Mayoral candidate Anthony Perruzza is calling out discrimination against communities who are left out of local decisions and is committing access to local funds through his Give Back Fund.   

Perruzza was at Season’s Park in Scarborough in front of a “No Cricket Allowed” sign to illustrate his point.

“When communities don’t have a say in local decisions, it results in practices that exclude their needs,” said Perruzza. “People in Scarborough want to play cricket and don’t have enough cricket fields, but today there’s nothing they can do about it.”

Perruzza pointed out that the Italian community went through similar discrimination when members of the community wanted to play bocce but weren’t allowed to play it in local parks.  It wasn’t until the community gained the ability to decide what happened in their own communities that bocce courts were built.

“If folks here were able to make decisions about their parks, their fields, their swimming pools, they wouldn’t have to be kept away from fields like this one,” said Perruzza.  “This type of discrimination happens when communities are not empowered.”

Perruzza’s Give Back Fund would give $100 million to local Community Councils to make their own decisions.

“Let’s support communities to make their own decisions,” said Perruzza.  “That’s what communities need and that’s what I’ll do as Mayor.”