Where Is The Hue & Cry From Nicotinenazis

Cannabis harm worse than tobacco
A single cannabis joint could damage the lungs as much as smoking up to five tobacco cigarettes one after another, scientists in New Zealand have said




Smoking Pot Makes People More Prone to Psychosis

Slinger's Solution To Toronto's Fiscal Problems

THE OLYMPICS.......

We need an Olympic-sized saviour TheStar.com - News - We need an Olympic-sized saviour

July 31, 2007

joey Slinger

City council put the kibosh on taxes that would have forced every car dealer and real estate agent in Toronto out of business. Thank goodness. Where would the city be without car dealerships and real estate agents, and with all the former salespersons and agents lined up at food banks and welfare offices which are stretched to the limits already?

Then the provincial government refused to bail the city out of the bind it's in because council put the kibosh on new taxes.

McGuinty to city: "Take a flying leap into the hole you keep digging yourself deeper into."

So, while Toronto has made itself a safe place for car dealers and real estate agents, what about the rest of us? Can we be rescued?

Yes we can. By the Olympic Games. It's that simple.

When you have the Olympics, you're like that family where the father makes book on the corner, and the mother makes illegal gin, and so on. The Olympics are a fiscal bonanza. My God, how the money rolls in.

But every time we've bid for the Games we've lost out, either because the International Olympic Committee had never heard of Toronto, or if it had it was because of some funny ideas the mayor picked up from an old copy of National Geographic at his dentist's.

What we need is a novel approach, one no other city would dare. Call it an honest approach. Rather than pointing out what a fabulous site Toronto would be, explain how, if we don't get the Games, there will be nothing left in the city but car dealers and real estate agents. Everybody else will have starved or moved away. Throw ourselves on their mercy. There would be no need to mention cannibals at all. Or even Africa.

And then – and then!

Just imagine.

At last! A brilliantly developed waterfront. Luxury condominium towers stretching along the shore from the existing row of luxury condominium towers to the Ashbridge's Bay sewage treatment plant, interrupted only by the gigantic beachfront hydro generating station the province is building. The existing, mothballed, beachfront hydro generating station will be turned into an exciting "urban park" where children can fall off things and hurt themselves.

At last! A brilliant new subway system to replace the one we have that was designed by somebody who qualified for the job by getting the skill-testing question wrong when CHUM phoned with an offer of free tickets to the CNE grandstand show.

At last! A jewel in the crown of city sports venues: a velodrome. How thrilling to think Toronto might be the first Olympics city to come up with an idea for what to do with its velodrome after the Games end. (Suggestions please! Send them to Toronto Olympics Chairman Mad Dog and Billie, Under the Gardiner Expressway, M5R 2X3.)

At last! Affordable housing. Athletes' dormitories turned into comfy accommodation for the poor until the land they're built on is found to be toxic, when they will be bulldozed, the land detoxified, and replaced with luxury condominium towers with a view of the luxury condominium towers along the waterfront.

At last! An efficient bus service to collect the homeless off sidewalk gratings before the Games and drop them off in North Bay. If they return, efficient, attack-trained Olympic volunteers will drop them off the CN Tower.

If we don't manage to get the 2012 Games, there is always 2016. And failing that, 2020. And 2024. 2028? 2032? With any luck, sometime in the 21st century Toronto will get the Olympics it needs to pull it out of the 20th century.

---

Slinger's column appears Tuesday and Thursday.

Readers Take The Star To Task

College St. highlights a city-wide conflict

July 29

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This article's description of what's going on along College St. misses some of the facts, particularly when it comes to Octapus Lounge owner Edney Hendrickson's "seethings" about how his "low-key hot spot" is being victimized by irate condo owners. Octapus (not Octopus) Lounge isn't on College St., it's on Palmerston Ave. – and far enough down the street to be a serious noise nuisance to residents since it opened.

I've lived on Palmerston since May 2005 – not in a condo – and just about the first thing I heard when I moved in were the complaints from long-time residents, who'd fought the granting of the liquor licence to Octapus and been victimized by the after-hours mayhem ever since. Customers get particularly rowdy and obscene around 3 a.m., which is when my 10-year-old daughter needs her sleep.

Your article portrayed the Octapus owners as beleaguered heroes being hassled by johnny-come-latelies. For years, the owners have sneered at repeated requests from Palmerston residents to curtail the late-night rantings of their drunk and occasionally violent patrons.

---

Brian Fawcett, Toronto

As a former resident of College St., I was subjected to painful levels of noise emanating from the clubs and lounges at all hours of the night, five or six nights a week. The walls of my apartment were vibrating, my nerves were frayed and my complaints ignored by 14 Division and especially by my councillor's office.

Finally someone is doing something to ensure that the law is respected on College St., and your paper prints an article focusing on the uncool exploits of overzealous bylaw-enforcement officers with a bad attitude. I have breaking news for you: The College area from Bathurst St. to Ossington Ave. was quite residential and reasonably quiet for generations before the trendy clubs and lounges arrived en masse in the past decade.

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Mark Rubinoff, Toronto

Perhaps the writer of this article needs to ask the Italian and Portuguese families who have lived in the College St. area for decades what they think. The new residents of College St. are actually the clubs and not those living in the condominiums. Most residents live in the communities on the side streets. Most of us are owner/dwellers in single-family homes.

It is therefore great news that the law-enforcement teams and politicians are finally tightening up. Perhaps we will finally be able to sleep through a whole Friday and Saturday night without having to get up and comfort our children.

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Vanita Jassal, Toronto

The Question You Need To Answer Sid.......

.
......is why the unions weren't holding massive marches and protests during McGinty's tenure like they did while Harris was trying to get us off the prepice of bankruptcy. Could it be because wage demands for teachers were met with little difficulty?

'Education premier' lays off support staff

By SID RYAN

What on earth is the Liberal brain trust thinking?

With a scant two months to go before the election writ is dropped, more than 60% of the province's school boards are laying off staff. So far, without all boards reporting, 575 support staff will be receiving pink slips.

This figure does not include the 500 staff at the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) threatened with layoff or the 125 layoffs at Upper Canada District School Board. Educational assistants are bearing the brunt of the cuts even though they provide direct assistance to the province's most needy school children -- those with learning, physical and mental disabilities.

Nearly half of the province's school boards plan to make cuts to special education, according to Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) research analyst Paul O'Donnell. A smaller number are cutting adult education, literacy and early reading programs.

Last year, school boards had a shortfall of more than $300 million. That resulted in the elimination of 500 support staff jobs. The cuts would have been deeper had some boards not raided and depleted their reserve funds. This year the shortfall is closer to $200 million with one-third of boards saying they had to dip into or exhaust their reserve funds.

It is difficult to understand how a political leader who has fashioned himself as the "education premier" could have screwed up so badly this close to an election. Mind you, the Liberals have used every trick and sleight of hand in the book to try to dampen the political fallout of the devastating cuts.

Freedom Of Information Is Not FREE

But I have to wonder.....are the people holding the information not members of the public sector and therefore are being paid with tax $$$$ from the people asking for the information? In this age of technology you would think everything would be inputted into the city database and a couple of strokes on a keyboard would retrieve the info. Why do civil servants try to "scare" people off but quoting exhorbitant figures for the search? Is it because they are lazy or have they been told to do so by the beauracrats and elected officials?

