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buschic's Thoughts
Aug. 15th, 2009
10:47 pm - lots of stuff to say, and update.....
Hey everyone, you have probally noticed that I've put most of my entries privete, there are many reasons for this, first, some assholes from the zone bbs have been taking several entries and twisting them and reposting them on that website, and subsequently causing me problems, and drama, both which I dont want or need, I have enough challanges in my life without that bullshit. the second reason I've put most of my entries privete is because I feel that I'm at the point in my life that I dont need or want others to read my musings and having the ability to post them elsewhere and in that having the ability to modify my words into stuff that I'd never say or do..
So with that said, because of a few assholes, everyone loses out.... IF you are one of my friends or family and you WANT to READ my posts and not cause bullshit, email me and I'll give you the password to be able to read my journal..
To EVERYONE ELSE, you've lost out because of assholes, let that be a warning, I am sick and tired of the bullshit, you wanna cause shit, your not going have the chance..
Anyone who means anything to me, has the info to contact me....
Peace
Em
May. 13th, 2009
11:01 pm - TAMIL PROTEST IN TORONTO
"Protesters in Canada represent the terrorist group and not the Tamil People of Sri Lanka" – High Commissioner Daya Perera
Ottawa, 14 May, (Asiantribune.com): “Sri Lanka should not receive a verdict of ‘guilty’ from various nations without the deliberation of a jury when facts are so stubborn and visible,” said Daya Perera P.C, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in Ottawa.
He said that the mass demonstrations in Toronto in the last two days with placards depicting that they are LTTE and their leader is Prabhakaran clearly indicates that, the protesters represent the terrorist group and not the Tamil people of Sri Lanka.
In a media release, Daya Perera, Sri Lanka’s Higgh Commissioner in Canada pointed out that in the pursuit of peace, the Government of Sri Lanka, with the assistance of foreign nations continuously attempted to negotiate peace that was scuttled by the terrorists. "Hence, the Sri Lanka Government was compelled to fight a fierce battle single handed, while some major nations identified the terrorists in Sri Lank with duplicity while vehemently protesting, fighting and condemning Al-Qaida, Hamas and Taliban," said Sri Lankan diplomat.
High Commissioner Daya Perera in his media release further revealed:
"Portrayal as representatives of the Tamil people has enhanced the ascendancy of the pro-militant operatives in Canada. It would be relevant to clarify that the conflict in Sri Lanka is between the terrorists, known as the LTTE and the Government of Sri Lanka and not with the Tamil people.
The mass demonstrations in Toronto in the last two days with placards depicting that they are LTTE and their leader is Prabhakaran clearly indicates that, the protesters represent the terrorist group and not the Tamil people of Sri Lanka.
In a TV interview, Canadian International Cooperation Minister Beverly J. Oda confirmed this fact. Taking advantage of the civil liberties in this country, the attempt by the militants to dupe the Canadian community and organize mass demonstrations to coincide with the UN Security Council meeting on May 11, 2009 failed with the timely intervention of the Canadian authorities.
Sri Lanka should not receive a verdict of 'guilty' from various nations without the deliberation of a jury when facts are so stubborn and visible.
In the pursuit of peace the Government of Sri Lanka, with the assistance of foreign nations continuously attempted to negotiate peace that was scuttled by the terrorists. Hence, the Sri Lanka Government was compelled to fight a fierce battle single handed, while some major nations identified the terrorists in Sri Lank with duplicity while vehemently protesting, fighting and condemning Al-Qaida, Hamas and Taliban.
Sri Lanka is on the verge of defeating one the most ruthless terrorist organization which no other country has been able to achieve.
The LTTE is trapped in a 3 or 4 Sq. Kilometer area and hiding behind a human shield of women and children is making a desperate attempt to force the international community to stop the offensive by the government forces. Fabricated stories about the Sri Lanka Army arbitrarily killing thousands of innocent civilians is being transmitted over the media and published via media in order to pressurize the international community to demand for UN intervention and a cease fire.
A medical doctor who has relinquished his public service position and works as the personal physician of the LTTE leader is fabricating stories of civilian deaths, and is quoted in broadcasts. More than 100,000 people have sought refuge with the armed forces personnel during the weekend. This is clear evidence that it is not the armed forces that are killing the civilians but the LTTE.
