Hello Everyone! Another 80+ new signatures from this past week is wonderful! Thank you very much to everyone new and old who has added their support! We can potentially reach 500!  

There is some potentially significant news I have to share today from the past week, specifically from Thursday and Friday. I'll just quickly add beforehand that it has been very nice to correspond with you all so far in person and online. Thank you for all the kind messages, I am very flattered personally and greatly appreciative of your efforts, and I will be caught up with everyone's emails soon! 

1. Firstly, I've been taking a course at The University of Toronto on, coincidently, urban planning since this past September. On Tuesday Nov 25th, I had a productive chat with my professor about our bus stop removal problem. 
One thing we discovered is the TTC has a committee called "ACAT: Advisory Committee on Accessible Transit". ACAT reports directly to the TTC board. (all links at end of section)
Once a month, ACAT holds a hybrid-style meeting where any member of the public can request to make a deputation on matters concerning transit accessibility. Since accessibility was a reason directly cited by the TTC for the removal of 366's bus stops, this may provide a very good opportunity to contest this to an entire panel that the TTC's decision has made accessibility worse overall for our community.  
Their last meeting of 2025 will be on Dec 18th from 1-3:30 p.m. I have gone ahead and emailed my request to speak at the meeting. All requests for a deputation must be made 10 days prior to the next meeting. They replied and passed my comments along to the executive, and now I am just waiting for another follow-up. Please read over the ACAT details linked below. If this is something you may also be interested in participating in on Dec 18th with me, this is an opportunity to get word directly back to the TTC board about why their decision was poorly made!

ACAT Overview: https://www.ttc.ca/about-the-ttc/the-advisory-committee-on-accessible-transit#joinacat
ACAT Meeting Page: https://www.ttc.ca/Public-meetings/Advisory-Committee-on-Accessible-Transit---ACAT
Email to Request Deputation: acat@ttc.ca

2. Secondly, and possibly a more substantive update; on Thursday morning Nov 27th, I received a follow-up email from Arjun Sahota in response to my initial follow-up with him. Arjun said:

"Hi Chris,

Thank you for taking the time to share your detailed note and the perspectives from the community regarding the recent changes to the Route 111 bus stops. I appreciate the effort you’ve put into outlining your concerns and providing context, including the petition link.

I have reviewed your message and I am consulting with internal teams at the TTC to ensure your points are fully considered, and addressed. Once I’ve had those discussions, I will circle back with you with next steps. I anticipate having a substantive response for you by the end of the week, or early next week.

Thank you again for bringing this to our attention and for your continued engagement on this matter."

My first impression was that this email regarding discussions with internal TTC teams does sound promising. As it is now the weekend, I am hopeful that indeed Arjun will provide the aforementioned direct, more substantive follow-up next week. 
After receiving this, I emailed councilor Holyday's office again, sharing the email, to inform them of this forthcoming "substantive" update from Arjun, in the hopes Stephen's office will be pushed into taking additional action.
I also passed Arjun's message along to Oggie directly, who said he would also reach out again to Arjun. As soon as there is any additional update, it will be published to everyone!

3. Lastly, and this is a developing update since it just occurred late on Friday night, I was very pleasantly surprised to receive an email from CTV Journalist Natalie Johnson herself! Natalie wrote:

"Hi Chris, thanks so much for reaching out. I’m sorry to hear you’ve been dealing with this.

I think this is a good story and I’m happy to pitch it to my assignment desk. I am fully booked for December, but let me see if one of my colleagues might be available to cover this? Otherwise we could look at January, if that was an option for you.

Will get back to you asap.

Natalie"

So now we have a local media outlet interested in covering our situation! I sent Natalie a brief thank you reply and said I'll wait for her follow-up; while it's unfortunate she is fully booked for December, I do believe having our story potentially covered by a colleague of hers would be just as great and helpful. If anyone has any thoughts on this (or anything else from this update), please get in touch.

ONE EXTRA POINT/REQUEST: It seems someone is tearing off my posters from both our inactive 366 and active 2 Valhalla bus shelters, respectively. Today (Nov 29) was the second time. It seems to be occurring around Fridays/Saturdays, as it happened Fri Nov 21st the first time. If you personally notice that they have been torn off outside, I am requesting that you please let me know. Thank you very much!

In the meantime everyone, please continue to phone/email the TTC, Holyday's office, Arjun Sahota, other city councillors on the TTC board, etc.. Their contact information is all available in the main body of the petition page, along with Natalie Johnson's email and other media outlets contact info. 
The more the TTC/The City are pestered (respectfully), the better chance we have of succeeding! 
We have reached nearly 500 signatures as well! Amazing work! Please also ask any of your neighbours and friends who may not have signed yet to please join the cause! Thank you again very much, everyone. Take care! 

SIncerely,

Chris