Scarborough students speak in support of program after provincial funding cut

The charity expected a steady source of funds for the first time; instead, Sistema executive director Christie Gray and Scarborough-Guildwood MPP Mitzie Hunter were at St. Martin de Porres Catholic School assuring children the program will continue.

“More people are going to help us,” Gray told a group in the school library Monday.

“We’re going to figure out a way to make it happen. We promise, OK?”

Hunter, a Liberal MPP, told them the funding problem would be fixed. “We want you to learn and have fun.”

Privately, though, she said she feels the program is threatened.

Martin de Porres is blocks from the site of the infamous Danzig St. mass shooting. Hunter said positive pathways must be built to address roots of violence in the community.

“There’s a demonstrated need in Kingston-Galloway for programs like Sistema. More communities need programs like this.”

She said she could see and prove the program’s benefits, yet the PC government said Sistema didn’t meet grant criteria — an impulsive decision it should revisit, Hunter said.

“If not, they know they’re hurting kids and limiting their potential. That’s shameful.”

Earlier, children getting 10 hours with Sistema over four days a week said they love their instruments and would be sad to see the program end.

“I’ve seen on the news the funding got cut and I still believe they deserve it. It’s like a promise,” said Joyce Teodoro, 10, who now plays the cello. “There should be Sistema in every single school.”

Her mother, Sherile Red, said two years in Sistema helped get the formally shy Joyce into gifted classes.

“It’s like a cocoon becoming a butterfly,” she said. “Instead of the kids just staying in the house watching TV, at least they’re improving themselves through music.”

Michelle Khan said her daughter, Brooklyn, has become “more of a team player” since joining. Music lessons are expensive, Khan argued, and “we give so much to people who don’t need it,” but Sistema’s a program “for our future.”

Doris Abohndem, mother of two girls in the program. said they love music. “Ever since they got into it, they’re focused.”

Believing that cutting off its grant wasn’t fair, Abohndem wrote to Premier Doug Ford. The premier wrote back on Aug. 27, saying Ontario Tourism, Culture and Sport Minister Sylvia Jones, or her staff, would respond to Abohndem. She said they haven’t.

Richard Clark, a spokesperson for Jones, has told Metroland Media Sistema wasn’t eligible for funds, and suggested the Liberals were to blame for the disappointment.

Sistema directors say ministry staff evaluated the program before the grant was announced in May, and haven’t explained the new government’s decision. Clark couldn’t be reached to clarify why the grant was dropped.

Visiting with Hunter was John McKay, Scarborough-Guildwood’s MP, who acknowledged the program wasn’t a federal issue but he wanted to support it anyway, because the decision “struck me as exceedingly short-sighted.”

Founded in 2011, Sistema teaches 175 other students in North York and Parkdale. Until last fall, Military Trail Public School was the charity’s second Scarborough learning centre, but funding was scarce, so Military Trail students learn at Martin de Porres.

Sistema wants to serve many Scarborough schools, not two, because there’s a huge demand, said Gray, pausing near a bulletin board where children had posted personal goals: to be a doctor, a vet, an illustrator, and “to make it to Level 6 in my swimming class.”

That’s part of Sistema’s work too, she said.

“We’re using music as a tool for social advancement, especially for kids in low-income areas.”