The true story is that the LTTE has attacked the civilians attempting to flee to the new government controlled area prepared for the escaping civilians. In contrast to their publicity, the LTTE has used heavy artillery to attack the fleeing Tamil civilians to prevent others from abandoning them .With a track record of brutality, the LTTE has no remorse in killing those whom they profess to protect. According to our sources, these civilians too have confirmed that LTTE attacked them with machine guns and shell fire when they crossed over to government controlled areas. There is ample evidence suggesting that LTTE has been taking the whole world for a ride with its well engineered propaganda ploys.
The demonstrations all over the world to save the trapped civilians are baseless as most of them have already been saved and the few thousands held by the terrorists will be liberated by the Government forces. These Pro-LTTE operators continue to protest when the Government soldiers have liberated more than 100,000 people. They never conveyed their appreciation to the Forces who sacrificed their lives to liberate their kith and kin. They never demanded the LTTE to release their own people held as a human shield. Instead they urged a cease fire to enable the LTTE leaders presumably to escape, regroup and resume the fight.
Much to the praise of some representatives of the international community and diplomatic observers, the Sri Lanka government has liberated and restored normalcy in certain areas while thousands of former LTTE cadres are being rehabilitated and treated in the most humane manner. Every effort is being made to provide security and personal needs. Displaced civilians will be relocated or provided facilities to return to their own former dwellings at the opportune time.
Please do not be misled by the false propaganda of the LTTE Operatives and extend this 30 year old war for another lifetime.
The population of Sri Lanka is 21 Million (21,324,791). And the total area is 65,610 sq Kilometers. The LTTE is confined to an area less than 3 km. The total number of people held by LTTE is approximately 20,000 or less than 1% of the total population. The total LTTE cadres left behind are estimated to be less than a thousand. The total number of protestors are only a few thousand.
The total number of Tamils living among Sinhala and Muslim communities in Sri Lanka are over a million. The aspiration of the LTTE is a separate state. There are only 3.9% Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Can the country be divided on the demand of a group of terrorists numbering less than 0.5 % and LTTE supporters occupying 1% of the land? The conflict in Sri Lanka emerged with a demand for a separate country for the Tamils. Considering the above facts is this a rational demand?"
- Asian Tribune -
May. 3rd, 2009
10:49 pm - PLEASE READ - CNIB HIRES NEW CEO...... from the toronto star..
Debate stirs over hiring of sighted CNIB head
May 03, 2009
STAFF REPORTER
When John Rafferty looks out the window of his modest third-floor corner office at CNIB's Bayview Ave. headquarters, he can see the trees of a wooded ravine.
This is why an advocacy group calls his hiring "a step backward."
This is why he speaks of "my unique challenges" and "taking time to understand" and being "extra careful." This is why the leader of another charity says a genial man with a sterling resumé who left a lucrative private-sector job to occupy this corner office would, "in a perfect world," be somewhere else.
This is John Rafferty's burden. He can see. Rafferty's predecessor, Jim Sanders, was blind. So was his predecessor, so was his predecessor, and so was every top executive in the 91-year history of CNIB, formerly the Canadian National Institute for the Blind. Rafferty, 43, is its first "sighted" president and CEO.
His selection for the post has engendered a complicated debate about identity and employment equity within Canada's diverse blind and visually impaired community.
Some, like Sharlyn Ayotte, the blind CEO of Ottawa's T-Base Communications, argue the CNIB CEO should be selected "on merit alone."
Others, she says, argue "it's despicable they hired him."
There are many nuanced positions in between.
"I don't know," says Neil Graham, a blind computer company manager who supports the hiring, "if there is a right answer."
WEARING A BLUE DRESS shirt and a tie, Rafferty sits at a table in front of his tidy desk. He has blue eyes and salt-and-pepper hair. He speaks with the accent of his native England. He projects the low-key affability of a salesman you would introduce to your wife after you wrote him a cheque.
Rafferty moved to Canada in 1986. He co-founded Canpages, the directory company, in 2005. As chief operating officer, he oversaw its growth to $100 million in annual revenue. When he told CEO Olivier Vincent he was leaving, Vincent, upset, offered him a raise and the title of president.
"I tried everything, including bribing him," Vincent says. "But no, he had to go. It took me about a week to realize he really had a calling."
Rafferty, who has held senior positions with Verizon in China and Poland, British Telecom and Dun and Bradstreet, had planned to seek a non-profit job, in the spirit of public service, when the younger of his two daughters graduated high school. She is still in Grade 11. He accelerated his schedule, he says, "only because it was the CNIB." His late grandmother was blind for the last 20 years of her life.
