Interference with Economic Relations
The Beginning of Fresh Food Weekly
At the beginning of June 2021, I started reaching out to local farmers and asked for extra produce they didn't need so I could give them to low-income families living in public housing. I'd store these fresh produce donations at the local community fridge here in Barrie, Ontario, and every Saturday, myself and a few volunteers would go bag and pack these donations in the parking lot at the community fridge and then deliver them afterwards.
On June 29, 2021, Barrie Housing CEO, Mary-Anne Denny-Lusk called me and asked if I’d like to use the common room at Summitview for my food security program. Denny-Lusk also offered to give me some funds to “top-up” food bag deliveries, as well as post flyers at various public housing projects. After this phone call, Barrie Housing employee Karen Tkaczyk emailed me at 2:57 PM and made the following statement via email:
“I just got off the phone with Mary-Anne, I guess she contacted you not long before this email and mentioned you need a space for your freezer. We can definitely provide the space at the building in the common room to help with storage and distribution… I can give you a key for the building and we’re trying to find some shelving as well that can be used.”
Let’s Work Together
On June 29, 2021, I emailed Mary-Anne Denny-Lusk at 8:08 PM, and made the following statement via email:
“Hey Mary Anne, It was nice hearing from you today… This week I also got in touch with Craig Russel, the owner of Pachamama Corp. He told me he’s the one who donates all the backpacks with school supplies each year to each of the public housing buildings. He is interested in getting involved in my initiative come fall, which is perfect timing because once the fall/winter comes, a lot of the farmers won’t be able to donate because of the season. I will start working on an informational poster that can be posted in the public housing buildings and get that to you on Thursday most likely…”
But Mary-Anne didn't respond, so on July 5, 2021, I emailed Karen Tkaczyk at 11:28 AM and made the following statement:
“Hey Karen, Are you able to pass along Mary Anne’s number or extension? I emailed her a few days ago and haven’t heard back and I’m wondering if my email went to her junk folder. I also have a few other things I needed to talk to her about. Thanks so much! Leah.”
But Karen didn't respond either.
So I emailed Mary-Anne again, on July 6, 2021, and made the following statement:
“Good morning Mary Anne… I just wanted to check in with you and see if you got my email? Sometimes my emails go to people’s junk mail. I was also wondering if Barrie Housing had any spare fridges I could use in the common room?…”
But Mary-Anne continued to ignore me.
I wasn't allowed to put Fresh Food Weekly's flyer in the encased bulletin but the Good Food Box is allowed to.
On September 29, 2021, at 10:59 AM, I emailed Rosslyn Junke, the Director of Federal Initiatives at the United Way for Simcoe Muskoka. Within this email, I made the following statement:
“…Do you think the United Way might consider taking on Fresh Food Weekly? Or maybe even allow me to apply for a grant, where if funding is granted, Fresh Food Weekly could come under the United Way umbrella?…”
On September 30, 2021, at 10:27 AM, Rosslyn Junke replied to my email and made the following statement:
“…We do not have any current funding opportunities with United Way… I have just shared your information with members of our Poverty Reduction Task Group and the Community Coordinators at the Simcoe County Food Council to see if there may be some opportunities via those grapevines…”
On October 4, 2021, at 1:24 PM, I received an email from Erin Chapelle. Within this email, Erin Chapelle made the following statement:
“…I can sympathize with the challenges that come with delivering community food security initiatives, so I am glad Roz (Rosslyn Junke) put us in touch… The main thought that comes to mind for me, though, is partnering with a Church. This is how our Good Food Box program is able to have the space it requires each month…”
On October 4, 2021, at 1:33 PM, I replied to Erin Chapelle’s email. Within my reply email, I made the following statement:
“…Unfortunately I have reached out to every church in Barrie and none have the space I need, or they don’t have it available when I need it…”
Erin Chapelle
In March 2020, the Karma Project, a local non-profit food co-operative operated a good food delivery program across North Simcoe County because it received a $40,000.00 grant from the Good Food Access Fund via Community Food Centres Canada. This fund is supported in part by the Government of Canada’s Local Food Infrastructure Fund, which aims to strengthen food systems and facilitate access to safe and nutritious food for at-risk populations. Erin Chapelle was the lead who helped launch the Karma Project. In a published simcoe.com article dated April 24, 2020, the publication included the following statement:
“…In March, Karma adapted its programming and developed a deliver model, which allows them to reach at least 250 families every two weeks…”
On October 6, 2021, I did a live interview on the CBC Morning Show with Wei Chen. In this interview, I made the following statements at the following time stamps:
-
Time stamp 01:23: Leah Dyck: “…when I first started, I was just delivering to 50% of one public housing building…”
-
Time stamp 01:46: Wei Chen: “Which brings us to your situation now. Why are you forced to close your doors?”
