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cree-future-rabbi · 1 month

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I've written to two parties in Ontario about antisemitism and antisemitic comments and garments.

I am told to be safe, to disregard my culture, my religion, my identity, so people who are prohamas don't kill me.

I spend my days in fear, in "one of most culturally diverse countries".

I wrote two parties (NDP and Conservatives) about their stance on letting a poltical statement be worn in a government hall. This garment I have never seen anyone wear before the terrorists attacked Israel so brutally.

The government doesn't understand that they can not do this, they can not let keffiyeh be worn in government institutions, like I can't wear anything that says "bring them home." That's so fucked up. It is a garment worn to incite fears into Jews and to cover your face. You're stand so proudly, yet cover your face. Cowards.

So if they allow this, I will be asking to speak in the House of Commons, wearing a shirt that says "let my people go!"

If this was really about palestine, the hostages would be back, war would be over.

You dont care about life, you just care about having an excuse to kill, assault, harass,bully, and worse to Jews.

Apparently we don't matter.

I sent video and picture evidence to support my case.

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mitchbeck · 1 year

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GREENVILLE SWAMP RABBITS FALL SHORT IN GAME 5 COMEBACK, DROP 5-4 TO JACKSONVILLE ICEMEN

By: Mark Shelley, Greenville Swamp Rabbits GREENVILLE, SC – A four-goal second period was too much for the Greenville Swamp Rabbits to overcome, as they fell 5-4 to the Jacksonville Icemen in Game 5 of the South Division Semifinals on Saturday night at Bon Secours Wellness Arena. GAME SHEET: Click Here

Greenville started the game with the opening goal of the game just 4:03 into the first period, as Miles Gendron fed the puck to Nikita Pavlychev, who scored his second of the series. At 8:33, Ben Freeman shot the puck from the wing and beat Jacksonville's Charles Williams for the 2-0 lead. Williams would leave the game after allowing two goals on six shots and was replaced with Olof Lindbom. Jacksonville stopped the Swamp Rabbits' momentum with a Luke Lynch goal at 15:14. In the second, Craig Martin scored on a breakaway, tying the game for Jacksonville at 4:34. At 6:49, Jacksonville captured the lead as Ara Nazarian scored before Matt Iacopelli scored 60 seconds later to extend the Jacksonville lead. Finally, Brandon Fortunato scored a goal at 17:59 to give Jacksonville the 5-2 advantage. Greenville's offense responded in the third period, as Freeman sniped his second of the game into the Jacksonville net at 9:39. The Swamp Rabbits pulled within a goal as Carter Souch scored at 12:57. Despite a late 6-on-5 scenario, the Swamp Rabbits failed to find the tying goal at the final horn. Greenville's loss sees the Swamp Rabbits fall behind in the best-of-seven, South Division Semifinal 3-2 to the Icemen. The Swamp Rabbits and the Icemen meet again at the Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville on Tuesday, May 2, for a 7 p.m. meeting in Game 6. Swamp Rabbits tickets can be purchased at SwampRabbits.com or the Bon Secours Wellness Arena Box Office. About the Greenville Swamp Rabbits … Acquired by Spire Sports + Entertainment (SS+E) in 2020, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits hockey team has provided family-friendly, live entertainment at Bon Secours Wellness Arena since 2010. Formerly the Greenville Road Warriors, the Swamp Rabbits are the highest-level professional minor league franchise in South Carolina. The Swamp Rabbits are the proud ECHL affiliate of the NHL's LA Kings and the AHL's Ontario Reign. Additionally, Greenville is a member of the ECHL Premier AA Hockey League. GREENVILLE SWAMP RABBITS JACKSONVILLE ICEMEN HOME Read the full article

#AHL #BenFreeman #BonSecoursWellnessArena #CharlesWilliams #ECHL #GreenvilleRoadWarriors #GreenvilleSwampRabbits #JacksonvilleIcemen #MattIacopelli #NHL #OntarioReign #SpireSports+Entertainment #VyStarVeteransMemorialArena

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newstfionline · 2 years

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Tuesday, November 8, 2022

Schools in Canadian province of Ontario to remain shut as strike grinds on (Reuters) Tens of thousands of striking teachers and education sector employees in the Canadian province of Ontario will be off the job again on Monday, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said on Sunday. Some 55,000 workers in the education sector in Ontario, the country’s largest province, went on strike on Friday after failing to reach an agreement with the provincial government on better pay and more frontline staff in schools. The walkout by teachers, educational assistants, secretaries and library workers, forced hundreds of schools to shut. The Toronto District School Board has 247,000 students in 583 schools under its supervision. Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government has rejected the striking CUPE workers’ wage demands as too high, and has passed a controversial law to force a contract on them.

Confidence, Anxiety and a Scramble for Votes Before the Midterms (NYT) The turbulent midterm campaign rolled through its final weekend on Sunday as voters—buffeted by record inflation, worries about their personal safety and fears about the fundamental stability of American democracy—showed clear signs of preparing to reject Democratic control of Washington and embrace divided government. As candidates sprinted across the country to make their closing arguments to voters, Republicans entered the final stretch of the race confident they would win control of the House and possibly the Senate. Democrats steeled themselves for potential losses even in traditionally blue corners of the country. While a majority of voters name the economy as their top concern, nearly three-quarters of Americans believe democracy is in peril, with most identifying the opposing party as the major threat. Since 1934, nearly every president has lost seats in his first midterm election. And typically, voters punish the party in power for poor economic conditions—dynamics that point toward Republican gains.

Haiti gang leader to lift fuel blockade amid shortages (AP) A powerful gang leader announced Sunday that he was lifting a blockade at a key fuel terminal that has strangled Haiti’s capital for nearly two months. The announcement by Jimmy Cherizier, a former police officer nicknamed “Barbecue,” followed government claims of at least some success in efforts to reclaim the terminal, as well as a United Nations resolution targeting Cherizier with sanctions. But it remained unclear who actually controls the terminal and the surrounding area, and there had been no evidence that any fuel had been able to leave. If fuel can leave, that would ease a crisis that began when Cherizier’s G9 gang federation seized control of the area surrounding a fuel depot in Port-au-Prince on Sept. 12 to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry. The gang’s blockade cut off access to about 10 millions gallons of diesel and gasoline and more than 800,000 gallons of kerosene, forcing gas stations to close, hospitals to cut back on critical services and banks and grocery stores to operate on a limited schedule.

Young Migrants Describe Hunger, Illness and Trauma at U.K. Asylum Center (NYT) Mohammad, 17, emerged groggily from his hotel near Heathrow Airport into the spitting rain on Thursday, his flimsy sandals slapping at the wet concrete. Before he was taken to the hotel, Mohammad said, he spent 25 days at the Manston migrant center on England’s southeastern coast. Recounting his time in the troubled Manston center, Mohammad, who is from Iraqi Kurdistan, described how asylum seekers had been forced to sleep in chairs in freezing temperatures, adding that many had become sick in overcrowded tents. He said that he had been fed too little and often gone hungry, and that many people were “filthy” because there weren’t enough showers. “All migrants are suffering in Manston camp, believe me,” he said. “It is not a situation that humans deserve to live in.” He is just one of thousands of asylum seekers who have passed through the Manston center since it opened in January, many of them children. The center has been racked in recent weeks by mounting allegations of inhumane conditions, including severe overcrowding, and has found itself at the center of heated debate about migrant policy that has roiled Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s new government. Manston was built to hold 1,600 migrants, but in recent weeks, it had housed around 4,000.

