There was extremely poor turnout for the first two scheduled information meetings about Toronto’s Africentric School. In fact only a handful of people turned out. The third meeting took place very close to the location of the school at Sheppard Avenue just west of Keele Street and over 100 people attended. Who is getting the blame for poor attendance at the first 2 meetings? The Toronto District School Board. Africentric School supporters say that lack of publicity is the reason for the poor turnout in spite of the fact that the Toronto District School Board has printed thousands of brochures about the school and dropped them in West Indian stores, community centres, and taken ads out in community newspapers. Are they nuts? The news and the controversy about Toronto’s Africentric School stirred up a tempest in a teapot and made front page news in all media for months. You would have had to recently materialize from Mars not to be aware of the Africentric School. What more publicity was required? And why isn’t the very community who made enough noise to make this school a reality, making the same amount of noise to promote it? The reality is that the first 2 meetings took place in Scarborough and Rexdale and clearly parents felt that they were too far geographically from the Africentric School.
In order for the Africentric School to open there needs to be at least 40 students enrolled - two classrooms of about 20 students each in two consecutive grades between kindergarten and Grade 5. Registration opened over a month ago and so far less than 20 students have enrolled. The school may not open at all unless there is a sudden enrollment blitz. The Toronto District School Board is asking parents to please enroll their children by January 9th so that they can proceed with hiring the staff needed to operate the school. Students will be accepted after January 9th. Families can register their children online.
There is much confusion around what kinds of Christmas trees are really green, in the eco-friendly sense of the word. There are advantages and disadvantages to both real and artificial Christmas trees. Although most people love the smell of pine that can only be found in a real Christmas tree, they do make a mess, can be a fire hazard that there has been the belief that cutting down Christmas trees is not eco-friendly. Conversely although we have believed that artificial were more eco-friendly the reality is that they are not bio-degradable and end up in landfills. There is no right or wrong answer.
Advantages of Buying a Real Christmas Tree
• Christmas trees are farmed and tree farms are good for the environment. Every acre of Christmas trees grown provides a day of oxygen for 18 people and supports a complex ecosystem.
• Christmas tree recycling programs provide mulch for gardens and parks after which the mulch decomposes, providing the nutrients for plants.
• When you buy a real Christmas tree you are supporting our local economy as opposed to artificial trees which are almost all manufactured offshore.
• If you want the greenest tree possible grow one in a pot that will live year round. Bring it indoors during the holidays and then put it back outside.
Advantages of Buying an Artificial Christmas Tree
• They don’t shed needles.
• They don’t dry out and potentially become a fire hazard.
• They can be used year after year and therefore can be very economical.
At long last someone in the city has begun to investigate Toronto’s taxis. An investigation was launched in January 2008 and was specific to the Union Station area taxi drivers in response to many complaints over a sustained period of time. But, unfortunately there are taxi drivers all over Toronto that are rude, aggressive, illegal soliciting cab fares, refusing to accept the first fare, unlicensed drivers and taxis, and many taxis are dirty and in poor condition. There was not even an honourable mention of taxis drivers who have their cell phone glued to their ear for the entire ride. The investigation was carried out by 15 city bylaw enforcement officers and Union Station security officers and the result was that 147 tickets were issued for a variety of infractions.
Gus Michaels, the manager of the Investigation Services, Licensing Enforcement Unit believes that this unacceptable behavior is limited to a very small percentage of Toronto taxi drivers. But, I beg to differ. Either Mr. Michaels doesn’t use taxis or he has his head in the sand. Most people that I know would rather avoid Toronto taxis at all costs. The drivers all over the city exhibit the same behavior as that which was noted in the Union Station area. Have you ever had any dealings with Toronto taxi drivers on hospital row - University Avenue from College to Dundas? The drivers are extremely aggressive and are in constant altercations with motorists. They will not confine themselves to the well defined taxi areas and park in all of the legal parking spaces or double park in the street causing more congestion than already exists. They aggressively solicit fares and argue among themselves.
When will there be a full scale investigation of Toronto’s taxis? The problem is not limited to the Union Station area. That is merely the tip of the iceberg.
If you sell products, shop online, or engage in Forex trading, you may be looking for a handy tool that will show you a real time currency exchange rates. I have just stumbled upon just such an online currency converter widget that shows real time foreign currency exchange rates.
This tool has three functions:
1- It shows Pound, Euro, US dollar, Canadian dollar, Australian dollars and Japanese Yen exchange rates at a glance.
2- It works as a currency converter, allowing you to convert from American dollars to Canadian, Euros to Canadian dollars and much more (you can easily convert all the major currencies to each other’s)
3- It shows current oil prices, appended by the latest change in the oil prices.
So if you are a site that sells products and services to people outside your own currency, or if you’re a Forex or currency trader, or you own a blog or website about Forex, money and currency, you can easily place this widget on your site in a matter of sconds. It will add real value for your visitors. The best part … its completely FREE.
