There are so many Father’s Day events and activities in Toronto that your only problem may be deciding what to choose. You don’t have to spend a lot of money to honour Dad. The gift of time is always the most meaningful. Instead of a gift list (does Dad really want another tie?), here is a list of things that you can do together. After all, isn’t that really in keeping with the spirit of Father’s Day?

•    5K Walk/Run for Prostate Cancer on Sunday, June 21st at The Distillery District located at Trinity and Mill Streets starting at 9:30 AM

•    Father’s Day at the Toronto Zoo on June 21st from 9:00 AM - 6:30 PM

•    Kingsway Father’s Day/Summer Sidewalk Festival on Thursday, June 18th – Saturday, June 20th from 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM daily

•    Father’s Day Archery Workshop on Saturday, June 20th at Casa Loma

•    Father’s Day at Putting Edge Fun Centers Dad’s play free

•    Totstock - a festival of music, stories and crafts in support of The High Park Nature Centre, taking place on Father’s Day from 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM at Sorauren Park located at 50 Wabash Avenue

•    Black Creek Pioneer Village presents a full 18th century battle reenactment with over 200 Loyalist and Rebel soldiers from the Revolutionary War period on Saturday, June 20th from 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM and on Sunday, June 21st from: 11:00 AM to 5:00 PM

•    Play a round of golf right in the city of Toronto

•    Discover Wine Country with Dad

•    Enjoy a cultural day with Dad at the AGO or the ROM

•    Take Dad hiking

•    Play some tennis with Dad on one of the many City of Toronto tennis courts

•    Rent canoes or kayaks and spend a day out on the water

•    Ride your bikes on one of Toronto’s many bike trails

•    Spend the day at one of Toronto’s 11 swimming beaches

This is an interesting story of scandal, and what makes it really compelling is that it involves the government and the tax payers’ money. Right now there is a lot of finger pointing going on and resignations and calls for resignations, but until there is a full investigation all that we can do is to read the sordid and slightly skewed news in the various media. Before this scandal how many of you had heard of eHealth Ontario? What is eHealth Ontario? It is an organization that is developing electronic health records in Ontario that was the result of a merger between an e-health program at the Ministry of Health and the Long-term Care and Smart Systems for Health Agency (SSHA). eHealth was set up in late 2008 to create a digital record system by 2015 that allows healthcare providers to electronically share patient information. However, considering what has been going on as of late, that goal may have to be extended.

The scandal involves what has been viewed as exorbitant spending on consultants and millions of dollars in untendered contracts. Although the responsibility for the agency falls under Health Minister David Caplan, he is doing everything possible to protect his own position and as a result CEO Sarah Kramer resigned on the weekend after being in the position for seven months. She is a most convenient scapegoat and there is nothing that the public wants more than an executive with a big salary (in this case Ms Kramer’s salary was $380,000) to be brought to her knees. Ms Kramer is accused of lavish spending and handing out untendered contracts to friends and associates. If this is all true, then she deserves to be fired, but until an investigation is completed by an independent and unbiased third party how are we to know fact from fiction and where culpability lies. There is so much information and misinformation, how do we tell fact from fiction? As an example, it is alleged that $2 million in untendered contracts were awarded by eHealth to long-time associates of Ms Kramer and Dr. Alan Hudson, chair of the agency. However a spokeswoman for eHealth said that the eHealth board, and not Dr. Hudson, awarded the contracts before Ms Kramer arrived. I look forward to hearing the results of the investigation. In the meantime Ms Kramer is without a job and Health Minister David Caplan still has his.

Counterfeiting continues to be a big problem for the TTC . Last year the TTC eliminated paper tickets and the tokens were changed to bi-metal in order to make counterfeiting more difficult, but I wonder how effective the new tokens really are. Considering that the TTC has $2 million in fraud-related losses each year, it doesn’t seem likely that it did the trick. Now it appears that fake Metropasses are the hot issue.

The TTC sells 260,000 Metropasses every month and they seize about 500 bogus passes every month. In reality there are many more fakes out there because they are almost identical to the real ones and many elude detection. This year to date the police have seized about 2,500 fake passes and arrested 500 people in connection with counterfeiting. What is the TTC going to do about this? They will be issuing new Metropasses in July that feature a hologram which is supposed to make them harder to counterfeit. This will cost the TTC approximately $250,000 annually. Considering the rate at which credit cards with holograms are faked, does the TTC have a reasonable expectation that this is a well advised course of action?  In addition when you buy a Metropass it will come with a yellow sticker that you must remove before you can use it. This sounds like the stickers that are on new credit cards that give you the instructions for activating your card. The TTC is clearly trying to emulate the credit card model for enhanced security. How long to you think that it will take before the counterfeiters have developed Metropasses with holograms and yellow stickers? Perhaps if the TTC made purchasing a Metropass cost effective, they wouldn’t have to be spending fortunes on enhanced security measures.

