The firing was likely pretty sudden and not terribly congenial as Towhey was escorted out of City Hall by security. Rumours are that it had something to do with football, but it’s hard to imagine what exactly that could be.

This is Rob’s second chief of staff in as many years, and is in line with the Fords’ disdain for pretty much everyone and everything that doesn’t lick their shoes.

It should be noted that the choice of the mayor’s chief of staff is well within Ford’s purview, so I’m not suggesting that he did anything wrong or illegal, but there’s obviously a tempest brewing behind the scenes, and we all know who’s providing the hot air for that storm.

Shit’s about to get real!

“It seems no deal is good enough for this premier [Kathleen Wynne],” the mayor said. “The fact is she simply doesn’t want a casino, at least not in Toronto.”

Fact is, Fordo is the one who didn’t want a casino in Toronto unless it was entirely on his own invented terms. If you’ll recall, he didn’t even want to talk about a casino if Wynne wasn’t willing to concede to his demands, which almost everyone else agreed were unrealistic and overly optimistic.

There’s nothing to indicate Wynne wouldn’t have moved on a City Council motion to build a casino in the city, if that was what had been decided — it just wouldn’t have generated the $100 million that Ford pulled out of some bodily cavity.

The vote went ahead, and the casino was shot down as expected. No surprise.

I probably wouldn’t even be writing about it now, but I found it interesting to note how support for Ford and his ideas (assuming their his), has plummeted. I mean, support has hardly ever reached into the double digits (that’s with at least 22 votes needed to win a vote), but the fact that it’s dwindled down to 4 councillors backing Ford on this speaks volumes.

Ford chalks this up to undemocratic practices because it should only be him deciding on things and not “gangs” of councillors capable of building consensus and agreement among a majority. Presumably, that criticism also extends to his brother Doug — the vote included all 44 councillors and the 4 in support didn’t include him.

Then there’s the unfortunate fact that Rob himself publicly stated he wouldn’t be supporting the kind of deal he voted in favour of yesterday:

If the province won’t agree (to) that $100 million, then folks, the deal is dead. We are not going to carry on the casino debate.

Crack’s a hell of a drug.

Christopher Hume’s piece in the Toronto Star today, for example, demonstrates a willingness to no longer tip-toe around the issues. Although I wish I could quote the entire article, the last few-ish paragraphs sum it all up perfectly:

It was painful to watch our prime minister and chief environmental scofflaw, Boss Harper, squirm in New York last week as he tried to talk his way out of his antediluvian attitudes to climate change.

It was just as excruciating to witness Sheriff Ford’s efforts to deal with reports of a video of him apparently smoking crack. The man has yet to mount any defence beyond, “ridiculous.”

Through it all we remain so polite, deferential and glad to be of use, that a good many Torontonians lined up to denounce the media that did them the favour of revealing the mayor for what he is, an overgrown man-child who does what he wants, the city be damned.

Harper, by contrast, knows what he’s doing. He knows his actions are reckless, but to him ethics are a nicety leaders can’t afford.

Neither Harper nor Ford respect government, its institutions or the positions they hold. Both believe themselves exempt. To them, Canadians are gullible or too preoccupied with getting by to hold them responsible.

As bad as things may be, Canadians are terrified they could be worse.

I applaud you, Mr. Hume, for taking a stand against the blithe illegality and corruption of our various levels of government. Now we just need more people to do the same.

I suppose if the numbers were as high as Ford asserted ($100 million, minimum), a casino could’ve potentially brought both. But those idealized revenues turned out to be about half (or a quarter, or an eighth, depending on what day it was and how he was feeling), of Rob’s projections.

So faced with the reality of only about $54 million under the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission’s formula for divvying up casino spoils, Ford declared the project dead:

If the province won’t agree (to) that $100 million, then folks, the deal is dead. We are not going to carry on the casino debate.

Well, that’s it. Ford’s one and only source of potential income for Toronto projects has dried up (aside from the mysterious public-private partnerships that never materialized). So if the city can’t get a bigger chunk of cash out of the deal then it’s pointless.

Oh, and about those jobs — if the city can’t get a bigger chunk of cash out of the deal then they’re pointless too. Sorry, single moms, I guess it’s a future of frying up chicken for the foreseeable future.

Okay, snarkiness aside, I hope you see what I’m driving at here. Rob has no problem pulling the “jobs, jobs, jobs!” card out of his ass when it’s expedient for him, but when something like the casino fails we quickly see that it was never about jobs, his constituents, or the citizens of Toronto — it’s about gobbling up money for use by the government. Okay, yes, we do need transit funding, but we also need jobs, so to sacrifice one at the expense of another belies the true intentions behind the casino push.

Not that I believed the job numbers either, but that’s kind of beside the point.

At least there was a smidgen of honesty in some of Ford’s remarks:

Contrary to what many people have said, I’m not married to a casino, I never campaigned on a casino.

That’s true, unless you consider marriage to be an exclusive commitment. Then again, he never campaigned on subways either, but that never stopped him from claiming the opposite at every opportunity.

Unfortunately, the scrutiny and media attention are so fierce (and global), that Sarah has had to diminish her enthusiasm to a great extent (her Multiple Sclerosis takes a big hit with intense emotion). Nevertheless, we’re both keen to see this thing follow through, video evidence and all. (and how about a drug test?)

So needless to say, we discuss Rob Ford regularly, and we try to bounce ideas about his “shortcomings” off each other — the kinds of things big/mainstream media are not willing to touch.

One of the issues, now that the scandal has exploded and the shrapnel is coming back down to earth, is Ford’s refusal to deal with any of the allegations directly. Of course, we’re not the only ones to notice this, but so far nobody’s speculating about why this is the case.

I suppose that’s fine because it gives us something to ruminate over, though it certainly does make the media seem like “lame ducks”.

So the conclusion that we came to is somewhat simple and probably pretty obvious: Ford doesn’t want any additional scrutiny on the scandal because he’s afraid of all the damaging facts that may emerge — and for good reason!

When you consider this in the context of Ford scandals (the Florida drinking and driving charge, the drunken tirade at a Leafs’ game, etc.) it makes perfect sense. No matter how many times Ford tried pointing the finger at the media for unearthing these unfortunate incidents, and moreover, vehemently and aggressively denying them, it eventually turned out that he was the one lying, openly, on camera, and on record. Repeatedly, unapologetically, and overtly.

In fact, there hasn’t really been a single Ford scandal that’s been shown to be untrue — so why are we expected to believe a known public liar like Rob Ford now?

Drug dealers may not necessarily be the most reliable sources, but given Ford’s track record of nearly 100% lies and denials, plus that little thing of the clear-as-day video evidence, not to mention all those additional rumours, make their story seem a whole lot more convincing than Ford’s singular and exclusive rebuttal of “ridiculous!”

So now that the latest scandal has emerged — and let’s face it, this one’s a doozie — it’s no wonder Ford is refusing to answer any questions, launch any lawsuits, or challenge any of the assertions except to call them ridiculous. It also explains why Ford insists that it’s him who should be taken to court when he’s being libeled and misrepresented.

I mean, it’s either that, or the man is a complete idiot. I suppose that could be the case too, but such abject incompetence is yet another reason why Rob Ford is in no way fit to be mayor of what is otherwise a fantastic and thriving city.

But yesterday evening, John Cook of the unabashed website Gawker posted probably the best evidence yet of Ford’s drug abuse. And what’s more, he’s standing behind everything he claims.

If you haven’t read the story yet, I’ll save you the trouble: some time within the last 6 months, Ford was caught on someone’s cell phone smoking crack with a group of people, chuckling at off-colour comments, and just generally being unmayorly.

The tale behind the video is a bit twisted, but basically the guy who shot it and showed it to John Cook wants to sell it for “six figures”, which makes me think it may never see the light of day (see additional comments below). But efforts are afoot nonetheless.

