In a muted, almost non-existent news item in the Star yesterday, it was revealed that Rob Ford, in similar fashion, handed over a cheque for $400 to compensate the city for his use of city property. In other words, Ford tacitly admitted to improperly using city resources for his football foundation.

When it was first suggested to Ford that this is exactly what he was doing, he replied with, “The car that I paid for, right? Do your homework. I paid for it last year.”

Sure you did, Robbie — that’s why you paid for it again this year, right? Does your idiot Ford Nation also willingly pay twice for stuff that they claimed they didn’t have to pay for at all? Any more intelligence or “honesty” you want to share with us?

A couple of months ago I did an exposé on the history of getting around in Toronto during the winter. Powerful stuff.

In that piece, I outlined the various forms of transit used during the icy, wintry months in the city, many of which are still in use today. Nota bene: bicycles were not included.

That makes sense, doesn’t it? Of all the types of conveyances that one could conjure up that are also well-suited to winter, bicycles wouldn’t really be high on that list. And once you’ve experienced a Toronto winter, it’s blindingly obvious.

That’s not to detract from those hardcode cyclists who put spikes on their wheels, layers on their bodies, and bike around the city all winter long. Good for them for being totally extreme, I guess.

Not me though, I think that’s nuts.

And I’d like to suggest that most people would agree with me; biking in the nice weather, great! Winter, fuck it!

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So based on this assumption, I think it’s safe to say that any business based on cycling has to be prepared to weather the winter weather, so to speak.

Therefore, the fact that rent-a-bike outfit BIXI is currently experiencing financial troubles should be making us as nervous as the inevitable first lawsuit against the company for not providing helmets. (The law currently makes them optional for adults, but BIXI might have additional obligations on account of them being a business.)

It’s not the first time they’ve been in this situation with their hometown of Montreal having to bail them out not too long ago. Now they’re crying poor on the doorsteps of Toronto with whom they have a 10-year loan.

The loan is to the tune of $4.8 million, better than Montreal’s $108 million, but still.

BIXI says that they don’t have the number of bikes on the road that they need to turn a profit. Not sure if that’s a dollars issue or a City Hall one,  but that still seems like something that could’ve been predicted. This ain’t BIXI’s first time at the dance, ya know.

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Of course, defending Ford in court against all comers is what Alan Lenczner does, so the fact that he’s still going to bat for Rob Ford and trying to prevent a re-opening of the successful appeal that got the mayor off of his conflict of interest charge shouldn’t come as a great surprise.

Lenczer’s ongoing defense of Ford is so expected that I wouldn’t even have mentioned it, except for the fact that the lawyer decided to put forth his reasoning for not holding public officials to account:

On the issue of national importance [required for the case to be heard by the Supreme Court], Lenczner said it was “incomprehensible” that Ford’s lawsuit be lumped in with cases like that of contractor “Monsieur Troittoir” in Montreal, or to members of the Senate in Canada.

“The allegations in Montreal are of conspiracy, bribery and corruption. The allegations against certain members of the Senate are of claiming reimbursement for improper expenses. In this case… (Justice Charles Hackland found) ‘there was absolutely no corruption or pecuniary gain on the respondent’s part.’”

So much so, in fact, that he’s going to make it an election issue — unions (that support a casino) are awesome!

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll no doubt notice the occasional lapse in posts.

While you could be forgiven for thinking that this is due to laziness or just plain old lack of motivation, I want to assure you that nothing could be farther from the truth.

Aside from blogging, living, my hobbies, the challenges of Sarah’s MS, and that thing called “earning a living”, I like to think I keep busier than most. Case in point:

This happy fellow is FloorPig, and he’s the star of a game by the same name. And you take him for a whirl on your Android phone here:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.olliebit.FloorPig

The game is a simple (at least initially), puzzle game. The point is simply to guide FloorPig from the green tile to the red tile while removing every tile in between. If you’re having trouble picturing that, I recommend you try the game. Did I mention it’s free?

And if you don’t have an Android phone, a desktop, web, iOS, and probably Blackberry version should be coming very shortly.

Sarah and I are now working on the next game (tentatively called “Radius”), and we’re also working on expanding FloorPig’s challenging but still somewhat limited nine levels.

It’d be wonderful if you could try our game and send us some feedback, even if it’s negative; I’ve done this for many years so I have a pretty thick skin by now.

