It seems to me that there is something seriously wrong with our immigration process if 70% of all refugees to Canada are making their homes in Toronto. Canada is an enormous country with opportunities for new comers in all of our provinces and territories. Unfortunately Toronto’s desirability is costing us a fortune in welfare claims. There are approximately 14,600 refugee claimants on welfare. The Province of Ontario contributes 108 million dollars to the cause and Toronto kicks in an additional 27 million dollars. Although the City of Toronto budgets for 20% of the refugee welfare claimants, the budget is being strained and there is talk of cutting back on some of the programs due to rising costs.

Of course everyone is looking to the Feds for financial help regarding the refugees’ welfare claims. And although that may be the short-term solution, is that really the answer? Shouldn’t we be reexamining our whole immigration process from selection to relocation? Surely there are cities and towns in Canada that are in greater need of immigrants than Toronto is. Shouldn’t we be trying to determine in advance what skills the immigrants have and relocate them in an area where those skills would be in the greatest demand? If our immigration system was operating properly I don’t believe that we would have 14,600 refugees on welfare. Our newcomers would be working, tax paying members of society who would be contributing to the system, not taking from it.

I am not making disparaging remarks about people who want to come to Canada and make a better life for themselves and for their families. Who could blame them? I applaud them for having the courage to leave everything behind and start anew. But I think that our processes are in serious need of a revamping so that we can ensure the happiest possible outcome for all concerned.

Toronto commuters have become increasingly disenchanted with the TTC due to massive overcrowding, constantly changing routes, and equipment failures. Help is on the way! The Toronto Transit Commission has announced that starting this week they will begin implementing 21 million dollars worth of service improvements for buses and streetcars.
• Beginning next week 30 new buses will be added to the morning rush hour
• Beginning next week 40 new buses will be added to the afternoon rush hour
• The bus fleet will be increased by 125
• 500 new buses will be added over the next year
• 400 new drivers will be added over the next year

The magnitude of these changes is widespread – 77 routes will be affected. Although the entire GTA should notice the improvements, the increase in buses should have the greatest impact on the northwest and northeast routes which traditionally have been the most under serviced. At the moment, buses carry as many as 65 passengers during rush hour, and in some cases it is reported that 80 people are actually squashed like sardines on a bus. The goal is to reduce that number to 54. There are also major improvements planned for the fall when rush hour routes will be extended to all day service and there is a plan in place to match the bus service route hours to the subway schedule.

The money for the improvements came from 2 sources – increased Toronto Transit ticket prices and increased municipal taxes. Even so, for every fare the TTC requires a $0.62 subsidy. The TTC believes that the planned changes are enough to increase TTC ridership by 15,000,000 – 20,000,000? It seems like a lofty goal to me.

Amber Gero, a CFRB reporter, has been the victim of hideous racial bigotry. She was called a F—— n—–! There is no disputing this as absolute fact. This isn’t a question of he said, she said. What was said was clear as a bell and is corroborated by a third party, Suzette Francis, a member of the CFRB newsroom, who happened to be on the phone with Ms Gero at the time of the verbal attack. Of course the employee is now denying it, which means that he is accusing Amber Gero and Suzette Francis both of being liars. Although it is reported that an independent investigator is looking into the alleged incident, there is nothing alleged about it.

How or why this happened really doesn’t matter. What matters is that an employee of the North Toronto Memorial Arena had the unmitigated gall, not to mention absolutely no common sense or judgment, to direct such a vile expression of racism at another human being. The question now is what will be done? And, who will do it? Although the City of Toronto owns the North Toronto Memorial Arena, they do not participate in the management. Therefore disciplinary action is not within their purview. That task will fall to the Board of Directors who manages the facility.

According to Toronto’s Human Rights and Harassment Policy, the City of Toronto will not tolerate, ignore, or condone any form of discrimination or harassment, and that discrimination and harassment are serious forms of employee misconduct which may result in disciplinary action up to and including discharge. Now is the time to see if these lofty ideals are merely words or if they actually have any meaning. The action that is taken will state clearly who we are as a society and define what behavior we will and won’t tolerate.

How can Brenda Hogg represent her constituents when she clearly has no understanding their cultures, religions, and customs? Shouldn’t that be a job requirement?

Ms Hogg, Richmond Hill’s deputy mayor is claiming that she suffered gender discrimination on 2 occasions last year. One episode occurred when two rabbis refused to shake her hand at a Menorah lighting ceremony. On the other occasion Muslim men would not look her in the eye at an Eid celebration.

One would imagine that a person in Ms Hogg’s position would have taken the time to educate herself (or had her staff do the research) on what to expect at these types of occasions and to act appropriately. It is quite simple to find out that many people of the Orthodox Jewish faith obey the modesty laws. This means that out of respect they do not touch anyone of the opposite gender except for spouses and immediate relatives – parents, grandparents, bother, and sisters. Therefore the Rabbis could not shake Ms Hogg’s hand and observe the modesty laws. Just as at the Eid celebrations that there were Muslim men in attendance who would not make eye contact with Ms Hogg. It is their way. We don’t have to understand it, just accept it.

