#TorontoIsFailingMe: My seniors’ group safeguards the mall
Wilma Inniss, 77
Malvern
I came to Canada from Trinidad in 1963. When I retired from my job at the Ministry of Transportation 14 years ago, a couple of my friends told me about a seniors’ walking group at the Malvern Town Centre. I’ve been going ever since, and I now run the program with my younger sister, Gemma.
We meet three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, and do laps through the mall from 7:30 to 8:30. And then we do aerobics. We’ve got more than a hundred members, mostly women but some men as well. It’s a mixed crowd, but the majority are from Caribbean islands—Trinidad, Barbados, St. Lucia. I lead the exercise class once or twice a week. We organize dances, dinners, casino trips. You have to pay a toonie a month, and we use that money for birthday parties and to help each other. If someone gets sick or a family member passes away, the walkers make a donation.
Walking through the mall for so long, I’ve seen the good and the bad. A few years ago, you’d see Malvern in the news all the time—stories about shootings and violence. A barber was killed at the mall in 2012, and there was a shooting in the parking lot last May—but those incidents are rare. Mostly it’s just people making mischief. At lunchtime, it’s full of kids eating at the McDonald’s and hanging out. Occasionally you’ll see a big crowd and someone will say, “Oh, somebody just snatched that woman’s purse.” But I don’t feel threatened—I’m here with my friends. I like to feel we’ve made a difference.
—as told to Nicholas Hune-Brown
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/toronto-is-failing-me-my-seniors-group-safeguards-the-mall/&title=#TorontoIsFailingMe: My seniors’ group safeguards the mall&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/toronto-is-failing-me-malvern.jpg&description=Toronto's inner suburbs have become shorthand for crumbling postwar apartment blocks, underfunded schools or gang warfare. They’re among the neighbourhoods with the lowest incomes in the city, the longest trek to a TTC stop, and the highest concentration of immigrants and visible minorities. This month, we're sharing stories from Torontonians who live in the inner suburbs, told in their own words. Some are shocking, some tragic, some hopeful. Together, they convey an urgent truth: Toronto is failing too many of its citizens. Have a story of your own? Tweet, Facebook, or Instagram with the hashtag #TorontoIsFailingMe to tell us.
[caption id="attachment_304410" align="aligncenter" width="656"] Wilma Inniss, front and centre, and members of her mall walking group. (Image: Eamon Mac Mahon)[/caption]
Wilma Inniss, 77
Malvern
I came to Canada from Trinidad in 1963. When I retired from my job at the Ministry of Transportation 14 years ago, a couple of my friends told me about a seniors’ walking group at the Malvern Town Centre. I’ve been going ever since, and I now run the program with my younger sister, Gemma.
We meet three times a week, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings, and do laps through the mall from 7:30 to 8:30. And then we do aerobics. We’ve got more than a hundred members, mostly women but some men as well. It’s a mixed crowd, but the majority are from Caribbean islands—Trinidad, Barbados, St. Lucia. I lead the exercise class once or twice a week. We organize dances, dinners, casino trips. You have to pay a toonie a month, and we use that money for birthday parties and to help each other. If someone gets sick or a family member passes away, the walkers make a donation.
Walking through the mall for so long, I’ve seen the good and the bad. A few years ago, you’d see Malvern in the news all the time—stories about shootings and violence. A barber was killed at the mall in 2012, and there was a shooting in the parking lot last May—but those incidents are rare. Mostly it’s just people making mischief. At lunchtime, it’s full of kids eating at the McDonald’s and hanging out. Occasionally you’ll see a big crowd and someone will say, “Oh, somebody just snatched that woman’s purse.” But I don’t feel threatened—I’m here with my friends. I like to feel we’ve made a difference.
—as told to Nicholas Hune-Brown){kind=link}
I don’t get it, how has the city failed this woman?
Malls are generally closed to shoppers at 7:30-8:30 so I’m going out on a limb to say there’s not really a lot of crime happening in them at that time.
If they want to make the city and their neighbourhood safer, why not split the large group into smaller groups and go for walks in the area at night.
It’s great that they’re staying active and meeting like minded people from different parts of the world, in that sens Toronto is doing them well.
I think it’s a great thing that this woman and her group do. I live near Malvern and see them sometimes in the mornings there as I get my coffee. I think they are working great with the mall, the community, and the city in which they live.
However, this is not an example of Toronto failing them. It’s a positive story of people contributing to their community. Keep up the great work, but don’t be sucked into promoting this negative hashtag and horribly inaccurate series!
“Toronto’s inner suburbs have become shorthand for crumbling postwar
apartment blocks, underfunded schools or gang warfare. They’re among the
neighbourhoods with the lowest incomes in the city, the longest trek to
a TTC stop, and the highest concentration of immigrants and visible
minorities.”
So, what you’re saying is that these areas with visible minorities are beginning to resemble the countries from which the visible minorities came from in the first place? I wonder what would happen if you put the population of Detriot in Tokyo, and the population of Tokyo in Detriot. My guess is that Tokyo would soon begin to resemble Detriot, and Detriot would soon begin to resemble Tokyo.