying "I'm okay Mom". I did call the police fascists and I did inquire as to when Ontario had brought in the S.Q. Needless to say it was all a mistake. When my son told me what happened it went like this. "I went to answer the door but when I opened it all I could see was silhouettes and the barrel of a shotgun pointed at my face. I thought the crack heads had gone crazy. I shut the door fast, I thought for a second and then I realized that they looked more like the police so I opened the door and put up my arms and said what's wrong?"' Who are you?" they said. "I live here." Then they pulled me outside and pushed me to my knees and handcuffed me. I was scared. That minute is embedded in my brain for ever. Then you came out {his mother} and were mad and I still didn't have any idea what was going on and I thought they would shoot me if anything you said made them mad so I said I'm okay." After my son was in the house I yelled at the police for a few seconds more and they left all in a huffbecause I didn't appreciate the job they had done to serve and protect my family and I. Tomorrow the pushers will be harassing us or beating us for calling the police. We sat around and talked for awhile and shook and thought about what would have happened if one of my little daughters had opened the door, or me. We tried to get rid of the feeling of being trapped, imprisoned. We called the police to find out why, and we calledCityT.V. totellthemwe were pissed and scared, My little girl came and said she . wants to move tomorrow and .that she and her little friend know where the dealers hide their drugs. Here is where the story gets bizarre. My other son comes running in the house with blood running down his arm from being attacked by some guy on the street with a razor. He has been hiding and running for two hours to try to get away from the guy who he does not know. I did not call the police. I do not drink or do drugs, I go to school as do my children. I don't bother anyone. Why then you might ask do I live here. Because, life is not about choosing your own destiny at all, as many of those who do not want to see reality or take actionmightsay.Lifc,formany people, is being stuck in a death trap/war ZOI!e because we are poor. In spite of what you may have been led to believe most of my neighbours are like me Is It Over At Oka? Consensus of the people at the Native Women's Resource Centre: Noit'snotover.Justbecause the Mohawk warriors laid · down/ their guns, it doesn't mean it's over. There are people 'Who think this Oka crisis won't affect anyone; that we'll go on with life in a "normal" way. It's going to affect us all- white, black, red, and yellow skinned people-for a long time to come. It'slike a boil festering over. Kensington Common and they are also like you. If . youdon'tdosomethingtohelp us, this war will be on your door step and I won't be able to help you. I can't sleep and I am in despair. I can't rent outside of here. The fear is overwhelming. Ifl have to stay home to protect my children ,I will never get them out of here. After I got all of us settled in as much as possible , and we Once the infection spreads, it is hard to stop. If the federal and provincial governments continue to ignore aboriginal issues, incidents like Oka are bound to keep happening and the casualties will increase. For many generations the "dominant" society has tried to force their "colonial" attitude on the Native people of North America. This is not going to work anymore. We're tired of being put on the "backburner". The dominant society must understand that we are a unique society. Like ottJ.er ethnic races, we have our culture, our Native languages, our spirituality, and o.ur own way of life. We will not give all this up to fit in the white man's world. Golf courses are a reflection of the dominant society's attitude .that the earth is here for their recreation and pleasure. In contrast, theN alive perspective is that we are guardians of Leonard Lot; Hopes 'or housing - ~est with Council continued from pg 2 October 4. By the time of the meeting, though, the plan had changed. What the group saw was drawings of a 14-story apartment building in the eastern shadow of the hospital. Two floors of retail, with 12 residential above (and 520 parking spaces going 5 levels down). This was, the group was answered, the "worst case scenario." But nothing else, we were told, was financially possible unless the hospital spends "health care dollars on parking spaces." (The idea that parking costs are not legitimate hospital expenses was questioned by the City Planner in attendance.) The building shown was so clearly unacceptable that there didn't seem to be any hopeful purpose in talking about housing with the hospital alone. But hospital staff agreed to ask a representative from the Parking Authority to come to the next group meeting. · That meeting will be Wed- ~esday . November 7 in the Bathurst Lounge in the hospital, at 6:30 pm. · · Councillor A mer says she is satisfied with the hospital's current position and says that both she and her executive assistant Bruce Pearce will be attending the October 4 meeting. "It is important to understand that the hospital is just undertaking a feasibility study for the parking site," says Pearce, "they will only choose the type of housing with community approval." This view is reiterated by hospital board member and long-time Kensington resident David Pinkus. "Nothing will be done until it's vetted through our community," he says. Pinkus recalls the 1950's when houses stood where the garage now is and Kozlov's grocery was on the corner of Leonard and Nassau. They were all destroyed when the garage was built. "To bring housing back to the corner of Leonard and Nassau will entail a long political process", says Pinkus. The area will have to be rezoned, public hearings held and in the end it will be up to City Coun- It's Our Movement CKLN Fundfest 90 Oct. 12-21st Tune in to 88.1 fm Pledge Your Support 'h 1~ ~ ~ cil whether housing should be built at all. "If it becomes an extended discussion," says Pinkus, "the community could risk losing the housing because this council will only be in office for, at most, another two, years." Pinkuis says the current council would probably be in favour of increasing affordable housing in the community. ~~; *~1 'i ~p q; - kAS T RooM t-~1;~, #~~=*~1 ~~J~~1-t~4 ;f:J:. ~~ 1:. ~ ~ ~ ~ z1'f. M sJf#f;fi. ~~iit ~J~t ~~~A-iii'-~~~ t\ ?iJ ~1 1-J.-/1?~ & t - ~, 12.
