- Kevin Gaudet and Colin Craig: How much is a First Nations chief worth?
- It is high time some light were shed upon the pay and perks of the elected officials on First Nations reserves. Currently, many band chiefs and elected council members are refusing to disclose how much they earn. Instead, they set their own pay in secret and often hide the information from their own people. How can the citizens of Canada’s aboriginal communities judge whether they get value for money from their leadership if the leaders are hiding how much they pay themselves? It is time this changed. While the federal government’s website clearly states that band members have the right to receive annual documents which detail chief and council salaries, travel and honouraria, many band members often report being rebuffed, threatened and intimidated when they ask their bands for this information.
Thursday, May 06, 2010
Our Landlords Set Their Own Compensation Packages...
WHY?
Why firefighters have a burning love for Ontario’s Premier
Professional association backed McGuinty’s campaign in 2007, and now enjoys the province’s ear on one astonishing issue
You Hang With Garbage You Will Be Treated Like Garbage...
.Good kid' swept up in police raid
In an overflow courtroom where those arrested in this week’s Project Corral gang sweep can be watched only via a grainy videolink, dozens of confused baby mammas and devastated moms strain to catch their first glimpse of their loved one.
Familiar faces appear in gangs sweep
Wed May 05 2010
Several men charged in Project Corral are alumni of previous Toronto police gang sweeps, including a purported leader nabbed just three years ago....and this begs me to ask
*how many of those arrested will be out on bail in the next couple of days
*when will those arrested go to trial
*How many of those with multiple charges will receive concurrent sentences
*how long will it take to deport those that are in the country illegally?
Wednesday, May 05, 2010
Want To See Which Ethnic Groups Are Being Catered To...
...look at the guest lists at barbeques, festivals, parades, etc.
Toronto: 6.7% Muslim, 4.2% Jewish
BlazingCatFur:When the value of your state designated victimhood begins to diminish because your usefulness as an ethnic voting bloc is nearing its end...
Sad little multicultural dramas like this unfold.
# Kathy Shaidle
Don't Get Too Excited...
...it is just more campaign babble
Toronto's mayoral race gets fractious over transit
Rossi's proposal to expand subway instead of LRT by selling assets riles other candidatesThe Better Way, Step By Step...
TTC etiquette campaign shows you the play for getting on and off the subway
Foresight is key to getting along in society. It stops us from walking into people, running red lights, wearing your “No Fat Chicks Allowed” T-shirt to a Weight Watchers meeting, etc.
We here at the Toronto Transit Civility Commission are firm believers in foresight and its necessity in keeping the system running smoothly. That’s why today’s official TTCC, unofficial TTC poster is about planning for, and managing, your body as a train moves into a station. It may seem obvious, but some people only dimly recall their physics lessons about two objects being unable to occupy the same space at the same time.
Click below to download our printable, handy, step-by-step guide and email your transit peeves/grievances/peevances to thecity@nationalpost.com for inclusion in future campaigns! Remember: foresighted is forewarned is forearmed, or something.
Here is a super-huge printable version of the poster
An Insight Into The Hypocricy Of Clown Councilors...
Once Again The "Servant" Benefits From The "Master's" Largesse
Taxpayers hit with city’s high mileage bills
Toronto is overpaying millions of taxpayer...Truth And Reality Not In The Lexicon Of McGoonty's Left wingers
Grits’ target is not Big Pharma : Blizzard
In their war with pharmacists, the government likes to pretend it’s taken on “Big Pharma” in an attempt to reduce the price of drugs for the rest of us.
Fiberals admit HST will hurt: Editorial
Don't Hold Your Breath Joe...
...the left wing will be shouting racial profiling, granting funding for at-risk youth, building sports facilities and of course blaming whitey!
Skip the bail hearing and send them back home
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly...
...to see the ugly read the comments attached to the following:
TTC leaves senior on Danforth
The TTC is investigating a complaint from a senior who was dropped on the Danforth Monday after he forgot to get a bus transferTTC driver to the rescue
A TTC bus driver and a passerby are being credited for getting a woman safely to the sidewalk after she collapsed on the road.
Free ride over for former transit commissioners?
Have former TTC commissioners hit the end of the line when it comes to enjoying free transit passes?
After more than a year of tinkering with the management of Toronto’s iconic streetcar line, the TTC is still stranding some west-end riders for up to three-quarters of an hour, even during rush periods, according to a group of residents along the Queensway and Lake Shore Boulevard. 5 May 05:19
Split the Queen streetcar line, argue stranded west-end residents
Tuesday, May 04, 2010
Congratulations But...
...we have to ask:
*how many of those arrested will be out on bail in the next couple of days
*when will those arrested go to trial
*How many of those with multiple charges will receive concurrent sentences
*how long will it take to deport those that are in the country illegally?
Major Police Raids Sweep the Province
Tue, 2010-05-04 06:26.
Dozens of pre-dawn raids took place at more than 80 locations across the province Monday morning.It's a team effort by the OPP, York, Peel and Toronto police. Kingston's tactical unit has also been called in for support.
