How to overcome political disillusionment with Fizza Khalid

THE GREEN LINE'S
CHANGEMAKER INTERVIEW

How to overcome political disillusionment with Fizza Khalid

For our February 2025 Changemakers newsletter, we spoke with one of the faces behind the Scarborough Environmental Association about local activism.

Portrait of Fizza Khalid standing in front of a wall of foliage.

PORTRAIT OF FIZZA KHALID IN FRONT OF A WALL OF FOLIAGE.
📸: CHRISTIAN KEAY.

Adele Lukusa BW

Adele Lukusa

A graduate of TMU, Kitchener native enamoured with Toronto and lover of Jamila Woods. Currently working on supporting mutual aid efforts and unpacking the nuances of Black haircare.

Feb. 5, 2025

If there’s one thing to know about Fizza Khalid, it’s that she gets involved.

She's worked with Progress Toronto and TTCRiders, and co-founded the Scarborough Environmental Association, a grassroots organization that focuses on neighbourhood advocacy with local residents (and puts out banging reels that burst with that brand of charm, humour and realism that only Scarberians have.)

Fizza's advocacy journey started in high school with Pathways to Education, a program that helps low-income students graduate and succeed in their careers. At the time, mentors convinced Fizza's parents to send her off to university.

She says that push changed the trajectory of her life and motivated her to pursue activism — from protesting on campus to organizing neighbourhood clean ups. However, this journey didn’t happen without bumps in the road.

Learn how she’s navigated challenges and disillusionment, and how she approaches her work with the Scarborough Environmental Association (SEA) in our Q&A, below.

You’ve been involved in advocacy for a while. What are your biggest takeaways?

I think understanding how trust and influence affect people is very important because honestly, I find that people’s political leanings are not as strong as they believe they are.

After I came out of university, I was very disheartened and apolitical because I felt like you can't do anything as an individual, none of it matters. And I found that every time I would interact with someone by saying “this is my political leaning. I'm very leftist,” and labeling it in that way, it would create division right away.

I started canvassing with Progress Toronto, which was a policy based organization, so party lines didn't matter. I found that my conversations when I was canvassing for parties were very different from when I was canvassing for local policy issues. In the latter, people were more receptive and wanted to talk. I would be able to talk to conservatives and we would be able to agree, which I never thought would be the case when I was younger.

And then with the Scarborough Environmental Association, we wanted to build a very wide net for people to come together — whatever their political leaning is and whatever their age is.

What would you say is the Scarborough Environmental Association’s origin story?

It started with a park near me that I wanted to clean up because I was just tired of it being dirty. It was so gross. After we cleaned it, my partner and I would get so many compliments — and we were kind of surprised because this took no effort.

Through networking and hosting more clean ups, we realized that a lot of people had such good groups doing good work, but they were not working together. Some of it was because there were older people who didn't have social media or much advertising.

My partner and I both have immigrant parents and we find that isolation is a huge thing within their community. If they're not around cultural influences, there's a level of depression and loneliness that happens. And I'm an immigrant as well. Even though I've assimilated really well, I still feel very alienated. My experience is not the same as a person who was born here. So, we wanted to create this hub where people could feel welcomed — and the only way that people can do that is by actually communicating with their neighbours. That sounds super simple, but it’s not something that we really do anymore.

What can we look forward to seeing the Scarborough Environmental Association work on this year?

Our goal for this year is actually to be a non profit, but it's difficult because we need a non-profit lawyer and funders. Essentially, we need money — and that’s hard to come by.

But aside from that, we definitely want to expand our programming. Something that I really am grateful for is that I started in Progress Toronto. When they were starting off, I was a volunteer doing phone calls and seminars because I was interested in doing that. And because of that interest, they gave me opportunities too. I had a lead role and got mentorship.

So we want to do the same thing for the Scarborough Environmental Association. We want to see leaders who want to be leaders, even if they're not comfortable.

For example, I hate public speaking. I'm a relatively shy person, kind of an introvert. We want to be able to make sure that people like me are prepared in these situations and comfortable. For example, if you want to do a clean up in your neighbourhood, we will guide you through every single step. We will provide you with equipment, we will provide you with graphics, we'll host it for you, we will literally show up for you, but you have to lead it. We want to build that leadership quality in other people, especially the younger generation.

You’ve been in the activism game for a while — what’s your advice for those who want to make change, but feel disillusioned and/or overwhelmed by all the terrible stuff happening at home and overseas?

If you feel disillusioned, it's much easier to understand how to help your neighbour than help a person across Canada. Local politics is essentially where you can make the change. I think the disillusionment comes from having an overwhelming sense of not being able to do something, right? So, when you feel that way, try to do something like nature stewarding.

Nature stewarding is removing invasive plants and then planting native ones. It’s like being able to see physical change. When I see a whole batch of invasive plants removed and native plants potted in their place, I know next year there'll be more greenery and better wildlife. And it happens slowly, right? So that's what we should focus on: slow progression, one step at a time. It doesn't have to be huge. And eventually, it'll just become natural.

This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.

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Scarborough Environmental Association

Scarborough Environmental Association

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