Rational Radical

Here are a few…

Nurse loses licence over affair with patient –Man took his own life after suing CAMH

A nurse formerly employed at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health will lose her licence after she admitted to having sex with a patient while she worked there, a disciplinary panel ruled yesterday.  The nurse admitted that “she sexually abused the patient by engaging in sexual intercourse … among other things” during the man’s in-patient and outpatient treatment, according to an agreed statement of facts presented at her disciplinary hearing. She was fired in 2007 when the affair came to light.

Here’s another case of bad police–remember, I am an ardent supporter of the police but will not ignore the bad apples who do exist within the force.  Fortunately, the woman did finally get some justice, which might help in her long road to recovery:

30 years later, $215,000 for officer’s sex assault – Court makes award for ‘despicable’ attack

The Toronto Police Services Board has been ordered to pay Marian Evans $215,000 – plus her legal costs – after she sued for an “outrageous and despicable sexual assault” committed by a former Toronto police officer nearly 30 years ago. The court also ordered John David Sproule to pay $25,000 in punitive damages. Sproule, a constable who fondled and tried to kiss Evans in 1979 after a traffic stop, refused to attend the trial.

<snip>

On Jan. 6, 1979, Evans, then 24, was driving home alone in Scarborough at 3:30 a.m. when Sproule pulled her over in a marked cruiser and found her licence had been suspended for nonpayment of a fine. He said she could go to prison for 14 years and that he would take her to 41 Division. Sproule left her waiting at the scene and returned a short time later in an unmarked car. He then parked her car in a lot, told her to get into his car and drove to a secluded area where he grabbed her breast and tried to kiss her. When Evans complained to police, Sproule was charged. At the time, he was 32 and had been on the force for five years. He pleaded guilty to indecent assault and was fined $1,000. Back in 1979, Sproule’s father headed the Toronto police morality squad. After the conviction, Sproule quit the force and moved to Northern Ontario. He defied a subpoena to attend the civil trial.

During a hearing in September, Evans, now 54, gave an emotional account of her ordeal and the years of embarrassment and shame that prevented her from confronting what had happened. “I’ve never been so scared in my life before or after,” Evans testified during the proceedings. Chapnik wrote Evans “was trapped for a time in a police cruiser in a parking lot in the middle of the night. The fact that she had committed an infraction made her particularly vulnerable to intimidation by the officer.” Before the attack, Evans was a person her sister Kathleen described as “talented, charming, witty, very beautiful and charismatic,” a person who “lit up the room.” Afterward, Evans testified that she became estranged from her otherwise tight-knit Scarborough family, and over the years has battled depression, low self-esteem, sleeplessness and nightmares about “faceless authority figures.” She continues to panic when she sees police cars, she told the court.

And here’s something from one of my favourite columnists re. the recent case in France, where a Muslim asshole (no, not all Muslims are assholes; this guy happens to be an asshole an Muslim, both of which are relevant here) broke up his wedding party to announce to everyone that he was leaving his new bride because he just found out she wasn’t a virgin (they were about to have sex while the party raged on, apparently).  He tried to annul the marriage but the French legal system said, “Screw you, neanderthal.  We are in the third millenium here…”  Now before anyone accuses me of being ___ist, or ethnocentric, or anti-religion/culture, or anti-virginity, etc., I would have no problem with the story if the virginity rules applied to men as well.  If you belong to a certain culture, religion or society that demands virginity before marriage, so be it.  But when the rules are applied to only one sex, we’ve got a problem.

France got virginity ruling right - Rosie DiManno
A cousin of mine, who married into a Sicilian family, was required to show her blood-soiled wedding night sheets to her new mother-in-law for inspection, proof positive of virginity surrendered. I remember being horrified when she told me about this, a few weeks before the event. It sounded so demeaning. And, with all the knowledge of a teenage virgin, I also warned my cousin: “Some girls don’t bleed, you know.” She just shrugged it off.

I would have opened a vein before submitting to such undignified scrutiny. Indeed, some brides do precisely that, cut themselves to draw a bead of blood, because the revolting custom endures in many societies, whether a requisite of culture or religion. So this is not, strictly speaking, about Muslims. Virginity remains mandatory in vastly different conservative societies. Chastity Promise clubs have gained growing popularity among “till-I-do” teenagers in the U.S.

<snip>

The case provoked wide outrage as an attack on male-female equality. One female government minister called the original tribunal ascent a “fatwa against the emancipation of women.” Technically, the tribunal had based its judgment on a fundamental component of France’s Civil Code: A marriage partner can demand an annulment if his or her spouse fails to fulfill an “essential” part of their agreement. That includes “lack of truthfulness.”

But few in France took much note of the legal niceties. They saw this for what it was: Denunciation of a woman for having sex outside marriage, discrimination based on anachronistic traditions, and imposition of religious values on secular law. A broader fury also coalesced around the case – the worry in France of creeping Islamic fundamentalism threatening the nation’s precious aversion to sanctified religiosity.

<snip>

On the matter of annulment for absence of chastity, the higher court got it right. “Virginity can in no case constitute an essential quality. It is not possible to obtain an annulment on such a discriminatory basis; this motive is an attack on male-female equality, the right to dispose of one’s own body, and human dignity. It would be contrary to public order to grant an annulment on the grounds of non-virginity.”

I recently wrote about an animal who savagely attacked two women simply for being lesbians and then the story about the other animals who threw acid at young girls simply for trying to educate themselves. Here is a story that combines both issues to a degree.  I’m not one to pay attention to beauty pageants and I normally would not be able to think of any way that a participant in such an event could ever make it onto my radar of impressive people.  However, this woman and her story certainly fits the bill. And it’s not very re-assuring that the just-ass system in other countries can be as lousy as ours, as you’ll see:

Muslim beauty queen tells of racism, survival — Former Miss Germany inspired by Anne Frank

Asli Bayram knows the urge to hide, fearful of those outside who might hurt her, and too afraid to do anything that might get her noticed. She fought back against the fear three years ago by becoming Miss Germany, the first Muslim to do so. She fights back now by reading to schoolchildren The Diary of Anne Frank, about another young woman who feared for her life “I always liked her, her diary, her personality. She was a strong girl,” the 27-year-old beauty queen and actor says in a break from her two-week series of readings around Toronto. The readings are presented by the Te-Amim Music Theatre of Toronto with funding from the Friends of the Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies.

