24 May 2017 @ 8:28 AM 

I am a TFC fan. I go to all the games. I cannot believe the collective response to this video. The media have all got in a huff, asserting that they have the right to have nice people saying nice things on camera, or else they will show what they didn’t like, and those people will get fired from their jobs.
I’ve attended sporting events in Toronto for 43 years. This has never happened. People need to get a grip. The media do not have an unquestioned right to have urban street scenes play out like a Disney parade. Yes, people say hurtful things, during, before and after Toronto sports games. That does not give media the right to stalk in with TV cameras, and then complain about what happens when you are in the middle of that unhappy bunch of people.
This was not covering a major earthquake, this was a journalist seeking reactions to a local sport team’s loss. If that reaction isn’t to your liking, don’t use it. No one shot at you, or took your equipment away, or took you hostage. That’s actually what happens when you are a journalist who is in danger. No one who pays to go to a TFC game owes the media anything. It will be a sad day for freedom of speech when the commercial power of the media suppresses that freedom.
Freedom of the press is closely tied to freedom of speech. Toronto media forget this at their peril. The Toronto media benefits massively from Toronto FC and this seems like an unnecessary cheap shot at a loyal and attractive fan base and demographic who provide lovely backdrops for your sports news segment advertisers. Who is going to talk to CP24 now? Why would anyone, given the potential consequences? Today it is vulgarity. Tomorrow, what can I not say? I get interviewed and anything I say can be held against me now? If I say “I think the team sucks” will I get banned by MLSE? If I say, “I don’t want to talk to you” will I get fired for not cooperating with the media? Sorry CP24, it’s “no comment” next time I think.

Posted By: caunter
Last Edit: 24 May 2017 @ 08:28 AM

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 24 May 2017 @ 8:25 AM 

If you look at any reasonably planned and executed metro system in any world city, the underground rail gets people around the downtown. There are subway stops everywhere, at the major intersections. Toronto is a lovely little city but only because you can walk most of it. Its leaders have failed its people for generations since the original subway and expressways went in. There should be lines under King, Queen, Dundas, College, Bathurst (going to the Island Airport), Spadina and Church. There should have been an extension to York, and to Pearson, years ago.
But there’s no local representation in Ontario. There are arbitrary boundaries built for convenience 20 years ago. This stuff will happen for as long as this is true. A specific area will pull ridiculous attention as a swing riding/ward and get all kinds of promises. That’s what happens. That’s why Lastman got his idiotic Sheppard line through his friend’s neighbourhoods. It’s why there is consensus funding for another colossal mistake of a subway to nowhere, right in the middle of a (largely sane) debate about what to do about transit.
Scarborough is 30 km away from downtown. It’s not the “city” in anyone’s mind except election boundary drawings. But it’s not this that makes you think. There are current subway projects, and none of them are downtown.
Apparently, one is mostly done to York University, although it’s years from opening. There is one going up to Vaughan I think. I don’t really know, as it’s about as relevant to me as one in Scarborough will be to anyone who ever visits Toronto.
Apart from the obvious places downtown that should have subway stops, a quick look at a map shows that Downsview Park makes more sense for a subway. Pearson Airport. Annette and the Junction, which is a terrible area in which to get around. The Beach Kingston road would be perfect for another horrible area for transit. Subway to the Islands (Berlin is doing this). Dufferin. Jane. Pape.
For the past 50 years, leaders that people elect have failed to do this. It’s the people’s fault for putting up with it. Those leaders were failures. David Crombie. John Sewell. David Miller. Bill Davis. David Peterson. Easier to get elected than to actually build something for the people.

Posted By: caunter
Last Edit: 24 May 2017 @ 08:27 AM

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 15 Dec 2014 @ 3:11 PM 

There is this industry, called “Climate Change”. It has commodified and quantified the infinite human capacity for worry. I am going to refer to this worry as “change”.
The change will happen regardless. The increased ability to measure and discuss change is itself irrelevant to the fact of the change.
Why does anyone think governments should do something about change? Government is for human systems. Roads. Borders. Laws. Taxes. Schools, in some cases. Governments are the last human organization I want looking at change. Change is inevitable and unstoppable. I don’t think anything is more guaranteed to happen than change, except the sale of worry over it.
This is the true story of what is happening. Yes, things are different. Yes, it can be measured better than ever. Yes it can be discussed more thoroughly than ever. It does not mean that it should be characterized in any way, for the benefit or to the detriment of anyone. And that is all that happens. The sale of worry.
Ignore the commodification of worry. There will never be a time when people do not think they have reached some limit. Never. It is a human trait to extrapolate, based on available technology. The fears and worries of this age will seem simple in 50 years, compared to what science will then be able to measure and discuss. Same as it has ever been.

Posted By: caunter
Last Edit: 15 Dec 2014 @ 03:11 PM

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 06 Jan 2012 @ 8:24 AM 

No comment on the death of Roderick Robbie, but I will once again take the opportunity to point out that the dome cost over 600 million dollars, all of it from canadian taxpayers. All of it.
It was sold to Rogers Corporation for 25 million. All of it. That’s about what they bring in daily from Canadian subscribers, or what they spend in a month on lawyers and media buys, to ensure they can keep their monopoly.
It is easily the most overbuilt structure imaginable. With the roof closed it will make a great bomb shelter, and it should be a part of emergency planning, but it’s comically terrible as a venue. Even the Seattle Kingdome (long since demolished) at least had volume from the crowd, and decent proximity to the field of play.
Skydome was nothing but a corporate tax write-off party until the Jays finished their run; the illusion that you are doing something right while you blow someone else’s money is easy to create when the stadium is full and the team is winning.
The reality was that once the cash ran out, the corps headed for the exits, and the actual building has about as much relevance to humans as a boulder does to an ant.

Posted By: caunter
Last Edit: 06 Jan 2012 @ 08:26 AM

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 23 Dec 2011 @ 5:36 PM 

No one in the Toronto media is going to point out that these Bills games are a complete dog of an event, because they are afraid Rogers will yank its ad spend. Fortunately, I don’t care about this :)
It’s just great that rogers has 78 million dollars to overpay on these turkeys. That is three times what they paid for the skydome. At least the Bills series wasn’t originally taxpayer funded construction.
So the story they planted in the media this week is that ticket prices are too high? Nice. Come on. You could not pay most people to go down to the dome to watch that league. It’s not a Toronto team, it’s got “Rogers” written all over it as a forced “event”, and the whole thing is as phony as the people in Rogers’ advertising. At least the cbc is running an AP wire story on this nonsense instead of regurgitating Rogers’ press releases. Listening to the Sportsnet590 announcers toss softballs at Joe Theisman on the subject would have been preferable; that was very bad radio.
If they want to throw 78M at Jays players, I might consider following that team again. They’ve lost me as long as they keep all the games on the pay sports channels. If they want to throw 78M at an American billionaire because they think they’ll recoup the money in advertising rights and gate revenue, well it’s our stupidity that keeps them rolling in the money.

Posted By: caunter
Last Edit: 23 Dec 2011 @ 05:36 PM

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