Social Issues In Toronto

The City of Mississauga: The City of Mississauga is the 6th largest city in Canada and has an approximate population of 721,599 people (Statistics Canada, 2016). The city of Mississauga is the only city in the GTHA to be serviced by seven major highways (Highway 401,403, 409, 410, 427, 407 and Queens Elizabeth Way (QEW)). Canada’s largest and busiest airport, Toronto Pearson International Airport is in the municipality. The city is a lower-tier municipality within the Region of Peel. The most recent consolidation of the official plan which includes OMB decisions and approved official plan amendments occurred August 2, 2017 (City of Mississauga, 2017).

Housing in Toronto is at an all time high, through research found it has become apparent that there is a significant problem with affordable housing. Although finding affordable housing is not necessarily impossible, those who are lucky enough to find affordable accommodations end up with other issues that are beyond their control such as pests and property maintenance issues. Many families living in Toronto are considered middle class and could easily afford to live anywhere else, the rent prices are too steep in the city for them to afford. The city is growing at a healthy rate and there is already a significantly high homeless rate in the city. The purpose of this proposal is to introduce a few organizations that have plans to help this

The civic issue that I’ve chosen for this assignment is the increased pollution in Canada.

Jane and Finch is a small neighborhood in the city of Toronto that many people assume is dangerous and that has a negative image because of the way media is constantly portraying this neighborhood. Although there are many other cities in Canada that have high crime rates and poverty, the media still seems to target Jane and Finch more in some way. Many people from other communities get shocked and terrified when one says that they are part of the Jane and Finch community. However, the people that are part of the Jane and Finch community continue to ignore the media image around them and what others think of their neighborhood and continue to fight for a better life. Actually, the Jane and Finch community is the best community to live in because there are many diverse people, there are community gatherings, and the schools have many more specialized programs and opportunities than other schools.

“In our media-intensive culture it is not difficult to find differing opinions… The difficulty lies in deciding which opinion to agree with and which ‘experts’ seem the most credible” (Espejo 11). The perceptions of one age group in society of another age group are built upon assumptions that are made through what is visible. However, rarely is anyone willing to understand the reason behind someone’s actions. Sibling rivalry, the death of a loved one, moving to a new school, competition among peers, and the reputation adolescents have today often end up giving a misperception of society to teens and of teens to society, thus damaging the relationships between society, as illustrated by J.D. Salinger in The Catcher in the Rye.

To eliminate the behavioral deficiencies associated with poverty, the Harlem Children’s Zone organized a pipeline of programs. The eagerly desirous of achieving the mission of the Harlem Children’ Zone is to discontinuity the succession of poverty in an entire vicinity, coaching every child lacking sufficient money to accomplish their goals by the means of achieving adequate college education. Geoffrey Canada had a vision, which is to restore a geographical area embedded by poverty by guarding the children on track of success.

The media is biased towards public incidents, but one community is in the media’s eye. For the past decade, the media pressed Jane and Finch on numerous occasions that has left a bad image of it. Jane and Finch is "known" for its extreme violence which has led the public to believe it is a dangerous community. Furthermore, the community's view differs from the media's negative perspective. This community has drastically improved throughout the years and has turned into a better community and to this day, the media and the public contradict it. Jane and Finch is the most positive community in Toronto because support is available to youth, it has a low crime rate and the graduation rate is high.

Next, the political sociology approach focuses to centre on groups and societal forces ((Blidook, Cochrane, Dyck, 2017). There are many social cleavages such as regions, economic classes, and ethnic groups that cause differing opinions. Alberta works with Kinder Morgan to benefit their economy however the province does not cater towards the needs of British Columbia. Kinder Morgan does not consider the impact to the First Nations, as they are an ethnic group who value nature. Similarly, the Canadian government does not consider the different economic classes that will be affected by the pipeline, if an oil spill/leak were to occur. Plus, with the expansion of the pipelines there will be no affordable housing, there will be alcohol and drug