Bayram says the story of Anne, a Jewish girl forced to hide from the Nazis during World War II only to be eventually discovered and die of typhus in Bergen-Belsen, resonated with her as a young Turkish girl growing up in Germany. Like Anne, she was made to feel like an outsider in her own country. And, like Anne, it was because of Nazis. Bayram takes a deep breath before retelling the story.

She was 12 years old when a knock came at the door of her family apartment in Darmstadt. Bayram answered, with her father following close behind. At the door was a neo-Nazi neighbour, a little drunk and holding a gun. The man, who had spewed racist epitaphs at the family before, pointed his gun at the young girl. At that moment, her father lunged forward, pushed her out of the way and slammed shut the door. The bullet passed through the door, hitting Bayram’s father in the stomach before striking Bayram in the arm. As she lay on the floor, barely noticing her own wound at first, Bayram watched her father die. “It is hard to talk about, but I feel I must,” Bayram tells 100 children in east-end Toronto during one of her readings. “It took more than an hour for the police or doctors to arrive, and the police station was only 15 minutes away,” Bayram says, her voice a hush in the quiet room. “My father died.”

The restless children, all about the age Bayram was when she was shot, fall still and silent as she recounts how racist violence touched her life.

The killer was given a six-year sentence, and served only 3  1/2 years in prison, the rest on day parole. Bayram was forced to testify in court with him staring at her the entire time. “It was very hard, very unfair the way the legal system treated us,” she says in an interview.

In the following years, she slept with the lights on. Her mother would obsessively check the doors of their new apartment – they moved after the shooting – making sure they were locked. “We felt like we did something wrong,” she says. The family refused to completely isolate themselves, however. Bayram’s mother pushed her children to get an education and all four girls went to law school, including Bayram. She’s the only one who did not become a lawyer, having gone into acting after the Miss Germany pageant as a way to keep telling her story.

She has been in three movies so far, on television and starred in a one-woman play based on Anne Frank that toured Europe to great acclaim, and was the basis of her readings in Toronto. Bayram jokes now that beauty contests are not normally a political statement, but for her, it was. She entered the competition because she was frustrated at seeing only blond-haired, blue-eyed girls crowned Miss Germany. “I was curious. I didn’t think I would win,” she says, adding she just wanted someone who looked like the girls she knew to be in the contest. When she won, she says, she was treated like a hero. Young Turkish girls said they felt as if they finally belonged in their own country, and white Germans held her up as an evidence their country was progressing from its racist past.

She smiles now at all the fallout from the pageant win, but the scars of racism never seem far from the surface. With little warning, she starts describing how isolated and alone she felt as one of the few Turkish girls in her school, ignored by the others at play time. “It was very hard, standing alone all the time,” she says, rubbing her arm where the bullet struck, “but it’s okay. It made me stronger.”

Here’s a topic that always stirs up controversy (thanks CM).  Whatever your views, I hope you don’t take a one-sided or black and white perspective:

Laws put sex workers at risk – (Antonia Zerbisias)

If there’s one thing that divides feminists, it’s the sex business. On one side, you have those who regard the world’s oldest profession as a form of slavery, which only desperate women would get into, or get forced into. They maintain that it victimizes all women because it makes men see them as sex objects, or worse. On the other side, there are those – count me among them – who look at it as a career choice, and a necessary service. It has nothing to do with patriarchal structures because it probably predated any form of patriarchy – and may well outlive it.

It’s the woman’s body and she’s free to use it as she wants, we say. After all, nobody stops race car drivers from risking their lives for fame and fortune, thrills and chills. So why put the brakes on sex workers? Why criminalize sex – a perfectly natural act – when drinking, smoking, gambling and other vices are not a crime?

The funny thing is, prostitution is legal in Canada. It’s everything that allows a worker to safely ply her trade that will land her in jail. All of which results in exactly the kind of exploitation from which the sex police want to shield prostitutes. “People have a moral problem with us,” says Amy Lebovitch, interim executive director of Sex Professionals of Canada (SPOC). “The media definitely play a part. They’ve created this view that sex for money is exploitative – but sex goes on every day.”

So why should the religious right and righteous left impose their morality on sex workers, despite how virtually all the research indicates that sex workers’ are put at risk by laws that cause more problems than they prevent? This was the battle in San Francisco during the 2008 election campaign. Proposition K, which would have corrected the criminal approach to sex workers, while redirecting police resources to traffickers and pimps, missed passing by some 60,000 votes last week.

As for Lebovitch, she is no victim. “I began in the profession because I wanted independent security,” she tells me. “There are always going to be people involved in it for all sorts of reasons – to pay off debt, or to go through school or because they enjoy it. There isn’t just one box you can put all us into it. I don’t feel exploited.” This is why, last year, SPOC mounted a legal challenge to strike down three provisions of the Criminal Code: s.210, which forbids the keeping of a bawdy house, s.212 (1) (j) which makes living off the avails a prostitution a crime and s.213 (1) (c), which bans communication for the purpose of prostitution. All week, sex workers, lawyers, academics, experts and the Crown have been duking it out in a closed boardroom at the Superior Court of Justice. The case will be heard well into next year.

SPOC says that barring bawdy houses prevents women from working in their homes, or sharing spaces with other sex workers. Not only is that a violation of their human rights, but it forces them into the streets. Living off the avails means they can’t be in normal, healthy relationships because their partners will be charged. As for communication, to make a deal, women must climb into cars with strangers before they can safely assess the situation.

None of these laws, say the experts, have ever prevented the real problem – human trafficking. In any case, there are kidnapping, abuse and rape laws on the books for the slave trade.  In fact, the Criminal Code, as it now stands, makes it easier for traffickers. “These laws create an environment where trafficked girls are prevented from going to the police because they’re told they will be deported if they do,” says Lebovitch. “If these laws are struck, sex will move from the underground into the open where people can see it as a legitimate choice.”