The Taiwanese animated news agency NMA took a few liberties with the story (plus a few other choice Ford incidents), but they’re not far off the mark:

Of course, Ford denied the whole thing right away, taking the opportunity to flaunt his ignorance and demonize the Toronto Star while simultaneously ignoring reporters’ comments that the story actually came via Gawker. But that’s par for the course for Robbie.

A little birdie told me that behind the scenes, Ford has issued a hefty bounty on whoever’s in possession of the video. Considering that one of the people in the recording, Anthony Smith (the guy on the left in the photo above), was gunned down outside a Toronto nightclub earlier this year, that bounty probably has an “alive or dead” rider.

Rumours are also flying that Ford is proving to be too much of an embarrassment to Harper’s Criminal, erm, Conservative dynasty, so Fordo is now feeling the squeeze from both ends. I’m sure Harper isn’t upset that Ford is a law-breaking, rude, incompetent scumbag, it’s that he’s making the Conservative tyranny look bad before it can accomplish its mission.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I don’t really give much of a toss whether or not Rob snorts coke or civet droppings, it’s the fact that he’s a mayor who is openly breaking the law left right and center (not to mention admitting to not knowing how to do his job), that’s the clincher.

It’s time for Ford to go (jail would be a good start), and to take the rest of his Conservative cronies with him.

Originally from England, in the early 80s Clarke suddenly found himself unemployed and decided to found the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty, a group both vilified and praised for standing up for, or claiming to stand up for, the city’s poor.

Clarke doesn’t mince words or shy away from controversy, often staging demonstrations, sit-ins, and occupations to drive his message. He’s had run-ins with cops, politicians, and even the media aren’t particularly fond of him. Basically, he’s not in it for the popularity.

Although he’s not homeless, Clarke somehow manages to raise a family of two kids and a wife on a budget that verges on poverty. Prior to 1986, Clarke’s biggest investment was a vehicle — a 1980 Lada.

Clarke doesn’t like the word Marxist and instead prefers to call himself a socialist. Personally, I think the title of bellicose advocate for the poor is probably more appropriate– it’s certainly been his raison d’être.

And at the end of the day, even if you disagree with Clarke or his methods, you have to admire the man’s tenacity and willingness to stand up for justice. If the world only had more men like that in it, we’d all be leading much better lives.

Happy birthday, John.

Well, you’d be right to think that, but what our illustrious mayor is gunning for now is conservation of the beloved strip malls of his beloved Etobicoke; maybe even elsewhere.

To quote:

You can’t be tearing down this stuff, this is not downtown. This is Etobicoke … Personally speaking, I don’t support changing anything.

Ah yes, only Toronto is for tearing down. It’s not for such vast, beautiful, sweeping vistas as the Humbertown Shopping Centre.

No wonder Robbie doesn’t want such a marvel to be tossed aside like so much outsourced garbage:

But obviously, nothing is going to fly. So, if they want to propose something, an alternative, I’ll support the community. I support the taxpayers. What the taxpayers want, I’ll support.

Interestingly, the same meeting that Rob ran out of in order to put magnets on cars was the same one at which he made these statements.

David Price, Ford’s former high school football coach and his recently named director of operations and logistics, stood between Rob and reporters after the mayor said he would take no more questions, chuckling at the thought of Ford attending the taxpayers’ meeting:

Of course, there is the Toronto Sun, which was never as good a newspaper as it could have been, but which was always a fun place to work, with good people who seemed to be forever being replaced by other good people.

The Sun was always pretty tolerant of me and, I must say, I was pretty tolerant of it from time to time. We both served each other’s purpose.

Not great, high turnover, and a necessary evil — or am I reading that wrong?

Worthington died from staph complications today, and although I’d probably have nothing polite to say to him (despite him occasionally being right on the money), you gotta give it to the man — he gnarled on that conservative bone until there was nothing left.

Under Miller

• Toronto is Canada’s largest city and sixth largest government, and home to a diverse population of about 2.6 million people. It is the economic engine of Canada and one of the greenest and most creative cities in North America. Toronto has won numerous awards for quality, innovation and efficiency in delivering public services. Toronto’s government is dedicated to prosperity, opportunity and liveability for all its residents. For information about non-emergency City services and programs, Toronto residents, businesses and visitors can dial 311, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

On the bright side, Rob called yesterday’s TTC transit debate defeat (or almost) “one of the greatest days in Toronto history”. A city stuck in gridlock, a fool for a mayor, and no way to fund transit — that’s a grand day indeed!

Now, my Double Date guests are a couple I met on FaceBook! Michael is a trusted friend for quite some time and he arrived in Toronto to visit me with his GORGEOUS wife Luana, a brazillian beauty!

Because I tell him all of the time how much I love this small place down the street called SABAI SABAI & drinks, he FINALLY  came to town! What a friend!

Patrick wondered about this strange dude that his girl talks to all the time! Always the bodyguard, Patrick and I  approached the table cautiously with me smiling like a fool! Seeing my friend Michel in person rocked my world and meeting his superstar wife was brilliant.

After introductions, we ordered. We decided on getting several tapas style sharable dishes to begin with. One Masaman curry with perfectly prepared shrimp delicious gravy, and some red peppers – $7; some sticky rice - $3.  Now, this curry dish is too spicy or my palate, however Luana practically devoured it! Michael then ordered our FAVOURITE  dish  Kal Soi with egg noodles and super tender chunks of beef, curry, veg, and for presentation sake some FLASHED FRIED noodles which gave the dish height, drama, and excitement! 8-11$ :D

To test his heat tolerance, I ordered what is usually the hottest dish on the menu, their Green Mango salad. With Thai Bird chilies and Habanero ones too secretly mixed in to the mélange, Michael claimed that it was not spicy whatsoever… We knew the truth though!

Dessert changes regularly but ranges between $5-7 and have some Thai flavor too, lemongrass frequently takes a staring roll.

In the end, we ordered half the menu many alcoholic drinks at 5-6$ each the total was still under $120  including tax and tip!

Split between 4 people we say, it is THE spot you should check the next time you are trying to make reservations.

Tip from me to you: call ahead because it gets busy! Order as much as you can! ;-)

XOXO

~ SDot.

And, truth be told, we are actually pretty snobby about food. Now that I’m thinking about it, we’re fairly uptight about our drink too.

And for good reason, I figure — now matter where you go, you’re paying for what you get, so why not get the best deal for your money?

When it comes to food, cheapest is hardly the best, but neither is the most expensive. It’s those in-between gems that manage to put together a tasty, filling meal at a great price that we focus on — sensible satiety.

Every once in a while we manage to get a few words in with the owner, or the head chef, or whoever has just delivered a meal worth writing about. Most of the time, though, we sit back unmolested and are thus able to bring you genuine reviews.

Hence the new link at the top of the site ↑↑↑

Just not all the time, cuz that gets expensive.

Maybe on a base of that special ruddy blush of our country’s French province, Quebec. Oh, they’re probably not implicated, but whoever it is thought it was clever to use the name Pierre Poutine. And Quebec doesn’t much care for Conservatives.

Nevertheless, it’s a pretty massive breach of electoral rules, and it basically makes the Harper government illegitimate. Little wonder they’re in no hurry to get to the bottom of things.

Oh, they’ll go after Joe Everydude before you can bat an eyelash, but then they turn around and “misplace” $3 billion dollars, and it’s basically just “oops!”

Harper had this to say:

The auditor general himself said today this has nothing to do with improper use of government money . . . There is some lack of clarity. The auditor general has made some suggestions on how we can be more clear in our tracking in the future.

So, basically, nothing’s wrong here, we just need to tweak a few (billion) things.

The audit people were in lock-step with the Prime Minister:

… audit officials chalk up the discrepancy to lax bookkeeping. The audit suggests several scenarios for what may have happened: the funding may have lapsed and never been spent; or it may have been spent on anti-terror efforts but reported as other program spending; or it may have been spent on program unrelated to security.

Basically, the money could have gone anywhere and been spent on literally anything.

The (Harper-appointed) auditor concluded:

We didn’t find anything that gave us cause for concern that the money was used in any way that it should not have been,

Nothing to see here!

