Hey Gawker -- WTF -- Where's Your Drug Dealer Source?

Tabloid trash-talking website Gawker.com claimed they saw a video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking a crack pipe, and the mainstream anti-Ford newspaper The Toronto Star ran with the story a week ago today.

The problem with using drug dealers as sources, is sometimes they make sh*t up.

Okay, that's a bit extreme. Even drug dealers are honest, hard working contributing members of society, right?

Yeah, right.

So it should be no surprise that the scoundrels at Gawker.com haven't been able to reach the drug lords that showed them the blurry, poorly shot iPhone video -- but wouldn't let them make a copy, or verify it's source.

The Toronto Star has been unable to reach the video's owners to verify its authenticity as well.

All of this hits as all things come to their inevitable end. Today, Toronto City Council's executive committee is sending a letter to their boss -- Mayor Rob Ford -- asking him to address the issue publicly. There are also rumours that the city's executive committee is asking for the Mayor to step down, and let the deputy mayor and the executive committee run the city until all the pressure from the media blows over.

And, Gawker.com itself is about set to reach it's drug-money-funding goal on crowdfunding website Indiegogo, to pay off the owners of the video behind this enormous scandal to rock Toronto, Canada.

Oh wait -- exactly who are they paying off again? Their "sources" have fled, just as they are about to make it rich.

Maybe money can't really buy happiness after all?

Or maybe the video was faked, by a couple of slimy druggies that thought they could bribe some gullible wanna-be American journalists with a poorly shot mobile phone video about some politician in another country.

Seems odd that legitimate sources would suddenly disappear, regardless of their chosen occupation. Especially sources about to hit the money load -- literally -- and be paid for their info.

Maybe they had a change of heart, and decided to come clean, and instead of using any profits from the video to further their drug trade, they'd donate it to a worthy cause, like the Centre for Addictions and Mental Health?

What are you, high?

The real damage ultimately is to the citizens of Canada, the residents of Toronto, and the business of running Canada's largest city.

Once again, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's lack of tact has put more than his left-foot in his mouth, and caused all the above to be made the fool on the world stage.

All because some slimy druggies that wanted to make more money.

And because technology allows anyone these days to claim to be a journalist -- even if they don't have what it takes to really do the job.

Like common sense for one.

Dealing with drug dealers as sources that ask for money up front?

Come on now Gawker.com -- is that how the game is played in your f*cked up world?

Why Toronto Mayor Rob Ford Needs to Resign

Unless you've been living under a rock on a secluded island in the middle of nowhere, chances are you've heard about some crazy Canadian big city mayor caught on video smoking crack cocaine.

Late night comedians Jimmy Kimmel and John Stewart both poked fun at recently on their late night talk shows. 

Major global news outlets, including CNN and the BBC have covered the story internationally.

Yet the only one speaking publicly about this is the media -- Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, as of this writing, STILL has intentionally evaded the press, simply saying quickly when the story first broke that allegations of him smoking crack cocaine are "ridiculous" and simply untrue.

So, what is the story?

For those hiding under rocks on secluded islands, an American tabloid website called Gawker claimed to have been shown a video showing Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. Later that day, one of Canada's largest newspapers, The Toronto Star, claimed that two of it's reporters had also seen the video footage, and ran with the story.

Neither Gawker nor The Toronto Star have validated the video, because the shady characters that have the video want a million dollars for it's release.

Since The Toronto Star -- a newspaper that has had a long standing war with Rob Ford before he became mayor of Canada's largest city -- broke the story, the media has been on a feeding frenzy, trying to get the mayor to address the issue.

Gawker did what many tabloid organizations do -- try to build buzz using social media's crowdfunding. They created an Indiegogo campaign, to raise funds through donations to secure the video footage, from what the accused brother, fellow Toronto city councillor Doug Ford, calls "drug dealers."

Regardless of whether the video is legit, or simply a sham falsified by people that just want to make a dishonest buck, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford needs to step aside by resigning his post as Mayor for the good of the city and the country.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been embroiled in many wild and weird issues since taking over as Mayor of Canada's largest city.

From failing to acknowledge gay rights by being the first Toronto politician to not attend the annual city's annual Pride Parade (all local politicians usually attend the annual event), to almost making history by becoming the first Canadian mayor to be forced out of the job by court order over a conflict of interest charge (which he won, so he didn't lose his job).

Sometimes, sadly, Mayor Rob Ford attempts to do the right thing, but it ends up exploding in his face. Like the time he and his brother Doug held a weight loss challenge for themselves, to get Torontonians interested in fitness and health. Every week both would publicly weigh themselves, showing how much they had lost. As the pounds crept back on, they quickly and quietly stopped showing up for the weekly weigh-ins and the media had another field day trashing the mayor and his family, despite their good intentions.

The latest scandal to rock the municipal offices of the third largest city in North America, and the largest city in Canada, has disemboweled the office of Toronto's Mayor, Toronto City Council, the city, and even the country.