How to install the currency exchange rates on your blog, website or favourite social media site:
1. Click on the “Copy Me” button (upper right hand corner of the tool … mouseover to see)
2. Click on the + sign to embed in your website or click on the logo of your favourite social media website (Facebook, Hi5, Igoogle, Blogger, Myspace, Vista side bar and more) and follow directions to embed in those.
York University is now officially closed. A strike by part-time workers has caused the cancellation of all classes and the postponement of all assignments. There are picket lines from 7:00 AM - 7:00 PM. Cars are only being allowed onto the campus every few minutes and busses are letting students off at the gates. There are a few things that remain open - residences, food services and recreational facilities. Intramural games and varsity leagues are continuing as usual. And, non-credit night school classes are on.
The strikers, represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 3903, are the 1,850 graduate students who work as teaching assistants, 550 who work as research and administrative assistants, and 950 contract faculty members who teach almost half the courses at York but do not have permanent status. York offered a wage increase of 9.25 % over three years, improved dental and health benefits and paid leaves, matching other settlements across the public sector. The union wants an 11% wage increase over 2 years in addition to better health benefits and more job security for long-term contract teachers.
York’s teaching assistants are the highest paid in Canada. They are complaining that the sector is poorly paid. Well then, get out of the sector. All of these strikers are in LALA Land. Job security doesn’t exist in the real world anymore so get with the program. And even asking for an 11% wage increase over 2 years is ludicrous. If the situation for the students wasn’t so pathetic, the irresponsible demands of the union would be comical.
No one is talking and the students are suffering. York will agree to binding arbitration, but the union will not. If need be university officials will consider stretching the first semester into January. The students are merely pawns in a game being played by union officials. When is someone going to consider them? When is someone going to end the stranglehold that megalomaniac union bosses have on our society?
Happily, the Just for Laughs Festival will be returning to Toronto this year after its successful debut in 2007 when over 60,000 attended. This year attendance is projected at 90,000. Yonge Street between Dundas and Shuter will be closed to traffic during the festival which will take place from July 23 – July 27. This is two days longer than last year’s festival and it will have double the number of shows. In order to help fund and market Just for Laughs the provincial government is kicking in over $420,000 which was instrumental in expanding the festival to 4 days. Some of the money will also be used to market the festival to Americans and Canadians, giving our economy a much needed boost. When tourists come in for a festival they fill up the hotels, spend money in restaurants and bars, and shop in our stores. Everyone benefits.
Free events will take place at Yonge-Dundas Square with spectacular shows by the French troupe Transe Express Circus, stilt walkers and acrobats from Italy’s Teatro Pavana, performance artists, comedy acts, musical performances, buskers, and more.
Ticketed events go on sale on Monday, June 2nd. The galas which take place at Massey Hall will be headlined by Martin Short, Jason Alexander, and Jimmy Fallon. There will be comedy shows galore at the Yuk Yuk’s, The Second City, Absolute Comedy, and Toronto’s Ethic Comedy Series at the Winter Garden Theatre.
We can all use a great laugh. Come out and support this great event. Bring your friends, bring your family. For more information or to buy tickets for any of the events, follow the link below. http://www.hahaha.com/en/festival/11/?nav=1&filter=22
Everyone is part Italian when it comes to eating. It’s hard to find anybody who doesn’t love pasta, pizza, or risotto. The delicious annual Taste of Little Italy will be on from June 13th – June 15th. College Street from Bathurst to Shaw will be closed to cars during the event and turned in a pedestrian walkway full of the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes of an authentic Italian piazza.
All of the College Street restaurants will be open for business and hopefully the weather will cooperate so that we can all enjoy a wonderful meal out on a patio. In addition there will be tons of food samplers and drinks that can be purchased on the street for between $1.00 and $5.00.
Music is a very important part of this fantastic event. In addition to Italian you will be able to see some great live acts perform jazz, Latin, R & B, Cuban, Venezuelan, and Ecuadorian on the street and on stages.
Don’t miss out on some of these great bands.
The Taste of Little Italy is on Friday June 13th from 7:00 PM – 2:00 AM, Saturday June 14th from 11:00 AM – 2:00 AM, and on Sunday June 15th from 11:00 AM – 10:00 PM. Leave your car at home and take the TTC. Parking will be a nightmare. If you are taking the subway, exit at the Queen’s Park Station. Then hop the 506 Streetcar going west. Get off at Bathurst and follow the action (go west).
Many commuters, sick and tired of the endless gridlock on the 400 series of highways opted to pay the tolls and take the 407 ETR instead. And as a reward for your patronage the toll rates on the 407 ETR have gone up every year on February 1st for the last 4 years. And this year will be no exception. The 407 ETR, the only privately owned toll road in the province, has raised the peak rate price by more than 8 cents in the last 10 years. Just last year the peak rate price increase was 1.35 cents.