That massive pile of cash that could’ve helped to pay for things like Toronto transit … better that that money just disappear and no, you aren’t allowed to ask any questions. Heil Harper!

Download the whole pack here (caution, it’s 122 MB): http://www.torontocitylife.com/downloads/Toronto_Historic_Maps_HD.zip

Well, you’ll be pleased to know that the Toronto Star has put out a handy-dandy guide to the best spots to kick off in such a manner. And wouldn’t you know it, the place to be is in my old neighbourhood; what what!!

“She’s making it sound like everyone in Toronto loves streetcars. That’s how she’s making it sound, that everyone is Gung ho and it is the total opposite. The mayor won with a clear mandate from the people of Toronto to build subways and she’s gone, in my opinion, and sold a bill of goods that is inaccurate in my opinion.”

Of course, Dougie is fully entitled to his opinion, but based on the abject failures that comprise his own brother’s travels  (still waiting on all those Chicago jobs!), you’d think he might temper his criticism a bit.

But then again, these are the Fords we’re talking about and they aren’t really about “subways, subways, subways!”, or “casino, casino, casino!”, they’re about getting and retaining flunkies who will toe their line on any old issue they pull out of their ass. And, being the Fords, the naturally believe that women make the most natural and passive of subservient flunkies.

That’s not just the vitriol they hurl at Karen Stintz that tells me that; Lauren Strapagiel of Canada.com recently took up Robbie’s offer to teach her (and all women), about politics, as did Lisa Kirbie who not only received a response, but was kind enough to record it for posterity.

The über-brief, late-evening, and mostly one-sided conversation comprised of Ford advising Kirbie to get her name on the ballot, and at that time he’d give her more advice. In other words, make sure you’re running against Ford – become his opponent — and he will advise you on how best to defeat him.

Maybe I’m reading a bit between the lines here, but I’m getting the nagging feeling that the Ford brothers think that we’re all complete idiots (and extra on you ladies!)

I’m not going to go into what I think of immunizations themselves, just the argument behind legally requiring everyone to get them (which is not actually true, but why bother with facts or ask any questions?)

The best argument supporting immunization is: look at how far we’ve come and how many diseases we’ve virtually eradicated … introducing an unvaccinated child into a school potentially reverses all of that progress and puts everyone at risk!

Right…

So if we bring a kid with, say, polio into a school where all the other kids have been vaccinated, they’re all at risk of catching polio? In other words, the vaccine is so ineffective that the moment you sneak the bug back into the general population, it’s game over. So get your shots so that everyone’s protected!

I suppose one could make the argument that if you choose not to be vaccinated and subsequently contract the illness, you should have to pay for your own treatments. Harsh, and not something I would support (my tax money supports lots of chronically ill people and I think that’s just fine), but at least there’s a cold, logical connection there.

But to claim that the vaccinated population is at risk of contracting the very disease that they’ve been “protected” against by being exposed to said disease, however that happens,  is such an idiotic, nonsensical, and backwards argument that it’s hard to believe that anyone could repeat it without bursting into laughter.

The other argument I often hear is that if we allow people to make choices for themselves, they will choose to abstain from vaccinations and we’re going to end up with a pandemic, essentially destroying our healthcare system, etc. Basically, it’s about money, and isn’t it ridiculous of us to expect to be taken care of by the government that takes so much of our money under the auspices of using it to take care of us? If it’s good for us, we should be forced into it, so it’s vaccinations, cigarettes, booze, and a dizzying array of “safe” pharmaceuticals and continued government vigilance for everyone!

If you believe that vaccinations are ultimately useful, I’m happy to support your right to that opinion, and I’m even willing to have a part of my tax money to provide you with vaccinations (in fact, this is happening without my consent anyways), should you choose to get them. Choice is the operative word here.

In the meantime, let’s not throw around these infantile arguments that do nothing but imply that we’re all complete idiots while we’re forced to succumb to them whether we like it or not. It adds insult to injury.

US Center for Disease Control Statistics (2006)

Deaths and serious problems from vaccines: 772
Deaths and serious problems from “vaccine-preventable” diseases: 772
Deaths from cigarette smoking (2004): 443,000

But that’s not my point in writing this anyway.

I want to expose the hypocrisy, arbitrariness, and two-facedness of our government in designating enemies and terrorists, especially now that they’ve pushed the “anti-terrorist” Bill S-7 down the throats of Canadians (the latest in a long line of tyrannical, totalitarian, deadly measures that have only one, logical conclusion).

The Tamil Tigers consider themselves freedom fighters, fighting an evil and corrupt strong-man government (openly and proudly installed and maintaned by the Harper government). Sure, many people wouldn’t agree with that definition of the Tigers, but that’s beside the point — Harper loves him his Sri Lankan “authorities” and has made sure Canada’s been helping out since 2006 while simultaneously ensuring dissent is fully destroyed:

Canadian interest in Sri Lanka is also driven by a foreign policy commitment to the principles of freedom of expression, democracy, human rights, and the rule of law.

In April 2006, Canada listed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam as a terrorist organization under the Canadian Criminal Code, and in June 2008, the World Tamil Movement was also added to the list.

Now, John Baird, the guy currently running this part of Harper’s shit show, has this to say about the same government that they’ve been brown-nosing and loving up over the past 7 years:

“We’re appalled that Sri Lanka seems poised to host CHOGM and to be chair-in-residence of the Commonwealth for two years,” he told the Guardian.

“Canada didn’t get involved in the Commonwealth to accommodate evil; we came to combat it. We are deeply disappointed that Sri Lanka appears poised to take on this leadership role.”

This in-your-face hypocrisy is troubling on many levels, but there are two that stand out above others.

1. It’s excruciatingly obvious that this has nothing to do with “terrorism”, supporting human rights, ensuring equality, etc.; it’s all about arbitrarily (at least, on the surface), vilifying one group or another for reasons of conquest, division, strife, and control.  And while simultaneously decrying our new enemies abroad (but not actually doing anything to back up the vociferous fist-pounding), the government is passing measures designed to go after its own people in the most draconian manner and with complete impunity at home (again, see S-7 for just a smattering).
2. This “these are friends, no, they’re hated enemies” narrative, state of constant and unending war, fear, and domestic subjugation have been spelled out almost exactly in works that were once considered mere horrific works of fiction:
   

This dark and unsettling road that we’re on is nonetheless clearly marked, and has an even more clear destination. It’s not as if history hasn’t shown us example after example of where all of this leads (if we let it), and those who choose to remain ignorant, or worse, supportive of it, also have plenty of first-hand experience to draw on:

“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.”

“And how we burned in the camps later, thinking: What would things have been like if every Security operative, when he went out at night to make an arrest, had been uncertain whether he would return alive and had to say good-bye to his family? Or if, during periods of mass arrests, as for example in Leningrad, when they arrested a quarter of the entire city, people had not simply sat there in their lairs, paling with terror at every bang of the downstairs door and at every step on the staircase, but had understood they had nothing left to lose and had boldly set up in the downstairs hall an ambush of half a dozen people with axes, hammers, pokers, or whatever else was at hand?… The Organs would very quickly have suffered a shortage of officers and transport and, notwithstanding all of Stalin’s thirst, the cursed machine would have ground to a halt!

If…if…

We didn’t love freedom enough. And even more – we had no awareness of the real situation…. We purely and simply deserved everything that happened afterward.”

“There is no lack of leadership from the Mayor.”

Not what Stintz said, but given the collective capacity for comprehension behind Ford Nation, let’s just say close enough.

Except that Ford did’t write or send the response, he got one of his lackeys (George Christopoulos), to do it. In fact, there’s no indication that Rob Ford was involved in anything to do with the situation.

To be fair, he was probably busy clearing his schedule in order to personally respond to each constituent’s phone call (as every mayor of every large metropolitan area should) — a conservative estimate of 300,000 calls a year, or 820 calls per day — and delegated this lowly task to Christopoulos. Or maybe he was coaching football. Whatever. Clearly Ford showed leadership and world-class initiative, and got right out in front of the issue.