When you have late night talk show hosts poking fun at the mayor of Canada's largest city, it makes all Canadians look bad.

And it isn't just American talk shows which are shaping the minds of potential tourists to our great country -- the sordid story of Rob Ford and his legacy thus far have been trending on social networks worldwide, and told on legitimate news outfits from the BBC to NPR and beyond.

That's why, regardless of whether the allegations of alleged drug use are true or false, Rob Ford and his brother do the right thing, and resign for the good of the city and the country.

It's time to clean house, and have a new mayor in power in Toronto. Because the world has lost faith in Toronto, and to a degree in Canadian politics, and the only thing that will restore that faith is a change of the guard.

Ever Wanted to Be On TV? Here’s Your Chance

We’ve added some cool swag – perks, gifts, give-a-ways – to our On-Demand Internet Television crowdfunding project, including an all expense paid trip for you and a friend to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, to appear in a television show!

If you’ve always wanted to appear on TV, or just want a vacation in one of the cleanest, friendliest and most exciting big cities in the world – here’s your chance.

We really are sick and tired of not finding anything good on television, and we want to change that.

How do we change that?

We ask YOU what you want to see.

No joke.

We’ll have discussion forums, where you can suggest a show idea, discuss and debate show ideas, and the shows which get enough interest could eventually end up being produced by our award-winning production teams, and shown exclusively on our hip and trendy new network.

And because our network is on-demand, you can watch what you want, when you want, and where you want.

But we can’t do any of this without support from YOU.

So, if you are also sick and tired of never finding anything good on television, please support our On-Demand Internet Television crowdfunding project.

Thank you for making On-Demand Internet Television matter.

Thanks to Our Wired World, We’re Running Out of Numbers

As our dependence on mobile technology grows, our need for more numbers to link those magical devices grows too.

SO much so, mobile service providers and governments are coming up with more creative ways to keep us from running out of numbers.

They can do what is taking place in Canada’s largest city today – Toronto gets two new area codes as of today, 437 and 365.

This adds a millions of potential phone combinations to an already crowded see of 10-digit codes.

Or you can go the way of some big service providers, which encourage you to have one number which is shared among all your mobile devices.

Alternatively, you could cut the cord with your phone company, and go completely digital, using a Voice Internet Protocol (VOIP) based service such as Skype.

Maybe that’s why software giant Microsoft recently bought out Skype – which incidentally is giving out free VOIP calling for one month, to current MSN account holders, to lure them over to their newly acquired messaging platform.

All of these solutions work – for now.

What happens when Apple’s iWatch, Samsung’s version of the iWatch and Google Glass from the search engine company hit the streets later this year?

Think about all the numbers most people currently have – home landline, office landline, their personal smartphone and tablet, and then their work smartphone.

Some even have separate lines for their home office and home – both landline and mobile.

We’re swamped in a vast ocean of 10-digit dialing.

I remember years ago, when we only had to dial seven digits to connect over the phone. That’s before we got the addition of ONE – just one area code to our major urban area.

Now here in Toronto, we have six – SIX – area codes, and you’d never not dial the area code plus the number you are dialing.

As technical advances release us from the cables and cords of the past, allowing us to be free, and still be wired to the world, we’ll need to work together to ensure we don’t run out of numbers to connect our wireless devices.

Otherwise, regardless of how wonderful the tech is, it’ll be useless.

Toronto Wanna-Be Mayor Cries Wolf

Last week, International Women’s Day was tarnished by the brash sexually abuse accusations fired at a big city mayor by a woman he defeated in the last election campaign.

Sarah Thomson, claimed that Canada’s largest city mayor,Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, made lewd sexual slurs while grabbing her butt at a political function.

Thomson, who ran against Toronto’s Mayor and lost, didn’t follow the usual course of action by a victim of sexual assault and report it to police. Instead, she blasted Mayor Rob Ford publicly on social media, posting a picture of her smiling, alongside the accused on Facebook.

Mayor Ford denied Thomson’s whole story, claiming none of this happened, and that she was crying wolf.

Numerous people at the event, even those not traditionally supporting the controversial Toronto mayor have spoke out against Thomson, claiming they clearly saw that none of what she was claiming happened.

A handful of local politicians are even coming forward, saying they overheard Thomson talking about intentionally setting up Mayor Rob Ford, to further her own political aspirations.

Thomson claims if anything, publicly talking about this would hurt her political career, as she’ll be known as the “ass grab” politician.

Sarah Thomson – formerly Sarah Whatmough – unsuccessfully ran for a municipal council seat in her native city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1997. She then launched a monthly newspaper called the Hamilton Examiner in 1998, which shortly ceased publication. Since then, she moved to Toronto, ran unsuccessfully against Rob Ford, and failed again in politics, when she ran locally for the Provincial Liberal Party in 2011.

Her bold and potentially criminal charges – despite her lack of filing a police report – was the first time in a long time the 45-year-old Thomson had been in the public eye, with just about every news organization in the city clamouring for an interview.

