The South Bayview Bulldog

The business distress (more or less) of Canada’s newspapers has been turned into an appeal for federal government money — as much as $400 million — to sustain “democracy and trust” by an Ottawa think tank. The Public Policy Forum recommends that the CBC online news service be stripped of advertising and that it be required to engage in “civic-function journalism” whatever that may be. At first blush it really does sound like people complaining about the competition. Are the old newspapers the guardians of democracy? Can we bring back all the newspapers that died because of television news? There doesn’t appear to be any suggestion in this report that Twitter and Facebook go away.  Public Policy Forum

https://twitter.com/tpscalls/status/824638039418867712

COLLISION
Laird Dr and Millwood Rd, report of a pedestrian struck, no info on injuries #160060 ^cb

— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) January 26, 2017

Ladies Night at @GearsBikeShop Leaside was a BLAST! Thank you @pearlizumi for providing the kits! #mgcc #cycling #Toronto 🚴🏼‍♀️🎉 pic.twitter.com/pMRjczrLft

— Morning Glory C. C. (@MGridetoronto) January 26, 2017

Here is the scene at the Gears Bike Shop, 109 Vanderhoof Ave. Wednesday evening. There was some fun alright as the Morning Glory Cycle Club women had a social night.

An apparently unbiased report has concluded that the big three wireless network firms — Bell, Rogers and Telus — are fairly evenly matched in the quality of their service. The CBC publishes a story Thursday that the wireless-mapping company OpenSignal thinks that while there are differences that all three providers “were equally strong performers.”

The Dutch man accused of cyberbullying the ill-fated B.C. teen Amanda Todd also targeted a second Canadian victim, prosecutors in the Netherlands said Wednesday. Todd, 15, took her own life in 2012, apparently in distress over her folly with Aydin Coban, 38.  He  faces charges in Europe in the alleged abuse of 34 other young girls and five gay men. The enormity of the crimes and stunning vulnerability of the victims strains the imagination. The crimes as described in the linked story leave almost everything undescribed. The nature of offenses like “co-perpetration of rape”  among many others can only be guessed at.  CBC

The Ward 26 Town Hall meeting held Wednesday evening at Leaside arena heard Staff Sergeant Matt Moyer speaking on policing matters. Staff Moyer, a Leaside resident, said that the task force seeking new efficiencies and improvements has concluded that the TPS should not be in the school crossing guard business. It was one of a number of things that could probably be done just as well by civilians, he said. Moyer noted that the important crossing guard service is done largely by elderly people and that in cold weather they are frequently unable to work  When they are absent, the police fill in. He said his youngest crossing guard passed away in the fall at the age of perhaps 70. In future, the TPS hopes to see this job assumed by school boards.

NOISY PARTIES?

Staff Moyer said police should not be sending “two officers earning $90,000 a year each to go and investigate a noisy party in Leaside.” He cited such things as neighbour disputes over minor matters like where a repairman placed his ladder and accident reports just so an insurance company can allocate a claim. He said the task force will report to the police board Thursday and there will probably be announcements made Friday or over the weekend on these and similar reforms to policing.

PARKING PERMIT PROJECT

Moyer said he has a two-man task force checking the validity of handicapped parking permits in and around Leaside. He recalled how young people using the permits dash into the beer store in Leaside Centre or the Tim’s at Merton and Mt. Pleasant. Unlike his disabled grandfather who had only one leg, Moyer is unforgiving of this conduct and said he is seizing permits when they have been misused and fining the offenders $400.

OTHER SPEAKERS

Other speakers at the Town Hall, which was organized by Jon Burnside (Ward 26) were Stephen Conforti, of the City budget office, Jon Gaitanakis of the volunteer North Leaside Traffic Committee, Erica Cooke of the South Leaside Traffic Committee (also volunteer) Jamie Robinson of Metrolinx, Shawn Dartsch of Transportation Services and Michael Sraga of Planning Partnership, the Laird Focus Study Consultant.

 

A proposal has come forward for little house that remains on Yonge north of Davisville Ave. when people lived in low-rise single-family homes on the busy thoroughfare. Urban Toronto

Mary Tyler Moore’s portrayal of a single career woman, Mary Richards, in her eponymous 1970s show arrived alongside the Women’s Movement, making her a role model for generations of women, has died at the age of 80. She was with her husband of 33 years at the time of her death.

The Salvation Army Thrift Store at 60 Overlea Blvd is issuing a welcome in advance of its grand opening Thursday morning. Ron Nurse, the store manager, offered the invitation seen in the video below. A mural (above left) in multiple languages from the origins of the people of Thorncliffe Park was made by kids from Leaside High School and Marc Garneau High School.

A former Liberal Party of Canada organizer in Quebec has been convicted of fraud and sentenced to four-years in prison for his part in the so-called Adscam scandal more than 12 years ago. Jacques Corriveau is 83 and it is an open question as to just how long he will serve. In fact he was released on bail later in the day pending an appeal. But it is a bitter end to a life in politics. Corriveau swindled the federal government of an estimated $1.4 million. He has been given ten years to pay it back as a Montreal court rendered its verdict Wednesday morning.  Again, it seems like an open question as to how repayment will happen. The crimes Corriveau was convicted of occurred between 1997 and 2003 and were related to what became known as the sponsorship scandal (or Adscam) and which eventually helped bring down the Liberal government in 2006.

HOW IT WORKED

The program ran from 1996 until 2004, when broad corruption was discovered in its operations and the program was discontinued. Illicit and even illegal activities within the administration of the program were revealed, involving misuse and misdirection of public funds intended for government advertising in Quebec. Such misdirections included sponsorship money awarded to Liberal Party-linked ad firms in return for little or no work, in which firms maintained Liberal organizers or fundraisers on their payrolls or donated back part of the money to the Liberal Party. The resulting investigations and scandal affected the Liberal Party of Canada and the then-government of Prime Minister Paul Martin. It was an ongoing affair for years, but rose to national prominence in early 2004 after the program was examined by Sheila Fraser, the federal auditor general.

The University Health Network (UHN) is telling the story of Melissa B this Wednesday  The Burlington woman was dying from infection in her lungs that was resistant to antibiotics,. A lung transplant was needed but not at hand. Doctors asked her family if they wanted to make the heavy decision to remove Melissa’s lungs until a transplant was available. They did and Dr.Shaf Keshavjee, the surgeon in charge of the groundbreaking plan at Toronto General Hospital, went forward. She lived on an artificial system that kept her oxygenated and alive until the lung replacement was available. Dr. Keshavjee, among other things, is a graduate of North Toronto Collegiate. His dream as a boy was to become a surgeon.

We’re fond of telling each other how far the world has come by merely citing the calendar. It’s 2016. It’s 2017 and so on. Sadly, with each passing year the Era of the Internet reveals the capacity for an entire underclass of vulgar people to vent inbred anger. They’ve always been there. So it is, as reported by Mike Crawley of the CBC that the Twitter, Instagram and other social media accounts in the name of the member for Don Valley West, Kathleen Wynne, are often defaced by obscene and hateful comments.  We can’t believe that the Premier even reads them. You don’t get to be where she is by worrying about such stuff. The truth about 2017 is that much of the media is no longer moderated by editors and publishers who try to set a standard of decency for their publications. A misstep or two while you’re on Youtube will curl your hair.