There are also reports the Canadian Border Service has been involved.
Toronto police are heading the sweep, setting up three staging areas for the raids.
Dozens of people have been taken to custody to various police divisions including 12, 23, and 31.
One of the addresses hit was 2743 Victoria Park just north of Sheppard where police canine units were called in.
The raids are believed to be gun, gang, and drug related.
(With files from Amber Gero)
As Bad As Things Might Seem For Us...
...let's quit blaming those that might have more than us.
05/03/2010
Will someone catch us if we fall?
Fixing the transit mess, installing road tolls, creating bike lanes, are these really the top issues for our city? When polls are done to identify our concerns, who creates the questions? I suspect if the pollsters were closer to ground level, they might be surfacing other issues, especially those dealing with quality of life here in the big big city.
You know how it is when you're having a bad day, when you're worried or grouchy from lack of sleep, or your job is driving you crazy and you think you can't stand one more instance of someone getting "on your last nerve", whether that's a store clerk or a fellow employee or yes, a TTC driver.
I think a lot of people in this city are on their "last nerve", and that has to do less with the issues identified above and more to do with worries and fears in this economic climate. We're realizing that the social fabric we've come to count on is rapidly unraveling and that leaves us frightened for our sons and daughters who are struggling, parents who are aging, and jobs that are leaving.
We see that what we thought was a caring society in reality lets people fall so far they can never recover. It's hard to escape or ignore the evidence on our streets, our sidewalks, or in our public parks. We're bombarded with charities demanding more and more, yet though we give, it seems as though nothing gets better. So we're angry, and fearful, and fed up.
We want to keep our tax dollars rather than give them to people who we're sure waste them.We want to distance ourselves from the homeless, from the needy, because we have to believe they are not like us, they do not have the same work ethic, because, if they are like me and you, then me and you are in more trouble than we thought.
And we're already stressed to the heavens.
None of us wants to feel as though we're absolutely on our own in this world. We want to be sure that if we fall, someone will notice, someone will be there, helping us to get back on our feet. We want to be able to breathe freely, throw off some of the heavy weight we're carrying on our shoulders and enjoy the best this city has to offer its residents. Hard to do when we trade in our idea of a vibrant caring community for a individualistic, Darwinian world.
About Pat Capponi
You know how it is when you're having a bad day, when you're worried or grouchy from lack of sleep, or your job is driving you crazy and you think you can't stand one more instance of someone getting "on your last nerve", whether that's a store clerk or a fellow employee or yes, a TTC driver.
I think a lot of people in this city are on their "last nerve", and that has to do less with the issues identified above and more to do with worries and fears in this economic climate. We're realizing that the social fabric we've come to count on is rapidly unraveling and that leaves us frightened for our sons and daughters who are struggling, parents who are aging, and jobs that are leaving.
We see that what we thought was a caring society in reality lets people fall so far they can never recover. It's hard to escape or ignore the evidence on our streets, our sidewalks, or in our public parks. We're bombarded with charities demanding more and more, yet though we give, it seems as though nothing gets better. So we're angry, and fearful, and fed up.
We want to keep our tax dollars rather than give them to people who we're sure waste them.We want to distance ourselves from the homeless, from the needy, because we have to believe they are not like us, they do not have the same work ethic, because, if they are like me and you, then me and you are in more trouble than we thought.
And we're already stressed to the heavens.
None of us wants to feel as though we're absolutely on our own in this world. We want to be sure that if we fall, someone will notice, someone will be there, helping us to get back on our feet. We want to be able to breathe freely, throw off some of the heavy weight we're carrying on our shoulders and enjoy the best this city has to offer its residents. Hard to do when we trade in our idea of a vibrant caring community for a individualistic, Darwinian world.
About Pat Capponi
The Lesser Of Two Evils And...
...caught in the middle are the nannies, gardeners, fruit and vegetable pickers and the list goes on and on but we hear virtually nothing about their countrymen who exploint them.
Obamaland...
- Davd Frum: Another White House innovation -- Obamamath
-
Numbers-tampering is becoming a bad habit of the Obama administration. 1) GM and the Treasury trumpet GM’s supposed repayment of TARP money. Only days later does it emerge that the TARP money was repaid with … more TARP money. 2) Stimulus results disappointing? No problem – adjust the jobs baseline to make the jobs growth look more impressive!
This A Little Scary Especially...
- ...when we have a 16 year old in serious condition in hospital after suffering an injury while playing Rugby and it appear like no one took the time to check to see whether he was medically able to be involved in school sports and of course the Ministry is playing the blame game.