Allegations of sexual abuse are traditionally he said, she said debates, hammered out in a court of law. And make no mistake, sexual assault is one of the most distasteful and disruptive of crimes one person can commit against another. 

Victims of sex abuse often endure years of therapy, as they overcome the horrible events of their past. Some never fully recover.

However, Thomson is acting more like a person with a mission, than victim, as of this writing, she still hasn’t filed a police report, laid criminal charges, or sought any of the traditional sources for assistance and recovery from sexual abuse which one would normally take in such matters.

All Sarah Thomson has done, is as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has said, is cry wolf.

If what Thomson is claiming is true, than the mayor of Canada’s largest city should be held fully accountable for his actions.

If on the other hand, Thomson is just crying wolf to rally for her personal gain, not only should she be held fully accountable for her actions – which she will because no one will believe or trust her ever again – but she should also meet with and learn from actual victims of sexual abuse.

Because those who’ve been harmed sexually often have the longest road of recovery. And perhaps, if she learns from those who’ve got more than a Facebook page with unsupported allegations to cry wolf from, she’ll realize just how devastating sexual assault is on those who’ve actually been assaulted in this manner.

And that will make her – slightly – a better person, even if she just cried wolf.

Budget Axe May Grind Away Toronto Teachers – Good Riddance

Last night, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) had to reduce its annual operating budget – in the Province of Ontario, Canada, public school boards aren’t allowed to be in debt.

On the budget chopping block are numerous full and part-time teaching positions, mostly in the high school level.

Good riddance to the bloated, ego-maniacal teachers – serves them right if they lose their jobs.

Normally, I’d have the utmost respect for those charged with educating our kids.

However, since the school year began last September, our kids have been stuck in the middle of a labour war between the teachers, their union, and the Province of Ontario.

The province imposed – as they are rightfully allowed to being the public school teachers employer – a new contract, which the union didn’t like.

Since then, there have been random walkouts, picket lines and worse for the future leaders of tomorrow – no extra-curricular activities.

There’s more to life than reading, writing and arithmetic – although those are important. The after school sports, clubs and events which has been a part of most children’s – until this school year – foundation of learning forms the basis for learning more than books can teach.

From being a good sport, to learning how to work well with others, to thinking outside the box – sounds a lot like what you’d find in a job ad – extra-curricular activities teach our kids how to function in society, and lead meaningful lives.

That is unless you live in Ontario, where the teachers haven’t been doing their job.

At first blush, it appears to be a labour issue, where the teachers and their union are working to rule in protest against their boss, the provincial government.

But just two weeks ago, the union asked teachers to resume extra-curricular activities, as the union was forging ahead with negotiations. Most of the teachers – the good apples – joyfully did just that.

But according to the union, about 20 percent of the province’s teachers are holding out, STILL refusing to give kids the education they need, by refusing to do extra-curricular activities.

These bad apples aren’t just holding innocent children hostage, they are now making it clear they don’t deserve to have a good paying government job.

As unemployment worldwide climbs in the worst depression since the Great Depression, apathy is anything but your friend. And lazy-ass teachers, can’t hide behind their union in Ontario and claim extra-curricular activities are part of their protest – the union made it clear that’s not the case anymore.

So, when school boards across the province face laying off slacker teachers to balance their budgets, cry me a river, because they deserve the seeds they sowed.

Unfortunately, another “benefit” of unionized labour is time in. The longer you’ve been in the union, the more clout you carry, and that means the teachers that most likely will face unemployment are the young new ones, which aren’t necessarily lazy-ass slackers.

Unionized labour – good grief.

Dow Jones Jump – Fool Me Once, Shame on You; Fool Me Twice, Shame on Me

Yesterday’s surprising spring-like high for the New York Stock Market the Dow Jones Industrial Average had all the usual suspects talking about how we’re coming out of this recession.

It was a record high, climbing 158 points, reaching 14,286, which broke it’s previous record high set in October 2007. The Dow Jones fell back slightly and by day’s end was 14,253.

Here in Canada’s banking capital, Toronto’s S&P/TSX rose 28.63 points, but was still well below its record high set in June of 2008. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq exchanges also showed increases, but the focus was on the Dow Jones, because it broke the record books.

Bankers, economists, and other important-looking people dressed in expensive three-piece suits appeared on all the newscasts, talking about how this was just the kind of fiscal movement we all need to get us out of this seemingly never-ending global financial mess.

Hey, wait a sec – don’t the stock markets suddenly increase just before most of the major economic catastrophes of all time?

It’s like a financial tsunami of sorts, as the trade winds ruffle amidst uncertain economies globally. Traders buy up stocks, hoping their actions will trigger an up-swing and it does. Until those everyone catches on, and cashes out, selling stocks like hot potatoes, crashing an already volatile market.

That’s what happened just before the Great Depression in October of 1929. That’s also what happened just as the housing market in the States went belly up, which brought us into our current economic sandstorm.

