Dear Neighbours,
Spring has certainly come early this year! While we enjoy these warmer temperatures, it raises concerns about the impact of climate change on our wildlife and the environment.
I want to congratulate all of the recipients at my Community Recognition Ceremony held last Saturday. See the complete list below.
Spring marks the beginning of the bird migration season in North America. 25 million birds die from window collisions every year in Canada. I have a bill before the legislature to mandate bird-safe windows in the building code, but in the meantime, we can all do our part by doing the following:
- If you have manual blinds, please close them at night when you leave for the day.
- When able, please switch off all lighting at your work stations, within your kitchens, and in your copy areas prior to leaving at night.
This update includes a special feature called “Climate Corner” from Seniors for Climate Action Now (SCAN! Toronto). It is a collaboration with my office to talk about what you can do – and what all three levels of governments can do – to turn this ship around. Thank you Lyba and Mike for this submission.
With St. Patrick’s Day coming up next weekend, this update also includes another timely article by Adam Bunch on Irish history in Toronto which was once known as “the Belfast of Canada”. See below.
There were a number of revelations in the legislature this week:
- The Premier has said that he wants to appoint partisan judges, which is an apparent violation of Canadians’ Charter right to hearings by an “independent and impartial” judge.
- The Greenbelt scandal is back in news with revelations that senior government staffers were using code words “G*”, “Special Project” and “SP” in discussing the Greenbelt.
- We, as taxpayers, are now on the hook for a $4 billion settlement for Bill 124, which the courts found violated workers’ Charter Rights.
More on these issues below.
I am very happy with the recent announcement of a national pharmacare program. This was one of the federal NDP’s key demands going into the confidence-and-supply agreement with the federal government. The plan comes with a commitment to cover some diabetes treatments and contraception. But the plan’s success is contingent on whether Ontario signs on.
Canada is the only country in the world with a universal public healthcare system that does not have universal coverage for prescription drugs outside of hospitals. People shouldn’t have to choose between essential diabetes medication, contraceptives and food.
Marching at the Toronto International Women’s Day Rally
March 8th is International Women’s Day. Last weekend, I marched for all the women who have been fighting for change.
There are many free and affordable March Break activities in the city this month. Check out my Fun Things to Do.
Don’t forget to set your clocks one hour forward on Sunday.
Ramadan Mubarak to all those who begin celebrating Ramadan on Sunday!
Take care,
Latest News
Coffee with Chris Mar 22
Do you have an issue you would like to discuss? Join me for my next Coffee with Chris on Friday, March 15, 9-11 am at Liberty Coffee Bar, 80 Western Battery Road. Share your concerns or just drop by to say hello. You can sign up for a 15-minute one-on-one meeting, or for a more casual group roundtable during the last half hour. Sign up here.
Community Recognition 2024 Recipients
Thank you to everyone who attended my 4th Annual Community Recognition Ceremony on Saturday, February 24 at the Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre. It was an incredible afternoon and an honour to be in the presence of so many wonderful people.
The recipients included Cindy Wilkey and John Wilson, who for 26 years, led the West Don Lands Committee. Their work led to the creation of projects like the Corktown Common, the Distillery, the redesigned Queens Quay, and the Pan Am Village area. They were also central to saving the Foundry site and are heavily engaged in the fight to save Ontario Place.
We also presented an award to the family of Kevin Lee, who was the director of Scadding Court Community Centre. Kevin was incredibly innovative with a motto of asking for forgiveness, not permission. He tore up the grass at the centre and built community gardens so that people can feed themselves. He also created Market 707, the shipping container market at Dundas and Bathurst. He created a hydroponic garden and fish tank in the centre that helps supports the community centre’s food program. Kevin passed away November 29, 2023 at the age of 68, but he leaves a legacy our community will enjoy for generations to come.