The options, put forward by Metrolinx, include:

• Parking fees levy: An extra $1 a day, for a total of $1.4 billion a year.
• Sales tax: An extra 1 per cent added to the HST, for an estimated income of $1.4 billion a year.
• Fuel tax: An extra five cents per liter of gas, estimated to bring in $330 million a year.
• Payroll tax: With a hike of 0.5 per cent, this would be expected to generate $700 million a year.
• Property tax: Estimated to bring in an additional $670 million a year.
• Vehicle travel fee: Drivers would be charged 3 cents per kilometer traveled. Expected to raise $1.6 billion per year, but the setup and administrative costs would probably be massive (if this was even doable).
• Highway tolls: Same as above, but only on highways and at 10 cents a kilometre. Expected to pull in $1.4 billion a year.
• Development charges: Developers would be dinged with a 15 per cent increase, amounting to about $100 million a year.
• Transit fare increases: Guaranteed increases each and every year (in place now — thanks, Rob!), are apparently not nearly enough. An additional 15 cent per ride is expected to generate $50 million a year.
• Land value capture: This weird one has private land owners forking over cash to the government when their property values increase as a result of adjacent government projects (they build a park next door, claim that it makes your property more expensive, and skim the difference). No figures provided.

I’m not going to sit here and claim that any of these are giving me a boner, but with these few, short paragraphs, I’ve managed to do infinitely more research into the topic than Ford.

Maybe none of these ideas have any merit at all. Maybe some of them are quietly and not obviously brilliant. Rob Ford will never know as his only response is to obstinately stick his fingers in his ears, scream “I can’t hear you!”, and blame everyone and their dog for lack of planning, poor leadership, and a lack of momentum.

In the meantime, you can actually hear the paint dry as Robbie mulls over his own, intricate and vast transit plans, which comprise of:

• Casino: expected by Ford to pull in hundreds of millions, along with pixie dust and unicorns, and by those with any actual influence over it about $50 million.
• Casino: At woodbine!
• Casino: Downtown!
• Casino: At Cherry Beach!
• Casino: At the CNE!

I have no doubt (see below), that the vast majority of Harper’s hand-picked cabinet would gleefully engage in exactly the same things as she did:

Chotalia treated staff and appointed members disgracefully: harassing, screaming, spying on staff; speaking to them and about them in derogatory terms; impugning their credibility in front of colleagues; and contaminating the workplace by sowing misinformation about them. She belittled and humiliated, frequently reducing employees to tears.

“The result was a poisoned atmosphere at the tribunal, a place that, ironically, is supposed to place respect of individuals at the very highest level,” Dion told reporters.

But it went even beyond that, to outright lunacy, the madness of entitlement.

On the day of her swearing-in-ceremony — which also happened to be the day that a magnitude-five earthquake struck Ottawa — Chotalia would not allow staff to leave their 11th-floor office, compelling everyone to stay where they were so that the ceremony could proceed as scheduled.

She ordered one employee to carry a set of keys to the office around her neck — like a latchkey — “despite the fact that this person complained that this caused discomfort and pain,” the report discloses. She indulged in petty retaliation. She ordered staff to spy on an employee while at work and to report that person’s movements and actions to her.

She repeatedly attempted to terminate a staff without justifiable cause and tried to pursue disciplinary action against another even after they left the CHRT.

She maintained a secret file on an employee, entitled “Insubordination,” even though that individual had never been advised of any problems. She demanded that staff be available around the clock, to corral her non-essential BlackBerry communications.

She accused staff of stealing items from her when unable to locate them, many witnesses stating Chotalia regularly lost these items.

She ordered staff not to cancel a trip to Vancouver for a mediation session, even though the parties involved had come to an agreement. She flew to the West Coast and then transferred to a San Diego-bound flight for a previously planned personal trip.

The list of insupportable conduct goes on and on.

When Ford was ousted for breaching the law for the umpteenth time in his Conflict of Interest trial, he responded with:

I was elected two years ago by the people of Toronto to do a job … This comes down to left-wing politics. The left wing wants me out of here, and they’ll do anything in their power to (do that).

In the fucked up world of the Harper conservative, it should be noted, unions are the same thing as the “lefties”, and that goes for anyone not supporting the tyrannical government or their agenda to sell out Canada and separate Canadians from not only their basic rights but from the very necessities of life.

But, of course, Harper can speak for himself:

Prime Minister Stephen Harper says unions are behind a misinformation campaign about changes to the employment insurance program.

His comments came as Human Resources Minister Diane Finley admitted Thursday that the government hadn’t conducted studies on the potential impact of the reforms.

As protesters were kept away from the Premier Tech plant where Harper was announcing a $9.2 million loan, the prime minister pointed a finger at unions for creating some of the turmoil around changes to the program.

“I read that some unions were saying we’re cutting seasonal workers. That is completely false.”

And just so you know how Harper justifies his crackdowns:

… Harper said the [anti-terrorism] measures are supported by “law enforcement people” across the country, and the Tories have been promising the changes for a long time.

“We were elected specifically to move forward on them, and that’s what we’re going to do.”

There are also brown-nose trolls like Harper’s Goebbels-in-waiting, Vic Toews:

Toews’s department [while Minister of Labour], proposed the privatization of home-care delivery services in 1996, drawing opposition from many in the field and triggering an extended strike. He was also forced to deal with strikes at Boeing, Inco, and the Manitoba Lotteries Corporation, leading one journalist to describe 1996 as “the busiest year for picketing since the 1919 Winnipeg General Strike”. Toews blamed unions for provoking the strikes, saying they were conducted “for political, not economic, reasons.”

In explaining why Toews is vigorously backing the creation of a horrific police/Gulag state in Canada:

“We were elected to bring change.”

Seeing a running theme there? Same shit, same mentality, same results. It’s not in any way a stretch to think that Harper, Toews, Ford, or any other Conservative wraith aren’t treating their staff in exactly the same way, using the same excuses, refusing to find anything wrong with any of it, etc.

And just like all good corrupt Harperites, Chotslis was rewarded for her exemplary service to the government with a cushy new position in the private sector and a commitment by her Conservative buddies to refuse to discuss the matter or do anything about it.

Apparently, the fact that Canadians are to be subjected to the following measures doesn’t warrant so much as a passing comment from most in the news industry (though you can find an occasional aside):

• People may be put under “preventive arrest” for up to three days.
• The “preventive arrest” may be due to an alleged association with a “terrorist” (which may include everything from environmentalists to anyone critical of the government), alleged knowledge of a “terrorist” or their dealings, or — my favourite — being suspected of future involvement with terrorists.
• As with all good Kafkaesque schemes, those arrested are not allowed to know the details of their arrest or know any of the evidence against them.
• Those arrested must stand before an “investigative hearing”.
• A judge can jail those arrested for up to year if they don’t enter into recognizance, which is a fancy term for a conditional release — you have to appear regularly before a court, may have to wear a tracking device, etc.
• Such arrests can occur without any charges being laid. In other words, they don’t really even need a good reason, just that something didn’t seem right about the person.
• Any evidence that is used against the arrested person (which, of course, they are not allowed to know anything about), can be obtained from foreign sources or through torture.
• These changes would become part of the Criminal Code of Canada — everyone would be subject to them.

Instead of fully laying out all of these incredibly corrupting and corruptible powers for all Canadians to judge, we have moist bags of flesh like CP24′s former cop-turned-TV-schill Cam Wooley and other “specialists” (most of whom were weather or traffic “specialists” this time last year), leaving out crucial information and instead saying simply that S-7 provides needed new police powers and creates …

“… new offenses for Canadians who become radicalized … with the permission of the Attorney General, [police] can bring a person before a judge and have hearings. They’ll be able to have a lawyer, that sort of thing, but a judge can compel someone to give information on terrorism. Police can, apparently through a well safeguarded process book recognizance and conditions through the courts on someone to prevent terrorism.”

