Councillor Norm Kelly waxed poetic over wading pools:

“Kelly: I think NPS should be the “people’s place” let the snootiness and hautiness of the other places be that. There’s no threat to the Heritage character of the Square if it’s for the people

I dont’ see why we can’t look for sponsors. that should be an option that staff look at. I wish the committee well. The Scarborough centre has had a wading pool since the 70s. It’s crowded all the time”

I wanted to be sure I remembered it right – so this morning on my way in to visit the Scarborough Community Council, I grabbed a snap of the “wading pool” at the Scarborough Civic Centre.

Since the budget cuts ousted teenage lifeguards, this wading pool is not a wading pool.

Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. How often does Councillor Kelly even come to visit? It’s been a while since the lifeguard was cut. Ummmm…so, yeah…the matter died at Council, but just in case anyone ever brings this up again.

This is not a wading pool. But I don’t know which one of us is being snooty or hauty.

*** Hat tip to @monoids for pointing out today’s Scarborough Community Council Agenda Item: http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2013.SC24.22

Hat tip to Matt Elliot for capturing this glorious hypocritical freakout courtesy of Mike Del Grande.

Del Grande: “Madam Chair, yesterday I went for a walk and I ran into Mrs. D. Her and her husband are empty nesters and she told me that three of her boys are coming back home, all three are coming back home to live with her. One of the boys, married, has a wife and three children. They’re coming to move with their supposedly empty nesters. So there’s nine people in this house. I bumped into, also, Mrs. P. Who also has three boys. Commonality, they went to college, they went to university and they’re unemployed. One of the boys was able to find a job, not in his particular field. The other two boys are struggling.

I say this because, we’ve had an economy since 2008, this is not a small blip, we’re in 2013 – the world economy is stagnant. You need to generate growth in order to get people working. You don’t want to be like a Spain where the unemployment is 28%, youth unemployment is very high. I’ve had councillors here send me resumes of people that have been in their office looking for a job.

So, when I look at this particular argument, I’ve listened very carefully when we talk about contracts – let’s talk about contracts here. We changed the contracts for TUGS that didn’t come to an end we extended that for 20 years. We looking at changing the contract with respect to High Park. Proposals that came here, that we agreed to change the contract. Have we forgotten very quickly?

We talk about private individuals. My god! We’ve got we’ve got more condos here that people have enriched themselves and gotten greater benefits through Section 37 where there’s hundreds of millions of dollars sitting in Section 37 where we’ve enriched people. But that doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter that we’ve had since 1933 an airport that’s been there that’s had a buffer. And the City has moved it’s development into that buffer. And now we complain about the buffer. You wanna talk about contracts? There was a contract not long ago that Bob Rae decided to change. He gave a 99 year extension to that contract. So I’m having difficulty understanding the logic to say that it applies here today but it doesn’t apply here tomorrow.

We have an obligation. No just to tax more and give away more. We have an obligation to increase the wealth in this City for all. That’s our obligation because at the end of the day, we are measured by what we do for our young people. And it’s a lousy job being done by all levels of government. Because we have a whole bunch of them that we told in our generation “Go to school and you’ll get a good job.” Well you go to school now and you don’t get a good job, you become a – you article for three months or six months you don’t get paid for it. It’s called internship. Then they rotate people.

That’s not what government should be doing. That’s not what government should be helping. I’m sure people in the audience know people that are out of work and we’re creating a have and have not. If you’re on the government payroll, you’re well looked-after between wages and benefits. You’re ok. If you’re not on the government payroll, you’re not ok. And we are creating two specific types of classes in this City, in this country. The have’s and the have-not’s.

And we get into this situation and you say to yourself, is that any different than someone buying a house by a school and saying, I don’t want to hear the recess bell any more because that interrupts my pleasure of enjoyment of my property. Well don’t buy a house by a school. Don’t do it! Don’t buy a house by an airport. You get those benefits…

[shouts from the crowd of “Shame!”]