Drought tests resilience of Spain’s olive groves and farmers (AP) An extremely hot, dry summer that shrank reservoirs and sparked forest fires is now threatening the heartiest of Spain’s staple crops: the olives that make the European country the world’s leading producer and exporter of the tiny green fruits that are pressed into golden oil. Industry experts and authorities predict Spain’s fall olive harvest will be nearly half the size of last year’s, another casualty of global weather shifts caused by climate change. “I am 57 years old and I have never seen a year like this one,” farmer Juan Antonio Delgado said as he walked past his rows of olive trees in the southeast town of Quesada. “My intention is to hang on as long as I can, but when the costs rise above what I make from production we will all be out of a job.”

A Republican winter may be coming for Ukraine (Washington Post) “Under Republicans, not another penny will go to Ukraine,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) declared at a stump speech last Thursday in Iowa. The far-right politician was looking forward to what may be the imminent future: Her party is poised to make significant gains in Tuesday’s midterm elections and possibly revamp the United States’ whole approach to supporting Ukraine’s resistance to Russia’s invasion. A Republican-led House is expected to, among other things, turn up the heat on the Biden administration over its handling of the U.S. withdrawal of Afghanistan, as well as step up political pressure on Iran. But Ukraine may feel the pinch, too, given that Congress has already greenlit upward of $60 billion in aid and Kyiv is pleading for more from the West. Ahead of the election, various GOP lawmakers and candidates have indicated the fire hose of funding needs to be turned off. “I think people are gonna be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank check to Ukraine,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) recently told Punchbowl News. “They just won’t do it.”

Kyiv region still struggles 6 months after Russian retreat (AP) Standing amid the wreckage of his home, Vadym Zherdetsky shows photos on his phone of how it once looked: handsome rooms, a hand-carved wooden bed and a chest of drawers he intended to leave to his grandchildren. When Russia invaded Ukraine in February, two missiles struck the house in the tiny village of Moschun on the outskirts of the capital, ripping off the roof and nearly killing four family members. The town was recaptured from Russian forces in April, but Zherdetsky’s house, like many others in the Kyiv region, remains in ruins. “Everything changed. Our lives changed,” the 51-year-old said, wiping away tears. “Thank God it was only property, and we are alive and healthy. ... I don’t know where our kids and grandkids will live. I don’t know anything.” More than six months after Russian forces retreated from the towns around Kyiv, residents of those communities are still struggling to rebuild their lives. An estimated 1 million people—half the number who fled the region—have returned, according to local authorities. But many no longer have jobs, cannot afford to fix their houses and say they need more assistance.

India Under Smog (1440) Smog in New Delhi, India, reached hazardous levels late last week, as the air quality index hit over 400 on multiple days—10 times the World Health Organization’s target level. Many schools, factories, and construction sites closed Friday out of health concerns. India regularly tops the list of most polluted countries due to a mix of geographic- and human-caused factors. Cool, windless days in winter exacerbate the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, with cold air keeping particulates close to the ground. On top of vehicular, industrial, and energy pollutants, annual agricultural burnings in the country’s north—a practice meant to speed up the clearing of ground to plant winter crops—compound the area’s poor air quality. An estimated 1.6 million people die every year in India due to complications from air pollution.

North Korea: Missile tests were practice to attack South, US (AP) North Korea’s military said Monday its recent barrage of missile tests were practices to “mercilessly” strike key South Korean and U.S. targets such as air bases and operation command systems with a variety of missiles that likely included nuclear-capable weapons. The North’s announcement underscored leader Kim Jong Un’s determination not to back down in the face of his rivals’ push to expand their military exercises. But some experts say Kim also used their drills as an excuse to modernize his nuclear arsenal and increase his leverage in future dealings with Washington and Seoul.

Taiwan’s Bomb Shelters (NYT) Visitors to Keelung, a mountainous port city on Taiwan’s northern coast, might reasonably think that the white wall at the back of Shi Hui-hua’s breakfast shop is, well, a wall. Only a few air vents suggest that there might be something on the other side. “It’s a bomb shelter,” said Ms. Shi, 53, as she waited for the morning rush. “Because we’re Keelung people, we know these kinds of places.” “It’s a space for life,” she added. “And a space for death.” All over her street and many more in Keelung—which suffered its first foreign attack, by the Dutch, in 1642—the landscape has been carved up for protection. Kitchens connect to underground passageways that tunnel into the sandstone. Rusty gates at the ends of alleys lead to dark maws that are filled with memories of war, and sometimes trash or bats—or an altar or restaurant annex. There are nearly 700 bomb shelters in this city of 360,000 people, leading officials to declare that Keelung has a higher density of places to hide than anywhere else in heavily fortified Taiwan. On a self-governed island that China considers lost property it plans to reclaim, they are vital infrastructure.

Egypt takes on large families (Washington Post) In Rana Ragab’s crowded neighborhood on the west bank of the Nile River, her friends call her “the mother of children.” Her sixth kid is on the way. She and her husband, a butcher, are thrilled. The Egyptian government, though, sees families their size as a grave threat to the country—and has spent millions of dollars over the past several years trying to persuade parents to have fewer children. In public speeches, President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi has repeatedly scolded families for having more than two children, calling the population crisis a national security issue that has hindered progress on development goals. Cairo says the issue is more urgent than ever, as rising temperatures increasingly threaten the country’s food and water supplies.

#headlines #news

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antoine-roquentin · 3 years

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Now, with Ontario’s residential eviction moratorium having ended earlier this year, the mass eviction crisis is here. Last month in Toronto alone, the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) scheduled nearly 2,500 online hearings based on landlords’ applications to evict their tenants. Hundreds of people have already been removed from their homes by sheriffs and police.

Despite Toronto entering lockdown again in response to rising COVID-19 cases, the LTB has pushed ahead with its online eviction ‘blitz.’

Eviction hearings are conducted in two-hour “express” blocks in Microsoft Teams video conference rooms. Nine or more tenants’ cases are scheduled together in each block. In the virtual hearing rooms, politically-appointed adjudicators summarily order tenants to either pay large sums of rent arrears on impossibly short repayment schedules or be evicted by the sheriff.

In October, the LTB began to prioritize scheduling eviction hearings for tenants who missed rent payments during the shutdown. In cases where the tenant is unable to log or call in to the online platform, the hearing goes ahead in their absence, and their eviction is confirmed. Yet in cases where the landlord didn’t show, tenants have reported that adjudicators refused to consider the case abandoned by the landlord.

Tenants have been ordered to pay all rent arrears owing in full, plus the landlord’s eviction application filing fee (up to more than $200), within 11 days, or be evicted. The fact that there have been cases of the LTB failing to issue notice of the online hearing to the tenant in advance has led to legal aid lawyers speaking out in the media. Tenants who have attended their eviction hearings report that the formality concludes in as little as 60 seconds. In one case reported by the Keep Your Rent advocacy group in its live tweets of LTB hearings, an adjudicator ordered the eviction of a tenant who didn’t appear to understand the terms because of a bad connection.

In the hearings, many tenants have been pressured into agreeing to terms of rent repayment that will be impossible for them to keep up with. For example, an agreement might have the tenant pay $500 each month toward rent arrears, totaling thousands of dollars on top of the tenant’s full monthly rent.

Adjudicators regularly remind tenants that if they’re ever “a day late or a dollar short” on even one scheduled monthly payment, their landlords can get an automatic eviction order without a hearing, enforceable by the sheriff. Based on my experience working with tenants who were pressured into such onerous repayment agreements, I know that many will be evicted within six months of their hearing, despite them continuing to hand over a massive portion of their incomes and foregoing basic necessities in order to pay their landlords back in full.

Many of the adjudicators who preside at the LTB hearings were appointed by Doug Ford’s government as recently as August in preparation for mass evictions. Tenant groups have sounded the alarm regarding these appointees having ties to real estate interests and the law firms that represent them.