And in 30 seconds, the piddling report is over, followed shortly afterwards by an in-depth, five-minute-long interview with “cultural icon” Kat Con D about her new book. The same reporter who found S-7 “fascinating” now gushingly describes the book as a veritable “work of art”; clearly, this is what really matters!

Yes, the man who repeatedly admitted he doesn’t know how to do his job is going to tell you all about how to do his job.

Don’t worry, those allegations of him beating his wife a few years back were never proven, I’m pretty sure he’s over grabbing women’s asses by now, and the fact that women are leaving his own hand-picked executive committee left right and centre shouldn’t be read into too deeply.

Just imagine the kind of intellectual treasure trove you’ll be able to tap into!

Yeah, the same “respect for taxpayers” that has Rob Ford continuously covering up his budgets, his meetings, his schedule, and basically anything else having to do with his job. Well, you gotta give it to the man, he’s consistent in his bullshit.

Take yesterday, for example, in a photo op with Pan Am Games organizers. That event was marked by an abject refusal of the Pan Am people to say how much they’re going to spend on a mascot; one of those shining examples of potentially massive waste and secrecy that Ford vowed to fight tirelessly against.

So how is Rob Ford fighting this “gravy”? He shook hands with the organizers for the cameras and walked away without uttering a word or showing a shred of concern.

Let’s be fair here: maybe Rob’s control over the situation is very limited. Maybe the Pan Am Games group is separate from City Hall administration and mostly out of Ford’s hands. That would certainly help to explain Rob’s impotence, but it proves directly how two-faced the mayor is about his outrage for  secret deals and unaccountable government. The guy couldn’t even be bothered to raise an eyebrow.

I’m thinking that a book of such events would now have enough material to fill more than a few pages; something with a title along the lines of, “Heritage of Hypocrisy and Lies: The Ford Years”

There was the traditional tasting of some of CC’s star products, straight up…

…and mixed…

I find the CC version of a 12-year-old to be less smooth than a comparable Macallan, but comparing pricey Scotch and North American whisky probably isn’t fair.

Not that it really matters much; I wouldn’t classify myself as a CC drinker (or whisky, for that matter), but I could definitely see myself ordering a few of the tasty drinks we sampled. The food, consisting of nibbles supplied by Tundra, was also great.

But probably the best part of the event was the fact that the Canadian Club Chairman was walking around, mingling, and generally making himself available to the guests.

If you don’t recognize him, maybe this will help:

He’s not shy to rub shoulders with the hoi polloi…

…or to bring his son to events…

Sarah and I caught up in person with Toronto’s social media scenesters, drank till we were glowing, and made friends with the caterers (you never know!)

We were also pleased to see a number local businesses being supported as part of Canadian Club’s campaign. Both inside and outside the great hall, these locals rounded off the manly inspiration behind the CC campaign with things like men’s cuts, personal grooming products, and suits.

Many thanks to Canadian Club and Praxis PR for having us and for the generous swag bags we lugged home.

Cheers!

…the federal government has recommended the HPV vaccination for girls and boys as young as 11. But it has caused thousands of adverse reactions, including seizures, paralysis, blindness, pancreatitis, speech problems, short-term memory loss, Guillain-Barré syndrome and even death.

“At present there are no significant data showing that either Gardasil or Cervarix (GlaxoSmithKline) can prevent any type of cervical cancer since the testing period employed was too short to evaluate long-term benefits of HPV vaccination,” according to the Annals of Medicine.

Referring to the information on the damage claims, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said, “This new information from the government shows that the serious safety concerns about the use of Gardasil have been well-founded.”

He added, “Public health officials should stop pushing Gardasil on children.”

When it was first suggested to Ford that this is exactly what he was doing, he replied with, “The car that I paid for, right? Do your homework. I paid for it last year.”

Sure you did, Robbie — that’s why you paid for it again this year, right? Does your idiot Ford Nation also willingly pay twice for stuff that they claimed they didn’t have to pay for at all? Any more intelligence or “honesty” you want to share with us?

In that piece, I outlined the various forms of transit used during the icy, wintry months in the city, many of which are still in use today. Nota bene: bicycles were not included.

That makes sense, doesn’t it? Of all the types of conveyances that one could conjure up that are also well-suited to winter, bicycles wouldn’t really be high on that list. And once you’ve experienced a Toronto winter, it’s blindingly obvious.

That’s not to detract from those hardcode cyclists who put spikes on their wheels, layers on their bodies, and bike around the city all winter long. Good for them for being totally extreme, I guess.

Not me though, I think that’s nuts.

And I’d like to suggest that most people would agree with me; biking in the nice weather, great! Winter, fuck it!

So based on this assumption, I think it’s safe to say that any business based on cycling has to be prepared to weather the winter weather, so to speak.

Therefore, the fact that rent-a-bike outfit BIXI is currently experiencing financial troubles should be making us as nervous as the inevitable first lawsuit against the company for not providing helmets. (The law currently makes them optional for adults, but BIXI might have additional obligations on account of them being a business.)

It’s not the first time they’ve been in this situation with their hometown of Montreal having to bail them out not too long ago. Now they’re crying poor on the doorsteps of Toronto with whom they have a 10-year loan.

The loan is to the tune of $4.8 million, better than Montreal’s $108 million, but still.

BIXI says that they don’t have the number of bikes on the road that they need to turn a profit. Not sure if that’s a dollars issue or a City Hall one,  but that still seems like something that could’ve been predicted. This ain’t BIXI’s first time at the dance, ya know.

Lenczer’s ongoing defense of Ford is so expected that I wouldn’t even have mentioned it, except for the fact that the lawyer decided to put forth his reasoning for not holding public officials to account:

On the issue of national importance [required for the case to be heard by the Supreme Court], Lenczner said it was “incomprehensible” that Ford’s lawsuit be lumped in with cases like that of contractor “Monsieur Troittoir” in Montreal, or to members of the Senate in Canada.

“The allegations in Montreal are of conspiracy, bribery and corruption. The allegations against certain members of the Senate are of claiming reimbursement for improper expenses. In this case… (Justice Charles Hackland found) ‘there was absolutely no corruption or pecuniary gain on the respondent’s part.’”

While you could be forgiven for thinking that this is due to laziness or just plain old lack of motivation, I want to assure you that nothing could be farther from the truth.

Aside from blogging, living, my hobbies, the challenges of Sarah’s MS, and that thing called “earning a living”, I like to think I keep busier than most. Case in point:

This happy fellow is FloorPig, and he’s the star of a game by the same name. And you take him for a whirl on your Android phone here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.olliebit.FloorPig

The game is a simple (at least initially), puzzle game. The point is simply to guide FloorPig from the green tile to the red tile while removing every tile in between. If you’re having trouble picturing that, I recommend you try the game. Did I mention it’s free?

And if you don’t have an Android phone, a desktop, web, iOS, and probably Blackberry version should be coming very shortly.

Sarah and I are now working on the next game (tentatively called “Radius”), and we’re also working on expanding FloorPig’s challenging but still somewhat limited nine levels.

It’d be wonderful if you could try our game and send us some feedback, even if it’s negative; I’ve done this for many years so I have a pretty thick skin by now.

So if Toronto City Life isn’t being updated as regularly as you’d like, please accept our apologies. Maybe playing a game or two while you wait would help to pass the time?

Ford immediately went into finger-pointing mode, exclaiming:

Ah fuck man. Holy Christ! Holy. Guys have some respect, you just hit me in the face with a camera.

By this we can only extrapolate that “respect”, to Ford, would mean no media at any time. No surprise there. Except, of course, that little thing called reality would respectfully disagree with what actually happened:

… the biggest mistake we ever did was put her in the TTC.

We? You mean the royal ”we”, as in “we, the Most Gracious and Fecund Robert Bruce Ford, do thus proclaim!”? Maybe “we” as in Rob Ford ain’t runnin’ shit?

I don’t like the sound of either.

Option one, that’s just a living nightmare. Perish the thought.

Option two, that’s a hand up the ass, meaning there’s a not-so-secret shadow government trying to run things. The man with the brownest hand, at least to the public, is Rob’s own brother. Gross.

