Helen Kennedy: Recreation Coordinator, Activist, Social Justice Advocate

Helen Kennedy: Recreation Coordinator, Activist, Social Justice Advocate

It was September 1984 and I had just done a maternity leave contract for 3 months in the east end and the person and the staff person here in Lawrence Heights-Hans Devaal-was leaving. I had no idea what Lawrence Heights was about. I was young, newly separated with 3 kids under 5 years old and they offered me a permanent job here as a Community Recreation Coordinator here at Lawrence Heights Community Centre.

It had a bit of a reputation- as a kind of troubled area, but that didn’t worry me because I grew up around Jane and Finch and I wanted to work in a neighbourhood like that.

The very first thing I had to do at the Community Centre was remove this group who were squatting in one of the rooms, I guess (laughs) in the Centre - they never had a permit. They were called Neighbourhood Aides - a resident group. It wasn’t my decision, I was just told they had to move because we needed more space for programming.

Helen at Love or Love Mural Launch, photo: Taejon Cupid

I’m not quite sure that they did. They were supposed to assist tenants I guess. They were very anti-housing company, as I remember many tenants were back then. I told them that we needed more space for programming. They were very resistant to moving and called all the politicians and the news. So it was kind of my orientation by fire, I guess you could say. So I started off with not a very good reputation but that was within the “old guard’ of the community.

There was other stories as well. There was the Kennedy brothers who were still here at the time and they were part of that old guard - they were living on Varna. I heard a story that they would throw rocks at the black kids coming to the community centre. There was a long history with the Advisory Council. North City Council had to devise Community Centre Advisory Council guidelines in order to deal with the old guard that was here in Lawrence Heights at the time and basically ran the centre.

The Neighbourhood Aides group was the last of the old guard. The divide was pretty clear that the people who were coming to the programs at the centre were from the old guard. That was the tension. The staff here weren’t very diverse and the community was changing very quickly. Things weren’t very warm and cozy here. One of the residents here came and had a chat with me and they said to me “Do you know the Kennedy brothers?” Because they thought I was the sister of the Kennedy brothers.

Things were changing quickly. It was 1984, not the Toronto we have today.

Can you tell us a bit about how the community was changing?

The community that was in Lawrence Heights at that time was predominantly white, mostly from down East.

The newcomers to the community were mainly from the Caribbean, there were mothers who some had left their children back home with their families. Kids were being reunited at that time too so there was lots of things happening. In any community really, as soon as there’s an influx of new people, there’s a bit of tension so that’s what I saw then.

It’s really interesting because I also saw those tensions when I came back to the community in 2000, after being away for a while. By then the community had become a predominantly Caribbean community and the newcomers were from the East African community. So it was some of the same things- the staff here were mostly from the Caribbean and there was tension between the Caribbean and African communities.

I left unwillingly in 1990 and didn’t come back until 2000. I didn’t want to leave Lawrence Heights in the first place.

There was a huge issue here with a police raid on the Centre in 1989. I was at home and got a call from the caretaker who said “Helen you better get here, the police are all over.” I was very anxious about what was going to happen. I mean back then, things were not very good between the police and any community really. When I got here, the Emergency Task Force were on the roof with rifles. They wouldn’t let me in here at first- I had to elbow the cop to let me in here.

The police had rounded up all the black people in the building and put them in the gym. At the back, there was the Neighbourhood Aides group playing cards and the police went in and said “Don’t worry, stay where you are, we’re dealing with an issue.” What they told all the black youth was that there was a gun call. They took over my office and had the youth come in one at a time and show their ID- so it was a kind of massive carding operation. They tried to plant some weed on one of my staff. I was just freaking out. They arrested one young man- the younger brother of David Mitchell, who became the Chair of the Board of TCHC.

Later that night they went to homes in the community and took a sledgehammer to their doors, and took out 10 youth, including the home of Eric James who was THE most upstanding person in the community, amongst the youth. Everybody knew that. And they took him to jail.