One LTB adjudicator, who is associated with the landlord-side law firm Cohen Highley LLP, has been reported for having decided eviction cases in which the landlord was represented by an employee of the same firm. Cohen Highley describes itself as “Ontario’s premiere [sic] legal resource for residential landlords and property managers,” and works with the Federation Of Rental Housing Providers Of Ontario.

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rural-lesbian · 2 years

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Assessment of Mental Health Care in Nova Scotia

CW/TW: This letter refers to mental health related issues including self harm, suicidal ideation and assault.

I emailed the following letter to Tim Houston, Premier of Nova Scotia; Michelle Thompson, Minister of Health & Wellness, Nova Scotia & Hon. Brian Comer, Minister, Office of Mental Health & Addictions, Nova Scotia; concerning the poor state of mental health care in the province. The Premier has announced additional funding to be put forward to support the system, however I do not believe that the Premier and Ministers in charge of this area of the government have enough training and understanding to put into action true change that will improve the system and what is offered.

To date I have not received a response. As such I am publishing this letter outlining the major fissures in the system publicly. Please share as you see fit.

Dear Mr. Houston, Ms. Thompson and Mr. Comer

I am writing to with great concern regarding the state of mental health care in Nova Scotia. As heads of state, government and mental health care in particular, it is imperative that you understand the failings in the system as it exists now, before you begin to start attempting to repair a broken system through means that will not create lasting change. I hope you will take this letter seriously as it pertains to the health and well being of all members of society in Nova Scotia in particular those most vulnerable: Indigenous, Black and people of colour, women, 2SLGBTQIA+ individuals and those experiencing homelessness and poverty.

I am 38, a lesbian, white settler and present as a cis-het woman*. I have many privileges & I live with chronic mental illness and historical trauma. Because of my health I have been unable to work full time in a job as society stipulates one should (9-5pm Monday-Friday for a fixed salary) since 2015. I have lost incomparable income because of this as well as the pandemic. My financial situation is now critical. I live with my mom because I have not been able to find a way to support myself monetarily and continue to live a healthy life.

I have been seeking therapy through the public health care system in Canada since I was a child in many different provinces (Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta and now Nova Scotia). Each province’s system works differently and has pros and cons. The system in Nova Scotia is the weakest I have experienced.

In Nova Scotia, if you need to seek mental health treatment you must complete a telephone intake. Anyone who has sought mental health treatment will be familiar with this: the phone call where you reveal all your deepest and darkest truths: whether you’ve been assaulted, whether you experience suicidal ideation, whether you have or continue to self harm, etc. Once you are placed with a clinician you have 8 sessions with them. When I found out my therapist was leaving (for other reasons) I was distraught as I wanted to deal with traumas in order to live a healthy fulfilling life, and I don’t believe this is something that can be accomplished in 8 sessions.

My therapist at the time explained that the mental health care system in Nova Scotia provides care for 8 sessions because they do not want patients becoming dependent on talk therapy. This is because (according to my therapist & presumably the government putting this system in place) ongoing therapy DOES NOT WORK. I have seen this at work before: the revolving door, the patients who come, leave & come back again in crisis. This is not a cycle that I want to live in or repeat. With the help of a well rounded mental health system and clinicians who can provide optimal care this would not be the case or would not need to be the approach.

I am tired of repeating a cycle where I receive inconsistent care simply because I can’t afford to pay for private care.

I am tired of entering the mental health care system in crisis only to be leave several months later with no support.

I am tired of & I do not want to be a patient who needs to return over and over again in that manner. That is not healthy or a holistic approach to health and care.

My therapists response was: That sounds like the way mental health care works. My therapist, paid by tax payers, believes that going to therapy in crisis, leaving a few months later and reentering in crisis mode is the way therapy works.

This form of mental health care makes capital the most important tenet for offering care. Making patients into capital is not a health care system focused on health but on making money.

When I said I wanted consistent mental health care & to leave when I felt ready. My therapists response was that is unrealistic because that will never happen in the public health care system. She furthered that if that were the case (that I left when I was ready) would mean I would be healed of all mental health issues, which is not just unrealistic but impossible.

In essence a government employed health care worker admitted to a patient that the system they work for & that I am seeking help from does not and will never work for its patients.

This therapist then furthered that if I indeed wanted consistent care I would need to go into private therapy. Again I find this really problematic, that a government employed health care worker would a) redirect a patient out of the public system because they are indicating it is insufficient but also b) assuming that I have the means to support that.

If I was able to pay for private therapy I would never waste my time on the public system. The reason I am seeking mental health care in the public system is because I don’t have the means to support paying for private mental health care.

This statement is insulting, ignorant, disrespectful, privileged, tone deaf and ableist. This was said to me - as I stated, a white, cis-het presenting woman. Imagine what that would feel like, how demeaning and invalidating it would be, to someone facing even more barriers than I am.

The major flaws I see in the system is that it is upheld within a patriarchal, white supremacist, hetero-normative, cis-centred system & culture. The mental health care system requires workers with trauma training, clinicians who are Black, Indigenous and other people of colour, 2SLGBTQIA+, clinicians who are disability activists, who respect self-care advocation & who are able to see beyond their own privilege.

I’m invoking the words of Johanna Hedva’s SICK WOMAN THEORY [https:// www.topicalcream.org/features/sick-woman-theory/] which you must read if you have not.

I am raising my sick fist in solidarity, in protest with all the other sick fists raised in protest.

I expect to hear from you.

Colleary.

[* cis-het presenting means I present as a woman and I am a woman and appear to be heterosexual; being white, cis and hetero-presenting are all privileges].

#nova scotia #mental health #public mental health #tim houston #michelle thompson #brian comer #decolonize mental health #2SLGBTQ!A+#bipoc mental health #2SLGBTQIA+ mental health

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mostlysignssomeportents · 3 years

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Ontario's drug-dealer premier is shockingly bad at distributing vaccines

Ontario politics are a wild ride, but they rarely escape the province, or, at most, the nation. Which is weird, because Ontario has been a leading indicator of neoliberalism's cruelty, paranoia, and surrealism since (at least) the mid-nineties.

Start with the 1995 election of Conservative Premier Mike Harris, a bland, dead-eyed sociopath whose "Common Sense Revolution" slashed Ontario's excellent public services and implemented a forced-labor program for poor people, AKA "workfare."

Harris was a Romneyish sort of fellow: a personality-free, interchangeable suit who didn't raise anyone's pulse but excelled at administration. His major achievement was the amalgamation of Toronto: a forced merger of the City of Toronto with its heretofore separate suburbs.

This was an incredible power-move. The old City of Toronto is the province's economic engine and the seat of its parliament. It is far, far to the left of the suburbs, and has entirely different priorities from them.

Dissolving the City of Toronto let Harris depose the popular left-leaning Mayor Barbara Hall. The election that followed saw the clownish crook Mel Lastman - who long ruled over my birth-suburb of North York - promoted to the big league, as the megacity's first mayor.

Lastman was a shitshow. He was known for his discount appliance store TV ads and for a string of scandals, from fathering and abandoning a secret child with one of his employees to covering up his wife's shoplifting arrest by threatening to murder a reporter.

He also pioneered a lot of the performative, own-the-libs culture-war bullshit that dominates our politics today, with idiotic stunts like ordering the free weekly Now Magazine removed from City Hall over its personal ads.

When the residents of old Toronto had Lastman forced on them by their suburban neighbours, it set the tone for Toronto/Ontario politics for decades, as Harris's masterstroke of disenfranchisement ensured Torontonians would never again get a say in their governance.

In electoral map after electoral map, you can see mayors and premiers coming to office despite the overwhelming disapproval of City of Toronto voters. This 2010 map by Torontoist's Marc Lostracco is pretty typical.

https://torontoist.com/2010/10/which_wards_voted_for_who_for_mayor/

Amazingly, Mel Lastman was the *least* clownish champion of Toronto's suburban voters. These voters quickly converged on the uh, colourful Ford brothers, Doug and Rob.