All sex workers want is what all the rest of us working girls do. Says Lebovitch: “We want to be able to live with partners. We want to have safe lives. We want our rights and freedoms.” Seems fair enough. Just because sex workers do what they do, doesn’t mean that they should get screwed.

You may recall my posts re. the young man who foolishly drank and drove and ended up killing himself and two friends in Muskoka.  The post below refers to his father’s initiatives following his death.  I personally agree with stricter measures for new drivers but would probably feel different if I were a young driver.  Also, I want stricter sanctions placed on everybody, so that if you drink and drive or prove that you’re a menace in other ways (e.g., repeated infractions), you face stiffer penalties much sooner.

Tougher rules ahead for young drivers

The Ontario government is expected to introduce tough new legislation tomorrow that will further restrict the privileges of young drivers. The move comes after a long lobbying campaign, led by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Tim Mulcahy, the father of one of the three young people killed in a drunk-driving accident in Muskoka on July 3.

New measures affecting young new drivers are expected to include:

A total ban on alcohol consumption
A ban on more than one teenage passenger
Zero tolerance for speeders – one ticket and they’re off the road.

“We’ve been advocating this for a long time,” said Carolyn Swinson, Toronto spokeswoman for MADD. “Manitoba has already brought that in – it’s already zero blood alcohol for drivers up to the age of 21 and for the first five years for new drivers.

“We’ve been asking Ontario to follow suit for a while.” In Ontario’s current graduated licensing system – introduced in 1994 – young drivers can obtain a full driver’s licence after just two years of driving experience, making it legal for them to drive after having a drink, and placing them on the standard demerit point system for speeding and other moving infractions.

Mulcahy began echoing MADD’s calls for action shortly after his son’s death when he learned that his son had a history of speeding and that alcohol had been a factor in his deadly car crash. On July 3, Tyler Mulcahy, 20, his girlfriend Nastasia Inez Elzinga, 19, and friends Kourosh Totonchian, 19, and Cory Mintz, 20, spent the afternoon drinking 31 drinks over a three-hour period at a restaurant in Port Carling.  They left that evening in Mulcahy’s Audi, but they never made it home. Tyler Mulcahy was driving when he crashed the car into the Joseph River. Only Elzinga escaped the sinking car with her life.

His son’s death launched Mulcahy on a crusade to change the laws that bind young drivers in the province, to stop other youth from following his son’s fatal journey. First he began a petition for a revamping of the laws.  Then he began taking out full-page ads in the Star and other local newspapers that urged the province to revoke the licences of those under the age of 21 should they be caught speeding or driving with any alcohol in their system.  “Dear Mr. McGuinty, my son is dead,” the ads began.  “It is not your fault, but you can make a difference and reduce future suffering.”

It was enough to earn him a private meeting with the premier and, according to a note posted to his blog last Thursday, the drive produced results. “Mr. McGuinty called me this morning and told me that both laws are being introduced into the legislature on Tuesday,” Mulcahy wrote last week. “I could not believe my ears and wept with Mr. McGuinty on the phone. If these bills are passed, Ontario will be the safest jurisdiction for young drivers in the world.”

Mulcahy wasn’t available for comment yesterday, but in August he told the Star: “I’d like Tyler’s accident to make a difference. “I really feel there needs to be zero tolerance for alcohol up to the age of 21. Once someone takes one drink, it’s easy to take two, three, four or 10 because we stop thinking,” he added. “I feel that speeding is at least as much of an issue as drinking and driving. If there was a zero tolerance for speeding and the licence was revoked for one speeding incident, then word would quickly get around that you can’t speed and (keep) your licence. “I want the law changed immediately so that I don’t have to worry as much when my daughters are out partying and driving around in vehicles.”

Here is an article forwarded by CM.  Read ‘em and weep (warning: it’s very long; it’s followed by commentary from a columnist I respect, Ryoson James, and then Miller’s own retort)…

The Star’s City Hall Bureau examines nine of the major initiatives undertaken by Mayor David Miller’s administration and measures their successes

As Toronto Mayor David Miller reaches the halfway point in his second term, the Star assesses the progress of his administration on a range of issues, from generating new revenues to delivering services. Miller has certainly enjoyed wins, like getting city council to adopt a sweeping climate change plan to reduce greenhouse gases. That means putting a priority on transit, getting people out of their cars, and adding bike lanes. But on some proposals the process of actually getting things done has become weighed down by infighting and inaction. Still, now that the mayor has been given more power and is backed by a hand-picked executive committee, it raises the question whether city hall is just spinning its wheels.

GARBAGE
THE PLAN
Divert 70 per cent of Toronto’s garbage from the dump by 2010, in part by setting up a fee-for-service system that rewards residents who throw out the least.

Advocates
Mayor David Miller and works chair Councillor Glenn De Baermaeker.

STATUS
Single-family homes are already diverting more than 60 per cent of their waste by composting, recycling or other means. The city will add new materials to the blue bin program – foam packaging and plastic grocery bags – in December. New recycling and garbage bins are being delivered to every household in the city, and since Nov. 1 residents are being billed for garbage collection, just as they are billed for water use.

BACK STORY
Big apartment and condominium complexes divert only 18 per cent. City staff have launched a push for recycling and composting systems in big buildings; it will have to succeed to reach the 70 per cent goal. The bins have been a mixed success; many households don’t have them or got the wrong size. Retooling garbage collection for 1 million households is a massive job. The magnitude of the exercise swamped information lines and frustrated householders.

WHAT’S NEXT
the next few weeks should show whether the new garbage bin system is suffering temporary teething pains or longer-term problems. Many residents wonder how they’ll fare in winter conditions.

SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Mixed.

FOOD
THE PLAN

To make healthy and diverse food available on Toronto streets by the summer of 2008, going beyond traditional hot dog fare.

ADVOCATE
Councillor John Filion, chair of the board of health.

STATUS
No new foods are available yet, but new plans keep coming back to city council for approval.