Yeah, you can…you know, yeah. It’s ‘Shame’. It’s ‘Shame’!”

Nunziata: “Councillor Del Grande…”

Del Grande: “Because you want to bully people all the time. The bullies come in here into this chamber and they bully the councillors! Look at all the people on the other side. This is how it happens in Scarborough.”

Nunziata: “OK!”

Del Grande: “We’re all polite. But you people that don’t like it you come down here and you criticize and criticize and criticize. You’ve got grandchildren and you’ve got nieces and nephews as well too and you sit there smug because you’ve got it good and other people don’t have it good. I’m sorry…”

Nunziata: “Councillor Del…”

Del Grande: “I can’t live with that kind of attitude.”

Nunziata: “Councillor. Councillor Del Grande. Ok. Councillor…ok…”

Del Grande: “I can’t live with that. That’s wrong.”

Nunziata: “Councillor Del Grande, please.”

Del Grande: “That’s wrong.”

Nunziata: Councillor Del Grande, please.”

Doug Ford: “The workers right behind you, in the yellow there.”

Del Grande: [mic cut] as soon as somebody’s contrary to that view, you get….

Nunziata: “Councillor, please. Ok, Councillor Matlow.”

Josh Matlow: “Like I said about one individual I would go for every individual in this room and elsewhere in this City. Would you please ask every member not to impugn any one group, individual or community in our City. Make their arguments based on the merits of what they believe and then sit down.”

Nunziata: “I’d also like to ask the public that if I have disruptions like we had a couple of minutes ago, I’m going to have to ask security to…everybody to vacate the Council Chambers. Councillor Del Grande…just a sec…apologize for your comments.”

Del Grande: “Apologize for what?”

Nunziata: “The comments that you’ve made, specifically…”

Del Grande: “No. I’m not apologizing for anything. I’m stating the facts as been represented. I stand on principle on people here to say one thing one day and change their minds the next day and then pretend it doesn’t happen. No, Madam Chair. I’m going to speak for those people who can’t speak, for those people who don’t have jobs, for those people that we’re putting on welfare because we don’t do enough to help.”

Nunziata: “Ok.”

So, if you’re wondering why this seems like an odd rant from the man – here are some quotes of olden times from our former Budget Chief:

“I don’t support the way that’s funded because if we’re going to do breakfast in schools, to me personally, if you have children you’re responsible for children. The nation is not supposed to be in the bedrooms of the people. But then when you come out of the bedroom and you have children, why is it the state’s responsibility to look after your children? I didn’t tell you to wear a condom or not wear a condom or how many children, you made that decision.”

http://torontoist.com/2012/01/duly-quoted-mike-del-grande-4/

“We need firm discipline. I get a little concerned when we start making arguments about the widows and orphans. Negligibles add up. We cannot afford to do everything that everybody wants us to do.” He then repeated the phrase “widows and orphans,” several times for effect, and added, “the 2011 budget is cupcakes. We tend to spoil everybody. We need to learn to say ‘no.’”

http://news.nationalpost.com/2011/02/17/budget-chief-to-widows-and-orphans-get-lost/

“When you start bringing in widows and orphans, saying, ‘Give them more time because they’re special and stuff,’ well, as soon as I do that, I’ve got to do that with everybody.”

http://m.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/the-quandary-facing-rob-fords-budget-chief/article567146/?service=mobile

“Priorities of people are very different. I know a lady that’s on social assistance. She has three kids with two different fathers, getting social assistance . . . The two boys and her have cellphones.

