The Scramble, AKA The Pedestrian Priority Phase, AKA The Barnes Dance (after Henry Barnes who was a traffic commissioner in Denver), stops motorized traffic in all directions simultaneously and allows pedestrians to crisscross an intersection in any direction, even diagonally. Toronto is experimenting with the new scramble intersection at Yonge and Dundas Streets, one of the busiest intersections in town that is used by an estimated 100,000 people every day. It is supposed to make crossing the street a safer experience, which as we all know would be quite a feat.

The Yonge and Dundas Streets intersection has been outfitted with new traffic signals, new signs, and appropriate pavement markings. Ten television cameras are recording the activity so that the experiment can be properly accessed. In order to ensure that everyone understands the new method of crossing the street, staff in orange vests are helping pedestrians and police officers are making sure that drivers are not going through the intersection when the all-pedestrian signals are lit.

This experiment is costing the city of Toronto $60,000. If this works it is a small price to pay for pedestrian safety. Downtown intersections can be challenging to cross with many impatient and aggressive drivers who have no regard for anyone but themselves. They seem to believe that turning on a red light even when pedestrians have a walk signal is their obligation and that red lights are merely a suggestion. Depending on how well Torontonians adapt to the new system, scramble intersections may be installed at Yonge and Bloor Streets, Bay and Bloor Streets, and Bay and Dundas Streets. Have you “scrambled yet”? If so, how was it?

Don’t start writing in that we are promoting anything pornographic. This is a nice family-friendly blog and the Virgin Festival is a music festival sponsored by Virgin Mobile. Saturday, September 6th and Sunday, September 7th the park will open at 1:00 PM and the gates will close at 11:00 PM. The line-up is just outstanding!

One day passes are $87 and two day passes are $157. One dollar of each ticket goes to Virgin’s Charity. Children under the age of 4 are permitted to enter free of charge as long as they are accompanied by a ticketed adult. Buy your tickets online at www.ticketmaster.ca or www.futureshop.ca, by phone 416–870-8000, or in person at TicketMaster locations and at the following Future Shop locations:
• Yonge & Eglinton
• Yonge & Dundas
• Keele & St. Clair

Food vendors will be onsite offering vegan, vegetarian, and non-vegetarian options. There is a dedicated viewing area for people with special needs.

It’s easy to get to the Toronto Island Park. If you are driving, take Lakeshore Boulevard to Bay Street and go south on Bay to Queens Quay. The ferry docks are right beside the Westin Harbour Castle Hotel. There are plenty of parking lots in the area and they are all too expensive. Take the TTC instead. Take the subway or GO to Union Station. From there you can take a short walk over to the ferry dock or take the 509 Harbourfront streetcar to the ferry docks. Take the Centre Island Ferry. The ferry fees are included in your festival ticket. Have fun!

As Canadians, we are often so busy following the lives and antics of American celebrities that we sadly ignore our own. Now is your opportunity to change all that. Saturday, September 6th is the time that we will celebrate our own when Canada’s Walk of Fame honours 8 new Canadian celebrities. To date 107 fabulous Canadians have been inducted.

The 2008 inductees are:
• Bryan Adams – recording artist
• Frances Bay - actor
• James Cameron – director and producer
• Michael J. Fox – actor and activist
• k.d. lang – recording artist
• The Kids in the Hall – comedy troupe
• Steve Nash – NBA star
• Daria Werbowy – supermodel

Although Brian Adams (1998) and Michael J. Fox (2000) have previously been inducted, they were unable to attend the ceremonies.

The red carpet event begins at 5:00 PM. Stake out your spot outside the Four Seasons Centre for Performing Arts located at 145 Queen Street West (Queen Street and University Avenue) and watch the celebrities arrive.

Canada’s Walk of Fame began in 1998 to honour Canadians who have made their mark in music, sport, film, sports, and performing, literary or visual arts. In order to be an inductee there are certain criteria that must be met.
• Inductee must have been born in Canada or have spent their formative or creative years in Canada.
• Inductee must have a minimum of 10 years experience in their field.
• Inductee must have had national or international impact on Canada’s Heritage.

This is the 10th Anniversary of Canada’s Walk of Fame and the first ever inaugural Inductee Ball will take place at the Sheraton Centre’s Grand Ballroom.

Have a walk along King Street and look at all of the stars. Here is a map of the inductees and where you can find them.
http://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/starmap

Image Courtesy Flickr

Toronto’s ongoing school pool drama continues. Just before 23 school pools were scheduled to close in September, they have received a stay of execution and will remain open for another year. The piece of information that amuses me the most is that the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) did not drain these 23 pools and has maintained a level of chlorine in the water to keep them safe over the summer. So, apparently no one really expected the pools to close and all of the hoopla was grandstanding.

