"This story comes from the arrival of the Seven Fires back in 692 A.D. who were said to be luminous beings that came from the Atlantic Ocean to be amongst the people to help them by showing them what will come in the future, this is just one of those stories.

About a boy who would be born with a gift of translating the Sacred Birch-bark Scrolls and with this gift he would bring back all the ancient knowledge to help the people in this new time of the Eighth Fire a time of Spirit. This time of spirit is about what the ancient ones referred to as Heart Thinking, what heart thinking is about is legacy thinking meaning what will we leave our descendants during our time here.

There is a white bear a reference to a sign of the eighth fire its said that we will see a white bear come down from the north, there is a boy connecting to the bear and the boy himself is connected to everything on the panel as he is magical and knows why he is here there is a thunderbeing sending signals to the boy and there are two thunderbirds symbols of co-creators of new life on mother earth.

The white bear is bringing in the new power of our times the great sun stands behind the bear showing the power of life, the fish and the birds together give us the sign that there is prosperity in this time coming for all, and good health for all.

There is a boundary depicted in this mural its meaning is showing us the two worlds, the physical and the spiritual as they are side by side showing us and how balanced
everything really is in our world and we must do our best to help this new time come forward."

📸 by Kimberly Simmons (@canadiankas_photos) 
🎉 the official unveiling was hosted on Friday, June 2nd, 2023 in partnership with the West Toronto Community Legal Services. 

This mural is located alongside the building of West Toronto Community Legal Services located at 1032 Bloor St W. It was funded by the Bloorcourt BIA and the 2022 Tourism Relief Fund (Government of Canada and FedDev Ontario). It was completed in November, 2022. 

The Bloorcourt BIA was recently awarded the City of Toronto's Main Street Innovation Fund, as part of Government of Canada support through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario. 

One of the main focuses of the project is to highlight the Bloorcourt Maker BIA businesses with some written pieces, photography and videography. 

Bloorcourt is very creative community and we wanted to extend some opportunities. 

We are accepting applications for ALL of the opportunities listed below until May 31st, 2023. 

Questions? Please email bloorcourtbia@gmail.com.

Emailed to:
Premier Doug Ford premier@ontario.ca  
MPP Hon. Prabmeet Singh Sarkaria (Brampton South) prabmeet.sarkaria@pc.ola.org 
Associate Minister of Small Business and Red Tape Reduction
MPP Vic Fedeli (Nipissing) vic.fedelico@pc.ola.org 
Minister of Economic Development, Job Creation and Trade Chair of CabinetMPP Lisa Thompson (Huron-Bruce) lisa.thompson@pc.ola.org 
Minister of Government and Consumer Services
MPP Chris Glover (Spadina-Fort York) CGlover-CO@ndp.on.ca 
MPP Marit Stiles (Davenport) MStiles-QP@ndp.on.ca 
MPP Peter Tabuns (Toronto-Danforth) tabunsp-co@ndp.on.ca  
MPP Jessica Bell (University-Rosedale) jbell-CO@ndp.on.ca 
MPP Catherine Fife (Waterloo) CFife-QP@ndp.on.ca 

April 9, 2021
To our provincial leaders,

Re: Urgent Ask for Additional Supports and Clarity for Main Street Businesses
The Riverside District, Queen Street West, Bloorcourt, Leslieville and West Queen West BIAs are five of Toronto’s 80+ BIAs. We collectively represent approximately 1300 small and medium sized businesses and property owners. The views expressed in this letter come from our direct consultations with our members.
While we recognize that efforts have been made to support our businesses during the ongoing pandemic, not enough has been done. Our members are looking for outcomes including more financial support for Toronto-based businesses, policy that is driven by transparent statistics, and clear lines of communication.
In summary, what is needed:

• More sustained financial support for Toronto area businesses who have been on the longest lockdown in North America - with geographic considerations toward fixed costs: 
  • Remuneration for sectors that were publicly informed of reopening timeframes and then ordered to abandon reopening plans (including but not limited to health, fitness, beauty, wellness, retail, restaurants, and hospitality)
  • Introducing a sector-specific program for covering reopening and closure costs, such as wasted inventory, staffing costs, etc.  
  • Inclusive financial support programs that ensure all types of businesses in need are able to participate (i.e. new businesses that have opened during the pandemic, single person businesses).
  • Immediately and permanently cease the 6% markup that restaurants pay for alcohol from the LCBO. 
    