“Now, $50, $50, $50 — that’s $150 a month for cellphones when you should be thinking, ‘Is this my priority? Maybe I need to feed my family or pay my rent instead of three cellphones for $150.’ You’ve made lifestyle choices. Why then do you ask me to subsidize you when you’re not prepared to make those choices?”

http://spon.ca/toronto-budget-mike-del-grande%E2%80%99s-candid-chat-about-social-programs/2012/01/13/

And finally…

“Yes, there are poor people in the world, okay, but poor people will be with us forever, like it’s been from the moment of time. I think sometimes you have to have tough love, not because you hate people but because they need the support. People should get lessons in budgeting, lessons in nutrition – that’s things to help you, lessons in parenting. Kids have children, okay, who don’t know how to parent. Those are the issues.”

http://www.thestar.com/opinion/columnists/2012/01/15/fiorito_mike_del_grande_dont_quote_me.html

Tomorrow’s TPSB meeting will have such delightful and fun items as:

Response by Police to People Experiencing Mental Health Issues. Will include things like MCITs and a little video of some of the training. yay.

Some stuff about the City of Toronto Operating Budget that approved the 2013 $1.019 billion gross TPS budget. That’s gross like gross vs net…not like ew, gross. Whatever. Looks like they’ll be touching on the Chief’s Internal Organizational Review and that is something interesting.

The Toronto Port Authority has been asking for armed special constables at Billy Bishop. Based on previous discussion about this – I’m thinkin the answer’s going to be a whole lotta NO, but who knows, Del Grande might be replaced by a spendthrift alien and this could take a weird turn.

I’m most interested to hear about the revised Search of Persons policy and the Street Check Sub-Comittee’s status report. Implementation of Form 306s, eh? To refresh your memory, in the autumn, the Chief put forward a proposed Form 306 that…well…it was problematic at best:

“Community Engagement” ummmm….this proposed form also doesn’t give any kind of indication as to what personal contact information was collected and will be stored in a police database. We’ll see if they’ve made some changes in the street check report…I hope so. Let’s all nevermind the fact that street checks outside of an investigation are a real grey area anyway. Yes, police officers are allowed to stop anyone at anytime but you’re also within your rights to refuse and walk away if you’re not being detained. The real problem is that people’s rights aren’t being respected by TPS…so you can make a bunch of forms to make it all look nicer on the surface. I guess. It doesn’t change the fact that people are often reporting being intimidated into giving information they didn’t need to.

And also, despite all the rumblings of Ford Nation and ousters and cleaning up gravy and change making and bla bla bla Dr. Alok Mukherjee will remain Board Chair for another 3 years. It was signed into being on April 10th…so, yeah. Congrats to him.

Anyhow, the meeting starts at 1:30 tomorrow, that’s Thursday April 25th in the 2nd floor auditorium of TPS headquarters at 40 College Street. If you want to come along – please do, I’m willing to provide OMGTHISBUILDINGISTERRIFYINGANDSHAPEDLIKEARATMAZEANDDIDIJUSTWALKPASTABLOODPRESSUREMACHINEAREYOUSUREWE’REGOINGINTHERIGHTDIRECTION assistance if that’s what’s keeping you from ever coming to one of these things. It’s okay to drink coffee in the room, no one says anything and that’s really nice. If you want to follow along on twitter – the hashtag is #TPSB, which is pretty simple.

If you want to watch along and tweet your own commentary – http://www.rogerstv.com/page.aspx?sid=3431&rid=16&lid=12 

I will also be attempting my first TPSB live blog over here at http://torontolo.gy/topic/making-sausages/tpsb/

The Police Services Board is a seven member civilian oversight body. The Board is able to hear general complaints about systemic issues to do with policing services. What does that mean?

They are unable to listen to complaints about individual officers, i.e. “Officer X called me a slur then assaulted me”. Individual officer complaints are outside of their jurisdiction. The OIPRD or Professional Standards (the internal investigation unit) handle those kind of complaints….sort of. At the Board meeting, if you mention a specific officer, they will cut off your mic and tell you you’re done.

You can, however, safely say “My experience was that an officer called me a slur and then assaulted me”. And then make a policy emphasis recommendation. Or tell them their policy sucks or that they’re not enforcing it well or that they have great intentions but it’s not translating to actions by officers in your neighbourhood or whatever it is you are worried about.