Congratulations to all of this year’s recipients:
Arts & Culture Advocates:
- Artists Against Homelessness
Business Leaders:
- Ajay Chahal
- Arthur Geringas
- Heather Gardner
- Method Collective
- Nadine Farida Milne
Community Leaders:
- April Engelberg
- Carolyn Wong
- Edita Tahirovic
- Ephraim Mwaura
- Jennifer Horvath
- Julie Beddoes
- Meredith Low
- Michael Bethke
- Saida Zakrzewski
- Suzanne Kavanagh
- William Shane
- Waterfront Neighbourhood Centre
Disability Advocates:
- Kateryna Zanyk
- Shelley Gautier
Environment Advocates:
- Francesca Bouaoun
Indigenous Leaders:
- Jamie Gillis
- Keith McCrady
Seniors Advocates:
- Bella Beazer
Youth Leaders:
- Shaneen “Middle” Cotterell
- Xavier Baldwin
Lifetime Achievement:
- Cynthia Wilkey
- John Wilson
Special Posthumous Award:
- Kevin Lee
Partisan Judicial Appointments a Threat to Democracy
Last week, Premier Ford announced two new members of the Judicial Appointments Advisory Committee, the group that screens new judges for the Ontario Courts. The new appointments were Brock Vandrick and Matthew Bondy who have both been senior staffers on the Premier’s team. They are also registered lobbyists for a variety of industries, including forestry, travel, and an American gun manufacturer.
At a press conference, the Premier explicitly told Ontarians he wanted to introduce more “like-minded” conservative judges to the Ontario Court of Justice to tackle rising crime rates.
Questions about the integrity of the decision have been raised by many. Premier Ford admitted that he chose them because they shared his views. The Advocates’ Society warned that it was risky to have advisors with strong political ties and “weakens confidence in the independence of Ontario’s judges and their ability to make fair, impartial decisions.”
In Ontario, courts are supposed to be fair to everyone, no matter their politics. This plan to put “like-minded” people in charge could undermine that.
My colleagues and I will continue to bring this up in the legislature. Watch my question here.
Greenbelt Scandal Update
The Official Opposition NDP has obtained documents through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request showing the use of code words across thousands of pages of government records referring to the Greenbelt.
Terms like “G*,” “Special Project” and “SP” were found in several records, including correspondence between the ministry and the Premier’s office. When you make a freedom of information request to the government, you have to list search terms that you want used to comb through government emails and other documents. So, if the request was to search for “greenbelt”, “G*” or “Special Project” would conceal these documents from coming up in the search.
Similar codes were used by the previous government. They used the term “project vapour” when discussing what became the gas plant scandal. That scandal involved the cancellation of gas plants that were being built in ridings in the lead up to the 2011 election campaign. The scandal contributed to the resignation of Premier Dalton McGuinty and led to the former Premier’s Chief of Staff being convicted and sentenced to 4 months in jail.
In some emails, a reference to the Greenbelt had been replaced with “G*” before being forwarded to Ryan Amato, the former chief of staff of former Municipal Affairs and Housing minister Steve Clark.
The change was discovered by comparing the original email with what was forwarded to Mr. Amato’s account.
"What this looks like is intent to conceal—a creative use of code words to evade public scrutiny for what they clearly knew was wrong,” said NDP Leader Marit Stiles. “For months, the Ford Conservatives claimed that there was nothing wrong with their Greenbelt grab. Clearly, they knew they had something to hide.”
The FOI records also show that throughout October 2022, ministry officials regularly used the term “Special Project” (or “SP”) to refer to the Greenbelt grab. This includes two emails exchanged between Amato and Patrick Sackville, the premier’s current chief of staff.
The emails are dated Oct. 17, 2022 — 10 days before the date Sackville claimed under oath that he was first briefed on the Greenbelt project.
FAO Report Shows Ontario Underspending in Critical Sectors
The Financial Accountability Office (FAO) released a recent expenditure report showing that the current government is chronically underfunding post-secondary institutions, childcare centres, and homelessness reduction programs at a time when all of these sectors have been calling out for dire support.
Across Ontario, families are facing record wait times for their child’s autism funding, and emergency room wait times have never been higher. Yet, the current government is choosing to sit on a $5.1 billion contingency fund that just keeps growing.
Decades of chronic underfunding and five years of cuts, have pushed our post-secondary institutions to the brink. The recent announcement of $1.2 billion in funding to colleges and universities is simply not enough. The government’s own Blue Ribbon Panel recommended an urgent $2.5 billion investment over three years as the minimum needed just to keep colleges and universities running. And that was before the international student cap was announced.
The unconstitutional Bill 124 – a wage suppression policy which this government spent 5 years fighting in court – will cost the government $13.7 billion, according to the FAO report. This is money that should have been invested in our healthcare system before reaching crisis.
TDSB Looking to Immediately Build Childcare Spaces
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) is calling on the Ontario government to allow it to begin work on desperately needed childcare spaces in Toronto. A letter was sent to the Minister of Education urging him to allow the board to use already committed provincial funds to build childcare spaces.
In 2017, the Ministry of Education allotted funding for 28 childcare projects at the TDSB, however due to outdated benchmarks to determine funding, delayed approvals, and rising construction costs, the allotted funding does not cover the actual costs of these projects and has put these needed projects in jeopardy.
The TDSB wants to pool the committed funding, along with $14.3 million of its own money, to build as many childcare projects as possible, which would likely amount to 10 or 11. Putting daycares and schools under one roof does have benefits, including a seamless transition for kids starting kindergarten, greater access to the school’s professional and special needs staff, and building a stronger school community.
One Fare Program for Transit Riders
At long last, the Ontario government finally announced the One Fare Program, a new integrated public transit fare system in the GTA.
Riders who make a trip on any of these systems – GO Transit, the TTC, Brampton Transit, Durham Region Transit, MiWay, and York Region Transit – must pay the highest single fare associated with their trip, but will be charged a reduced fare when they transfer to another system within 2-3 hours.
When a rider uses the TTC as part of their trip, they will not be charged. The TTC will automatically calculate a 100% discount and apply it to their PRESTO card, credit, or debit card. Please note that customers who pay their TTC fare with a monthly pass will not receive any additional discounts when transferring to GO Transit.
Riders who need to transfer into or out of the TTC system must tap using their original method of payment on a PRESTO reader. Customers will receive a free transfer and won’t be charged another fare as long as they are within two hours of their first tap on the TTC.
MPAC Housing Inventory Map
The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) recently announced a brand-new resource that allows users to review and analyze a full decade of Ontario housing data. The interactive Housing Inventory Map is an online tool that enables you to see how the residential property inventory has changed across the province from 2013-2023.
Here are some highlights:
Limited Options for First-Time Home Buyers
In 2013, 74% of residential properties in Ontario had a home value estimate of less than $500,000, while 91% of homes had a value of less than $750,000. Today, that number has dropped to just 19% and 48%, respectively.
To find properties for less than $500,000, one can look to cities such as Sudbury, Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay, Thunder Bay and Windsor. While homes under $750,000 can be found in cities such as Ottawa, London, Kitchener, Kingston, Barrie, and Peterborough.
Condo Values on the Rise in Toronto
In 2013, almost 85% of condominiums in the city of Toronto had a value of less than $500,000. Today, that number has dropped to less than 11%, with the majority of condominiums falling between $500,000 and $750,000.
Single-Use and Takeaway Items Bylaw
On March 1, 2024, the City of Toronto’s Single-Use and Takeaway Items Bylaw took effect. The bylaw includes:
- An “ask-first/by-request” approach for items such as straws, napkins, stir sticks, utensils, condiments, shopping bags (except those for bakery or prescription items)
- Compatibility of paper bags with the City’s diversion programs (i.e., no metal grommets or plastic handles)
- Acceptance of reusable shopping bags and reusable beverage cups provided by customers at retail business establishments
Be part of the solution. Try one of these sustainable swaps to help reduce your everyday waste:
Disposable Item |
Sustainable Solution |
Coffee cup Disposable cutlery Plastic or foil wrap Coffee pod Plastic produce bag Dryer sheet Bottled water Disposable bag |
Reusable travel mug Say ‘no’ if you don’t need them Reusable container Brewed coffee or reusable coffee pod Mesh or reusable bag Dryer ball Reusable water bottle Tote or reusable bag |
Good Neighbour Guide for Late Night Businesses
City Council has adopted amendments to the Licensing Bylaw and Zoning Bylaws as part of the Night Economy Review in December 2023. The amended bylaws will come into effect on January 1, 2025. The City of Toronto held a Night Economy Town Hall in January to share the latest information including the adopted regulatory amendments.
Also introduced was the Good Neighbour Guide for Late Night Businesses. This guide is a comprehensive resource and includes best practices for live music venues, nightclubs, bars, restaurants, retailers, service providers, and other businesses operating between the hours 6 pm - 6 am. The guide presents relevant information and provides links to related resources, from the City of Toronto and external sources, intended to support operators in running a safe establishment that also benefits the surrounding community, including nearby residents and other businesses.
CLIMATE CORNER
Mild temperatures in February and March feel good, but what does it mean?
By Seniors for Climate Action Now!
You’ve been hearing a lot about climate change. Well, we’re in it.
Our organization feels compelled to urgent action as the planet quickly warms, causing catastrophes at home and abroad. We are in this for the sake of future generations and the survival of life on the planet.
Don’t stop reading. There is hope.
Change will only happen if we work together – both young and old.
People have been noticing changing weather patterns in the past few years. On the news, we see floods, wildfires and the results of drought. We hear words like “atmospheric rivers” and “heat domes”. These are all the effects of a warming planet. Our reliance on burning fossil fuels is causing this rise in the planet’s temperature.
Seniors, unhoused, Indigenous and low-income people are the most affected.
Seniors died in disproportionate numbers during the BC heat dome of 2021. Low-income seniors’ apartments can be a danger to their health. Elderly people with disabilities may be unable to get to cooling centres in the summer.
SCAN! Toronto members are activist seniors. We have both experience and wisdom to share. We want to engage other seniors in this struggle; but we also work with young activists inspired by Greta Thunberg.
Renewable energy sources (especially wind and solar) are becoming increasingly more effective and less expensive than energy sources based on fossil fuels. There have been some real advances in making the shift to renewables.
In the next issue, we will talk about Ontario Place and the Science Centre. Stay tuned!
SPECIAL FEATURE
Toronto’s Most Terrifying Guy Fawkes Night
By Adam Bunch
Guy Fawkes Night at Windsor Castle, 1776ish (Wikimedia)
On this night 159 years ago, an armed mob gathered at Queen’s Park. It was still an ordinary public park back then, not yet home to the provincial legislature, but already a focal point for political unrest. And on that dark November night in 1864, more than five hundred Torontonians had gathered, prepared for violence. They carried guns, swords, pistols and pikes — and they were willing to use them. It was Guy Fawkes Night in Toronto and our city’s Irish Catholics were ready to fight.
Toronto was an incredibly Irish place back then. In the middle of the 1800s, a third of the people who lived here had been born in Ireland or were of Irish descendent — the highest proportion on the continent, a greater percentage than you’d find even in Boston or New York. But while Irish Catholics tended to move to the United States in order to get out from under British rule, it was Irish Protestants who often came to Toronto, which was still a deeply British town. Three quarters of the city’s residents were Protestant in the late 1800s. And many of them were passionately anti-Catholic, dedicated members of an organization known as the Orange Order.
The fraternal society was founded by Protestants in northern Ireland back in the late 1700s. It’s still a major force there today; Orangemen are die-hard supporters of British rule with a history of ties to the Protestant paramilitary groups that fought against the IRA during the Troubles. And with so many Irish immigrants coming to the Canadian colonies in the 1800s, the Orange Lodge became a major force here, too. Especially in Toronto.
Orangemen ruled our city for more than a century. Nearly every mayor of Toronto for 120 years was a member of the Orange Lodge. They dominated the police force, the fire services, the TTC, school boards, basically any public job at all. The big Orange parade on July 12th every year — celebrating the victory of the Protestant King William of Orange over Irish Catholics back in 1690 — was attended by tens of thousands of people every year, essentially a public holiday.
Toronto became known as “The Belfast of Canada.” And many of northern Ireland’s problems became our problems, too — including decades of sectarian violence. Our city’s Orangemen could often be found fighting in the streets, riots sparked by everything from parades to elections to a vicious feud with a travelling circus. But Catholics were by far the Orange Order’s most common targets. There were dozens of riots in Toronto between Orangemen and Irish Catholics during the late 1800s. And since City Hall, the courts and the police force were all dominated by the Orange Lodge, the rioters almost always escaped justice.
The Jubilee Riots of 1876
1864 would prove to be a particularly uneasy year. That spring, the Orange Order attacked a Catholic procession marking the feast of Corpus Christi. And when news arrived from Belfast that summer, of eleven Catholics killed by Orangemen there, tensions here grew even higher. By the time autumn arrived, things seemed ready to boil over.
And then came the fifth of November.
Guy Fawkes Night is still a big holiday in Britain today, an occasion filled with bonfires and fireworks. It commemorates the events of the Gunpowder Plot, when an attempt to blow up parliament and assassinate the king was foiled. The attempted revolution was launched by a group of Catholic conspirators back in 1605, after suffering decades of brutal religious percussion in England. They hoped to set off a massive explosion that would kill the Protestant King James, as well as the members of his parliament, so a Catholic monarch could take over. But the plan was uncovered just in time. One of the conspirators, Guy Fawkes, was discovered hiding beneath the House of Lords with thirty-six barrels of gunpowder. That night, the Protestants of England celebrated. And ever since, the night of November 5th has been marked by bonfires and fireworks, effigies of Fawkes going up in flames, and the recitation of a famous children’s nursery rhyme:
Remember, remember, the 5th of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason
Why gunpowder treason
Should ever be forgot.
Gay Fawkes Night used to be a big holiday in Toronto, too, since it was such an anti-Catholic city so eager to celebrate its British Protestant heritage. Torontonians burned Fawkes in effigy for many years. But Guy Fawkes Day in 1864 would prove to be particularly dramatic.
In the lead up to the holiday that year, rumours began to spread. The Orange Order, it seems, was planning to burn more than just Guy Fawkes in effigy. They would also set fire to dolls representing the Pope and the celebrated old Catholic mayor of Dublin. “This was a deliberate and unequivocal insult to Irish Catholics,” historian Michael Cottrell explains, “since it suggested that their most sacred icons could be humiliated with impunity.”
But that insult would’t pass without resistance.
The Orange Order wasn’t the only radical religious group in our city. Years earlier, the St. Patrick’s Day Parade had been attacked by Orangemen. It ended with an Irish Catholic stable hand murdered with a pitchfork during a scuffle in an alleyway just off King East. In the wake of that bloodshed, a new Catholic organization was formed in response to the Orange violence. The Hibernian Benevolent Society of Canada would act as a charity supporting local Irish Catholics, but they secretly had a much more radical mandate, too. The Hibernians were a paramilitary group with strong ties to the Fenian Brotherhood, a U.S.-based organization dedicated to Irish independence and the violent overthrow of British rule.
The Fenian Brotherhood invades the Canadian colonies (Wikimedia)
Guy Fawkes Night was a perfect opportunity for the new Canadian organization to prove its worth. As Cottrell puts it, “The Hibernians insisted that the pride of the Catholic community was at stake, and declared their intention of not only preventing the planned celebration, by force if necessary, but of mounting a counter-demonstration of their own.”
The prospect of a bloody Guy Fawkes Day loomed, and city leaders on both sides of the religious divide tried to calm things down. The Mayor of Toronto, Francis Medcalf, joined with other Orange leaders to convince their supporters to cancel the burning of the effigies. Meanwhile, the Catholic church tried to soothe the Hibernians, but the radicals refused to back down. One of the priests who attempted to negotiate with them reported back to Toronto's Catholic bishop: “We called upon the leading Hibernians, and used every argument we could think of to dissuade them from making any demonstration on that night, but all our arguments were lost on them; for go they would and go they did, armed to the teeth with guns and pikes.”
And so, the angry mob gathered at Queen’s Park on that November night prepared for battle. They marched out into the city after dusk looking for trouble, ready to crack down on any anti-Catholic celebrations they found. They patrolled the streets long into the night, “terrorizing the inhabitants” until two in the morning. The Globe newspaper denounced them as “irresponsible and bloody-thirsty bigots” who sent the city into “a state of excitement such as it seldom before saw.” At the end of their intimidating display, the Hibernians fired their guns into the air and headed home, satisfied that they’d stood up to the Orange Order and successfully defended Catholic pride for at least one night.
In the wake of that tense Guy Fawkes Day, Hibernians would be arrested and put on trial. Headlines denounced their actions. And while many Irish Catholics never supported the radical organization, the city found itself even more deeply polarized — with much more bloodshed ahead.
In the years to come, the Fenian Brotherhood in the United States decided to launch a series of raids against the Canadian colonies, with armies and war parties slipping across the border. Some Toronto Hibernians even tried to join the invasion, but were arrested on their way there. An Irish-Canadian Father of Confederation, Thomas D’Arcy McGee, would soon be gunned down in the streets of Ottawa, with a suspected Fenian hanged for the crime. And the St. Patrick’s Day Parade would eventually be banned in Toronto for more than a hundred years.
Our city would continue to be a fiercely Protestant and deeply anti-Catholic place for decades to come. It wasn’t until the 1950s, as more new Canadians poured into Toronto from countries outside the British Isles, that the Orange stranglehold on power would finally be broken. Guy Fawkes Night had been celebrated here well into the 1900s. But on this November 5th, our city rests quiet. There are no fireworks, no bonfires, no Gunpowder plotters burned in effigy. And the days when Protestants and Catholics battled in our streets seem a very distant memory.
This article was published in The Toronto History Weekly, November 5, 2023. It has been used with permission from the author.
MPP Scrolls for Special Occasions
Turning 30, 40, 80, 90 or 100? Celebrate a significant birthday with a certificate from my office.
Is there a new addition to your family? Send the name of your baby, the parents’ names and other relevant information and we’ll send a “Welcome to the World” certificate to celebrate this special event.
Chris in the House
Human Trafficking Bill Passes with All-Party Support
Richard Dunwoody and I at an Angel Tree at Billy Bishop Airport – every angel represents a survivor of human trafficking
I am very happy to announce that Bill 41 received Royal Assent in the legislature last week. Thanks to everyone who supported this bill, including Richard Dunwoody who has spent several years helping survivors of human trafficking. This bill provides a legislative framework to prohibit the collection of coerced debts, and prohibits coerced debts from being taken into consideration when determining whether to provide credit services or products to a victim of human trafficking.
Since 2021, the Concord Adex Survivors Fund, an initiative of the Seeds of Hope Foundation, has helped survivors of human trafficking. The fund provides safe, affordable housing and post-secondary education support for survivors helping to rebuild their lives post-exploitation. This holiday season, Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport will host three “Angel Trees” decorated with hundreds of angels representing survivors of human trafficking.
Below are some of my recent statements at Queen’s Park:
Ontario Place
- MPP Bhutila Karpoche and I ask the government to work with Ontarians on the redevelopment of Ontario Place. Watch here.
- Calling for more transparency on the redevelopment. Watch here.
- Questioning the Therme timeline. Watch here.
Education Cuts
- Petition from our local schools regarding staff cuts. Watch here.
Environment and Bill 69
- Climate Critic MPP Peter Tabuns and I debating Bill 69, Reducing Inefficiencies Act and how development is taking priority over the environment. Watch here.
- Impacts on Ontario Place and the environment. Watch here.
Health Care Privatization
- The government’s funding of private, for-profit clinics will only worsen the health care crisis. Watch here.
Arts Funding
- Culture Critic MPP Jill Andrew and I address the cuts to arts funding in Ontario. Watch here.
International Women’s Day
- Actions the government can take for pay equity, including repealing Bill 124. Watch here.
Bill 39: Red Tape Reduction and Democracy
- Is it not possible to build housing while still respecting the outcomes of our recent municipal elections? Watch my question here.
Debate on Bill 26: Misogyny in Post-Secondary Institutions
- Statistics show that 1 in 5 women have experienced sexual assault on campuses. It’s a difficult discussion we need to have to raise awareness so we can change the culture. Watch my statement here.
The Impact of Interest Hikes on Student Loans
- Ontario students have the highest debt rate and the lowest per-student funding in the country. We need to eliminate interest on student debt. Watch my question here.
Double ODSP Rates & Improve the Homelessness Crisis
- CTV recently reported that at least two Ontarians with disabilities are choosing to die through Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) because they could not pay for housing that would reduce their suffering from their disability. Current monthly ODSP payments are 47.5 per cent short of the municipal poverty line in Toronto and 30 per cent below the province's poverty line. It is not possible to survive on these amounts in Ontario and many on ODSP are ending up homeless. I asked the Ford government to double ODSP rates. Watch my statement here.
Affordable Housing
- Rents in Toronto rose 14.5% in 2021. Those in non-rent-controlled buildings are facing rent increases of $500/month. To say that housing under the Ford government is unaffordable is a huge understatement. Watch my statement here.
Environment
- In January, my daughter gave birth to a beautiful baby boy! Becoming a grandparent has further put into perspective how urgently we need to act on the climate crisis so future generations can have a sustainable world to live in. Watch my statement here.
Ukraine
- We need to do everything we can to support the people of Ukraine in these incredibly difficult times. Watch my statement here.