- Big Brother is watching (and Big Principal, Big Homeroom Teacher, even Big Bus Driver)
- Last June, the Ontario Legislature passed Bill 157, an amendment to the Education Act innocuously subtitled the Keeping Our Kids Safe at School act. The chances that this legislation -- which came into effect on February 1 of this year -- will make Ontario students safer is minimal. But it will keep teachers, adminstrators, custodians and even school bus drivers busy filling out forms and counselling students and parents about the evils of anti-social behaviour. Under the new law, all staff at Ontario schools are required to report every incident of "inappropriate, disrespectful behavior among students." Every one. They must fill out an incident report and file it with the school principal. He or she is then required to inform the parents of all students involved -- perpetrators, victims and witnesses -- and report to the school board what action he or she took to correct the behaviour. Sure, some of the behaviours listed in the act are serious and should be addressed, No one wants weapons and drugs in schools, for instance. But the Ontario education ministry is telling school employees that they must now report every threat of violence and incidence of homophobia or discrimination. A school employee recently wrote me after he had completed his Bill 157 training to say he was told that if he overhead students calling one another "retards," he was to file an incident report. He had heard a student tell a boy from her class that she was going to kill him later in, what he described as the playful, giggling tone that teens use when they want to express their "like" for a schoolmate but can't bring themselves to come right out and say it. When asked if he had to report an incident like that, the bureaucrats conducting his training said absolutely. That's the problem with such zero-tolerance policies, the remove all context, reason and discretion. They are unthinking. They lump the good in with the bad, the jocular in with the truly threatening. In making no distinction among behaviours, these laws and policies insult the good judgment of professional educators, but more importantly, they distract principals and school officials with busywork while real threats to student safety go unnoticed. You may recall how three years ago a gunman entered C. W. Jeffreys Collegiate, a high school in NW Toronto, and shot to death 15-year-old Jordan Manners. The city was scandalized. How could this happen? Community leaders met with police and city officials; even federal and provincial representatives were present. They wanted to make sure the incident was never repeated. Bills such as 157 come out of incidents like that. But the problem is they can't stop the real baddies, like the ones who shot Jordan Manners (whoever they are; a mistrial was declared earlier this spring in the trial of the two accused killers). All such legislation succeeds in doing is giving records to good kids using typical teen language and behaviours. This law makes it look as if something is being done while the real violent behaviour is too tough to deal with and so gets ignored.
Where Is Carter On The This Meglomaniac?
Gary Clement on Ahmadinejad's trip to New York City
- UN looks to Iran for advice on women's rights
-
The UN seems determined to never let a chance go by to make itself look ridiculous. The latest example is the election last week of Iran as a member of the Commission on the Status of Women, part of the UN’s economic and social council. Women are so overwhelmingly discriminated against in Iran that they'd have to make considerable progress just to claim second-rate status. As the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran pointed out, “women lack the ability to choose their husbands, have no independent right to education after marriage, no right to divorce, no right to child custody, have no protection from violent treatment in public spaces, are restricted by quotas for women’s admission at universities, and are arrested, beaten, and imprisoned for peacefully seeking change of such laws.”
- Stone women to death, get appointed to UN women's rights body
- Full Comment’s Araminta Wordsworth brings you a regular dose of international punditry at its finest. At first glance, the headline looks like a joke — “Iran wins a seat on UN Commission on the Status of Women.” But this is no laughing matter. The country that sees women as second-class citizens and stones adulteresses to death has won a place by default on the world body’s commission charged with improving the lot of women around the world. Worse still, it acquired — I refuse to use the word “won” — the place by default, thanks to the UN’s bloc voting procedure. It’s the second time the mullahs have used manipulation of the rules to land a place on the commission. As a U.S. official told Fox News, “there is no opportunity [to object]. That is not how the procedure works.”
Visit Your Local Starbucks...
...and count the number of BAs twit on their laptops.
Career-college students' crushing debt costs taxpayers millions
Ottawa on the hook for disproportionate number of students who can’t repay loansThe building blocks of education shouldn't cost this much
Neil Reynolds
Why are we subsidizing robot construction in our schools? Because Queen’s Park can’t say no
Does This Sound Familiar?
Hey, Conan: enough. You’re giving the Irish a bad name
John Doyle: Televison
So Leno hasn't called? Awwww. With a $32-million cushion, O'Brien's poor-me act plays a little hollowConan O'Brien: Did He Pull a Leno?
Will this help Lopez?
Would We Deny Police Officers The Same Rights...
as we would rapists, pedophiles, gangstas, cop killers, etc?
Concerns persist about police note-taking when officers use lethal force
03 May 2010 06:04
TORONTO - Senior investigators are concerned that police involved in using lethal force are being "coached" or are tampering with evidence after such incidents, new court documents reveal.The documents and transcripts, in the case of two unrelated killings by police, raise concerns about the ability of Ontario's Special Investigations Unit to determine whether the killings were justified.
The concerns by SIU investigators centre on delays by police in notifying the unit after a shooting and possible contamination of the scene and witness accounts.
Of key concern is whether the notes of officers are accurate and reliable given that police involved are first submitting draft accounts to a union lawyer, and only then turning over a version to civilian investigators.
"Are we into an area where the police officers are coached?" said Denis O'Neill, a longtime investigator with the SIU, according to examination documents filed in the case.