… 33,000 companies and agencies who have applied to the federal temporary foreign worker program in Canada stretch to almost every corner of the economy, ranging from the biggest players in the finance and resource sectors to airlines, hotels, government agencies, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail.

The lengthy list of companies and groups, obtained through federal Access to Information laws, spans 475 pages and demonstrates how widely used the federal program has become since it was expanded in 2006 to help Canadian employers deal with shortages of specialized skills in Canada.

Yeah, sure, 1 out of 20 Canadians is out of work (if it’s measured the same way as it is in the US, that only means people actively seeking work and reporting to the government). Clearly we have no labour shortage. Clearly the Harper government continues to tell the truth about everything. Clearly nothing is wrong; now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

An Open Letter to Canadians

RBC has been in the news this week in a way no company ever wants to be.

The recent debate about an outsourcing arrangement for some technology services has raised important questions.

While we are compliant with the regulations, the debate has been about something else. The question for many people is not about doing only what the rules require – it’s about doing what employees, clients, shareholders and Canadians expect of RBC. And that’s something we take very much to heart.

Despite our best efforts, we don’t always meet everyone’s expectations, and when we get it wrong you are quick to tell us. You have my assurance that I’m listening and we are making the following commitments.

First, I want to apologize to the employees affected by this outsourcing arrangement as we should have been more sensitive and helpful to them. All will be offered comparable job opportunities within the bank.

Second, we are reviewing our supplier arrangements and policies with a continued focus on Canadian jobs and prosperity, balancing our desire to be both a successful business and a leading corporate citizen.

Third, our Canadian client call centres are located in Canada and support our domestic and our U.S. business, and they will remain in Canada.

Fourth, we are preparing a new initiative aimed at helping young people gain an important first work experience in our company, which we will announce in the weeks ahead.

RBC proudly employs over 57,000 people in Canada. Over the last four years, despite a challenging global economy, we added almost 3,000 full-time jobs in Canada. We also hire over 2,000 youth in Canada each year and we support thousands more jobs through the purchases we make from Canadian suppliers. As we continue to grow, so will the number of jobs for Canadians.

RBC opened for business in 1864 and we have worked hard since then to earn the confidence and support of the community. Today, we remain every bit as committed to earning the right to be our clients’ first choice, providing rewarding careers for our employees, delivering returns to shareholders who invest with us, and supporting the communities in which we are privileged to operate.

I’d like to close by thanking our employees, clients, shareholders and community partners for your input and continued support.

Sincerely,

Gord Nixon
President and Chief Executive Officer,
Royal Bank of Canada

http://www.rbc.com/newsroom/2013/0411-rbc-statement.html

In the first part I did some basic math to show that the new EI measures implemented by the Harper government are designed to eventually impoverish anyone who uses the system to supplement slow times in their industry (seasonal workers, construction workers, etc.)

Now it’s been revealed that on top of this measure, the appeals process has been taken in-house so that if you have a problem, who do you complain to? The people who caused it.

The government policing itself? Well that doesn’t sound like it could possibly  have any issues. In fact, it should be so easy that they shouldn’t even need so many people to make it happen.

Okay, so now that we got that clarified, I hope it doesn’t come as a shock that Fordo vowed to kill a motion before City Hall to remove some (unused) parking spaces below City Hall and replace them with a locker to hold around 300-ish bikes.

To Rob, this just doesn’t make sense — spend $1.2 million to make an estimated $70,000 in locker fees? In a classic Fordian non sequitur, Ford blurted out, “I’m going to try to kill it at council, but that’s a complete waste of taxpayers’ money.”

Sure there’s waste at City Hall — there are two seats reserved with the name “Ford” that are complete wastes of space, for example — but the bike locker isn’t one of them.

For starters, the current parking spots to be occupied are mostly sitting idle. Of course, that doesn’t mean an additional cost, but it also doesn’t mean additional revenue. For the 12 phantom cars that are to be displaced, that would be about $3,600 per year (assuming $300 per vehicle). Even if those spots were paved over with gold and diamonds and rented out at $1,000 a pop, and the number of cars were doubled, that would still only amount to $24,000 a year.

But for the city to get that money, those spots would actually have to be reserved, so to call it lost revenue is just not correct.

To be sure, $1.2 million is an up-front cost that can’t just be ignored. If the $70K revenue stream is accurate, it’ll take just over 17 years to pay off. So in the short term, it definitely would not make economic sense.

However, this re-fit is part of the plan to re-do Nathan Phillips Square and has been for many years, so Fordo kinda missed the boat on that one (he’s been on City Council for a decade, conservatively*).

But, okay, that’s Ford right? He did, after all, come out and declare that he’s not exactly skilled at doing the whole “mayor” thing, so this shouldn’t come as a shocker to anyone.

But Ford’s numbers (still trusting him on that dubious $70K), do make sense if you require immediate payback on projects. Municipal government doesn’t always have to require that, and especially not on a relatively small $1.2 million. Even at two and a half times, as one must expect from government projects, that’s still a less-than-astronomical $3 million.

I’m willing to bet that that new stage being put up top side at the Square, not to mention all the extra stuff behind it, is worth at least a cool three mill, and what purpose do they serve?

Presumably to attract tourists and locals who might spend money. Those same tourists and locals that may arrive on bicycles (I’ve seen ‘em, even on those rented numbers!)

Seems like it’s not an economic issue that Rob Ford has, nor is it a political problem; for him, it’s ideological. He doesn’t like bikes, thinks cyclists are a pain in the ass, and still thinks that it’s possible to cram more cars onto the streets of Toronto as a solution to congestion.

I can see why he’d think that; he has the right of way on all streets (presumably because he’s mayor), and doesn’t really have to obey all of those lesser-known (and unenforceable!) laws — that’s for everyone else to do.

* I feel it’s fair to chip off a couple of years for vacancies, mental and otherwise.

…[a]…citizen’s actions to help a foreign governmentoverthrow, make waragainst, or seriously injure the [parent nation].

Under Canada’s definition, this only extends to helping out a country with which Canada is at war with … like Afghanistan (a recent example demonstrates that this does not have to be the case) . That alone is enough to prove that Stephen Harper is a traitor to Canada and must be arrested for treason immediately.

If that definition isn’t enough for you, though, how about selling out Canada to foreign ownership, completely disregarding every Canadian safeguard against doing business with oppressive foreign regimes? (All clearly documented in case you had a doubt)

Maybe the fact that Harper is doing double duty and actively destroying the Canadian economy and pushing skilled workers in every industry into poverty and out onto the streets, while handing over our country to foreign interests, is enough to convince you?

Maybe it bothers you that the illegitimate Harper government constantly and openly lies about what’s happening and covers up,  muzzles, and would gleefully have arrested  anyone and anything that questions him or his corporate owners (clearly predominantly foreign)?

How about the fact that, while simultaneously opening the doors to offensive governments that shit all over human rights, Harper is doing his hardest to strip away any social programs and assistance that Canadians have to ensure that we are beholden to our foreign new masters?

The whole kit and kaboodle is called insourcing, and all the cool kids are doing it these days.

And if it sounds like a form of foreign economic invasion, well, if it croaks like a frog…

After almost a decade in power, all of the “but it’s for Canada!” lines are just so much open deception. Of course he isn’t doing it for Canada! Harper doesn’t give a shit about you, me, or this rotten country he wants to hand over to the highest bidder as soon as possible.

And under “austerity“, all of our money is handed over whether we agree with it or not.

If all of this – the working to directly destroy Canada and hand it over to other countries – isn’t treason, I don’t know what is.

Stephen Harper, and most of his treasonous cabinet, must be arrested and tried right now. His actions are anti-Canadian and transparent.

So what exactly qualifies Dave Price for the position? Go fuck yourself.

What does the position entail? Go fuck yourself.

How much will Mr. Price be making? Go fuck yourself.

How did Ford decide on Dave Price? “I don’t want to get into personnel matters”, Ford says.