The high cost of information Why aren't the office expenses of councillors posted automatically on the city's web site? By Sue-Ann Levy On May 4, my colleague Zen Ruryk and I put in a municipal freedom of information (FOI) request to access the 2006 office expense records of the mayor and the 12 councillors on his handpicked executive committee. We decided to seek the records after perennial council big spender Giorgio Mammoliti put forward what struck me, at least, as a series of petty, almost childish, motions calling for a review of council penny-pinchers Doug Holyday and Rob Ford, for spending too little of their $53,100 annual office budgets. Mayor David Miller and his loyal socialist soldiers approved the motions at the April 30 executive committee meeting and had a majority of votes to get them passed at the full council meeting in May. I found it hard to believe the mayor of a city in fiscal crisis would waste precious time and resources on such nonsense. Still, since he and his followers had opened this can of worms Ruryk and I decided to take a closer look at how they spend their $53,100 ... er ... office budgets. So, on May 4 we paid our $5 fee to the city's corporate access and privacy office -- and waited. And waited. Despite what's supposed to be 30-day turnaround time under the legislation, we finally gained access to the records we requested Monday, July 23, nearly 12 weeks after we'd filed our original letter. We weren't surprised -- having often joked that the corporate access and privacy office seems to be more about inaccess than getting information that should be freely available to the media and public. $4,000 charge The initial flurry of calls came in mid-May from the access and privacy officer assigned to our file. He said there were thousands of documents to access (5,764 pages filling two boxes) and it would cost us $4,000 to view them. He was counting on having to spend the time severing (that is, blanking out personal details like credit card numbers) for many of those documents. When the scary price-tag didn't deter us, he tried to convince us to narrow our request to just a few councillors. A series of negotiations ensued, but it wasn't until I indicated I might do a column on the huge cost of our request, along with what seemed like other obstacles being thrown in our way, that there was some movement. Suddenly we were told the fees wouldn't be as high -- we ended up paying $226 to sever the records and another $180 in photocopying fees. On May 29, Ruryk and I were invited to view a sampling of 200 pages with the assurance our request would be completed shortly after I returned from a trip to Israel in mid-June. That turned into the end of July. Like Ford, who went through a similar ordeal in 2003 when he tried to view his colleagues' office expense records, I don't believe one should even have to use FOI legislation to access such information. In Ford's case, when he asked to view the files in city's council services office, he was given what he says was a "hard time" and then the information was doled out one file at a time. He was charged 25 cents for every photocopy he requested and ended up handing over $500 to the office for copies of the records. Security watching "They had security at the door watching me ... I couldn't leave the room with any files," he said. Both Ford and Holyday intend to put forward a motion at the September council meeting asking that every single expense receipt -- like the ones we accessed -- be put on the city's web site. "If everything is above board, they'd show every single receipt," says Ford. "It's ridiculous," added Holyday, the city's audit committee chairman, yesterday. "That's tax dollars ... that kind of information should be readily available." sue-ann.levy@sunmedia.ca

Is Anyone Surprised At How Petty Miller's Lackeys Can Be

Council dings Holyday for office rent

By ZEN RURYK, CITY HALL BUREAU CHIEF

Toronto council has proven it has ways of making a penny-pincher pay.

Councillor Doug Holyday said yesterday that the city has started charging his office budget about $125 a month for use of space at the Etobicoke civic centre.

"It's improper," protested Holyday, who has opposed paying anything for using one of the offices at the civic centre.

He contended the rent payments are the result of a "politically motivated move" by members of Toronto's influential executive committee that was designed to drive up the amount Holyday claims in expenses every year. The city is basically just taking back some of the money from the taxpayer-funded budget it provides to Holyday.

"I guess they're spending a lot and I'm critical of that," he added. "I guess this maybe is payback -- or something -- to try and maybe get me to quit commenting on their expenses."

It was the executive committee -- made up of members appointed by mayor David Miller -- that initially called for Holyday and fellow thrifty councillor Rob Ford to each pay $1,123 in rent for using office space at the civic centre in 2006 -- and to audit their lack of spending. In May, city council voted 24-14 to make the executive committee's decision official.

Each of Toronto's 44 city councillors receives an annual office budget allotment of $53,100.

Human Nature Makes This Wishful Thinking

Politics is a give and take phenomenon....they take from everyone and while they feed the crumbs to everyone they save the gravy for those who can get them elected. The outrage of the electorate can be gauged by how close you are to the trough. Let's not forget that the left wing (liberals) are more adept at getting closer to the trough.

Integrity, honesty lacking

After reading the reports of the latest scandal involving a government scheme to dole out our hard earned tax dollars with very little if any accountability ("Colle-gate brush off" July 26), I am beginning to wonder if there is anyone left in government who is honest. This outrage has an odour very similar to the federal AdScam. Premier McGuinty, after waiting until summer when I am sure he thought the political damage would be least, apologized to the people of Ontario. I find the behaviour of our governments disgusting. Members of government do not seem to understand it is not their money that is being recklessly wasted. This government needs to be sent packing in October and we as the citizens need to be more careful in who we elect. We need to promote candidates who are "ordinary" people rather than professionals, who in many cases have lost touch with the real world. Hopefully the road to a degree of recovery will begin after the next election.

Bert Grasman
Moorefield, Ont.

A Day In The Life Of Toronto

Violent Weekend Capped By Overnight Shooting In The East End

Second Alleged Gunman Arrested After Daylight Gunfight

StreetBeat - July 29 - Stabbing At Fast Food Outlet In East End

Man Fights For Life After Shooting

Are We Getting Value For Our $$$$

Salary surveys, IMHO, can be deceptive and the reason is that the salaries of those in middle and senior management inflate the perception of what the grunts earn. In my mind the clerical person that answers the phone and takes information about my pension direct deposit and punches it into the computer is more valuable than the the person sitting in the corner office.........having said that I reserve the right to bitch about public sector unions and their protection of marginal workers.

Public sector pays better than private: report

Canada's public servants earn an average salary far higher than those in the private sector, while the core public service workforce has swelled to its largest size in a decade, according to a new report.

Cost of swelling PS skyrockets

A decade after unprecedented and painful cuts, the federal bureaucracy has ballooned close to its former size, increasing its overall cost to Canadians by 50 per cent.

Boomers Take Credit For Eliminating Racism

In College, I Marched Against Racism—And It Worked

By Jim Byers
February 14, 2007 | Issue 43•07

Is there no one out there who cares about changing the world anymore? What happened to the passion, the love, the determination to make a difference? Today's youth spend their time sitting in front of their computers, but the people of my generation took a stand, took action, and reshaped our country. When I was in college, I marched against racism, and now there isn't racism anymore.

It was a turbulent time in American race relations—the late 1980s. I was just an undeclared major at that historic flashpoint of racial reckoning, the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Those who weren't there just can't understand. They were dark, dark days, crying out for the light of an organized, campus-wide demonstration, and we heeded that call. We provided that light.

Many of us were having our eyes opened, often for the first time,

Kid Speaks Up About The Attitude Of Audlts/Parents

Adults Have Misclassified Me As A Handful

By Timmy Johnson

July 25, 2007 | Issue 43•30

Clearly, a mistake has been made. For whatever reason, I have been singled out and wrongly characterized by the adult world as a "real handful." In fact, nothing could be further from the truth.

