Time for my annual retelling of the best Toronto the Good story that exists. It starts with this image. if you've ever wandered down the end of Bathurst Quay you'll see some of these striking figures. #toronto #topoli

In 1847, #Toronto was a bustling metropolis of 20,000 souls. It was a baby city! Barely a sense of itself. Not a lot of infrastructure. The waterfront in 1847: not exactly a bustling centre of commerce.

1847 was during the depths of the Irish potato famine,and thousands were fleeing starvation, sickness to find safe harbour anywhere. An enormous number came to Canada.

The spring and summer of 1847, beginning in May, the boats came to Toronto. Boats upon boats, full of people, most having survived famine, survived the gruelling journey, with barely anything to sustain the journey, weeks at sea. Typhus was rampant. (image @tvo)

The city had done advance warning that the boats were coming from Archbishop Poser and Mayor Boulton began building hospitals and infrastructure to prepare. Between May and October, 38,000 starving and ill Irish refugees arrived in #Toronto.

38,000! Think about that! that's the equivalent of six million people landing on Toronto today over a summer. The population tripled **virtually overnight**. And the new arrivals needed so much help. The city responded. #toronto

Thousands had typhus and had to be separated from the population - most were kept on ships. There were massive religious issues - #Kingston, a Protestant town, was suddenly responsible for thousands of Catholic lives. IT WAS NOT A DISCUSSION. Everyone pulled together. #Toronto

imagine if the situation were happening today. hey! we don't have to imagine! it is. except right now it's happening RIGHT NOW ON OUR SHORES. in our city. and in the name of "capacity" and "fiscal responsibility", we are told it's not something we can fix.

I assure you caring for and absorbing 38,000 refugees was not in fiscal budget 1847.

But we did it. We did something impossible once. Thousands died. It changed the shape + composition of the city in ways that persist to this day. But we responded to a crisis during a crisis, and we did it it by putting the well being of people at the centre of action. #toronto – bei Ireland Park

what more do we need to say than this? a homeless camp was cleared from Eirann Quay to make way for the ... refugee memorial. one former resident went to another camp and - tw self violence - lit himself on fire recently, intentionally, out of frustration. he's ok now. #toronto

it should not come to this. The gulf between the response to a need in 1847 + how we treat people in our own city in 2020 is MASSIVE. it's political, which is driven by public will. so bit by bit, we tell the stories, we share the realities, we work to help ppl understand.