Category Archives: Toronto Sun

14

Jan. ’10

That Guy We love was Murdered, Here In Toronto. We should be Pissed!!

Ever since I read about the murder of Kenneth Mark, I couldn’t help thinking about it. He was called an anti-gang activist and stood up to the bad guys here in Toronto when called upon to do so.  He was a good man who bought ice cream for local kids. So what  happened?

Well the gangs were angry with him for trying to prevent recruitment in his neighborhood. So they murdered him. But who killed him? Read below.  Three teens. Three kids, two of whom are 16. 16 years old! That’s it.

We need to be up in arms about this. Kenneth was a genuine warrior, a courageous man, some would call a hero. Right here in squeaky clean Toronto he was gunned down by kids, for helping to save kids. We need to be  up in arms about this and figure out how it is that such an execution could happen here; could happen to such a good man; was perpetrated by kids — and mostly, how come we’re not royally pissed off…angry, figuring this o ut.

This our town and the guy we all hope to be was murdered. He and his family need our response. What is it? Where is it? What do you think? Come on. Let’s figure this out.  It is so terrible. So terrible!

________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Two teens charged in Kenneth Mark slaying By ROB LAMBERTI, Toronto Sun

14th January 2010

Kenneth Mark was slain on a Toronto street Dec. 29, 2009. Two teens are charged with the assassination-style murder of a west-Toronto activist. Lamar Skeete, 19, of no fixed address, and a 16-year-old boy, who can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, were arrested Thursday morning without incident and charged with first-degree murder in the Dec. 29 slaying of Kenneth Mark. Toronto homicide detectives are continuing their manhunt for a third suspect, who is also 16 years old. Mark, 29, was gunned down as he left a Dundas St. W. pizza shop near Runnymede Rd. and was headed for work at a nearby Wal-Mart. Det. Hank Idsinga said the younger teen was captured this morning in Etobicoke while the older teen was arrested in the City of York. He said both were arrested without incident. Police haven’t ruled out the possibility that his death may be related to when Mark was wounded in a shooting on Sept. 2, 2008. He was hit in the back with birdshot and two teens were arrested on attempt murder charges. The two accused in that trial were acquitted last.

Posted by . Categories: Activism, Characters & People, Toronto Sun. Tags: , , . Leave a comment

02

Nov. ’09

Theresa fought her way off the street, out of despair (My Toronto Sun Article)

Theresa Schrader - Ya!

She was a prostitute. A whore. A sex-trade worker and homeless. She was the type of throw-away woman homicide officers might scoff at, had she been murdered.

But she wasn’t. In fact one day soon she’ll be a certified social service worker.

From 1997 to 2005, Theresa Schrader, now 33, walked the streets around Islington and Lakeshore exchanging sex for cash with Toronto’s johns. Once the job was done, Theresa would gather herself and hurry off to her dealer.

Theresa Schrader was a crack addict, big time. Whitney Houston was right when she said, “crack is whack.” It is a highly addictive substance that actually cracks the lips and often empties the wallets and lives of those using.

It did. That’s all Theresa had. No home, sex for pay, crack for the day, and tomorrow — the same desperate schedule.

Theresa was born in Parrsboro, N.S. and raised in Liverpool, N.S. She was thrown out by her adoptive mom at 18. At 22, her newborn son was taken from her by Children’s Aid. At 23 she handed over another child.

Theresa’s life was horrible. Fate made it so. She helped it along.

One day Theresa bought a gun, planning to kill herself on Christmas. Eminem, the rapper, wrote in a song rock-bottom is when “this life makes you mad enough to kill.” In Theresa’s case her victim would have been herself.

On the way to pick up the gun the cops stymied her plans by arresting her for a misdemeanour. Theresa called that moment “divine intervention.” While in jail she decided suicide would ruin her holidays.

Had Theresa killed herself on that holy day it would have made sense. According to prostitution.com, a nonprofit organization that conducts research on prostitution, 75% of sex trade workers will attempt suicide. Theresa had tried before.

AWARD-WINNING PIECE

The study states: 80% of prostitutes have been raped, sometimes 10 times a year. Theresa was brutally raped by a john, a crime she describes in her award-winning piece for a creative writing contest for the homeless sponsored by Ve’ahavta.

Such is the life of a prostitute. Such were Theresa’s days and nights. She was a dishevelled and melancholy soul.

But that was then.

Today Theresa, through sheer bravery, support and thought, has stopped street walking and smoking crack. After years of abusing, Theresa accomplished something as difficult for a “normal person” to do as fighting off a fierce lion. She grew.

In 2009, Theresa is taking the Social Service Worker Program at George Brown College. She is raising a handsome three-year-old son with her “village” in Cabbagetown.

Theresa is a regular public speaker at the Toronto John School and through Voices from the Street, a charity facilitating public speaking for former homeless people. She is a mentor for women who walked the same streets she did, and has won countless academic awards from places such as the Yonge Street Mission.

Theresa, who will be a certified life coach at the end of June, is launching a consulting business and just aced her first mid-term exam.

Here is a snapshot of a girl who was abused, bullied, alienated, incarcerated, beaten, bruised and high on crack cocaine for a decade. Here is the life of a woman who was often with 10 men in a night.

Here is a short story of a beautiful human being who today is a role model for many men and women, a supported and supportive mom, a student, volunteer and multiple award winner.

Theresa is getting ready once again to reveal her tricks. This time on her website, where she will instruct other women how to gather the courage to get out of the trap she fell into. Stay tuned.

http://www.torontosun.com/comment/2009/11/02/11601391-sun.html

(This article appeared online and in the Toronto Sun newspaper on November 2, 2009. It is a piece about my friend, Theresa, who acted as my team’s Street Advisor during ’3 Days on the Street’…a time in August, 2009 I spent with the homeless. Theresa shows us how growth works. Her life reflects the reality that no matter how bad it gets, or almost, humankind has the ability to come back, to make things better. I don’t purport for a moment to think that everyone’s situation allows them a better life. That would be irrational, but I would say that Theresa’s situation was  pretty lousy and she did it. So give it a shot, if you think your life stinks.

Ya Theresa. Way to go! You inspire us all!)

Posted by . Categories: 3 days on the street, Characters & People, Friends, Toronto Sun. Tags: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

03

Oct. ’09

Toronto: From ‘Good’ to ‘Luke Warm’ (Toronto Sun by Avrum)

Saturday, October 3, 2009

By AVRUM ROSENSWEIG, GUEST COLUMNIST

Over the last few years, as Toronto grows, it seems Torontonians have become angrier, less trusting and somewhat colder.

We barely look at each other on the subway, rarely stand up for our elders on the bus and are more suspect of crowds of young men or women walking downtown late at night.

Our beautiful and squeaky-clean home, Toronto, used to express a naive and childlike rural way. We now seem to be morphing into an urban centre where acceptance of others is frequently replaced with suspicion, playful cheeriness is now irritation.

Through this maturation process “Toronto the good” has become “Toronto the luke-warm.”

It is possible, however, to reverse this trend.

Recently I spent three days living on the street with the homeless. While I did not experience what it truly means to make my bedroom an underground parking lot on Yonge St., I was able to hear the stories of men, women and teens who have been marginalized for many years and get a sense of the bitterness of their homelessness.

I listened to an 18-year-old woman who told me she was beaten by bullies in the schoolyard as a child, and now as an adult often feels as though people stare past her as she walks along Bathurst and Queen Sts.

I sat on a sidewalk on Parliament St. next to Art, originally a Haligonian, who shared his sad story of how he watched as his three-year-old sister was crushed by a truck. He was babysitting her. He was five years old.

Art has spent three decades on the street and in and out of jail. He says he usually feels as if he is a visitor here in Toronto, or a creature from another planet.

While I talked with unkept men and sometimes surprisingly well coiffed women, I noticed many people walked by us as if we were invisible — almost too small to see. Yet for all those who chose not to notice us, there were Torontonians, albeit a smaller number, who stopped, knelt down, tenderly wondered how we were doing, tossed a coin into our Timmies’ cup and sincerely wished us a lovely day.

LONELY AND COLD

It was lonely on that cold cement. I sensed abandonment all around me, but every now and then a happy face would recognize our existence, and hope was reborn.

Torontonians in general are a decent group. I founded a humanitarian organization 13 years ago and am witness to the gentleness and soulful actions of many volunteers. While societal anger seems to be on the increase, our essence is good.

As Toronto grows commercially and in population it would be wise for us as individuals to nurture the considerate side of our city. Our response to the homeless is a good place to start.

One way to do this is by stopping and talking with that man or women panhandling for lunch money. Listen to their story. Offer them a tidbit about your life. Make every effort to see them, not through them.

If we are able to see past the stereotypical views we have of the homeless and instead recognize in them the little girl who once danced on the pavement of a Scarborough street, or the boy who gleefully skipped rocks at Cherry Beach, it may be the beginning of a reversal of a dangerous trend toward an angry and cold city.

It is possible Toronto can be known worldwide for our kindness and as a shining light unto other municipalities. We have it within us.

– Rosensweig is president of Ve’ahavta: The Canadian Jewish Humanitarian &Relief Committee and a freelance writer

Posted by . Categories: Toronto Sun, Uncategorized. Leave a comment