Upon assuming the position in March, Rafferty embarked on a national tour, meeting the blind and visually impaired in every province.
CNIB is frequently criticized for failing to listen to the people it serves, he says. Part of his job is to convince 100,000 clients a sighted man is the empathizer many of them seek.
To prove his commitment to their cause, he says, he will likely have to try harder than would a blind man.
"I think it is true I can't fully understand," he says. "I can understand it intellectually, can understand it empathetically. I can't understand it 100 per cent. But I don't think there's anything I can't do in the job because I'm sighted."
The Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians agrees. The Alliance for Equality of Blind Canadians is also his fiercest critic.
"YOU MUST UNDERSTAND," says John Rae, the AEBC's first vice-president. "This is not personal."
CNIB is an 800-plus-employee behemoth, its $60-plus-million in annual expenditures dwarfing those of other domestic blind groups. It provides the most services – training, counselling, camps, a national library – and has the highest profile. Its CEO is the de facto leader of blind Canada.
In 2006, CNIB removed the word "blind" from its name, in part to convey its increasing focus on people experiencing vision loss. To the AEBC, says Rae, a retired civil servant, the hiring of a sighted man as CEO is yet another example of CNIB "turning its back on the people it was set up to serve."
Rafferty can certainly do the job, Rae says. By selecting him, however, CNIB has implied that blind Canadians qualified to lead a major organization do not exist.
How can CNIB lobby corporations to hire the blind when it will not do so itself?
Accustomed to discrimination, minority groups of all types – ethnic, religious, disability – can be exacting about the identities of the people who lead prominent community institutions. The intensity of intramural leadership debates can surprise outsiders.
"This community is very complex," says Susan Wolak, a Halton police officer whose son is blind. "Everybody doesn't play nicely in the sandbox."
The CNIB board knew the selection of a sighted chief executive would prompt criticism. They chose Rafferty anyway, says chair Al Jameson, "because most important to us were our 100,000 clients and the future of the organization."
When, in 2008, Sanders announced his intention to retire as CEO, the organization was running another budget deficit a year after bleeding $11.9 million. During a recession, CNIB needed a proven executive who could quickly improve its financial situation.
A bylaw, however, reserved the top CNIB post for a blind or visually impaired person.
Uncertain they could recruit a suitable candidate from a limited pool, board members, and then general CNIB members, voted last year to eliminate the restriction.
The board still asked its search firm to seek out blind or visually impaired candidates. "If it had come down to two people, one guy who was blind and John Rafferty, with exactly the same credentials, the blind guy would've gotten it," says board member Terry Kelly, a blind singer and motivational speaker. "But that didn't happen."
Few qualified blind people applied, Jameson and Kelly say. Rafferty was the unanimous choice of the eight-person search committee, which had four blind members including Kelly.
"If you have a 747 to fly, you don't put a guy who flies a Cessna in the front seat," Kelly says. "There are blind people or people with vision loss out there who could absolutely do that job. However, they're off doing their own thing."
Kelly's intricate position illustrates the complexity of the debate. He praises Rafferty's listening skills and business acumen. He calls him "the absolute best choice." Yet he says better succession planning will ensure "we won't have this problem in the future."
Like Kelly, Harold Schnellert, national president of the Canadian Council of the Blind, criticizes the AEBC's criticism of Rafferty. CNIB, Schnellert says, had to do what was best for its future.
"In a perfect world," however, qualified blind people would always apply for and obtain leadership positions at the organizations that serve them, he says.
But perhaps some of them have better things to do, says blind lawyer Robert Fenton.
If the Rafferty hiring was a product of the unwillingness of blind professionals to apply, Fenton says, it may symbolize the community's progress, not its failings.
Fenton is counsel to the chief of the Calgary police. He may seek the CNIB leadership in the future. Happy with his current position and busy with two young children, he declined entreaties from CNIB's search firm this time.
"Most of us are pretty successful where we are. We can pursue opportunities in mainstream industry or government that may be more attractive to us than going to CNIB. CNIB is a competitor. They have to compete for qualified people like everybody else does. They don't have a monopoly on employing blind people."
He supports the selection of Rafferty. He does not envy Rafferty's responsibilities.
Among other daunting short-term challenges, applicants for the job were asked to balance the CNIB budget in 2009-2010 despite the recession.
