News, Events & Comments

 

TorontotheBetter has learned from a friend in Montreal of a remarkable community achievement: the recent naming of La Place Balconville in Verdun, as a tribute to an inner city neighborhood made famous by the 1979 play of the same name by Montreal writer David Fennario.On behalf of all working for just, inclusive and creative cities in Canada and beyond we honour the legacy of all in Balconville. Solidarite et fratenite a tous. 

An event long in the making, to assure football/soccer governing body FIFA of future revenues and boost the ego of a tarnished US president has now taken place as, with straight faces, Donald Trump and FIFA president Gianni Infantino preside over the handover of a symbolic "peace" token to a warmonger. Troops on the streets of U.S. cities evidently do not deter FIFA from the "greater good" of presidential flattery. If insults and militaristic threats fit well with peace then we live in a satirically topsy-turvy world order. The award ceremony on December 5, 2025 should at least give heart and motivation to World Cup 2026 co-hosts Canada and Mexico, to set the record straight and re-align the world's most popular sport with the values of wholesome athletic endeavour that were its origin. 

As predicted here the chorus of “beatiful game citation is well under way with Canadian PM Carney using his December meeting with Donald Trump to praise football as both beautiful and unifying. His words sound very hollow in the context of a belligerent North American partner.

With over 20 years operating non profit social economy gateway TorontotheBetter, worker cooperative Libra Information Services was pleased to learn recently of the Toronto Star newspaper's Better Toronto programme, a compatriot we recognize in our lengthy social economy struggle to keep Toronto “great”, that is, as a just, creative and inclusive city. By celebrating enterprises that incorporate social values in their missions TorontothrBeter helps to ensure that all in Toronto can contribute to a better city when they make purchases at the designated TorontotheBetter stores in our directory. Making Toronto better never got easier than chossing to spend at enterprises that contrbute to workers, the environoment and the community wea live in.     

Taodhg for TorontotheBetter (TorontotheBetter.net) [tim@TorontotheBetter.net) MA MLIS PhD [ABD]

 

Leading internationalfootball/soccer bodies FIFA and UEFA have been charged by Palestinian activists for their complicity in allowing Israeli teams to play in officially authorized games, during a period of warfare between Israel and Gaza. This is a test case of the claim that sports, in this case , soccer, is somehow above law and morality. It is not abd bc should not be. 

World media have expressed surprise about the U.S. decision finally to release files about sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Whether concerns about world opinion reception of the 2026 World Cup were a factor in this latest presidential vacillation is unclear but one simple truth is that many Republicans saw political danger in continued secretion of the files. Many MAGA representatives realized they would likely jeopardize their chance of re-election if the files were not released. Chalk one up for public opinion, and another to add to the ongoing list of presidential climb-downs, under the category of under pressure TACO (Trump always chickens out.) Will the 2026 World Cup be "cleaner" than its predecessors remains to be seen but use of social media by progressive voices like Sport Politika and TorontotheBetter can for the first time have a significant impact in North America and beyond. And should. "Things happened" said the current US president in his meeting with Saudi Arabia's crown-prince, but murder is a special "thing".                  

What surfaced first years ago as convenient “user benefit”continues at warpspeed to further ghettoize society’s poor, who have only coins for payment. TorontotheBetter says NO to card only payment outlets and calls on allies to protest them when left without alternatives. Just tell them you oppose card only operations as prejudicial to those without cards. In most cases enterprises have coin alternatives available. We encourage TorontotheBetter and all other enterprises in Toronto, and beyond, to give coin users a fair chance. In 2025 Trillionaires are getting headlines  while our poor sink further into anonymity and exclusion. To card only business we say think of who you are excluding and stop this prejudicial practice. 

With the leader of the state on Canada’s southern border continuing tawdry and vulgar exhibitionism the 2026 World Cup of football aka soccer presents a rare opportunity for Canada’s social state economy to emphasize its defining distinctness to the world. Many who visit will be unaware of the country’s third party, bilingualism, indigenous constitutionality and defining cooperative tradition. TorontotheBetter invites all to join us in their celebration. There is a progressive North America and the Canada of TorontotheBetter is it.