It’s entirely possible that an early work by the next Atom Egoyan or David Cronenberg will screen on Wednesday night at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. With the 2013 Student Film Showcase featuring the best from post-secondary schools around the country and the Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase kicking off the evening with Toronto-area high-school students’ films, the night will be a coming-out party for a new crop of talent. Judging by the polished creativity of some of the entries, it’s safe to say that young people are more prepared than ever to start telling stories on film from an early age.

According to CBC’s Chris Boyce, the goal of this weekend’s CBCMusic.ca Festival is twofold. First and foremost, the CBC wants to celebrate Canadian music. Second, it wants to celebrate CBC Music, the broadcaster’s online music service, which launched a little over a year ago.

In 1996, Theatre Columbus premiered playwright Michael O’Brien’s “freely adapted” take on the famous Beaumarchais play The Barber of Seville, which was written in 1775. O’Brien’s version mixed in music from the 1816 opera of the same name by Gioachino Rossini, as well as original tunes by composer John Millard. The adaptation also propelled the story forward a couple centuries, with pop culture references galore. With Theatre Columbus co-founder Leah Cherniak at the helm, the musical ended the season with six Dora Award nominations (it won three) and plenty of critical acclaim.

Seventeen years later, Soulpepper Theatre is remounting this zany reimagination of The Barber of Seville, updated once again by O’Brien, Millard, and Cherniak. But, for some reason—the change in decade, or company, or sense of humour—whatever had made the original so magical, has faded, save for a few key performances.

Photo by jonathancastellino from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

While a lot of the chatter about the draft budget released by the Liberals today will be on reducing auto insurance rates by 15 per cent or Andrea Horwath’s desire to have “conversations with Ontarians,” there are also some proposals that will impact young Torontonians. Two, in particular, are worth noting:

A youth jobs strategy
One of the highlights of the Liberal budget, this part of the budget promises to, “promote employment opportunities, entrepreneurship, and innovation for youth in Ontario.”

At $295 million over two years, the investment is significant. Among the programs the jobs strategy would fund initiatives regarding entrepreneurship and innovation, but the most significant one—$195 million of the total—is an employment fund. This would promote youth employment through wage subsidies, provide advances on capital investment (such as helping recipients purchase tools and equipment they might need for work), and fund job and skills training. Other aspects of the jobs strategy include seed capital for start-ups, mentorship to connect youth to established business leaders, and high school jobs outreach.

Summer help for struggling students
A much smaller note in the budget, this is a proposed $12.6 million expansion to existing summer learning programs. The program aims to give academic support in the summer months to students in low-income communities to combat the “learning loss” phenomenon—the loss of academic skills students can experience when they aren’t in school and don’t have extra-curricular activities that help them maintain skills like reading and arithmetic.

The truth behind the tales people tell about Toronto.

Photo by photocrastinating, from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

More often than not, when youth are the perpetrators of crimes and misdemeanors, a hue and cry goes up demanding curfew laws. Proponents argue a citywide curfew would prevent young people from getting into mischief at all hours. Opponents claim curfews cast upstanding young citizens in the same light as ne’er-do-wells.

Although no city bylaw exists, both sides may be surprised to learn Toronto police already routinely enforce curfew laws. Yes: they’re already on the books.

Curfews have always been contentious. Toronto has been struggling with the issue for more than a century.

Local councils believed nine o’clock was an appropriate time to clear the streets of children. In 1894, city fathers in Toronto Junction passed a bylaw requiring those 12 and younger to be home no later than then. Firehouses announced the start of curfew by ringing tower bells. The bells pealed again at seven the next morning, lifting the nightly lockdown.

The practice of ringing bells to commence curfew wasn’t unique to Toronto, though. In fact, curfew bells date back to the middle ages.

Torontoist was unable to verify either the effectiveness of the Toronto Junction bylaw or how long it remained on the books.

With juvenile delinquency on the rise in the 1960s, the idea of a curfew was once again in vogue. In one instance, former mayor and city councilor Allan Lamport suggested imposing one in the Yorkville area, which at that point in time was a counterculural enclave. In a 1967 Toronto Star article Lamport described Yorkville as “A haven for criminals and undesirables.”

In Lamport’s view, an eight o’clock curfew for youth would have shielded teenagers from the influence of pot-smoking hippies. The recommendation went nowhere.

An inordinate number of gun crimes in 2005, plus last year’s brazen shooting on Danzig Street reignited the curfew issue. Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti (Ward 7, York West) continues to be a curfew proponent.

