June 30, 2003
May 15 will forever be a momentous date for this publication. On that day this year, Toronto Free Press marked its 13th consecutive year in business. On May 15, I went about all day with a silly grin on my face, Naively, I expected strangers on the street to stop and ask about the grin, and the delivery of a bouquet of long-stemmed peach roses from the chief of police at our Elm Street offices. Neither came, but that didn’t wipe the sheen off the day.
Thirteen years of owning your own newspaper is a long time, and must seem like an eternity to our political enemies. This particular anniversary will unfortunately be remembered because of what is happening in Toronto, where businesses are writing off the summer of 2003 because of SARS.
SARS may be understood to be under control to Toronto, but the further you are away from the city, the more graphic the T.O. SARS image. People in Bogota, Columbia are under the impression that people are dropping like flies on Yonge Street. People we know with relatives in Japan could not encourage those relatives from coming to Toronto in July, even though it’s been over a decade that a Toronto-based daughter has seen her Tokyo based mother.
The SARS scare has had a terrible and tragic impact on restaurants, bars, hotels, the zoo, and any place that relies on tourists. On Elm Street alone, Foster’s, that had been in business for the last 22 years, shut its doors in April. Just doors away, Donatello’s, one of the best restaurants in the entire city, is feeling the pinch.
According to Danforth-Broadview Liberal MP Dennis Mills, the owners of several hotels and restaurants on King Street would hand over their keys to anyone who would take over their bank loans. And unfortunately, it’s going to take more than a Rolling Stones concert to pull Toronto up out of the abyss.
People are asking how this could have happened to our beautiful city. A personal friend, with an inquiring mind, asked me if the current situation had anything to do with Canada being punished because of its lack of physical and moral support for the Iraq war.
"I have a feeling there’s politics involved somewhere, and God knows, politics at their worst, can do almost anything to achieve negative results," he said.
Although I do not buy into my friend’s theory about the Americans punishing Canada, I do believe this city’s SARS woes can be blamed on hardcore politics.
In a May 5 cover story, Canadfreepress.com asked, "WHO’s responsible for blacklisting Toronto as travel destination."
At that time, hardly anyone knew that WHO is the health arm of the world’s largest bureaucracy, the United Nations.
Until the WHO ban crippled Toronto, the name of the woman who inflicted the travel ban was obscure. Her name is Gro Brundtland and she is heading WHO.
Aside from an outstanding career of social engineering and social activism, Brundtland’s main claim to fame is that she was once Prime Minister of Norway.
Fiercely anti-nuclear, Brundtland once succeeded in shutting down Norway’s nuclear reactors. She shut them down years before it was technically necessary--costing Norway billions to no good purpose because the spent fuel was going to have to be disposed of whether then or later.
Among Brundtland’s current crusades is anti-globalization.
A virtual unknown to the average citizens of Canada and the United States until shutting down Toronto with the stroke of a pen, Brundtland was on the public record for having criticized both countries for what she claims is their excessive consumption.
It was on April 15, that Ontario Premier Eves and his energy minister announced that Ontario was ready to expand nuclear power, stating that over the next two months three formerly mothballed nuclear reactors would be coming back into service.
It was on April 23 that Brundtland issued the WHO travel ban on Toronto.
So in a way my friend is right when he says that politics shut down the business capital of this country.
Meanwhile, businesses whose lifeblood relies on the tourist industry are hanging tough, and so is Toronto Free Press/Canadafreepress.com.
On July 30, the Dennis Mills-inspired Rolling Stones Concert will take place, and may present a beginning for turning the corner on SARS.
All the more reason for TFP to be there for anniversary number 14 in 2004.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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