If Ms Hogg has no interest in learning about other cultures, then perhaps she is in the wrong job. We live in a multicultural society where everyone has the freedom to worship and to celebrate in their own ways. If Ms Hogg finds these occasions uncomfortable, then she should stay home in her own little comfort zone and never venture out into the real world.

It may not be – particularly if Premier McGuinty can sway public opinion his way. And, it appears that he may be doing just that. Already there are 2 Toronto District School Board trustees who want the board to reopen its vote on the Africentric school, citing that they did not know at the time of the vote that Queen’s Park would not be funding it. I can’t imagine that this was really a surprise considering that the board is looking at a deficit to the tune of 41 million dollars. Where on earth did the trustees think that the money was going to come from?

In the last election Premier McGuinty promised an inclusive public education system. An Africentric school hardly meets this criterion. So, instead of taking action and changing the law that gives the Toronto District School Board the autonomy to make decisions, Premier McGuinty is encouraging the public to put pressure on the trustees to overturn their decision. He did however make it abundantly clear that no additional funding would be forthcoming.

There has been much discussion and much controversy on what the opening of an Africentric school would actually accomplish. The yeah-sayers insist that it will stem the tide of black students dropping out or failing out of school. The nay-sayers cite the fact that there are over 30,000 black students currently enrolled in the Toronto District School Board. One or two Africentric schools are a drop in the bucket and instead a comprehensive plan must be put in place to address and deal with this problem. Research also shows that a student’s success at school is largely dependent on the level of support that he has at home. When the great tennis player Andre Agassi started a public school in his home town of Las Vegas in the poorest and most in need neighbourhood, one of the things that he required as an entrance requirement was a contract signed by the parents that they would commit to their child’s education. Please read the Parent/Guardian commitment at the school. http://www.agassiprep.org/about.html

Andre Agassi’s school now ranks among the highest in scholastic rankings in the state. Are we wrong in dumping the problem on the Toronto District School Board? Should we be looking to the families to commit to supporting their students? Should the Africentric School go ahead as planned or should the trustees reopen the vote?

Mayor Miller is delighted with himself. He is taking great pride in Toronto’s balanced budget. But, Toronto’s homeowners aren’t smiling. They are facing a 3.75% increase in property tax as well as the new Land Transfer Tax. Why isn’t anyone reminding Mayor Miller that one of his campaign promises was to keep property taxes at the rate of inflation? Maybe someone forgot to tell him that the rate of inflation according to Statistics Canada is 2.4%.

The prevailing wind is that Mayor Miller should have cleaned his own house before breaking his promise. Why isn’t the budget committee looking for more ways to cut costs? Why should they? The Provincial Government is kicking in 188 million dollars. Queen’s Park is contributing 149 million dollars for transit and in addition they are taking on 39 million dollars in social service costs that had previously been the responsibility of the City of Toronto. Mayor Miller’s detractors say that the only reason that he was able to announce a balanced budget is that the provincial government gave him the money upfront this time instead of having to bail him out down the road.

The City of Toronto actually has 2 budgets - an operating budget and capital budget. The operating budget – 8.2 billion dollars to be reviewed by the budget committee next week - pays for:
• Police
• Fire
• EMS
• TTC
• Waste collection
• Recycling
• Libraries
• Parks and Recreation
• Child care
• Rent
• Fuel
• Electricity

The City of Toronto capital budget – 1.610 billion dollars, which was approved by Toronto City Council last December - pays for:

• Construction and maintenance of roads
• Maintenance and construction of city assets and infrastructure
• Transit vehicles
• Major equipment
• Major facilities

Does the balanced budget sound very balanced to you? And how is Mayor Miller portraying himself as a hero when all that he has done is to break yet another promise?

If this wasn’t so absurd it would be laughable. The Miss Toronto Tourism Pageant is scheduled to take place on February 2nd. Stephanie Conover was invited to be a judge at the pageant by virtue of her win at the Miss Canada Plus Pageant last year. By all accounts Ms Conover was delighted with the honour and accepted the invitation. As part of the process Ms Conover submitted a biography which included among other things, her hobbies – songwriting, knitting, painting, yoga, reiki, and tarot cards.

According to the Mirriam-Webster Online Dictionary:
• Reiki is a system of touching with the hands based on the belief that such touching by an experienced practitioner produces beneficial effects by strengthening and normalizing certain vital energy fields held to exist within the body.
• Tarot cards are any of a set of usually 78 playing cards including 22 pictorial cards used for fortune-telling.

These hobbies set off alarm bells with the Miss Toronto Tourism Pageant director, who managed to categorize Ms Conover as someone involved in the dark side or the occult. Ms Conover was rejected because “Our board of directors has eliminated her as a judge as tarot card reading and reiki are the occult and is not acceptable by God, Jews, Muslims or Christians. Tarot card reading is witchcraft and is used by witches, spiritists and mediums to consult the dark world.” The letter went on to express hope that Ms Conover would repent.