The TDSB made it clear that they could no longer afford to keep these 23 pools open and that they would be forced to close another 16 pools next September without funding. David Crombie, a former mayor of Toronto, was retained by the TDSB to find alternative funding in order to keep the pools open. Mr. Crombie managed to get the province to kick in $4 million to keep the pools open for 1 more year. In addition the operational and licensing responsibilities of the 39 pools for the next year will be turned over to the Toronto Lands Corporation.

The schools are opening next week and there is water in the pools, but no swim staff. The schools had the foresight to maintain the pools but get rid of the staff. Aquatics instructors and maintenance staff need to be hired ASAP. The staff that had been laid off will be called back but at the present time no one knows how many of them are still available for work. It will probably be at least a month before the school swimming programs are ready to resume.

This year’s issue has been settled but will we have to relive the same drama again next year?

What has become of the airline industry? First we lost the smoked almonds and peanuts. Then we started paying for headsets. We have since lost the blankets. And we are now paying for plastic food. In spite of all of these cut backs it never occurred to me that any airline would compromise safety. Unfortunately it appears that Air Canada has done just that on its regional airline Jazz when it made the decision to remove life vests from its planes.

This move is a cost cutting measure to reduce overall weight and save fuel. I’d like someone to tell me exactly how much in dollars and cents this potential disaster is going to save. A commercial airline life vest only weighs one pound. Are we supposed to believe that eliminating life vests will keep the airline afloat (pun intended)?

If the plane goes down in water we are supposed to have the presence of mind to take our seat cushions with us and use them as flotation devices. Life vests for babies have not been removed because it must have occurred to some genius that a baby could not take a seat cushion with him/her and hang onto it in the water until help arrived. In the panic of a disaster situation, could you? Air Canada says that you can.

What shocks me is that Transport Canada approved this action. Apparently this regulatory body permits airlines to provide flotation devices rather than life vests as long as the planes fly no farther than 50 miles from the coastline. Jazz doesn’t fly over the open ocean but it does fly over the Great Lakes and along the coastline of the eastern seaboard on routes from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Boston and New York. We are supposed to be happy to hear that according to Jazz the number of flights operating over water is minimal. HOORAY!

Image Courtesy Flickr

In the most recent news conference by Michael McCain, President of Maple Leaf Foods, he still has no idea when the plant will reopen. What is known for sure is that the disaster began with tainted meat that came off Line 8 or 9 in the Bartor Road plant in Toronto sometime in July. Bacterium Listeria monocytogenes has been found in Maple Leaf products.

I have never heard of bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, and I’m sure that most of you haven’t either. What scares the daylights out of me is that this is not some rare, exotic strain of bacteria. It is commonly found in soil, vegetation, animal feed, and feces. Anyone ingesting this bacterium may experience nausea, vomiting, cramps, diarrhea, headache, constipation, or persistent fever. In more severe cases it can spread to the nervous system, producing symptoms including headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, or convulsions.

To date 26 cases have been directly linked to this outbreak. There have been 6 deaths directly linked to this outbreak and there are 8 more deaths under investigation. There are still 29 cases under investigation. We are not out of the woods yet. Unfortunately this bacterium has a long incubation period and symptoms can appear up to 70 days after the bacterium has been ingested.

Maple Leaf has expanded its recall from 23 product lines to 220, which represents every product line that came out of the Bartor Road Plant in Toronto. Some of the well known brands that have been recalled include:
• Boston Pizza
• Burns
• Compliments
• Coorsh
• Equality
• Hickory Farms
• Hygrade
• Kirkland Signature
• Main Street Deli
• Maple Leaf
• Mayfair/Marque
• McDonalds
• Mr. Sub
• No Name
• Our Compliments
• Safeway
• Schneiders
• Shopsys.

Here is a complete list of recalled products. (PDF)
http://files.newswire.ca/464/RecallList.pdf

Michael McCain, the President of Maple Leaf Food is doing the best that he can under the circumstances. He has accepted full responsibility and not tried to pass the buck. We still don’t know how this tragedy began. How will we be able to ensure that this won’t happen again? According to food safety experts, sufficient doses of radiation will kill deadly bacteria but Health Canada will not approve the process until 2009. Why?

Finally some answers! The Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) has determined that just prior to the explosion that a truck driver was illegally transferring propane from one truck to another. The practice of truck-to-truck propane transfers is prohibited in Ontario because it increases the risk of a gas leak or fire. To add insult to injury, this illegal practice was routine at Sunrise Propane in spite of the fact that they received a warning about truck-to-truck transfers in 2006. In essence the tragedy was inevitable. The only thing that couldn’t be predicted was the timing and the fact that 2 people died tragically and for nothing as a result of this gross negligence and what should be a criminal act. In fact there is now a third death that is attributable to the explosion. One of the residents in the area suffered a fatal heart attack as a result of the stress.