-
Time stamp 01:52: Leah Dyck: “Um, that's a good question. That's a good question. They just asked me to have all my things out by October 1st, and at that point, I was already reaching over 260 families every week, that said that they needed, that they needed help with eating. So they said that they wanted to re-open this community room to the residents of their building to have social gatherings. But now that I'm out, it's still sitting there, empty, not being used. So, um, I didn't really see them reopening it to the residents because we're anticipating another wave. Um, so so I'm sure it's just going to sit there empty for a while.
-
Time stamp 02:53: Leah Dyck: “… Obviously all the all the recipients of the program are frustrated. They're very upset because there's this food now that's just going to be wasted. I was taking food off of farmers hands and local food businesses hands that they were just going to throw out anyways. And so I was kind of giving them an opportunity to not throw it out and get it into the homes of people who really needed it, and they felt good about that. That was something that some of them said, they're sick and tired of throwing this food out. Umhmm, so I think they're frustrated. Um, and we're frustrated and, um, and it's frustrating because we don't even know why we're not allowed to, to be in that space anymore…”
-
Time stamp 04:44: Leah Dyck: “… I've known about this for six weeks now that I was losing my space on October 1st, I had to shut down because I needed to have my things out. So I'm still going around looking. Um, I'm doing interviews with local news outlets whenever I can to try to get the word out there, and trying to tell people in the community that if you have a space, we would love to use it because we are meeting a need in the community, and there are people—like this month, people are coming off of E.I., there's thousands of people coming off of E.I. and and things are going to get even harder than they have been for the last year. Um, I remember in my last week of doing deliveries, one of the people we were delivering to, there was an eviction notice on their door, and there's four children living in that home. Another woman, when I walked up to her to give her the bag, she looked like a family member had died. And I asked her what was wrong and she said that she just got off the phone—she had to declare bankruptcy and they were seizing her vehicle the next day. So and this was just the last week of September, that those things in particular happened. Um, but people have been struggling for much longer than that, and it's just such a shame that we've had to close the program down.”
Since I live at Summitview (the housing project with the common room Fresh Food Weekly was using), I could see that the Common Room remained empty and unused for at least another year after I was told to get out of it.
During the recorded phone call between myself and Denny-Lusk, the following statements were made at the corresponding time stamps:
Time stamp 24:57: Mary-Anne Denny-Lusk: “And I can tell you right now, we're working on a partnership with the Food Bank… So we're trying to figure out a way to have food delivered to our buildings instead of tenants having to go pick it up on site.”
Time stamp 25:11: Mary-Anne Denny-Lusk: “We're going to be doing some pilot projects like that just to make things a little easier for our tenants, but again, it's all new. It's a new thing that we're doing with them, so we're trying to figure out logistics and how that would work.”
Time stamp 25:23: Leah Dyck: “I could always help you guys with that if you wanted I have tons of people who are helping volunteering for that and I actually have a church who will be delivering food weekly in May to our building only, but yeah, they're gonna be doing that and it's just gonna be for May…”
Time stamp 25:41: Mary-Anne Denny-Lusk: “I could have one looking at yeah, that would be great. So we're yeah We're looking at doing so tenants that are already using the food bank system to have their monthly allotment of food delivered to our building and then they can pick it up from the housing workers instead of having to drive down, which gives them a little bit more options of hours as well because I know the food bank closes pretty early most days.”