Kensingt_on Common Kensington Market Drum, October, 1990, Page 15 Our Lady of the Sewers A Kensington Shanghai Remebered Derek Rodgers Most people take no notice of the manhole at the corner of Kensington Ave and Baldwin Street, but to the residents of the Market it has the distinction of being known as "the sewer that Candi Looper climbed into". People come to Kensington Market for different reasons: toshop, to eat, to hangout, etc. Candi Looper came to shoot a music video. She had just written a deeply personal song with the hopes of toppling her arch rival Madonna in the charts. This song contained th·e heart wrenching line:- "There's a hole in my heart that goes all the way to China". In typical MTV fashion, Candi's music video consultant interpreted the lyrics literally and came up with the brilliant idea of actually having Candi climb into a hole in the Western hemisphere and climb out of one in China. Candi loved the concept but soon realized that her MTV -like vision, complete with smoky exteriors and smiling Chinamen and rickshaws, did not necessarily comply· with the real China. "No problem" she said, "we'll make our own China". Candi descended on Kensington Market with an army of Producers, Directors, music execs, carpenters, props people, scenic artists, camera &lighting technicians, 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th assistant directors, location managers, production assistants, makeup artists, security guards, extras, grips, transport drivers, police officers and a personal chef who catered exclusively,to her pop stardom tastes, Baldwin street and Kensington Ave were promptly sealed off to both Market and non Market residents. When residents complained, they were told by the policemen manning the barricades that they would endanger the creative process if they walked through the set to their homes. They were reassured that if they waited patiently, the press secretary would come out and give them a 8x10 auto- . graphed photograph of Candi. Meanwhile, inside the barricades, imported rickshaws, smiling Asian actors dressed in costumes reminiscent ofthe "Kung Fu" TV series and lots of smoke and dry ice were transforming Baldwin street into Candi's make believe China. Everything was proceeding smoothly except for one small detail. The manhole that Candi was supposed to climb out of was giving her trouble. The hole was a real stinker. All sewers give off odours of one kind or another, but she was - completely ill prepared to combat the pungency of a Kensington Market sewer. Poor Candi, no-one had ever told her life as a pop star was going to be so difficult. The props people sprayed disinfectant and perfume to no avail. Candi 's dream of a MTV China was fading fast, but as she looked down into that deep, dark hole a tiny little voice in her head spoke out to her and said, "If Madonna was here, she would do it.;, Candi clenched her teeth, held her nose and climbed dowq into the hole. Take 1 went off almost without a hitch, but at the last moment one of the "Chinese" extras tripped and began · swearing in English. Take Z was a mis-slate. Take 3 didn't have enough smoke in the background. Take 4,5,6 & 7 were focus pulling errors. Take 9 was good butthe background smoke still wasn't good enough. Take lOw as also good but one of the music execs objected to the way Candi's hair looked. Take 11,12,13 were action miscues. Take 14 was ruined when someone behind the barricades yelled outto Candi, "Lookoutfor the Kensington Rats". Take 15, 16, 17, were good but the Director wasn'tsure.Finally,Candi had had enough. When it was time for take 19 she blew her cool and let loose a barrage of insults towards the director that could be heard clear to Queen street. "Fuck Madonna" she screamed. "There's no way I am going back into that stink hole". Only after the producers promised to fire the Director and raise her profit margin did she concede to one final take. For the very last time Candi climbed down into the manhole, Take 99. The props assistant laid out the most beautiful layer of background smoke he had ever seen. The extras went to their first positions. The 1st that the level of sewage some 10 feet below her was slowly and silently creeping upward. The time was 7:25PM and the dinner hou~ was coming to a close. In order to handle the daHy surge in the system, the city of Toronto's department of public works usually opened a series of relief tunnels and floodgates specially designed to accommodate the overflow. · Unfortunately for Candi and all her fans a mechanical breakdown prevented the relief system from'kicking in, resulting in the creation of giga,ntic wave of sewage that swept through the network of sewers sucking Candi deep into the slimy and smelly innards of our "World Class" city. She was found days later in Scarborough, a changed person. and sat in the mouth of four in the morning. the cock crowed thrice of a dawn that was coming, but no sun fell on the newspaper face, of a Lazarus that wouldn't be raised. Stuart Crombie Bloorcourt Veterinary Clinic 1079 Bloor Street West (416) 537-9677 Appointment Monday to Saturday , . Health Care, Surgery and Acupuncture Dr. Jack Gewarter . KEN51NbTON CATS ~'ELECTION '90" assistant director cal~ed out lliiiii=o "roll camera and mustc playback". .,. _, _.- The new Director called "action". Everything was just perfect. The camera started high in a wide shot, panned left and then swooped downward 1~._., .:.-:-· to where it was to intersect with Cani lifting o~f t~e man- oiA~ - I' hole cover and chmbmg out ~~ ~ ' while lip-syncing, "There's a holeinmyheartthatgoesall 1., ~ .. vo~...--c."'I!IJ>.._-;;;......::=wcr"'"""l',..., 1 thewaytoChina". When the f, ~--. ____ ·---.. ···. --·- , --- --- camera reached tfie manhole, there was no ~ign of Candi. At first, the producers thought it was a cruel joke. Candi's way of saying "don'tmess with me", but when they opened up the manhole and she was nowhere to be found. they began to panic. "Our insurance won't cover this" moaned one. "The press is going to have a field day" moaned another. "Oh god, maybe she's dead!" moaned a third. Candi Looper wasn't dead. While she had been waiting in the dark and smelly confines of the manhole for her action cue, she had failed to notice _,.....- ~ I )t- r --?"'?' ~~ l s: II I -~ "' - :,. Digital Archiving Completed by the Ethnography Lab, A University of Toronto Anthropology Initiative and Produced in Collaboration with David Perlman/Wholenote Media Inc between July-December 2015. "-
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#9005 - Oct 1990

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