"It's not the right thing to do, and that's what I believe."
Accurate and reliable officers' notes are critical because they are "the best vehicle to get at the truth," O'Neill testified, according to a transcript obtained by The Canadian Press.
During separate confrontations in June 2009, provincial police shot dead two mentally disabled men, Douglas Minty and Levi Schaeffer.
Families of the two men want Ontario Superior Court to declare that some police practices following such incidents may be illegal and damaging to the integrity of the system.
A hearing on the merits of the families' application - which contains the allegations not proven in court - is expected to take place next week.
Police lawyers have emphatically defended the handling of such cases.
Ontario law mandates the civilian SIU probe potential criminal wrongdoing when police are involved in causing death or serious injury.
In Minty's case, the SIU was notified almost 90 minutes after a police constable pumped five bullets into him during a tense confrontation - and only after the police association was called and a representative went to the scene, documents show.
In addition, police drove two civilian witnesses to the detachment in a vehicle before notifying the SIU, and the incident was discussed during the ride, said Angela Mercer, lead SIU investigator.
"My main concern was tampering of evidence," said Mercer, according to the transcripts.
"They should have called us right away. It just delayed the investigation in the whole, and it gave enough time for the police to organize what they were going to do."
O'Neill said he believed the practice of having a single lawyer act for various officers involved in a shooting was "widespread," while Mercer said it appeared no one in police leadership had ever addressed the various concerns.
In a public statement last year, the director of the special investigations unit, Ian Scott, blasted the note-writing process that flowed from Schaeffer's death as unreliable.
He said confidential drafts of the notes were first "approved" by one union lawyer who represented all the officers involved.
"The notes do not represent an independent recitation of the material events," Scott wrote, saying he was unable to determine whether the officer who pulled the trigger had committed any crime.
Scott also sounded the alarm last October in a letter filed as part of the proceedings to the commissioner of the Ontario Provincial Police, Julian Fantino.
Fantino was dismissive in his response.
"Your position as director of the SIU grants you no authority over how police notes are prepared," Fantino wrote, according to the documents.
The police union and its lawyers have staunchly defended the approach, saying the notes given the SIU were a "very accurate depiction" of events. They denounced any suggestion of collusion as "preposterous."
One lawyer for the officers said any suggestion of wrongdoing by the officers in contacting legal counsel "would suggest that every citizen in Canada is wrong in communicating with legal counsel when they are under investigation."
Feathering Their Own Nest...
TTC’s token battle: No fare
Transit is critical to our city and region’s economic success, as well as to social mobility and our environmental agenda.
TTC’s token battle: You ride, you pay
The public transportation debate in Toronto doesn’t seem to be about whether we need more of it, but rather who pays for itMoscoe jabs at McGuinty with bumper sticker
It's "Chump" Change...
...when you look at the cesspool of waste at Toronto City Hall the perception that city politicos, bureaucrats and city employees are treated the same as the average person by Revenue Canada.
No more free ride
Toronto city councillors will be forced to give up not just their free TTC Metropasses but their golf and Toronto Zoo passes plus all comp tickets to Sony Centre events following a recent Canada Revenue Agency audit.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Deal The 53 Card Deck...
Breaking news: I am not white!
I’m still on the road and our wonderful guest-bloggers will be dropping in again today and tomorrow. The hate mail is on an increase again thanks to my outspoken defense of Arizona’s immigration enforcement measure. Too many to choose from, but here’s a typical response:from Ruben ruben_baruch@sbcglobal.net
to writemalkin@gmail.com
date Thu, Apr 29, 2010 at 7:42 AM
subject The color of your skin
Dear Michelle:
I have never met you or heard from you until today.
I didnt’ need to hear you for too long to know the kind of person you are or what are your personally.
I just wondering how or where did you learned to speak like the way you do.
Because you are are not white, and that is obvious, I would like to invite you to take a walk around or drive in Arizona and see and feel in your own skin the racism that exist [sic] in that state. I really would like you to experience first hand the racial prejudice. I would like you to feel how does it feel to be discrimated [sic] for the simple reason of the color of your skin.
Take a walk in Arizona. By yourself. Because you are not white no matter how hard you try to be white, you will never be white . no matter how hard you try to speak like a white person. you will never will be one and your father and your mother and sisters and brothers will never be white no matter how hard you try.
You tell me: Who are the real racists?
Bonus video: Here’s my debate with open-borders smooth talker Francisco Hernandez. I call him Francisco Suave. He really should be on Dancing with the Stars. His two-step is a sight to behold:
On a related note: Kris Kobach’s op-ed in the New York Times (yes, the NYT!) today is a must-read. Kris authored the Arizona law and unlike the president, he knows what he is talking about
G20 Coming Toronto....
...will Comrade Miller, Clown Council and Toronto Tourism Board be promoting this event with their European counterpart?
A European growth industry
Riot Sightseeing. Posted by Jaeger at 11:01 AM| Comments (13)
A Columnists's Columnist!