BACK STORY
Initially, the city considered borrowing $700,000 to buy 35 carts that it would then lease to vendors, a measure that would prevent “cart conglomerates” from moving in.

Mayor David Miller quickly put a stop to that idea after complaints arose that a cash-poor city shouldn’t be spending money on food carts.

Instead, the city embarked on a long study that included asking interested cart manufacturers to submit plans. Filion sought alternative ways to pay for the carts, such as asking a charitable organization to sign on, but found no support.

City staff came up with a five-year pilot project for 13 carts to start next summer, but it was shelved because it was too complicated and too long.

One problem is that a simple idea became entangled with other city goals, such as ensuring healthy food and creating employment for new immigrants or residents in at-risk neighbourhoods. The city dismissed the idea of simply setting parameters for the carts and having public health regulate them.

WHAT’S NEXT
Council will vote next month on the latest plan: a three-year pilot project to begin next spring with up to 15 permits, plus a one-year pilot project allowing 15 existing hot dog vendors to expand their menus for a $1,000 fee.

SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Failure.

HOMELESS
THE PLAN
Reduce homelessness and create 1,000 units of affordable housing each year.

ADVOCATE
Mayor David Miller.

STATUS
Since launch in February 2005, the Streets to Homes initiative, run by the city’s shelter, support and housing division, has helped almost 1,200 people go from the streets into permanent housing where nearly 90 per cent remain. About 3,800 homeless people stay in Toronto shelters on any given night, but the total number using a shelter last year was 24,868 – down 20 per cent from 2001.

In his 2010 blue book, Miller promised to create 1,000 units of affordable housing in the city each year. Last year the city approved 1,797 affordable housing units, but so far this year only 349 have been approved. Nearly 70,000 households in Toronto are on a waiting list.

THE BACK STORY
The city has moved from a model of “enabling” homeless people to remain on the street to an aggressive push to get them housed. This approach has included closing some shelter beds, much to the annoyance of some anti-poverty advocates, who feel the city has moved too quickly.

Officials say this year’s failure to reach the 1,000-unit affordable housing target is the result of receiving less housing money from Ottawa and Queen’s Park, who pay the lion’s share of the cost.

WHAT’S NEXT
Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised $1.9 billion to deal with homelessness and affordable housing over the next five years. The city’s affordable housing department hopes the benefits will be seen by the end of next year. This spring the city set aside $5 million a year to hire additional outreach workers to help curb panhandling and find jobs and homes for street people.

SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Moderate success.

ACCOUNTABILITY
THE PLAN
Ensure more accountability, with four independent officers: auditor-general, ombudsperson, integrity commissioner and lobbyist registrar.

ADVOCATES
Mayor David Miller and city council

STATUS
Only the auditor-general’s office is running well.

BACK STORY
Despite touting accountability and oversight, hiring staff for these key positions, required by Queen’s Park, has been a long, painful process.

The integrity commissioner’s job remains unfilled more than two months after David Mullan retired. The city announced it had hired lawyer Geri Sanson in June. But four months later, officials admitted they couldn’t negotiate a contract with Sanson. Under dispute: whether she’d be hired as an employee, which the city wanted, or retained for services.

Some cities, such as Hamilton and Vaughan, have given their integrity commissioner authority to issue sanctions – a clear sign of independence – but Toronto has not. Last year, when Mullan advised a councillor to apologize for irresponsible behaviour during the 2006 election, council voted to ignore his request.

Marilyn Abraham left the job of lobbyist registrar after a year. Linda Gehrke replaced her in August. Lobbyists and politicians complain the new register is complicated, cumbersome and ineffective.

Auditor-general Jeffrey Griffiths has been in the job since 2002, when his position was expanded to ensure more independence. His office is working well.

WHAT’S NEXT
Ombud Fiona Crean starts tomorrow, months behind the city’s original target timeframe of June. Her job will be to handle complaints from the public over delivery of city services.

A new search for an integrity commissioner starts soon.

SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Failure.

FEES
THE PLAN
“Everybody Gets to Play,” a well-intentioned scheme to give more low-income people free access to recreational programs in Toronto.

ADVOCATES
Mayor David Miller and executive committee member Councillor Joe Mihevc, chair of the community development and recreation committee.

STATUS
The plan didn’t even get to city council for approval. Miller and senior staff scrapped it as it was imploding weeks after being introduced.

BACK STORY
Unveiled to much fanfare by the parks, forestry and recreation department, the proposal called for the city to increase its “cost recovery” or “user pay” percentage for recreational programs from 30 per cent to 50 per cent by 2014. A portion of the extra money generated was to go toward the city’s Welcome Policy, a subsidy program that gives low-income residents free access to recreation. The proposal also sought to provide free skating, leadership and swimming programs in Toronto public and separate schools for Grade 4 and 5 students. But it became mired in controversy over a proposed 20 per cent increase this year for recreational program fees and permit fees for rink and field rentals. The hike was later dropped to 8 per cent.

The entire episode was a major embarrassment for the parks and recreation department, and drew charges that Mihevc and the mayor weren’t on top of the file.

WHAT’S NEXT
After admitting recently that the city tried to “bite off too much” with the proposal, Mihevc said a revised approach is expected, probably next spring.

SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Complete flop.

NATHAN PHILLIPS
THE PLAN
Repair and rejuvenate Nathan Phillips Square, the city’s most important public space.

ADVOCATES
Mayor David Miller, with backing from a broad community coalition. Councillor Peter Milczyn is the political point man overseeing the project.

STATUS
An international design competition attracted wide interest. The winner, Plant Architect, Inc. and Shore Tilbe Irwin, was announced in February 2007.

The designers have been working ever since, translating the sweeping design – including a permanent stage and restaurant, fountains that spring from the deck of the square, and a move for the Peace Garden – into plans that can be handed over to builders.

BACK STORY
The original plan called for a public fundraising campaign to acquire $25 million of the $42-million cost.

That idea has been shelved because city officials doubt a campaign would succeed amid fierce competition for philanthropic dollars and a sinking economy. Revenue from the Toronto Parking Authority and advertising on Toronto’s new transit shelters has now been earmarked for the project.