So if Toronto City Life isn’t being updated as regularly as you’d like, please accept our apologies. Maybe playing a game or two while you wait would help to pass the time?

Despite the fact that camera-wielding media now have to stand against the walls of City Hall to make way for His Rotundness to get around, Rob Ford managed to smack himself in the face with a TV camera as he was leaving some meeting or other yesterday while staring intently at the ground.

Ford immediately went into finger-pointing mode, exclaiming:

Ah fuck man. Holy Christ! Holy. Guys have some respect, you just hit me in the face with a camera.

By this we can only extrapolate that “respect”, to Ford, would mean no media at any time. No surprise there. Except, of course, that little thing called reality would respectfully disagree with what actually happened:

Doug Ford says he regrets hiring Karen Stintz for the TTC chair role:

… the biggest mistake we ever did was put her in the TTC.

We? You mean the royal “we”, as in “we, the Most Gracious and Fecund Robert Bruce Ford, do thus proclaim!”? Maybe “we” as in Rob Ford ain’t runnin’ shit?

I don’t like the sound of either.

Option one, that’s just a living nightmare. Perish the thought.

Option two, that’s a hand up the ass, meaning there’s a not-so-secret shadow government trying to run things. The man with the brownest hand, at least to the public, is Rob’s own brother. Gross.

In case you didn’t believe that destroying Canada is run-of-the-mill for the Harper government…

… 33,000 companies and agencies who have applied to the federal temporary foreign worker program in Canada stretch to almost every corner of the economy, ranging from the biggest players in the finance and resource sectors to airlines, hotels, government agencies, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail.

The lengthy list of companies and groups, obtained through federal Access to Information laws, spans 475 pages and demonstrates how widely used the federal program has become since it was expanded in 2006 to help Canadian employers deal with shortages of specialized skills in Canada.

Yeah, sure, 1 out of 20 Canadians is out of work (if it’s measured the same way as it is in the US, that only means people actively seeking work and reporting to the government). Clearly we have no labour shortage. Clearly the Harper government continues to tell the truth about everything. Clearly nothing is wrong; now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

I’m not going to go back through the blog to re-hash some of Giorgio Mammoliti’s past, erm, weirdness, but maybe there was something buggy going on with his brain? It was revealed today that he had to have preventive brain surgery to “disconnect” a potentially clotting mesh of blood vessels in his head, so that could certainly be a possibility. Here’s hoping he recovers!

…sometimes someone hears you.

An Open Letter to Canadians

RBC has been in the news this week in a way no company ever wants to be.

The recent debate about an outsourcing arrangement for some technology services has raised important questions.

While we are compliant with the regulations, the debate has been about something else. The question for many people is not about doing only what the rules require – it’s about doing what employees, clients, shareholders and Canadians expect of RBC. And that’s something we take very much to heart.

Despite our best efforts, we don’t always meet everyone’s expectations, and when we get it wrong you are quick to tell us. You have my assurance that I’m listening and we are making the following commitments.

First, I want to apologize to the employees affected by this outsourcing arrangement as we should have been more sensitive and helpful to them. All will be offered comparable job opportunities within the bank.

Second, we are reviewing our supplier arrangements and policies with a continued focus on Canadian jobs and prosperity, balancing our desire to be both a successful business and a leading corporate citizen.

Third, our Canadian client call centres are located in Canada and support our domestic and our U.S. business, and they will remain in Canada.

Fourth, we are preparing a new initiative aimed at helping young people gain an important first work experience in our company, which we will announce in the weeks ahead.

RBC proudly employs over 57,000 people in Canada. Over the last four years, despite a challenging global economy, we added almost 3,000 full-time jobs in Canada. We also hire over 2,000 youth in Canada each year and we support thousands more jobs through the purchases we make from Canadian suppliers. As we continue to grow, so will the number of jobs for Canadians.

RBC opened for business in 1864 and we have worked hard since then to earn the confidence and support of the community. Today, we remain every bit as committed to earning the right to be our clients’ first choice, providing rewarding careers for our employees, delivering returns to shareholders who invest with us, and supporting the communities in which we are privileged to operate.

I’d like to close by thanking our employees, clients, shareholders and community partners for your input and continued support.

Sincerely,

Gord Nixon
President and Chief Executive Officer,
Royal Bank of Canada

http://www.rbc.com/newsroom/2013/0411-rbc-statement.html