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Morning Brew: April 22nd, 2009

Posted by Jerrold Litwinenko / April 22, 2009

kool haus torontoPhoto: "Kool Haus" by Tobias Visualbass, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond), on this Earth Day, 2009:

It was only a matter of time before people lost their cool. Residents in the Junction are GOing nuts, and claiming business loses and health issues are now a serious concern. Very loud construction on the rail lines near Dupont & Dundas (a major project that involves driving piles into the ground) is only 15% complete, and is expected to take a full year to finish [CBC]. And GO doesn't seem to be very well prepared to deal with the concerns of residents and business owners.

The OLGC is dealing with yet another screw up. This time, a number of tickets for various lottery drawings were printed with the wrong dates on them [CityNews]. As a result, the lottery corp is considering them void and offering replacements or refunds on the purchase price. But what happens if one of these glitch-affected tickets were to be claimed as a winning ticket, by a winner not aware of the error?

According to data from Statistics Canada, Toronto has the lowest crime index in the country [Sun] (compared to 27 other large municipalities). The index is designed to put more weight on serious/violent crime, and lessen the impact of less serious crimes, which leaves me a little surprised by the end results. One would expect that T.O. (with all our guns and subway passenger pushers and child molesters and arsonists) would score much worse than the nation's top crime city (Saint John, New Brunswick).

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City Hall is going green [NP]. $21-million worth of renovations (aimed at making the iconic building a showcase of environmental stewardship) include a green roof, LED lighting, energy efficient windows, a wind turbine for power generation, and more. City Hall is apparently showing the city that spending green to go green is a worthwhile endeavor.

So what now? Are we supposed to lose all sympathy for the father of the dying baby, because he's facing completely unrelated criminal charges [CityNews]?

A car runs a red light, and hits a delivery truck that was turning left, also on the same red light. The result? Serious, debilitating injuries, almost a decade-worth of legal battles, and a unprecedented record $17-million settlement to the car driver [Star]. I'm not sure how I feel about this one.

Discussion

19 Comments

danielle / April 22, 2009 at 08:47 am
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It's Saint John, NB, not St. John.
Jerrold / April 22, 2009 at 08:52 am
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Oh dear. I abbreviated Saint. Should I run and hide in fear that a Saint John, NB expat is going to find me and torture me before chopping me to bits and selling my organs on the blackmarket and not claiming the profits on his/her income tax? ;) ZOMG!
April replying to a comment from Jerrold / April 22, 2009 at 09:07 am
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Woah, over-react much?!?!
DS / April 22, 2009 at 09:10 am
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Jerrold:

How hard is it for you to suck it up and say 'thanks' to your readers for their offered corrections, versus oozing a snide and sarcastic defence?
Jerrold replying to a comment from April / April 22, 2009 at 09:11 am
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It was a joke, tied into the story! (about Saint John being the serious crime capital of Canada) :)
Jerrold replying to a comment from DS / April 22, 2009 at 09:13 am
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Sorry, guess it went over a few heads. I made the correction, and (apparently) a bad joke.
Ratpick / April 22, 2009 at 09:26 am
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Three people you don't wanna get on the wrong side of:

Saint Nick,
Saint Peter,
And any dulse-eater from the streets of Saint mutha-f'n John.



Fark / April 22, 2009 at 09:41 am
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Highest crime rate AND no sense of humor. No wonder.
LMAO
(yes yes, im torontonian, im rude, obnoxious and insensitive and yet...still live in a city with the LOWEST crime index in the country)
james a / April 22, 2009 at 09:59 am
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What's wrong with St. John?

St. is a valid abbreviation of Saint is it not?
ddt replying to a comment from Jerrold / April 22, 2009 at 10:09 am
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lol...no it was funny....good work Jerrold, there are too many people here that just wait to pounce on an error like a bunch of librarians.
DS / April 22, 2009 at 10:09 am
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Dulse is pretty effin' delicious.
Grammar Nerd replying to a comment from james a / April 22, 2009 at 10:34 am
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Saint John is in NB. The spelling is never abbreviated. St. John's is in NL. The spelling is always abbreviated. It's to easily differentiate between the two cities so no one gets confused.
Ryan L. replying to a comment from Grammar Nerd / April 22, 2009 at 10:55 am
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I have friends from St. John, NFLD. Anybody I've ever met from there has been incredibly pleasant. Apparently everyone from Saint John are murderers. Makes me wonder why they -don't- like people saying St John. That'd seem like a compliment to me. If anything the Newfoundlanders should be the ones to get pissed off (I don't know if that is biologically possible though).
Torontonian replying to a comment from Jerrold / April 22, 2009 at 11:23 am
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It's actually good that Elsie Wayne didn't know
about this little liberty with spelling.
She'd probably want to take you all round town
and then out for a night of dancing and partying.
Jen Ford replying to a comment from Ryan L. / April 22, 2009 at 11:34 am
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It's not! ;)
Diane / April 22, 2009 at 12:08 pm
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Dulse? If you mean sea parsley, that's more of a Nova Scotia thing.

The story of the $17 million settlement just goes to show why juries should not set damages.

Both drivers ran the red light, which makes them equally responsible for the crash. (In fact, you could argue that the Honda driver is MORE responsible because he drove into the side of a stopped truck.)

Yet because the Honda driver suffered greater injuries, the jury pretends that the truck driver was more at fault so they can award the Honda driver a massive settlement.

Because it's only the truck driver's insurance which will be paying the damages, the jury feels there's no harm in doing so.

But will they be so complacent the next time their own insurance rates go up?
Ratpick replying to a comment from Diane / April 22, 2009 at 01:07 pm
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Sorry Diane, I need to disagree re: dulse! My family arrived in New Brunswick just as the Acadians were leaving for Lousiana. Dulse was probably the first solid food I ate. NB's Grand Manan Island is the epicentre of all things dulse.

That said, I'm sure Nova Scotia's dulse (best known as the commercially available diet supplement) is good, too.
Diane / April 22, 2009 at 01:51 pm
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Thanks, Ratpick, I really didn't know that!
Torontonian replying to a comment from james a / April 22, 2009 at 04:17 pm
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Just a guess, but I think it may have to do with the
spelling from 1)the original Post Office registration and
2) the stamp cancelling device.

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