Claire McWatt, chair of Toronto Youth Cabinet, said her organization was unaware curfew legislation was currently in place in Toronto. McWatt said the idea “seems like an archaic solution to a bigger problem,” and would do “nothing to protect youth and enrich communities.”

If there’s no curfew bylaw in Toronto, what legislation are police enforcing when officers stop and apprehend curfew violators?

Section 79(5) of Ontario’s Child and Family Services Act states that youth 16 and under are prevented from loitering in public places and places of entertainment between midnight and six in the morning, if unaccompanied by a parent or an authorized person 18 years or older.

So if you’re out after midnight and under 16 without adult supervision, and you happen to bump into Toronto’s finest, the curfew bell tolls for you.

Additional material from the Toronto Star, September 5, 1894 and August 4, 1967.

Photo by jeff caires from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Toronto has long been known as something of a haven for the LGBTQ community. It’s become a destination for same-sex marriage ceremonies and celebrations, for Pride parties people talk about until the next one, and as a new home for many seeking a vibrant and welcoming place to live. But for homeless LGBTQ youth, it’s something of a different story.

“Due to Toronto’s LGBTQ-friendly reputation, LGBTQ youth frequently migrate to Toronto expecting to find support and safety, which unfortunately is not always the case,” says I. Alex Abramovich, a doctoral candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education whose research focuses on LGBTQ youth homelessness.

In Toronto—which, says Abramovich, is the homeless capital of Canada—the incidence of LGBTQ youth homelessness is on the rise, and agencies serving homeless youth have reported challenges in providing support to this population. Approximately 25 to 40 per cent of homeless youth are LGBTQ, compared to the approximately five to 10 per cent of the general population who identifies as such. Yet the City of Toronto does not operate a single shelter specifically for LGBTQ youth.

“We also know that many LGBTQ homeless youth feel safer on the streets than in shelters due to homophobic and transphobic violence in the shelter system,” says Abramovich. “Despite these findings, there are few specialized support services, and no specialized shelters or transitional housing for LGBTQ street involved youth in Canada.”

Abramovich recently completed a study that found a dire need for specialized services that create safe spaces for LGBTQ homeless youth, for stricter policies in the shelter system against homophobia and transphobia, and for more discussions about inclusion and acceptance among shelter providers and workers. The results of this study (which will make up Abramovich’s dissertation) will also appear in a free ebook published by the Homeless Hub this spring that will focus on applications for the research findings.

Safety is a real concern for homeless LGBTQ youth, who face significantly higher rates of criminal victimization and daily incidents of homophobia and transphobia. LGBTQ homeless youth are also at greater risk for substance use, risky sexual behaviour, and mental health difficulties, and these risk factors are amplified by the lack of available support.

Abramovich’s research also reveals that we don’t properly understand the consequences of this state of affairs. For example, we do not know enough about how the lack of specialized services impacts this population’s health, well-being, and length of time on the street; nor do we fully understand how experiencing intersecting or multiple oppressions—racism and homophobia, for instance—both on the streets and in the shelter system, impacts LGBTQ street involved youth. “Professionals working with homeless youth, as well as the general public, need a solid understanding of the impacts of homophobia and transphobia on LGBTQ people’s lives, and of the ways in which the LGBTQ community has been and still is marginalized and oppressed,” Abramovich says.

For all that we perceive our city as that safe haven, we actually do not have a thorough understanding of the connection between homophobia and homelessness, nor of the challenges of coming out and the struggles some face in forming gender and sexual identity.

While the City of Toronto does not have any shelters for LGBTQ youth, other cities have invested in these resources, something that Abramovich says we should learn from. Until then, our lack of specialized programs and a supportive atmosphere may have critical consequences.

“By the time you go, with a 14- or 15-year-old, and try to get them into a program and play basketball, some of these young guys are so completely lost to us that they represent such a significant danger, all we can do is protect everyone from them.”

—Toronto police chief Bill Blair, in conversation with the Globe and Mail, advocating for earlier intervention as a way to help prevent gang activity in the first place, rather than trying to mitigate its effects once someone is already involved. The City of Toronto will be testing a program, first tried in Saskatchewan, that works to engage young people at risk much earlier in their lives.

Monday's town hall meeting was closed to community partners and the public. Photo by Desmond Cole/Torontoist.