And as people across North America continue to struggle to pay their bills, it’s happening again.

More people have given up looking for work than ever in recorded history – even since the Great Depression of the Dirty Thirties.

There are fewer full-time permanent jobs, as companies continue to outsource, and contract out their workforces to temporary, contract workers.

The cost of goods and services continues to rise, yet wages continue to fall.

And despite all of this doom and gloom, the newscasts yesterday painted a rosy picture of an economy on the up and up.

Once fooled, twice shy.

We all should be twice shy – maybe more with all the bullsh*t being broadcast by bankers, economists and their ilk.

We are far from the end of this global depression – and their artificial hype will just make it worse.

Economists traditionally try to calm everyone down during economic crisis. That’s not only their nature, it’s in their best interests – because panic causes rash decisions – like selling stocks and upping interest rates – which crash economies.

But outright lying to keep the peace when people are losing their jobs, their homes and ultimately their lives is unacceptable.

Fool me once, shame on me. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Don’t be fooled by the banking buffoons.

Why Won’t Print Just Die

Yesterday, Canada’s largest daily, The Toronto Star, sent out a memo to staff advising of layoffs, and outsourcing of various production and design work due to budget cuts.

The death bell has been ringing for years in the newspaper business, as digital on-demand media becomes the way most of the western world keeps connected.

SO how come print just won’t die?

Funny thing about technology – it makes it possible for even old things to be new once again.

Maybe we’re just waiting for the right genius kid to discover a new technological solution to re-ignite the newspaper business?

That kid better hurry up – there’s not much left at most newspaper offices these days except a few old curmudgeons and the blurry eyed interns that don’t see the proverbial forest for the trees.

When I was a kid, we got The Toronto Star delivered to our home every day. When it came, we’d take turns ripping through it, looking for our favourite sections.

We always fought over the "Star Week" the paper's TV Guide, this was back long before on-screen program guides which we all have now.

I really enjoyed the national, local and international news sections, along with “Wheels,” and I even liked some of what us old school reporters used to call “the woman’s section” known as “Life.”

I remembered enjoying the full-colour comics on Saturdays, and how they packed extra stuff into the weekend papers.

Thinking back, I feel sorry for the kid that was our newspaper carrier at the time, because the Saturday Star must have weighed as much as a Smartcar.

Those were the days before the Internet, social media, and on-demand digital media. People had more time – or so it seems now – to read through all the various sections, gloriously getting inked fingers from the constant page-turning.

Not so anymore – all broadsheet-width newspapers reduced their standard width years ago, simply because it was becoming too expensive to make such Bible-sized publications.

When that happened over 20-years ago, it was the start of the end for print. Newspapers, like most media sources, make their money by advertisers. The more advertisers, the more pages a paper can be, the more stories can be jammed in.

As people stopped reading papers, advertisers pulled out, meaning fewer pages for the already popular sections.

So newspaper moguls cut the size of the physical paper. They claimed at the time it was to make it easier for people to read, and in a way it was.

But truth be told, it was because newsprint costs went up, while ad revenues and readership went down.

Many major metropolitan daily newspapers including The New York Times, The Globe and Mail and others have attempted “pay walls” to bring in much needed cash flow.

A “pay wall” essentially lets you read part of a story, or a certain number of articles from the publication online, and then after that limit, you have to either pay for an online subscription, or pay a set price per article to continue reading.

Though when it comes to the end product – news – who’s going to pay for something you can get for free in a more timely manner via television, radio, or the social networks?

Pay walls aren’t going to save newspapers from their death.

And yesterday’s announcement of staff cuts and outsourcing labour by Canada’s largest daily certainly puts another knife in the back of an already dying media business.

Although I’m a digital media guy, I’ve always enjoyed newspapers, and hope that someone, somehow figures out a way to save them.

But time is not on their side, as they continue to slash staff, outsource production, and lose money, in our on-demand digital media world.

When Women Are the Minority It’s OK – But Men It Isn’t?

Yesterday, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) announced it wanted more men, to keep in line with its equal opportunity hiring practices.

For years, women, visible minorities and the disabled have had a leg up on jobs, simply because of these politically correct hiring practices to “balance” out the minority in the workforce.

But apparently, that balance has shifted slightly, as the TDSB admits it has too many women, and not enough men educating our young people.

The TDSB did qualify that, by saying they are looking for men, which are racially diverse, aboriginal or disabled.

Sorry if you’re a white able-bodied man – you’re still not wanted.

Women’s groups were up in arms that after the largest school board in Canada’s announcement that they would give a job to a man, instead of a qualified woman.

The irony in all of this, is it goes how wrong being politically corrupt – whoops I mean politically correct – really is.

Whenever a company boasts about being an “equal opportunity employer” it might as well go a step further and tell us which gender, race, ethnic background, and other discriminatory factors they really are looking for, because there isn’t anything “equal” about their employment practices.