Shades of Salem! Should we start following everyone who buys tarot cards in any book store or makes a reiki appointment and call in an exorcist to save them or have them burned at the stake if they won’t repent? How many of you “normal” mainstream folks out there own a deck of tarot cards? Have had a tarot card reading? Have had reiki therapy? Beware! You could be labeled as someone who is into the dark side or the occult. Too bad this story didn’t break around Halloween.

When did we stop embracing Toronto’s diverse cultural identity? How could we possibly believe that segregation was the answer to anything? Why in the year 2008 are we taking a giant step backward in racial equality? Last night the Toronto District School Board set back any hopes of racial equality at least 40 years by voting 11 – 9 in favour of opening a publicly funded alternative Africentric school in 2009.

The start-up costs are estimated at $350,000 and the total price should come in around $820,000. The location is yet to be determined. Call it what you want, but “Africentric” means black. And no matter how you try to spin this in a positive light, a black school means segregation.

The mother of murdered teenager Jordan Manners saw the plan for what it was and was dead against it. She spoke impassionedly against the proposal. “Martin Luther King and how many of our fathers fought to come together so blacks and whites could come together, for us to sit in the front of the bus together. I don’t think that we should have a black school. It’s not right,” she said. “Let us all come together and be as one.”

This plan is supposed to do something about the alarming drop out rate among black teens, which is now estimated at 40%. With all of our fine educational minds at work, is segregation the only plan that has a hope of success?

Now that we have opened Pandora’s Box, what next? Would Chinese students fare better in publicly funded Chinese schools? And, what about Greek students in Greek schools? Let us not forget that John Tory committed political suicide by supporting a plan for publicly funded faith based schools. If we are now publicly funding an “Africentric” school, why aren’t we funding Muslim schools and Jewish schools? Where does it all end? But, better yet, why did it begin at all?

If I told you that post-traumatic stress was a by-product of being a police officer or a fire fighter, you wouldn’t think twice. In fact, you’d probably expect it. But somehow the thought of TTC operators suffering from the disorder does make you shake your head in disbelief, doesn’t it? However, the reality is that the rate of post-traumatic stress disorder is among Toronto transit drivers is approximately 4 times that of Toronto police officers.

Currently it is estimated that 200 TTC operators are suffering with the disorder. Before you just dismiss this, perhaps you are not aware of the abuse that is directed at TTC drivers on a daily basis. They are:
• Hit
• Punched
• Kicked
• Swarmed
• Slashed
• Shot with air rifles
• Spit at
• Cussed at
• Threatened

The public is deeply divided on how they feel about the issue. Many radio talk shows have been devoted to the subject and it seems that the majority of callers are not believers. In their opinions the Toronto transit drivers are manipulative union employees who have found a way to take advantage of the system. Is this really the way that the public feels or are the people with the most negative opinions the ones that are calling in the most frequently?

Whether or not you believe that Toronto transit subway, bus, and streetcar drivers are legitimately suffering from post-traumatic stress syndrome, the accepted claims are resulting in significant absenteeism. Below are the statistics from 2000 – 2005.
• 181 TTC drivers claimed that they suffered from post-traumatic stress syndrome
• On the average they missed 49 days of work
• The total number of workdays lost due to post-traumatic stress syndrome was 9,000!

There is no denying that the public is becoming increasingly frustrated and hostile toward the Toronto transit system. Overcrowding, increased prices, frequent route changes, and unreliable schedules are the major complaints. Unfortunately the drivers are the front line and they bear the brunt from the disgruntled public. However, the question is whether this can account for such a high number of employees suffering from this debilitating syndrome. If the answer is yes, then why isn’t the TTC stepping up to the plate and doing something about it?

Toronto, we’ve dodged the bullet. Commuters can happily go about their business as usual and not scramble to make alternate arrangements to the GO Transit buses. At the eleventh hour, the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1587 – representing 1,200 unionized bus drivers, ticket agents and office workers - and GO Transit have struck a tentative deal averting a strike. The agreement was brokered by a conciliator. The terms of the deal have not been made public. However, it is common knowledge that two major points of disagreement in the contract negotiations were wages and job security. The workers have been without a contract since June 1, 2007 and have been in a legal position to strike since December 10, 2007.

A strike would have shut down Go bus service completely, disrupting the lives of approximately 30,000 Torontonians. Many of those affected would have most likely looked to the Go Trains as an alternative. However, the union was planning to set up pickets at the Go Transit stations, which would have caused a great disruption in service. Although in theory the strike would not have any effect of the Go trains, it is not known how many employees would have crossed the picked lines. Currently it is estimated that 165,000 Torontonians use the GO trains daily.

Although there is an agreement in principle, in order for it to take effect it must be ratified by GO Transit’s board of directors and in a membership vote by union members. No date for ratification has been announced yet. Let’s keep our fingers crossed. Do you think that an essential service like public transit should have the right to strike?