City
Morning Brew: Billy Bishop Airport, Terrorism Sentencing, Misty Monopoly, $4.39 Shawarmas, Nuit Blanche Mobile Apps
Photo: "Fixated" by SirCharlie, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
The Toronto Port Authority is planning a name change for the Toronto City Centre Airport (commonly referred to as the Island Airport). Even though it was renamed relatively recently (1994), the TPA wants to call it Billy Bishop Airport, after the WWI flying ace - even though Owen Sound's airport already has that name.
Are the mainstream and blog media dedicating too much of their reporting resources and pages to the Michael Bryant and Darcy Allan Sheppard story? I'm looking at you, Posted Toronto... 8 of your most recent 11 stories is too much. Other Toronto Star stories tell how much Bryant's shawarma cost, and how Sheppard was in foster care in Alberta as a child. Enough already.
His lawyers are arguing for a 2-year sentence (on top of his time already spent in custody), while the Crown wants him locked up for 18 to 20 years. Sentencing for the Toronto man found guilty for his role in terrorism plotting is expected today in a Brampton court.
Down in Niagara Falls, the monopoly that is the Maid of the Mist tours is under review again. If other tour operators want to offer services and clear all the required safety and insurance requirements, shouldn't they be allowed to run a business? The Niagara Parks Commission has given the US-based company that runs the Maid an untendered, exclusive 25-year lease in exchange for a cut of the revenue.
It's an odd anniversary to highlight, but apparently today marks 10 years since a devastating and fatal 87-car pileup happened on the 401 near Chatham.
And I'm excited to have learned that the Nuit Blanche 2009 web site has been updated, and now includes much of the info about this year's installment on October 3rd. iPhone and Balckberry apps are also in the works, which will make previewing exhibits and navigating the city that night paperless and convenient.
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Besides, I’d like to comment on driving alongside with bicycles… I am sure that all drivers reading this will understand me. Dear bikers, please stay away from the cars!!! It is really hard for drivers to watch for you while having to pay attention to the traffic. You tend to appear out of nowhere and make all efforts to get hit by cars. Please, please, please-just stay away from big roads. Use smaller streets instead!
The point that I am trying to make here is that the whole situation is not fair to Michael Bryant. I strongly believe that he should be asked to accept back his position as director of Invest Toronto. He is also owed a public apology from all the embarrassment.
Please allow me to apologize on behalf of our faithful Mother Earth, alcohol consumers, anyone who has smoked a joint, all people with more than one child, good, honest politicians with convertibles, and for all the cyclists who have the audacity to ride in the bike line alongside you. Don't they realize that makes people nervous?!
You'll be pleased to know the collection plate for the Michael Bryant Monument of Courage has finally reached its goal, so your cries of heroism do not fall on deaf ears. Keep fighting the good fight, you reta.. er, truth-speaker.
I have two university degrees, and what, am I the same as some high school drop-out druggie???
Yes. You're both human.
This is getting out of hand, one-sided anti-car anti-Bryant ignorance is bad enough, but one-sided anti-cyclist pro-Bryant doesn't help at all either. Stop being ignorant.
what a load of stupid bullshit you people are posting
From media and eyewitness reports its obvious Bryant was only trying to defend himself and his wife from a drunken maniac. If there is any justice , all these ridiculous charges will be dismissed.
1:2 ScotiaBank Airport
1:2 Molson's Airport
1:5 Rogers Airport
1:5 Sony Centre for the Flying Arts
1:11 Four Seasons Island Airport
1:511 Pizza Pizza Presents the Island Airport
Navigator Ltd. = fail.
They were both humans and no matter how bad Al was or how magnificent Bryant was, they should be judged only based on what happened that night. In the eye of the law, they are both equal.
Please throw away your university degrees because they clearly didn't make you any smarter. You wasted your time and money.
Renaming the airport after a WWI flying hero is brilliant. Removes the sense of place (downtown) from the airport name. Opponents of the airport will sound like they have something against good ol' Billy Bishop.
It's a brilliant tactic, you have to admit.
I'm staying out of this one.
Good eye Jonathan, looks like Navigator Ltd is earning their pay cheque.
May be I am ignorant, but I don’t do drugs, don’t have illegitimate children, don’t harass other people, don’t have any arrest warrants issued on my name, don’t have any relatives in prison, don’t have run-ins with police, and don’t collect social assistance money. I also happen to pay taxes and invest in Canadian economy. And Mr. Bryant and his policies were one of the reasons I actually live in Toronto, work in Toronto, and invest in Toronto properties.
Bryant is an unemployed bum. I bet he's cashing in EI!
