So when Milloy presented to the Standing Committee on Social Policy at Queen’s Park on behalf of The Trans Lobby Group, she spoke with passion and experience. Milloy transitioned to become a young woman, and the obstacles she faced inform her position that Gay-Straight Alliances can help create a culture of support and understanding. “I used to daydream that a magic rock would fall from space, and transform everyone into the opposite sex; I wanted the tables to finally be turned,” she said.

Politics tends to be unconducive to empathy and nuance, and the GSA issue is such a case. Some groups feel as though Bill 13, the legislation endorsed by GSA advocates, turns the tables too much.

Among the deputants against the bill were the Christian Heritage Party, the Catholic Civil Rights League, and the Family Coalition Party of Northern Ontario. Representing the latter, Jane Djivre rhetorically asked the committee why, with Bill 13, the interests of 5 per cent of the student population are being prioritized over those of the 95 per cent unaffected by gay bullying in schools. Phil Lees of the Public Education Advocates for Christian Equity added that “[his] son gets bullied by the gay students because they’ve built up their confidence by being members of the GSA clubs.”

Other critics of Bill 13 contend that extending extra support to LGBTTIQQ2S youth gives them special privilege over other groups, misses the broader problems of bullying, or infringes on the rights of religious individuals and other objectors. They tend to prefer the opposition’s proposed Bill 14, which makes the legislation about anti-bullying more broadly. In this bill, the solution would be the establishment of “Respecting Differences” clubs, without any explicit reference to sexuality.

However, the evidence supporting the need for and effectiveness of GSAs is strong. LGBTTIQQ2S teens are almost five times more likely to attempt suicide, but studies show that, with GSAs, participating students enjoy more favourable social outcomes, less depression, and improved school results. Milloy adds that she started to receive this peer support at age 16 and it was incredibly critical to her well-being, and this is why other students should have the right to form their own GSA clubs.

Despite this, the GSA process in Ontario has been fraught and contentious. Many pro-GSA activists have argued that Bill 13 is watered down and ambiguous in order to avoid a lawsuit with a Catholic-school board. This claim is bolstered by recent tweets from openly gay Liberal MPP Glen Murray, who hints that a court fight seems inevitable. Seconding this sentiment is GSA coalition lawyer Douglas Elliott, who has argued the vague language of Bill 13 may be the key to winning a future court battle, and this is the most the government can get through right now.

Stuck in the middle of the debate are students who, like Milloy, feel a lack of respect and support from their institutions and peers alike.

Standing in the centre of the stuffy committee room, Milloy leaves the attending MPPs with a question: “So many kids who are exactly like me don’t make it through. We tell them ‘it gets better,’ but when do we start to make it better?”

Two days earlier, the 40-year-old small-time crook had assassinated Martin Luther King on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. Having spent time in Toronto and Montreal the previous year after escaping prison on an armed robbery charge, he evaded the ensuing manhunt by ducking across the border again with a counterfeit passport.

Ray was observed by locals buying a newspaper every morning, and whiled away his evenings at bars like Spadina Avenue’s Silver Dollar. He bunked at 102 Ossington for just 11 days, receiving only one telephone call in that time, before moving to another flophouse at 962 Dundas St. W.

When the FBI’s pursuit of Ray became public knowledge on April 19, the Szpakowskis forwarded tips about their former tenant to law enforcement. A flurry of RCMP officers descended on the house, sweeping Ray’s recent crash pad for evidence. When he flew to London on May 6, he was apprehended at Heathrow Airport.

Questions still surround Ray’s stay in Toronto: A 2008 CBC investigation revealed that, of Ray’s four aliases,
three belonged to men living in Scarborough, which prompted speculation about a possible network that helped conceal Ray during his month-long hideout.

The house, divided into apartments, still stands today, nestled between the Lower Ossington Theatre and a vintage clothing store. Once sold by the Szpakowskis for $26,000,it fetched $695,000 in 2007.

Values like local, fresh, healthy and, of course, deliciousness are beginning to enter the hospital sphere, with Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital leading by example.

