Someone Who Is More Down On Comrade Miller Than I....

....and is more eloquent and verbose. Welcome!

Monday, April 28, 2008

TTC Union Liability? Never! This is Toronto!

I have to admit, I had a great big smile on my face all weekend.

Watching leftist Toronto resident damn the Local 113 TTC union for their borderline illegal tactic by walking off the job with 90 minutes notice while people were still out on the town enjoying the entertainment district of Toronto as well as its various clubs and lounges.

I can only imagine the feeling someone must have had be it because they were responsible and opted to take the TTC so they would not have to risk driving home after having a few too many drinks, or even the eco-warriors who parked at a TTC station so they could take the subway into the city as they made their way home at 1 or 2AM and realized the TTC workers walked off the job.

Your typical NDP or Green voter calling into radio shows, or writing newspapers or websites how workers should be arrested and forced back to work, and how the leaders of the Local 113 should be fined or jailed.

I almost wet myself is shear ecstasy.

Even the most hardened Laytonites turned just a little bit “Blue” that weekend.

My answer to angry Torontonians;

What did you really expect?

David Miller is a former NDP candidate for Parliament, he has been bent over by the Unions from all aspects of City Workers since the day he was made Mayor, and has allowed for this chokehold the City Union’s currently enjoy on the City and its population.

Now many people want to blame Bob Kinnear, the head of the Local 113.

Sure, he broke his promise of 48 hours notice with the excuse of “personal safety” for his members, which seems odd because I would imagine that commuters will be just as pissed this morning as they would have been had notice been given.

But come on, Bob Kinnear was the mastermind behind the TTC Wildcat strike in May of 2006. He shutdown the city because a few hundred workers didn’t like the fact that their shifts were changing, even though the city gave them the required notice.

Did he get his way?

Yes he did.

Was he punished?

Of course not, this is Toronto.

Miller beat his chest, the Union all of a sudden made the strike about driver safety and the city of Toronto folded faster then Superman on laundry day.

Why would Bob Kinnear not try this again?

Its like a toddler in line at the grocery store with his parents, if he screams and yells and begs for a candy bar, and they breakdown and get it for him, can you blame him if he tries it again next time?

Bob Kinnear pulled the “two year old tantrum”, it worked. Why not do it again?

I hardly blame Bob Kinnear and the Local 113 for this,

Its all Mayor Miller, He should have followed through with his $3 million dollar lawsuit against the union, which he would have won. Although it would have taken time.

Then made every legal effort to have the TTC made an Essential Service.

With that said, enough about the City.

My concern is with the people, those people who drove home when they knew they had too much to drink, those people who had to walk through a dicey part of town at 2AM because they had no choice, those people who had to pay 40 bucks for a can to take them from Front and Bay to Islington Station so they could get their cars.

How many DUI’s were there on Toronto roads? Or on 400 series highways that weekend?

And how many of those folks had TTC tokens in their pockets?

If I am hosting a party, and I let someone I know who has had too much to drink drive home, I am liable.

Why does that Liability not extend to the members of the Local 113 who did not show up for work?

If you were hit by a drive who blew over the limit this weekend, why is there no a co-liability? Defending drunk drivers is sickening, but what is Joe Sixpack had stumbled into a TTC station after he left the bar? He made the choice to drive, but it wasn’t his first choice.

What if you were assaulted on your way home?

If you opted for the hour walk because cabs were so hard to come by.

If you had TTC tokens in your purse or wallet, why should the members of the Local 113 not share at least some of the criminal accountability with the thug who actually made the attack?

Realistically, they never would have happened had the TTC been operating.

I as an individual can be charged with a crime of omission, why aren't they?

As I was reviewing cases that could fit into this neat package I came across the ruling for a crime of omission under the:

“A person who creates a dangerous situation may be under a duty to take reasonable steps to avert that danger” definition.

The ruling reads: “...I see no rational ground for excluding from conduct capable of giving rise to criminal liability, conduct which consists of failing to take measures that lie within one's power to counteract a danger that one has oneself created, if at the time of such conduct one's state of mind is such as constitutes a necessary ingredient of the offence.”

It seems pretty clear cut, every TTC worker who walked off the job created a dangerous situation for the commuters who relied on the service to be provide that night.

They made no effort to take reasonable steps to avert that danger.

Forget about fining the union, why are the workers from that night not being arrested? Canada’s criminal act allows for a similar definition, all be it a little more convoluted.

It’s clear the city of Toronto has no interest in protecting its citizens, and that’s fine.

It should be the individuals who take this to the next level, while the city of Toronto does not feel a crime was committed, I would be hard-pressed to assume that those who walked into a station at 1AM would agree.

But as I said, it’s Toronto. Whenever I am asked what I think the country would be like if we had an NDP government, I simply point to the failed experiment in Socialism that is Toronto.

There is no different between Corporate Greed and Union Greed, both are businesses who sell a product, the Union’s is humans, and happens to donate to the NDP which is why they are wonderful. But try telling that to a Torontonian.