You remember Rob, right? The crack-smoking mayor who brought sex workers to City Hall, engaged in routine public racism and homophobia, and made demeaning cunnilingus jokes when asked about his marital infidelity?

He and his (marginally smarter) brother Doug ended up in city government thanks to their father - Doug Sr, a Tory MPP who made a fortune with his label-printing business - and their Rush Limbaugh-style talk radio show.

This was the show that featured their paid stooges, who'd call up pretending to be outraged Ontarians who'd rail at socialism or whatever and praise the Fords for their excellence.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/rob-ford-s-friend-dave-made-calls-to-mayor-s-radio-show-1.1405251

But that revelation did nothing to cool suburban Toronto's ardour for the failsons of a label-making kingpin. For these low-information voters, a steady output of xenophobia, cruelty, and racism trumped any scandal. And I do mean ANY scandal.

In 2013, the Globe and Mail's Shannon Kari and Greg McArthur broke a *huge* Ford story, detailing Doug's career as a major hashish dealer and his brother Randy's involvement in a drug-related kidnapping.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/globe-investigation-the-ford-familys-history-with-drug-dealing/article12153014/

And then there was his sister Kathy and her circle of violent racist cronies. Kathy was once shot in the face by a hash dealer, who remained in the Fords' good books, appearing with his family in videos and pictures, hanging out with Doug at an election-night party.

But nothing stuck. After Rob Ford died of cancer, Doug Ford - incredibly - became leader of the Ontario Conservative Party and won an election through the most laughable, corrupt politics imaginable.

For example, he refused most press interviews, and instead hired a "journalist" to ask him softball questions for his own Youtube channel (ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 'personal responsibility' movement!).

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2018/05/06/doug-ford-evades-real-scrutiny-by-hiring-his-own-reporter.html

The Fords were Canada's Trumps, and Doug's 2018 election campaign shamelessly stole from the Trump playbook, right down to the paid actors going nuts at his rallies:

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/05/08/doug-ford-campaign-confirms-actors-were-hired-to-play-the-part-of-pc-supporters-at-mondays-debate-rally.html

Despite all this, the suburban voters continued to support him, even after Rob Ford's widow accused Doug of stealing her children's inheritance, misappropriating millions of dollars from Rob's estate:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-faces-multimillion-dollar-lawsuit-1.4691378

Doug Ford really proved that millions of selfish assholes will vote for rotting roadkill if it promises them $0.25 off their tax bill, blended with gratuitous cruelty. Doug's GOOD at cruelty, vicious stuff like eliminating sedation for colonoscopies:

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2018/05/08/doug-ford-campaign-confirms-actors-were-hired-to-play-the-part-of-pc-supporters-at-mondays-debate-rally.html

But Doug is a Trump, not a Romney. He is good at performative culture-war bullshit, but he sucks at making deep structural changes. When the national government levied a carbon tax on gas, Ford ordered stickers on every pump decrying the tax.

But in you-can't-make-this-up failson fashion, these labels - ordered by the son of Ontario's most successful label-making kingpin - all fell off the pumps thanks to their defective adhesive.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/anit-carbon-tax-stickers-falling-off-1.5287869

Of course, none of this matters to the roadkill-and-tax-cuts Ford base who continued to support him through a series of blunders...until the pandemic. Turns out you can't defeat a public health scourge with racist jokes and paeans to personal responsibility.

Toronto is heading back into lockdown (again). From nursing homes to First Nations reservations, the province has been scoured by covid on Ford's watch. And Ontario's vaccinations are an utter shitshow.

https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2021/03/30/tight-lockdown-coming-for-toronto-predicts-member-of-ontarios-science-advisory-table.html

As ever, this crisis has awakened the best in political satirists, notably The Beaverton's Luke Gordon Field, whose "Drug dealer shockingly bad at getting people drugs" deserves a place in the gallows humour hall of fame.

https://www.thebeaverton.com/2021/03/drug-dealer-shockingly-bad-at-getting-people-drugs/

> “Electing a guy whose only work experience was ‘drug dealing’, ‘running the family business into ground’ and ‘doing a weight loss challenge with his more popular brother’ was always going to be a risk,” said Political analyst Keith Burns. “But we thought the one thing he is well-suited for would be distributing powerful drugs in an efficient and organized manner.”

> Ford denied that he was failing his “customers. I mean taxpayers. I mean citizens.” He made it clear that if anyone has any issues, the fault lay entirely with his supplier JT.

For a more serious - and ongoing - take on Doug Ford, tune into Canadaland's excellent "Wag the Doug" podcast, wherein Jonathan Goldsbie and Allison Smith document the rampant bumblefuckery of the Ford regime.

https://www.canadaland.com/shows/wag-the-doug/

#pluralistic

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scotianostra · 4 years

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On June 6th 1891, Sir John MacDonald, the Scottish-born Canadian statesman, died.

John MacDonald was born in Glasgow, the son of a merchant who migrated to British North America in 1820. The family settled in the Kingston area of what is now Ontario, and Macdonald was educated in Kingston and Adolphustown. In 1830 he was articled to a prospering lawyer with connections that were to prove helpful to Macdonald, who rose rapidly in his profession.

MacDonald is considered to be the architect of the Confederation of Canada and served twice as the first Prime Minister of the unified Dominion, between 1867-73 and 1878-91.

Already an experienced local politician, he helped form the 1854 coalition with Upper Canadian reformers and French Canadians, creating the Liberal-Conservative Party. Within this coalition government, Macdonald was promoted to be attorney-general, and later acted as co-premier between 1856 and 1862. In 1864, MacDonald accepted that constitutional change was necessary for Canada, and spent that summer preparing proposals for a Confederation.

He was a leading delegate at all three Confederation conferences, and was knighted for his work towards union. The stamp you see in pic two was issued to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth in January 2015.

MacDonald undoubtedly laid the foundations of modern Canada, but he also personally set in motion all the most damaging elements of Canadian Indigenous policy.

It has been said that Macdonald basically had Indigenous people locked down so tightly that they became irrelevant after 1885. When Macdonald took office for the second time in 1878, the plains were in the grip of what is still one of the worst human disasters in Canadian history.

The sudden disappearance of the bison, caused largely by American overhunting, had robbed Plains First Nations of their primary source of food, clothing and shelter. Suddenly, all across the prairies were scenes reminiscent of the Irish Potato Famine only 30 years prior.

Around what is now Calgary, Blackfoot had been reduced to eating grass. White travellers described coming across landscapes of up to 1,000 Indigenous so starved that they had trouble walking.

Macdonald did not cause the famine. Nor did he draft the Indian Act or most of the West’s treaties, which had been created under the prior Liberal government but he did capitalise on prairies wracked with famine.

Macdonald’s Indian agents explicitly withheld food in order to drive bands onto reserve and out of the way of the railroad, another source tells us that his policy towards the native population was driven by submission and starvation.

We can't overlook things like this, and I personally try to give a two sided view when putting these posts together.

Under his, and other governments control the plains people's population fell by about a third.

After a failed rebellion MacDonald wrote....“The executions of the Indians … ought to convince the Red Man that the White Man governs,”

He was however a man of contraries, and in one way Macdonald was oddly more progressive on Indigenous policy than his contemporaries.

On the eve of the North-West Rebellion, he had proposed a measure that would extend voting rights to Canadian Indigenous — a measure that Canada wouldn’t actually adopt until 1960. He wrote “I hope to see some day the Indian race represented by one of themselves on the floor of the House of Commons,”. In a particularly remarkable quote from 1880, Macdonald did something that would be quite familiar to the Canadians of 2018: He disparaged his forebears for the awful plight of Canada’s first peoples.