Young people at who have benefited from the drop-in program at Evergreen Centre want to know why it is being phased out, and why they were not consulted first. At Monday’s “town hall meeting” on the changes, staff informed service users that they will soon lose at least 10 hours of drop-in programming, as well as an art-therapy program that currently operates during those hours. The youth also learned that some drop-in staff are losing their positions, although no further details were provided.

As staff from partner agencies and the media waited outside for news (the meeting was closed to everyone but service users), we spoke with many service users who were oblivious to both the meeting and the changes. “Nobody told me anything; nobody asked me anything,” said Dre, who has been coming for years to access employment services and healthcare. He was skeptical that reducing drop-in hours in favour of visits by appointment would help his peers: “It’s going to make more trouble for these kids. They don’t have nothing to do.”

Steven Thackaberry, who has been accessing drop-in centres since age 16, said he could understand the motivation for wanting to move away from that service. He told us, “some people use these places to their advantage,” to sell drugs or recruit sex workers. He went on to say that “they should be trying to open up more places like this. A lot of us live down here on the streets or in a shelter. Where are we supposed to go?”

Sandy Watters of Central Toronto Youth Services’ outreach team told us “no one in the agency seems to have known” about the changes at Evergreen. The CTYS Youth Hostel Outreach program provides mental-health services for those who use city shelters. Watters said that the elimination of drop-in hours “may affect the youths’ ability to access mental-health services,” since it is already difficult to connect with homeless youths during daytime hours. City shelters generally do not allow patrons to remain inside during the day.

Jon Unger Brandt, the mission development officer at Evergreen’s parent agency, Yonge Street Mission, said drop-in staff would be replaced by “community capacity builders” who will help clients pursue their goals. “We need to demonstrate that we’re actively involved in these youths’ lives,” Brandt told us. He lamented that staff at Evergreen see many of the same faces year after year. “Most organizations are being pushed to not just provide drop-in services,” he said, adding that “more business and independent donors are saying ‘Can you show us that people are being transformed?’”

Brandt was sympathetic to complaints from service users that they were not consulted in advance of the changes. “I completely understand why they’re frustrated. If I were in their position, I would feel the same way.” He told us that those changes stem from Yonge Street Mission’s strategic planning—which calls for more structured interventions—and not from any funding changes. “It’s a significant shift in restructuring. It’s not about financing at this point,” he said. He was also unsure how many staff could be let go, and how reduced drop-in hours would affect access to other programs like employment and legal support.

Given that Yonge Street Mission interim executive director Bill Ryan told us that changes in the organization’s strategic direction can be traced as far back as 2006, it’s unclear why community partners and service users were only made aware of the cuts recently. Staff did not offer us any statistics or research that would shed light on the rationale behind the sudden programming changes.

We spoke with Henrittia, who has been coming to the art-therapy group for a year. “I found out [about program cuts] through my art therapist, but not a lot of people knew,” she said. Herrittia praised the drop-in as a place where her peers “are not afraid to be themselves.” She was upset that youths who have built relationships with staff are unaware of the changes. “They’re not telling the youth who’s leaving. They didn’t consult the young people and they didn’t consult the staff.”

Henrittia added that the drop-in helps service users build relationships and trust. “You’ve gotta let them move forward at their own pace. Why change what’s already good?”

Linda McGrath, who coordinates the city’s Youth Employment Partnerships initiative, says she’s waiting to hear from Evergreen about a meeting to inform its partners about the changes. McGrath says she is concerned because “there have been a number of drop-ins downtown that, if the doors haven’t closed completely, there have still been changes.” Citing barriers street youth face in building trusting relationships, McGrath told us, “if youth have created a comfort level and relationships going into a space, change does affect youth who have to recreate that trust and comfort level.”

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Evergreen Centre, a prominent downtown drop-in space that serves homeless and disadvantaged youth between the ages of 16 and 24, is planning to terminate the majority of its drop-in programming in early June. Evergreen would be the third local youth drop-in space to close its doors in the past year: Dufferin Mall Youth Services closed last June, and Youthlink Inner City ended programming in March.

Prince Charles visited Yonge Street Mission, the parent organization of Evergreen Centre, earlier this week as part of his “Seeing is Believing” charity tour. His Royal Highness marked the occasion by awarding Evergreen program director Andrew Williams with a Diamond Jubilee Award for his charitable work with marginalized populations.

Drop-in centres provide basic services like food and showers, and serve as hubs where service providers—like nurses, legal clinics, and mental health workers—can meet with clients.

