Today marks three years since The Tragically Hip performed their final concert.  An event that millions of people around the world would watch - from cottage docks, backyard patios and, for the lucky ones, in person in the band’s hometown of Kingston, Ontario.
 
My friends and I went to a Toronto movie theatre to see it on the big screen.  Whether or not you were a Hip fan, it was the Canadian thing to do. 
 
The Tragically Hip were one of the country’s most beloved bands.  Although I couldn’t count myself as one of their lifelong fans I did get caught up in the farewell fandemonium.
 
Part of my reason for wanting to watch the show was to see the band’s lead singer Gord Downie perform that night.  Only a few months earlier it was announced that he had stage 4 brain cancer, specifically called glioblastoma (GBM).
 
A terminal cancer with no cure, I was curious to watch how he would do under the pressure of performing to the country.
 
Back in May I was driving in my car listening to the breaking news of Downie’s brain cancer diagnosis.  His oncologist, Dr. James Perry at Toronto's Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, described “the incurable disease” and what lay ahead for his patient as some of us were learning about glioblastoma for the first time.
 
The most common and aggressive cancerous primary brain tumour, it affects 2 to 3 per 100,000 adults every year and accounts for 52% of all primary brain tumours. (American Association of Neurological Surgeons)
 
A day after the announcement the band would announce a cross-country farewell tour.
 
Canada went crazy.  The shows would sell out in every city, while the final one would take place on August 20. 
 
The day of the final show, my husband wasn’t feeling himself and chose to stay home instead of joining us at the theatre.  A summer marred by exhaustion and personality changes I chalked these traits up to him overworking himself.
 
Little did we know that while Gord Downie was performing the show of his life, my husband would also learn that had the same disease.
 
Looking back it would be art imitating life for us.
 
Two weeks later we were preparing for a trip to see the US Open in New York City.  It would be the first time attending the celebrity-filled tennis event and we were very excited about it.
 
Realizing that his symptoms were still prevalent, my husband decided to press for in-depth medical testing. 
 
A CT followed by MRI scan would confirm that his behaviour was being caused by a cancerous tumour, growing in the healthy tissue of his brain.
 
A full craniotomy would be performed only 2 weeks later with weeks of rest, and then months of radiation and chemotherapy treatments.
 
Our children were in Grades 9 and 12 at the time.  Important years for both with the start of high school and university applications in the midst.
 
As we focussed on his treatment and rest, I gave our children one job.  To focus their best on school and maintaining good scores because we couldn’t manage it if that failed. 
 
As we continued on this new cancer treatment path, I followed any of Gord Downie’s public appearances and interviews.
 
Despite a television interview with CBC where he divulged that he could no longer drive and experienced seizures, he had a year celebrated with the release of a new album, performed 3 live shows for his solo work and published a book.
 
He made what would become his final year really count.
 
That year made me think that he could make all of the doctors wrong and he would beat brain cancer.
 
Then on October 17, 2017 it was announced that he passed away.
 
Again, I was in the car when the news broke.  Radio stations played The Hip’s music throughout the day.  Social media filled with posts honouring Downie for his courage and thanking him for the music and inspiration.
 
My husband was already back at work at this point in time.  He called me while I was driving and said, “Did you hear the news?”  “Yes”, I said with tears in my eyes.
 
I didn’t know Gord Downie but felt that he was our beacon of light on these stormy waters.  Now that light was permanently out.
 
The average life expectancy with glioblastoma is 14 months.  My husband has surpassed this number thanks to the amazing efforts of Dr. Perry and this team at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Dr. Sunit Das at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto.
 
It’s been two years since Downie’s death.
 
Since then The Gord Downie Fund has raised over $2.2 million dollars for brain cancer care at Sunnybrook.
 
According to Danielle Stonehouse with the hospital’s Advancement office, “Donations supporting this fund have gone towards ‘The Gord Downie Fellowship in Brain Oncology’ and the construction of the G. Hurvitz Brain Sciences Centre, a new clinical and research space for neurologists who care for patients with brain cancer.”
 