Hiring someone because you don’t see the token black blind man anywhere in your office isn’t giving someone who wouldn’t normally get hired a break, its discrimination in the worst possible way – its blatantly labelling people for what they are instead of who they are.

I applaud the TDSB for recognizing they don’t have enough men in their workforce. But if they got off their lazy butts and actually hired qualified teachers – regardless of gender – then maybe they wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.

At least the TDSB publicly admitted it’s shortcomings – most companies continue to use “equal opportunity employment” lingo to discriminate regardless of how obvious it is when you walk into their offices what the dominant culture is.

I’ve worked at some companies – American Express, BMO Bank of Montreal – just to name a handful of offenders, where their so-called “equal opportunity employment” standards were so lacking, I felt like I was in another country – yet I was right here in Toronto, Canada.

At American Express Technologies (AET) at their Canadian offices in Markham, out of well over 300 people, all were Chinese. Well, all except myself, and maybe five to 10 others – you could literally count on your fingers the number of people that weren’t Asian on that team.

BMO Bank of Montreal’s Trader’s Help Desk in Toronto, Canada had one or two non-Asian women, while the remaining 30 or so individuals were Chinese men, when I was working for that company.

BMO and Amex both have equal opportunity employment policies, but just as the TDSB, they don’t work very well unless you happen to be the specific racial or gender group they want to hire.

Seems to me that “equal opportunity employer” gives some companies the ability to only hire those they WANT to work with – people that look like the hiring managers.

That’s certainly not “equal” but I suppose it does give an opportunity for the employer.

But that’s not an opportunity I’ll have in my company – we hire based on something sadly forgotten in today’s politically correct world – talent.

Peace, Order and Good Governance? Not in Toronto

If you live in Canada’s largest city, today you are either breathing a sigh of relief or cursing at the fiasco of local government.

Since Rob Ford became Toronto’s mayor in Dec. 2010, the feisty outspoken – and edgy – Ford had caused uproar, controversy and today came close to being the first Canadian mayor to be fired by a court of law.

Lucky for Mayor Ford the court ruled in his favour, and he remains mayor of Canada’s largest city.

But through it all, the primary role of his office – of all elected municipal politicians at the City of Toronto – is to provide good governance of the city.

Good governance is a sacred right in Canada. It says so in the Canadian Constitution dating back to 1867, that we have a right to: “peace, order and good government.”

City of Toronto Councillor Joe Mihevc said himself on a local news channel that Torontonians haven’t been getting good government quite a while, and that they are frustrated because of it.

Damn right we are!

The whole notion of paying for a service which you don’t get is enough to make anyone’s blood boil. That this service is also a guaranteed right under the highest law in the land – the Canadian Constitution – makes it all the more serious of an offence to us all –or it should.

Because when politicians start to ignore the founding laws of the nation in which they serve, they tarnish the very fabric which makes that nation whole.

That’s why Toronto owes you money.

The City of Toronto should refund Toronto residents for their lack of governance.

I want a refund for the Mickey Mouse antics I’ve witnessed by our local politicians. And you should too.

It’s embarrassing to watch Canada’s largest city, with some of the most experienced veteran municipal politicians, failing to act professionally in their management of our city.

And management of our city, of our province and of our country is a fundamental law, ironed into the very weave which made Canada a country.

We have peace.

We have order.

We just don’t have good governance.

That needs to change.

The Politics of Democracy

You’d think political influences in a democratic society would be – well – democratic, right? 

Not if you’re a citizen in Canada’s largest city, where democracy rests in the hands of the well-to-do.

Just before the Christmas holiday season, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was brought to court, under a conflict of interest charge. He lost. Not only did he lose the case, he lost his job. The court ruled that the Mayor had shown so much disregard for the laws governing governance, he didn't belong in the mayor’s chair.

Sounds like a fair, legal ruling – logical down to the core.

Though the people responsible for bringing down Canada’s largest mayor weren't those who elected him into power – or at least not the majority of ‘em.

One man, wealthy enough to hire one of the best criminal lawyer in the country, brought the charges to light against Mayor Rob Ford.

You can smell the stink of political poop buried within – why would a criminal lawyer be tasked with a non-criminal case? Yes, the Mayor disobeyed the rules of conduct for his job – but that’s not a felony. It’s no different than you or I being late for work – one doesn't get a criminal record for that!

When you can afford the best lawyer in the game, you win – just look at murderer-or-not O.J. Simpson’s dirty gloves.

Clearly, this case brought against the mayor of Toronto was a politically motivated act, by someone that had it in for the person, not for what he did.

Rob Ford, a veteran politician, should have known better than to vote on a matter in council where he was in direct conflict. However, he shouldn't be forced out of office because one wealthy individual doesn't agree with his politics, his attitude, or his very being.

Yesterday, three judges heard both sides to the sordid tale, as Mayor Rob Ford appealed the ruling which threw him out of office.

