Michael Bryant is in an altercation with a bicyclist and he is charged after the cyclist dies. It will be interesting to hear the fact surrounding this case. So far we have heard the cyclist reach into, or grabbed onto Michael Bryant’s vehicle. If this is in deed a fact, the cyclist was at fault, not Michale Bryant. Bryant is being flogged only because he is a public figure, and that is unfair! More to come on this…..

Many grocery stores in Ontario have started charging a five-cent fee for single-use plastic bags.  The City of Toronto has mandated a five-cent fee for plastic bags at retail stores in an effort to cut down landfill volumes. The city has said it wants to reduce plastic bag use by 70 per cent by 2012. The retailers get to keep the nickel under the Toronto law.  However, there is no Ontario law and the retailers are charging because they make 400% return!  Actually its 500% because it was an expense with no direct revenue.

Metro, Loblaws and Sobeys  have instituted a five-cent charge for all of Ontario (some national).

Loblaws has reported that 75 per cent fewer plastic bags than normal have been used since it started charging fees nationwide on April 22.

Many regions in Ontario recycled stretchable plastic, including grocery bags.  Many of the “single-use” bags are used multiple times for all kinds of household uses including;

1 ) Re-Use as a grocery bag
2 ) Sorting recyclables
3 ) Re-Use as packing material. Wad the bags up and pack around the materials to be packed.
4 ) Re-Use them as trash bags.
5 ) Storage bags. Simply store and hang items you need to put away.
6 ) Shoe Liners for those wet days
7 ) Emergency Rain hats.
8 ) Emergency Diaper (nappy) cover. In a pinch a plastic grocery or bread bag makes a nice emergency disposable cover!
9 ) Dog poop picker uppers

This is a classic case of big business gouging the consumer disguised as a corporate good citizen.  If they truely wanted to help, they would offer paper bags for free.  The same ones they changed from when they found plastic bags for a fraction of the price.

I hope we have all read the stories about Natural Gas resellers and there fraudulent practices of signing people up to a new NG provider without a signature from the home owner.  “If I could see your gas bill, I can show you how to save money”  Then they would write down the account # and information needed for the form to transfer you to their supply, for which you pay a premium.  All this without your signature.

If the price of Natural Gas were to continue on the rise, then you could win with a fixed price.  The truth is, that while prices did go up, the resellers could not afford to sell you your NG at a loss and they went out of business.  The larger resellers are still around because they have contract and many homeowners are paying a premium for their NG.  Based on today’s pricing at a 7 year low, the resellers are winning and the consumers are losing.

For the education of consumers, I just wanted to share the latest news, although it has been a trend for a while.

Wall Street Journal –  Natural-gas futures fell to a fresh seven-year low as a glut of the fuel and tepid demand outweighed diminishing concerns about storms in the Atlantic….. marks the ninth consecutive trading day of declines in gas futures.

“We’re oversupplied, and these storms aren’t causing a disruption…….overabundance of the fuel, resulting in a market that relies less on Gulf output”

There is no way out of the contracts, Union Gas or Consumers Gas will not help you.

You have no choice….  BOHICA

A classic novel that for years has been part of the school English ciriculum is removed from one high school because of one compaint?   Is that all I needed so I did not have to read it?  What is this world coming too?

Just killed an ant with a sledge hammer!

And I’ll guarantee that the parent was not a Cristian Canadian.  This is likely religiously motivated and the school board should have intervened.  Why should should one parent complain and the principle acts like the majority have spoken?  Dear Mr. Principle, You should attend a class on democracy!

The article  from 680News:

The classic novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, is being pulled from the Grade 10 English course at a Brampton high school.
A parent complained about the insulting racial language used in the book.
Dufferin-Peel Catholic School Board spokesperson Bruce Campbell told the Toronto Star the book will still be available to students in the school library.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, which tells a story of racial intolerance in America’s deep south, is a fixture on high school reading lists across Canada.
This isn’t the first time the school board removed a book from it’s curriculum based on a single complaint.
The novel, Snow Falling on Cedars, was pulled in 2007 after a parent complained about the book’s sexual content.