In other words, I’m Rob Fucking Ford and I’m not accountable to anyone. Go fuck yourself.

Like yesterday’s vote, for example.

That Council item, made a top “priority” by Rob Ford, centered around the food concessions in the currently-under-renovation Nathan Phillips Square. Up until recently, those consisted of chips, chocolate, and fizzy drinks offered while the skating rink had blades on it. The rest of the time, the place was shuttered and the only place to grab a bite was at one of the food trucks parked on Queen Street.

But yesterday, led by Ford, Council flipped on a previous decision to not allow a local food chain to move in, and essentially greenlighted Hero Burgers for the location.

I need to point out that I have nothing against Hero Burgers. After Big Smoke and Gourmet, Hero is easily my third choice for tasty burgers (within walking distance). So I don’t have any issues with another Hero location opening up in front of City Hall. But it is interesting to point out the context…

Rob Ford made fatty fast food a top priority and managed to shove it down the City’s throat in record time. His push for subways was, and continues to be, a dismal failure. His repeated “guarantees” to remove or reduce the Land Transfer Tax are a lesson in how not to get things done. His constant threats to sic “Ford Nation” on various politicians is more or less a joke. And so on.

But let’s give credit where it’s due: when it comes to accessibility to greasy foods, you can expect Rob’s full support, undivided attention, and unrelenting determination. Rob also works tirelessly in other areas, like helping homeless Torontonians with a few temporary beds – and by that I mean being the sole dissenting vote against the simple, humanitarian measure.

Although he reserved his harshest, most thoughtful criticism for the proposals that Metrolinx recently put out in order to fund transit in Toronto, he nonetheless believes that he was wronged in being forced to pay his own way after “winning” the appeals to the case — one out of four appeals, or 25% of the total to be exact (after completely losing the original case).

But this is Rob Ford, after all, who believes that 25% qualifies as an overwhelming “win”, or that a 47% voting result is a “majority” during an election, etc.

Ford is probably also upset that those opposing him are working for free (assholes!), essentially leaving him the only one footing the bill for his own crimes, which the appeal judges once again reiterated were very real and very wrong, hence the loss of most of the appeals.

The funny thing is that this is exactly what Ford and his idiot supporters outright demand — it’s everyone for themselves, and cut and slash and privatize and fuck everyone in the process because money should be in the pockets of the rich, corrupt, and openly criminal. This is Ford’s raison d’etre incarnate; but, of course, because it’s being done to Rob and not by him, it’s completely wrong! That’s  the new neo-Con, money-trumps-everything, buried-in-hypocrisy-and-lies-and-corruption Canada.

Clayton Ruby offered an insightful and absolutely correct analysis of the situation: “Mayor Ford’s costs request was, once again, scuppered by Mayor Ford.” The term “karmic retribution” would also be very appropriate — now the universe just needs more  of it.

August 2007 – Toronto Hydro demands a 6.3% rate hike to deal with “aging infrastructure”.

March 2007 – Toronto Hydro seeks a rate hike of 6.3% to deal with losses incurred due to a loss in revenue because of a promotion to encourage customers to use less electricity (how inept are these people?!).

July 2008 – Toronto Hydro announces a rate drop because:

Hydro explains it managed to get the Ontario Energy Board to agree to some rate guarantees over a number of years, allowing the utility to ensure it will have enough money to refurbish its system and hire new employees to replace those who are retiring.

Hydro says it’s the first time the OEB has ever given them a multi-year approval. That agreement is part of what’s allowing them to plan for the future – and lower your costs in the present, at least for now.

August 2009 – Toronto Hydro applies for another rate hike to accommodate renewable energy and to deal with “aging infrastructure”.

April 2010 – Hydro plans another 15% rate hike to deal with “aging infrastructure”.

July 2010 – Hydro is successfully sued for illegally overcharging customers. Settlement says that if Hydro makes a mistake in repaying customers (wrong amount, wrong date, cheque never sent or received), they’re completely off the hook and the case is settled (i.e. the law says it’s okay for them to lie in order to weasel out of their obligations).

September 2010 – Hydro seeks rate increase of 4 to 5% to deal with “aging infrastructure”.

November 2010 – Hydro says prepare for rates to jump by almost 50% in order to deal with “aging infrastructure”.

March 2011 – Toronto Hydro posts record profits, directly as a result of rate increases.

November 2011 – Rate price increase after two years of increases amounting to 41% in order to deal with “aging infrastructure”.

January 2012 – Toronto Hydro demands yet another rate hike, threatening to fire all employees (except highly paid executives), and plunge the city into darkness in order to deal with “aging infrastructure”. The energy board rejects the plea, saying Hydro is essentially full of crap.

March 2013 – Toronto Hydro threatens more blackouts unless they’re allowed to gauge customers under the “aging infrastructure” excuse again.

April 2013 – Toronto Hydro raises rates again in order to deal with “aging infrastructure”. The Energy Board welcomes the January 2012 plan with open arms. Toronto now has the highest electricity rates in North America.

The fact that these numbers, and the excuses behind them, are so widely varied and apparently completely ineffectual  should be a direct indication of the open lies of Toronto Hydro. Their ongoing 5-year plan, a dismal failure since at least 2006 (if you believe them), to fix “aging infrastructure” seems to include only more and more rate increases, threats, and equipment failures / excuses.

Rates have risen by roughly 60% over the past 5 years, and Toronto Hydro is still running around fixing equipment failures that they continue to claim they can’t fix because they don’t have enough money. And because they’re a monopoly being propped up by political ignorance and corruption, your only choice is to refuse to pay this criminal tax.

Thank goodness Rob Ford is on the case!

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http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontocitylife/

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Yesterday it was revealed that Chris Fickel, a Ford office staffer, had sent out a solicitation email to Marshall McLuhan Catholic Secondary School (note how those rich, elite public schools are not part of Ford’s ongoing efforts). Fickel is a regular part of Ford’s program, regularly appearing in photos with the teams, driving a city hall car to practices and games, etc.

In Fickel’s defense (not that he needs one), the email was sent from a GMail account. While it was time-stamped 4:37 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon, the fact that Rob Ford is regularly and mostly absent from his duties indicates that this may not actually have been done “on city time” (which, according to Ford, is any time he says).

And who gives a rat’s ass anyways — Rob Ford says it’s okay so just shut the fuck up and accept it.

Well, the much-maligned Integrity Commissioner recently released her report on the incident and decided that there was nothing to follow up on. In other words, case closed.

Unsurprisingly, no one from the Ford camp is so much as mentioning the decision. I suppose it must be a foregone conclusion now that Rob Ford gets away with breaking every rule and law out there, why should this be any different? And, of course, further discussions about the balance in the office of the Integrity Commissioner are completely absent. In other words, if she’s questioning the mayor and doing her job, then of course she’s irrelevant, biased, and just the scum of the earth. If she’s siding with him, it can be ignored so that she can continue to be demonized.

But let’s put this to the side for moment and see what the report actually said. First, some history.

In February 2011, members of the City Hall press gallery put together a brief note stating what they expected of the mayor as a public servant:

The Gallery expects that all of its members will be treated equally and fairly. As such, all media releases, circulars, agendas, notice of scrums and other events, and other official communications from the City of Toronto, including the mayor’s office, must be communicated equally to all members of the Gallery, without favour or prejudice.

Ford ignored this and didn’t respond (surprise!)

In December of that year, a formal complaint was filed and, indeed, Rob Ford was once again found to have been doing exactly what he’d been accused of doing:

The complainant provided examples of bulk distribution of news releases and statements made by the Mayor to the media that were not given to journalists writing for the Toronto Star. The Mayor acknowledges that these were not delivered to writers for the Toronto Star. A search conducted of press releases from the Office of the Mayor during the relevant time period identified the recipients.

Additionally:

The former Press Secretary for the Mayor confirmed that after taking office the Mayor’s flatly stated position was, “I do not talk to the Star.”

