Housing at Risk. Toronto's Ombudsman, Fiona Crean's damning report on TCHC.

An Investigation into the Toronto Community Housing Corporation's Eviction of Seniors on the Basis of Rent Arrears

Al Gosling was 82 years old when he was evicted from Toronto Community Public Housing in 2009.
Source: The Star.com

This report by City of Toronto Ombudsman, Fiona Crean is filled with instances of mismanagement by TCHC.  Her report lists some 30 recommendations, coming after some of the city's most vulnerable and at risk seniors have been evicted because of administrative errors and other TCHC cock-up's.

Which, as you will see below comes after Judge Patrick LeSage already tabled more than 80 recommendations after the death of Al Gosling.

As Joe Fiorito stated in his Star column;

"You and I are the landlord – we live here, we pay taxes, our taxes provide housing for the vulnerable, and we expect TCHC to do its job.

On our behalf.

TCHC has an evection prevention policy, so that people who are vulnerable are not kicked idly to the curb. It is a good policy when applied; it is apparently lethal when it is not.

After Gosling’s death, a series of public hearings was conducted by Judge Patrick LeSage. He tabled more than 80 recommendations designed to prevent such deaths from happening again. His report is measured, and tempered, and damning.

The upshot? The housing corporation should implement its own damn policies, and housing staff should do their damn jobs.

Wasted effort?

You be the judge"

Drummond hides behind Constitution

Drummond Report: New roadmap for Ontario includes higher hydro bills, larger school classes

"Green Leader Mike Schreiner chided Drummond for hiding behind the Constitution and not considering the savings that could be realized from melding the Catholic school system in the public one.

“It’s the biggest duplication of programs in the province. Quebec and Newfoundland have shown that constitutionally it’s possible,” said Schreiner."

Ontario’s (unfair & biased) televised provincial election debate set for Sept. 27

The date when the leaders of Ontario’s three largest political parties will duke it out on television has been announced.
The Ontario TV Debate Consortium, made up of broadcasters CBC, CTV, Global, Sun News Network and TV Ontario, said Friday that the debate will air from 6:30-8:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday, September 27.
Consortium spokesperson Jeff Keay said there is no word yet on venue, location or format.
“All I can tell you officially is to expect more announcements shortly,” he said.
The debate will feature Liberal Leader Dalton McGuinty, Progressive Conservative Leader Tim Hudak and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.


Source: The Toronto Star

the Daye. Update for Thursday December 16, 2010

It seems the Toronto Police Service is continuing it's G20 style service of doing nothing when crimes are being committed. The Toronto Star reports that defense lawyer Ehsan Ghebrai alleges that when he noticed his 2004 Kawasaki Ninja motorcycle was missing recently he was told by someone at 52 Division that they didn't have the resources and he should ask his condo for surveillance footage.

Earlier this week a massive snowstorm shut down highway 402 in southwestern Ontario. As of yesterday afternoon all the stranded travelers had been rescued and no injuries were reported. Today it was reported that a man's body was found 50 metres from his stranded car on Tuesday afternoon. Once again, I cannot stress how important it is to have an emergency kit in your vehicle, especially during the winter months.

Julian Assange of Wikileaks fame has been released on bail in the UK. According to a report on The Globe & Mail website;

"The 39-year-old Wikileaks founder, and world-renown whistleblower, smiled broadly, punched fists with his lawyer through the rails of the courtroom dock, and gave a “thumbs up” to 200 spectators at London’s High Court Thursday."

The group known as 'Anonymous' which claimed responsibility for hacking MasterCard's website last week released a video on December 14th vowing to defend Assange. Here it is:

Go green to avoid soaring nuclear costs

Shawn-Patrick Stensil Nuclear analyst, Greenpeace Canada

Ontario needs a frank and public debate on how to protect electricity consumers from the rising costs of the McGuinty government’s nuclear plans.

The government’s decision to restrict public consultation on revisions to its long-term electricity plan to a web-based survey simply dodges any meaningful public debate. This will end up costing the ratepayer and the environment.

We were told in 2007 it would cost $26 billion to keep nuclear at 50 per cent of electricity supply. That would repair 12 operating reactors and build two new ones. Since then, we’ve learned that building just two new reactors would cost $26 billion — sucking up the entire 20-year nuclear spending plan.

It takes 10 years to build new reactors and up to five to repair old ones, so the full cost of the government’s nuclear plan hasn’t hit our bills yet. But painful price hikes are coming unless the Ontario government reins in its nuclear plans.

400+ Tickets to Cyclists and Pedestrians

The Toronto Star reports that hundreds of cyclists and pedestrians were ticketed in this weeks safety blitz that we told you about earlier this week. For tips on safe cycling check out the Toronto Cyclists Union website at bikeunion.to

bikeunion.to

Join The Bike Union!

Canadians Against Proroguing Parliament Rally Photos

Related Articles:

The Star

The Globe & Mail

CTV News

Oil sands threaten our survival, Al Gore warns

Extracting oil from Alberta's tar sands jeopardizes the survival of our species, says Al Gore.

"Gas from the tar sands gives a Prius the same carbon footprint as a Hummer," the former U.S. vice-president told the Star in an interview prior to a Toronto speaking engagement scheduled for Tuesday evening.  Full Story

Tory candidate dumped for frank TV comments

A moment of candour has cost Gordon Landon a shot at federal politics.
Landon was dumped Monday as the Conservative candidate for Markham-Unionville after publicly musing the GTA riding was being shut out of federal infrastructure funding because it is held by a Liberal.
The York regional councillor says he complied with a request from the Conservative party to step aside, adding he is not used to people telling him what to say and think.
The news came as Prime Minister Stephen Harper touted his government's progress in rolling out the pro-growth stimulus money announced in the Jan. 27 budget.
Source: The Toronto Star

You may recall the post from September 24th where I predicted Mr. Landon would be punished by Hitler Harper, so this is really no big surprise.