I concede that I am something of a live wire. Given to the occasional outburst of what might in all fairness be called hyperactivity, especially in cases involving high sugar intake—of course. But the "handful" classification is problematic at best, a gross exaggeration at worst.

Am I a child who is sometimes difficult? Yes. Am I a difficult child? No. The distinction is more than semantic.

Winnipeg Manitoba & Red River?

No.....Kashechewan reserve.

While I wouldn't want to put up with this whether it was in Winnipeg of Kashechewan I have to wonder what all this talk about substandard housing....if this is an example of substandard housing all lot of my Muskoka neighbors better lower their property asking price.

Cam Wooley Gets Another One.........

Grist For The Water Cooler Bloggers

They admit it is not scientific so have fun with it.........

Trudeau voted worst Canadian in 'unscientific' online poll

Last Updated: Monday, July 30, 2007 1:03 PM ET CBC News

Former prime minister Pierre Trudeau has ranked as the worst Canadian according to an online poll, beating out notorious killers Paul Bernardo, Karla Homolka and Clifford Olsen.

Nearly 15,000 votes were cast in the poll, conducted by The Beaver, a history magazine. Chris Hannah of the punk rock group Propagandhi, who had waged a campaign to top the list, came in a close second.

"A result that perhaps speaks about the perils of online polling as it does about the love-hate relationship Canadians have had with this paradoxical prime minister, who could wear a flower in his lapel while giving critics the finger," The Beaver said on its website, acknowledging it was an "unscientific poll."

The top 10 list included four prime ministers, three convicted criminals, two singers, one doctor and one former Canadian.

Abortion doctor Henry Morgentaler ranked third, edging out former prime minister Brian Mulroney in fourth.

But all were deemed worse than Bernardo and Homolka, the former couple convicted of killing two teenage girls, who tied for fifth place.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper can take some solace that he ranked below the notorious pair, finishing sixth as the worst Canadian.

Rounding up the top (or bottom) 10 were singer Céline Dion, former prime minister Jean Chrétien, child killer Clifford Olsen and Conrad Black.

"Voters generally disliked Canadians who — in their view — turned their backs on Canada by rejecting their citizenship or moving elsewhere to seek fame and fortune," Mark Reid, editor of The Beaver, said in a statement.

"Voters also disliked Canadians who — they believed — sold out our sports teams, businesses, or cultural institutions to foreign interests, thereby diminishing our collective national identity."

The magazine also called on a panel of historians and writers to come up with an alternative list:

• Former prime ministers Sir John A. Macdonald and John Diefenbaker.
• Military leaders John Reiffenstein and Sam Hughes.
• Notorious Japanese army torturer Inouye Kanao, a.k.a. the Kamloops Kid.
• Indian policy administrators Duncan Campbell Scott and Joseph Trutch.
• Nazi Party of Canada founder Adrien Arcand.
• Winnipeg Daily Times journalist Edward Farrer, cited for racist writings against the French and Catholics.
• Media magnate Lord Beaverbrook.

Bad Move Stephen But We Might Get To See How Minority Government Works

The public, the indians and the opposition, especially the NDP, don't think you are doing the right thing and you would think that the liberals, ndp and the bloc would use their majority to kick your butt. It probably won't happen...BTW any idea who moved them in 1957?

Ottawa to rebuild troubled Cree reserve

Updated Mon. Jul. 30 2007 11:16 AM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice signed an agreement today to rebuild, but not move, a northern Ontario reserve that has been plagued by flooding and a dirty water crisis.

The Kashechewan First Nation, near the coast of James Bay, is located on low-lying land that has flooded twice in the last three years.

In 2005, many of the reserve's 1,800 residents had to be evacuated when an E. coli outbreak in the water supply was discovered.

Ten Commandments Of Political Correctness

Divine advice for leftists

By GERRY NICHOLLS

If political correctness was an official state religion (which it nearly is) most Canadians would be heretics.

After all, it's so easy to have an opinion these days that runs afoul of the officially sanctioned left wing world view.

And there is a good reason for that: The left wing ideology underpinning political correctness is contradictory, irrational and just plain goofy.

This is not a problem if you are one of those individuals steeped in left wing dogma -- university academics, government-subsidized "artists", Supreme Court Justices -- but for the rest of us it's hard to keep track of what is technically considered "offensive."

Give Us A Break Terry.....We Are Not All Socialists

And there are a lot of us that have a great sense of humour and are compassionate to the left wing, bleeding heart, social in-activists who would wither and die away if they couldn't take cheap shots at neo-cons but to there credit their are a few on the left that are intelligent and willing to discuss the issues. Besides that we have some of the best gelati in the world, our "perogies" are as good as anything at Portage & Main, the best bar-b-que (Phil's) in the world and we are the winter home to Barnum & Bailey.

Why Would Anyone Want To Visit Cherranna?

By Terry Pearson

The latest word out is that everyone in Canada hates Toronto. The usual rhetoric here is, "Don't knock Toronto unless you have been there." But why would anyone want to visit Cherranna, when we can smell it from here in Alberta?

It's the people that make up a city, and I doubt hardly anyone would disagree that Cherranna is the socialist cabal of Canada, despite the fact they haven't been there.

- The Story

Father Sky and Mother Earth Take Backseat To Daddy Warbucks

Can anyone really fault these people for wanting to have a piece of the economic pie. Putting food in the bellies of their people is important........

Navajos and Environmentalists Split on Power Plant

By FELICITY BARRINGER

BURNHAM, N.M. — For the Navajo nation, energy is the most valuable currency. The tribal lands are rich with uranium, natural gas, wind, sun and, most of all, coal.

But two coal-fired power plants here, including one on the reservation, belch noxious fumes, making the air among the worst in the state. Now the tribe is moving forward with plans for a bigger plant, Desert Rock, that Navajo authorities hope will bring in $50 million a year in taxes, royalties and other income by selling power to Phoenix and Las Vegas.

The plan has stirred opposition from some Navajos who regard the $3 billion proposal as a lethal “energy monster” that desecrates Father Sky and Mother Earth and from environmental groups that fear global warming implications from its carbon dioxide emissions.

New Mexico, which has no authority over the tribal lands, has also expressed misgivings and has refused to grant the plant tax breaks.

The struggle is a homegrown version of the global debate on slowing climate change.

Developed countries are trying to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide, the most ubiquitous gas usually linked to climate change, and argue that rapidly growing nations like India and China should avoid building coal-fired power plants. The critics’ targets say it is unfair to keep them from powering their way to prosperity with cheap and abundant coal.

The Navajo president, Joe Shirley Jr., said his tribe felt similar pressure. Mr. Shirley said the plant here would mean hundreds of jobs, higher incomes and better lives for some of the 200,000 people on the reservation. The tribe derives little direct financial benefit from the operation of the existing coal-fired plants and it has not yet invested heavily in casinos.

“Why pick on the little Navajo nation, when it’s trying to help itself?” he asked.

Less Justice For The Criminals More Justice For Victims

A recent Toronto judges's decision to free some gangbangers and award them $3000 because of delays in bring them to trial is a prime example of the problem with our justice system. I have heard of cases where the families of gangbangers who are shot apply for and get, and get it very quickly, funeral expenses from the crime compensation board.