The Board can give orders to the Chief of Police but not individual members of the police service. The Board can shape policy that governs the environment in which policing functions occur but they are prevented from interfering in day-to-day police functioning. That is the sole domain of the Chief of Police. I know. It’s confusing. The Board can set policies and expectations for the Chief of Police to have the TPS meet.

The Police Services Act is a provincial piece of legislation which defines the role of the Board and determines how policing is run across the province & in municipalities. Changes to that are long overdue, (last update was in 90s), and it controls things like officers being suspended with pay unless they’re criminally convicted and other things that tend to tick us all off a whole bunch but no one ever seems to change because oh! provincial legislation, out of our hands! http://www.canlii.org/en/on/laws/stat/rso-1990-c-p15/latest/rso-1990-c-p15.html

These guys are really linear. It helps if you can structure your deputation kind of like:

1) This was my experience/are my thoughts/concerns

2) This is why this is a concern to me

3) This is what I would like to see you do differently.

Here are a few examples of deputations previously made to the TPSB by various community representatives:    http://torontolo.gy/topic/making-sausages/tpsb/

Practice reading out your deputation beforehand and time yourself! Give yourself a 30 second window for nerves because they WILL cut you off at 5 mins and that ten second warning seems to surprise a lot of deputants. Board members may ask questions of you after you are finished with your deputation, so don’t bolt for the door right away.

If I can be of any help to you with research and any policy familiarity I may have – PLEASE ask me! I will do everything in my power to try and help you be as effective as possible. I’ve had a few instances of “why don’t you do this?” “we do that” “srsly? why do you suck at it so hard?” over the past few years & knowing what they already do can help aim you closer to your target.

Anyhoo, good luck.

At its meeting held on March 27, 2013, the Board approved that, as part of the 2014-2016 Business Planning consultation process, it engage the public in discussions about a Toronto Police Service priority related to integrity, ethics, professional standards for its members and enhanced customer service to the public.

The Police Services Act requires the Board to develop a Business Plan once every three years in consultation with the community, and the priorities established in the Business Plan guide the police service in setting measurable goals and objectives.

As a result, the Board will hold a special public meeting to deal with this issue.

The meeting details are as follows:

Date: Monday April 29, 2013
Time: 4pm
Location: Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street West. Council Chambers.

This meeting will not hear or address any specific concerns about the conduct of individual police officers; there are provisions in the Police Services Act which set out the process for dealing with these matters.

Further details, including an agenda and instructions on how to register to make a deputation, will be posted on the Board’s website at www.tpsb.ca on April 18, 2013.

Reblogged from guerrilla mama medicine:

Too legit to quit, eh? The latest Panda update places a higher emphasis on social shares and follows rather than say, backlinks. So what are the lazy doing to keep up?

Fake accounts. They steal non-bot twitter users tweets and stagger post them to multiple accounts over many months.

The profiles and photos they use? Stolen. For example:

Look familiar? That would be my background, my old bio, my old avi, my header picture and OH! my name.

The account hasn’t tweeted yet and I’ve begun the complaint process to twitter, but I’m watching how this turns out with interest. In particular, who am “I” following? What things will “I” be saying in the future?

I am very curious to find out who is making a tidy little living off this unethical marketing cottage industry. How many people who follow me on twitter are part of this weird new generation of spambots? I’m currently giving cut eye to all the “SMM” experts I see of late with 100K+ followers with accounts that are relatively new or only have a couple hundred tweets that are all self-referential content about how you should hire them.

*cough* YOU’RE RUINING IT FOR EVERYONE *cough*

Anyway, you might want to do a search or two for your name and bio….see what comes up.

