Councillor Sandra Bussin is a liar and should resign!

The following is from the Toronto Star;


Councillor Sandra Bussin apologized today for calling in to a local talk radio program where she defended mayor David Miller's record as mayor — but didn't identify herself by her last name or indicate she is a city councillor.
The problem started when Bussin, who is also the Speaker for city council, called CFRB's Strong Opinions show hosted by John Tory and Tarek Fatah last Friday.
The show was on air after Miller gave his surprise announcement that he wouldn't be running again for mayor next year.
A lot of callers were critical of the job Miller had done.
Bussin, a Miller loyalist, called Tory, who is seriously mulling a run for mayor, and Fatah, an outspoken activist in the city, to say she thinks Miller is the most brilliant municipal politician "anywhere in the country'' and complimented the mayor for tackling the municipal employees controversial sick bank.
She was asked several times during the show if she works for the city.
Her reply: "No I don't work for the city.''

Click the link above for the full story. This idiot needs to resign, not only is she a councillor, but she is also the 'speaker' at city hall when council meets. Please write to Councillor Bussin and Mayor David Miller and let them know that we are sick and tired of a city council of morons.


This is my letter to the Mayor and Councillor:
Dear Councillor Bussin and Mayor Miller,

I fully expect that I  won't get a reply, as seems to be the policy at city hall these days, however, since I spend so much time encouraging others to direct their bitching at those who have the power to make a difference via my blog, I will do the same.

(See http://thedaye.blogspot.com/2009/09/councillor-sandra-bussin-is-liar-and.html#links)

The reason I am writing is because of the idiotic phone call and lies attributed to Councillor Bussin and I  would ask that you try to find some integrity and resign immediately.

Mr. Miller, perhaps you could find some of that integrity that I once thought you had and ask your cheerleader to take her floor show elsewhere.

Mark Daye,

Toronto, ON

Miller Quits!

Toronto's Mayor David Miller has confirmed he will step down from his post when his term is done in 2010. He told reporters Friday that he has accomplished all that he has set out to do and now wants to focus on his family.

"It was a difficult decision but I feel secure in my priorities and proud of my record," he said at a news conference Friday morning at City Hall.

Miller -- who still has 14 months left in office -- has said repeatedly thoughout the term that he planned on running in the next election.

The announcement comes as the mayor continues to be battered in the polls following his perceived mishandling of this summer's 39-day civic strike. He was also heavily criticized this week after it was revealed that the true cost of employee sick-day benefits far surpasses the figure Miller touted during the strike.

However, Miller said he is "proud" about all that he has accomplished since he was elected as mayor in 2003, including launching an ambitious transit expansion program and making Toronto one of the most eco-conscious cities in the world.

Source: CTV

Good riddance!

TTC Screws up maps

The CN Tower is a 10-minute jaunt from St. Andrew subway station. But a new TTC map posted at the station doesn't show that.

According to the map, the Toronto landmark doesn't exist. Neither does the Rogers Centre or City Hall.

The maps, intended to show transit users what city sites are nearby, have been raising eyebrows since they started to appear three weeks ago.

Full Story

TTC Chair Adam Giambrone says "part of the issue is there is no one who oversees map creation". Well Mr. Giambrone, as the TTC Chair I would say that automatically makes it your job since there is no literate manager or otherwise qualified TTC employee to do it, and obviously you are not doing your job very well. Furthermore, for a paper like The Star to be reporting this says quite a bit considering how many typos and spelling errors they print everyday! This is just one more pathetic example of what Toronto has deteriorated to under the Miller regime.

Former ON Attorney General Charged

Former Ontario attorney general Michael Bryant has been charged with criminal negligence causing death after a 33-year-old cyclist was struck and killed last night.

He was also charged with dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death.

Friends identified the victim as bicycle courier Darcy Allan Sheppard, father of three.

Bryant is scheduled to appear in Old City Hall court on Oct. 19.

Sheppard, who was called Al by friends, was likely heading to his new home in the Dupont and Dufferin Sts. area at the time of the incident, friends said. They said Sheppard had just got back together with his on-again-off-again girlfriend, Misty, and had said he wanted to marry her.

"Things were starting to go well for him right around now. Stuff was looking good for him," said 24-year-old Sana, who did not want to give her last name.

Witnesses on Bloor St. last night described a heated confrontation between the driver of a black Saab convertible and a cyclist that began near Bloor and Bay Sts. at about 9:45 p.m.

Police Sgt. Tim Burrows said that after a minor collision, the cyclist grabbed hold of the car, which drove west on Bloor toward Avenue Rd.

Witnesses said the cyclist clung to the driver's side of the car, which had its top down, while the driver yelled at him to get off.

The vehicle veered into the eastbound lanes and mounted the curb, brushing against trees and poles. The victim was apparently run over by the rear wheels of the vehicle, witnesses said.

The driver's wife was a passenger in the car, police said.