WHAT’S NEXT
The first contract is due to go to tender late this month. It involves turning the flat roof over the main entrance, currently closed, into a public garden. Work won’t start till the spring, since the whole roof needs repair.

Plans are to proceed in stages, so the entire square doesn’t turn into a construction zone at once, with completion in 2012. But lack of private funding might stretch the completion date beyond that.

SUCCESS OR FAILURE
The design winner received broad acclaim, but the test will be awarding the initial contract for the roof garden.

BIKE LANES
THE PLAN
To build 1,000 kilometres of bikeways, including 495 km of bike lanes, by 2012, delayed from the original 2011 target.

ADVOCATES
Councillor Adrian Heaps, who heads the cycling committee, and Mayor David Miller, who promised during his 2006 re-election bid to “construct bike trails and lakefront promenades across the city from Etobicoke to Scarborough.”

STATUS

Since 2001, the city has completed 395 km of bike lanes, shared roads and off-road paths. Of those, only 91 km represent bike lanes – of which 7 km were built last year and nearly 20 km this year. That means the city has some serious catching up to do. If council approves an additional 16 km along Lawrence Ave. E. at its December meeting, the city will meet its 50-km target for the year, though they won’t all be in place.

BACK STORY
The Bike Plan, first approved in 2001, calls for creating a network of bike-friendly streets that will put all residents within a five-minute ride to the network.

In January, council tried to streamline approvals by taking the decision away from community councils, where politicians could delay and stall under pressure from a single ward councillor opposed to the upheaval caused by adding a bike lane.

But local skirmishes among drivers, cyclists and neighbourhood businesses, each with their own concerns, still slow the process. One example: a prolonged battle over 700 metres of Annette St., opposed by the local councillor. The new process resulted in a city council vote in favour of bike lanes along that stretch.

WHAT’S NEXT
The city has earmarked $8 million for more bike lanes in its 2009 capital budget, which would add 100 km, and has said it’s committed to hitting its 2012 target.

SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Mixed.

UNION STATION
THE PLAN
Turn the historic transportation hub into a hot destination with new stores and restaurants, and new offices in the west wing, while preserving heritage elements.

ADVOCATE
No one.

STATUS
After acquiring the building in 2000, the city sought a private-sector partner to renovate and rehabilitate it, but the initial deal with a consortium fell apart in 2006. The city then decided to go it alone. A private-sector investment of up to $150 million for a plan to dig down and create a retail hub on the lower level hasn’t turned up, so renovations will have to be funded from city resources.

BACK STORY
It’s hugely complicated to remake a building that serves as a hub for GO Transit and sees 100,000 commuters stream through daily. GO, the TTC and VIA Rail are just some of the players to be accommodated. Meanwhile, years of neglect have led to a repair backlog of $190 million.

WHAT’S NEXTStaff have recommended extending the retainer for architects NORR Limited to continue detailed design-development work. The city wants to take over management from the Toronto Terminals Railway Co. on May 1 and expects the station will operate at a break-even level in 2009.

It’s anticipated major repairs and renovations will be done from 2010 through 2012, at a cost of $365 million.

SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Failure.

TAXES
THE PLAN
Find new revenues to augment property taxes.

ADVOCATE
Mayor David Miller.

STATUS
After an acrimonious fight last fall, city council passed a new municipal land transfer tax on real estate transactions. On the sale of a $400,000 home, it generates $3,725.

Council also passed a $60-a-year personal vehicle registration tax that took effect on Sept. 1 and is expected to provide $20 million in 2008.

BACK STORY
City tax consultants studied implementing – as part of enhanced powers under the City of Toronto Act – new taxes including road tolls, a parking lot or billboard tax, and sales taxes on tobacco, event tickets and alcohol in bars.

But the politicians balked. They stayed with the land transfer tax, but watered it down under pressure from the real estate industry. People who had already signed purchase agreements didn’t have to pay even if their deal closed after Feb. 1, when the tax took effect. The measure had originally been touted to bring in $300 million a year but will raise only about $155 million in 2008.

To make the tax more palatable, exemptions were created for first-time buyers, and also for deals already in the pipeline. The tax is expected to eventually yield $240 million per year.

WHAT’S NEXT
Land transfer tax revenue could grow bigger as house prices and sales climb – but the resale market is slowing. Finance staff says don’t count on more than $240 million.

The city may take another look at new taxes, particularly on booze. A 10 per cent tax on LCBO and bar sales would bring in an estimated $150 million annually, but it’s complicated.

SUCCESS OR FAILURE
Mixed.

THE BOTTOM LINE — After 5 years, Miller has failed to seal the big deals (Royson James)

David Miller’s been Toronto’s mayor and chief magistrate for five years. But if he’s found his legs as civic leader, it clearly isn’t obvious to his subjects. His first term was widely condemned as a wasted three years, marked by timidity and disappointment. Now, halfway through a newly expanded four-year term, there is the sense that Mayor Miller has the city spinning its wheels.

Miller’s problem is not inactivity or laziness; rather, he has trouble closing the deal on major projects. And when that happens repeatedly – the 311-call system, food carts, renovating Union Station and Nathan Phillips Square – voters conclude the leader isn’t delivering.  In fact, since Miller was re-elected he has pursued an aggressive agenda, to the point of arrogance. He attaches his name to city projects, bypassing city council. When he wants to push an item through he claims it as part of his mandate, muting opposition. He has ruminated about bagging more power to his already inflated responsibilities, including the right to hold secret meetings with his hand-picked executive committee.

With such tight control, one would expect quick execution of policies. Miller said last month he was “pleased to report that over 97 per cent” of the items in his mandate “are now underway, and over 28 per cent have already been completed.” So, where is the evidence the city is purring along superbly? Where’s the long list of achievements? Upon reflection, the successes appear as partial and small, while citizens seek completion of long-standing, significant projects.

Miller is off hither and yon on many initiatives. But he has completed, by his own accounting, barely a quarter of them. And the ones still outstanding are the issues that matter, the true test of an efficient, effective city administration. How much longer before he fixes Union Station? In 1998, the year of amalgamation, Mayor Mel Lastman took a tour of the TTC platforms, too narrow for safety, and vowed they would be widened. They remain untouched. Still, Miller’s ambition is to fix the entire complex, using taxpayers’ money. We’ll update you in 10 years.