The TSSA sent out an order on Thursday suspending the operating licenses at three Sunrise Propane sites - 54 Murray Road in Toronto where the explosion occurred, 1201 Dundas Street East in Toronto, and 3171 Derry Road East in Mississauga. The three facilities are now closed. As a result there has been further investigation into other propane sites and 6 propane facilities in Ontario were closed. Five have since reopened. A more extensive series of inspections has begun. To date 193 of the largest propane sites have been inspected. The 3,000 propane sites in the province will be inspected by the end of the year. All of this is small comfort to the people who live in the area surrounding the Murray Street facility.

We are all crying out for the heads of Sunrise Propane, but let us not forget about the TSSA. They knew that Sunrise Propane was engaged in potentially lethal activity yet they did noting about it but issue a warning. What is the point of having a regulating organization that doesn’t regulate?

If you haven’t had the opportunity to take in this fantastic event yet, don’t delay! The Chinese Lantern Festival takes place nightly from 7:00 PM – 11:00 PM until September 1st at Ontario Place. From September 2nd – October 12th, the Festival will be held on Thursday and Friday evenings from 6:00 PM – 10:00 PM and on Saturday and Sunday evenings from 5:00 PM – 10:00 PM.

This is your opportunity to participate in a unique experience. The Chinese Lantern Festival features 32 massive displays created by the magical hands of the craftsmen of Zigong, China. Each display is an event all on its own from dinosaurs to seascapes and from the Tower of Pisa to the Taj Mahal. You can globe trot and time travel all in one magical evening. There is plenty to engage and delight the whole family including traditional Chinese tea ceremonies, martial arts demonstrations, acrobats, and Chinese dance ensembles.

Tickets are $20 for children aged 4 – 12, $25 for people aged 13 – 64, $20 for seniors aged 65 and over, and there are family passes available for $95. They are available on site at the Ontario Place Gates, at the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Toronto located near Sheppard Avenue and Markham Road, or you can buy your tickets online and avoids the queues.

Ontario Place is located at 955 Lakeshore Boulevard West, south of Exhibition Place, between Dufferin Street and Strachan Avenue. It is easily accessible by car, TTC and GO Transit. Follow the link below for TTC and driving directions. http://www.chineselanternfestival.ca/english/getting_here.html

Image courtesy Flickr

The very well paid TTC employees brought this all on themselves when they walked off the job with no notice in April stranding thousands of Torontonians very late on a Friday night with no means of returning home. No union has the right to cripple a city of over 4 million people. Approximately 1.5 million residents of Toronto rely on the TTC daily. Police and firefighters are essential services and cannot strike. Although the TTC doesn’t protect the public or save lives, it does keep the city functioning – logistically and economically.

The debate about whether or not the TTC is an essential service has raged on since the April strike. Mayor Miller and the Toronto Executive Committee requested a report on whether or not the TTC should be declared an essential service and they will be meeting in September to hopefully make a determination based on what is best for the city of Toronto. To no one’s surprise, the TTC union and the management are both against the idea. The powerful and militant union has no desire to be stripped of its ability to bring the city of Toronto to its knees at will.

The TTC union is talking out of both sides of its mouth. The strikes are all about money and power yet one of the reasons that the TTC is saying that they don’t want to be declared an essential service is that it could potentially result in higher wages for the employees if an arbitrator splits the difference between what the union is being offered and what the union is asking for. Does anyone out there actually believe that the union doesn’t want their right to strike removed because they can potentially be paid more money? If the union could actually realize more money during contract negotiations with an arbitrator, then they would request that their right to strike be removed on their own.

Once and for all the TTC union must be kept under control and their right to strike removed. Only then will Torontonians have a reliable, functioning transit system every day, even when contracts are being negotiated.

After all of the talk and all of the hype the Buffalo Bills finally played their first pre-season exhibition on August 9th at the Rogers Centre. And, by all accounts it was a miss even thought the Bills defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers 24 – 21 in front of what has been described as an enthusiastic crowd. There was a great deal of disappointment in that the game was played by second stringers while the stars rested in spite of the fact that ticket prices ranged from $79 to $575.

This little NFL experiment is said to have incurred a deficit of between $4 and $5 million dollars, which is hardly the result that Rogers was hoping for. Attendance was 48,434, but the reality is that only 33,000 tickets were sold at face value. It wasn’t a happy occasion for scalpers either as it was reported that just prior to game time scalpers were letting $300 tickets go for as little as $20! Rumours are abound that as many as 17,000 tickets were given away in order to make the stadium look full and as many as 5,000 tickets remained unsold.

Are Torontonians savvy buyers who could just not wrap their heads around paying full whack for a meaningless exhibition with a second-stringer line-up? Or did Rogers plain and simply do a poor job of marketing the event? Will Torontonians be out in force for a regular season game? We’ll have to wait until December 7th when the Bills will take on the Miami Dolphins and see how ticket sales go.

For information on the continuing Bills games in Toronto an official website has been set up where you can get all of the latest and greatest information.