Lots of people were watching and they couldn't believe what was happening," said Ryan Brazeau, a worker with a crew laying sewer pipes on Bloor.

One construction worker told CTV News he heard the squeal of tires and saw the car racing the wrong way down the street past their construction site, with the cyclist hanging onto the car.

"The guy hanging onto the car, hit the mailbox, hit the road, (then) . . . the car ran over him with the back tires," the witness said. "The guy bounced and the car sped off . . . the person was there just bleeding."

The witness said he felt sick to his stomach when he saw the cyclist "bleeding from his head, his mouth."

Sheppard was taken to St. Michael's Hospital with serious head injuries and died around midnight.

Burrows said a large portion of the incident was captured on surveillance video and that investigators are working to fill in the gaps.

Police said alcohol was not involved.

Around 9 a.m. today two of Sheppard's friends sat on the sidewalk scrawling notes for their friend, which they taped to a tree.

Read the full story at thestar.com

Now that a former, high level Ontario government official has (allegedly) managed to kill a cyclist, perhaps we will finally get bike lanes on Bloor St. Then again in David Millers toronto, I'd expect that we will have to kill off a few more cyclists in 'accidents' such as this one. Maybe then we will see some change. This whole thing reeks of a case of road rage on at least Michael Bryant's part, and maybe on the part of the unfortunate cyclist too, but that doesn't justify dragging a man down the street until you (allegedly) kill him.

Green Bin Program A Mess

Toronto garbage workers have been routinely mixing green bin organics with regular trash that is trucked to a Michigan landfill, say city employees interviewed by the Star.
The workers – who return to work today after a five-week strike – say this occurs at those transfer stations where all types of garbage are first brought after collection from homes.
A former manager in a transfer station confirmed he had seen this happen and that some managers allow the practice to get rid of the enormous amount of green bin waste produced by Torontonians.

"It is wrong," says the man, who, like the other workers, asked that his
name not be used for fear of losing his job. "The public is separating their food and doing all this work and here we are, tossing it all in the garbage anyway."

Get the full story from thestar.com

It's a sad day in Millers Toronto when these, greedy garbage workers aren't even doing their overpaid jobs properly. Way to go Miller. Enjoy your last year in office.

Union Wins

Toronto's city councillors have voted to accept a deal reached with two civic unions following a strike that lasted nearly six weeks.

The vote happened shortly before 7 p.m. on Friday night. Councillors voted 21-17 in favour of the deal between the City of Toronto and Locals 416 and 79.

The councillors began debating the matter at 9:30 a.m. on Friday morning, when Mayor David Miller urged his fellow City Hall members to vote in favour of the settlement. Full Story from CTV News.

CUPE: WORKING FOR YOU - NOT!

The picture says it all.

Letter To Kyle Rae

I wrote a letter to Toronto Centre-Rosedale city councilor Kyle Rae today to express my displeasure with this ongoing nut squeezing of the city of Toronto by greedy unions.

After reading Mr. Rae's reply, my conclusion is that city council, or at the very least Councillor Rae is passing the buck by saying;

"the Mayor has indicated that the proposed settlements fall within the bargaining parameters established by the City's Labour Relations Committee.".

In other words, they get to keep banking sick days and ripping us off even though it has been recently reported that the fund only has something like less than half of the amount needed to pay off these gougers. I am sick and tired of this nonsense.

And while we're on the topic, is there some logical reason why a TTC collector is being paid more than 125K a year? He's a friggin TTC collector for gods sake, and now he is charged with stealing from the TTC. I guess 125K isn't enough for some people! Is it just me or has this city gone completely fucking insane!

Here is my letter and Kyle Rae's reply:

I am NOT impressed by Mr. Miller's total lack of concern for the
citizens of Toronto. Letting the union workers bank sick days is just
another step towards bankrupting this city. I will not be voting for
him, or you in the next election should you decide to approve this rip
off of a deal. Fire these lazy bastards and give the jobs to people
who really want to work and save us all some money. This council is a
JOKE!

By the way, it has come to my attention that you don't feel the need
to reply to your constituents emails. You may want to rethink that
stance.

Mark Daye, Toronto

Hello Mark,

Thank you for your email.

I have yet to see the details of the tentative agreements. However, the Mayor has indicated that the proposed settlements fall within the bargaining parameters established by the City's Labour Relations Committee. These parameters reflect the City's ability to pay during what are certainly challenging economic times.

Again, thank you for writing. I appreciate your candid feedback.

Kyle

Since this post, I noticed a friend wrote to Kyle today too. He got the same reply. Word for word. So, Kyle (or a staffer) is obviously just pounding out the canned reply to anyone who mentions the strike.

Banked sick days in city offer

Unionized city employees will continue to bank pay for unused sick days under a contract offer being voted on today.

However, a last-minute glitch in talks with one of the two striking CUPE locals means that only the inside workers began voting this morning on whether to ratify the deal.

