Public Transits Canadian Iron Curtain

It’s been almost 23-years since American President Ronald Reagan’s famous foretelling words: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall,” yet an Iron Curtains till abounds. President Reagan was speaking in front of the Berlin Wall, in an address targeted towards Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in an attempt to end Communism.

With the end of the Cold War, the Soviet Union collapsed and so did many of the Communistic societies that were once part of that regime.

However, after witnessing a so-called public meeting to discuss public transit in Canada’s largest city, one may think the Iron Curtain is still very much alive.

Toronto’s transit system has taken much bad press the past several months. A YouTube video of a Toronto transit subway taker sleeping on the job was followed not too long after by another video of a bus operator taking an unscheduled stop at a local donut shop. Numerous events since have further eroded the public’s view of the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) which operates and manages public transit in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

The most recent event occurred last week, when a TTC bus driver attacked a young adult over what appears to be a fare dispute. Allegedly, the bus driver tossed the young man so hard against the bus, a bus window was shattered.

To alleviate the bad press, the TTC’s union, Local 113 of the Amalgamated Transit Union, representing the bus, subway, streetcar, wheel transit operators and support staff, has been holding public town hall style meetings throughout Toronto.

The notion of these town halls is to provide an opportunity for the public to voice their comments, concerns and questions to the TTC’s union.

However, it was clear from the very start of yesterday’s town hall that this was anything but a public meeting.

Oh the public was there, seated in the auditorium of Stephen Leacock Collegiate. And a microphone was paraded around, allowing people to stand up and have their say.

But the answers were obviously spun to send one message and one message only to the TTC’s management – we need more public funding.

Although the TTC needs more public funding – all transit systems require public funding, and the amount of this funding in Canada over the years continues to drop -- the point of the town hall was to provide an opportunity for public voices to be heard. Not for the union to use the public to bolster its position against management.

But that’s exactly what happened. Every question from the public was used to forward the unions specific concerns with management – they never really acknowledged or accepted responsibility for anything, placing most blame on management’s shoulders.

It wasn’t until the very end, where one of the TTC’s operators on stage publicly apologized on behalf of her fellow bus drivers, for the physical assault of the young man by one of her colleagues. Not that this incident is a representation of her, or her co-workers typical behavior – it is a rare occurrence -- but instead of spending time addressing the causes which may have lead to this incident, those representing the union on stage kept sweeping the blame onto management’s shoulders.

Wait a sec . . . isn’t it the union which represents bus drivers – like the bus driver that attacked a young man over a bus fare?

SLAM went the Iron Curtain of the TTC’s union. All the TTC’s problems smeared across the globe via the mass media and social networking sites like YouTube come down to a lack of government funding.

Or at least that’s what they want you to believe. And they have been holding public meetings to use you to get that message out.

Pretty sneaky. Maybe they got Gorbachev to teach them how to run these things?

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Cry Me a Haitian River – Relief Workers Stop Complaining and Do Your Job

Today’s headlines were mostly about the earthquake-ravaged Haiti – as they should be. A magnitude 7.0 earthquake is a phenomenal natural event – anything ranked five and higher is usually a killer quake.

Amidst the intense sense of complete hopelessness as search and rescue efforts turn into salvage, clean-up and restoration of one of the poorest places on the planet, one disturbing trend began showing up in the news stories – the unprepared and somewhat surprisingly daft response from relief workers.

Relief workers are complaining that they can’t do their job, because of disorganization, violence and looting.

But aren’t relief workers – from organizations supposedly ready and waiting to jump into action for just these sorts of things – supposed to know how to manage the chaos to do their jobs?

This isn’t the first large-scale relief effort for these organizations. The Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, even the United Nations itself, have all been involved in natural and man-made disasters as larger, and in some cases larger, than Haiti’s current state of unrest.

Yes, every situation is different, but what the relief agencies are moaning about are situations encountered in most natural disasters – and some man-made ones.

Lawlessness, looting, and everyone fighting for themselves with little to no regard for their fellow citizens has happened in the United States during the Hurricane Katrina aftermath, famines in Ethiopia, wars in the former Soviet Union and many other places where these non-profit humanitarian agencies have already been.

And that is something we do have to remember, most of these agencies are non-profit groups doing human good, out of the goodness of their hearts. So we aren’t chastising them for their life-giving good work.

But one must question the value of these efforts – and whether or not donating food, money, medical supplies, volunteer time and other tangibles – is worth it, if these organizations just can’t cut it.

Millions of dollars worth of life-saving food, clean drinking water and medical supplies are reportedly sitting in makeshift storage areas at the airport in the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, because of this disorganization.

Doctors Without Borders has told the media that given the current situation, there is little sign of significant aid distribution.

Meaning that the donations people all over the world have made to help those affected by the earthquake in Haiti may never reach the intended recipients.

