Wednesday, September 2, 2015

North York residents upset by Toronto District Catholic School Board plan to expropriate homes

Canchurch feminists extend their empire
The residents of a block of 30 townhouses along Bayview Avenue, at Cummer Avenue, are upset the Toronto Catholic District School Board has decided to raze 18 of their homes.

The board of trustees voted to expropriate 17 properties on the south-end of the row of houses at a school board meeting Thursday, Aug. 27. The board already owns one of the 18 homes that are to be demolished, plus several of the 12 that are to remain standing. The decision was 6-4 in favour of expropriation.

The decision was made to make way for construction of a new 800-student all-girls high school at 500 Cummer Ave., to permanently house St. Joseph’s Morrow Park Catholic Secondary School (SJMP).

SJMP is currently located on Bayview Avenue, north of Finch Avenue, but it’s lease expires in June 2018.

“I feel like someone just snatched my house away,” said Fiona Fu, who has lived in the same home the past 17 years and where she grew up. She is now part owner with her parents. Coincidentally, she attended SJMP.

She said residents in all 30 homes, including those not being expropriated, are united in their opposition to the decision.

“None of us want to be kicked out of our houses,” she said.

The residents are reaching out to the public with the hopes someone takes up their cause after calls to the school board, councillor, MPP, and Ministry of Education have not resulted in a solution to spare their homes, Fu said.

“We’re reaching out to the public and hoping someone will hear it, someone in government, someone who oversees the Toronto Catholic District School Board, who will try to help us,” she said.  (more...)


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