When you gotta go, you gotta go — but in Toronto that’s often easier said than done.
Advocacy groups have long been pushing for more washrooms in Toronto, highlighting it as one of the hallmarks of an accessible and equitable city and a basic necessity for all.
For those with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) like Crohn’s and colitis, the availability of free washrooms for public use is even more critical and has a huge impact on how they live their lives
“It’s really mentally taxing, it can really affect your quality of life — having that constant thought in your head. It’s really anxiety provoking,” says nursing student and Crohn’s advocate Leana al-Ugaily.
Al-Ugaily was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease when she was 10 years old.
“I missed out on quite a bit of my childhood, unfortunately, just due to the struggles and the hardships with regards to inflammatory bowel disease,” she says. “I’m very fortunate to be in remission today, but I know a lot of people who just may opt to not leave the house and might not go out [due to lack of access to washrooms]. So I feel as though your quality of life goes down and you miss out on so many opportunities.”
Car Martin from advocacy group Toronto Public Space Committee has experience with colitis and says that when those with IBD have to leave the house, it often requires an inordinate amount of planning and forethought.
“It’s a very common experience for people with Crohn’s and colitis to map out where they’re going in public and make decisions about where they’re going based on whether public washrooms are available and map them out in advance or don’t eat before you go places that don’t have public washrooms,” they say. “I’ve experienced a lot of limitations because of the lack of public washrooms.”
In 2015, volunteer-based charity Crohn’s and Colitis Canada (CCC) developed an app called “Go Here” to simplify that process for those with IBD and assist in emergencies. During Crohn’s and Colitis Awareness month in November, they’re hoping to increase usership of the app and foster conversation about the importance of washroom access.
“One of the unfortunate symptoms of having Crohn’s disease or ulcerative colitis is that they often need access to a washroom urgently and unpredictably. So they never know when this is going to happen and they fear leaving the house — it can be a very lonely disease because of that. And so we felt we needed to do something about it and this was the solution — developing a digital app where people can download it for free,” explains Kate Lee, VP of Research and Patient Programs, CCC.
“It’s a Google Map interface — there’s little pins that represent all the washrooms that have been recruited to be part of this program … you just open it up, it’ll look exactly like the Google map app, and it’ll show you where you’re located and you can say a destination and it’ll give you a route based on where all the washrooms are.”
Lee adds that a very common fear in the IBD community is being refused access to a washroom, which she says many have experienced and was also an impetus to create the program.
“One of the reasons why we started this program is because of the folks who have reached out to us [with] horrific stories of where they absolutely needed access to a washroom and ran into a business or a building trying to explain their situation as to why they needed it and they were refused and the unfortunate consequence of that is they soil themselves. And these are full grown adults — no one wants to be in that situation and this is not a one time story that we’ve heard … we hear these stories a lot,” she says.
Each washroom site listed includes the exact location, hours of operation, website and phone number. The app also has a virtual access card that can be presented when requesting washroom access.
Al-Ugaily says she uses the app regularly and it has been a game changer for her daily activities.
“I’m very fortunate that I knew about the “Go Here” app when I moved to Toronto in fall of 2022. And it’s right at your fingertips, we all have a phone and I just use my phone when I need a bathroom,” she says.
“It’s a really great tool to help people out with planning out where they’re going to go for the day,” adds Martin.
The app maps out 3,600 washrooms across Canada, with more than 500 in Toronto. It includes participating businesses as well as public washrooms operated by the City of Toronto.
For its part, the city has been working on a Washroom Enhancement Program aimed at increasing washroom access in the winter.
As per the city’s 2024 Capital Budget Briefing Note about the issue, enhancements to the washrooms in Sir Casimir Park and High Park (Lower Hillside) were to take place this year for the 2024-2025 season.
A study about the enhancement program was also to be completed in the third quarter of this year. However, since CityNews last checked in with the City of Toronto in January, they say there are no updates on the program.
In a statement to CityNews, Howie Dayton, General Manager of the City’s Parks, Forrest, and Recreation said “giving Torontonians access to good quality park washrooms by upgrading our aging infrastructure and providing new facilities is a priority for the City, which is why we launched our Washroom Enhancement Program, which seeks to identify where improvements and new facilities are required. This program is ongoing and we will report to Council members in due course.”
Martin says they have been speaking to city councillors about the issue and feel like they are making some headway after putting out a community letter earlier this year.
“We got over 30 organizations to sign on to a community letter with some very specific asks from the city. And both of our asks are kind of like low hanging fruits that the city can get started on immediately. One of them is winterizing the existing public washrooms, because a lot of them aren’t accessible for most of the year. The other one is developing a comprehensive washroom strategy in collaboration with community members,” they explain.
“It is a really big investment and we’re not going to go ahead and ask for a washroom every 500 meters from the get go, but that’s where we think we should get started. We have been talking to a few different city councillors about putting forward a motion, so we have had some movement on that and we do feel pretty optimistic about that.”
In the mean time, CCC is looking expand the network of washrooms available on the app. Lee says numerous organizations like businesses big and small, hospitals, universities and government buildings can register to be added.
“We need businesses registering so we can actually put them on our map so people know that they can go to that location and without any questions, be able to use their washroom. Anyone who owns a building can reach out and register,” she says.
“We would love [that] when someone opens up the app, you only see dots and you don’t even see the map of Canada because there’s so many washrooms [mapped]. And that’s the ideal that we’re hoping for. So no one feels isolated, no one feels lonely. No one has that fear of leaving their houses.”