At this time there were a lot of rob and go’s in the community. People would call for fast food and then take the food. It was not a very good thing to do, but that’s the reality. And that was kind of the beginning of not being able to get fast food after dark in Lawrence Heights. So this one time when it happened, the description of them was tall black athletic youth. When the Bathurst Bears won the Ontario Championships that year, they set up a photo op at the Board of Education office. The police were at the photo and ID’ d the players and then later picked up 10 of the players that night at their homes, including Little George and Paul Watson.

When I got to work the next day, Little George was in my office doubled up in pain and he said he’d been beaten by the police in the police station. Paul Watson also was beaten.

So I called 32 Division and spoke to the Superintendent who told me I was watching “too much L.A. Law”. I realized then that there was a big problem.

So I organized. I called all the moms together and the people who were involved with the Black Action Defense Committee in the early days- Lennox Farrell, Dudley Laws, Sherona Hall- they were all here. There was a big press conference here at the community centre and it was October 29^th 1989- I remember that because it was my Dad’s birthday and I forgot to call. My mum was really mad at me (laughs).

Bill Shiller covered it for the Toronto Star and the headline in the paper the next day was something like “Why Some Black Parents Lost Faith in the Police”. And that kind of sealed my fate. I was transferred out of here in March 1990.

I didn’t want to leave. This was like my home. I had strong connections with people here, especially the youth. I was doing community development and to me the whole press conference and people getting organized was a huge success. The youth were being treated so badly and they were articulating this and it was covered in the media.

It was really important that the youth had a place that they felt safe. The youth really had a sense that this was a safe haven for them. I made some changes here- I started hiring youth from the community and getting to know their parents too.

You came back to Lawrence Heights in 2000. How did that come about?

The staff person who was here at the time was leaving and as soon as I heard that I called the supervisor and said “I’d like to come back” and it was Ok’d. The police were so instrumental in my leaving in 1989 and they were one of the first to come and see me when I came back (laughs). And it was some of the same guys- Pee Wee was one of them. I was really happy to come back.

When I came back it was so different. The East African community had migrated and moved in and this was a community I hadn’t worked with before. And it was the same dynamic- the Caribbean community were the power holders and the East African community were the newcomers and they didn’t use the programs at the Centre. Abdi had a permit on the weekend to do basketball and all the East African kids came to the Centre on the weekend to play basketball. One of my first things was to change that picture get to know the East African community and welcome them to the Centre.

And I worked with Abdi and the community. I intentionally worked to hire East African youth from the community- but there was some resistance at first. I had to first work with the men and getting to know them and then later on I met with the women. I remember one of the first meetings we had. It was at the back in the garden and I realized that community gardens were good for community building and development and I knew that access to food was an issue here. I invited the African Food Basket and a friend of mine who was also Somali- Faduma Mohamed. There was about 30 women in the room and it was very quiet. I asked them if they wanted to use the garden to develop their own gardens and the room exploded. Everybody talked at once- they were so excited. Hodan, Khadija and other women took over the garden.

From that we developed some East African Women’s programs, worked with the Health Centre, we helped with their catering and stuff like that. Tinashe Kanegoni was the first Food Justice Coordinator within community centres in the city.

Being here has been like being with my other family. I talk about ‘my kids’ in Lawrence Heights the same as my kids at home.

Obviously the Community Centre, and the spaces around it. The parks where we had programs- Flemington Park. Every year, the youth would have summer programs for the kids in the community- BBQs, games, track events. I remember one time, I was over by the bridge at a BBQ and I was barbequing. It was amazing - all the families were there, so many kids. I remember at the time thinking it was so great just because the youth organized it all - they didn’t have meetings, they just went ahead and did it. The thing that really impacted me was their commitment to give back to their community. That to me was just defined what this community was all about - that they just took care of the people in the community themselves.

2006 was the Summer of the Gun in Toronto. It was the end of the summer and we were all very nervous about what was going on. We had some extra money that year so we took a group of youth up north to Camp Tawingo. There were youth there from 5 different communities and there was tensions between all these neighbourhoods. One of the exercises we did with the youth then was to have them draw a map of their community. They were all asked to point out the safest place in the community and every one from Lawrence Heights pointed to the Community Centre. So that is an important thing- that youth know they can come here and feel safe from whatever is going on in their lives. I hope that continues. It’s so important to have strong leadership programs here, and a place for youth to grow.