Toronto’s Pride Week, or more accurately, Toronto’s Pride 10 Days, will be taking place from Friday, June 19th to Sunday, June 28th. Proudly, Toronto’s Pride Week is one of the largest pride celebrations in the world, celebrating the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transsexual, Transgender, Intersex, Queer, Questioning, and Two-Spirited communities. Of course we all know about the Pride Parade , but pride week is much more than that – it is a world class 10-day arts and culture festival that features arts and entertainment, a street fair, Dyke March, Youth Pride, Family Pride, and a Free Zone (a drug and alcohol free zone).

The highlight and the culmination of Pride Week is the Pride Parade which will begin on Sunday, June 28th at 2:00 PM. The theme of this year’s Pride Parade is “CAN’T STOP: WON’T STOP”. The parade will travel west on Bloor St. between Church and Yonge Streets, then south on Yonge St. from Bloor St. to Gerrard St., and then east on Gerrard St. to Church St. This year the International Grand Marshal is Victor Juliet Mukasa and Parade Grand Marshal is El-Farouk Khaki.

The importance of the other Pride Week events is often overshadowed by the Parade, but Pride Week is also a family event. On Saturday, June 27th and Sunday, June 28th Family Pride will be set up on the grounds of the Church Street Junior Public School located at 83 Alexander and Church Streets from 11:00 AM – 6:00 PM offering inclusive, family-friendly activities and events.

Pride Week is for everyone – learn, experience, and celebrate!

Not everyone is willing to give an ex-con a break. In fact most people would run a mile. That’s what makes Toronto chef and restaurant owner Marc Thuet so special. His new restaurant – aptly named Conviction – employs 13 ex-convicts, 7 in the kitchen and 6 out on the dining floor. Not only are they earning an honest living, but they are learning a trade. Don’t be afraid to go and sample the cuisine. The former convicts were all non-violent offenders, many of whom were incarcerated for drug related offenses and now thanks to Marc Thuet, they have a real opportunity to turn their lives around.

A recovering drug addict and alcoholic, Chef Mark Thuet understands more than most the importance of what he is doing. He felt so strongly about Conviction that he closed his restaurant, Bite Me, in favour of this new and exciting venture. Financially, opening Conviction was a big risk, but so far, so good. All of the staff have been working hard to prove that they are worthy of this fabulous opportunity at a second chance at life. So compelling is this story that Cineflix is filming a documentary about Conviction that will be aired in the fall.

Conviction is located at 609 King Street West and can be reached by phone at 416.603.2777 and by email at info@convictionrestaurant.com. Dinner is served from Tuesday – Saturday from 5:30 PM – Midnight and for brunch on Sunday from 11:00 AM – 2:00 PM. The menu looks absolutely outstanding and this is a restaurant worth supporting.

Mark June 19th and June 20th in your calendars. There is a new festival in town - the Toronto Wine & Spirit Festival. This is Toronto’s first ever wine and spirit festival and it will be taking place at the Distillery District. Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the gate, subject to availability. The price of admission includes 5 vouchers for drinks or food that have a value of $5.00 and a free sampling glass. Click here for information on how and where to purchase tickets. The Toronto Wine & Spirit Festival is a rain or shine event, so no refunds will be issued in the event of inclement weather. You must be over 19 years of age to enter the licensed areas. No minors (even accompanied by adults) or pets will be permitted entry.

There is guaranteed to be a tasty delight for all palates with over 40 vendors confirmed offering selections of wine, spirits, beer, ready to drink cocktails, coolers, blender drinks, and spritzers along with some delicious food from the Auld Spot Pub, the Boiler House Restaurant, and Hot Mama’s. There will be plenty of live music performed by local artists.

Show hours:
Friday June 19th from 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM
Saturday June 20th from 12:00 PM to 5:00 PM
Saturday June 20th from 6:00 PM to 11:00 PM

The Distillery District is located at 55 Mill Street between Parliament and Cherry Streets. Click here for driving and TTC directions

BIG on Bloor , now in its second year, is a marvelous street festival taking place on Saturday, June 20th from 1:00 PM – 9:00 PM. A 2.5 km stretch of Bloor Street from Christie to Landsdowne will be closed to all vehicles for a terrific street party. BIG - the Bloor Improvement Group - is a volunteer organization that is dedicated to improving and celebrating the area. BIG on Bloor is fun for the whole family with plenty of entertainment and activities for all ages and all stages. It’s a great way to get out and meet your neighbours and find out what is going on in your own backyard. Join the over 100,000 visitors expected to attend.

