Captain Canada - Our Neighbourhood Saviour?

By Elizabeth Haggarty

Captain Canada. In his shiny red cape, Mounties hat and white Lycra thermal underwear with paper flag taped on, Captain Canada flies in and out of Regent Park extolling the virtues of universal health care, free education and buying Canadian products – even if they aren’t that good, with a large smile and thumbs up.

Created by Regent Park TV, Captain Canada was launched at this year’s Regent Park Film Festival. As the 80 members of the audience funneled in and out of Nelson Mandela High School’s gym, and the smell of Caribbean curries carried on Styrofoam plates from the buffet outside swelled, it was Captain Canada that got the most laughs.

After the viewing the cast and crew of Regent Park TV took the stage to answer audience questions:

“Where is Captain Canada, is he here tonight?” An audience member asked.

“Unfortunately Captain Canada is no longer with us,” replied Adonis Huggins, coordinator of Regent Park Focus the group that created him. “As you know Regent Park is going through a revitalization and he along with some of our other members were moved out as part of phase 1.”

Members of Regent Park TV answer questions at the Regent Park Film Festival

In a city where many of us are located in our ethnic enclaves, Captain Canada along with other work of Focus Media highlights what is unique about Regent Park; it’s pluralism and moments of grass root empowerment. According to Huggins Captain Canada ‘envisions what Canada should be for youth.’

“Were try to inspire [youth] to find content and communicate about some issue and in that way they learn about the democratic process of being engaged, what does it mean to advocate for a particular issue, to identify resources and to engage with decision makers,” says Huggins. “In our society we tend to say you have to be an adult and in the middle class for that to happen, but as young people you don’t have to wait, you can do it now starting with the issues of your community to build better communities and better neighbourhoods.”

It is the people of Regent Park who have created many of today’s success stories. ‘Pathways to Education’ a group in Regent Park developed to address the areas high high school drop out rates was developed by a local resident, and now serves as a model at five locations in Ontario and Quebec. In an earlier interview Ainsworth Morgan, the tutoring coordinator at Pathways, described in an annoyed tone that it wasn’t until Pathways was already successful, with the high school drop out rate reduced from 56% to 10% that government funding began to pour in.

Adonis Huggins points out that groups like Focus, that have created unique programs within their community, are often not utilized to spread their success to others. “We’ve learnt a lot over the years and have a lot to share with other communities who want to start up the same but we are not given the funding to do the outreach to support them,” says Huggins. “There are so many groups that want out support, but we really can’t spend that much time with them.”

Focus Media is not guaranteed a spot after revitalization.

With a high crime rate, shoddy housing, lack of services and schools, and miserable reputation it cannot be argued that the area does not need to undergo revitalization. But with a top down approach and revitalization plans focused more on changing building layout and integrating income levels to improve people’s lives then working with the people in Regent Park today the loss of Captain Canada highlights the potential loss of something important and unique.

Captain Canada may have been moved on, but the ability to actually revitalize Regent Park instead of losing it lies in the community of Regent Park itself.