Christie Blatchford
From screams to whimpers on Afghan detainees
Allegations that fueled shooting match replaced in some arenas with Celine’s new swimming pool to almost nothing at all.
You can’t contradict Colvin
Powers: I don't want to parrot what Christie Blatchford wrote Saturday concerning the challenges to whistleblower Richard Colvin's testimony brought forward this week –challenges ignored by virtually all but the Globe and Mail.
Guilty As Charged...
Canadians illiterate on own history: poll
Despite a strong push by governments and heritage advocates in the past decade to bolster Canadians' knowledge of the country's past, most citizens haven't cracked a book or even read a magazine article about Canadian history for years, according to a new poll.
Despite a strong push by governments and heritage advocates in the past decade to bolster Canadians' knowledge of the country's past, most citizens haven't cracked a book or even read a magazine article about Canadian history for years, according to a new poll.
This Is Really More Of A Phys Ed Issue
- ...where kids should understand the consequences of not keeping your knees together, lowering your zipper, etc.
- Paul Russell: Sex and Mideast peace on readers' minds
- Sex was the main topic of conversation on the Letters page last week. That’s not to say that our readers suddenly turned into licentious hedonists; most instead contented themselves with offering opinions on how and when young people should be taught about this basic human function. The hastily aborted proposal by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty to revise the sex ed curriculum — so that Grade 3 students would be told about sexual orientation and Grade 6 students assured that auto-eroticism is natural — started this debate. Our readers and columnists weighed in with their own advice. In his column last Tuesday, “Hide your kids. The liberals are coming,” John Moore championed the proposed changes. He noted that the “tweaking” of the sex ed program was defeated by “religious conservatives ... who are fooling themselves if they think their kids aren’t Twittering and Googling words like ‘anal,’ ‘oral’ and ‘masturbation.’ ” Not surprisingly, his column brought in many passionate responses.
iggy Moment
- Tasha Kheiriddin: Michael Ignatieff to Michaelle Jean: Madame, lend me your coattails!
- Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff is starting to look like one desperate – or confused – politician, grasping at every stray straw he can find. In the past week, he has: • pledged to implement a Liberal Food Policy, spending taxpayers’ money to buy rural votes; • ticked off the west by telling law students to learn French, should they dare to dream of sitting on the Supreme Court; • revived the abortion debate, by going after those wimmin-hating Conservatives who don’t want to pay for third world abortions; • and now, called on the Prime Minister to extend the term of the Governor General, her Excellency Michaelle Jean. Hmm, who exactly is Mr. Ignatieff trying to appeal to here? Don’t the first three policies effectively cancel each other out? Rural voters may like farm subsidies, but I would wager they are generally less favourable to bilingualism and less pro-choice than urban voters, who already vote Liberal, thank you very much. Indeed, in an attempt to be all things to all people, the Liberals have managed to please nobody. The latest poll puts the Tories nine percentage points ahead, and Mr. Ignatieff scores a meagre 16% to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s 31% on the question of who would make the best Prime Minister. Despite the ongoing saga of Rahimelena and the recent ruling by House of Commons Speaker Peter Milliken, apparently nothing is sticking to the Teflon Tories.
Click here to read more...
No need to make MPs' expenses public: Iggy
Justice Minister Rob Nicholson and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff both seem to agree: There is no need to make MPs’expenses public.
Tell This To The Unions And...
Neil Reynolds
The building blocks of education shouldn't cost this much
...and the left wing social in-activists on local school boards and government.
Snooker Returning To It's Roots...
...the smoke filled pool halls hangout for the gamblers, petty thieves and the homeless?
Snooker scandal as world champion accused of bet-rigging
Gentrification!
Life imitates art as Queen West gentrifies
The Better Way? For Who...
...it doesn't seem to be the riders.
Bus fleet's bike racks rarely used
This is the story of bikes hijacking buses.
Former Toronto chef Ray Nemard waited his turn among 300 transit riders to pepper the TTC union president and some of his operators with tough questions in a final town hall meeting.
What the TTC union can tackle next
By this point, the TTC should have a pretty good idea what their customers want improved.Sunday, May 02, 2010
A Message Of Hope
- Izzeldin Abuelaish: 'Let my daughters be the last to die'
- On the very day of the Gaza shelling that ended my three daughters’ lives in January, 2009, we had decided, as a family, that I would take up the professional posting in Toronto that had been offered to me by Dr. Peter Singer and Dr. Abdullah Daar, and that I would come to work as a professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Toronto has turned out to be everything I’d hoped for: a place and a time for my surviving children to heal. Dalal and Shatha are enrolled at the University of Toronto. Mohammed, Raffah and Abdullah are in a junior school nearby. The neighbours welcomed us to the street and soon enough we found our way. In our first days in the new house, an incident warmed my heart. Most of the backyards around the neighbourhood are fenced. The family next door has children about the same ages as my younger ones, and the first thing they did after we moved in was to take down a section of the fence so the kids could run back and forth without barriers. That simple act gave me a lot to think about. Tragedy cannot be the end of our lives. We cannot allow it to control and defeat us.