Time stamp 26:06: Mary-Anne Denny-Lusk: “So we're looking at being a drop-off point for the emergency bags as well, so again, allowing people who don't have the mobility to get down there. So we're doing what we can working within a few different organizations in Barrie to help out.”
Time stamp 26:20: Leah Dyck: “That's interesting because the whole reason I even started Fresh Free Weekly in the first place like before I started it, I reached out to and Michelle Simon's isn't there anymore but I asked if I could organize a group of volunteers to get their food to their clients. And because she told me no single moms with no vehicle thing to fix their problems, people in wheelchairs aren’t disabled enough and she didn't care about elderly people, she said no…”
Time stamp 27:38: Mary-Anne Denny-Lusk: “Yeah, we're trying like I said we're gonna do a couple pilot programs with them to see if we can get up and running to see if there's enough tenants that wouldn't be willing to use the service, umm, but it's just coordinating everything right now and getting it all sorted out. It’s, I think we just had that conversation yesterday so, it’s coming, we're working, we're trying to help out as much as we can and then assist with some of our tenant's needs.”
Summitview Food Pantry
As of December 2024, this flyer is the only thing posted at the Summitview housing project. There are no bins or food anywhere or any other information posted about this Food Pantry.
On August 11, 2023, at 7:39 AM, Kelsey Nicholls, the Community Impact Associate at the United Way Simcoe Muskoka responded to my email inquiring about The VanDyck Foundation's eligibility to apply for the 2023 Collaborative Partnership grant. Within Kelsey Nicholls’ email, she made the following statement:
“…Providing a statement of your financial position will be enough to support your application…”
On August 30, 2024, I submitted a grant application to the United Way of Simcoe Muskoka. Within this grant application, was a legal document signed by the Chief Research Scientist of the Royal Victoria Hospital, Dr. Giulio Didiodato, in which he agreed to lead the proposed research study. Also within this grant application was a signed letter of support authored by Dr. Matthew Orava.
On November 6, 2023, at 6:28 AM, Kari Klassen, the Simcoe County Food Council coordinator replied to my email requesting assistance with Fresh Food Weekly. The subject line of this email is as follows: “Re: Fresh Food Weekly is Shutting Down. Can you help?”. Within this reply email, Kari Klassen made the following statement:
“…I am meeting with my boss this morning — Erin Chapelle — and I will go over your letter with her. My heart goes out to you…”
On December 8, 2023, I received a letter by email from Rebekah Vaughan, the Manager, Collaborations and Partnerships at the United Way Simcoe Muskoka. The letter was authored by Sharon McCormick, the Chief Administrative Officer. Within this letter, Sharon McCormick made the following statement:
“… Unfortunately, your application submission did not meet the requirements for review. As there is no board, the insurances are not in place to meet the eligibility criteria and there was no signed legal document submitted with the application…”
They didn't even bother reviewing my grant application, in which I spent close to $2K on a grant writer to help me write.
On January 17, 2024, I emailed Alex Nuttall and Natasha Halikas, the Communications and Office Manager for the Office of the Mayor, at 7:08 AM. Within this email, I made the following statement:
“… I wanted to let you know that yesterday was Fresh Food Weekly’s last delivery day. I haven’t been able to get any help with running it and it’s way too much work for one person to do and I just can’t do it alone anymore. I also need funding to run the program properly… I was wondering if I could set a meeting with Alex… I would like to see if there’s a way the City of Barrie could support the program, financially, among other ways. I also have plans to bring free produce to the other charities in Barrie as well (like, TONS)…
On January 22, 2024 at 2:45 PM, Nikki Cole of BarrieToday.com published an article titled, ‘Drained: Fresh Food Weekly folding due to lack of funding’. The subsequent sub-line of this article states:
“'The truth is it’s being shut down because nobody cares (who) should care,' says Leah Dyck, who still has future plans to help 'poorest of the poor’”.