He’s still the mayor during the proceedings which continue today, and as of this writing says he’ll run in a re-election if council votes to have one if his appeal fails. Council can vote for a by-election, or simply appoint someone, however a vote has yet to be tendered on which direction to take.

Either way, the politics of democracy isn't very democratic in Canada’s largest city. One well-to-do person shouldn't have the power to remove a person elected to lead by the majority of the citizens.

Yet in our so-called democratic society, money seems to buy one the power to control that democracy – and that certainly isn't democratic.

Regardless of whether you agree with a politician’s policies, performance or person, if that person has been elected into power, you alone shouldn't be the one to take away that power.

Because in a society where one can arbitrarily determine the fate of who ultimately makes decisions for the whole, that democracy ceases to exist.

North American VS European Cities – A Tale of Green Greed

On a day when Toronto, ON. Canada was ranked one of the top fifteen cities in the world to live in, the cost for getting around that city increased.

That is if you are an environmentally-friendly commuter. The city’s politicians approved a fare hike for the Toronto Transit Commission, the city-run public transit service which averages about 450 passenger rides every year, making it one of the busiest transit systems in the world.

Also on a day when the largest city in Canada was placed on this top livable cities list, the provincial transit service – GO for Government of Ontario Transit – announced plans to also increase it’s prices.

Human resources consulting firm Mercer supposedly considers transportation, along with government stability, crime rates, banking, health care, pollution levels, housing and recreation when they create these lists.

Although there are far worse places in the world to live, there are far greener cities in the world to live than Toronto -- or any North American city.

Vienna, Zurich, Munich and Frankfurt all ranked highest on the list – which says something about European versus North American cities when it comes to being the best places to live.

Europe has embraced alternative modes of travel to gas guzzling cars. It isn't uncommon for people in these places to take public transit, bike, or even car pool if they do have to drive.

Toronto – which ranked 14 on the list and Montreal – which ranked 23—both have excellent public transit systems. However, in both cities – actually many North American cities – there appears to be a stigma associated with taking public transit.

Those who take public transit in major urban centres in North America are often seen as the working poor, the trailer-park-trash of the urban jungle. The rift-raft that can’t afford a car.

That’s why public transit is so poorly funded in North American cities. It’s all in the head. Or at least the heads of the people that live there.

In Europe, the costs of operating the public transit systems are paid for largely by local and federal levels of government. It’s not considered a working poor rift-raft using service – it’s considered a necessity for the people and the good of the city.

Europeans don’t attach silly stigmas to those who take public transit. They realize that if it weren't for the public transit system, they’d spend hours in traffic just to get to work each day. If it weren't for public transit, they’d sit in traffic jams inhaling horrible fumes each day just to see their friends and family. They know they’d be contributing to global warming every time they went to the corner store.

Oh wait – we know all these things here in North America too.

So why do we attach idiotic ideologies about those taking public transit in Canada and the United States?

And worse, because of those idiotic ideologies, we force the costs of public transit onto the backs of those who take it – instead of using the tax-base to pay for it – which furthers that mentality because if the government doesn't think paying for public transit is a good thing, why should the average citizen?

And as we always complain about high taxes, governments always cut funding to the least popular government services – which usually means public transit because of this silly mentality North American cities have about the green way to travel.

So governments continue to under-fund transit in North America, increasing costs to riders, which translates into fewer people taking transit – ultimately pushing more people into their cars, creating enormous traffic tie-ups, pumping toxic fumes into the air we breathe, while increasing the amount of greenhouse gasses in our environment.

Which begs the question – how’d any North American city even make the top livable cities in the world to live in?

Canada’s Largest City is Full of – Well – You Know

As most of the major urban centres across the globe embrace environmental policies, Canada’s largest city of Toronto appears not too.

Earlier this month, they paved over bike lanes on a major downtown street, to allow more room for gas guzzling cars, taking away space from environmentally-friendly clean pedal-powered cyclists.

Then yesterday, they reversed their decision banning the sale of single use plastic bags, after pressure from retailers claiming it would kill them.

Cry me a river – retailers in Toronto and many of the surrounding suburbs already charge five-cents for plastic bags, even though the City of Toronto removed that green by-law this past summer. Many retailers in – and for some reason out of Toronto – still charge five-cents if you want to carry home the stuff you just paid for.

Actually, charging for plastic bags is a good idea. It encourages people to bring their own reusable cloth bags when shopping. However, retailers shouldn't be allowed to profit from a green initiative – those funds should be put back into city programs specifically for improving our environment.

But the ultimate issue which Toronto Council backed away from favouring business over the environment is the outright ban on plastic bags in the first place.

Plastic – a chemical composition of fibres created from filthy petrochemicals – takes years to decompose, and when it does, it leaves the chemical residue in it’s wake, causing further pollution. Even biodegradable plastics leave this chemical residue.

An economical and environmentally-friendly alternative is to bring your own cloth bags – which a ban on plastic encourages.