Iggy Moment
Iggy makes another appeal for the ‘rural’ voters: Woodcock
To most urban Canadians, farmers are the cheerful, apple-cheeked folk peddling handscrubbed carrots and organic potatoes at the farmers’ markets that dot our cities each week from May to October.
It Just Proves The Adage "Idle hands..."
Red tape is killing Toronto: Editorial
Our mayoral hopefuls could do the city a big favour by promising and delivering an end to the red tape and rule-itis choking City Hall and Toronto itself.Dealing with our local government is not easy.
There are some bright spots but all-in-all, many bureaucrats seem to revel in justifying their existence by hiding behind the tangle of overbearing rules.
That blame can be shared with politicians, too.
What we end up with are debacles like Toronto’s A La Cart street food program that flopped badly.
Onerous rules scared off potential chefs, and heavy regulations and demands from the nervous nellies at City Hall, killed the businesses before they started.
Or the bungled Bloor St. reno Coun. Kyle Rae blasted last week for being held back by bureaucrats who refuse to strive for excellence.
At the economic development level, if our city can’t speed up the pace at which it completes work and grants permits and approvals, investments will go elsewhere.
Council has often been warned time is money for corporations.
We’re competing for business against cities around the world — and slow doesn’t cut it.
Frustrating the businesses we have will encourage them to look elsewhere for a better fit.
It’s not just taxes that scare off investment.
That’s at the macro level. Here’s the micro one.
An event on Danforth Ave. last weekend nearly died by bureaucratic strangulation.
Art of the Danforth invited Toronto residents to an art walk, but the permits, insurance and hoops volunteers have had to clear to put it on have been a nightmare.
Local councillors had to intervene numerous times just to help an event that can only be positive for the city.
Mainly, though, it’s been the tireless local organizers who’ve been run ragged by numerous city staff.
Why does a weekend in the park and a small kids’ parade require paperwork like it’s the G20, the involvement of numerous city departments and what clearly is thousands of dollars of staff time?
As Coun. Janet Davis finally wrote to staff: “We need to encourage and support community efforts like this, not make it a nightmare.”
Exactly.
Davis has vowed to come up with a new system so anyone who wants to hold a similar community event can go to the city’s website and know exactly what is necessary in terms of permits, for a street festival or park event.
There ought to be more reasons to enjoy our city and fewer reasons to scream about it.
But what we have now is not city building, it’s city crushing.
Toronto has to be open for business to the world and to its neighbours.
Toronto’s next mayor must have a plan to make this city work for its residents, businesses and potential investors, not against them.
And a way to measure the progress of that plan.
Quite simply, we need Toronto’s bad case of rule-itis cured.
Why Isn't ity Enforcing Anti-noise And Grafitti Bylaws...
...this would put a damper on Comrade Miller.
Transit City needs a Plan B: Levy
Frequent TTC user Patricia Sinclair is so tired of hearing Mayor David Miller’s Save Transit City message while riding the subway, she’s tuned out.
Message To Sandra...
...the city hasn't stop the trafficking in handguns so why would you think another ridiculous initiative would work. IMHO this would be just another challenge to taggers.
Consider spray paint ban, councillor says
Toronto needs to look at banning the sale of spray paint to minors to curb the rampant spread of graffiti, a city councillor says.
Saturday, May 01, 2010
Let's Not Forget...
...he did TEXT a $10 donation to Haitian Relief and he attended the Bono concert to feed hungry children.
Let's Turn Our Streets Over To The Anarchists...
...who infiltrate activist groups and use them as a cover for their violence and destruction.
When security makes you feel insecure
Rick Salutin
Here’s a no-brainer: The solution is community, not clampdownGetting Shafted But Their Day Is Coming...
Death and taxes: A vision For Toronto's seniors
Is what they say about death and taxes true? Until recently, I accepted both as the predetermined irrevocable course of life and never thought to question it. That is until I thought about my grandmother.Nothing beats my grandma’s cooking. You name it, she can cook it. In fact, every time I’m at her house being fed, yet another helping of chicken, macaroni pie or rice and peas I ask her how she does it. Her response is always the same, “I’ve been doing it all my life”. The truth is my grandma cooks like her life depends on it because there was a time when it did. Today it’s the kind of reality show that would have made networks millions; think Survivor meets Iron Chef, but instead of losing your chance at millions, you get deported or lose your work permit.
As a young mother in her 20s, my grandma left Jamaica to build a better life for her children. She left her tiny island and her tiny tots in the care of her siblings and prepared for a new life in Canada. Her first job was as a domestic in Nova Scotia where her cooking talents eventually led to a stable job in Toronto. During that time she would send money back home, working towards the day when her kids (my dad and aunt)would be by her side. Then in 1976, with her stable employment and understanding of the Canadian way of life, my dad and aunt arrived to Canada.