Within this article, the following quote has been extracted:
“…An official from the office of the mayor confirmed Dyck has requested a meeting with Mayor Alex Nuttall, but no date has been set yet for talks…"
Exactly 18 minutes after this article was published, the Office of Mayor Alex Nuttall responded to my request for a meeting, which was granted.
After the meeting with Alex Nuttall on February 6, 2024, I sent him an email at 3:28 PM. Within this email, I made the following statement:
“…you’ll probably understand when I say that God gave me the grace to do the full-time job of three people for the last 19 months and now that grace is gone. Totally and utterly gone. I really want to press that my issue is not with having a boss at all. In many ways, I had several bosses while running Fresh Food Weekly… I feel compelled to push for a sustainable model…”
Alex never responded.
If you're wondering why I felt it was appropriate to mention God, it's because Alex Nuttall went to Redeemer, a Christian bible college, and I figured talking about my faith was something Alex may have been able to understand.
On February 23, 2024, I emailed Alex Nuttall and Natasha Halikas at 2:33 PM. Within this email, I made the following statement:
“… I just wanted to check in and see if Alex has had a chance to review the proposal I sent him (even though he’s not interested in the idea of a new Office)? And I wanted to see if he’s been able to connect with that person from Barrie Housing that was hired from Toronto Public Housing in September 2023, or if he was able to connect with anyone from the Health Unit about trying to help with getting the Fresh Food Weekly program funded properly? And if not, I wanted to see if he maybe had any other thoughts or ideas on how to possibly get Fresh Food Weekly back up and running again? I am willing to work for someone and dissolve my charity, and have a boss. I just need help getting face time with these people…”
Neither Alex nor Natasha responded.
On April 17, 2024, BarrieToday.com reporter Nikki Cole emailed me at 4:11 PM. Nikki Cole made the following statements:
“…I am reaching out in the hopes you might be able to help. We are embarking on a Housing Series, and one of the ones I have been assigned is to speak to someone currently living in social housing within Barrie and get some insight into the challenges of obtaining the housing to begin with, is it hard to get out of social housing, pride of ownership, etc. I recall from one of our conversations that you mentioned you live/lived in one of the complexes in the city? I was also thinking based on your work with you charity, you may even know a few folks who would be willing to share their own stories on the record? Any insight/assistance with this would be greatly appreciated. Nikki”
I replied to Nikki Cole’s email that same day at 4:40 PM and made the following statement:
“…Now that you’ve reached out and specifically asked, I’ll forward you the email I sent Armine. If you would like to do something with it, that’s up to you, and if not, that’s okay to. I’m actively trying to forgive others who don’t deserve any forgiveness at all lol. I’m desperately trying lol…”
Nikki Cole didn't respond. So I emailed her again on April 21, 2024:
But Nikki Cole didn't respond to this email either.
On July 4, 2024, Nikki Cole published an article titled, ‘SERIES: Barrie mayor calls childhood in social housing his ‘biggest blessing’.” The article went on to speak about how wonderful Alex Nuttall’s experience was when he used to live in Barrie Housing’s Mill Creek housing project located at 549 Yonge Street in the 1990’s, which was when Mary-Anne Denny-Lusk was still attending Brock University and had nothing to do with Barrie Housing.
On the morning of June 18, 2024, I was doing research for a PSI Foundation grant and discovered an article titled, ‘NYCHA Tenants Sue Over Early Exclusion From State Pandemic Rent Relief’ published on CityLimits.org. This is when I realized that Barrie Housing had done the exact same thing as the New York City Housing Authority (“NYCHA”).
Consequently, I emailed Nikki Cole at 8:42 AM. The subject line of this email was: ‘What’s happening in Barrie is happening in New York’ and the content of the email was a link to the NYCHA article listed in the above paragraph and that was it.
As expected, Nikki Cole didn't respond to me.
Exactly 35 minutes later, at 9:17 AM, though, Natasha Halikas emailed me for the first time since presenting my Food Systems Planning Proposal to Mayor Alex Nuttall:
As expected, no one from the County ever got back to me about my Food Systems Planning Office proposal.