"The way this thing is framed," says Fenton, "you basically have to be God, Jesus, Muhammad, Allah, Vishnu, and any other religious figure you can think of rolled into one to be able to do this job."
THE CHOSEN ONE walks quickly, chatting amiably, through the deserted halls of CNIB's building after the end of the workday. As Rafferty passes a set of tables, he tucks in a chair that is slightly askew without breaking stride. It is not clear if he notices he has done so.
He will run CNIB, he says, with an eye on the little things. To balance the budget, CNIB will reduce capital expenditures and limit travel and hiring; under Sanders, it announced the closure of a money-losing catering business. But there are no imminent service cuts, he insists, and he plans no radical changes.
He will attempt to "re-engage and re-inspire" volunteers, vigorously communicate CNIB's value to potential donors, correct the enduring misperception that the organization is solely for the fully blind.
And, like any businessman worth his charity paycheque, he will attempt to better serve his client base – hopefully winning over his vociferous critics in the process.
"We have to make sure clients have a voice at the table in every decision we make," he says. "It's about understanding client needs and delivering what's important to them most effectively. Fundamentally, it's not different than other organizations, in some ways."
In others, he knows, there is no organization like it.
Mar. 24th, 2009
09:29 pm - HSR, FINALLY get their asses in gear and get accessible for the blind!!
Nicole Macintyre The city is spending $3.7 million to put a new radio system in its transit fleet. By the end of the year, every stop a city bus makes will be automatically announced by the communication system. It will also allow the city's transit dispatchers to keep in constant contact with bus operators. The city's current system is about five years overdue for replacement. "We're actually in a state of crisis," said Don Hull, director of transit. "It's extremely time sensitive." The old system, installed in 1982, has failed four times since Christmas, leaving drivers with no way to communicate with the dispatcher. Hull said they've been fortunate there have been no emergencies. "It's a safety issue," he said. "It leaves the bus operators and passengers vulnerable." The Amalgamated Transit Union local 107 has checked out the system and is eager to see it installed to protect employees. "We were long overdue for the new system," said union president Budh Dhillon. In addition to dispatch communication, the radio system is needed for the city to comply with an Ontario Human Rights Commission decision requiring all transit stops to be audibly and visually announced to assist disabled passengers. While some smaller municipalities have drivers announce stops, Hull said big cities are using more reliable automated systems. In one day, he noted, there will need to be 20,000 announcements. Tim Nolan, chair of the city's advisory committee for persons with disabilities, said the new system will offer passengers more independence. While riders with visual impairments often memorize their usual routes, taking a bus to a new area can be daunting, he said. "Think about what life would be like for sighted people without street signs," he said. Councillors yesterday approved increasing the budget for the system by $500,000 after staff found the project needed to be expanded. It will be paid for by federal gas tax money. 905-526-3299
The Hamilton Spectator
(Mar 24, 2009)
10:17 am - My review of my Parka...
Thank you for submitting a review on mec.ca for the Frostbreaker Parka (Men's) (MEC). This email notification is being sent to you for your records only - you do not need to respond or take any other action at this time.
Your review is displayed below:
------------------------------
By buschic from Toronto, Canada on 3/24/2009
Your rating: 4 stars
Headline: I Love this thing!
Fit : Feels true to size
Sleeve Length : Feels too long
Chest Size : Feels true to size
Pros : Great when using transit, Comfortable, Warm, Durable, Perfect legnth, Comfy, Excellent warmth, Windproof
Cons : Not Waterproof, Not Enough Pockets or Features, Zipper is hard to use, Sleeves a little too long
Best Uses : Casual Wear, Cold Weather, Wet Weather, When using Transit, Extreme Conditions
Describe Yourself : Casual Adventurer
I got this for Christmas, in fact 2 weeks Before Christmas, I LOVE IT, I am really susceptible to cold and this coat has never let me get cold, I used to have to wear lots of layers under my old jackets, but this thing is so warm I dont need more that a t-shirt and a warm fleece or Hoodie underneath it, and that was in the mind numbing cold days in January and February! here in Toronto, using the TTC.
I am legally blind and use a white cane, I love the 'soft cuffs" they keep my hands warm and the sleeve drops right over my hand when holding my cane, rarely used gloves this year other than the minus 20-30 Celsius days and nights. I am so happy with this coat, that I have been telling everyone I know about it.
I'm buying my Mum one next fall so that she can keep warm.