Remember how the private sector was to contribute more than half the Nathan Phillips Square makeover cost? No deal. Taste buds across the city tingled at the prospect of ethnically diverse food sold from street vendors – until the great ideas sank in bureaucratic silliness, such as the ill-fated plan to have the city borrow money to get into the food cart business. The idea of calling 311 to connect to any city service is a hopeful one for citizens tired of searching for basic information. Five years later, it’s still not in place.

When one of the mayor’s strongest and universally embraced promises – the establishment of four officers to ensure public accountability – still languishes, more than eyebrows are raised. Yes, we have more planners at city hall, more cops on the street, fewer potholes, more investments in the arts, a climate change plan, the start of a city-wide transit plan (that’s short of funding), and more initiatives than citizens can process. But these have such limited impact on the city’s psyche.  Since Miller has been mayor, we’ve had stunning additions to the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum, plus a new opera house – all in the city, but not built by the city. It’s those types of transformative projects and bold changes Miller has failed to execute or capture.

Mayor fires back at critics (Nov 17, 2008 04:30 AM Vanessa Lu City Hall Bureau Chief)

David Miller bristled at the suggestion there may be a perception out there that he can’t get the deal done as Toronto mayor. “Nobody’s ever suggested that to me, ever,” Miller said during an interview Friday in his city hall office marking five years in the job.  He quickly rhymed off a list of actions that the city has taken under his leadership, from climate change projects like green roofs to tax incentives for businesses to set up shop in certain neighbourhoods. Construction is underway on the waterfront, including the new Corus building and George Brown College, plus parks and boardwalks, he said.

Miller pointed to the balanced operating budget – $8.2 billion, with a 3.75 per cent residential property tax hike – that was presented in January, the first in a decade in which the city managed to balance its books without waiting for help from the province.  Now at the halfway point of his second mandate, Miller projects a confident air. In a series of snapshots yesterday, the Star assessed his performance, rating it as a failure on a number of issues, from hiring accountability officers to revitalizing Union Station.

While he has taken the politically difficult step of raising revenues through a municipal land transfer tax and vehicle registration fee, the battle was messy, involving a deferral vote by rebellious councillors, followed by threats to close community centres on Mondays and shut down the Sheppard subway indefinitely. Eventually, the taxes were approved, but watered down, delivering much lower revenue than originally estimated. “I have to build a coalition on every single vote,” Miller said. “Are some of the debates tough? Do some of the proposals get changed? Yes, of course.” But Miller argued that’s part of legitimate municipal government, where councillors have to come together to forge agreement.

Even though Miller has championed a user-pay system for garbage, with new required bins, the rollout has been far from smooth. Some 75,000 bins are yet to be delivered, though charges began this month. Miller conceded residents in some areas of the city are frustrated, but he argued the program could not be delayed. “If you look at the big picture, it’s a complete transformation of how we do it. We will get through these initial hurdles,” he said. “Where it’s fully implemented, it’s working.”

Miller emphasized that when he first took office in 2003, the city was still recovering from the MFP computer leasing scandal. His first term was focused on turning the government around to ensure it would work properly, and laying the foundation for other changes. “In this term, the only criticism I would make is we’re doing so much, Torontonians often don’t realize how successful and advanced their city government is,” he said, citing new policies to help find permanent housing for the homeless and the initial work on the Transit City streetcar network.

Moderate politicians, who vote with Miller sometimes, agree the mayor has a huge agenda. But they say it’s often hard to measure success. “Overall, he’s doing well, but there have been some bumps,” said Councillor Paul Ainslie, pointing to the one-vote, 23-22, victory last month over those who had hoped to see the TTC deemed an essential service. “It was another nail-biter,” he said, similar to the deferral vote on the land transfer tax, where the deciding vote was against the mayor. A broad climate-change policy was endorsed unanimously last year, but Ainslie said it’s hard to measure what that actually means for residents. “In politics, people need tangibles,” he said.

Councillor Peter Milczyn believes there needs to be stronger political oversight of city staff on key projects. “When the mayor has an aggressive and progressive agenda, you can’t simply accept that the staff will manage it,” he said. “You can have the best idea in the world, but if there’s no sense of urgency, it won’t get done.”

And yes, I am allowed to highlight the hate, hypocrisy, discrimination, and backward thinking of the people who run the mosque or adhere to its ugly principles, regardless of their religion. If you want to preach or follow such ugliness, do it in a country that condones it; Canada is not that country, even though we are selectively tolerant of hate.

Mosque fights for human rights as it smears West, Jews online — Centre backs womens’ complaint of violation of religious rights while denouncing other faiths

A mosque asking that Canadian workplaces respect a strict Muslim dress code is at the same time disseminating slurs against Jews and Western societies, and warning members against social integration. The Khalid Bin Al-Walid Mosque near Kipling Ave. and Rexdale Blvd. serves as the religious authority for eight Somali women complaining to the Canadian Human Rights Commission that UPS Canada Ltd. violated their religious rights at a sorting plant. The mosque, founded in 1990 and serving upwards of 10,000 people, preaches strict adherence to sharia, or Islamic law, and no compromise with the West.  Teachings on the mosque’s website, khalidmosque.com, refer to non-Muslim Westerners as “wicked,” “corrupt” and “our clear enemies.” Sometimes Jews are singled out.

“Is it permissible for women to wear high-heeled shoes?” begins one posting in question-and-answer format. “That is not permissible,” comes the reply. “It involves resembling the Disbelieving Women or the wicked women. It has its origin among the Jewish women.” Modern pastimes are condemned. “What is the ruling on subscribing to sports channels?” another question begins. “Watching some of the female spectators, when the camera focuses on them time after time” stirs “evil inclinations,” the lesson reads. “Some (players) may not even believe in Allaah.”

Mosque leaders refused repeated requests for an interview. A  disclaimer on the website says questions and answers do not necessarily reflect the mosque’s views. But the About Us page says: “All questions and answers on this site (are) prepared, approved and supervised by (the mosque’s imam) Bashir Yusuf Shiil.”  The mosque’s stand on the UPS case also appears contradictory. In September, a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal heard two weeks of testimony from eight mosque members alleging “Islamophobia” at the company’s west Toronto plant. Three final days of testimony are scheduled for next week.

The eight women, who lost their jobs at UPS, say Islam dictates that they wear a full-length skirt for modesty. The courier company insists that any skirt be knee-length for safety, as workers climb ladders up to 6 metres high. Under their skirt, the women wear full-length trousers but say they do not want the lower part showing in case the shape of the calf can be discerned. The complaint originally centred on the company’s use of temporary workers and uneven enforcement of its safety rules.  But the key question remains: Is UPS insisting on shorter hems for safety or is it violating religious rights by denying the women permanent jobs unless they conform?

So far, no Khalid Bin Al-Walid Mosque representative has attended the sessions, but the women cited the mosque as their place of worship and religious authority, and tabled a letter from its administration. “This is to certify that the religion of Islam requires all Muslim women to cover her entire body inclusive of the legs, arms, head, ears and neck,” the letter reads. “As such, (the women) would not be able to wear pants as an outfit.” On the other hand, the mosque’s website teachings forbid women to work outside the home in the first place. “It is known that when women go to work in the workplaces of men, this leads to mixing with men,” one such posting says. “This is a very dangerous matter,” it reads. “It is in clear opposition to the texts of the Shariah that order the women to remain in their houses and to fulfill the type of work that is particular for her …”We ask Allah to protect our land and the lands of all Muslims from the plots and machinations of their enemies.”

Two of the women making the complaint – Dales Yusuf, 46, and Nadifo Yusuf (no relation), 36 – said in an interview that they live in Canada now, and are free to pick and choose from Islamic law. “We must work,” said Dales Yusuf. “I’m a single parent raising my kids.” Jacquie Chic, a lawyer with the Workers’ Action Centre representing the women at the hearings, said neither she nor her clients were aware of the mosque’s posted teachings. “I, the Workers’ Centre and these women are concerned enormously about any expression of anti-Semitism or any other form of racism,” she said.

Questions to the mosque about its teachings were met with evasiveness over three weeks. Mosque chairman Osman Mohamed three times agreed to an interview and three times cancelled at last minute. Imam Shiil was said to be in Saudi Arabia and unreachable. Mosque administrator Abukar Mohamed confused matters further by appearing to agree with UPS, saying: “The Quran says women must be covered – it doesn’t give you the specific clothes. But I am not a religious authority.”

I forgot about these stories sent to me by CM:

York U really damaged their rep and enrollment with their extended strike a few years back. And now…

Strike brings York to standstill

A strike by part-time workers (TAs, contract faculty) has turned York University into a virtual ghost town at the height of the November mid-term crunch, with all classes cancelled, assignments postponed and pickets letting cars onto campus only every few minutes.

One step forward, three steps back…

Straights are killing traditional marriage

You know what I’m talking about: The homosexual conspiracy that will force priests to perform gay marriages against Biblical laws, insert gay teachings into public school curricula, farm out foster children to pedophiles, destroy traditional families, and lead to legal polygamy and bestiality, incest and child marriages.  That “gay agenda.”

This was the sort of hate speech used by supporters of California’s Proposition 8, the ballot measure that stated “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized.” It passed on Tuesday with 52.5 per cent of the vote.  Nothing like hope and change and “Yes we can!” for some of the people some of the time.  As in “I do” – but gays don’t.

Which made Wednesday night’s demonstrations by thousands in Los Angeles – reminiscent of 1969’s Greenwich Village Stonewall Riots – understandable.  Not only are some 18,000 marriages in California now technically in legal limbo, but gays and lesbians had, by majority vote, their minority rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness taken away from them.

Miller and his gang are at it again, wasting tax dollars while raising property taxes and cutting essential services:

Councillors scoff at newsletter –Miller says publication will inform residents; critics say `propaganda’ is waste of $800,000 

A City of Toronto newsletter for residents called Our Toronto, unveiled yesterday, drew fire from opposition councillors as a costly propaganda exercise.  Our Toronto will be mailed to every household in the city starting next week. The new, comic book-sized publication is 24 pages long and printed in full colour. Mayor David Miller said the publication is an important tool for keeping residents in touch with their government.

But Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34, Don Valley East), who had received a stack of Our Toronto newsletters in his office, marched them up to the council chamber and asked the city clerks to return them to the “ministry of propaganda.”  Miller said it will be published up to four times a year, at a cost of $800,000. It will incorporate newsletters on garbage, transit and water that already go out to residents at an annual cost of $400,000. The opening issue has a message from the mayor spread over pages two and three.

The next few headlines/details should cause you concern and I hope should remind you never to blindly trust those in power, be it of a company, hospital, just-ass system, government office, etc.  But in response to a couple of requests, I’m going to reverse the formatting so that stories are in regular print and my comments are italicized:

Report: Hospital infections on the rise

Toronto’s SARS crisis and Quebec’s C. difficile nightmare drew political attention — and additional funding — to the problem of hospital-acquired infections.  But despite that, rates of these infections continued to rise in the years immediately following the outbreaks, a new study reveals.  Rates of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — known as MRSA — more than doubled in the period from 1999 to 2005, said the study, which was based on a survey of Canadian hospitals with more 80 or more patient beds. Clostridium difficile infections also rose over that period and the number of hospitals reporting new cases of infection with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus climbed 77 per cent over the period.

“Despite the two major communicable diseases — SARS and C. difficile — despite the emphasis by the Canadian Public Safety Institute on safer health care, despite all those things, our institutional approaches to infection control have changed remarkably little,” said Dr. Andrew Simor, head of microbiology at Toronto’s Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Dr. Simor was not involved in the study. “And the outcomes, as a result, have gone in the wrong direction.”