Helen at Artists Appreciation event, Lawrence Heights Community Centre, 2009

I’m most proud of the youth leadership programs here. The Ladybug Program here, developed through the incredible vision of Shukri Mohamed has really changed the dynamic for young women in the community and they are much more aware of their rights and their place in the world. You can see that in the staff I’ve recently hired here who are from the Ladybug Program.

(Laughs) oh there’s lots. There has been amazing leadership over the years. Bob Mado and Jeannie Hooper who were the coaches of the basketball team over at Bathurst Heights back in the day. In the 80s it was George and his brother Lawrence- the basketball players in the community- they were part of a youth Council we had here. At the time I was single and the youth always thought that Bob Mado and I should get together (laughs). Eric James who is the head of Athletics at Earl Haig.

There were many community activists- Lavern, the whole TCH community animator crew, Hodan- she’s the first person on the site if there are any incidents. Abdi, my staff has been a solid rock in this community and other leaders in the Somali community. Safiya Kulmiye who lives on Dorney. The other Safiya who worked for Pathways even despite health issues.

Howard Moscoe has always been the best. He really helped define Lawrence Heights. When I was moved back in 89 he tried to stop it. He was always a key person to fight for Lawrence Heights tenants. He started that community bus here, that the residents wanted and the skateboard park. Howard could always find money - he put Art Starts in Yorkdale too.

And Josh Colle has been a friend to Lawrence Heights, even though he voted in favour of privatizing the garbage collection.

What would you say was the most impactful or memorable time for you here?

It’s so hard to say. It would probably be the time when Paul Watson and Britz were shot. I still think about it to this day. This really was the story of Paul. He was one of my staff, he was on the Youth Council here. He was the one who was beaten by the cops during the raid in 1989. When I left here in 1990, he was just getting into some bad stuff. We knew he had some challenges and hired him because he had such incredible leadership skills but he was using them in the wrong way. He was great - an incredible articulate young man with lots of charisma that…well (laughs) anyway, there are lots of stories about that.

I came back in 2000 and here was this guy who had burned lots of bridges with me and he was running this soccer program and doing all kinds of great stuff. He wanted an office for his soccer program. And I was resisting because I wasn’t convinced that this was the real Paul Watson. But he was doing it. And I remember the last day, it was the day that there was a protest against Mel Lastman because he said he was going to Africa and hoping he wouldn’t get boiled in a pot of hot water. So I went to the protest, came back to the Centre, answered a phone call from someone complaining about one of my staff. Then I left, around 9:00. I saw Paul at the end of the street and he waved at me. And he was just so charming. And I know he had just dropped the soccer players off, and I thought OK, and I said to myself, I’ll give him the office tomorrow.

I went home and a couple hours later I got a call and he was dead. And it was just like ‘it can’t happen’. So awful, so awful and the next day I came to work and everybody was so upset because everyone loved Paul. And he was changing his life, I think he had found God. He really committed to youth and he had real skills. People were saying that when Howard retired, Paul could run for Council.

I want to see that the community is so engaged as they have been all along. The engagement needs to be really visible. That first meeting when the youth gave Derek Ballantyne and Howard Moscoe such a hard time. I’m really concerned about the history of the community and keeping that. I’d like to see some of the court names stay- you can’t just erase some of the names here and Lawrence Heights just disappear. At the end of the day it’s kind of sad that Lawrence Heights will be completely changed. It is just such an amazing community. People have to be truly integrated into the community together.

The new community centre HAS to have a regulation sized gym and a huge community kitchen and incubators for community food projects and a community garden with composting. And a huge dance studio for Kershawn and the Ladybugs with wall to wall mirrors. A youth lounge and a fully equipped seniors space of their own. Lots of meeting rooms and places to bring the different communities of the new Lawrence Heights. And a place where Neptune can feel that it’s their place too.

I hope that the leaders in the community stay here and keep fighting. I have to say this now- one of the proudest moments I’ve had here was at North York Civic Centre, Community Council when Marian Mohamud stood up and talked to the Lawrence Manor people about why Lawrence Heights wants to have this revitalization. And she said we’d like to have you as our true neighbours, that we break bread together. It just brought tears to my eyes.