[015] "To Count Him As Our Neighbour."
CAREGIVERS v2: On the passing of a longtime Parkdale tenant organizer named Peter Madaka, and the spacious texture of a life in stormy service.
Hello, Tired Ones,
Another week, another sign of life, another reason that showing up’s still worth it.
In my work as a writer and designer for culture change, I come across important stories about progress that’s actually working for people. That refuse the false choice: sweet indulgence, or the bitter pill.
Stories that help us to remember: before there was bureaucratic care, or self-care, there was simply, well, care.
So come on in, sit down. For the next few minutes at least, there’s no rush. It’s a new week, after all.
January’s care workers: Community caregivers
“Seas pleat/ winds keen/ fogs deepen…”
—This week’s poet, Kay Ryan.
Sourcing notes: Photo by Zoltan Tasi on Unsplash
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A key intention for this project has been to highlight the work already being done, that’s worth doing more of. I’ve tried to counter-balance the despair and outrage that I often see sapping my capacity to imagine alternatives (let alone invest in them).
Still, I can’t address the theme of caregivers without acknowledging that long-term care homes are “on fire,” while the Ontario government has stood by. That’s the assessment last week by Dr. Samir Sinha, the director of geriatrics at Sinai Health System and the University Health Network in Toronto:
I don’t think this is a [provincial] government that values older people. [They] have been motivated more on the basis of trying to protect businesses than trying to save lives. We know what we need to do to finally end the carnage. We have other provinces who have shown us what to do. We just need to do it.
Hospital administrators don’t speak like this publicly, pretty much ever. But I’m grateful he has, because this story has remained really, really upsetting. You can learn more and add your voice here.
A song, for pairing
"song of the sleeping forest" by Susumu Yokota, from the album Symbol (2004).
A Japanese DJ and composer weaves short strands of classical music with wordless vocals, evoking a trance-like mood that’s as solemn as it is impish. Listen to more.
A healthy idea, to chew on
In Memory of Peter Madaka (October 5, 1961 – December 26, 2020), by Parkdale Organize on their blog. January 10, 2020.
On the passing of a longtime Parkdale volunteer and tenant organizer, and the lessons his neighbours are holding onto from their recent rent strike:
In Memory:
Peter Madaka was a neighbor of mine at 1251 King Street West. I met him in 2018, the year our landlord applied to raise our rent above the legal guideline. People in our building responded by collectively withholding rent and organizing a series of direct actions that ultimately forced the landlord to cancel the rent increase. Peter was a big part of that win. He knocked on doors, handed out flyers, spoke with passion, clarity and wit at lobby meetings, intervened on a number of strategic questions, attended actions, raised spirits in moments of doubt, and constantly pushed us to stay vigilant in dealings with the landlord. He was tireless, upbeat and prescient. We were lucky to count him as our neighbour.
Peter died, unexpectedly, on December 26, 2020, at the age of 59.Rather than say too much more about him, I think it’s better to let Peter speak for himself. He was a colourful and acute writer. In the course of our rent strike he wrote a number of messages on our building’s internal email group, messages which reveal fragments of his personality and thought, and which offer a fitting way to connect with him in the aftermath of his passing. […]
Just as the rent strike concluded, our landlord applied to evict a young couple (and soon-to-be new parents) for alleged harassment. Like Peter, the couple was instrumental in winning the rent strike. They also helped give the strike a public face by agreeing to do media interviews. Evicting them was the landlord’s way of retaliating and attempting to re-establish control over tenants. Peter knew this, and knew what needed to be done to counter it:
“I am really at a loss of words how vindictive these people can get—harassing a family that is already so stressed out; all because they are sore losers? If they want to make [them] an example—in order to deflate our resistance, then it is very simple. [Our neighbour] and his family is us. We stand together in solidarity. [He] and his family’s fight is my fight; it is our fight.” […]
Through his words and his actions during the 1251 King Street rent strike, Peter made a difference in the lives of everyone in our building. He made our apartments more affordable, of course. But he also made us as people more confident and self-respecting, more conscious of our collective power and more willing to use it, creatively and fearlessly, to “fend off unjustified predation.” For that, we are forever grateful to Peter, and forever connected with him.