At last night’s panel discussion on strengthening local food connections in healthcare, held in a committee room at City Hall, the 20-odd attendees got the chance to, as moderator and Food Forward volunteer Linda Swanston put it, “play city councilors.”

Seated at spiraled tables and lavish leather chairs, participants listened to Heather Fletcher, Food Services Manager at St. Michael’s Hospital, as well as Franco Naccarato, program manager at the Greenbelt Fund, and Elena Hall, Green Team Member/Seed to Feed Organizer at Princess Margaret Hospital, discuss the methods and outcomes of incorporating fresh, local food into healthcare institutions, and got the opportunity to submit questions on the topic.

Here’s what I learned:

1. Definitions around local food aren’t easy to come by: In 2010 and 2011, when St. Michael’s Hospital began looking into ways of making their food-services department more sustainable, they found it difficult to get clear information on what constituted local food. They couldn’t find data comparing the cost of local procurement and conventional food purchases, and the origins of much of their current food products were unknown. Fletcher said that there was limited communication between parties along the distribution chain, a lack of knowledge about what local products were available (and when), and uncertainty about whether farmers and distributors were even aware of hospitals’ food needs.

2. Research showed St. Mike’s there was no reason not to go local: In 2012, St. Michael’s Hospital got a grant from the Broader Public Sector Investment Fund, which aims to increase the purchase of Ontario foods in public institutions. The money allowed St. Mike’s to hire a local-food coordinator and implement a local-food procurement strategy.

“We couldn’t find a reason not to do it—there was no downside,” Fletcher explained.

They discovered that the food-services budget and amount of labourers did not need to be increased, and that, in working within their existing framework, purchasing processes did not need to change.

“We went through competitive processes just like we do for all purchases … we found [some] new vendors who may not have participated before.”

Additionally, the introduction of local food generally lent itself to infusing a freshness into the patients’ meals that was previously lacking.

“There’s still a lot of research to be done [about the correlation between local food and freshness], but for us it was about putting fresh food on the patient’s menu,” Fletcher said.

“Freshness is important because of the perception of quality … we don’t have enough research to be able to say, ‘you’re going to have better health outcomes [from local or fresh food],’ but it was about quality and [improved] patient experience.”

Though the term of the grant is now finished and the local-food coordinator has moved on, the hospital is continuing to push ahead with the local food initiative; 38.5 per cent of food at St. Mike’s is now local, and the number is perceived to be growing. The current food-services philosophy is “when all things are equal, we buy local first.”

3. Local food led to a more excited staff: One of the most promising developments of “taking the ‘hospital’ out of hospital food,” said Fletcher, was that the food-services staff became much more engaged in their work. Having used a switch from frozen, imported vegetables to fresh, local vegetables as a starting point, staff seemed to “come alive,” and began to refer to the local-food project as “putting the love back in.”

Naccarato pointed out that, though healthcare facilities arguably have the most restrictions around food of all public institutions, from what he has generally seen among hospital staff, there is a great deal of optimism and excitement about becoming more innovative with meal plans.

“They really see the value of putting the love back in.”

4. Local food has contributed to greater patient satisfaction at St. Mike’s: In collecting data on patient satisfaction with food, St. Mike’s found that the number of surveyed patients who rated the hospital food as “excellent” increased by a whopping 206 per cent since local food was introduced. Feedback forms show many patients are pleased with the freshness and high quality of the food, even if they are not specifically aware of, or concerned with, the food being local.

Elena Hall, who facilitates a community garden project with the University Health Network and Scadding Court Community Centre, said that Seed to Feed helps hospital staff and patients deepen their relationship with food by participating in hands-on growing.

“The space itself is very nurturing … it provides a space for mental and physical relaxation.”

5. Garlic roasted mashed potatoes make patients particularly happy: St. Mike’s continues to collect data on patient satisfaction, and has found that, as staff get creative and experiment with recipes according to the season, the dish that’s got patients raving (well, as much as one can rave when sick) is the garlic roasted mashed potatoes.

Did you grow up listening to U2?

Oh yeah, always. It was them and The Police. Sting and Bono were my two guys.