On June 28, 2024, I emailed a local architect, and asked if he could donate some drawings. I ended up having a call with him on July 4, 2024 at 11:06 AM and the call lasted 52 minutes. During this call, he asked me to find out exactly how many bedrooms are in each Rent-Geared-to-Income ("RGI") for Barrie Housing's 14 housing projects. So I submitted a Freedom of Information Request to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
On July 12, 2024, at 3:35 PM, Danait Alemseged, the Senior Information Management and Privacy Advisor in the Corporate Services Branch at the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing Ontario, called me but I missed her call.
I've submitted a lot of Freedom of Information requests and Danait is the only one to have called me.
Danait Alemseged called me again on July 16, 2024, at 10:02 AM and the call lasted five minutes. During this call, Danait informed that me that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing did not have the requested information in their possession and told me I'd need to request this information from Barrie Housing.
On July 16, 2024, I submitted by mail, a Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (“MFIPPA”) request to the County of Simcoe seeking the number of bedrooms per RGI unit of Barrie Housing’s 14 housing projects.
As a result of discovering the NYCHA article, I filed an Application 1 Form with the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (“HRTO”) and the HRTO delivered by email a Notice of Application was delivered by email to the Respondents, which includes the County of Simcoe, the City of Barrie, the Simcoe County Housing Corporation ("SCHC") and the Barrie Municipal Non-Profit Housing Corporation, on July 25, 2024.
On July 29, 2024, Danait Alemseged emailed me a letter which included the following statement:
“…The Act requires the Ministry to issue an access decision within 30 calendar days from the date the request was received. However, in certain circumstances, the Ministry may extend the prescribed 30 days by a reasonable amount of time. In accordance with Section 27(1)(a) of the Act, we wish to advise you that the time has been extended for an additional 30 days as the request necessitates a search through a large number of records. As such, the time for processing your request has been extended to August 28, 2024…”
I was confused as to why Danait needed to extend this date as she had already told me that the requested records were not in the Ministry’s possession and therefore, the Ministry was not able to release them.
On August 14, 2024, the City of Barrie hosted a City Council Meeting, and created a by-law preventing me from obtaining the number of bedrooms per RGI unit within Barrie Housing's 14 housing projects, which is essential for an appraisal, which would have allowed me to know the estimated costs of constructing a sheltered refrigerated mailbox cluster, which is mandatory when applying for grants:
On August 22, 2024, the County of Simcoe’s Director of legal services, Zarah Walpole, delivered by email to the HRTO Registrar, and all the Respondents in my HRTO matter, including me, her response to my HRTO request for production of documents (which were the number of bedrooms per RGI unit). In Zarah Walpole’s response submission, she made the following statements:
“7. The County supports public access to information and uses its best efforts to comply with its obligations under the Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, 1990.”
and
“9. In Schedule “A”, the Respondents attach the requested information that they are entitled to disclose and for which they have documentation.”
The Schedule “A” attachment in Zarah Walpole’s HRTO submission included this chart of housing units in Simcoe County, which deliberately left the number of bedrooms blank.
On August 22, 2024, at 8:12 PM, I emailed Alex Freeman-Carter (one of the lawyer’s for the County of Simcoe), Ethan McIsaac (one of the lawyers for the City of Barrie), and Riley Brooks (Barrie Housing's lawyer):
Apparently the City of Barrie, the County of Simcoe and Barrie Housing don't want me applying for grants at all, and they're literally creating bylaws to prevent me from getting information I need to feed their hungriest residents.
I can't figure out for the life of me why these people are so dead-set against working with me... or feeding starving people.
Fresh Food Weekly should have been allowed to work with Barrie Housing, just like the Barrie Food Bank and the Good Food Box.
On January 4, 2025, I submitted a Form 10: Request to add a party, to my HRTO matter, and requested to add the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing ("MMAH") to the human rights lawsuit. Here's a copy of my request: