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Hello, Ryerson, I'm Kiernan Green.

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And I'm Jacqueline Gilmore.

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And welcome to the Rye Report for Friday, September 20. Today we're gonna get into student pot sales, the vaccine debate, affordable housing around campus, and Ryerson's second annual Powwow.

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As stress and work pile up at the start of the school year, people are trying to chill out. Local pot stores say they're seeing higher sales now that students are back in school. Canna Cabana is Yonge and College streets next to Ryerson. Store Manager Seth Elkins Silver said since school started we definitely got more university student customers. Some students enjoy being able to buy pot legally now that they're back in school. George Brown student Curtis Tipoff says he doesn't have to worry about buying from random people anymore.

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Not too young, not too young, maybe grade grade eight or so. And I bought it from random sketchy people. And now it's legal so now I don't have to be worried anymore.

1:09  
Ann Greene is the owner of an online pot store and she says many university students are buying the drug quote because I can help them mentally. Canada legalized cannabis almost a year ago on October 16. Statistics Canada reported that 35% of males and 19% of females ages 15 to 24 have used cannabis in the past three months. 

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The director of Toronto's Affordable Housing office says that new cash allocated to affordable housing may give students more housing options. Shawn Jaden says the new initiative will add new housing supply to the whole city.

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One of the one of the things this initiative does is it tries to create new rental housing, because there's so much pressure and the vacancy rate in Toronto is like 1.1%. So maybe through this initiative, people will move out of basement apartments and other accommodation that would be available for students. The city itself doesn't run a student residency or student housing program. That's primarily the business if you will of the community colleges and the universities working with the provincial government and activating student housing. So this initiative, though, will add more supply to Toronto and affordability. It's possible because this is year round accommodation, it's possible that this is good housing and rents that would be available for students that might be graduate students or who may be, you know, living around in Toronto, or graduating and essentially starting their first job.

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City Hall is set up to $50 million to build in finance 651 affordable housing units across Toronto. The new rental housing units are a part of the Housing Opportunities Toronto action plan. The aim of the policy is to broaden the range of housing options for Toronto's economy and environment and the health and social well being of its residents. The funding will go towards eight housing development proposals, several are near Ryerson campus. Jayden says the office is considering eight proposals from developers. Three of these proposals are from nonprofit organizations set to build 215 of the homes.

3:28  
Well, it's the beginning of the school year again and the debate around vaccines continues on September 23. Toronto Public Health or TPH will recommend that the Ministry of Health remove religious exemptions for required vaccines in schools. Dr. Vinita Doobey is the spokesperson for TPH and the Associate Medical Officer of Sealth. In an email to the Scope she said TPH made the recommendation because vaccine hesitancy is still a global threat. She wrote in the email that parents who think vaccines are dangerous often have difficulty identifying credible information sources. Required vaccines for elementary and high school students are part of the Immunization of School Pupils Act, or ISPA. Mumps, whooping cough and chickenpox are some of those vaccinations. However, some parents don't want vaccines for their children. This can be for religious or philosophical reasons. TPH also recommends social media and search engines work to get rid of vaccine misinformation.

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The Ryerson Powwow has come around for a second year. It's set to feature festive and educational events related to Indigenous culture throughout this week. Events include traditional medicine workshops, panels such as TRSM's Indigenous entrepreneurship panel, and a walking tour of Toronto through an Indigenous perspective and several more. The week ends with a traditional Powwow in Kerr Hall quad with dancing, drumming and singing like you're hearing right now.

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That's the sound of Ryerson's first powwow in 20 years held this time last year. Hosting that powwow was one of the 47 recommendations made in Ryerson Indigenous community consultation report in response to Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. It's one effort in improving Ryerson University's relationship with the Indigenous community inside and outside of campus. Several hurdles to reconciliation are outlined in the report, including a lack of Indigenous staff and students and Indigenous focused courses. For the Rye Report, I'm Kiernan Green.

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And I'm Jacqueline Gilmore.