Are you a Joshua Tree guy? Achtung Baby? Zooropa?

I guess Joshua Tree was what really turned me onto U2. I remember hearing it and just thinking: Wow. My favourite album, though, would probably be Pop.

Seriously? That one is the worst!

I know it wasn’t well received, but I love it. For me, it’s the theatrics. The tour for that album really took things to a whole new level in terms of theatrics.

Have you ever thought, god, I never want to hear another bloody U2 song for as long as I live.

Never. People who know me can’t get over how I never get bored of it. I could listen to U2 from when I wake up in the morning to when I go to sleep. I love all types of music, but when I want to feel uplifted, I put U2 on.

Or you could just look in the mirror.

Yeah, but I don’t see that at all. Also, I don’t walk around with the glasses on. I wore them today for the shoot.

Did people stop you on your way here?

Oh yeah, like crazy. I took the GO Train and the TTC. People stopped me on both.

Do you think they were thinking, “What the eff is Bono doing riding the rocket?”

I think they have that initial reaction, but then most people stop themselves and think, “Wait—he wouldn’t be here.” So then it’s, “Who does this guy think he is? What a pompous ass to pretend to be Bono.”

Do you ever put on the Dublin accent?

No—mostly because I’m not very good at it. Unless I’ve had some Guinness. I was really great at it when I was in Dublin. I never drank so much Guinness in my life. Generally, though, I really don’t try to pass myself off as him.

Not even to skip a line or get a table at a restaurant?

We did do that, years ago. My management wanted to test the power of Bono. We went to Sassafraz one night. They cleared people out and shut down the dining room for us. We never lied—they just assumed.

I’ve heard the reverse as well—that the real Bono has pretended to be you to avoid the paparazzi.

There have been reports. I also heard that one night in New Zealand, he got turned away from one of the really hot VIP clubs because I was already in there. But I can’t personally confirm that.

If I asked Bono who the top Bono impersonator was, would he say Matt Easter?

I’m not sure. I know he’s said that seeing me spooked him out. I have fooled his security. When I was in Dublin, I went to see his house to get a picture, you know, as a fan. The place is surrounded by these 16-foot gates, and as I approached, the gates opened. When his security realized the truth, they couldn’t believe it.

Maybe you “spooked him out” because he thinks that you’re trying to break into his house!

Ha. Right.

Can you tell me how you went from being an aspiring musician to a globe-trotting Bono impersonator?

I was doing my own music in 2005, playing for maybe 20 people once or twice a month. One night in the winter, these two music-industry gentlemen were there and asked me if I could sing like Bono. I had done that all through high school, so I did “With or Without You,” “One,” and “Desire.” They signed me to a contract at 2:30 in the morning.

Do you ever feel like you gave up on your own music?

I would love for this to be a stepping-stone to making a CD of my own music, but it’s mostly a time issue. I was travelling so much for a few years there, and then I went back to teaching and I’m a dad to three little boys.

Do your sons get confused when they see Bono?

My twin eight-year-olds have only just started to get it. My four-year-old still says, “Daddy, Daddy,” any time he sees him.

You mentioned being a teacher.

I’ve been with the Peel School Board for 24 years. My official title is behavioural educational resource facilitator, which is a fancy term for behavioural teaching assistant. I have worked with a lot with young offenders. Right now, I’m working with younger kids with behaviour issues. The hope is that, with my help, these kids can be integrated into the mainstream system.

What happens if your touring schedule doesn’t jibe with your teaching schedule?

I actually had to quit my job to do the Vertigo Tour. I gave up all my seniority and benefits. Luckily, I was able to go back to it. I know U2 is working on a new album now and I have a feeling it might be their last. If I got the call tomorrow to go on tour, I would drop everything.

LIGHTNING ROUND!

Beatles or Stones?

Beatles.

John or Paul?

Paul.

Favourite junk food?

Cookies.

Favourite seasoning?

Frank’s Hot Sauce.

News source?

Metro.

Political party?

It changes.

Favourite denim?

Levi’s.

Ocean or lake?

Ocean.

Person you want to meet in heaven?

My dad.

1843: Theme-park entrepreneurs the Privat brothers open Toronto Island’s first amusement park, the Peninsula Pleasure Grounds. It includes two swings, a bowling alley, a merry-go-round, and a zoo. A giant storm in 1858 sweeps it all into Lake Ontario.

1886: One of the first rollercoaster accidents in Canadian history occurs at Hanlan’s Point’s Switchback Railway, when a car jumps the track and dumps nine riders onto a barbed-wire fence.

1903: Hanlan’s Point’s baseball stadium, built in 1897, catches fire and burns down. Another is built in its place; it too burns down, in 1909.

1910-ish: One of the main attractions at Hanlan’s Point is a 40-foot diving platform off of which horses are made to “jump”—a non-PETA-friendly amusement commonto fairs at the time.

1923: The Evening Telegram newspaper sponsors a “Water Nymph Carnival” at Sunnyside Amusement Park, a swimsuit competition intended to “encourage young girls in the art of swimming.”The park hosts the first Miss Toronto contest three years later.

1929: Sunnyside Park debuts a new ride called The Whoopee. Two riders are thrown off due to a gear failure, after which the ride is renamed The Swooper.

1955: Sunnyside Amusement Park closes to make way for the Gardiner Expressway, and its “King Arthur Carrousel” is purchased by Disney for Disneyland, its then-new park in Anaheim, California.

1981: A free Ontario Place concert by Hamilton punk band Teenage Head goes awry as staff shut the gates to keep an already massive audience from swelling even more. Instead, fans crash the gates, and eventually the stage, prompting the band themselves to flee. Ontario Place bans rock concerts for four years afterwards.

1988: A teenager drowns in the water at the foot of Wonderland’s Wonder Mountain, trying to retrieve a Frisbee—it’s the only amusement-park death in the province’s history.

2006: Paramount sells Canada’s Wonderland, necessitating some name changes to rides named after the company’s movie properties: The Italian Job: Stunt Track becomes Backlot Stunt Coaster, Top Gun becomes Flight Deck, and Tomb Raider: The Ride becomes Time Warp.

2011: Wonderland announces Leviathan, a $28-million coaster that tops out at 148 km/h. Despite the hype, rollercoaster expert Robert Coker tells the Toronto Star that the Swiss firm that created the ride, Bolliger & Mabillard, aren’t loved by all coaster fans—their rides are too smooth. “Some find them to be a little too refined,” he says. “There’s not a rough edge anywhere.”

2012: 648 people lose their jobs when the provincial government shuts down most of Ontario Place (600 summer jobs, 48 full-time).

And yet such a club is the likely result of the provincial government’s much-discussed Bill 13, the anti-bullying legislation being debated at Queen’s Park this week. Even though parts of the bill have been written to directly address the tendency of the publicly funded Catholic boards in the province to ban Gay-Straight Alliance clubs among students, the bill does not require that Gay-Straight Alliance clubs be allowed.

As the press secretary for Education Minister Laurel Broten confirmed to me this week, the language of the clause that specifically requires schools to allow pupils to form groups to support gay students also allows Catholic schools to insist those students not use the word “gay.” As the Ontario Catholic School Trustees’ Association, in supporting the bill, has helpfully explained, the bill would allow them to insist that “Respecting Difference” groups, as they prefer to call them, adhere to Catholic teaching on the subject—that is, the understanding that gay people are “intrinsically disordered”—and avoid any discussion of sexuality.

Gay-Straight Alliance coalition lawyer Douglas Elliott, who also supports the bill, weighed in on the issue this week in Xtra, saying the language is foggy on purpose so that Catholic school boards will think it allows them to continue to promote their anti-gay approach to ending anti-gay bullying. But if the students take their school boards to court, he suggests, that same weaselly language will lead to a triumph for equality and diversity. “It will end up in the courts regardless. It’s a question of whether it will be students v. Catholic boards or Catholic boards v. government of Ontario, with students caught in the crossfire.” Clearly, Elliott seems to suggest, high-school students are better equipped to fight and win a constitutional battle than the provincial government. Or, at least, they’re more likely to find their spines. Elliott himself says he’d prefer that the government exercise its own backbone, but he isn’t hopeful. “Realistically, the Liberals have gone as far as they’re willing and able to do.”

Now, without diminishing this clever legal knot Premier Dalton McGuinty is tying, I cannot help but notice that the real legal puzzle here remains the public funding of Catholic schools—a historical accident protected by the Constitution. (It’s kind of like those persistent laws that prohibit dragging a dead horse down Yonge Street on Sunday.) When public funding for Catholic schools was enshrined, all education was religious education, and the province’s Catholic minority was guaranteed their students wouldn’t be indoctrinated into any one else’s religion using government funds. So once upon a time, the separate school board protected a marginalized group. Ironically, this has now been turned on its head, so that Catholics—alone among religious groups in the province—hold a privileged position. Now, they are using that position and their government funding to marginalize an oppressed group.

The idea that this antiquated system would triumph in a constitutional throwdown against the Charter is silly. Other provinces have overturned similar systems. The politicians claiming shelter behind constitution talk are just masking their fear of a fight with Catholic voters.

McGuinty and his government should fix the language in Bill 13 to address its inherent absurdities before it comes to a vote. And if that prompts a fight with Catholic educators, so be it. The idea that the public should fund religious education is as outdated as the idea of same-sex desire as “the love that dare not speak its name.” If the Catholic school boards want to force us to confront and confirm just how obsolete those ideas are, then all the better.

Are you happy you moved?

Most definitely. Moving not only led me to my husband, but also onto a not-so-straightforward path to my dream job. Once we landed in Stockholm, I fell into copywriting and brand strategy for an advertising agency, but then I hit some sort of early-to-mid-life crisis and thought about what I really wanted to do. I always wanted to work in fashion, so I basically just cold-called the magazine I admired the most in Stockholm. What did I have to lose? I suppose it was a case of right place, right time since they hired me. Now I work on the English international edition of Bon, but also provide editorial direction for clients such as H&M.

Does anything about Sweden remind you of Toronto?

The winter! And having to buy booze from a state-run monopoly.

What do you tell your friends in Toronto about Sweden?

It’s just a blonder version of Canada, really. Also, that the winter in Sweden can be twice as long, which sucks massively, but the summer is absolutely glorious. Twenty hours of daylight sounds mental, but it makes for incredibly fun “nights.”

What has surprised you about moving to Sweden from Toronto?

Just how seriously health-conscious—or is it just plain healthy?—Swedes are compared to Torontonians. Going to the gym or staying active is a way of life, and there’s no such thing as a fried-chicken joint or doughnut shop in Stockholm, much to my chagrin. However, when you just can’t bear the thought of shoving another quinoa salad into your mouth, or it’s 2 a.m. and you want something to eat, your only choice is McDonald’s. As a consequence, I have never eaten so much from McDonald’s in my life!

[Fashion-wise] Toronto is a lot more fun than Stockholm. More colours, prints, risk-taking. Stockholm is very much about a uniform: normally slim silhouettes, black/grey/shots-of-white colour palette, and not sticking out. But it’s funny how that is why people think Stockholm is so “cool.” I find it a bit boring.

What do you miss most about Toronto?

A no-brainer: the food. Things like doughnuts, Coffee Crisp and street meat spring to mind, but also the sheer variety, quality, and cheapness of restaurants. I miss Kensington Market for the fresh food and markets, Moonbean coffee shop, the vintage shops. Compared to Stockholm, the sheer variety of different foods [in Toronto] is mind-boggling. Like. I can get Portuguese Pasteis de nata whenever I wanted from the bakery on Ossington, or Chinese food at 3 a.m. at Rol San on Spadina. I miss Baldwin Street for all the restaurants. I probably spent way too much time browsing Holt’s when in university, but I also stalked Uncle Otis and TNT in Hazelton Lanes regularly.

I also miss the openness of people in Toronto. I don’t know if most Torontonians realize it, but when out and about, you constantly have short yet pleasant interactions with complete strangers—the dude next to you at the bar, the shop assistant, the kid on a skateboard yelling across the street from you because they like your sneakers. It’s a bit more reserved, or cautious, here in Sweden. I believe being part of a multi-cultural community and culture is something that makes Torontonians a lot more welcoming and understanding than Stockholmers. There’s less of a “fear of foreigners” because almost everyone is a foreigner in some way in Toronto.

What don’t you miss at all about Toronto?

The humidity in the summer. My husband actually laughed when he first heard me talk about “humidex.” But he now knows it’s not a joke.

Would you ever go back to Toronto?

Yes. For the right job, though. Having said that, the moment a proper doughnut shop opens up here in Stockholm, all bets are off.

Are you from Toronto and doing something cool somewhere else? Email Kate@TheGridTO.com.

The bar’s burlesque brunch is a monthly occasion, but last Sunday’s Mother’s Day edition was a family affair, with a hodge-podge of mother-daughter duos, wide-eyed husbands, and regulars pleased to have a side of nipple tassels with their bacon and eggs.

Rather than dialing back the sauce, 34-year-old co-founder Fionna Flauntit thought the Mother’s Day show was a perfect way to make moms proud. “It’s like, ‘You know what moms? Come out and do something different!’” said Flauntit, who isn’t on speaking terms with her own mother. “Maybe I should phone her, like, ‘Do you wanna come to my brunch?’ But that’s a whole other can of worms.”

Carly McGhee brought her “non-traditional” mom, Donna, after being unable to secure reservations at The Drake. “My mom likes funky things and living vicariously,” said McGhee, as their midday beers arrived at the table. Donna confirmed: “I like being outside the box…when I can.”

The retro-maternal theme was evident in the afternoon’s roster: Dolly Berlin channeled a naughty  housewife along with a Mr. Clean theme; Esther De Ville, a statuesque brunette, stripped out of a trench coat before dousing her exposed chest in sparkling wine; and Mena Von Fleisch sat in the audience with her one-year-old twin girls, who looked on as Sucre à la Crème shimmied out of her 37-foot-long blue sheath dress, complete with a googly-eyed hood, to Sesame Street’s “C is for Cookie.”

Coquettish redhead Miss La Muse covered up her fringy blue brassiere long enough to make an onstage long-distance call to
her mother’s house in Cape Breton. The senior Miss La Muse didn’t seem to mind being the unwitting finale to her daughters’ show. “Love you sweetheart,” she said, long-distance. “Have fun!”

“The guy who does the cider told me they’re gonna end up with only five per cent of their apple crop,” said farmer Dan Morreale. “And all of their other fruits, except maybe currants, just aren’t gonna happen.”

Milan Bizjak, owner of Bizjak Farms, a Niagara-area outfit, said he’s had 50 per cent crop damage across the board. “Because of the warm weather in March, followed by the two nights of frost at a critical point…some varieties have been completely wiped out.”

Sandra Dombi, meanwhile, co-owner of Kind Organics, had a different problem with lettuce: a huge bumper crop and a sales boost. When the weather got cold again, she was left unprepared for the downturn. “Now, everything’s backwards,” she said.

But growing sprouts has given Dombi an optimistic perspective on the weather that her fruit-growing neighbours might not share.

“Nature has an intelligence,” she said. “It’s used to weird weather. In my greenhouse, which is not heated, if we have a cold night, everything will freeze solid. But if there’s sun, then everything comes back to life, and it’s completely harvestable and a little bit sweeter because the frost crystallizes the proteins and sugars. So, it’s actually extra-good. It’s pretty awesome.”

Rebecca Green, a coordinator of the farmers’ market at East Lynn Park near Danforth and Woodbine, talked about how establishing their market helped transform the neglected space from a nexus of crime to a neighbourhood hub, noting how kids have been dragging their parents out to the weekly markets, rather than the other way around, making the park a multi-generational destination.

Afterwards, when members of the audience were invited to submit park-improvement recommendations on Post-It Notes, one clearly child-printed suggestion stood out: “A slide.”