“Toronto – Canada’s version of a Democrat run city”

‘We bury them, and we move on. It’s not normal’: How gun violence in Toronto shatters lives

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For weeks, Heather Parkes couldn’t bring herself to move the seven-foot balsam fur Christmas tree on her porch inside her home.

Usually, she says, her husband George would do it.

“He would be out there and it would have been in when we got it,” she said.

For Parkes and their six adult kids, celebrating Christmas this year has felt impossible. It’s their first year without Delroy — better known as George — Parkes after the 61-year-old was killed this summer in a mass shooting at an Etobicoke high school.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city", Crime

Chairman Chow on dealing with Pierre Poilievre, wrestling with Uber — and what’s to come after that historic tax hike

The next federal election looms large on the horizon for Mayor Olivia Chow.

She knows the man who polls predict may become the next prime minister from her own days working in Ottawa.

But whether it’s Pierre Poilievre or someone else who wins power in the nation’s capital, Chow says, it would be unwise of any prime minister to ignore the residents of Canada’s largest city.

Most of Toronto will continue to vote stupid. A city that could elect the likes of Chow deserves every bit of the hardship coming its way.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city"

Toronto police closing fewer cases than they did last decade, their own figures show

Before the Toronto police board voted to approve a $46.2-million budget increase request for next year, a police director explained that case closure rates have dropped for most crimes since 2015.

“That’s because investigations take time and effort and resources,” Toronto police director of information management, Ian Williams told the board earlier this month.

But while police say lower closure rates are one reason why they need increased funding, experts are conflicted about whether they’re an accurate measure of police achievement — and whether the figures should be used to justify more resources.

I wonder if that’s due to the “Don’t offend the (insert criminal minority group here) school of policing we see the TPS enacting with the Muslims.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city", Crime

Toronto’s supervised injection sites are a failed experiment

In her professional capacity, Khalila Mohammed was a community harm-reduction health worker. But in her personal life, she was an agent of profound harm and an accessory to manslaughter.

One foolish decision on top of another, one not-so-impetuous act of aiding and abetting on top of another. One lie on top of another, spinning a web of deceit.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city", Drug Legalization, Drugs

Toronto city manager’s rejection of ridiculous report should be applauded

Something interesting and rather encouraging just happened at Toronto City Hall. (You can’t say that every day.) A leading official pushed back just a little against the reigning orthodoxies of our time and said: Hey, wait a minute. For that, he deserves not just our thanks but our cheers. We should be carrying him through the streets on our shoulders.

The official is Paul Johnson. He is city manager, the highest unelected official in Toronto’s government. He was reacting to a report from Ombudsman Kwame Addo, who plays a watchdog role down at City Hall. The report looked at a brief period in 2022 and 2023, when the city was turning refugee claimants away from its main system of homeless shelters.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Peak Woke", "Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city"

Toronto’s Jobless Population Hits 380k, Back To Pandemic Levels

Canada isn’t officially in a recession, but its largest city is already experiencing one. Statistics Canada (Stat Can) data shows seasonally adjusted unemployment in Toronto CMA surged in November. Nearly 1 in 10 of the region’s workers are struggling to find work despite actively looking. The unemployment rate is now at levels not seen outside of the deepest recessions, with the jobless population hitting pandemic levels.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city"

As antisemitism on public transit skyrockets, TTC begs Toronto Police chief for help

Toronto’s explosion of antisemitism prompted an appeal for help from the head of Toronto’s transit system.

In a letter from interim TTC CEO Greg Percy to Toronto Police Chief Myron Demkiw, Percy said staff are dealing with a worrying rise in hateful graffiti across the transit system targeting Jewish Torontonians.

“We have noticed an exceptionally high concentration of these incidents on our subway trains at terminal stations and along surface routes like College, University and Spadina,” Percy wrote in his letter.

There’s a rumour afoot that this may be due in large part to Trudeau’s Great Replacement immigration policy. OK, mum’s the word!

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Oct 7 2023", "Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city"

WARMINGTON: Pass the tequila Olivia as Toronto’s party mayor taking life with a grain of salt

Sometimes you just have to take things with a grain of salt — with some lime or lemons too.

Especially while downing shooters.