And of course we can’t forget Listeria:

Emails a window on listeria outbreak — Candid missives sent by Maple Leaf boss show company slow to recognize threat

The first Friday in August, as a listeria outbreak quietly brewed at Maple Leaf’s Bartor Rd. plant in North York, company president Michael McCain was issuing a “belt tightening” call to arms.  With dismal financial results in the first two quarters, cost cutting and a hiring freeze were top priorities. Project Braveheart – a plan to save money by cutting discretionary spending – was firmly in place.

In his regular Friday email to thousands of his employees, McCain shared details of his week, projects underway and upcoming challenges. Missing from his chatty email on Friday, Aug. 1, was any reference to internal test results from the Bartor Rd. processing plant that would soon emerge as ground zero of Canada’s listeria outbreak. Through a series of company emails and an exclusive interview with the Star and CBC, a picture emerges of how McCain and his company were at first slow to recognize the threat that would become Canada’s worst contaminated meat outbreak, claiming at least 20 lives and sickening hundreds.

And then there’s Durham’s just-ass system, which causes many innocent people to rot in jail awaiting a bail hearing, while hardcore evil criminals get off free because the poor babies had to wait too long for a trial, often due to their own manufactured, strategic delays:

Judge slams bail hearing delays in Durham — Systemic problems in courts are reason he dismissed 2007 assault charges

Deep systemic problems in Durham Region courts mean prisoners routinely face unreasonable delays while awaiting bail hearings, a judge ruled as he dismissed charges against a man facing domestic assault charges. In his written reasons, Justice Joseph De Filippis, of the Ontario Court of Justice, quoted from a justice of the peace, who said that the crowded bail court docket in Durham “staggers human endurance.”

De Filippis ruled that a clogged court system meant Daniel Jevons, 60, of Oakville spent far too long in custody awaiting a bail hearing after being arrested in August 2007. Under the Criminal Code, accused people must appear before a judicial officer within 24 hours and have a bail hearing within three days thereafter, unless they consent to a delay. Jevons was held in jail for eight days before his bail hearing. Jevons, who had no criminal record, was charged with being unlawfully in a dwelling and criminal harassment for an alleged incident with a former girlfriend.

And finally, in contrast to my recent story about the 8 year-old American who murdered his father, in Canada we have this crap.  Namely, a sadistic, psychopathic killer at 14 is no different from a sadistic psychopathic killer at 18.  But the courts may think otherwise:

Young murderer awaits adult fate — Sadistic killing at 14 may yet land youth offender in prison 

On April 1, 2003, Justin Morton’s sadistic homicidal fantasies were horrifically played out when he used his own belt to strangle classmate Eric Levack in a wooded area near their Heart Lake Secondary School in Brampton. Now, more than 5 1/2 years later, the legal system is deciding what to do with the first person convicted of first-degree murder under Canada’s Youth Criminal Justice Act. Morton, now 20, will appear Thursday in a Brampton court, where legal arguments will be made as to whether he should remain at Syl Apps Youth Centre in Oakville or be transferred to an adult facility.

At 14, Morton murdered Levack, also 14, on the very day Canada’s new youth law was enacted. He lured his victim to the forest under the pretense of a game of trust, testing if his classmate could trust him to tighten a belt around his neck. He told at least five classmates that he intended to murder Levack. Afterward, he returned to art class and later turned himself in.

I know we’re far too soft on teen monsters, as our laws have not kept pace with changes in society and we want to treat 17 year-old animals as if they were 7 year-old “scamps” (don’t think I’ve used that word before).  But in Arizona, they’re looking to try an 8 year-old as an adult for killing his father, even as they investigate the possibility that he may have been abused (just speculation at this point).  The story raises several important questions, but I’ll let the questions manifest themselves:

Boy, 8, accused of shooting father dead — Arizona man had asked priest if boy should learn to use weapons

ST. JOHNS, Ariz.–A man who police believe was shot and killed by his 8-year-old son had consulted a Roman Catholic priest about whether the boy should handle guns and had taught him how to use a rifle, the clergyman said yesterday. The father, Vincent Romero, 29, was from a family of avid hunters and wanted to make sure the boy wasn’t afraid of guns, said the Very Rev. John Paul Sauter of St. Johns Catholic Church. The boy’s stepmother had suggested he have a BB gun, the priest said. Romero taught his son how to use a rifle to kill prairie dogs, Sauter said. Police say the boy used a .22-caliber rifle Wednesday to kill his father and another man, Timothy Romans, 39, of San Carlos. The priest did not say how he advised the couple but said yesterday that the boy “was just too young.” “That child, I don’t think he knows what he did, and it was brutal.”

The boy, who faces two counts of premeditated murder, did not act on the spur of the moment, St. Johns Police Chief Roy Melnick said. Police are looking into whether he might have been abused. “I’m not accusing anybody of anything at this point,” he said yesterday. “But we’re certainly going to look at the abuse part of this. He’s 8 years old. He just doesn’t decide one day that he’s going to shoot his father and shoot his father’s friend for no reason.’

The boy’s father and stepmother were married in September, said Sauter, who presided over the wedding. Romero had full custody of the child. The boy’s mother had visited from Mississippi the previous weekend and returned to Arizona after the shootings, said Apache County Attorney Brad Carlyon.

On Friday, a judge ordered a psychological evaluation of the boy. Under Arizona law, charges can be filed against anyone 8 or older. The boy had no record of complaints with Arizona Child Protective Services, Carlyon said. “He had no record of any kind, not even a disciplinary record at school,” he said. “He has never been in trouble before.” Police are pushing to have the boy tried as an adult even as they investigate possible abuse, Melnick said. If convicted as a minor, the boy could be sent to juvenile detention until he turns 18.

The boy’s lawyer, Benjamin Brewer, said his client is in good spirits. “He’s scared,” he said. “He’s trying to be tough, but he’s scared.” Police are also investigating whether there were any domestic violence calls to the Romero home in the past, Melnick said. Melnick said police got a confession, but Brewer said they questioned the boy without representation from a parent or attorney and did not advise him of his rights.

I have to say that McCain’s concession speech was extremely gracious and seemed sincere.  Let’s hope Obama actually makes it to January 2009 (and I say that without any facetiousness).