Ward 21 — Scarborough Centre

According to her LinkedIn profile, Jamie Charles is a lease administrator at an international real estate investment advisor and real estate service provider. While there is limited information about Jamie Charles and details of her campaign online, she says her top priority is student education.

Opa Hope Day describes herself as a mother of four, a wellness entrepreneur and a self-development coach. She also started Empowering the Teen Spirit Wellness Centre online, which is no longer active. On her campaign website, she says she is concerned with the direction of the TDSB curriculum because she feels it is more concerned with “pushing ideologies than preparing students for entrepreneurship.” Day is interested in “getting back” to a curriculum that focuses on entrepreneurship skills, empowering all students, and providing equal access to opportunities. She wants to develop what she refers to as a TDSB Specialty Support Program that would increase access to services like the TTC or lessons for children who require additional support through collaborations with external organizations and community partnerships. Hope Day also wants to create a one-year exchange work program for specialty program teachers to travel to Africa, the Lesser Antilles or Central America.

Debrosree Chatterjee describes herself as the full-time stay-at-home mother of an eight-year-old boy, as well as a former lawyer. While there is no detailed information about her campaign online, she says she wants to improve the education structure and meal programs for Ward 17 students.

Dakk Marrello describes himself as a father of two and an engineering and legal consultant. He is a member in good standing with the Law Society of Ontario as a paralegal. Marrello is also chair of Glamorgan Junior Public School council. While there is no detailed information about Dakk’s campaign, on his campaign website, he says he will support the TDSB’s multi-year plan.

Zamir ul Hassan Nadeem previously ran for Ward 21 city councillor in 2018, having placed eighth out of eleven candidates. Social media activity shows Nadeem was campaigning for vice-president of the NDP Party’s Federal Ridings Association in May 2019 and a politics blog indicates he may have pursued the NDP nomination for Scarborough Centre in the 2022 provincial election and later stepped down. He has self-described as a community worker and organizer. There is limited information online regarding his trustee campaign and professional experience.

Information about this candidate could not be found at time of publication.

According to his website, Muhammad Waseem Qadeer is a software developer with a Masters in Artificial Intelligence from Toronto Metropolitan University. He is interested in increasing after school programs and school staffing. If elected, he says he will also improve engagement with parents with regular town halls.

Neethan Shan is the executive director of Urban Alliance Race Relations, a non-profit charitable organisation that provides research and educational programs on racial equity. He was the TDSB trustee for Ward 21 from 2014 to 2018, a former Toronto city councillor from 2017 to 2018, and was both the former president of the Ontario NDP and the NDP’s chosen candidate for the 2022 Ontario provincial election for Scarborough Centre. Shan has been endorsed by the Toronto & York Region Labour Council. He says he prioritizes making resources and opportunities directly available to all students in Scarborough so they don’t have to travel for those opportunities. Shan also wants to improve school infrastructure and safety.

Kareem South is a culture and diversity associate at the not-for-profit mental health consultancy group Stepped Care Solutions, a former professional athlete and a recent master’s graduate from the University of California-Berkeley where he studied Public Health. According to his campaign website, he is focused on creating school environments that are conducive to mental wellbeing and centring students’ voices and needs in his decisions. Kareem also says he is committed to expanding extracurricular activities and sports that prioritize inclusion and community.

Kostadinos Stefanis was an independent candidate for Scarborough Centre in the 2022 Ontario provincial election, having placed eighth out of ten candidates. There is limited available information online about this candidate’s campaign.

Zuhair Syed is the founder of a market research company that assists small and medium-scale businesses in the community. Previously, Syed ran in the 2017 municipal by-election as a city councillor candidate in Ward 42 for Scarborough-Rouge River where he placed second out of twenty-nine candidates. As a city councillor candidate, he advocated for funding for the Scarborough subway extension project and improving urban parks and spaces. Syed’s Ward 17 trustee platform prioritizes fiscal responsibility, suggesting better management of Toronto’s education budget is needed as a way to meet student needs. He says smaller class sizes are a top priority for him but that such commitments cannot come at the expense of a balanced budget.

Aylwin Thengampallil is self-employed. He was a National Citizens Alliance of Canada parliamentary candidate for Scarborough Centre in the 2021 federal election, having placed fifth of five candidates. Information about this candidate’s campaign could not be found at time of publication.

Information about this candidate could not be found at time of publication.

Daniel Cubellis describes himself as a lifelong Scarborough resident, and has a degree in civil engineering from the University of Toronto. He says he is currently also volunteering as a coach with the Scarborough Thunder Minor Football Association. He previously ran in the 2018 municipal election as a candidate for Ward 25, where he placed seventh of eleven.

Mike Del Grande is the incumbent TCDSB trustee for Ward 7 since 2014 where he served as Chair for the 2014-2015 school year and as a Vice-Chair for the 2018-2019 school year. Previously, he was a city councillor for Scarborough-Agincourt from 2003 to 2014. As several news publications have reported, Del Grande was censured by the TCDSB in November 2020 after he equated LGBTQ rights to bestiality, pedophilia and other terms related to cannibalism and vampirism during a debate to change the board’s code of conduct in November 2019 (the board reversed its earlier August 2020 decision that Del Grande did not breach the trustee’s code of conduct and moved to impose censure and sanctions in November 2020). Del Grande denies he made such comparisons. He subsequently took medical leave in January 2021 after a failed appeal to overturn the disciplinary action. Del Grande also made headlines in 2014 when, in his opening speech as TCDSB Chair, he noted that the 2014 sex ed curriculum and HPV vaccine program for grade 8 girls presented “moral issues” for the Catholic school system. His priorities include making sure the TCDSB can “maintain its authentic Catholic character” and protecting parents’ rights.

According to his website, Nelson Lui is a TCDSB graduate and University of Toronto alumni holding a degree in History, English, and Political Science. As part of his campaign, Lui wants to save Catholic schools from shutting down, make a COVID-19 vaccination a requirement for all schools, and implement harm reduction services into existing counselling services. He also wants to provide more funding and inter-professional collaboration to special education, as well as provide early education about Truth and Reconciliation.

Benoit Fortin is the incumbent trustee for Conseil scolaire Viamonde Ward 2 – Est. He has held office since 2018, and has been elected by acclamation in this year’s election given he was running unopposed. Fortin is the founding member and Vice President of Development in Africa and India of Skypower, which develops, funds and runs utility-scale renewable power projects internationally. He is also vice-president of the Association des conseils scolaires des écoles publiques de l’Ontario board of directors, which represents all French-language public school boards in the province. While there is limited information about his priorities, Fortin has commented publicly as vice-president of the board on the importance of keeping students in the francophone school system until grade 12 and of meeting the specific needs of a growing francophone community following an announcement of funding from the Ontario government to build a new school.

The City Clerk has voided the election for the MonAvenir school board in this ward. The election will not take place on October 24 and a by-election will be held at a later date.

The City Clerk has voided the election for the MonAvenir school board in this ward. The election will not take place on October 24 and a by-election will be held at a later date. In an email to parents sent on October 21, Rawdat said he was ending his campaign. Read more about ineligible trustees running in French-language schools.

The City Clerk has voided the election for the MonAvenir school board in this ward. The election will not take place on October 24 and a by-election will be held at a later date. On October 21, Wilson notified the city clerk that he is not eligible to hold office. Read more about ineligible trustees running in French-language schools.