It all came unravelled one night. I went to a friend’s birthday party. The plan had been I would stay over at her place rather than take the long blue night ride home. I left Jack* (not his real name) behind in our living room listening to Black Grape full blast and playing along to the bass line. The party I went to was what parties were. Music, dancing, substances of all sorts. They had a pot of coffee for me. This was back in the days when smoking inside wasn’t a cardinal sin. I was happy. It was a frosty night.

As the guests paired up and filtered out, I had this inexplicable tension. My host turned down the spare bed for me but I couldn’t stop pacing or shake this feeling that something was wrong. I got in a cab and went home to Jack at 5:30 in the morning.

Our place had a long hallway with the light switch far from the door. I shut the door behind me in the pitch black and started walking. I was hit by this strange metallic and acidic smell. There was something slick on the floor. My boots were almost gliding as I slid and stumbled the 15 feet toward the light.

That smell. I’ll never forget that smell.

I hit the switch.

The floor of the hallway was covered with blood. Handprints were smeared along the baseboards, the kitchen floor was streaked with crimson, the bathroom too. I couldn’t find Jack. I called out his name and heard a small grunt. I ran to the living room to find him on the couch with a blood-soaked duvet wrapped around him, a mass of congealing blood on the floor.

“What happened?” I shouted as I ripped the blanket off him.

He mumbled something unintelligible. I only understood the word “fell”. I tore at him trying to find the source of his injury. His head was fine. Where was all this blood coming from? I searched until I found a half-inch long cut at the side of his knee cap that shed a few drops with every beat of his heart.

He must have been like that for nearly eight hours.

I couldn’t understand how this went on. It made sense he was completely incoherent from the blood loss but how did it get this bad? Why didn’t he realize he was bleeding to death?

I had the phone in my hand to dial 911 and Jack stood up, roared like a bear, hurling profanities and the phone across the room. He wouldn’t get in an ambulance if one came. He said terrible things to me, about me. I just didn’t understand.

Jack had lost his temper with me before. Shouting terrible things and slamming cupboard doors in the kitchen. He’d always been apologetic and sweet afterward. Those times had been relatively few and far. I told myself, they were just words. Awful words, but just words. I hadn’t made the connection to what those outbursts had in common. I didn’t know there was even something to be looking for. I rarely saw him take a drink.

I was scared. Jack was lurching and falling. He needed to be in an emergency room. I was terrified whoever answered a 911 call would hurt him to get him to a hospital. Jack was a big guy and the way he was shouting made him look scary. They wouldn’t have any way of knowing he wouldn’t hurt anyone.

One of the neighbours was a friend of Jack’s and had a car. I pounded on his door until he answered.

“I need you to drive Jack to the hospital. Right now. There’s blood everywhere. He needs a doctor.”

The neighbour had a horrified expression. I looked down for the first time and saw I was streaked with blood.

He went back inside to get dressed and get his car keys. I went back inside to grab garbage bags and towels to cover the inside of his car with. I was too embarrassed about the mess to let him in the apartment. I threw a coat on Jack and dragged him out of the building with the neighbour’s help. He was fading in and out of consciousness. He didn’t have the strength to fight going any more.

The neighbour drove him to the nearest hospital. I stayed behind to pack a bag and scrub myself, got in a cab and met them in the emergency room. A doctor quickly came and stitched Jack up. Five little stitches to repair a severed arteriole. He had a lot of questions. They needed to run a bunch of tests I didn’t understand. There were so many IVs.

The neighbour left. For ten hours it was just an unconscious Jack and me in that cubby in the emergency room. The doctors and nurses would come, change an IV, draw more blood, disappear. I left every so often to refill my coffee and freeze outside with a cigarette.

I washed the crusted blood off of Jack as he slept. The doctor came back and assured me Jack wasn’t going to die. Today. I’d come home in time. If he’d been like than an hour longer… The doctor said that the tests they ran showed Jack’s blood alcohol was, even after loosing all that blood, abnormally high. They ran some kind of test that showed them he had serious liver damage from prolonged alcohol consumption. They wanted to keep him there to detox but couldn’t do it unless he agreed to stay. It would take at least a week.