Recently, the Downie family decided to direct funds and future donations to support Dr. Arjun Sahgal’s work in Image Guided Research for glioblastoma.  
 
It’s thanks to developments in research and patient care that our family is able to benefit from the personalized treatments to treat glioblastoma.
 
The future is uncertain where this disease will lead us, but I take a page out of Gord Downie’s songbook using courage to live our lives to the fullest, regardless of what may hold us back. 
 

by Janet Fanaki, Creator of RESILIENT PEOPLE

100 Resilient Cities aims to get cities around the world to be - well, more resilient.  Funded by The Rockefeller Foundation, the goal of 100RC is to help them bounce back from environmental, economic and social challenges.

Toronto is one of three Canadian cities chosen to be a part of this dynamic initiative.

On June 4, 2019 the City of Toronto, through Resilient Toronto unveiled its first Resilience Strategy to a packed auditorium of academics, media, and city stakeholders including residents and program participants.  

Climate change and social equity are the two main areas of focus in this report.

Toronto’s Resilience Strategy aims to give city planners and other departments a direction in helping to prepare for extreme changing climates while also assisting a growing group of marginalized residents.  

Elliott Cappell, Chief Resilience Officer for the City of Toronto, explained the findings and where he hopes it will go. 

“Toronto has a mindset that isn’t modern. It needs to catch-up to how big the city is going to get and today we are lighting a spark.”

According to Toronto’s city manager, Chris Murray, “The city is growing by 35,000 people per year, with a projection in the next 20 years of an additional one million residents.” 

Mix this type of rapid growth with an aging infrastructure, the report sheds light on ways to prepare the city for the shocks and stresses to follow.  
  
As the report states, “The city is getting hotter, wetter and wilder” and it needs a resilience framework to deal with climate change and how this affects different socioeconomic groups.

Flooding is a major challenge.

Anyone living in the city can confirm that Toronto has seen a record number of rain days in 2019 with flooding posing serious hazards, especially to the Toronto islands.

Elliott Cappell said, “Currently, it is difficult to point to which department within the City of Toronto is responsible for flooding”  But, “through the new resilience strategy better partnerships would ensure that the right departments and agencies are working together. These could include water utility, transportation, Toronto Transit Commission and city planning.”

The second area of focus in the strategy is to help the equity-seeking (or better known as marginalized) residents. 

These groups are more vulnerable to climate change and other societal stresses and shocks.  Outdoor workers are a good example of this, or residents living in one of Toronto’s many low-income and aging high-rise apartments.

Currently over 50,000 Torontonians live in buildings that are 35 yrs old or older. 

We see when a shock happens to such a structure, it comes with catastrophic consequences.  Take for example 650 Parliament Street. 

Earlier in the year, this building experienced an electrical fire to its outdated system which displaced 1,500 occupants for an indefinite amount of time.  Their experience would be vastly different to that of a luxury condominium residence and its occupants.

One finding of the research showed that the city has underinvested in physical structures.  With 45% of its rental stock in such buildings, the city needs to prepare for future shocks and stresses. 

8,000 Torontonians participated in the research.  In the beginning only white middle-class residents participated, but a move was made to engage more marginalized groups.  They needed to learn how all residents experience resilience in different ways.  

Being a part of The Rockefeller Foundation’s network allowed the City of Toronto to collaborate with other global cities and learn best practices.

Amy Buitenhuis, Senior Policy Advisor with the City of Toronto added her pick for a city doing things well.  “Rotterdam is a city that faces challenges with water.  They have installed public water parks that get filled with collected rain.  When it’s not raining the spaces are turned into community space.  It’s very inspiring.”  

Elliott Cappell sites Boston as an inspiration.  The city established an Office of Resilience and Racial Equity.  

“Boston recognized that racial equity must be considered when implementing city services.  Case in point, when potholes needed to be filled the protocol required a call to 311. The neighbourhoods with the most potholes distrusted government the most and would not call. The city needed to change the way that repair requests were done to address barriers to racial lines.” 
   
The researchers admit that the document will not solve all of Toronto’s problems.  But it does hope to light a spark for ideas and to start doing things differently.