I'm a bigger sized lady so I cant fit in the ladies version of this coat and I'm glad I got the size I did ( XL ) I am also very short ( 4'9 ) and I was really glad to have it be as long as it is on me..
If you are thinking of buying it, go to your local MEC store (if you can) and try it on, seriously, wear a thick sweater or hoodie and try it on, you want the parka a little roomy, but not too much.
The ONLY cons I have found are:
1, The bottom of the coat, needs a snap closure for keeping the bottom of the coat shut , the little Velcro patches just dont do it for me..
2, The zipper is annoying! It can take me a few tries to get it started properly..
Ok, nuff said...
I LOVE THIS PARKA!!
Mar. 5th, 2009
Oct. 5th, 2008
Mar. 25th, 2008
10:36 am - Writer's Block: What? Everyone Doesn't Like Me?
People dont like me a lot of the time because I am strong minded and am not afraid to speak my mind and I'm not your typical blind person and my stregnth and attitude about independance scares people..
Feb. 10th, 2008
01:42 am - Its frigid in Saginaw!!!
ok, so I looked at the Temputures for the next 6 days in SAGINAW MICHIGAN, where CRS BLIND CAMP is starting today and going till Friday...
D A M M C O L D!!!!!!!
HERE IT IS http://www.weather.com/weather/print/US
LOTS of HOODIES THIS YEAR!
Feb. 9th, 2008
06:26 am
thought for the day. Handle every stressful situation like a dog. If you can't eat it or hump it. Piss on it and walk away.
Dec. 14th, 2007
01:37 am - Writer's Block: What Winter Means To Me
Winter means quiet walks in the snow, wet shoes, WINTER Camp, snuggly Hoodies, I LOVE snow.01:17 am - The Serenity Prayer
Serenity Prayer
God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen.
Dec. 3rd, 2007
03:12 am - back in a few weeks.
I wont be posting for a bit, I am trying out Wordpress for a bit, one of my friends invited me to take a test period of it.
I'll be back in a couple of weeks.
Oct. 29th, 2007
06:28 pm
http://www.gimmeabreakhsr.ca/index.h
This is an AWESOME site, puts the Reality of what my friends do and go through in perspective!
Oct. 18th, 2007
05:23 am
October 18, 2007
The Hamilton Spectator
(Oct 18, 2007)
Hamilton Street Railway drivers, mechanics and support staff want a pay raise above inflation and a washroom downtown.
The 610 members of Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 107 began a 24-hour voting marathon on the city's latest offer last night.
The union executive is recommending members reject the offer. Results of the vote will be known this evening.
If it is rejected, the city is one step closer to a transit strike although no date has been set. The last transit strike in Hamilton lasted 90 days from November 1998 to the end of January 1999.
Local 107 president Budh Dhillon says the dispute is not so much about money as working conditions, including a basic human need for washroom facilities downtown.
Dhillon, who has been with the HSR 28 years, says the HSR has an agreement with Infusions Coffee House on King Street to let drivers use the washroom, but the restaurant is not open early or late when drivers need it.
"We've asked for a washroom downtown," Dhillon said last night. "We told (the city) they could dig out the old Gore Park washrooms, put a lock on it and give us the key. That's a perfect place."
Scott Stewart, Hamilton public works general manager and point man on the HSR contract talks, was not available for comment.
The Gore Park washrooms -- once a source of pride in downtown Hamilton with plenty of oak, brass plumbing and gleaming black and white tile -- were mothballed in the mid 1980s during one of the many changes to the park.
Dhillon says the city has offered drivers increases of 1.5 per cent retroactive to Jan. 1, another 1.5 per cent retroactive to July 1 and increases of 1.5 on Jan. 1 and July 1, 2008. The graduated pay scale now starts at $20.14 and goes up to full rate at $23.69.
The union would rather get "something better than inflation."
But, Dhillon insists, its not so much the money as working conditions and benefits.
The ATU wants the city to have an independent service review done. Dhillon says the HSR has dropped 61 runs since 1989 and better service would not only mean jobs for drivers but more transit use. The city doesn't want to do that because better service costs money, he said.
The union also wants the city to do something about the practice of allowing retired drivers over 55 to "wind down" on the job and do up to 24 hours of driving a week.
That was all right before the mandatory retirement age of 65 was eliminated by the province but the union is concerned some retired drivers would now be "winding down" for a long time, limiting opportunities for advancement for newer and younger drivers.