Maybe when you're on your way home from Navigator you can kill a bike courier to feel better.
Also why would I go out in public while Bryant is on the loose. He's a ticking time bomb that could kill at any moment.
Maybe you should have taken a course in law as one of your electives. That way you wouldn't sound so shamelessly dumb.
Island Airport. The Wikipedia article can be found
here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_City_Centre_Airport
Maybe we would be wise to remember the importance of the
airport during the World War II efforts and rename it
to something that recalls its history. If not
King George VI, maybe some other local name prominent
during the war.
Clearly politics was out of Bryant's league.
Dalton saw all this coming and dumped him before he imploded.
How humiliated he must have been at becoming the Liberal laughing stock.
"You think so? We will see about that… Nobody will dare to touch Bryant. Otherwise TO will lose a lot of Eastern European and Chinese money. And I am sure he will be back as the director of Invest Toronto soon."
Now you're ranting into the bizarre.
Money follows power. Bryant has none.
But hey, I hear CFRB is hiring. He would be perfect for a job where you are supposed to feign outrage at everything.
Navigator's crisis management has been brilliant. You think some overworked beat reporter started looking around police files from Alberta to find out that Sheppard had those outstanding warrants? No way, that's Navigator at work. That resignation letter played the media exactly as it should have; sure the letter indicated his resignation but the added value was Bryant claiming his innocence and that's what the media picked up on. Then today's article in the Star about what Bryant did on his anniversary was pure gold and had to have been the idea of the geniuses at Navigator. You think it was a coincidence that a friend of Bryant's just happened to know every little detail about Bryant's evening with his wife? And that the entire no-alcohol-consumed date, including the cost of gas, was easily under $40 is a nice image booster considering all the assumptions about the $500 dinner with $100 bottles of wine critics claim he must have been enjoying earlier that evening.
Anyone who wants to learn how to do crisis communications should be taking detailed notes. Bryant's will be a case study for years to come.
I personally think they're going for a Bonfire of the Vanities spin on this whole tragedy.
right before this incident, the cops had to break up his domestic squabble, and then he gets into a fight with a homeless person. how come you OCAP members are not upset about this. he just finished beating up one of your brothers.
oh i forgot, you want to focus on getting bike lanes, and defending the thugs violent attack on a high profile politician. riiiiiiight.
cyclists just bounce right off them from what i hear and without even a scratch on the vehicle. its perfect.
I'm not sure what I would do if an intoxicated, enraged bicycle courier tried to jump in to my car. I think I would probably speed away, as my first (irrational) thought would be, "I really don't want to get my throat slit by a box cutter". (And no, as far as I know this courier was not carrying any kind of weapon).
"Tonight on Global News: We go undercover at a sex farm for sex hookers."
"I keep telling you, I just grow sorghum here."
"Uh huh. And where are the hookers?"
"'round back. Whoops."
"But first. He was a university honor student who devoted his life to public service, until the night a drunken cyclist named Darcy gave him a crash course in depravity. Bryant and the Beast"!
Now take a look at the criminal thug you are defending. You would rather make excuses for his actions instead of the guy taking responsibilities like a man. What, he didn't come from a rich family so that's an excuse to beat people and commit crimes? You and him are whats wrong with society you know that.
As long as Bryant has friends like you, he wont need any enemies. Keep up the good work.
keep defending that low life thug with 61 arrest warrants, hes your kind of guy.
Happy to hear the Crown is pursuing the max sentence.
Just try and think will you, of all the events leading up to that night. He gets drunk , cops had to be called, he goes and beats up a homeless man, then attacks someone in his car over a minor accident. thats what you are defending.
you are a clueless pathetic person and i have no use for you anymore.
Really, just go away. Are you really 55-60 and typing one-handed? ;-)
I wonder, why are you all defending the junkie? Perhaps because you feel like he is "one of yours"? Well, I don't associate myself with lowlifes like him. He lived off your taxes, he made your city dangerous, he did drugs and fathered illegitimate children. What a hero! What a man!
Mr. Bryant has the best legal representation out there, as well as the best crisis management specialists representing him. I sincerely believe that he will soon be cleared from all charges and will be back to serving Canada as Invest Toronto's director. And I hope that every single on you one day understands how great Michael Bryant is.
For those of you who think that I am on Navigator's payroll, you are wrong. In fact, I work for their indirect competitor.
I have no idea who is at fault, because I wasn't there.
http://tochat.tv/viewtopic.php?f=11&;t=351
Looks like there is some media that can't be bought!
i so much in love with the song, i can't help myself
have a happy holidays and take care