Carrying on, after the wounds have healed TheStar.com - living - Carrying on, after the wounds have healed

Victims of violent crime can suffer psychological consequences for years

July 30, 2007

Sheila Dabu
Living Reporter

Peering into a mirror, Deborah Winter uses both hands to trace the damage on her face done by one gunshot fired through her front door three years ago. The physical wounds have healed – though some shrapnel remains – but the emotional trauma lingers.

Winter's life changed just before midnight on May 12, 2004.

Her son Mark, then 20, had arrived home earlier that night, after a confrontation at a park near their townhouse in Brampton. A group of teens followed him.

As Winter was answering the doorbell, someone sprayed the door with bullets. Glass shattered, hitting Winter in the face.

The force of the shot made her face look as if it had holes all over: fragments of shotgun pellets and shattered glass dug into her scalp and forehead, around her eyes, down the bridge of her nose and cheekbones toward her chin.

"We've gone through hell, our family. There are times I wish he would've killed me," Winter says in her first interview about the shooting. "My life is ruined."

Without the six-figure salary she had been earning as a 30-year sales representative at Bell Canada, emotionally exhausted and faced with few financial options, she was forced to sell her house. Her whole family, she says, has been traumatized by the attack.

Leave The Libraries Alone.....Go After Waste

10% reduction in councilors office budgets..........$230,000
Don't buy Theatre Pasille (whatever)...................$1,200,000

Add your ideas.....and there would be no reason to ask the libraries, which are very important to a lot of people if the traffic I see at my local library is any indication, to reduce their services. In fact we should be expanding the services.......

Libraries agree to cuts

July 26

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Toronto Public Library has had to make some difficult decisions about cuts to our service in response to the city's request to generate savings to be put toward reducing its 2008 operating budget shortfall.

Since announcing our cost-containment measures, which include cancellation of Sunday service at select library branches from September to December 2007, a hiring freeze and a $330,000 reduction in our library materials budget, we have had an outpouring of disappointment from our customers, mixed with strongly voiced support for Toronto Public Library. The reaction isn't a surprise to us; it only underscores the critical role our 99 library branches play in the lives of many Torontonians.

One of the questions that comes up quite frequently is, "Why are you cancelling your Sunday service when this is such a busy day?" Sundays are not considered part of the regular working week. Therefore, cancelling Sunday service from September to December allows us to reduce staffing costs that can generate real savings between now and the end of the year. This gives us immediate results and is the easiest to reverse.

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Kathy Gallagher Ross, Chair, Toronto Public Library Board, Toronto

The Other Side Of Story Coming Out

While we are at it.....how about that soccer mom?

Chile player admits officer was punched during melee
DANIEL DALE 88 min. ago
The Chilean soccer player who was shot with a Taser during a clash with Toronto police has admitted that one of his teammates had earlier punched an officer in the face.

Will Chilean officials be apologizing to Toronto Police?

Another Broken Promis On Health Care

Senior care `revolution' faltering

Thugs Have A Code Of Life???????

It is obvious that the majority of gangs are not affiliated with the Big Daddy Organization of street gangs so they are not bound by "The Codes of Thug Life" and even those that signed off on the code aren't abiding by the Code. Who do they think they are? Politicians!

Gangs ignore thug life 'codes'

By RACHEL SA

Not even the code of thuggery can protect innocent children.

It didn't protect 11-year-old Ephraim Brown, killed last weekend when he was caught in gang crossfire. A bullet ripped through his neck as he sat outside at a family birthday party.

And yet, such a code of gang "ethics" does exist.

"The thug code of the street was created in the days of Tupac (Shakur)," says Michael Chettleburgh, an expert on youth gangs and author of the new book Young Thugs: Inside the Dangerous World of Canadian Street Gangs.

During the '80s and early '90s when black-on-black violence in Los Angeles was growing out of control, rapper Tupac penned "The Codes of Thug Life," to create some order in the chaos. The Codes were officially signed off on by warring leaders of the Bloods and Crips gangs at a peace treaty in California in 1992, explains Chettleburgh.

High up on the list of rules in the code is: "Harm to children will not be forgiven."

But, apparently, it will be forgiven. It has been again and again in Toronto. Chettleburgh doubts that Brown's killers felt any regret for breaking that tenet.

Lies, Damn Lies & Statistics

Do we really need a tax funded agency tell us about crime? It seems a little ludicrous when you consider the number of outlets we have available to us.......

Gotta love those statisticsInterpretation of numbers helps frame the political debate about crime and punishment

Fiscal Management-TORONTO STYLE

Band-Aids no solutionDeputy mayor, councillors bill bandages, teapots as office expenses

Miller's lefty taxi squad running up the meter

A Well Deserved Honor

John Allan Cameron to join Country Hall of Fame

The late John Allan Cameron, known as the Godfather of Celtic music, will be inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame this September

Common Threat Common Problem

While it is fashionable to look for scapegoats, and lord only know dinosaurs in the union movement make it easy, we have to take some of the responsibility for continually electing politicians that have agendas not clearly spelled out in their election campaigns.

Guess who's running your city
The taxpayers of Vancouver held hostage. The City of Toronto forced into budget crisis. Calgary teetering on the brink of municipal labour unrest. Montreal headed for a major metro-wide service-destroying city workers' strike later this year

The Irony Shouldn't Be Forgotten In October

A Victim Speaks Out

Victim's father: Justice failed us

Wants more curbs on handguns
On the eve of his murdered 11-year-old son's burial, Gerald Brown's voice didn't waver yesterday when he said judges and the federal government bear responsibility in Ephraim's death.

I Support Climate Change BUT........

.......if it is going to impact on me personally! That seems to be the attitude of many and the following is just a small example.

Refinery plans fuel furor
Oshawa residents fear ethanol facility would scar waterfront
Lovers of this city's only lakeside beach, wildlife marshes and nature walks fear developers will soon disrupt their shoreline with a "green" fuel refinery and a paved parking lot.

June Veecock Hits The Nail Right On The Head

In defense of the black community June has played all the right cards in her attack on Innocent Madawo's column in The Sun and maybe unknowingly she hit the nail on the head with her comment; " just remember, even animals seek to protect their young."

Madawo blames the victims

I read Innocent Madawo's "Our community's scourge" (July 26) on the advice of a close friend and was somewhat surprised at its inference.

Indeed he appears to be trivializing a serious social phenomenon by blaming the victims -- our community -- both directly and indirectly.

What exactly does he want our community to do?

Does he seriously believe we don't care about our young people, and that we condone lawless behaviour? Or is he playing to the wider community who for the most part share his view?

I do not know how informed and engaged he is with our community, but I have heard several of our leaders condemn the violence on many occasions.

These include faith groups, and others, notably the Mothers Opposing Violence Everywhere.

While we can't blame the "man" for everything, we ought not to be engaged in societal amnesia.

We can blame them for their policies and practices which exclude our children from opportunities and exposure that lead to productive and fulfilling lives.

Just note the recent racist and stereotypical language of one of the premier's staff regarding a brilliant young black man, a young man who has so far done everything that society deems necessary to get a good job.

I would suggest that Madawo read Amos Wilson's Black on Black Violence in service of White Domination for a deeper understanding of what he wrote.