Motorists who use the 407 ETR will not be amused to know that the rate is increasing 9.4% on February 1st for cars, minivans, and SUVs, making the new peak rate price 19.5 cents per kilometer in the “regular zone” – from the 401 intersection in the west to the 404 junction in the east. In the “light zone” - the remainder of the highway from the QEW in Burlington to Highway
401 and from Highway 404 to Brock Road in Pickering – the peak rate price will be 19 cents per kilometer. The off-peak rate in both zones will be 18 cents per kilometer. The rates for single unit trucks will be 38.5 cents per kilometer and for 18-wheelers the rate will be 57.75 cents per kilometer. The big price break will be for transponder customers, who will be offered a 30 % discount on the transponder lease fee if they choose an annual transponder lease fee instead of a monthly fee.
Of course the party line is that the increases are so that the company can continue to add new lanes. What do you think? Is it road improvement or a cash grab?
On February 16, 2008 the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) will open the Sir Christopher Ondaatje South Asian Gallery to the public. Named after Sir Christopher Ondaatje for his donations to the museum, the gallery will showcase over 350 South Asian artifacts in a rotating exhibition for short periods of time. Multicultural Toronto, with its large South Asian community, is the perfect location to showcase amazing exhibit.
The exhibit will be organized into 9 separate areas, each representing a fabulous collection of South Asian religious objects and sculpture, decorative arts, arms and armour, and miniature paintings and textiles that hail from countries including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Tibet. The idea is to present the 5,000 year history of South Asian art as a series of stories. Visitors to the exhibit can visit any or all of the 9 areas in any order that pleases them. A few of the most coveted pieces of the collection are a rare 3rd century Buddhist reliquary with delicate gold and pearl ornamentation, a 12th century bronze statue of Shiva as the Lord of Dance, and a beautiful 18th century hand painted textile made for the export market.
Krishna is Hinduism’s most powerful divinity. Therefore, it’s only fitting that the first rotating exhibition will be “Playful Krishna” featuring 40 artifacts, including the recently acquired treasure of a “picchvai” which is a painting on cloth depicting the pilgrimage route to sites sacred to Krishna’s life. Each of the sections is as diverse as the time periods and the cultures themselves – “Material Remains”, “Visualizing Divinity”, “Passage to Enlightenment”, “Courtly Culture”, “Cultural Exchange”, “Home and the World” are your windows into this unique cultural experience.
The holidays are my favorite time of year. And sure, I love to give and receive presents, but my favorite thing about the holidays is simply spending time with my family over great food. I love the smell of a turkey roasting, apple cider brewing, and holiday cookies baking in the oven.
There’s really no better place to gather the family together than in the kitchen. Kids especially love to help out with the holiday cooking, and there’s nothing kids like more than a cookie (or two or three!). So get your kids in the kitchen with some of these great holiday cookie recipes.
Mini Peanut Butter Cup Tarts
These great and easy-to-make cookies are a terrific way to use up some leftover Halloween candy. They use mini Reese’s peanut butter cups together with a peanut butter cookie dough to shape pretty (and tasty) mini peanut butter chocolate tarts. You can also use prepackaged dough to make these even easier.
Ingredients:
36 miniature Reese’s cups, unwrapped
1/2 C. creamy peanut butter
1/2 C. butter, softened
1/2 C. sugar
1/2 C. brown sugar, packed
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/4 C. all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
+A set of miniature muffin pans
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
In a mixing bowl, beat together the peanut butter, butter, and both sugars with electric mixer until fluffy. Add in the vanilla, egg, flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix well with a wooden spoon.
Shape dough into balls about one inch in diameter. Place one ball in each miniature muffin tin. (No muffin papers needed.)
Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes. After removing from oven, immediately press one of the unwrapped peanut butter cups into middle of each peanut butter cookie.
After placing the Reeses cups in all of the cookies, place the muffin pan back into the oven for approximately 30 seconds to one minute to melt the chocolate slightly and soften the hard edges of the peanut butter cups. This helps them to appear more like a real chocolate tart.
Allow the cookies to cool completely before removing them from the pan. Recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies.
Cake Mix Cookies: Easier than Pie
These are easy Christmas cookies that are a lot of fun to make. The finished cookie is soft and wonderful, and there’s no end to the combinations of flavors you can make. They’re simple enough to allow the kids to help. Simply buy the cake mix of your choice and any add-ins you want to use. This is a great way to let your kids get creative– they can make up their favorite flavor combinations and see how they turn out. Ever tried Strawberry with Jelly Bean cookies??
Ingredients:
1 (18 oz.) package of your choice of cake mix (not with pudding)
2 lg. eggs
1/2 C. shortening
1 tbsp. water
1/2 C. chopped nuts, dried fruit, or chocolate chips (or other ad-ins of your choice)
powdered sugar (optional)
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Using a wooden spoon or an electric mixer, combine all the ingredients in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Chill the dough in the refrigerator 30 minutes.
Shape dough into 1″ balls. If desired, roll in powdered sugar at this time. Bake cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper for about 10-12 minutes, til set.