The city has regarded the ATU Local 107 workers as city employees since amalgamation and the union wants the city to treat them that way. Other city employees get paid 15-minute breaks. Bus drivers do not but they would like some "monetary arrangement" to take care of that inequity, says Dhillon.
The drivers would also like to be paid for the time they spend writing accident or other incident reports on their own time, he said. Right now, they are paid $3 for the report but only if they have two witnesses.
The strike in 1998
The 1998 Hamilton transit strike lasted 90 days. Here's what happened:
50,000 daily bus riders had to find another way to get to work, church, doctors appointments.
Its greatest impact was on seniors, people with disabilities, students and the working poor.
Social service agencies were strained to the limit trying to transport employees and volunteers.
Air quality in downtown Hamilton became sharply worse the day after the strike started and stayed that way as many more cars hit the roads.
The impasse between the HSR and the union, over how to implement a 70-hour guarantee for new hires without harming seniority rights, was finally cleared away when then Local 107 president Kim Cheesman came up with a scheduling solution.
905-526-2469
Sep. 5th, 2007
12:51 am
Ok, this is NUTS! I NEVER got this kind of speed from COGECO!
here is my speeds that are in the graphic above:
download: 6238 kbps
upload : 500 kbps
These speeds are with MSN running as well as Norton Anti-virus with a firewall.
No Wonder I love Cable internet!
Bell Sympatico can go to hell!
My speeds with them were in the 2000 kbps range and sometimes not even that.
Sep. 1st, 2007
Aug. 17th, 2007
Aug. 16th, 2007
01:34 pm
Aug 16, 2007 04:30 AM
These are not great days for the TTC. Underfunded, undervalued and, it seems, disrespected even by the people who run it, certainly by the city and province, it is a shadow of its former self.
Now this negativity seems to have rubbed off on passengers, who treat the system with a disregard bordering on contempt.
And so, a modest proposal for the Toronto Transit Commission: Why not a user course?
It doesn't have to be long and involved, but a session that lasts an hour or two just to teach forgetful passengers about the dos and don'ts of public transit.
It would be a helpful reminder to Torontonians of the basics; and God knows we're not talking about offering your seat to little old ladies and pregnant women – those days are long gone – but simple stuff such as not blocking the doors, not hogging seats, moving to the back of the streetcar ...
Yes, you're right to wonder, do we really need to take a course to be told the obvious? The answer, sadly, is that we do. Any TTC regular will confirm, many users don't have a clue that the nature of public transit is exactly that, it's public.
It's tempting to single out kids as the worst – and indeed many seem wretchedly socialized – but businessmen, shoppers, tourists and whole families are also to blame.
The ratio of offenders remains constant and cuts across gender, age, race, and any other qualifier you can think of.
Their behaviour makes a bad situation worse. The morning and evening ride on streetcar, bus and subway is unpleasant under the best of circumstances, but the morons standing in the entrance oblivious of everything but their iPods or BlackBerrys make it more maddening still.
Then there are those who sit on the outside of a two-seat bench – typically overweight men in suits – blocking the inside. Or those who occupy one seat themselves and use the one beside them for their bags.
On streetcars, the problem now is that the front entrance has become an exit. Few bother to leave by the rear door, and drivers no longer ask passengers to do so.
Another example of TTC timidity is the recent removal of signs requesting passengers to "Stand Right, Walk Left" on escalators. Apparently, to walk is so risky, we must be encouraged to remain absolutely still and correspondingly safer.
There was a time, years ago, when the commission put up posters in its fleet that addressed the finer points of passengership. They all began the same way: "Our riders write ..." Like the civility they described, these notices have disappeared. Operators, as drivers are now called, take little or no responsibility for their vehicles; instead they are instructed not to engage – it could be dangerous.
Who can blame them?
Indeed, it seems the TTC has been all but abandoned; the notion that it forms part of the public realm and is, therefore, shared space has also been forgotten. It has become a civic wasteland.
And so a rider's course is an idea whose time has come. To make it more attractive, the TTC might consider giving grads a discount on their fare.
Perhaps these sessions would also serve to remind Torontonians that the TTC belongs to them; that might make it harder for politicians, both municipal and provincial, to turn automatically to the system when they're looking for costs to cut. At the moment they can do that almost with impunity, but it should be the last place they go.
As the TTC goes, so goes Toronto. That's something worth studying.
I found this article very intresting and I liked it a lot.
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