I was numb.

The doctor said it was urgent. Jack’s liver damage was so advanced that he needed to stop drinking immediately and never touch it again. He’d already come to the brink of bleeding to death that day. But they couldn’t make him stay. He had to agree to.

When Jack came to he wanted to go home. I begged, I pleaded. He wanted to go. He said he didn’t have a problem. The medical staff were wrong. He was fine. It was just a tiny cut. There was nothing wrong with him.

He lowered the rail of his hospital bed so he could get out of the gown, put on fresh clothes and go home.

All I could think was – he’s going to die. He’s going to kill himself and I can’t stop it.

He tried to stand and couldn’t. He put his hands out to grab my shoulders to steady himself and I took a step back.

I let him fall.

“If you’re determined to kill yourself, I won’t help you.”

A nurse came rushing over to lift him back into the bed. Jack was quiet and laid back down. The staff said they could keep him for a few more hours while they IVd him to replace the blood he’d lost. I called his parents to come from the nearby town they lived in. I didn’t explain everything. I just said he needed help and I couldn’t do it.

When they arrived, Jack was a little more coherent. The doctor explained again the severity of the situation. Jack kept saying, “but I feel fine”. His mother wept. He agreed to stay and do detox.

I think he was there for ten days. He couldn’t walk to the bathroom without help. They had to strap him down to the bed. He kept trying to leave. I didn’t visit him every day. He was vicious in the things he said. He was angry at me for putting him in that situation. I was ruining his life.

Cleaning the apartment was awful. His mother did so much. She went through all the corners I’d never ventured into. We found empty bottles behind the dresser, in suit jacket pockets, stuffed into briefcases, laid flat on the top of the cupboards where I couldn’t reach without a ladder. I found a stash of bottle delivery receipts that showed he was drinking the really big bottles and almost every day. This had been going on for years.

I couldn’t understand why I hadn’t noticed. He seemed….normal, or at least, not drunk. Not the drunk shift I’m used to seeing in people I know who are usually sober.

The nurses explained to me, that’s the nature of it. This isn’t drinking for a good time. This kind of drinking happens to fill a space. It’s to help someone find equilibrium. It’s insidious. Maybe it starts as a good time but for some people it becomes a missing piece of themselves. Over time, they can’t operate without it. Their lives are incomplete without it. Eventually, their bodies require it to keep functioning. Just quitting isn’t an option. Because it made Jack feel normal, he didn’t – couldn’t – see it as a problem. It helped him.

After detox, Jack went to a month-long rehab program in another city. I didn’t see him.

He came back and things were strange at first. I felt like there was this stranger I didn’t know in the house. I couldn’t sleep.

Jack didn’t want to go to AA because it was too religious. He didn’t believe in a higher power and didn’t want anything to do with people telling him he wouldn’t be okay without one. I tried to find programs that were not faith-based but there wasn’t much out there and Jack seemed resistant whenever I mentioned it. As far as I know, no one from the rehab centre followed up with him. I guess the assumption was that he would find access in downtown Toronto easily.

He made it ten days.

I don’t remember what triggered it but the familiar shouting and cupboard slamming started. He said horrific and cruel things.

This time, I knew what I was looking for. I knew where all the hiding places were. I found an empty mickey tucked behind his computer screen.

I didn’t say anything when he said he was going for a walk down to the beach.

I called his mother and told her he was drinking again. I packed my things. Called a friend who had a couch I could stay on for a few weeks until I found a place. I left.

I never spoke to Jack or saw him again.

I left him in the hands of his family who were now aware of the problem and hoped for the best.

I heard through an acquaintance he’s been doing okay for a few years now. He asks about me, I ask about him.

Sometimes I really miss Jack. I’m glad he made it. I hope he stays okay.

There are so many who don’t.