It also encourages retailers to think of alternatives for packaging their products, which is something the suits and ties that run retail just don’t do enough of.

Although we’re a far more environmentally aware society, we still are very much a disposable one. From fast-food containers, to all the stuff we buy wrapped in layers of plastic, paper, cardboard and Styrofoam.

If manufacturers, retailers and anyone else selling goods gave more thought to how their customers will carry their products upon purchase, we’d all be better off.

We want the stuff we buy to be clean and unbroken, and expect a method of getting it from store shelf to home or business in it’s original clean and unbroken state. But we don’t need all the packaging materials most things are crammed with.

Packaging materials which eventually find their way to landfills in many instances, and recycling if we’re lucky.

Or worse – in the case of plastic bags – enjoying a lifespan buried beneath our homes, businesses and schools, leaching Cancer-causing chemicals into our drinking water, the Earth we grow our food, feed our livestock with and allow our kids to play on.

Banning plastic bags was a good idea Toronto.

Reversing that decision because you got cold feet will be felt by you, me, our children, their children their children’s kids and their kids, and countless other generations.

All because a small group of politicians in Canada’s largest city stopped thinking green. 

Judge Fires Canadian Big City Mayor to Bully the Bully

Yesterday, a Canadian judge made international headlines when he fired the mayor of Canada’s largest city on a technicality.

Rob Ford, the now out-going Mayor of Toronto, was told he had 14-days to vacate his seat on council, giving up his leadership post as Mayor, because he violated a provincial conflict of interest law. The judge is said to have gone easy on Ford, because he could have also banned him for running for council – and in effect for mayor again -- for seven years.

There is no doubt that Toronto’s controversial mayor was in a direct conflict of interest. He voted ‘no’ during a council vote on whether or not he should pay back money to residents and businesses he had solicited to support the high school football team he coaches. He should have abstained from that vote, because it directly involved him – that’s the technicality which cost Rob Ford his job.

Whether or not he solicited donations to his high school football team inappropriately or not wasn't the issue which the judge ruled on yesterday. However, it’s been argued in Toronto council that the mayor used city letterhead in his dealings with donors.

So now, Rob Ford has two weeks to transition the power of governance of Canada’s largest city to – oh wait – who?

It’s up to Toronto council how they proceed, and this is where it becomes clear that the judgement against Rob Ford -- the first of its kind ever in Canada, and possibly in North America – was more political than practical.

By firing Toronto’s mayor, the judge opened up the barn doors to the political back-stabbing within the city’s council chambers. It’s no secret that many city councillors despised Rob Ford’s policies – some may question whether or not that hatred even became personal too.

Although every member of council is an elected representative of their local community on council, none of them were individually elected by the people of Toronto to be mayor.

And that’s the real issue left in the wake of this landmark decision – and worse – it shows how even our democracy has become infected by bullies.

For the brief two-years of Rob Ford’s leadership, he has constantly bullied council, businesses, and residents into following him – or else.

When the city’s public transit commission appeared to favour a different transit plan than his, Rob Ford fired the general manager of the Toronto Transit Commission – a post he had successfully filled for over two decades.

When there was public outcry against service cuts and user fees, the Mayor showed his lack of concern for the people directly affected. He held an unprecedented 24-hour public hearing, where anyone could come address him personally, making their views known. Problem was, people were rushed through their two-minutes to speak, and Mayor Rob Ford clearly wasn't paying much attention, often looking like he was about to nod off during the whole fiasco.

Bullies seldom care what others think – they just do.

When his advisers – hell even his opponents – advised him it was a conflict of interest to raise funds for his high school football team in the manner he was doing, he ignored them and continued on.

Then, when a well-to-do citizen had enough, he hired one of the most prominent lawyers in the country – Clayton Ruby – to file charges of conflict of interest against the mayor.

If there is anything a bully can’t stand, is another bully cutting in on his turf.

So instead of admitting he made a mistake, he defended his decisions, claiming he didn't know all the rules of conflict of interest – which incidentally are printed and distributed every year to all members of council – and the race to remove Canada’s biggest city’s mayor began.

It was a quiet race, rarely covered in the press, until judgement day yesterday. That was when one bully succeeded over the other. In true blood sport style, they got Rob Ford in their clutches, and crushed his proverbial political neck, leaving a twisted mess of destruction for the remaining city councillors to clean up.

It was like watching one of those dinosaur shows on Discovery Channel, where the giant T-Rex is swarmed and killed by a group of savage Raptors.

Only in this case, Toronto’s city council is breathing a slight sigh of relief, as now they don’t have Rob Ford in all his pig-headed arrogance to bully them into following his leadership.

However, it remains to be seen who will take the reins of Toronto council, and lead the city going forward.

And worse, a bullied environment creates a culture where being bullied is the norm. So the next leader of Canada’s largest city may follow in their predecessors footsteps, and be just as stubborn and arrogant as before.