Diesel fumes unhealthy, MD tells train protest

Toronto's medical officer of health launched his latest salvo today in the war of words with Metrolinx over a controversial proposal to run about 400 diesel trains a day to Brampton and Georgetown.
Dr. David McKeown took the unusual step of speaking at a political protest organized by the Clean Train Coalition, telling residents he remains concerned about the health impacts of Metrolinx's proposal to expand diesel rail service in the Georgetown corridor.
Full story at: thestar.com

I have to agree with the doctor on this one. I'm all for improved rail service, but I don't think diesel is the way to go.

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.

Author pits evolution against creationism

Richard Dawkins' new opus isn't so much a book as ammunition.

Unrelentingly scientific, occasionally dry, sometimes angry, The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution was written to arm evolutionists with evidence to counter creationists who argue the world was made in six days by God, Dawkins says.

"I've written about evolution before," he says on the phone from London, England.

"But I've always rather assumed the evidence for it and never actually laid out the evidence for the reader in its totality. And that's what this book is." Read the full story at thestar.com

Richard Dawkins will be in Toronto promoting his new book. I think I may get a copy and see if I can get it signed.

Strike-plagued Lever factory declares bankruptcy

For 36 years, Jim Smith has reported to the old Lever Brothers soap factory at the foot of the Don Valley Parkway. For 14 months, a padlocked gate has kept him and more than 100 other striking workers outside.

Today, Smith and the other workers will dismantle the picket line – actually a shantytown of wood panels and tarps – and he'll walk away from the now-bankrupt plant for good.

To where, he doesn't know.

"A lot of us have been trying to go out and get jobs, but we don't have much skills," the 59-year-old said of his fellow workers, many of whom have been working at the plant for more than 30 years with little more than a high school diploma. "We just know that factory. That's it."

The drawn-out strike is to end today. The plant's owner, Korex Don Valley, has filed for bankruptcy, leaving the 110 remaining workers – members of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada local 132-0 – searching for work. Full story at thestar.com

This story just reaffirms what I have always said. A union will see a business go under, rather than settle. I'm sure they are all quite happy to have gained absolutely nothing and have lost everything. Idiots! You can't imagine how much sympathy I have for the moron who has to live off his poker winnings now!

TORONTO BURLESQUE FESTIVAL STARTS TODAY

The second annual Toronto Burlesque Festival, dubbed "Tassels Without Borders," features four days and nights of burlesque performances at the Gladstone Hotel, The Mod Club, the Cadillac Lounge and The Centre of Gravity. It kicks off tonight.

"This (burlesque) scene has grown so much," said festival producer Adrianna LeBlanc, a.k.a. Sauci Calla Horra, who started performing with troupe Skin Tight Outta Sight as a "card girl" in 2002 and has since become a regular performer. Full story at thestar.com

CUPE Picks on Poor

Strikers told to halt 'offensive' activity at welfare offices

City threatens 'strongest possible action' unless picketers stop delaying non-unionized staff at social assistance sites

LAURIE MONSEBRAATEN 
SOCIAL JUSTICE REPORTER

Homeless for more than a year and penniless since she lost her wallet this week, Cynthia Cronkhite scraped together $2.75 for bus fare to travel to the north Etobicoke welfare office for help.

The office near Pearson airport is one of just three still operating since civic workers went on strike June 22. The remaining 11 offices are closed, forcing people such as Cronkhite, who lives near the city's Queensway office, to travel long distances for service.

At least once during the first week of the strike the north Etobicoke office was closed by picketers who stopped management staff from entering until late in the afternoon. Last week, about a dozen unionized staff who tried to go back to work clashed with their striking colleagues on the picket line, resulting in calls to police. Two security guards are now posted at the main entrance and two private investigators have been capturing everything on camera, although those workers remain on the sidelines.  Read the full story 

Source:thestar.com

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.

Kate Gosselin, showbiz monster?

The following is from the TLC show John and Kate plus 8. I've never watched the show, but have of course heard of it from friends and seeing it mentioned in magazines and entertainment shows. I'm really only posting this because of the second paragraph below which I (completely agree with) saw in The Toronto Star 

"Kate and I have decided to separate," Jon said about 40 minutes into the one-hour show. Their eight children will remain living in the minimansion where the show is filmed.

The reality TV series will continue, the two said in making the announcement. But the question is how many viewers will now stick with the show. And what lies will those viewers tell themselves to try to justify their voyeuristic participation in the misery of the children – misery caused by these two immature, self-absorbed so-called parents and a cable-TV channel."  Full Story

Union Station Bike Locker Opens

Safe Cycling In The City

Agreeing With Peter Howell

The following is part of a review of Harrison Fords new movie Crossing Over. It is nice to see someone finally agrees with me on the talent of Harrison Ford...

Harrison Ford has been phoning it in for so long now, it's almost a trivia quiz question to guess the name of his last really good movie.

Do we have to go all the way back to Air Force One in 1997? Last year's Indiana Jones adventure doesn't really count, since Ford was just repeating himself, and even that movie gets by on goodwill alone.

His losing streak continues with Wayne Kramer's Crossing Over, a muddled multi-strand immigration drama that makes Crash look like some kind of masterpiece.

Full Review Here