Posts tagged “Ontario Place”

Ontario Place For All presents: 'Rally for Ontario Place!' at Queen's Park
16 October, 2023

Chris Glover, MPP, Spadina Fort York (left) and Norm DiPasquale

Floyd Ruskin, Save Ontario Science Centre co-chair
Attended and filmed / recorded the Rally for Ontario Place! (and the Ontario Science Centre) at Queens Park along with attendant activist speakers listed as follows:
- Norm DiPasquale, Ontario Place for All co-chair (host)
- Marit Stiles, Ontario NDP leader (11:25)
- Mike Schreiner, Ontario Green Party (17:22)
- Mary Margaret McMahon, MPP Ontario Liberal Party (20:11)
- Chris Glover, MPP, Spadina Fort York (23:07)
- Floyd Ruskin, Save Ontario Science Centre co-chair (03:35) and (29:20)
- Stephanie Bowman, MPP, Don Valley West (46:00)
Video captured event below.
Save Ontario Place presents 'Rally for the Trees' at West Island, Ontario Place.
23 September, 2023
Attended and filmed the Rally for the Trees by 'Ontario Place for All', hosted by Norm DiPasquale (above, with megaphone) and with several guest speakers. Also spoke with rally attendees who declined to give names, but spoke about why they attended. All speakers focused their talk on the Ontario Place but final speaker, Floyd Ruskin, spoke both about the Ontario Place and the Ontario Science Centre. All in the video below.

Breakdown of list of speakers (for video below):
- Norm Di Pasquale (host)
- Toronto City Councillor, Ausma Malik
- Chris Glover, MPP (06:39)
- Adrian Hough (son of Ontario Place landscape architect, Michael Hough) (11:30)
- Todd Irvine (17:24)
- Floyd Ruskin co-chair of Save the Science Centre (28:18)
'Go Ohn' Centennial Bell rings for the last time.
22 September, 2023

Filmed (and recorded audio of) the Go Ohn Centennial Bell at Ontario Place West Island and attendant shelter before dismantlement to make way for Ford's private mega spa. The Go Ohn Bell and shelter was designed by Raymond Moriyama and installed by the Japanese Canadian Centennial Society in 1977. Digging through the Toronto archives, found historical images and text related to the bell.

Image below from the Future of Ontario Place website

Above, Mitchell Akiyama and his relation to the Centennial Bell

From Akiyama's Vimeo entry:
In 108 Spectres of Release, Mitchell Akiyama animates the historic Buddhist temple bell on the West Island, given to Ontario Place by Japanese-Ontarians in 1977. Akiyama transforms the bell itself into a speaker, which replays recordings of Akiyama’s grandmother, who was in attendance at the bell’s original inauguration ceremony. Born in Canada, Akiyama’s grandmother was interned during the Second World War and later displaced by government-mandated relocation to eastern Canada before she eventually settled in Toronto. Reviving the bell, Akiyama allows his grandmother’s voice to surface tensions between memorialization and lived experience. 108 Spectres of Release serves as a deeply personal articulation of Japanese-Canadian history in a space where the bell’s commemorative function has largely ceased.