"Black on Black criminality and violence represent quests for power and outraged protests against a sense of powerlessness and insignificance," Wilson writes.

Regarding our community hiding criminals, while you and I may have the integrity to do the right thing because of our moral values, just remember, even animals seek to protect their young.

And by the way, what about Madawo's personal and responsible efforts in this area? Why wait for "our leaders" and our community to "step up?"

If he cares so much, and has the answers, why doesn't he take the initiative to lead us out if this vicious circle?

June Veecock
Markham

Ban The Gun Advocates Versus Ban The Knife Advocates

The WWE is missing a golden opportunity if they don't arrange to get these two groups into the ring. I don't mean to make light of the pain and suffering of the victims but I believe this just points out how ludicrous the current Ban The Gun bleatings are........

Advocates tell gov't not to ignore knife violence

Updated Fri. Jul. 27 2007 11:34 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

While gun violence gets the most media and political attention, some families are wondering why more isn't done to punish and deter those who commit violence with knives.

For example, the boyfriend of Kelly-Anne Drummond killed her with a steak knife, not a gun.

"I don't want any other mother or any other family to live what we lived through the day we said goodbye to Kelly Anne," said Doreen Haddad, Kelly's mother.

Haddad, who is with the Murdered and Missing Persons Families Association, is among those who doesn't want politicians to ignore knife crimes.

"It has gone out of whack. Something has to be done," she said.

Police say that people using knives assault or kill more people than those armed with guns.

"Every time a firearm is used in a crime of violence, the statistics would show that a knife is used at least double or more," said Bill Closs, Kingston, Ont.'s chief of police.

• 69 percent of violent crimes involve knives while guns account for only 31 percent
• 849 people were stabbed to death between 2001 and 2004, compared to 840 shooting homicides.

"Knives are used because they are so available and that's why we need to pay attention because they are so available," Closs said.

Time For An Attitude Change

Thanks to the effort of unions many health and safety issues were resolved and working conditions made tolerable but in today's society unions serve only the marginal worker and strikes are not to benefit the members but to try and retain the power of the union leaders.

Trash clean-up has striking Vcr. workers peeved

Updated Fri. Jul. 27 2007 10:09 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Striking municipal workers in Vancouver are mad that some good Samaritans took it upon themselves to remove trash from a beach.

"We just thought it was the right thing to do. Come down and keep it clean down here," said Jeffrey Miller of Houston Landscapes on Friday.

His group and some church members removed 40 bags of trash left by spectators after the Celebration of Lights
fireworks display the previous night.

One striker said the Houston volunteers weren't scabs, but that what they were doing was wrong.

"They're still doing our job," "Louis" told CTV British Columbia.

"So as a business, as a corporation going in to do our work, they're taking work away from us, and we have every right to stop them from doing so."

Louis said even by volunteering, those individuals were taking work away.

People enjoying the trash-free beach on Friday afternoon didn't sympathize with the union's position.

Cricket Club Concerned About Future Funding

I contend that if they were/are concerned they would have not accepted the extra $850,000 and will return it. This should be the case with all of those organizations that received the bonanza from McGinty. They can keep any interest they earned.

Cricket club distances itself from grant scandal

toronto.ctv.ca

The Ontario Cricket Association is concerned its connection to the provincial slush-fund scandal will cause a black mark on the sport and hinder future funding for the organization.

The OCA received $1 million in grant money from the provincial government when it requested only $150,000 for facilities upgrades.

The association still has $500,000 of the grant money in a GIC, which continues to earn interest.

The new executive of the OCA has instituted guidelines as to how that money will be spent and has vowed the funds will not be handled in the same manner as the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration.

Ontario's Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Mike Colle tendered his resignation Thursday after Auditor-General Jim McCarter revealed in his report that Colle's office awarded grants to multicultural groups without an accountable application process.

Let's Take Some Solace In The Accomplishments

Personally I feel progress is progress notwithstanding the fact that we still have a long way to go. The way I look at it is that if a person is hungry and he is given a hamburg instead of steak his hunger is addressed even though it might fall short of expectations.

The Ruxted Group

Good news from Afghanistan, and this is just a fraction;

1. Millions of girls are back in school with 400,000 new female students starting school for the first time this year;
2. Over 100,000 women benefited from micro finance loans to set up their own business;
3. Over a quarter of parliamentarians are women;
4. Over 7 million girls and boys are in school or higher education;
5. 83% of the population now has access to medical facilities, compared to 9 percent in 2004;
6. 76% of children under the age of five have been immunized against childhood diseases;
7. More than 4000 medical facilities opened since 2004;
8. Over 600 midwives were trained and deployed in every province of Afghanistan;
9. GDP growth estimates of between12-14% for the current year;
10. Government revenues increased by around 25% from 2005/06 to 2006/07;
11. Income per capita of $355, compared to $180 three years ago;
12. Afghanistan is one of the fastest growing economies in South-East Asia;
13. Over 4000 km of roads have been completed;
14. Work has begun on 20,000 new homes for Afghans returning to Kabul;
15. Over 1 billion square metres (roughly 32 km X 32 km) of mine contaminated land cleared;
16. 10 universities are operating around the country, against one (barely functioning) under the Taliban; and
17. 17,000 communities benefited from development programmes such as wells, schools, hospitals and roads through the Government’s National Solidarity Program (NSP).

Or think of it another way - 17 examples of the breath-taking incompetence/dishonsty of Jack Layton and the federal NDP.

Thoughts On Gun Crime In Toronto

Thoughts not solutions........

Lemon: Miller, Toronto and Gun Crime

BATB: 'Natch - Blatch Got the Goods

In her column today in the Globe and Mail, "Don't Get Deafened by the Noise: Do Something" Christie Blatchford talks sense about what’s to be done concerning all of the fatal shootings in “the projects” and in drive-by shootings in drug-deals-gone-bad.

She doesn’t target activists’ usual solutions such as gun control, more community policing, or tougher sentences but, rather, brings the tragedies down to a more manageable level, that of the personal lives of the offenders and the young victims--and the adults in their lives.

She points out what Toronto Police Detective Peter Duncan, 31st Division Street Crime Unit, says are the patterns in the lives of high-risk children: “parents who lack basic skills, chief among them, how to parent.” In lectures and in a book he’s writing, Det. Duncan contends that big disasters can be broken down into “multiple small failures,” and that it’s these small failures that need to be taken account of and ‘fixed’ before the deluge. He says “No one can fix everything,” but is convinced that everyone can fix something.
There are responsible adults around, community leaders, “who try to fill the gap left by missing fathers or busy or irresponsible mothers.” And that’s what we need to concentrate on so that we don’t become completely overwhelmed by, as the Blatch puts it, “the sheer size of the mess we collectively have made of things.”

Is there anyone in the media, anywhere, with as much common sense as Blatch? Not... Natch.

Insight Into Why There Is Opposition To Giving Indians Human Rights

Aboriginal stalling on rights must end

30-year 'temporary' exemption to human rights law has benefited some band leaders

Lorne Gunter

The Edmonton Journal

Friday, July 27, 2007

Canadian aboriginal leaders have for decades flown all over the globe eagerly denouncing this country's human rights record against them.

What none has ever mentioned (at least none that I know of) is that aboriginal governments are themselves exempt from Canada's most fundamental human rights laws.