“We must remember that they are the original owners of the soil, of which they have been dispossessed by the covetousness or ambition of our ancestors,” he wrote in a letter proposing the creation of the Department of Indian Affairs.

“At all events, the Indians have been great sufferers by the discovery of America and the transfer to it of a large white population.” so he knew what he was doing and how it came about, again it shows how contrary he was.

Defenders of Macdonald contend that he was merely guilty of negligence. He was a man in his 60s heading up a shaky new country while simultaneously orchestrating one of history’s largest infrastructure projects. The fate of whole peoples was in the hands of a man who had no idea what the West even looked like, and had no time to care.

Macdonald won the 1891 Canadian General Election and started his sixth term as Prime Minister. However he then suffered a severe stroke, and died a week later on 6 June 1891.

His state funeral was held on 9 June, and he is buried in Cataraqui Cemetery in Kingston, Ontario.

#Scotland #scottish #scots-canadian #History #Canada

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jonismitchell · 4 years

Note

what's your current lover ranking?

cruel summer - the best song anyone has ever written hands down. this is a joke but it also isn’t a joke.

the archer - i’ve always wanted a taylor swift song about hating myself and now i have it! god bless.

cornelia street - this is the all too well of falling in love,,, it really is. it’s actually unfortunate and illegal that all of you only started appreciating it when you heard the acoustic version.

daylight - the second verse is some of the best songwriting ever? but this whole song is so lovely and soft and calming.

it’s nice to have a friend - the beat? what are we? not lovers because i don’t know what that means yet but... friends. it’s nice. god i have a lot of feelings about taylor doing more for ontario education than the premier.

false god - usually equal to it’s nice to have a friend, really depends on how i’m feeling. anyway i can’t believe i said love is like a religion and taylor swift listened to me. the metaphors… new york city… this is such a good song and the production is good too, no matter what all of you cowards say.

lover - i have a vivid memory of trying to stay up until three in the morning to listen to this and ultimately failing. this quite literally IS the quintessential taylor swift love song. it actually took quite a while to grow on me but now i’d jump off a cliff for her.

paper rings - there are so many names in history but none of them are ours... there is a long unwritten history... i can’t believe this is for the gays and the gays specifically.

death by a thousand cuts - great bridge. absolutely fantastic bridge. it’s honestly a really good and solid song, there are just so many on the album that are better.

london boy - yes, she’s a commercial of a song. no self respecting british person would put themselves through all of this. but then again, the british don’t respect themselves and neither do i. also she released this song the night i got home from london so there’s that.

afterglow - my opinion essentially has not changed since the album came out. solid, good song, not something i am particularly attached to.

i think he knows - i had to mentally go through the lover tracklist to remember this song actually existed. i loved it when the album came out, but now i don’t really like it a lot? i don’t know why. it just feels like anyone could’ve written it.

the man - can we please take back the music video because i do not want it. this is pretty basic in a surface level “double standards bad.” i like this song but it’s not a feminist anthem, thanks.

you need to calm down - perhaps not the best song on the planet but still kinda fun.

ME! - she can be better than everyone says and still not a good song. she’s like an onion. she has layers. notable for taylor saying the word babydoll, which really made my 2019.

i forgot that you existed - taylor really wrote cruel summer and then decided to open the album with this, that’s all i have to say.

impossible to rank

miss americana and the heartbreak prince - i mean… i am obsessed with this song. i love it dearly. but it’s so different from the other songs on the album (at least to me) that it’s difficult to know where to place it. such a good song, but in relation to any other song who knows where it should go.

soon you’ll get better - do i even need to explain this one

#sweetteaswift #asking with you

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onpoli · 5 years

Text

4/21/2019 Roundup

Articles/threads worth reading:

Research: When Airbnb Listings in a City Increase, So Do Rent Prices

The tortured history of Toronto’s discarded subway plans

A video from 2011 showing a teenager from Scarborough breaking down in tears while begging Rob Ford not to make cuts to library funding is circulating again now that Doug Ford has slashed library funding.

Citizens pack public meeting opposing Sidewalk Labs plan

Niagara’s ‘Ethical’ Rainforest Café Claws-back Tips, Attacks Unions, Workers Say

Good news:

Ontario’s list of property owners will no longer be the primary source used to select people for jury duty.

Faith Goldy may be in trouble - again - now that a representative from the Canadian Anti-Hate Network has filed an audit request with the City of Toronto. The request states that she broke campaign finance laws during her failed mayoral campaign last year, and the Compliance Audit Committee will now decide whether to launch an audit.

This week in Ontario’s history:

April 15, 2002: Premier Ernie Eves is sworn in, replacing Mike Harris. Eves went on to reject an inquest’s recommendation to create a more compassionate welfare system in response to the death of Kimberly Rogers; he also presented his 2003 budget at a televised press conference instead of at Queen’s Park. Eves delayed the next election due to the widespread criticism of this move and of the budget itself.

April 18, 1793: Ontario’s first newspaper, the Upper Canada Gazette, is published for the first time in Niagara. The paper covered and analyzed government affairs, and the government also used it to deliver statements to the public.

April 19, 1884: The federal government bans Indigenous celebratory and mourning events known as potlatch ceremonies in a bid to further force assimilation. Those caught attending potlatch ceremonies after the ban faced arrest and imprisonment.

#canadian politics #canpoli #onpoli #ontario #roundup

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corkcitylibraries · 5 years

Text

It Seems Like Nothing Changes

By Paul Cussen

October 1919

While Lloyd George’s government realise that Home Rule is not enough to satisfy the Irish, the Irish Committee of the British Government is recreated under heavy Unionist influence, notably through Sir Walter Long.

John McArdle, F Company, 1st Battalion, Dublin Brigade, Irish Volunteers loses the use of an eye during an exchange with British forces.

James Joyce leaves Zurich for Trieste. He writes to Harriet Weaver to say that he has found the manuscript of A Portrait… in the drawer of his desk, exactly where he had left it four years before. Not trusting the post-war postal system he divides the manuscript into four parts, posting each one separately, and promising that if any part did not arrive, he will write it out again for her.

(In July 1951 Harriet Weaver presented the manuscript to Frederick Boland as a donation for the National Library of Ireland. She was so impressed by Boland’s enthusiasm that she donated a portrait of the great man by Wyndham Lewis to the National Gallery of Ireland)

Winston Churchill condemns the IRA as ‘a gang of squalid murderers’ who have eluded capture.

D’Annunzio, the ‘John the Baptist of Fascism’, receives a cargo ship laden with military equipment. The Persia is captured by Giuseppe Giuletti and some volunteers who redirect it from its original destination of Vladivostock, where it is to supply the White Armies, to Fiume.

1-2 October

Dozens of doughboys shot at African-Americans and when police arrive they shoot at them during the Baltimore riot. Police reinforcements cause the soldiers to withdraw. In total six soldiers are arrested.

2 October

Seán 'ac Dhonncha is born in Carna, Connemara (d. 1996)

US President Woodrow Wilson has a stroke that leaves him partially paralysed.

3 October

John Boyd (Boyd Bradfield Upchurch) is born in Atlanta (d. 2013)

James M. Buchanan is born in Murfreesboro, Tennessee (d. 2013)

5 October

Private William Grenville dies of appendicitis in Cork.

Donald Pleasence is born in Worksop, Nottinghamshire (d. 1995)

5-6 October

61.6% of voters vote for prohibition (of spirits) in a referendum in Norway.

6-7 October

American marines and Haitian gendarmes repel an attack by Caco rebels under Charlemagne Masséna Péralte in the Battle of Port-au-Prince.

7 October

Koninklijke Luchtvaart Maatschappij N.V. (KLM) is founded and will become the first airline in the world to celebrate its centenary. The modified De Havilland DH-9B bomber pictured above was part of their London Amsterdam service with British Aerial Transport.