CUPE Local 416, which represents outside workers including trash collectors, indefinitely postponed a vote set to begin at 7 a.m. today because negotiators hadn't signed a memorandum of agreement to end the strike, or negotiated a back-to-work protocol following the tentative agreement reached early Monday morning. Full Story

In other words we just went through a stinky month with no pools or daycare for NOTHING! Way to go Miller. I won't be forgetting this at election time and I will be reminding those who do forget.

City dropped all concessions, union says

CUPE Local 416 president Mark Ferguson said today that the union fought back all of the concessions the city had sought but one councillor says that if that is true, Mayor David Miller has some explaining to do.

Ferguson wouldn't give specifics of the tentative deal reached with the city early today, but said that the support of his members gave the "bargaining committee the ability to fight back all of the concessions," the city sought.

"As I have said from the beginning, we will end this strike like we began," he told a news conference this morning at the Scarborough hotel where his local's negotiation took place.

Pat Daley, a spokesperson for Local 416, backed up Ferguson's statement that the union had managed to "fight back all of the concessions the city sought from us."

All 118 pages of concessions? she was asked.

"Yes," she said.

Full Story at thestar.com

If this is true, Miller obviously is not concerned about this city, nor does he want to try to get re-elected.

Everyone is happy this strike is over, but it appears the unions have won at the expense of the taxpayer. It's time to privatize the trash pick up and give the work to people who are willing to work for a competitive wages.

Miller says back-to-work order would hurt T.O.

Mayor David Miller says an arbitrated settlement in the 31-day-old civic strike would cause huge budget problems for the city in the months ahead and could possibly lead to layoffs.

"Every time there's been an arbitrated settlement, the cost of that settlement has been very high," he said at a Wednesday news conference in city hall, pointing to Toronto police officers being awarded three-per-cent hikes.

If Toronto's 24,000 unionized workers were given a 12 per cent wage hike over four years, there would be service cuts and the ability to hire young people would be restricted, he said. Source: CTV News

Miller may say that legislation to force the city workers back would hurt Toronto, but what he really means is it would hurt him. It is pretty obvious to anyone that he's made back room deals with the unions or else this strike would not have happened. Miller can take full credit for ruining the all to short summer of the children and families of Toronto.

Toronto Stinks!

Just a week after Mayor David Miller took to the airwaves to defend Toronto over a U.S. newspaper report about its garbage strike, Canada's own Maclean's magazine features a cover declaring "Toronto Stinks."

It depicts Miller in a trash can with a banana peel on his head, and a pair of raccoons beside a mound of garbage.

The mayor responded Friday by telling a news conference Toronto is "a remarkable place" and that "the resilience of Torontonians in the face of a four-week strike demonstrates that."

Miller went on CNN last week to urge American tourists to visit the city after an article in the San Francisco Chronicle made Toronto seem like a hazardous vacation destination.

In the newspaper's World Travel Watch section, Canada heads a list of notable countries, ahead of troubled regions like Honduras, Mexico, North Africa and Thailand.

The strike by about 24,000 inside and outside workers has halted garbage pickup and a host of other city services.

I was going to show you the cover of Macleans but those losers don't show their cover on their website. In fact, MacLeans is published by Rogers. Rogers also has a search service with Yahoo! I don't recommend it. If you take a look at my search results you will see how effective it is. I suggest you do as I normally do and continue to use Google.ca

Message for Miller; Next time you decide to jump into bed with union whores maybe you might want to watch Fatal Attraction first. This mess is YOUR fault, stop letting unions hold the rest of the city hostage. Your complete lack of leadership makes me sick, I will go out of my way to remind people NOT to vote for you, should you have the a repeat lack of judgement and run for office again! Although, if this goes on much longer, citizens are going to start demanding your resignation.

Union must adjust attitude: Miller

City negotiators have been granted more flexibility to settle the 17-day strike by municipal workers, but Mayor David Miller says it's the union - not the city - that has to change its attitude to end the walkout.

"The goals remain the same as when the strike started," Miller told reporters this evening after a two-and-a-half-hour closed-door session with city councillors, the first briefing since the walkout began June 22.

Source: The Star

It seems Mayor David Miller is continuing to bet on the public being pissed off at the union and not at him for this ongoing strike.  The city streets are beginning to look pretty disgusting with garbage littering the curbs and there is no end in sight. Meanwhile, city run daycare centres and other important services are not available to the public, while the union moans for the greedy old days.

Union Station Bike Locker Opens

Mayor Miller Retiring?

Tomorrow, the city of Toronto is going to announce its new tax plan and the rumour is that property taxes may increase 4%.  I guess Miller is planning on leaving politics, because I, along with thousands of other Torontonians will not sit by and put up with this wasteful city council and mayor any longer.

I was once a Miller supporter, but as usually happens with politicians, they seem to forget the people who elected them and, in my opinion, Millers time is up.  

We will see what happens tomorrow.