Or worse, they will be the cause of even more human suffering, as the desperate people of Haiti continue the chaos by killing each other, just to keep alive.

The situation in Haiti is of a similar size to the Boxing Day Tsunami which roared across the Indian Ocean in 2004, killing about 230,000 people in 14 countries.
About $7USD billion was donated in total to assist with the Tsunami relief efforts. Current estimates put the death toll in Haiti at about 50,000 to 100,000 deaths from the earthquake.

Again, many of the non-profit relief agencies working to restore life in Haiti, were involved in the relief efforts during the Boxing Day Tsunami, so why are they still complaining about the same things?

One would have figured that in the time since the Boxing Day Tsunami, and all the other disasters these relief agencies have helped in since, that they would be better able to handle similar situation.

Although life-saving supplies such as food, clean drinking water, shelter, clothing and other such basics, are in dire need in Haiti, I personally feel uncomfortable making any donation, knowing it could end up sitting in an airport’s hanger, or worse, being the cause of someone’s death because a bunch of unprepared aid workers were ambushed by a group of disloyal dissidents.

Something to think about next time you are approached for a donation.
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Toronto Proud – Thanks Santa

Tomorrow, the longest running parade runs again. One-hundred-and-five-years later, Toronto’s annual Santa Clause Parade takes to Canada’s largest city Sunday.

Image via Wikipedia

Over 25 animated floats, 100 celebrity clowns, 1,500 participants dressed in costume, about 2,000 spectators on the street, and millions worldwide watching the live broadcast in countries across North America, Europe, and the former Soviet Union, the annual tradition does Toronto proud.

That and the estimated $100,000 annually the parade raises for children’s charities – not only makes me proud to call Toronto home, but feel warm inside knowing kids are having fun, and helping other kids, of all ages.

The Toronto Santa Clause Parade has an amazing history too. Origin

Image by Sherlock77 (James) via Flickr

ally started by one of the founders of our great country – Timothy Eaton – or at least his family. Eaton’s department store was the original sponsor of the parade and for some time stopped at nothing short of spectacular to make the parade the best in the world.

In 1913, Eaton’s brought in live reindeer from Labrador to pull Santa’s sleigh. They even got a veterinarian on call all day and night to look after these animals, ensuring their special diet of moss was followed.

Also in 1913, children were allowed to march alongside the parade, d

Image by Sherlock77 (James) via Flickr

ropping letters to Santa in baskets. Every letter with a proper mailing address received a personal response from the jolly old elf.

Incidentally, Canada Post Employees continue to volunteer their time, personally responding on behalf of St. Nick, to all the letters addressed to Santa at Canada’s North Pole (yes you American’s – Santa is Canadian, eh.)

In 1919 Santa was flown in on the Aerodome blimp, landing right on Eglinton Avenue amidst a huge crowd.

Image via Wikipedia

During The Great Depression, Toronto radio station CFRB began broadcasting dramatic stories following Santa’s trip from the North Pole down to Toronto a month before the 1929 parade – this was the era of radio plays, long before television would rule the home entertainment world. Children and adults followed the stories with excitement, building anticipation leading up to the parade. This gave many hope during one of the worst financial disasters in human existence.

During World War II, as materials were scarce, most of the parade costumes in 1939’s parade were made of paper. To allow more people to see the parade, businesses allowed people to go up high and follow the parade route below.
Office towers, including the Park Plaza Hotel (now the Park Hyatt) allowed children and adults to go to the upper floors, and look through the windows, and watch from balconies, as Santa made his way through the city’s downtown.

It wasn’t until the 1950’s that the Santa Clause Parade made Canada’s national broadcaster – the CBC. The parade was first carried on CBC in 1952, and was later filmed and packaged for schools across the country with famous Canadian broadcasters Byng Whitteker and Don Harron providing commentary.

Then, in 1982, the original founder of the parade, Eaton’s withdrew its sponsorship of the now 77-year-old annual event. Within three-days, 20 companies had signed on to sponsor the floats, and the following

Image via Wikipedia

year, the tradition of Celebrity Clowns began, when over 60 business executives each donated $1,000 to hand out balloons, march and entertain kids along the route.

In 1985 the lights around Queen’s Park Circle were lit for the parade, starting the annual tree lighting ceremony which traditionally takes place just days before the parade.

In 1989 two broadcasters from Russia provided live coverage of the parade to over 250 million viewers in the Soviet Union. As a way of saying “thank you,” Russia placed a float in the 1991 parade, carrying well-known fairy tale characters.

Now, Toronto’s annual Santa Clause Parade is the oldest parade in the world, carried on television stations locally in Toronto and across Canada. It is also one of the few parades carried live on television around the globe.

Who would have thought that a kid’s parade can make Toronto so proud?

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