The New Face - and Feet - of the Music Industry

Simon Walls

I first met Simon Walls three years ago when I was booking bands to play at the Paradise Restaurant patio on Toronto Island during Wakestock as part of a Rock For Humanity fundraiser. While I was looking for bands to fill the bill we got a press kit in the mail from Simon Walls - a singer/songwriter from Montreal - with a short note and his second EP "Don't Ask Your Eyes What the End Looks Like". His music was personal, the riffs catchy and his work ethic inspiring. Simon wanted to play Rock For Humanity shows in Toronto and we thought he was a perfect fit for the Wakestock bill. Simon has a hectic work schedule working at a youth house in Montreal and couldn't take much time off so he drove overnight from Montreal and napped in his car while he waited to meet up with us at the ferry docks.

Fast forward to the present. Simon is walking across Canada. He's no stranger to blistered heels; Walls walked over 1000 km across Spain in 2008 and used some of his footage to create the music video for "Things I Will Give Up". While Simon may have experience in roughing it, nothing could prepare him for his newest venture. Clocking in at just over 9,000 kilometers if he sticks to the route he's mapped out in advance, Simon's journey has seen the western tip of the country and will continue all the way east to the ocean. Throughout his walk, Simon documents his journey via updates to the blog on his website, plays shows wherever he can and lets his travels inspire him. When he reached the halfway point of his walk in Toronto, Simon took his newfound inspiration to the studio and will resume his walk across the country on Tuesday with a new record titled "Klein Blue". (You'll be able to buy it on iTunes in just a week or so, he says.)

Despite all of his planning prior to his departure, Simon continues to be surprised with what his walk brings. He couldn't have anticipated the kindness of strangers he's met who offer him food, money and sometimes even a place to stay. When he isn't being hosted by someone he's just met Simon sleeps in fields, parking lots, forests and campgrounds. He's been surprised by a pack of coyote's sniffing and snarling outside of his tent in the middle of the night and has endured sleeping in a field next to a tractor during a massive storm in the prairies. He's spent lonely nights in his tent (which he carries on his back while he walks) recording new song ideas on his iPhone.

On the final leg of his walk, Simon is looking forward to swimming in the ocean when he reaches St. John's, Newfoundland in September and meeting all the great people the east coast has to offer. He's looking forward to walking through Montreal, his hometown, and is hoping to get a big group of people to walk with him there. Simon's learned a few things from the first 4,800 he's walked:

I really have to pace myself at first. Take it slow. I'll have to really work on going slow all the way to Montreal, then I can pick up the pace. One of my goals is to meet more people, try and sleep in more houses as opposed to fields, in my tent.

The music industry certainly isn't easy to make it into. With it's future resting precariously in the hands of internet and new media, artists, management and labels are trying to find ways to still make a profit. With emerging artists like Simon, the future is clear. Imagine if all artists worked so hard at their art or traveled such great distances to promote their albums. No tour bus, no rider, no ego and no misplaced sense of entitlement; just pure, inspirational motivation and talent.

Whatever awaits him on the second and final part of his walk across the country, one thing is for sure - Simon will be charming the heart and ears of everyone he meets.

Simon is playing his last show in Toronto at the Cameron House on Monday, May 30, 2011 before he leaves for his walk on Tuesday morning.

Dying For A Home - Cathy Crowe's Lecture on the Need for a Social Housing Program

Last Thursday, May 19, 2011, Rock For Humanity attended the 5th annual June Callwood Lecture hosted by the Toronto Public Library.

June Callwood was a Canadian journalist and activist whose fiery passion to help others inspired and touched the lives of many. After her death in 2007, the Toronto Public Library established a lecture series in her name to honour her work within the community.

