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Julie Dzerowicz Member of Parliament
Davenport

Davenport Friends and Neighbours / Amis et Voisins de Davenport,

I begin this week’s newsletter with a heavy heart. A Toronto police officer, Constable Marc Pinizzotto, was shot and killed early Thursday morning while carrying out a search warrant in our city’s northwest end. He was 43, an 18-year member of the force and five years with the Emergency Task Force. Above all, he was a husband, a father of two, a son, and a coach. Prime Minister Carney spoke for all of us when he said Canada mourns the loss of these brave officers who gave their lives protecting their communities. To Marc’s family, and to the entire Toronto Police Service: our deepest condolences. We are in your debt.

There is a great deal of news to share with you this week, so let me give you the headlines here and the fuller details below.

  • Lower food prices, more Canadian food: On June 11, our government launched Canada’s first-ever National Food Security Strategy: more than $3 billion over 10 years to bring more competition to the grocery aisle, grow and process more of our own food here at home, and leave more money in your pocket at the checkout.
  • Keeping kids safer online: On June 10, we introduced the Safe Social Media Act (Bill C-34). As Minister Marc Miller put it plainly: “We’re failing our children. Enough is enough.” The law makes the companies (social media platforms and AI chatbots alike) responsible for building safe products, instead of leaving parents to do it all alone.
  • Billy Bishop Airport: The federal government has opened a public consultation on the future of the island airport, and I want every Davenport resident who has concerns about noise, our environment and our waterfront to have their say before it closes July 24.
  • Jobs and affordability: Canada added 88,000 jobs in May, our strongest month of the year, and unemployment fell to 6.6%. At the same time, we’re staying on top of the cost of living right now, from groceries to the gas pump.
  • A new Governor General: This week Louise Arbour was installed as Canada’s 31st Governor General, a world-renowned jurist and human rights champion.

And on a joyful note: the FIFA World Cup is here! Toronto is one of two Canadian host cities, and this afternoon Canada took on Bosnia and Herzegovina at 3 p.m – and we tied, a great start and a historic first point for the World Cup. Go Team Canada!

It is also Portuguese Heritage Month, a celebration that means a great deal here in Davenport, home to the largest Portuguese community in Canada – and you can come say hello to me at the Portugal Day Parade tomorrow starting at 10am on Corso Italia!

Taste of Little Italy also kicks off this weekend on College, and it’s a great way to celebrate Italian Heritage Month!

Last but not least, it’s also Filipino Heritage Month, celebrating one of Canada’s fastest growing communities; and June marks the start of the Pride Season.

More information below

1. Police Constable Marc Pinizzotto

Const. Marc Pinizzotto died Thursday morning after an exchange of gunfire while officers executed a search warrant near Trethewey Drive and Black Creek Drive. The operation was part of an investigation into several shootings across the Greater Toronto Area. Hundreds of officers stood shoulder to shoulder as a procession carried him from the hospital. Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw called him “a hero in life, not death.”

He leaves behind his wife and two children. Tributes have come from Mayor Olivia Chow, Premier Doug Ford and Prime Minister Carney. On behalf of Davenport, I extend my heartfelt condolences to his family, his colleagues and everyone who knew and loved him.

2. National Food Security Strategy (announced June 11)

Why we did it. Food costs too much. Families work hard and still feel the squeeze at the checkout. A handful of large grocery chains control too much of the market, and too much of our food comes from outside Canada, so when the world gets shaky, our prices jump. We want Canada to grow more of its own food, and to give families more choice and lower prices.

This is Canada’s first-ever National Food Security Strategy, backed by more than $3 billion over 10 years. It is a real plan, not just a promise. Here is what it does:

  • More choice, lower prices. We’re investing $1 billion in food hubs and terminals so small, independent grocers can buy and move competitively priced food without depending on the big chains. More competition means better prices for you. We’re also giving the Competition Bureau and Competition Tribunal nearly $130 million to crack down on anti-competitive practices in the grocery sector.
  • More Canadian food, grown here. We’re helping farms and food businesses grow and process more in Canada, including $750 million for greenhouses and indoor farms so we have fresh fruits and vegetables all year round, even in winter and in northern communities.
  • Faster and simpler. We’re cutting red tape so food gets from the farm to your table faster and more affordably.

The bottom line: more Canadian food on Canadian plates, more good jobs here at home, and more money left in your pocket.

3. Safe Social Media Act / Bill C-34

Why we did it. The online world is part of daily life now, especially for our kids, but the law never kept up. Children face real dangers online: harmful content, deepfakes, and AI tools that simply aren’t built to be safe. Parents can’t watch over their kids 24 hours a day. So we’re putting the responsibility where it belongs: on the companies, to build safe products in the first place.

In simple terms, here is what the bill does:

  • Children under 16 won’t have social media accounts, unless a company can prove its service is genuinely safe for children. That pushes every platform to do better by design.
  • Three clear duties for companies: protect children by design; act responsibly on harmful content; and quickly remove the very worst material, such as content that sexually exploits a child, or intimate images shared without consent, including “deepfake” images.
  • New rules for AI chatbots. If a child, or anyone, starts talking about harming themselves or others, the company can’t just let the conversation carry on as if nothing is wrong. Chatbots will need real safeguards to lower those risks and respond appropriately in a crisis. Companies will also have to label AI-generated content so people know what’s real.
  • A new Digital Safety Commission to hold companies accountable when they fail, with real penalties.