We already knew Olivia Chow could dress up. Now we know Toronto’s mayor can drink up too.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city"

Allan Gardens is finally free of tents, but the city’s efforts on encampments just shift the homeless elsewhere

There are children playing in Allan Gardens — a pleasant sight that had long disappeared from view.

Moms and nannies pushing prams without fear of a looming menace or having to sidestep needles underfoot. No annoying music assaults the eardrums from boomboxes. Nobody cooking meth or blatantly consuming a host of street drugs.

Dogs are being walked — and not the curs kept as pets by homeless people who may not have had a single other source of companionship in their hardscrabble lives.

The homeless are shifted elsewhere because they are a political asset to the likes of Chow.

They’ll crow about this success today and be demanding more funding a week later.

Rinse and repeat.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Homelessness & Affordability Crisis", "Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city"

Here’s how much workers need to be paid to make a livable wage in Toronto

You’ll need much more than the minimum wage to make ends meet across the province — but it’s especially bad in the GTA, a new report has found.

Workers in Toronto need to make $26 an hour — nearly $9 more than current the minimum wage — to make a living, the Ontario Living Wage Network (OLWN) reported.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city"

Bikes v cars: backlash after Ontario premier threatens to tear up cycling lanes in Toronto

On most days, the slowest way to travel through downtown Toronto is by car. Cyclists whiz by and pedestrians cast spiteful glances at vehicles trapped in the city’s gridlock. For those behind the wheel, anything can trigger frustration and rage.

Last month, Doug Ford, the premier of Ontario province, shocked residents of Canada’s largest city when he pledged to rip out three of the city’s bike lanes “that are just absolutely insanity right now”.

The move, seen as a dramatic moment of government overreach, has provoked a fierce backlash from cyclists and city officials, and raised broader question about the future of cars – and bicycles – in large urban centres.

In the Guardian??

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city"

Shootout mayhem on Queen Street West is another blow to Toronto’s eroding sense of safety

This week in my Toronto neighbourhood, a scene of utter mayhem unfolded.

It happened just after 11:00 on Monday night. Undercover cops were staking out a recording studio on Queen Street West near Dufferin Street. Suddenly, a stolen white Honda pulled up. Three guys armed with handguns jumped out. They started shooting toward the back of the studio building at 1196 Queen, where dozens of people had gathered for a birthday party. Several of the partygoers rushed out and returned fire.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city"

BIKE LANE BATTLE: Council calls on Ford for respect, to leave cyclists alone

R-E-S-P-E-C-T: What does it mean to Mayor Olivia Chow?

Toronto council on Thursday evening debated not just the removal of bike lanes, but also the nature of democracy in Ontario’s capital, at the behest of the mayor.

The Toronto bike lane that went too far and sparked a backlash from Doug Ford’s government

Between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., on an unseasonably warm, sunny weekday in October, 18 cyclists travel in the eastbound bike lane on Bloor Street West in Etobicoke, in front of a church, where elderly men and women struggle to climb the stairs to their morning sermon.

Local resident and former Toronto city councillor John Campbell watches ruefully. He voted for the extension of the Bloor West bike lanes from Shaw Street to Runnymede Road when he represented what was then Ward 4 (Etobicoke Centre) from 2014 to 2018.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city"

Tears, anger as Toronto City Council debates honouring Christianity

December will be Christian Heritage Month in Toronto – but only after a surprisingly emotional half-hour at City Council.

After Gord Perks unspooled a rant about Canada and its history with the Christian faith, a tearful Lily Cheng, who represents the Willowdale ward, rose to tell council: “Christianity saved my life.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city", Christian Persecution, Christianity and the left, Christianophobia

The Eglinton Crosstown LRT just turned 13. Why we still don’t how this teen went off the rails

Turning 13 is a milestone year. A teenager at last and gaining a bit of independence. Making friends, perhaps riding the subway alone, well on the way to becoming an adult. Thirteen is advanced enough an age that the phrase “a lifetime” begins to have weight behind it.

Construction of the Eglinton Crosstown LRT recently had its 13th anniversary. This saga already feels like a lifetime, but this is a real milestone: Toronto has a teenage construction project. If the Eglinton Crosstown construction were human it would be heading to high school soon, perhaps picking up some babysitting gigs to make a little cash. That would help since it’s so over budget.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Toronto - Canada's version of a Democrat run city"