Meet Sileen

A lifetime of public service, faith, and community.

Sileen Phillips is a dedicated public servant, community advocate, and faith-based leader with more than 25 years of federal experience in the compliance, interpretation, and enforcement of legislation. Throughout her career, she has worked to strengthen accountability, improve service delivery, and support community-centred government operations across Canada.

She has also served as an elections administrator for more than six years, including roles as Election Clerk for High Park–Parkdale and Assistant Returning Officer for University–Rosedale. In these positions, she has brought a steady, detail-driven approach to electoral operations: overseeing procedures, supporting workers, resolving complex inquiries, and ensuring that voting services are delivered with accuracy, neutrality, and respect for legislative requirements. Her experience in elections administration reflects her commitment to accessible, well-run democratic processes and her ability to lead teams through high-volume, high-stakes environments.

Sileen serves as a minister at a church in North York and, within the Anglican Diocese of Toronto, as the Child, Youth, and Family Coordinator at the Church of St. Peter and St. Simon. She is also the Area Coordinator of Youth Ministry for the South Archdeaconry, supporting youth leaders and programs across approximately 40 parishes. In these roles, she helps strengthen youth engagement, supports volunteers, clergy, and families, and contributes to parish governance as a member of the Advisory Board.

She received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal and is a five-time national award recipient from the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission for excellence in literary, visual, and performing arts.

Sileen has held leadership roles in education and academic governance, including serving as Chair of the TDSB's SEED Alternative School and as a four-year board member of the University of Toronto's TST Graduate Students' Association board (TGSA). She holds an extensive academic background in the field of Human and Social Sciences with multiple degrees, and is currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Toronto, researching how psychospiritual and/or pastoral care can deepen youth engagement, support resilient faith communities, and guide preventative, interventive, and restorative strategies to address youth attrition.

As the daughter of immigrant parents, a mother, long-time tenant, and sole caregiver for her elderly mother, Sileen leads from a place of empathy and grounded understanding. Navigating housing, caregiving, and family responsibilities while pursuing multiple degrees has equipped her to connect authentically with community members and champion solutions that reflect the real-world barriers people face every day. Her leadership is shaped by her faith and lived experience.

Sileen's work in the community has been quite involved, including but not limited to founding Sha'Phak in 2007, a private women's support group that provides a safe space for women to share openly, be vulnerable, and build community. For more than 16 years, she has also partnered with the Canada Revenue Agency's Volunteer Income Tax Program, offering free tax clinics for low-income individuals and families. Her faith guides her commitment to care and responsibility, shaping a leadership style grounded in humility, compassion, and a deep sense of service to her community. Rooted in service and shaped by resilience, she continues to build pathways that support stronger, safer, and more connected communities, with environmental stewardship among the key priorities.

Municipal government is community work at scale. I am already doing the work. Public office simply expands my reach.

I am running because I want a city where:

• safety and security is prioritized
• support can be felt and seen
• the environment is honoured and protected
• accountability is not optional
• community trust is earned, not assumed

York South–Weston deserves a leader who is a builder of systems, not just a critic of them; a leader who will not simply identify problems, but one who will help design solutions.

Sileen Phillips