Canuck Blogger

There was just a minor earthquake in Toronto, Ontario, Canada! Weird!

http://www.thestar.com/article/827425–tremors-felt-in-toronto?bn=1

If you have not heard, CUPE Local 416 (Outside workers) and CUPE Local 79 (Inside workers) are still on strike after over a month of walking off the job. This has left a lot of Toronto dirty and there have been an increased number of rat spottings around the city.

Many people place blame on Mayor David Miller for not managing the money Toronto makes properly and spending it on stupid things, while many also blame the Unions for being “greedy”. I have to say I have not heard of anyone else being able to cash in sick days and carry them over when they are retiring. Why not be like the rest of the city and actually work.

Don’t even get me started on Mayor David Miller, I don’t have enough time to write about his abilities as Mayor of Toronto. I just wanted to express how inconvenient this strike was but also mention that Toronto is still holding in there and I am actually impressed at many peoples lack of littering. Good job!

I have a funny feeling that this strike is going to go on way longer than the one currently going on in Windsor. Both sides are very stubborn and the only side losing out is the public side.

VIA Rail is also on strike now and they might even have to lay off many employees due to the striking engineers. I hope they are happy. You want more for your job and your actions will probably cost some of your fellow employees their jobs. I hope you sleep well at night. This is another textbook example of Unions “fantastic” roles in society.

Photo Credit: Brendan Lynch

As some of you may know, for the past short while the Tamil community of Toronto, Ontario, Canada have been having large scale protests downtown Toronto to try to force the government to impose sanctions on Sri Lanka. The reason is because they claim there is a genocide going on in this civil war that has been going on for about three decades, on and off.

While I fully agree they have a right to protest and I agree with their cause. I am starting to not approve of their methods and how they execute the protests. They occupied a major downtown artery for three days before the crowd dissipated and the police moved them off to the side. I would just like to know why this is allowed to happen? If it was any other city in the world the police would have shut this down in a matter of hours. The Toronto Tamil community are using bully tactics to disrupt normal lives of normal Torontonians just for their cause.

While I am impressed in their turnouts, they have many elderly people and children with them. Most people would consider this act as using human shields to prevent police from moving in. I consider this bad parenting and cowardly acts on their part. They are trying to save lives in the northern part of their country, by putting their own children and family member’s lives at risk. The protests have been peaceful until Sunday night. They turned violent and attacked police officers and only 3 people were arrested. Who in their right minds think it is a good idea to bring Children and Elderly people, let alone anyone, up onto a busy highway. Are they crazy? All of their children should be taken away by the Children’s Aid Society. You say you care about people dying in your country yet you show this clear disregard for your own children’s safety? What the hell is the matter with you?

The fact that they rushed onto a busy highway and started assaulting police officers was the last straw for me. They have no respect for the Police, the government, and they have no respect for anyone else in their community. I have not heard an apology for the disruptions they are causing. I am just very upset that they are allowed to cause this much of a problem. Protest on the sidewalk and you will have the respect. I respected you until you became a nuisance. While I still believe in your cause, I no longer believe in your protests.

What do you think?

My Position: I believe there should be some sort of government involvement in Sri Lanka or at least look into the situation more and I am against these forms of disruptions of major arteries. Protest on the sidewalk and you will have the support of the majority of Torontonians.

Image Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ryanburgess/3520394977/

A water leak Thursday night, flooded a transformer room and knocked out power to thousands of residents. Toronto is currently experiencing unusually bitter colds dipping past -20 degrees Celsius.

The worst part of this was the fact that the TTC had no subway service between Islington station and St. George station. This is basically half of the city. They had shuttle busses running but it was no good, the line-ups for the buses were way longer. By the time the buses got to the station they were already so packed no one could get on.

I realize there is no way to provide adequate transportation levels for the volume of people that get the subway usually. I just think it sucks!

I hope the commute home is a lot easier for these folks!

Stay warm.

More posts coming soon, I’ve been swamped with work.