    
• Scientific and evidence-based decision-making for policies and regulations: 
  • Transparency is needed with credible facts and sources to identify the reasoning for strong and major business closure actions taken by the provincial government
  • A clear path is needed now for how businesses can plan for re-opening for the remainder of 2021, following the current stay-at-home/ lockdown order, aligned with statistics, clearly associated KPIs (e.g. based on case counts, vaccination rates)
    
    
• Clear lines of communication 
  • Outline a clear plan for how lockdown measures will be eased to avoid any further unnecessary costs for reopening and closing of businesses. News releases must immediately come with updated detailed regulations and orders.
  • Create a reasonable and clear set of rules for vaccinated people to remove uncertainty for our public-facing main street businesses

Due to the financial devastation that has been produced by the actions provincial government measures have been enacted to date, some businesses are taking risks under the strain they are experiencing. The only way to navigate past this reality is to directly address their concerns transparently on a financial, mental and emotional level.

We are already losing the character of our neighbourhoods and the social and economic diversity in all sectors of industry. The measures we have outlined are what business leaders need to see now to prevent decimation of our main streets.
On behalf all of the BIAs mentioned above,
 
Jennifer Lay                                                    Meg Marshall
Executive Director                                        Manager          
Riverside BIA                                                  Bloorcourt & Queen Street West BIAs

​c.c. 
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca 
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland (University-Rosedale) Chrystia.Freeland@parl.gc.ca 
MP Mary Ng (Markham-Thornhill) Mary.Ng@international.gc.ca 
MP Julie Dabrusin (Toronto-Danforth) Julie.Dabrusin@parl.gc.ca   
MP Julie Dzerowicz (Davenport) Julie.Dzerowicz@parl.gc.ca 
Mayor John Tory (City of Toronto) mayor_tory@toronto.ca  
Councillor Paula Fletcher (Toronto-Danforth) councillor_fletcher@toronto.ca 
Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Toronto Centre) councillor_wongtam@toronto
Councillor Ana Bailao (Davenport) Councillor_Bailao@toronto.ca 
Councillor Mike Layton (University-Rosedale) councillor_layton@toronto.ca 
Councillor Joe Cressy (Spadina-Fort York) councillor_cressy@toronto.ca 
Councillor Brad Bradford (Beaches East-York) councillour_bradford@toronto.ca
John Kiru - Toronto BIA Association jkiru@toronto-bia.com  
​

The not-for-profit Bloorcourt BIA needs some help with creating a poster. And not just any poster: it will be a pretty large poster that is located at the Bloor/Dufferin transit shelter, facing eastward, on the south-west corner. 

The theme is to highlight shopping, eating, celebrating, and supporting our local Bloordale community for the fall/winter season. 

Submit your application here until September 6th, 2020. 

The successful artist/designer will be provided with a $250 honorarium

**The successful recipient of this open call agrees to work with the third party printing agency to ensure that the poster meets the necessary file/design requirements. The BIA will also retain rights to the image to be used on social media, website or other promotional materials to highlight and celebrate the community. Credit will be given to the creator of the artwork. 

If you have any questions, please email us at: bloorcourtbia@gmail.com

This is a photo of the location of the transit shelter poster where the new artwork will go. 

This was the second year that the Bloorcourt BIA hosted the friendly community contest of #BloorcourtPumpkins!  Twelve businesses put their creativity to the test and had some fun. The community then voted on their favourite pumpkins. 

And the results are in! 

1st Prize - $100 to Pause Beauty
2nd Prize - $75 to Long & McQuade
3rd Prize - $50 to Filosophy Cafe