The very rights violations they accuse non-native governments of, their own governments are unaccountable for.

Thanks to a "temporary" clause in the 1977 Canada Human Rights Act (CHRA), charges of bigotry, discrimination and harassment of the kind frequently levelled against non-aboriginal society cannot be brought against native councils and organizations.

After three decades of being shielded against the provisions of the CHRA, it is past time aboriginal governments were brought under the act's mandate.

Equality cuts both ways.

Abe Lincoln once said that "he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave." It works the same for aboriginals and human rights. The very rights aboriginals insist they be granted they must themselves be prepared to grant their own people -- and be held accountable when they do not.

The CHRA was initially suspended on reserves and among native bureaucrats so they could ready themselves to abide by it. Federally regulated businesses were given very little time to adjust, even though the act eventually imposed on them billions of dollars of costs in making their services accessible to the disabled and equalizing their pay scales between predominately male and female jobs.

In pushing forward their bill to bring natives under the CHRA, the Tories have offered aboriginal leaders 18 months to get ready to comply. The leaders in turn have demanded three years, pointing out that is how much time the provinces were initially given.

But it should be remembered, aboriginal governments have already had 30 years to get ready. Giving them 33 is not likely to improve their implementation.

Also, at the same time as native organizations are complaining that Ottawa refuses to ratify the United Nations declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, they themselves are working with the three federal opposition parties to block the Tory human rights bill.

Why the duality?

I can only guess it is because the UN declaration is a one-way street that works in their favour, whereas bringing them under the provisions of the CHRA would place obligations on those same leaders that they vehemently do not want.

They are all in favour of rights agitation when they stand to benefit from it, such as when it is their demands for equality, land claims and funding.

But they want nothing to do with having to protect women's rights on reserves or individual property rights.

Leaders and the non-aboriginal politicians who are supporting them have offered three arguments against passing the Tory bill at this time -- all of them specious: The legislation threatens native notions of "collective" rights because the CHRA is too focused on individual rights, it was drafted without sufficient consultation of aboriginal people and most native governments have too little money to cope with the complaints that could be brought against them.

To the extent that natives practise "collective" rights, those rights are protected by the Charter.

Since the Charter supersedes the CHRA, there can be little fear the Supreme Court will adjudicate in favour of the individualistic CHRA if called to decide between it and the aboriginal-rights clause of Charter.

The charge that the bill was drafted without sufficient consultation with those who will be affected by it is similarly facile.

The government has heard scores of native objections, it merely disagrees with most of them and has decided to press on regardless.

People frequently do that. They confuse being heeded with being consulted.

Unless the consulter ends up adopting their recommendations, they convince themselves they have not been consulted. Or that the consultation process was flawed. Or that there were poor communications.

Not necessarily. The government knows native leaders' objections, it just believes those objections are stall tactics designed to maintain leaders' power over native populations.

Finally, there is the claim that aboriginal governments are too poor to implement the CHRA without a lot more money from Ottawa.

First and foremost, this claim is getting tiresome. It is native leaders' response to every problem: Give us more money.

At present, Ottawa spends about $5,800 for every non-native man, woman and child, and nearly $20,000 for every native one.

Sure, people with greater needs are going to warrant greater spending. But if $20,000 per capita is not enough, how much will be? $40,000? $50,000?

Because of aboriginals' so-called collectivist approach to governance, individuals are forbidden from owning property on reserves, most federal monies are paid to the band rather than to individuals (so the chief and council get to decide who gets paid and how much), too many women who have married non-natives are denied their rights by their own bands and there is little accountability among far too many leaders.

Maybe the collectivist approach then -- and not non-native culture -- is responsible for aboriginal plight.

And any change to federal law that weakens the collectivist mindset is helpful.

lgunter@shaw.ca

Two Problems - One Solution

Alternative energy sources and looking for a viable use of Parc Downsview Park......

PARK PLAN GOING OFF THE RAILS FAST

Plans are still in the works and details are sketchy – it's been ever thus at Parc Downsview Park (PDP) – but it seems the urban park promised by the...

Following In The Tradition Of Mel's Moose

High-wire act drives locals bananas

By JENNY YUEN

No, they haven't escaped from the zoo, only from the imagination of a local high school English teacher.

Those stuffed apes – 15 of 'em – doing a high-wire act on Cambridge Avenue cable lines in a kind of performance art piece are John Turner's creation.

Some of them dangle by their hands and feet; one is brave enough to swing one-handed.

Says Turner, "People always ask how they get up on the wire. Obviously, they climb up the posts."

The chimpanzee craze began two years ago. Kids in the 'hood donate the toys. The brown tropical monkeys and koala bear head south to Costa Rica in October and resurface in the summer months. The only exceptions are the colony of lemurs and the Japanese snow monkeys that brave the elements year-round.

Like magic, the monkeys change positions every Friday night. Sadly, Midnight Montana, a black plush one, was recently stolen.

A notice in front of Turner's home also changes weekly: it could be a haiku, riddle, news about baby monkeys or, this week, photographs of the primates on vacation in Tanzania.

He invites kids and grown-ups to donate limericks. It's his way, he says, of getting the community involved.

But not all his neighbours think the cuddly monkey business is cute. His weekly postings are often ripped down.

Molly Belcham, who lives a few doors up the street, says the fun and games are "damn stupid and childish.

"You look out the door and you see these bloody monkeys."

Last year, someone attempted to take the monkeys down using hedge clippers before calling Hydro One. After determining that the wires belonged to Rogers, a repair person came out to investigate.

"We told him it was for the kids," says Turner.

Rogers says the company discourages placing ladders against cables or hanging anything on them that could cause service disruptions.

Says Rogers spokesperson Taanta Gupta, "Perhaps people might consider placing the monkeys in trees?"

Danielle Candusso, another local, says the display keeps area residents engaged. "It gets people to stop and talk to each other, something that they don't always do."

Turner predicts that the whimsical rascals could very well infiltrate other parts of the city. "We might have a whole colony of monkeys. You never know."

Seems To Be An Opinion Held By Many

Personally I am of the opinion that someone has to do it but that can change depending whether I am the plaintiff or the defendant and the outcome of the action.

Lawyers are rats

A top legal scholar exposes the corruption of his profession

Kate Fillion | Jul 26, 2007 | 4:10 pm EST

In this week's issue of Maclean's, Kate Fillion talks to ex-Bay Street lawyer Philip Slayton, author of Lawyers Gone Bad: Money, Sex and Madness in Canada's Legal Profession, about how lawyers became greedy, unprincipled enablers of the rich. In this excerpt, Slayton explains the ethics of sleeping with your client and tells his favourite lawyer joke. (Warning: Said joke is not legally obligated to make you laugh.)

Q: The lawyers in your book are almost as oversexed as the ones on TV. Is it ever okay to sleep with a client?

A: Various law societies have various answers that veer from zero tolerance to the Wild West. I don’t think anybody has a clear answer. My answer is, there’s a huge difference between a male lawyer taking advantage of a highly vulnerable woman and a lawyer who has as a client a highly competent general counsel of a major corporation well able to take care of herself. But if somebody asked me in the abstract for advice, I would say, don’t do it!

