John Tory is in Ukraine supporting a documentary on children’s mental health

Former Toronto Mayor John Tory is lending his support to a documentary in Ukraine looking at the impact of the war on children’s mental health.

Speaking exclusively to Newstalk1010’s Moore in the Morning Friday, Tory said he and his brother arrived in the country’s capital of Kyiv 24 hours ago.

“There have been three air raid alerts during that time,” he said.

The documentary, called “Unbreakable,” is being partly funded by Tory, who said he is participating in the project as a tribute to the Ukrainian community in Toronto.

“When I was mayor I could see their resolve and their pride, and frankly they're hurt at the fact that this kind of thing would happen.”

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Tory said that in Kyiv, he has seen children living in bombed out apartment buildings “because they had nowhere else to go.” Most of them are being raised by their mothers alone, he said, as their fathers have joined the army.

John Tory is seen in Kyiv, Ukraine in this photo provided to Newstalk1010.

On Friday, Tory will join the film crew to speak with officials helping children with post-traumatic stress disorder. The program, Tory said, is facing a shortage of professionals.

“The impact has been profound,” he said. “I guess all you can say it's been a very wide ranging effect on a lot of children and adults. And it's something that's hard for us to imagine.”

This is the first time Tory has publicly spoken about his career plans since his resignation as mayor of Toronto. He stepped down from the position in February after it was revealed he was having a relationship with a staffer during the pandemic.

He told Newstalk1010 that he wishes Toronto’s city council, and its new mayor, well.

“You sort of realized when you get here or anywhere else, that every big city has problems, and you just try to do your best to solve them,” he said.

“When you get to a place like this, where people are going underground and to bomb shelters several times a day, and where … 80 per cent of people have lost some loved one, thousands of people have died … I'm not trying to minimize the problems in Toronto, but I guess it's just all have to have to put it all into perspective sometimes.”