The South Bayview Bulldog

John Tory is proposing a new tax to pay for housing and transit that will cost taxpayers an additional 0.5 per cent per year on their property tax for five years beginning in 2017. The mayor’s City Building Fund proposal, which will charge Toronto taxpayers an additional 0.5 per cent per year for five years, would have to win council approval before going into effect. CBC

Gunmen opened fire on a holiday party on Wednesday at a social services agency in San Bernardino, California, killing 14 people and wounding 17 others, then fled the scene, triggering an intense manhunt and a shootout with police, authorities said. Reuters

This video has been posted on the 53 Division Facebook page as a warning to everyone, especially  older folks, about the type of light-fingered larceny at work here. The video is from a distant Franco-German place by the look of the signs. Maybe Strasbourg, where French always precedes the German on signs.

Bonnie Lysyk

Ontario Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk has delivered a hair-raising report on the many things that don’t work in Ontario. Altogether, she finds a government that can’t shoot straight. It must be said the Ontario government is enormous, but what good is that if there are frequent power blackouts, faulty school buses, uninspected nursing homes and lurking child molesters. The government may be grateful at least that Ms. Lysyk didnt comment, apparently, on the quality of the cabinet’s decision-making. Did it make any sense to sell off part of Hydro One? That sort off thing. CBC 

Facebook billionaire Mark Zuckerberg will give away 99 per cent of his Facebook stocks, a $450 billion fortune to celebrate the birth of his daughter Chan over U.S. Thanksgiving. That will leave he and his wife Priscilla with $450 million worth of stocks to make do on. There aren’t too many details but Zuckerberg is part of the brotherhood of rich men like Bill Gates who have pledged to give away much of their fortunes to many good  causes. One of them is figuring out the renewable energy challenge. Queenie Wong, San Jose Mercury 

Executive Committee at Toronto Council has decided to buy the Comfort Inn East motel on Kingston Road and convert to what will be known as the Birchmount Men’s Shelter. Resistance to the idea has been strenuous in the area around the motel. The shelter will house 120 men all over 55 years. “The headline of our concerns is not that we don’t want it, it is that we don’t want it because we’re supporting enough (assisted housing) already,” said area resident Tom Moloney is quoted by CP24. “The issue is the placement of a large social housing project for needy people in a small footprint when there is so much else in the neighbourhood.”

John Lancaster of the CBC reports in video below on an incident at the North Sheridan Mall outside LCBO where two or three bystanders verbally abuse and appear to try to interfere in an arrest. This is at 1700 Wilson Ave.near Jane Street. CP24 identifies the person who took the video as Ajith Thala and says the police officer told a young black man he was not allowed to enter. Thala said the officer told him the young black man “walked into the liquor store and threw garbage at my feet.”

Toronto police were speaking Tuesday of the broad range of counterfeit good they encounter. They said they have confiscated some $12 million worth of counterfeit items (valued just how is not known) in 18 months. .As published by the  CBC, some of the fake items include Toronto Blue Jays post-season tickets and fake sports jerseys. Other illegitimate products include knock-offs of Coach, Gucci, Hermes, Louis Vuitton, Prada, Chanel, Kate Spade, Tiffany & Co., Michael Kors and Ugg and Dre headphones allegedly made by Apple . CBC

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Kristyn Wong-Tam

Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27) will speak at the City of Toronto 2015 Access, Equity and Human Rights Awards tomorrow (Wednesday, December 2, 2015) in recognition of Human Rights Day. Awards will be presented to five recipients who have made a difference in Toronto by eliminating discrimination and barriers to equality. This will occur at  6:30 p.m. in the Council Chamber at City Hall. City Manager Peter Wallace and other councillors will also participate in the award presentations. The recipients are Joanne Dallaire, Aboriginal Affairs Award; Farah Mawani, Access Award; Andrea Sesum, Constance E. Hamilton Award;  Mark Smith, Pride Award; Kamala-Jean Gopie, William P. Hubbard Award for Race Relations