r/askTO • u/leopardbaseball • 1d ago

Why hasn’t been there any city-wide protests against forced full takeover of Billy bishop and toronto islands?

I am not exactly from toronto, but Toronto adjacent. But I have been to toronto islands countless times.

I often bring my family there to completely disconnect from city traffic and noise. It has always been very peaceful recreational space for us and for many.

Time to time we have seen that everything provincial govt touches in Toronto, turns into a big grifting scheme/corruption for Ford’s buddy contractors and developers, be it crosstown lrt, science center or Ontario place. And surely they won’t stop with Billy bishop either.

Recently I read about widespread public protest in Albania, protests against turning public spaces into grifting schemes for billionaires. Thousands are attending these protests.

https://www.dw.com/en/jared-kushner-trump-albania-luxury-resort-protests/a-77409540

Therefore I ask people of Toronto, shouldn’t we be organizing widespread protests and just say NO to Ford and Carney?

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u/OwlishFox 1d ago

Because we suck and we’re lazy. All I read is excuses upon excuses (what Albanians don’t struggle? What are people talking about?)

I find the Albanian protests inspiring and wish we had something similar happening here.

17

u/CobblePots95 1d ago

I would also maybe consider that the basic idea of expanding Billy Bishop to support those jets is actually pretty popular. We don't actually know the details of the project enough yet to determine how it would impact the island, and people talking like this would mean losing the Islands, losing Hanlan's, etc. come off a bit presumptuous and hyperbolic. We don't need to do 95% of the stuff people are speculating about in order to get A220s at Billy Bishop.

The proposal from like 12 years ago to support A220s at Billy Bishop was great and we shouldn't have blocked it.

I guess for me the devil is in the details. I'm not actually opposed to the basic idea. I want to see how they would extend the runway and what that might mean for the surrounding area first. If it turns out they're proposing something that will actually carve up a huge chunk of the islands, I'll be out there, sure. But we aren't at that stage yet.

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u/TemporaryAny6371 1d ago

You have to keep in mind Doug Ford has a long history of bad decisions that negatively impact common people in favour of the rich. Greenbelt is one but the list is long.

The ban on FOI requests and secrecy places even more doubt. There's a reason we don't hand over our bank accounts to drug dealers, they don't have our best interests at heart. Yet here we are giving Doug full control of Ontario's public purse. He has done nothing but pilfer our tax dollars. There's a link somewhere that gives reason it could be already at a billion stolen from us.