There will be great fun and lots of live entertainment for the whole family. Live entertainment will be featured on three stages located at Concord, Salem and Brock and many of the performers will be local to the area. Vendors will be on hand to inform and entertain offering pet information and pet supplies, art, jewelry, gifts, fashion, balloon sculpture, books, face painting, pottery, home décor, health information, crafts, and plenty to eat and drink. Last year there were over 400 tables.

A festival like this depends on volunteers. Register here. There are a variety of shifts available and some openings for block captains. BIG on Bloor is a volunteer organization that is dependent on sponsors and donations.  Donations are always needed and most welcome.

Here is a statistic that will shock and awe you – last year there were 1 million visits to food banks in the GTA. This represents a 20% increase from last year and it’s pretty safe to assume that the economy is directly responsible. The good news is that Torontonians have stepped up to the plate with their donations of food, which have actually increased. Bravo Toronto! The sad news is that the food banks may still not be able to keep up with the demand.

Believe it or not we are faring much better in Toronto than in other communities across Canada.
* Calgary saw an increase in food bank usage of a whopping 80%.
* Penticton, B.C. saw an increase in food bank usage of 37%.
* In Ontario Windsor, Oshawa and Thunder Bay were the hardest hit.
Typically donations to food banks decrease over the summer months. Many food banks are now considering summer food drives in order to try and keep up with the demand. However, that probably still won’t generate enough to be able to feed all the people who need to use food banks. Single people are able to visit a food bank twice a month. People with children can visit up to four times a month. Farmers and food industries are now being approached to pitch in and help out. The other problem is that monetary donations are down due to the economic downturn.

Here is a list of food banks that can use your help. Please give generously and give often.

Daily Bread Food Bank and their member agencies
Fort York Food Bank
North York Harvest Food Bank
Ontario Association of Food Banks

Another union, another threat of strike action. It’s becoming an all too familiar refrain and one that is wearing very thin on the patience of Torontonians. The latest threat comes from the LCBO workers, and a summer without alcohol can put fear into the hearts of many.

The collective agreement of the LCBO workers expired on March 31. Singing the same old union song, OPSEU President Warren “Smokey” Thomas says that they do not want a strike, but in the same breath the union has set June 24 as the strike deadline. It appears that the LCBO is behaving like most companies who are looking to drive down labour costs. They have eliminated permanent jobs and replaced them with casual jobs that do not guarantee hours of work and pay no benefits. In fact it is reported that 60% of LCBO staff are now casual workers. The union takes serious objection to the reduction of permanent jobs.

This situation is becoming very common and begs two questions. The first question is, are permanent jobs being lost because of the cost of benefits? Although I have no data to offer, anecdotal evidence would certainly support this assumption. I have many friends who work in non-unionized environments and the companies that they work for either offer no benefits at all or require them to pay for all or part of their benefits. Due to the instability in the job market, many people are looking to self-insure and not worry about losing benefits when they change jobs. In fact, self-insuring can cost you less than paying into your company group plan as one of my friends recently found out and you can get a plan that suits you instead of your company’s group. The other question is, how long are we going to allow unions to run our businesses? They had their place in the industrial revolution, but they are dinosaurs in today’s economic reality. We need some serious changes with respect to the place of unions in our society where they seem to do more harm than good. Until the unions are run by businessmen and not power hungry union activists, we will be plagued by one strike after another.

Should you be stocking up on booze? Considering that the LCBO has gone on strike before it probably isn’t a bad idea. If there is a strike and you are a wine drinker, hop into the car and take a lovely drive out to Niagara Wine Country where you can enjoy a day of visiting local wineries and purchasing anything that appeals to you. Don’t worry, they won’t go on strike.

It never occurred to me that what Canada was lacking was a national drink. We have a national flag, a national animal – the beaver, a national tree – the maple leaf, and our national colours are red and white. How exactly would our lives be enhanced with a national drink?

The drink in question is The Caesar, which the Mott company refers to as “the classic Canadian cocktail” which is celebrating its 40th birthday. The first Caesar was poured at the Calgary Westin Hotel in 1969 by bartender Walter Chell.

The interesting fact in all of this is that the Mott Company was founded in 1842 in Bouckville, New York. It was, has always been, and still is an American company. Yet, it appears that Mott’s Clamato Juice, the essential ingredient in a Caesar, can only be found in Canada. With a few notable exceptions like Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas, no where else on the planet can you order a Caesar and have the bartender know what you are talking about. Canadians do love to drink Caesars and according to statistics provided by the Mott company, Canadians drink as many as 350 million Caesars a year. No wonder the Mott’s company loves Canada.

Mott clearly recognized a golden marketing opportunity and they have now started a petition to make The Caesar Canada’s national drink. If there is enough consumer response to the petition Mott will take their request to Parliament Hill and make it official. If you want to make The Caesar Canada’s national drink, sign the online petition