9 October

Constable Joseph Reynolds of the Dublin Metropolitan Police overpowers William Little who had just shot two “Asylum attendants and a private enquiry agent”.

10 October

Private W.J. Edwards dies of aenemia in Central Hospital, Cork aged 18.

11 October

Art Blakey is born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (d. 1990)

11 Oct–18 Nov

Soviet forces halt the White forces advance on Moscow in the Orel-Kromy operation.

14 October

Aleksandar Stamboliyski is appointed Prime Minister of Bulgaria.

17 October

HMS Dragon is hit by two shells from a shore battery while taking part in an operation against German forces attacking Riga. Nine of the crew die and five are wounded.

RCA is created as a subsidiary to General Electric.

18 October

De Valera is made an honorary chief of the Chippewa in Wisconsin.

Pierre Trudeau is born in Montreal (d. 2000)

19 October

Detective Michael Downing of G Division (Dublin Metropolitan Police) is assassinated.

Anna Howard Shaw becomes the first female recipient of the US Distinguished Service Medal.

20 October

Ontario voters decide not to repeal prohibition in a referendum.

The man engine which transports miners underground at the Levant Mine in Cornwall fails. The rod which controls the movement breaks and men on the device plummet the 1,596-foot shaft. At least five of the 31 who die had served in the War.

22 October

Doris Lessing is born in Kermanshah, Iran (d. 2013)

W. N. P. Barbellion (pen-name of Bruce Frederick Cummings), English naturalist and diarist, dies of multiple sclerosis (born 1889)

25 October

Jimmy Rudd is born in Dublin (d. 1985)

Six Republican prisoners (including Piaras Beaslaí) escape from Strangeways Prison.

Ireland and England draw 1-1 in front of a crowd of 30,000 in Windsor Park, Belfast.

26 October

Edward Elgar’s Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 premieres in Queen’s Hall, London.

President Wilson’s veto of the Prohibition Enforcement Bill is overridden.

27 October

James Joseph Magennis is born in Belfast (d. 1986)

Minister for Foreign Affairs, Count George Plunkett, reports ‘a steady progress’ in the development of Ireland’s foreign relations ‘in spite of all impediments’.

Mike Pepitone becomes the last victim of the Axeman of New Orleans.

28 October

Arthur Ransome leaves Russia with his future wife Evgenia Petrovna Shelepina, who had been Trotsky's secretary.

30 October

Ella Wheeler Wilcox dies of cancer in Short Beach, Connecticut (b. 1850)

Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone. For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth But has trouble enough of its own

‘Since I went to Ireland the only party delivering inflammatory speeches inciting to the murder of the servants of the Crown has been the Sinn Fein party, and so long as these speeches are likely to be delivered by these men I will prohibit them.’ -Sir James Macpherson in the House of Commons

31 October

Two units of the IRA attack the RIC barracks in Ballivor, Co. Meath killing 35 year old RIC Constable William Agar and seizing a revolver, five rifles and a large amount of ammunition.

Elsewhere in Co. Meath, Sergeant Matthews and Constables Griffiths and O’Shea at Lismullin RIC barracks repel an attack by about 26 Volunteers.

#cork city libraries #history to blame #irish history #cork history

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allthecanadianpolitics · 6 years

Text

just-another-critic replied to your post “What are the NDP's chances for the coming election, do you reckon? I...”

Hahaha Don’t let the NDP ruin Ontario again, last time the NDP ran Ontario they destroyed the economy and made is a massive welfare state.

That is actually not true.

Read these:

The hidden history of Bob Rae's government in Ontario

Bob Rae’s ‘failed’ premiership is a myth

Have some facts:

“In mid-1992, we delivered our report to the premier’s multipartite Council on Economic Renewal. Here’s what we found in our comparisons with Alberta, Quebec and 12 U.S. states, including Massachusetts, California, New York and others bordering the Great Lakes:

• On a GDP per capita basis, Ontario ranked as one of the most productive economies amongst the comparators.

• In the decade before the Rae government’s election, Ontario had lost over 4 per cent of its manufacturing employment, triple the loss in Alberta and double that in Quebec over the same period — a substantial inherited problem.

• Despite the loss of those jobs, Ontario’s manufacturing sector earnings had gone from the lowest among the Great Lakes jurisdictions in 1987 to the second highest in 1991.

• Unemployment, at 9.6 per cent, was high, but lower than Quebec and below the Canadian average of 10.3 per cent. In the recent 2008-09 recession, Ontario’s unemployment rate was higher, for three years, than the Canadian average, something that never happened under Rae’s leadership.

• On other tests — labour participation rates, business failures, export performance, R&D expenditures, education enrolment — Ontario matched or outranked most of the comparator jurisdictions.

By 1995, Ontario led the way in growth among all Canadian provinces; private sector investment had increased dramatically; labour productivity was at an all-time high, as were manufacturing exports; health-care costs were under improved control and a broad strategy for deficit reduction was in place.”

#just-another-critic

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cree-future-rabbi · 1 month

Text

Keffiyeh ban in Ontario legislature draws backlash | CTV News

ANTISEMITISM AGAIN

Look up what that piece of clothing is.

Look at this shit.

I am not safe, yet "the genocide in Gaza" (which isn't even a thing) across the sea is okay.

I get severe panic attacks seeing this.

Seeing my government failing us.

Doug Ford has done nothing good for Ontario.

Thanks for supporting antisemites under the guise of "anti-zionsm".

Fuck this.

#i/p conflict #jumblr #ontario premiere fails again #doug ford needs to get out of office #i no longer feel safe #i dont feel safe #unsafe jew in Canada #i feel unsafe #i am tired of being called slurs #am yisrael chai #free our people #fuck doug ford #doug ford #ontario canada #doug fords ontario #ontario Jews are not with you #jewish tumblr

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kayla1993-world · 3 years

Text

Analysis: Another minority looks likely but it could be very different from the last one

OTTAWA, ONTARIO — In four of the last six federal elections, Canadians chose minority governments, and a fifth is inevitable in Monday's vote.

It's anyone's guess whether the minority will be Liberal or Conservative.

As per polls, the two parties are locked, with no government in a condition to form a majority of seats in the House of Commons, as they were in 2019 when Justin Trudeau's Liberals earned a generally stable minority.

That isn't to assume that the conclusion is the same in this election. It is not all about who gets to vote or even the most seats and dictates who of the two front-runners becomes the government.

Rather, it rests on which party can command the House's confidence, as per Maxwell Cameron, a political scientist at the University of British Columbia. That means the issue is: which party is likely to help the support of one or smaller parties in trying to beat crucial confidence votes?

Trudeau is likely to resign and allow the Conservatives to form a government if he see little chance to growing sufficient opposition support to continue to govern. Regardless of the outcome, Trudeau has the chance to remain in power until he is defeated in a Commons confidence vote. Opposition parties would get their first opportunity to destabilize their government by voting against the throne speech, which starts off with each new session of parliament.

If the throne speech fails, the Governor-General has the authority to ask Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole to form a new government. To command the confidence of the House, O'Toole would have to attain backing from one or more of the other opposition parties. If he fails to do so, a new election will be held.

In 2019, the Conservatives received a little higher proportion of the popular vote than the Liberals, but since so much of it was concentrated in the Prairie provinces, they received 36 fewer seats.

There was never any question about the Liberals' opportunity to sustain to govern. They were only 13 seats short of a majority and New Democrat Party Leader Jagmeet Singh, whose party has won 24 seats, had made it quite clear during the campaign that the party would never accept a Conservative minority.

Trudeau was able to govern without reaching a written agreement with opposition parties, relying on support from different parties at different times to pass legislation and survive confidence votes.