How ridiculous is this??      Nobody should ever be forced to take down a Canadian Flag!   Can you imagine if this happned in the U.S.A.?

“A Mississauga couple has been ordered to take down their Canadian flag by the management of their condo complex.

The Toronto Sun has reported the flag hung from a tree outside their rented home for the past 3 months.

The condo company says it acted because another resident complained the flag was dragging on the ground.

Rose Witteman said they displayed the flag to honour her brother who will be dispatched to serve with the Canadian forces in Afghanistan next month.”

So yet another company feels that they have the unconditional right to charge your credit card over and over. They call it the convenience of auto-renewal, when in truth it is customer retention by force. I do not think the auto-renewal feature is bad, providing I am asked if I would like to enable it when I subscribe and I have an easy, convenient way to disable it.

So without my knowledge (probably found in fine print) Globalstar held my credit card info, including my CVV code and was ready to renew me for another year of service. Fortunately I was able to put a bogus expiry date in the billing information section. By entering incorrect information I have saved myself the painful time consuming phone call to Globalstar Customer Service.

Is this not the same as the banned practice of negative billing? Is this not a tactic used by porn sites and other internet based services that border on fraud and often have the term scam associated with them?

I say yes!

Globalstar’s SPOT is for the active outdoor enthusiasts such as hikers, boaters, snowmobilers, pilots, riders, remote workers and travelers. I highly recommend this service, although take caution for undesirable billing practices.

Six weeks union bullying and the Toronto Mayor gave away the farm to striking city workers. Fiscal responsibility was taken out with the trash!

The union wanted a pay raise and 18 sick days a year, so  Miller rolled over and gave it all to them.
Millar has always cared more about appeasing unions than representing the interests of Toronto taxpayers. It’s like Howard Levitt wrote in the National Post, “expecting Mayor David Miller to deal effectively with the unions was always the equivalent of expecting a fox to responsibly administer a henhouse.”

A union victory again through extortion.  Unions should be deemed criminal.  While GM and Chrysler workers are giving up wages and benefits to save the inductry in these economic times, the City of Toronto Unions need a pay increase and a ridiculous 18 days of sick time per year that they get to bank.  What idiot made that deal in the first place.  Well we know who did it this time!

Miller should have sold out taxpayers at the beginning of the bargaining process as this would have at least spared the citizens the hazards and anguish of a strike.

Taxpayers will now pay for this ridiculous deal.  So hang onto your wallets Toronto, Miller’s just  getting started with his socialist deals .

“Mayor Fred Eisenberger said Hamilton was prepared to do whatever it could to try to land a team in light of a $212.5-million offer by Research In Motion tycoon Jim Balsillie to buy the bankrupt Phoenix Coyotes if he can move them to southern Ontario.”

The Hamilton Mayor is an idiot!  Why the fuck should Hamilton tax payers kick in dollars to a private NHL team?  Why would the residents of the amalgamated Hamilton care?  You want to revitalize the downtown businesses, then get them to kick in.   The area surrounding the city of Hamilton, formerly part of the Region of Hamilton-Wentworth have had enough of the city’s incompetence and self serving ways.

De-amalgamate and the city of Hamilton will be bankrupt.  See if Balsillie will bail the City of Hamilton out!

Great news published in the Ottawa Business Journal today.

http://www.ottawabusinessjournal.com/294900830890941.php

Two telemarketers are the first to have been served with notices of violation for breaking the rules of the national do-not-call list, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said Wednesday.

The commission did not identify the telemarketers in its news release, and said it will not release the violators’ names if the fine is paid within 30 days without being contested.

“Although most telemarketers are abiding by the rules, we will use the enforcement tools at our disposal to promote compliance,” said Leonard Katz, the CRTC’s vice-chairman of telecommunications, in a statement. “The notices of violation we have issued serve as a warning to telemarketers that we will not look the other way if they break the rules and invade the privacy of consumers.”

Companies may be fined up $15,000 for each call to a registrant on the list, which was established in September 2008 to allow consumers to opt out of getting unwanted calls from telemarketers soliciting goods and services.