A Glimmer Of Hope

And I offer congratulations to those who have contributed to the successes but we seem in live in a society that thrives on "extreme makeovers" and only time will answer whether we are closer to a solution. The emphasis today seems to be on dealing with potential failures and we tend to ignore the fact that the majority of kids do integrate them into the mainstream of society.

A Toronto program claims to keep inner city kids in school and cut down on crime

Chris Selley | Jul 26, 2007 | 2:15 pm EST

It's nothing if not a feel-good story. Put together an aggressive, well-funded, common-sense educational support program for children in a low-income, high-crime neighbourhood and watch the positive results pour in. According to recent media reports, including an effusive Toronto Star editorial, that's just what Pathways to Education Canada did for secondary schools in Toronto's beleaguered Regent Park area.

"Six years after the program started offering academic support, mentoring and financial assistance to young people… the area's high-school dropout rate has plummeted from 56 per cent to only 10 per cent," the Star gushed, "significantly below city and provincial averages.

"At the same time, the proportion of young people from the area who go on to attend college or university has jumped from 20 per cent to an astonishing 80 per cent."

Pathways, which mentors 830 children in total, went further in a press release, taking at least partial credit for an enormous drop (75 per cent) in Regent Park's teenage birth rate, as well as significant declines in "crime rates in Police Division 51, which includes Regent Park and other adjacent neighbourhoods." The program "is doing an astoundingly good job," the Star concludes.

This Will Really Piss Off Torontonians

Especially those that subscribe to the view that the reason that there are so many verbal attacks on certain individuals is that those individuals are very successful, powerful, etc. and people are envious.

Charles Adler: Canadians don't care enough about Toronto to hate Toronto

I was thrilled to see Canada's Duke of Documentaries, Alberta Nerenberg in the pages of the National Post shilling for his new baby Let's All Hate Toronto. The filmmaker first came to our attention several years ago for his masterpiece, Stupidity. He has frequently guested on my radio show, "Adler On Line." Without even having seen his new doc, I know the thing is funnier than a hockey barn filled with optimistic Maple Leafs fans.

But while I love Albert's way of getting to the great Canadian funny bone, fairness forces me to say that the premise of this piece is a bit of a real time reach. And if you are thinking about this with a Western Canadian brain, you're thinking this doc ought to be aired on History TV. The truth is that we stopped hating Toronto a long time ago.

Toronto hasn't been the centre of very much thinking here in Western Canada for several years. There is a one word reason for this: Calgary. Someone needs to tell the very funny Alberta Nerenberg that it's difficult to hate a rival city unless it's seen as a rival. In the west, there is one city that has very much replaced Toronto in our collective consciousness. It's sometimes known as Toronto on the Bow. It used to be thought of as Cowtown. The city with the biggest udders is the one that gets the most attention. It is the one that is envied and possibly hated by those who feel they are being dwarfed. Envy has always been the mother's milk of hatred.

It's awfully tough to envy Toronto where are too many reasons not to. Too many taxes with too many politicians thinking up too many more. Too many particles of pollution coming from too many cars in too many traffic jams. Too many guns in the hands of people who can't shoot straight and too many media people who won't.

Here's some breaking news from the West. We don't hate Toronto. We stopped caring about what Toronto thinks a long time ago. Here's hoping a DVD of Let's All Hate Toronto is shown in every Grade 5 classroom from coast to coast. I want those kids to learn how the country felt about Toronto back in the days when my friend Albert Nerenberg was just like them, a ten-year-old.

adleronline@gmail.com

Charles Adler hosts Adler On Line weekday afternoons between 2 and 6 pm EST on the Corus Radio Network.

I Ask Again.......

Why are the opposition parties, and some tribal chiefs, objecting to indians having the same rights as Canadians to challange the actions of their leaders?

Opposition parties team up to block Native bill
The three opposition parties have formed a united front to block the Conservative government's quest to pass a law that would make the Indian Act subject to the federal human rights code.

Would Things Be Different Today

If Mayor Mel and council, which included Comrade Miller, had accepted amalgamation as a fact of life and implemented the various components. As it stands today we still don't have harmonization of all services with the labour reduction it would have precipitated and millions and millions of $$$$ ito be gained by selling redundant property which were necessary to offset the downloads and make the process revenue neutral. If they had done so then the province couldn't dance around the issue.

Leaders failing Toronto TheStar.com - comment - Leaders failing Toronto

July 26, 2007

Premier Dalton McGuinty has it half-right. A slim majority of Toronto city councillors indeed failed their community last week by postponing action on two necessary new taxes. Their inability to make tough decisions was rightly criticized by the premier, especially since council had earlier fought hard to win new tax powers for Toronto.

But McGuinty overlooks another failure of leadership equally damaging to Toronto – his own. And Conservative Leader John Tory and NDP Leader Howard Hampton are just as lacking in leadership on this issue, which affects the lives of 2.5 million Toronto residents.

McGuinty indicated this week he would take no immediate action to reverse years of provincial downloading that have badly hurt Toronto. A comprehensive report is being prepared on provincial-municipal relations and it seems nothing will be done until it arrives in February.

The premier also noted that his Liberal government has given substantial new money to Toronto, ranging from a share of the gasoline tax to strong support for capital projects.

However, Queen's Park has also imposed costs on Toronto and other Ontario municipalities that properly should be paid by the province. With Toronto facing a $575 million budget shortfall, and cuts looming in services ranging from the TTC to libraries, the city cannot afford to wait six months in the vague hope of some relief from Queen's Park.

It Is May 6th 1937, The Place Is Toronto Island Airport

In attendance are Comrade Miller, holding his election campaign posters promising that his fellow attendee, Dullton McGinty, would bail out the city........

Drug Addiction Has Become A Cottage Industry

For some doctors and social in-activists and politicians! So What's New?

Doctors exploit addicts to milk OHIP: Task force TheStar.com - Ontario - Doctors exploit addicts to milk OHIP: Task force

Excessive urine tests to inflate billings `alarming,' as is rampant prescribing of narcotic painkillers

July 26, 2007

Kevin Donovan
staff reporter

Ontario needs to crack down on doctors who have turned drug addiction therapy into a money-making venture, a provincial report obtained by the Star says.

Among the findings: Some doctors are ordering far too many expensive drug tests, while in other cases narcotic painkillers are being over-prescribed, leading to addiction.

The report of the Methadone Task Force, created in response to a Star investigation, will be officially released today.

Methadone is a synthetic narcotic used daily by about 16,000 Ontario drug addicts to reduce cravings for heroin and other narcotics.

The task force report says methadone is a valuable tool to cure addictions but found problems with how the provincial methadone program is being administered and policed.

Get Serious About Crime. The Existing Laws Allow It

Using avoidance manoeuvres
By LORRIE GOLDSTEIN

Yesterday, in response to a couple of my recent columns about escalating gun crime, one of my regular readers -- "Ron in Kelowna" -- e-mailed asking why politicians propose such phony solutions as "banning handguns."

Incensed by calls from Toronto Mayor David Miller and Ontario Attorney General Michael Bryant for a "handgun ban" in the wake of an outbreak of gun and gang violence last weekend, including the murder of an 11-year-old boy, Ron asked, "Are they dense? Are they stubborn? Do they have some kind of vested interest in not solving violent crime?"