My grandma worked hard to make sure her kids did well. And what repayment will she get for her years of service? Death and taxes. In the spirit of non-discrimination, this seems to be the “gift” every senior receives, even the ones who don’t have the adequate means to live a dignified life. It’s too bad you can’t regift bad government decisions. Or maybe you can.
Could Toronto introduce a revised taxation system that uses property taxes to make life better for low income seniors? Wait, we do that through the Ontario Fair Assessment System, but let’s take that step further. Almost 10 per cent of Toronto’s population lives in social housing. And that number will double in the next few years. Municipalities like ours need to take a leadership role and design a plan that ensures that seniors who weren’t able to afford a house in our expensive city can still have a chance at a life of dignity.
The statistics are alarming. More than 20 per cent of Toronto’s seniors live in poverty and the number continues to grow in this city. Many impoverished seniors live alone, without many social networks. Family and supports are sporadic at best, and with the unstable funding of many non-profit organizations, community programs are only in “just visiting” status; long enough to say hello, but just as quick to say goodbye (Aside: is this what they mean by “socially liberal and fiscally conservative?”).
Currently Toronto’s poverty rate for seniors is 50 per cent higher than the national average. If the predictions are right and this population increases by 50 per cent by time 2031 rolls around, what does that mean for us?
If we do nothing, then it means nothing. Life will remain as is. Seniors will continue to suffer in silence, living in social and economic exile, confirming their existence through up-to-date tax records. Meanwhile, the cost of living (especially food, shelter, transportation) will continue skyrocket to stratospheric levels at the same time that quality of life plummets to embarrassingly, no, shamefully substandard levels.
By revising our taxation system for low income seniors, Toronto would be making a bold statement: that seniors deserve a life of dignity.
Currently the income supports for impoverished seniors are a guarantee that they will die poor and forgotten; Poor because of their struggle to pay for taxes on a very limited income and forgotten because living in poverty often is a life of isolation for seniors. When you’re a poor senior, there’s no afternoon brunch and social clubs to frequent. That’s a luxury afforded to the affluent.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not suggesting that social clubs open their doors to destitute seniors. What I’m suggesting is that our government take a leadership role in recognizing that as Toronto becomes home to more and more seniors and the poverty becomes an inevitable reality, we should look at the taxing impact of the taxation system on impoverished seniors.
This also raises a bigger questions: Do we have an equitable vision for aging in Toronto? Yes, the old adage about death and taxes is true. They are inevitable, but they should not be related.
About Tonika Morgan
It Is Always The Other Guys Fault...
...and it makes you wonder why we are paying a mayor and 40 councilors and their staff and senior beauracrats.
How it all went wrong on Bloor: 5 perspectives
How it all went wrong on Bloor: 5 perspectives
Happenings At Toronto Silly Hall...
...how much do city employees pay for parking?
Councillors ordered to return free TTC passes
Fri Apr 30 2010
Toronto city councillors have been told to surrender their free Metropasses or risk paying back taxes on them. City keeping schools out of the parking business
...does my daily "Now I lay me down to sleep" make my house a church?
The Fixer: City closes mosque over bylaw offences
Fri Apr 30 2010
Prayers are suspended at single-family home converted to a mosque without the necessary permits or approvals, after complaints from neighbours.
One For The Good Guys...
Passersby jump in to help cops catch crooks
Hey, Hogtown has some heroes after all.
Normal Response By Member Of Toronto Clown Council...
Port agency raises stink over compost
The Toronto Port Authority is making a mountain out of a molehill over compost a city worker dumped onto the southbound lane leading to its parking lot, Councillor Adam Vaughan claims.
Get off your Ass And Vote
What will it take to get you to vote?
Toronto City Hall. (Tom Podolec / CTV Sandie Benitah, ctvtoronto.ca
Bylaws aren't sexy, and neither is the issue of snow removal or parking tickets. Not even a sex scandal could make the TTC sexy and frankly even Toronto's mayoral race is looking like it will be a snoozer.
Heck, we're not even surprised anymore when the stats come out at the end of each municipal election that highlight our dismal voting record. In 2006, less than 40 per cent of Torontonians even bothered to get out and cast a ballot.
So what will it take to get the masses interested in the one level of government that actually has the most impact on their daily lives?
(Click here to see how the city actually affects your day-to-day life)
Go to Part 2
Getting Off Your Ass And Voting
Part 2
That's the question Toronto activist Dave Meslin and a group of advocates have asked at town hall meetings across the city this month, including one in dowtown Toronto and Etobicoke this past week.
The group, which call themselves Better Ballots, has put together a list of 14 options for the public to consider, all of which are aimed at getting voters interested in municipal politics.
The plan is to gather enough public consultation on the different options and then go to the province and the city with their findings and a proposal to shake up the system.
"City council is important but the system isn't working," Meslin said at the start of Tuesday's town hall meeting at Toronto City Hall.
Aside from voter turnout, Meslin identified three other problems affecting the system: slow turnover, lack of diversity and distorted election results.
"We have so much pride about being the most diverse city in the world but it doesn't mean much when the people who make up our city council look more like the Maple Leafs than the city itself," he said.