Due to urban sprawl, the neighborhood of Walnut Park has been victim to marginalization. Similar to Pruitt Igeo, urban sprawl caused residents to leave walnut park and take businesses and jobs with them. Hammell (2016) states that, “Occupational deprivation arises when populations have limited choice in occupations because of their isolated location, their ability, or other circumstances”. The residents of Walnut Park cannot force business to stay in their neighborhood, so the lack of occupations is outside of their immediate control. The deprivation of healthy occupations causes a surplus in dark occupations, due to the fact people must find alternative ways to fill their time and provide for their families. Also, the link between marginalization and occupation impacts culture. Downes (1997) defines culture as, “the learned part of human lifestyles”. If a child grows up in a community where there is illegal activity, lack of opportunity and decreased importance on education, this is what they incorporate into their own life. The culture of Walnut Park is directly linked to its occupational deprivation and feelings of inferiority. However, Walbridge elementary school is working endlessly to shift this culture and bring opportunity back into their neighborhood.

Also, Russ (2013) stated, “children and youth of Prince George’s County face many challenges, and the solution requires action on the part of the entire community. Philanthropists, Businesses, School Leaders, and Policymakers are called to take action to end our disconnected youth crisis and ensure all students graduate high school, college and career ready.” In addition, educating our youth must begin early in a child’s development life, simply because this period provides a foundation for learning and social development resulting in

“Education in our country is the social service equivalent of Katrina. Part of the challenge that we face in this nation is that we have to confront the fact that we have systems that are designed essentially to fail kids,” states Geoffrey Canada in his address at the Social Justice Leadership Conference (Newport, 2011). Canada has an innate ability to blatantly state the problems facing communities in this country. However he is not just talking; he is doing something about it.

Canada is regarded as one of the wealthiest industrialized countries in the world. This indication is contrary to the well-being reality affecting Canadians. Despite being part of the Organization for Economic Co-operation Development (OECD), Canada has lagged behind her otherwise wealthy counterparts in the industrialized countries being position 19 out of 22 nations (Breznitz and Zysman, 2013). This has been attributed to the precarious levels of poverty in a majority of Canadian households. The country has not recognized any official poverty measurement although other universal measures such as LICO is used for measuring relative poverty, a more determinable measure of poverty for wealthy countries.

Do you think social issues still occur in your world today? Just by walking through the neighborhood, issues are able to be seen. Some examples would be family issues, gender inequalities, and economic disparity. While seeing social injustice through three different books, access to housing was very intriguing. Living conditions can vary based on your race. After realizing this, a question came to mind: is my local area segregated like the rest of the world?

Gender inequality is the idea or situation that men and women are not equal, and is a problem in countries around the world. I will be focusing my research on this type of inequality in Canada. It is an issue for both men and women that they are exposed to at birth, is fed by the media as a teen, and continues in their everyday life as an adult. My approach to this issue is examining three topics that are related to my assignment: childhood, everyday life, and the media. Acts of gender inequality can be found within these broad points that negatively or positively affect males and females. For childhood, there will be toys, clothing, and child advertising. In everyday life, I will cover the workplace, travel, and costs. Media will include celebrities, television/movies, and social media. My thesis statement is: gender inequality is evident in many stages of human development through childhood, teenage years, and adulthood. Gender inequality is a real thing and it is proven in childhood, as a teenager, and adult.

In today’s society, there are a number of factors that affect a child’s ability to learn. The media, for good and for bad, is the primary teacher of American youth. This environment reflects life itself, sometimes in a corrupt way, including the positive and heinous parts, along with the beautiful and hideous parts, as well as the charitable and violent parts. It is almost impossible to protect American youth from experiences reflecting the adult world when the media invades homes and becomes so much a part of everyday living. “American teenagers spend 31 hours a week watching television, 10 hours a week online, 4 hours a week reading magazines, and 17 hours a week listening to music” (Miss). Even though mass media is a huge part of a