My answer is "no" to all three. I believe politicians propose simplistic solutions like "gun bans" because it's easier than telling people the truth -- that fighting gun crime is hard.

Calling for "banning handguns," particularly when you're asking a Conservative government in Ottawa to do it while you're a left-wing Toronto mayor or a Liberal provincial attorney general, is just an easy, partisan way to avoid responsibility and duck the issue.

This is also true for politicians on the right, who talk only about passing tougher laws against gun crime.

Actually, we don't need tougher laws. Our existing laws are plenty tough.

That is, they would be if judges used the sentences they provide to their full extent, which they don't.

Then, whatever sentence they do impose gets eroded by easy parole, assuming the case hasn't already been plea-bargained away by overworked Crown attorneys shovelling criminals through a justice system where there are too few courts and prisons to cope.

In Toronto, violent criminals often get double and triple credit for time served in custody before their trials upon a finding of guilt, because of trial delays and poor conditions in the jails where they're held pending trial.

Apparently, it's beyond the ability of our government to build some new jails, so that when a criminal who is held pending trial is convicted, he'll at least get only straight time for time served, not double or triple time.

Things are so bad that after a recent police bust of a major gang -- which had been planned for almost a year -- it took so long to get bail hearings for nine of the accused that the judge charged the attorney general's office (meaning taxpayers) $2,000 apiece to help pay their legal bills. Apparently, 11 months' advance warning wasn't enough for our government to figure out a way to hold timely bail hearings.

Public frustration with lax sentencing has become the political impetus for "mandatory minimum sentences" for gun crimes, such as those stuck in the Senate after being passed by the House of Commons.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has accused the Liberals of stalling this bill and others (the Liberals say it's his fault), but even when this bill is passed, it won't make a difference.

Even judges who try to be tough on gun crime (and thus get overturned on appeal given the lax sentencing patterns established by their colleagues) see mandatory sentencing as an infringement on judicial independence.

In fact, mandatory minimums aren't a solution, since unenthusiastic judges and defence attorneys will find ways around them.

Indeed, in today's politically correct atmosphere, a politician who seriously wants to fight gun crime will be accused of interfering with the judiciary (for demanding judges take into account public concerns about gun violence), of being a racist (for demanding tougher bail and longer sentences since the criminals are disproportionately black), of being a fascist (for demanding the hiring of more cops and building more prisons) and finally, of being a bleeding heart and a spendthrift (for calling for massive new public spending, meaning higher taxes, to bolster public education, strengthen families and help find decent jobs for people jammed into urban ghettoes like Toronto's Jane-Finch).

Now, what are the chances we'll find a politician like that?

Better to treat the public like mushrooms. Keep them in the dark, cover them with manure and tell them "banning handguns" is the answer.

Vancouver Mayor Won't Sign Up For Union Card

Are These Six Individuals Living In Your Neighborhood

If so the police/crime stoppers would appreciate any information you can supply.

Rodrick Brown, 28, of Toronto, is wanted for Marijuana and cocaine trafficking
Also wanted, Andrew Kenroy Joseph, 22, of Toronto, for Trafficking Firearms
Darnell Hugh Grant, 30, of Toronto, is wanted for trafficking Marijuana and cocaine as well as break and entering.
Emmanuel Kwaku Boakye, 19, is wanted for firearms trafficking
Kirk Stanley Tyndale, 33, is wanted for marijuana traffickingMatthew Ramsay Joseph, 22, is wanted for Marijuana and Firearm Trafficking

Seniors Still Part Of The Sexual MainstreamR

Eh Gramps. Better put one of these in your wallet before you go to the mall. You never know.........

Condoms given to seniors in AIDS prevention move

Updated Wed. Jul. 25 2007 6:31 PM ET

Associated Press

NEW YORK -- While volunteers passed out cups of Jell-O to the white-haired lunch crowd at a senior centre, another group was distributing something that didn't quite fit amid the card games and daily gossip: condoms.

"You're giving out condoms,'' 82-year-old Rose Crescenzo said with a wistful smile, "but who's going to give us a guy?''

But this was no joke.

The condom giveaway is part of an effort by New York City's Department of Aging to educate older people about the risks of contracting the virus that causes AIDS. After the condom giveaway, free HIV testing was offered.

AIDS education of the elderly has become an important issue as antiretroviral drugs that can keep patients living into their golden years changes the face of AIDS. Experts warn that ignorance about HIV among seniors can lead to new infections.

And those infections are happening. A physician from Howard University Hospital in Washington recently diagnosed unsuspected HIV in an 82-year-old.

So HIV educators are taking their message of prevention to U.S. senior centres and other locales where older people meet. They also hope to create a welcoming environment for people who already have the virus.

Ephriam Brown Might Be Alive Today

If the opposition parties and the liberal senate had passed Harper's law and order legislation especially that part that put the onus on the accussed to prove he deserves bail. Mandatory sentencing and no bail for gun crimes/possession of a restricted weapon..

Third man charged in shooting death of T.O. boy

toronto.ctv.ca

The Gun and Gang Task Force has arrested a third suspect in the shooting death of 11-year-old Ephraim Brown.

Toronto police have confirmed Sheldon Gladstone Evans, 22, was arrested Wednesday and charged with failure to comply with recognizance.

Police allege Evans was:

• present during the shooting
• fled the area after the shooting
• is a member of the Five Point Generals gang
• on two separate bail orders at the time, both with conditions of house arrest

He is scheduled to appear in a Finch Avenue court on Thursday morning.

Some Facts On Handguns

July 25, 2007 Missing the target on gun crime By Lorrie Goldstein Last week, Statistics Canada reported the national crime rate last year dipped to its lowest level in more than a quarter century. Apparently, no one told the gun-toting thugs who murdered an 11-year-old boy in Toronto last weekend along with three other people, fatally shot a 37-year-old man in broad daylight on a Halifax residential street and wounded four others inside a Winnipeg nightclub. By the way, that drop in the crime rate? Actually, as StatsCan noted, that was "driven by a decline in non-violent crime." Meanwhile, violent crime, remained "virtually unchanged" from 2005. While the murder rate dipped 10% after two years of increases, "increases were reported in many serious violent crimes such as attempted murder, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, robbery and kidnapping/forcible confinement." In Toronto, in addition to four people shot to death over 24 hours last weekend, seven more were wounded (five shot, two stabbed), provoking cries from the city's left-wing mayor and the province's Liberal attorney-general for a federal handgun ban. A-G Michael Bryant accused the federal Conservatives of being in the "holster" of the gun lobby. Right. For those who think "banning" handguns -- which are already banned except for target shooters and collectors -- will stop gun crime, some observations from Conservative MP Garry Breitkreuz, perhaps Canada's most informed critic on these issues. As he noted in a recent parliamentary debate, of the 5,194 homicides in Canada between 1997 and 2005, 118, or 2.27% were committed with a registered gun, 63, or 1.21%, were committed with a gun registered to the accused murderer and 111, or 2.14%, were committed by a person who held a valid firearms licence. Of Canada's two million licensed gun owners, 111, or 0.00555%, used their firearm to murder someone. Since most criminals don't register their guns, why would they obey a "ban?" On the other hand, in 2005, 64% of accused murderers had a prior criminal record, including 6% for homicide. Gee, do you think the real problem here might be the criminals and an absurdly lax justice system? Just a thought.