By Frederick Halley

FORMER Guyanese international-award winning journalist and corporate communications specialist, Robert Bazil, on Thursday last, launched a bid for a seat on the Toronto City Council in the upcoming October 26, 2026 Municipal Elections.
The father of four, who emigrated to Canada in 2008, is also a Licensed Paralegal, Notary Public and Commissioner of Oaths in the Province of Ontario.
Bazil is running for Councillor for Ward 24 (Scarborough-Guildwood) and is confident he’ll topple the incumbent who has been in office for about a decade.
Under the campaign theme, ‘A Wind of Change is Coming to Scarborough-Guildwood’, Bazil, who has a passion for youth development issues, said he has watched the decline in opportunities available to young people in Scarborough-Guildwood, and hopes to draw on his wealth of experience from his work as a communications officer with the Commonwealth Youth Programme Caribbean Centre, from 2002 to 2008.
As a Licensed Paralegal whose scope of practice includes summary criminal offences, Bazil noted the rising level of gun violence in Toronto, and, when elected, hopes to ‘Make Scarborough-Guildwood Safe Again’ through the introduction of programmes for young people at their most vulnerable ages, before they fall through the cracks.
Improved transit and enhanced customer service training for operators, access to affordable housing, the environment, improved winter maintenance, traffic congestion, infrastructure management, homelessness, rising poverty levels, social services and mental health and addiction, are among the top issues that Bazil aims to address when elected Councillor for Ward 24 (Scarborough Guildwood) on October 26, 2026.
Married to Drupati Bazil with four children – Renee, Raphael, Regina and Raeanne, the Guyanese native maintains that strong families produce strong communities, and plans to pilot City-funded initiatives that support the critical needs of single mothers. He pointed out that single mothers are particularly targeted because better access to subsidised childcare will allow them to remain in the workplace or create a pathway to pursue their academic dreams.
Bazil is also passionate about issues affecting seniors in his community, especially those experiencing declining mobility and extreme hardship. Additionally, addressing the not-so-talked- about violence against women and girls in the community and access to counselling, will also be a huge part of his campaign manifesto.
Bazil, who is a member of the Miracle Arena for All Nations church in Woodbridge, Ontario, believes that it is his ordained duty to play an active part in the decision-making fabric of his community, rather than sit back passively and let others impose their own conflicting values and norms on the masses.
Come October 26, 2026, the former Guyanese journalist, who was also Chief Reporter at the Guyana Chronicle and corporate communications specialist, now, Licensed Paralegal, Notary Public and Commissioner of Oaths, is confident that he will be given the mandate to ‘Make Scarborough-Guildwood Safe Again.’