A good practice, to save for later
To Count Him As Our Neighbour—It Is Very Simple: Our Neighbour And His Family Is Us.
Peter’s life and the work of Parkdale Organize reveal to me the kind of neighbour I’d like to become. His obituary sketches the outlines of his philosophy, and the journey that led him there – from his time at a Ugandan refugee camp to his lifelong volunteer work. That’s how he built his family in a city he arrived to with none. His tireless work led to him becoming a part-time communications professor at George Brown College in 2007:
In spite of the challenges of making ends meet as a freelance journalist with a student loan and costly Toronto rent, and the barriers he faced as a Black man and an immigrant with no family in Canada, Peter was an indefatigable volunteer, particularly on issues like increasing the minimum wage, fair voting, and strengthening tenants rights. […] Although he spent much of his time from September to April preparing meaningful and challenging lessons, marking papers, and assisting students, Peter continued to give back locally by volunteering for at least five years at Parkdale Project Read, a literacy program. May to August were often challenging for Peter as he looked for jobs to help him cover expenses - which included sending money home to relatives.
You can see Peter’s spirit of self-respect and creativity in his neighbours’ recent effort to start their own West Lodge Food Bank in their apartment building. Within weeks, the group of five to ten volunteers were serving up to 50 families every two weeks. By Christmas, they took it upon themselves to occupy one of the building’s 20 vacant units, to highlight the landlord’s “PR campaigns” that they believe are designed “to cover up the heinous things they're doing at West Lodge.” As reported by BlogTO, resident Paterson Hodgson believes that landlords like Hazelview should
negotiate rent forgiveness with anyone who cannot pay during COVID-19 and commit to no evictions throughout the pandemic.
"Landlords can afford to forgive rent," she said. "There is no reason that working class tenants should shoulder the burden of this crisis while landlords increase their profits and secure their investments. Our landlord is a $10-billion company."
For some reason, the passage from Peter’s obituary that most touched me was the window it gave into his routines of daily living. People like Peter seem to have an energy that’s larger-than-life, and it can be hard to imagine how he does it all. When the news just seem to keep getting worse, it easy to despair that I couldn’t possibly live up to legacies like his. But he shows that, for all the seemingly heroic work of community caregiving, there are strikingly ordinary rituals that helped him to process his pain in solitude:
Peter kept a keen eye on both local and global politics, which he followed fervently and often with dismay. The election of Donald Trump and ongoing racist violence, particularly George Floyd’s murder and the repeated footage of it, terrified and traumatized him. Despite this, he maintained his ritual of rising at 5 am for a two hour walk to clear his head and combat his high blood pressure. In pre-pandemic days, before all his classes went online, Peter would dress in one of his many suits, with a collared shirt and tie, and walk from his Parkdale apartment along King Street to his 8am classes at the Centre for Business at George Brown’s St James campus and then after teaching, he’d take the 504 streetcar home. Recently, in these cold dark months, he’d been indoors on his exercise bicycle more often than out walking. He had talked of making an effort to meet more people, and also of buying a bicycle to ride next spring along the Martin Goodman Trail. We are so lucky to have known Peter, and to have been in the glow of his light. Shine on, dear friend.
“To count him as our neighbour.”
A poem, to cleanse the palate
Lighthouse Keeping by Kay Ryan, from The Best of It: New and Selected Poems (2011).
It begins:
Seas pleat
winds keen
fogs deepen
On the “light for those left out,” and the calming texture of a life in stormy service:
ships lean no
doubt, and
the lighthouse
keeper keeps
a light for
those left out.
It is intimate
and remote both
for the keeper
and those afloat.
Something sweet, for the road
And now, a very happy baby—for the win.
That's all for this week.
Remember: Drink when you're thirsty, nap when you can.
Kind regards,
Chris Connolly
Manager, Personalized Care
(Acting Director, Standardized Care)
Humane Resources Division
The Dept. of Emotional Labour