Furthermore:

One journalist for the Toronto Star described the situation as an “underground economy” in information. Material was often provided on an “off the record” basis. Another journalist from the Toronto Star described the relationship-building with the Mayor’s Press Secretary as a “long hard slog” which improved over time.

And just to clarify:

The subject of the Mayor’s relationship to the media was discussed with many of those interviewed in this investigation. Staff members from the Toronto Star spoke about the difficulty of doing their work without up to date information about the Mayor and his activities. This complaint was not limited to the Toronto Star. Other journalists described the flow of information out of the Mayor’s office in these terms:

• “few and far between”
• “we aren’t kept up to date regarding what he is doing”
• “occasional” statements
• “less than once per week and sometimes once per month”
• “It is not as if we have a direct line to the Mayor”
• The Press Secretary is “inconsistent” in responding to journalists

…

On the continuum of “sparse or sparser” access, members of the Press Gallery said that the Toronto Star has less access than others. The media members interviewed, and those who commented publicly on the issue have said a number of times that a Mayor should be even-handed with the press and treat all outlets “fairly.” Others felt strongly that there is a democratic obligation on the part of elected officials to be open with the press and to be fair in access to information about their activities.

In the end and despite this overwhelming evidence, the Integrity Commissioner ruled in favour of Ford:

I conclude that on the particular facts in this case, there was no breach of the Code of Conduct by Mayor Ford. The reasons for this finding can be summarized as follows:

• There is an accepted practice of elected officials, including the Mayor, determining how and when they will grant access to the media, by way of interviews, answering questions during scrums or providing information about their views, outside of the formal and publicly accessible mechanisms that exist for ensuring transparent municipal democracy;
• The Mayor did not interfere with the access of Toronto Star reporters to significant avenues of information about the workings and agendas of City Council, the public service, or other councillors;
• The City of Toronto has an open access policy for disseminating information to the media and to the public;
• The Mayor’s personal policy of “not talking to the Star” was incomplete, with his knowledge and approval, as shown by the following:
  • distribution of some bulk e mails to thestar.ca;
  • distribution of most bulk e mails to other members of the Star Media Group, all falling under the direct supervision of the Publisher of the Toronto Star;
  • distribution of all bulk e mails to the affiliated sister company of Metroland;
  • the unofficial and multiple “work arounds” by staff and Toronto Star journalists, known, tolerated and cited by the Mayor in his defence.
  • The originating story which led to the Mayor’s reason for not speaking to the Toronto Star was written during a political campaign and was newsworthy because of his status as a public and political figure;
  • The ability of the press to publish, comment and otherwise hold politicians to account for their media communications practices.

So once again, Rob Ford smugly walks away from the fray because there’s really nothing in place to hold him to account.

This is, of course, in response to Ford’s latest bluster about how people need to sue him when he calls them liars (I’m sure it makes sense to him).

This follows a very public airing of grievances against Ford’s characterization of the community (and especially its black kids), as being poor, disadvantaged, and basically one step away from becoming drug dealers, pimps, and whores. Ford said similar things about other schools in his foundation, places like Forest Hill where the average income hovers at around $100K. Yeah, I know, it’s not rich by today’s standards, but it ain’t exactly no skid row neither.

And that reason is why the Don Bosco folks are talking about potentially putting the mayor out to pasture. The article didn’t impart the impression that the community is roiling with rage, but there’s definitely disquiet and unhappiness at being made out to seem like a ghetto (which it most certainly is not).

In case you can’t read between the very wide lines of this story: Rob Ford’s own school is claiming that the mayor misrepresented them, and are mulling kicking him out because of community disquiet. And these are his people, his old school, his old community.

“…you don’t get to be an idiot in our uniform, you don’t get to be an idiot diminishing our organization and you cannot hide behind the badge to abuse the authority so carefully earned and so carefully used by all of us.”

Nice words, but as critics are quickly pointing out, if words are all there are, nothing’s going to change. After all, if there are cops out there who are not only not doing their job but willing to publicly break the law (while simultaneously collecting a hefty salary), I don’t think the situation is one that requires a stern tongue lashing.

“It’s just lies after lies and lies, and I’ve called you guys pathological liars, and you are, so why don’t you take me to court? Let the courts decide. You guys are liars!”

I’m pretty sure Rob doesn’t read TCL, but I know his handlers do so this little tidbit of advice might find its way into his ear: when someone’s slandering or libeling you, it’s you who take them to court, not the other way around.

Also, it’s worthwhile to keep in mind that although the Star revealed the information, of you’re going to be suing anyone it should be the well-named and very public people who are sourced in the newspaper’s claims.

The story, apparently, is that Rob made another slovenly mess of himself at a war veteran’s charity ball, and had to be shown out.

Three members of the Garrison Ball organizing committee said Ford was asked to leave because he appeared impaired. One said, “he seemed either drunk, high or had a medical condition.”

Doolittle goes on to name a variety of sadly but understandably anonymous (all fearing the mayor’s wrath),  sources who detail the alcoholism that Rob Ford is “battling with” (seems like a warm embrace to me, but that’s just my take). Some of the guest descriptions of Ford from the military ball, however, should remind us that there’s probably more than alcohol involved:

“incoherent,” “stumbling,” “rambling,” “intoxicated,” “slurring,” “seemed to be drunk,” “was nervous, excited, sweaty, out of it.”

I’ve had my fair share of alcohol, and I can’t say that I’ve ever been nervous or excited. Quite the opposite, in fact.

I know that Fordites are going to cling to their main mass no matter what, but to the rest of us, doesn’t it seem like maybe it’s time for a random drug test? And before anyone raises a fuss about inequality, I’d definitely be in favour of all the Councillors taking one.

Yes, that’s Newstalk 1010′s Jerry Agar who recently made a video pushing his brilliant idea to solve Toronto’s commuting problems: telecommuting.

In his video, Jerry tries to make out like he’s the one that came up with the genius concept, or at least was one of its prime champions (which, as a formerly avid Agar listener, I can unequivocally say is a complete lie), and isn’t it amazing how people are finally catching onto it? And he uses a Star article to “prove” his point, no less!

See for yourself:

What I find fascinating is watching Agar weasel between the tight squeezes of his (surprisingly) logical position in support of telecommuting, his even more blusterous support of “free market” and “business knows best”, and then on to, “yeah, but big business like Yahoo don’t want people telecommuting.”

I don’t call people “mentally ill” lightly nor pejoratively (unlike Ford and his neo-Con buddies, I actually believe it exists), but people like Agar exemplify why I’m so quick to jump to the term when talking about their “logic”. I mean, if someone randomly said to you (in the same breath no less), “I love big business! Big business sucks!” , would you not be tempted to say that something is genuinely wrong with their minds?

Sorry, Jerry, just calls ‘em like I sees ‘em, and you are one messed up individual. Please get help.

The topic of discussion was Richard Kachkar, the guy who ran over a cop in a snowplow and is now pleading insanity. Ford called in and boldly stated that lawyers shouldn’t be defending Kachkar. At least that’s what I was able to get from a Newstalk blog post that’s since been yanked.

Looks like Newstalk is in the process of covering up Rob’s words (the story yankage, all other shows except this one episode being available, etc.), so I’m not sure we’ll ever have a reliable transcript, but one of the show’s guests, defence lawyer Leora Shemesh, summed up Ford’s comments:

“I just think that it’s perplexing to have the mayor of the city calling in about this issue, particularly because it’s in front of a jury and he knew that, but more so because he seemed to be uneducated about not criminally responsible and what that means.”

Additionally, Toronto lawyer Sean Robichaud weighed in:

“It is truly astonishing that the Mayor of Toronto espouses such a gross misunderstanding of the law and mental illness. There is also something unsettling and disrespectful to the justice system when a politician of his position provides his opinion on a verdict that he seems to know little about, the night before the jury is set to deliberate.”

Is it really astonishing to discover such qualities about Rob Ford at this point? Only if you’ve been living under a rock.

And is it really surprising to hear neo-Cons spouting off such unhelpful, angry, and ultimately harmful ignorance? Ditto on this one.