This time, Singh hasn't ruled out backing the Conservatives. Nor has Yves-Francois Blanchet, the leader of the Bloc Quebecois. Notwithstanding the reality that O'Toole has shifted the Conservatives closer to the middle of the political spectrum, Cameron thinks it will be harder for him to find a dance partner in the Commons since both the Bloc and the NDP are ideologically affiliated with the Liberals.

However, Quebec Premier Francois Legault's virtual endorsement of the Conservatives could convince the Bloc to enable O'Toole to assume over like the Prime Minister. So, what if the NDP supported the Liberals and the Bloc supported the Conservatives, but neither of the front-runners could muster a majority in the House of Commons?

In that case, a handful of Green Party or People's Party MPs could theoretically decide which of the front-runners forms government. The secondary parties would have higher leverage to make demands in exchange for a second the further either of the front-runners is from the 170 seats needed for a majority.

Cameron looks out that there exist three approaches to minorities, the most common of which is Trudeau's informal vote-by-vote system across the past two years. If Monday's poll ends in another minority, Cameron thinks that will be the means employed again.

Trudeau or O'Toole may be required to go still further, getting a deal with one or smaller parties to prop them up for quite a while in exchange for specific legislative action.

In 1985, David Peterson's Liberals caught power in Ontario by causing a two-year agreement with the NDP to remove the Conservatives, who had won the most seats. It's also how John Horgan's NDP won power in British Columbia in 2017, replacing the Liberals, who had won the most seats, by getting the rights of the Greens' three representatives.

More insignificant parties also may demand inclusion in a combination control. However, while coalitions are common in other countries, they are uncommon in Canada, where the idea was tarnished by an aborted attempt to topple Stephen Harper immediately after he gained a second Traditional majority in 2008.

The Liberals and NDP had reached a negotiation to establish a fragile coalition government, but as they still didn't hold a majority, they ought to rely on the separatist Bloc Quebecois for backing. Stephane Dion, the would-be coalition party representative, already had resigned as Liberal administration, further complicated matters.

Harper criticized the coalition as an affront to democracy, effectively describing it as a separatist-backed coup attempt and winning the public relations campaign. He then turned the Governor-General to prorogue Parliament, providing him with some room to breathe.

By the time Parliament held a meeting, Dion had left, the Liberals had changed their brains, and the coalition agreement had broken. While lesser parties may well be tempted to make strong sales in exchange for help, Cameron thinks their bargaining power will be limited because no one needs to throw the country into yet another election amid COVID-19's fourth wave.

#canada

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youthincare · 6 years

Link

[ image above is Reneta Ford with Doug Ford at podium with microphone and fordnation signs behind them. ]

Click the link to read the statement of claim in the Ford lawsuit.

The widow and children of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford are suing his brother Doug Ford, alleging he has deprived them of millions of dollars, including shares in the family business and a life insurance policy left behind to support his family.

In a $16.5-million lawsuit filed Friday in Superior Court, Renata Ford also alleges that former brother-in-law Doug Ford is a “negligent” business manager whose decisions have led to a steady decrease in the value of the Ford company, Deco Labels. Despite setting his sights on a political career, Doug has continued to receive “extravagant compensation,” even though Deco is losing money, Renata claims in her court filings.

Doug Ford has “knowingly and deliberately put (Renata and her two children) in a highly stressful and unfair financial position during their period of grief after Rob Ford’s death, and continued to do so for more than two years after Rob Ford’s death,” the statement of claim alleges.

The lawsuit was filed by lawyers from Aird & Berlis LLP in Superior Court against Doug, his brother Randy (who is a top executive at Deco), and the Deco company itself. The allegations have not been proven in court.

After the Star sent a list of questions to Doug Ford, a spokesperson responded with two statements, one from Doug and one from Diane Ford, his mother.

“These claims relating to Deco are completely false and we will strongly refute them in court,” said Doug Ford’s statement.

“I have also stood by my brother and his family through so many of their challenging times, and will always be there for (Rob and Renata’s children). Renata’s lawyers have been clear to us throughout this campaign, that either we hand over money, or they would go public with these false claims, and that is exactly what they have done, with three days to go until the election.”

Diane Ford sent the following statement through Doug’s spokesperson.

“It is heartbreaking that Renata has chosen to bring forward these false and baseless allegations against our family, right in the middle of the provincial election campaign. As a family, our one goal is to ensure Rob’s children are cared for and their financial futures are secure. Renata has serious struggles with addiction, and our hope is that she will accept help for the sake of herself and my grandchildren,” Diane said in her statement.

Randy Ford did not respond to a request for comment.

Rob Ford was mayor of Toronto from 2010-2014. He died of cancer March 22, 2016. Although highly popular with segments of the Toronto electorate, Ford was also wracked by substance abuse issues and was once videotaped smoking crack cocaine with people involved in the gun and drug trades.

Through it all, his wife, Renata, stood by his side. They have two children, a boy and a girl.

The lawsuit details numerous allegations against both Doug and Randy, who are the trustees for their late brother’s estate. Doug and Randy are also trustees of the estate of the late Doug Sr., father of Rob, Doug, Randy and Kathy. Kathy is not mentioned in the lawsuit.

The root of Renata’s issues lies with the assets of the family company, Deco Labels. Deco Labels was started in the 1960s by Doug Sr. Doug Sr. also, at one point, was a Progressive Conservative MPP and Doug Jr. is running to become premier of Ontario under the Progressive Conservative banner. Doug Sr. died in 2006.

Renata alleges that, when Rob died, she was left with Rob’s shares in Deco. Renata said soon after, brother Doug approached her and suggested they settle the estate without involving lawyers.

“Let’s get rid of the lawyers and settle this on our own,” Renata quotes Doug in her statement of claim. “They will only steal your money. You’re going to lose everything in your savings.”

Renata states in her court filing that she did not follow Doug’s suggestions, nor did she agree to his suggestion that she sell her late husband’s shares to Doug. She says she tried many times to get an accounting of Rob’s estate, but she remains in the dark.

Renata states that she recently learned that Doug sold Randy Rob’s shares in Deco for a nominal cost of $1. She said she was then provided (the suit does not say who provided it) with a “third party valuation” of the shares and was told they had a “fair market value of zero.”

The Deco company makes labels and does business out of an Etobicoke factory, and also in Chicago. Renata states that when their father ran it, the company was extremely successful, with a market value of $10 million and an “investment portfolio” between $15 million and $20 million.

She alleges that the company has steadily lost value under Doug and Randy, who have been the top officers and directors of Deco since their father died.

“They have so negligently and improperly mismanaged (the business affairs of Deco) as to destroy their value,” she alleges.

According to the statement of claim, financial statements of Deco show Deco Toronto has experienced total losses of about $5 million between 2010 and 2017. Prior to Doug and Randy taking over it was profitable, she said.

During this time, Doug and Randy “arranged for and received very significant compensation from the Deco Companies. That compensation included extravagant salary, bonus, travel and automobile allowances and other benefits, which was paid regardless of the financial performance of those businesses.” No details were provided in the claim.

She also alleges that Doug and Randy “never took reasonable steps” to implement a business plan, and that he improperly hired friends and family to work at Deco, though they were “not qualified.” Although she provides no details, Renata also alleges in her suit that Doug and Randy have “negligently mistreated and unreasonably dismissed employees” who suggested ways to make Deco profitable again.

“Neither Doug Ford nor Randy Ford have the education and business ability to justify their employment as senior officers of Deco,” she alleges, adding that they carried out numerous “ill-advised acquisitions” of businesses and assets in New Jersey, Chicago and Ohio.

The lawsuit refers to Doug Ford’s political ambitions.

“After deciding to devote himself primarily to politics and other interests, Doug Ford nevertheless maintained his position as an officer and director of the Deco Companies, and arranged to continue to receive very extravagant compensation, notwithstanding that the businesses were losing money.”