Quest for better ballot
So what's the solution? Do we extend the vote to permanent residents? Lower the voting age to 16? Implement a phone/Internet voting system?
How about advocating for municipal political parties (though some would argue party politics are already at play) or setting term limits to stop council's old timers from running again?
Should we have a ranked ballot system? Force councillors to run city wide instead of in their neighbourhoods? What about finance reforms?
The Better Ballot presenters gave the 200-member audience some examples of cities where these specific types of reforms are in place.
"That was important to us because we wanted to show that these are viable options in places elsewhere," said Meslin.
The organizers had to concede, however, that they had little information about how successful many of these reforms have been at getting more people out to the polls.
But that wasn't the biggest problem facing the Better Ballots meeting.
You could call the members of the audience the usual suspects – candidates running for office this year, local activists who attend all politically-minded meetings, socially-conscious youth who want so badly to believe they can make a difference.
But these people are the ones who tend to go out and vote in the first place. Where were the soccer moms or ratepayer presidents? The Bay Street trader or the local gardener?
The process has to start somewhere, said Susan Gapka, who is running in Ward 27 for councillor.
"Electoral reform is critical for us to become involved in politics," she said at the podium, after congratulating Better Ballots for putting on the event.
Janet Davis, a councillor who is running for re-election in the east end, said the biggest threat facing local politics is cynicism.
"Remember, politics is a job that a lot of people can do and the majority do a good job," she said.
These were the ideas that got the most attention at the town hall meeting:
That's the question Toronto activist Dave Meslin and a group of advocates have asked at town hall meetings across the city this month, including one in dowtown Toronto and Etobicoke this past week.
The group, which call themselves Better Ballots, has put together a list of 14 options for the public to consider, all of which are aimed at getting voters interested in municipal politics.
The plan is to gather enough public consultation on the different options and then go to the province and the city with their findings and a proposal to shake up the system.
"City council is important but the system isn't working," Meslin said at the start of Tuesday's town hall meeting at Toronto City Hall.
Aside from voter turnout, Meslin identified three other problems affecting the system: slow turnover, lack of diversity and distorted election results.
"We have so much pride about being the most diverse city in the world but it doesn't mean much when the people who make up our city council look more like the Maple Leafs than the city itself," he said.
Quest for better ballot
So what's the solution? Do we extend the vote to permanent residents? Lower the voting age to 16? Implement a phone/Internet voting system?
How about advocating for municipal political parties (though some would argue party politics are already at play) or setting term limits to stop council's old timers from running again?
Should we have a ranked ballot system? Force councillors to run city wide instead of in their neighbourhoods? What about finance reforms?
The Better Ballot presenters gave the 200-member audience some examples of cities where these specific types of reforms are in place.
"That was important to us because we wanted to show that these are viable options in places elsewhere," said Meslin.
The organizers had to concede, however, that they had little information about how successful many of these reforms have been at getting more people out to the polls.
But that wasn't the biggest problem facing the Better Ballots meeting.
You could call the members of the audience the usual suspects – candidates running for office this year, local activists who attend all politically-minded meetings, socially-conscious youth who want so badly to believe they can make a difference.
But these people are the ones who tend to go out and vote in the first place. Where were the soccer moms or ratepayer presidents? The Bay Street trader or the local gardener?
The process has to start somewhere, said Susan Gapka, who is running in Ward 27 for councillor.
"Electoral reform is critical for us to become involved in politics," she said at the podium, after congratulating Better Ballots for putting on the event.
Janet Davis, a councillor who is running for re-election in the east end, said the biggest threat facing local politics is cynicism.
"Remember, politics is a job that a lot of people can do and the majority do a good job," she said.
These were the ideas that got the most attention at the town hall meeting:
- Lowering the voting age -- One youngster who spoke said her high school doesn't even have a politics class. She told the organizers lowering the voting age to 16 would be a waste of time if they didn't figure out how to engage youth to begin with. Still, many in the audience voiced their support for the change.
- Telephone/Internet voting -- One audience member who identified himself as an IT specialist cautioned against this move. "It's not safe and it won't be for twenty years," he said. Several people agreed with him and one Better Ballot member pointed to a recent study which showed that telephone and Internet voting had no impact on voter turnout.
- At-large council -- Vancouver doesn't have a ward system but Toronto needs to look no further than Oshawa for a municipality that makes its councillors get voted by citizens across the city rather than their local communities. This year will be the first time Oshawa implements the at-large system. In 2006, Oshawa reported a 25 per cent voter turnout.
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About Me
- Unhypentated Canadian
- I lean to the right but I still have a heart and if I have a mission it is to respond to attacks on people not available to protect themselves and to point out the hypocrisy of the left at every opportunity.MY MAJOR GOAL IS HIGHLIGHT THE HYPOCRISY AND STUPIDITY OF THE LEFTISTS ON TORONTO CITY COUNCIL. Last word: In the final analysis this blog is a relief valve for my rants/raves.