Why now, and how we got here. Other places have moved first: Europe has been ahead of us on online safety rules, and Australia led the way on restricting social media for those under 16, and we’ve learned from their experience. But Canada is doing something genuinely new in bringing AI chatbots under the same safety framework and creating an independent Commission to enforce it. This bill was shaped by extensive consultation, including our Expert Advisory Group on Online Safety, which we reconvened this spring to advise us on these fast-emerging issues.

We’ve all seen why this matters. After the tragedy in Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia, earlier this year, where eight people were killed, Canadians have been asking hard questions about why an AI company could flag a user’s dangerous conversations and still stay silent. The company has since apologized, and affected families have gone to court. Whatever the courts ultimately decide, the lesson is clear: when a company sees real danger, simply doing nothing can no longer be acceptable. This bill is about closing that gap and making sure these companies do their part.

Parents are doing their best. Now we’re making sure the companies are doing their part too.

4. Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport

Many of you have written to me about the future of the island airport, and we have heard your concerns. The federal government has now opened a public consultation on Billy Bishop’s future, running until July 24. This is your opportunity to weigh in directly.

A few of you have flagged concerns about the consultation itself, and Dufferin Grove has shared media reporting on caucus discipline. I want to respond to both, because they raise fair questions and they deserve fair answers.

On the survey: the questions about the survey’s design that are being raised are fair, and I will share the comments I am receiving with the Minister of Transport’s office. On the consultation more broadly: this is the first formal federal engagement on Billy Bishop’s future, and like any first iteration, it can and should be improved by feedback. Telling Transport Canada that a question is missing or wrongly framed is itself a valid input. So is participating fully and writing in detail in the open-comment sections, which are not constrained by the multiple-choice format.

If you would like to submit more substantive feedback on the survey, what we know of the proposal, or the future of the waterfront – you can email your thoughts directly to: airportspolicy-politiquedesaeroports@tc.gc.ca.

The most important thing I can tell you is that participation matters, and walking away from the process is the one outcome that guarantees your views are not recorded.

On the media piece and the broader question of whether Toronto MPs are reading from a script. Toronto Caucus colleagues discuss this file together, and there is genuine agreement among us on the five standards I laid out in my June letter. That alignment is real and it is shared, not dictated. The rest of what I write in my letters and say in my interviews is in my own words. You can read my latest letter (and all the letters and interviews I have done) responding to concerns about the island airport here.

To be clear on where things actually stand: no plan has been presented, no decisions have been made, Prime Minister Carney has been clear that consulting Canadians is essential, and I will not support any change at Billy Bishop that fails the five standards I laid out in my June letter. That is my position, in my own words. If a future federal decision conflicts with those standards, you will know where I stand on it. Please take the survey, please write in your own comments, and please tell me what you are telling Transport Canada. I read every email.

5. Economy, jobs and affordability

Our government’s goal under Prime Minister Carney is simple: grow the Canadian economy and build Canada strong, with Canadian materials and Canadian workers, so that every dollar we invest creates good jobs here at home.

And it’s working. Last month, Canada added 88,000 jobs, our strongest month of the year, and the unemployment rate came down to 6.6% from 6.9%. Almost all of those were full-time positions (154,000 of them), with construction leading the way. That single month erased roughly 80% of the job losses recorded earlier this year. So to everyone wondering whether we’re sliding into a recession: the most recent numbers tell a story of an economy steadying and rebuilding, not retreating.

But we’re not growing the economy just for its own sake. We’re doing it so everyone benefits. We know how expensive life has become, so we’re acting on affordability right now. Two examples among many:

  • Groceries. A one-time GST top-up landed in people’s accounts on June 5. Going forward, our new Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit will deliver more to families over the next five years: a family of four could receive up to $1,890 this year.
  • Fuel. The federal excise tax on gasoline and diesel is suspended for the summer, right through Labour Day, lowering costs at the pump and for the trucking, farming and delivery sectors that move our food.

Even the new Food Security Strategy is part of this same plan: growing more Canadian food here at home so we depend less on others and pay less at the checkout. That’s what building Canada strong really means: a stronger economy, more good jobs, and a country where everyone can get ahead.

6. Canada’s 31st Governor General: Louise Arbour

This week, Louise Arbour was installed as Canada’s 31st Governor General, succeeding Mary Simon. She is a world-renowned legal scholar, judge and human rights leader whose career of service spans more than five decades, including as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

In her first address, Her Excellency spoke to the moment we’re living through: the challenges facing young Canadians on affordability, housing and jobs; the need to remain vigilant as AI blurs the line between truth and falsehood; and the importance of guarding against both extreme polarization and extreme consensus so that a healthy marketplace of ideas can thrive. She urged us to embrace newcomers, to listen across our differences, and not to slow our progress out of fear of them. I look forward to the leadership she will bring.

7. Toronto shines at the FIFA World Cup

The FIFA World Cup kicked off last night, and the electricity continued when Team Canada tied with Bosnia and Herzegovina – a great start to the World Cup and a historic first point.

Toronto is one of just two Canadian host cities, and we’ll host six matches between June 11 and July 20. Be sure to check out the FIFA Fan Festival, support your local bars and restaurants, and show your football (soccer) pride across our city. Let’s go, Canada!

Find the FIFA Schedule here.

As always, it is a true honour and privilege to serve you, Davenport!

My best regards,

MP Julie Dzerowicz
Member of Parliament for Davenport
Chair, Toronto Caucus
Chair, Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration
Chair, Canadian NATO Parliamentary Association