One of the women inspired by Callwood is Cathy Crowe; a nurse who took to the streets 30 years ago to help Toronto's most vulnerable. Crowe is a local activist who has taken on the fight for a national social housing program. In 1998, Crowe co-founded the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee and declared homelessness a national disaster. Rock For Humanity was drawn in by Crowe's passion for change 5 years ago and donated the proceeds of one of their shows to the TDRC and its initiatives. Since then, RFH has worked closely with Street Health; another organization Crowe has worked with that provides mental and physical health programs to the homeless and under-housed in Toronto. (Check out our beginners Photoshop skills via the handbill for our concert benefitting the TDRC…embarrassing!)

Cathy Crowe's lecture titled "The Kitchen is the Heart of the Home" focused on the vulnerable men, women and children who are literally dying for homes while the government cuts funding and social programs designed to help them.

As a public heath nurse, Crowe's home visits introduced her to men and women living in substandard housing without the basic necessities many of us take for granted. Crowe tells the story of one man who lived in a room that served as his bedroom, kitchen (with only a can opener and one set of utensils) as well as his bathroom (a pail). His weekly grocery list was short: canned salmon and strawberries. Crowe explains that the recent shortage of food at drop-ins, shelters and soup kitchens is just that - recent - and those with medical conditions, allergies or cultural food requirements are forced to eat whatever is available.

Crowe recalls the first Out of the Cold program in 1987 where shelters and church kitchens opened their doors to serve hot, home cooked meals to whoever showed up. While the food supply has declined, the Out of the Cold program continues with about 120 volunteers at each site and a growing number of people needing the service. For the first time since its inception, the program was forced to turn people in need away. The fact that we are still relying on volunteer-run, faith-based programs to provide food and shelter for those in need is astounding and a true reflection that our government does not prioritize the right to shelter or access to food.

Along with the Harris-initiated cuts to housing and social assistance budgets, there have also been rules created that prohibit city-funded agencies from providing food, blankets and supplies to those living on the streets without adequate housing. These rules prohibiting social supports were put in place in an attempt to stop “enabling” the homeless to continue living on the streets, while shelters are over capacity with people, viruses and bedbugs. The controversial Tent City on Toronto's waterfront was at one point home to over 100 men and women receiving support from outreach agencies like TDRC until these people were forced out of their homes to make way for a Home Depot.

"It used to be that someone dying homeless was an extreme event such as a freezing death ... We eventually reached a point when we could no longer keep up with responding to the deaths - there were simply too many."

The Church of the Holy Trinity now co-hosts a monthly memorial for those who die homeless and serve a lunch for everyone that attends. In one month this year 13 names were added to the memorial and that only counts the names the community has tracked. Obtaining these numbers is hard enough work since neither the Coroner's office or Public Health track homeless deaths.

In terms of current initiatives, there are 7 affordable housing complex's being built right now. St. Clare's at 180 Sudbury Street will have 190 units on completion and will focus on housing families. It's been sprayed against bedbugs, has a balcony for every apartment, a 24 hour security team and has the option of fully accessible apartments.

Homes like these are relatively rare as of late. The last federal budget did not address housing and the last provincial budget cut funding for affordable housing. Cathy Crowe's describes the latest fight for housing as a different sort of fight. This fight will be waged in the courtroom. TDRC members have met with legal experts and have filed a Constitutional Charter challenge on the right to housing with the Superior Court of Canada. Updates will be posted to the TDRC website as they happen.

"Today, we continue to need kitchens of relief, the kitchens where loving hands stir soups

and chili to serve those in need...But we also need those same hands to stir the political pot, to make sure we get off this path."

So what can we do? Sure, it’s easy to sit back and feel helpless while doing nothing. Cathy Crowe suggests funneling donations (of time, energy, or funds) into three distinct efforts: front-line work like volunteering at a soup kitchen, housing efforts (raising awareness or donations) and supporting advocacy (such as writing letters to local politicians and attempting to influence systemic change).

A Call to Action: Does Rob Ford’s “gravy train” include shelter services benefitting the homeless? He seems to think so.

It isn’t too often we have the chance to directly influence the plight of Toronto’s homeless and at risk communities. This month, we all have the opportunity to affect the City of Toronto’s budget and make sure it includes money to maintain the city’s shelters and services.

We hope that you accept this call to action and take part!

On Feburary 28, 2011, city councillors will vote on Rob Ford’s Budget Committee’s proposed budget for the City of Toronto. The budget proposed a staggering amount of cuts that will directly affect Toronto’s homeless.

According to OCAP (www.ocap.ca ) there are 76, 549 people on the affordable housing waiting list in Toronto. Despite this staggering number, Rob Ford’s proposed budget intends to dramatically reduce spending on shelter beds for the homeless. The budget is proposing to cut 40,000 shelter beds which equals about 100 beds per night throughout the city. The 40,000 lost beds will be replaced with 6,000 motel rooms for refugee claimants. Not only will those 40,000 bed spaces lose the food and service supports of the shelter, but refugee claimants will be geographically isolated from the services they need. For residents who can barely afford housing as it stands, the budget hopes to cut $100,000 per person from the fund that assists in representing tenants faced with evictions.

The existing housing and shelter crisis in Toronto will only intensify with Rob Ford’s proposed budget cuts.

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) is organizing a mass call-in to city councillors prior to them placing their vote on the 2011 Budget. The call-in will take place February 14-18^th. You can find your local councillor’s contact information here: http://app.toronto.ca/wards/jsp/wards.jsp

All of the information contained in this post may be found on the OCAP website www.ocap.ca

Should Crimes Against the Homeless be Considered Hate Crimes?

This issue has been brought up again and again in Canada and the U.S. Just yesterday, Senate Bill 4 in Colorado brought the issue to the forefront once again, proposing that “homeless” should be added to the definition of an “identifiable group”, making those charged with a bias-motivated hate crime against the homeless receive an enhanced punishment .

Canadian hate crime legislation can be found in Section 718.2(a)(i) which states that the Court should consider the following principles in sentencing:
“evidence that the was motivated by bias, prejudice or hate based on race, national or ethnic origin, language, colour, religion, sex, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, or any other similar factor,”.

If the Criminal Code can be amended to include the homeless, a large proportion of bias-based crimes could be addressed. More homeless people are murdered or assaulted due to a bias-based selection than any other of the groups identified in current legislation combined. The recent increase of videos depicting teens and young adults assaulting the homeless are just further proof that this is an issue that needs to be addressed by our government.

It’s easy to see the benefit in amending the definition to include the homeless. Advocates argue that due to their increased vulnerability (such as children or the mentally disabled) they are entitled to special protection. I believe such legislation may act as a deterrent to prevent future crimes against this vulnerable group as well as serve as proof that the government is serious about protecting and helping the homeless community. But what are the arguments against these changes? Some argue that the current laws are adequate and by changing legislation to include the homeless, we would thereby be forcing prosecutors to prove that not only was the victim actually homeless but also that the accused knew the victim was homeless and committed the crime because of it. To me, this argument seems flawed since we’re already doing this with other groups identified in the current legislation including religion, mental or physical disability and sexual orientation. Moreover, legislation stipulates that the crime must be committed against someone due to a “real or perceived grouping or circumstance”. As long as the perpetrator believed the victim was homeless (or Jewish, or gay) when they committed the crime, then there should be no need to prove that they are actually a part of the targeted group.

Hard data on crimes against the homeless is difficult to obtain. The majority of crimes go unreported by the homeless community and authorities are generally reluctant to collect the data, often blaming the homeless for the crimes committed against them. In fact, data including crimes against the homeless didn’t begin to be collected until 1998, and in most places, closer to 2005.

So what do you do when you can’t close and lock your door to keep the bad guys out? To lock your door and know you are safe from physical harm? Hopefully, you’ll be able to push the government to include you as a protected class so that those who commit bias-motivated crimes against you receive enhanced punishments.

Welcome To The New Rock For Humanity Dot Com!

After messing around with different sites, designs, and designers we have finally launched the new rockforhumanity.com!

We are so excited to be able to bring you the latest updates, news and information regarding homelessness, poverty some of the most important issues happening in your city. Bookmark us, as updates will be coming fast and furious!