While Evergreen still plans to serve meals and accommodate scheduled appointments, the informal drop-in programming that, in the centre’s own words, provides “a safe, peaceful place where [young people] can rest for the day, receive care, pursue their dreams and get the hope and encouragement they need to move beyond the harsh realities of their current lifestyle,” would, under the proposed plan, come to an end on June 4.

Organizations that provide youth drop-in services in the downtown core have been moving to more structured and scheduled programs of late. Many young people and community advocates have argued that drop-ins provide an entry point for youth who need safe space and connections to other services.

Evergreen staff will host a town hall meeting to discuss the proposed changes on Monday, May 28 at 1 p.m.

Hundreds of excited high school students packed Ryerson Theatre on Saturday to take in the finals of Toronto’s Best High School Dance Crew, a hip-hop dance competition. The impressive lineup of amateur dancers from across the GTA thrilled the crowd and shook the stage. They also paid a classy and heartfelt tribute to a departed young dancer who had been training to compete with them.

Lesean Grant Dizon loved to dance, but his family didn’t realize how deeply it touched him until shortly after his death last month, when his friends began sharing videos of him online. “He didn’t want many people to know about it,” Dizon’s uncle Rhobyn James remarked outside the theatre during an intermission. Dizon performed for family members at Christmas, and had been training with a dance crew called Eksentrik Movement to compete at the finals. “He was all things you’d want your kid to be,” said James, who described the event dedicated to Dizon as “really flattering and quite an honour,” adding that “it’s bittersweet because we’re here in memoriam.”

The competition opened with a video tribute to Dizon, and the remaining members of his group, Eksentrik Movement, closed out the competition with a piece that communicated the grief of losing their young friend. The routine included a single prop, a grey cap that belonged to Lesean.

As the crew performed, a spotlight downstage exploded and sprinkled debris onto the stage. The eerily fitting mishap prompted more than one judge to reference Dizon’s “presence” and “spririt” with his four crew members, who were exempted from the competition minimum of five dancers. Eksentrik Movement stood arm in arm and accepted condolences and a prolonged ovation after the performance as one of their members, Jason, held the cap aloft. Sobs and sniffles filled the auditorium before, during, and after the piece.

Organizer Carlos Tabuga developed the competition as an extension of Ill Skillz, an initiative he started as a student ten years ago to inspire young people and help them find a voice through dance. “The goal was to keep young people as busy as possible,” Tabuga said of his initial efforts to form a dance crew at Dante Alighieri Academy in 2002. At that time, many of his peers were discovering all-ages parties, alcohol, and drugs—especially ecstasy.

“I knew I could fit into that scene, but realized that it wouldn’t be about me,” reflected Tabuga. Instead, he and his friend Philip Sagra encouraged fellow students to express themselves through movement and rhythm. “It’s all about self-expression,” Taguba said. “Not everyone can be a ball player.” He described his team, which has engaged students across North America, as “motivational speakers who use urban culture as a hook. It’s appealing because it’s proud and rebellious, but in a good way.”

Dance crews with handles like “Adrenalyn” and “Ill-infants” grooved to hip-hop, dubstep, grime and, to the delight of the young crowd, the occasional dancehall beat. The competitors’ breathless post-performance interviews had the big-stage feel of So You Think You Can Dance, although corporate logos and shout-outs were nearly non-existent.

Razor sharp, slick showcase performances by professional crews like Moon Runners and Projextz were a special treat. The judges even got into the act, as each presented his or her credentials in a quick routine before taking a seat to evaluate the acts.

A group with the cheeky name “Hi-Heyters” took home the championship trophy and the $1000 first prize with a unique routine set in an upscale cafe. The performers sported crisp shirts and bow ties, and wove swing and jazz elements into a hip hop flow that brought the house to its feet. But notions of winning and losing took a backseat to expressions of support and acknowledgement for a community of hardworking and passionate young artists.

Mark, a dancer whose crew “J La Soul” led off the competition, told us he dances “to express myself in ways words can’t.” He was excited to have set the bar for the other teams, saying, “we did it not just for ourselves, but to inspire the whole competition.”

Judge and professional dancer Leah Totten called dance “the truest language you can speak.” Totten also touched on the very personal nature of dance as an expressive form. “You’re the only person that has your body, your mind, your spirit. When you move, it’s your truth.”

Photos by Jeegar Thakker.