Wall Street Journal

Ann Hui writes Thursday in the Globe and Mail that two former strategists for Mayor John Tory have been hired by Uber Taxi to advance its position in Toronto. They are Nick Kouvalis and John Duffy. It is not clear what should be made of this although it is worth knowing. Uber has now said it will apply for a taxi license in Toronto. If Uber got the idea from Kouvalis and Duffy good for them. It makes the point however that Uber couldn’t figure this out itself. Uber must also deal with legal action from the city requiring it to obey the law. And this is exactly the issue. Everywhere it goes around the world, Uber leaves a trail of disregard for the law and an apparently insatiable need to operate like some sort of privileged Ubermensch. Drivers who are not trained, cars not insured, fares that can leap into the stratosphere when it rains. Uber even tried to pretend that it wasn’t selling a taxi service.  What bunk. Mayor Tory’s remarks seem to focus on the inevitable march of technology. But the problem is not technology. It is Uber. Technology is just technology. Uber has left an international trail of anger and resistance that makes trust almost impossible. It’s not the imagination of Councillor Jim Karygiannis and others that there is a problem.

CBC summary of competition so far

The long-vacant storefront at 1491 Bayview Ave. has been leased, according to neighbors on the street. This is the smaller space that was occupied by Ron Sloan Raquet Specialist for many decades and which has stood empty since June of 2013. It is expected that the business will be a hairdressers.

The education minister’s performance in the Legislature today was sad. Liz Sandals had no answer for the OSSTF’s strategy of surprise drone strikes. Like the premier, she was confessing to the Opposition an utter lack of knowledge of why things are so out of control. She did not know why the unions were striking, she said.  But they are and they are doing it with a finesse that puts the Government of Ontario in the dunce chair, and incidentally, delivers a whipping to parents and children. It is every individual’s right we suppose to behave like a stevedore on the picket line, hooting like a hooligan. It’s just that we find it hard to think about teachers that way. Each passing day of their services withheld is a day lost in the early learning of these young people. And the reasons given for this are things like dissatisfaction with the way teachers are evaluated. It is scandalous and unacceptable. The government must find the backbone to impose its authority in a way that restores order out of this chaos.

Nine people have been appointed to the board of the Leaside Memorial Gardens Arena at a recent meeting of the North York Community Council. The appointments are effective and dependent on the continuing pleasure of City Council through to the end of 2016. Well known names will be seen: Elaine Snider, Raymond White, Cheryl Bannier , Janice Ivory-Smith, Ann Brown, Julie Brown, Jeff Dover, Adam Gordon, John Masterson

Mainstreet Technologies has produced a local poll about the Civic election process. It is notable for the question which asks if local campaigns are too long. (Gosh do you think so?)  What’s not said is why people feel so pummeled. The drum beat of 24-hour news, which lives largely by news conferences, and social media. It is another case where the media is seen to be oblivious to its influence. The effect has evolved. Great metropolitan newspapers like the Star have been propping up and knocking down issues as a source of interest for decades.without much (any?) acknowledgement that this is their business.  CP24

This is a large child pornography sweep which grew from an incident in York Region. It seems police were monitoring sites and detected a post which ultimately was revealed as a victim who was coerced to make the posting. CBC