The statement of claim estimates that through Doug and Randy’s use of their late father’s estate funds to prop up the Deco business, Rob Ford’s estate has been deprived of about $5 million.

She also alleges that Doug has “failed to administer and improperly administered Rob’s estate,” and deprived Renata and the children of the proceeds of a $220,000 insurance policy that the two brothers “improperly retained and withheld.” She said they did the same thing with Rob’s bank accounts, GICs, RRSPs and other investments.

Renata also alleges that Doug “charged unreasonable and unjustified expenses and fees against the Estate of Rob Ford.”

#Doug ford #cdn news #cdn poli #cdnnews #cdnpoli #fordnation #news #rob ford #2018 election

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orbemnews · 3 years

Link

Canada's healthcare workers brace for the painful blow of a punishing third wave But many of Canada’s healthcare workers were telling anyone who would listen that some provincial governments reopened too quickly after a difficult post-Christmas surge. “So, we’re stuck, where we have cases out of control, hospitals completely full, not enough vaccine supply available and months of difficult public health measures ahead of us,” said Dr. Michael Warner, the director of critical care at the Michael Garron Hospital in Toronto, in an interview with CNN. Provincial governments across the country are now reckoning with a damaging third wave of Covid-19, one that might imperil the universal healthcare system of which Canadians are so fiercely proud. From coast to coast, across thousands of miles and hundreds of hospitals, many provinces are now anxiously watching the case count rise as variants of concern spread a more contagious virus to younger Canadians and land more people in hospital. And nowhere in Canada is the hospital situation as critical as it is in Ontario, the country’s most populous province. “The government didn’t listen to scientists, they didn’t listen to epidemiologists, they didn’t listen to doctors other than their chief medical officer of health. And because they failed to listen to scientists, they thought they could negotiate themselves out of this virus, but the virus is too strong, the variant is a different disease,” said Warner, telling CNN on Friday his ICU was working at 115% capacity. Ontario premier Doug Ford defended his actions Friday as he announced new restrictions, including extending a stay-at-home order until at least mid-May, prohibiting indoor and outdoor gatherings, and restricting non-essential travel in and out of the province. At a press briefing Friday, Ford insisted he has always acted on the science, adding that in the case of recent rising critical care admissions, he drafted the stricter public health policies “the second” he found out. “Whatever we put into place though, it’s going to take time to take affect so right now, the trajectories of Covid rises are really baked in and I think the next 2 to 3 weeks for Ontario and Canada are going to be very, very, tough.” said Dr. Fahad Razak, who treats coronavirus patients at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto. On Saturday, Ontario again shattered fresh records for both hospital and ICU admissions. Modeling released by the province’s expert advisory panel Frida detailed a dire snapshot of the crisis already unfolding in hospitals and how the situation is likely to get even worse. “Notice that our hospitals can no longer function normally, they are bursting at their seams, we’re setting up field hospitals and we’re separating critically ill patients from their families by helicoptering them across the province for care, our children’s hospitals are now admitting adults as patients. This has never happened in Ontario before it’s never happened in Canada before,” said Dr. Adalsteinn Brown, Ontario’s science advisory co-chair. Brown was strikingly blunt about the worst-case scenario that could see Ontario rationing care, especially finding critical care spots for patients saying, “there may just not be the ability to put them into these types of beds.” “We will be there, we will do our best, but I’m trained to save people, not to use a checklist to decide if people are going to live or die, but that’s where we’re head and that’s my biggest fear and I think a lot of healthcare workers are beyond angry, I think we’re really forlorn about the situation we find ourselves in,” said Warner. Throughout Canada, save for its Atlantic provinces that have worked hard to create a ‘bubble’ with some of the lowest incidence rates of Covid-19 in all of North America, the epidemiological data has been alarming. Health Canada reported a 35% increase in hospitalizations and a more than 20% increase in ICU admissions throughout Canada in the week ending April 11th. More worrying still, the mortality trend is concerning, with a 38% increase in deaths in the last week alone. Some public health professionals say many provinces reopened too much, too soon. And in Ontario, many healthcare providers say that, given their scarcity in Canada, vaccines should have been more quickly allocated to marginalized and racialized communities. In many of Canada’s largest cities, essential workers in factories, meat processing plants and distribution centers have suffered through dangerous outbreaks. Dozens of Ontario’s doctors have taken to social media demanding these workers have safer working conditions and easy access to sick pay when they contract the virus or must be tested for it. Most provinces, including British Columbia, Alberta and Quebec are beginning to concentrate on these workplaces and community hotspots with mobile testing and vaccination clinics. Some healthcare workers, however, are resigned that those programs were not put in place quickly enough to spare them and their patients from the ravages of a third wave, much worse than the first two. “It’s clearly a crisis, we’re in the midst of a crisis now, it’s not a week away, we’re in it right now,” said Razak. Source link Orbem News #Blow #brace #Canadas #healthcare #Painful #punishing #wave #Workers

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drtangellasivaprasadreddy · 3 years

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12/4/21(11/4/21):”You Tube Team”- Thank You For Your Response To The Appeal(10/4/21 Uploaded Premiere @8PM With Mr Kamal Preeth Singh, Ontario, Canada-“PUBLIC BE AWRE”). I would Bring Forth A Vital Aspect About This Particular Show Wherein The Guest Was Quizzed On All Fronts-Which You Tube Team Failed To Understand-Appreciate. It Is Clear That You Tube Team Didn’t Watch It Except Going By The Notions Of Guest Name-Who Is Under You Tube..!?.Which Specific Aspect Affected Community Guide Lines..? EVEN Hon’ble PM-Narendra Modi & Govt DID MAKE IT OFFICIAL ALTERNATE TREATMENTS-DOES YOU TUBE HAVE AN IDEA? WE CELEBRATE WORLD YOGA DAY TOO..WHAT FOR?. SO THIS AMBIGUITY BY YOU TUBE..?!. MASS GATHERINGS In ELECTION MEETINGS/ POLITICAL-PUBLIC MEETINGS/LATEST CINEMA RELEASES(Vakeel Saab etc)-SHOOTINGS/MALLS/SPORTS-IPL CRICKET TO OTHERS/VARIOUS SUCH EVENTS WORLD ACROSS/IN USA-DIFFERENT STATES DIFFERENT COVID NORMS & OFFICIAL RECORDINGS IN CDC ON DISEASE & VACCINATION Etc-“WHAT DOES/HOW DOES YOU TUBE HAS TO SAY/ACT..?. Again This Decision Has In Principle Violated The Spirit Of “Principles Of Natural Justice” As Governments Are Run By Tax Payers Money & People Themselves Are A Constitutional Authority & Have Freedom To Express-Even Supreme Court Of India Upheld It & More So Enshrined In The Constitution. THEN NEWS-LIVE SHOWS ARE IN LARGER PUBLIC INTEREST & SHOULD BE AS IT’S LIVES OF PEOPLE WHICH ARE AT STAKE.THIS IMPOSITION OR CURTAILMENT OR WARNING/STRIKES BY YOU TUBE DOESN’T AUGUR WELL FOR PEOPLE AT LARGE. PEOPLE/PUBLIC AT LARGE HAVE RIGHT TO ALL INFORMATION WHETHER OFFICIAL(Many Channels),SCIENTIFIC-LOGICAL-FACTFUL-ANALYTICAL-DEBATED-DIFFERED-OR OTHERWISE (Limited Channels). THIS IS WHERE YOU TUBE CAME IN TO FOCUS. DOES YOU TUBE WANT TO RETAIN SUCH STATUS OR. Regards,Dr Tangella Siva Prasad Reddy,Sr Journalist & Host-DRTSPR CHANNEL. Mob:+919440465339. Email:[email protected]. https://www.instagram.com/p/CNgYOU6s8n-/?igshid=syeoap2a54ht

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