When Old Faithful Let’s You Down

For over nine-years, we've considered the Pickle BarrelRestaurant at Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue in Toronto, ‘Old Faithful.’

That’s what we call our favourite place to go, when we just can’t think of anywhere else we’d like to be for a night on the town. Old Faithful. It’s our regular family restaurant visit to celebrate the start of the weekend.

Actually, I've been going to the Pickle Barrel long before they had more than one location, as I grew up going to this great Jewish deli with my family when I was a kid.

It was – and for many still is – the place to go after Saturday services for lunch for many Jewish families in Toronto.

My girlfriend and I have been going to the Pickle Barrel for as long as we've been dating – over nine years, be it weekly or sometimes more or slightly less. Whenever we can’t think of any place else to go for a night out, we always fall back on what we call ‘old faithful’ – the Pickle Barrel.

We've come to know many of the staff by name at the Yonge/Eglinton location in mid-town Toronto, and we always get exceptional food and service there.

Our favourite waiter – Peter up at the Yonge/Eglinton location always says hi, and chats us up a bit, even if we’re not able to get seated in his section.

We've always enjoyed the wonderful service and great feel-good comfort foods of the Pickle Barrel.

Which is why we were shocked and dismayed when we didn't receive the same calibre of food or service at the downtown Toronto location in the Atrium across from the Eaton Centre.

Our waiter – Bob—seemed friendly and upbeat at first, giving us plenty of time to figure out what we want. Even though we probably know the menu by memory (after almost a decade we should!) we still take a bit of time to decide on what we want.

We always share an appetizer, and one of our old favourites happens to be the warm pumpernickel bread which has been served since I was a kid. I love the onions baked in the top, and it comes as a mini-loaf, and is always served warm with butter.

Or at least that’s how we've always had it – this past Friday night when it came to our table it was cold, stale, and hard as a brick.

When the waiter came by to check on us, I told him the bread was stale and asked if he could get us another one.

He told us he could, but because they freeze them, it would be exactly the same. He said he could heat it up for us – in the microwave.

Now, I’m not a professional chef, but I know stale bread when I see it. I also know that if you heat up bread in a microwave, it just becomes soggy – not very good at all.

And certainly not up to what we've ever witnessed in our nine-plus-years of enjoyment of the Pickle Barrel over the years. We've had the occasional bump along the way, but it has always been corrected right away, and without any question.

However, Bob, our waiter – didn't appear to think anything was wrong with serving cold stale bread to customers.

Bob, not knowing we’re regular customers, did say that the bread would be on the house.

The bread is always on the house! This appetizer isn't one we've ever been charged for in all the years we've been visiting this Toronto restaurant chain.

It’s one of those appetizers not on the menu, that I suppose original customers always ask for, so they have kept it available.

We occasionally do get some of the other appetizers which you have to pay for – the Asian Nachos with little bits of chicken, veggies and a sweet teriyaki sauce and cheese is one of our favourites.

Perhaps Bob was trying to up sell us to another appetizer, because he wanted a bigger tip?

Or maybe the restaurant just didn't have much of the pumpernickel bread left. Or maybe Bob was just lazy?

Who knows – regardless of the reason – serving stale cold bread in any restaurant is wrong. Mistakes happen, and occasionally something stale may get served. But in that instance, the staff should admit the mistake, and correct it right away.

They shouldn't tell the customer that’s just the way it is –deal with it – which essentially was Bob’s answer.

As Bob wasn't willing to do anything and I didn't want to make a big deal over bread, we let it go. That loaf of uneaten, stale cold bread just sat between my girlfriend and myself, glaring up at us throughout the remainder of our meal.

Our meal also wasn't up to the usual Pickle Barrel standards we've come to expect in our nine-years of being regular customers.

My girlfriend’s eggs Benedict was luke-warm when it arrived – not hot as it should be. My Hot BBQ Beef sandwich, which is supposed to be smothered with gravy had gravy on the side. The dill pickle which accompanies my meal looked like it was barely a baby dill – not the usual big deli one we get up at the Yonge/Eglinton location. And the bowl of coleslaw on the side of my order was barely half full – in fact it looked like it was left over from someone else’s meal.

Typically when we eat at the Pickle Barrel at Yonge/Eglinton we’re there on average about three-hours for dinner, racking up a bill over of $170 for just the two of us. We see other couples and families come and go around us. We just keep ordering drinks as we enjoy a long lazy dinner. We always get desert, no matter how full we feel, because it’s tradition.

Last Friday, it was as if we couldn't get out of that place fast enough. We only got iced teas, wolfed down our dinners, and skipping our tradition of desert. We paid our bill and were out of the restaurant in a record-breaking 45-minutes or less.

My girlfriend was very upset – after nine-years of wonderful dining experiences, old faithful had let us down. She kept telling me how she couldn't believe what just happened, and worried about going to our usual location ever again, for fear of it happening again.

I was also appalled at the whole situation, and wondered if this was the end of an almost decade long relationship with Old Faithful?