Megacity Election 2000 Election Day: November 13, 2000

More News Help Candidates Opposed to Mel's Garbage North Deal - Oct.14.2000
Councillor Kyle Rae has already put forward a motion for the December meeting of Council to re-open the debate.
The following campaigns need support to help ensure a victory:
Sandra Bussin - Beaches/East York - 686-2774
Adam Giambrone - Davenport - 538-4500
Anne Johnston - Eglinton/Lawrence - 410-1932
Joe Mihevc - St.Pauls - 651-9849
David Miller - Parkdale/High Park - 604-1060
Gail Nyberg - Broadview/Greenwood - 835-4245
Anthony Parruzza - York West - 398-9060
Michael Walker - St.Paul's - 482-9027
Tooker Gomberg - Mayor - 968-7626
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Tenants Gain Power in Election - Oct.13.2000
During the last Megacity Election, the provincially run voters' list was full of errors. In apartment buildings up to 50 percent of names were wrong. This the Ontario Property Assessment Corporation, staffed by Ontario Municipalities is running a better list. Phone them at 3381111
   They have registered 1.66 million voters. 200,000 new voters have been identified and they are mostly tenants so candidates might want to take tenants a bit more seriously this time.
   How about support for a Rent Freeze.
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Megacity Election - Some Close Races Where You Can Help - Oct.13.2000
   If you want to affect the outcome of the election to get in candidates that are more progressive try aiding in these three wards.
Beaches East York - Sandra Bussins needs help as outgoing right-winger Tom Jakobek is backing David Moll.
St Paul's - Joe Mihevc needs help against Rob Davis. The Harris machine is polling for Davis and predicting a win by him.
Eglinton Lawrence - Help Anne Johnston against Milton Berger.
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Rent Freeze Bill - from the NDP - Oct.13.2000
   Proposed legislation introduced today by MPP Rosario Marchese calls for an immediate two year rent freeze for 3.3 million tenants in Ontario.  The Greater Toronto Tenant Association and the Federation of Metro Tenants were on hand to support Marchese and Leader Howard Hampton at a media event to launch The Rent Freeze Act.  Tenants have been hit with huge rent increases in the three years since the Conservative government
killed the NDP's Rent Control Act.  In Toronto alone, in 1999, tenants paid $282 million more in additional rent into the pockets of big landlords, Hampton said.  The average rent in Toronto increased by $1,128 a year. "People will sleep easier knowing they have the protection of our two-year blanket rent freeze. A ban on rent increases will help seniors and students, low and moderate income families keep a roof over their heads," Hampton said.
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At Eye - Oct.2000
Weltschmerz Cartoon
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Adams Mine Vote - Toronto Council just Screwed our City
In the Megacity Election Vote against the candidates who supported this deal with a yes vote
- View the full list of Candidates and how they voted
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Mayor of the Flies - Oct.11.2000

   The megacity election was supposed to get underway in an official sense this Friday the 13th, but somehow the 13th and its bad luck came early on Wednesday. Mel Lastman has convinced council to send our trash up North. The figures I got from the press conflict. One report says the vote was 32-24 and the other says 33-23. Once I clear that up the names will be posted at http://megacityelection.com on the start page with a recommendation that citizens not vote to re-elect any councillor who supported the trash deal.

   Carol McBride, First Nations chief says Toronto has just declared war on northerners and last week David Suzuki said that city council members in support of this garbage deal are environmental terrorists. Jack Layton thinks we will be the most hated city in Canada, and perhaps he should have mentioned that we are also screwed.
   The garbage bomb has not hit the North yet. Mel has really bombed us in Toronto by signing us into a deal that will cost us a fortune when it can't be implemented. We can really only grind our teeth in quiet anger and get even at the polls, while up North they still have many options. They don't have to panic yet. They might get an injunction, there might be an environmental assessment and in general the political fires might get hot enough to scorch Rail Cycle North.

   Toronto the Good is now Toronto the Garbage and everything Mayor Lastman does rests under a cloud of suspicion and flies. Today we witnessed the final stage of an ugly deal as corporate interests controlled council to get the contract through. Every part of it was stinky, right from the beginning when Mike Harris let them change the rules so Adams Mine could pass a narrow scope environmental assessment. I suppose it will stink more as these consortium people fear a genuine environmental assessment. Teams of Rail Cycle North lobbyists and skunks will now head for the feds and Environment Minister David Anderson.

   In Mel's new democracy we get to see Ontario's former attorney general, Howard Hampton thrown out of City Hall by police officers. Other angry citizens get manhandled and tossed like they are sacks of the garbage council doesn't want. Somewhere in this confusion the tricks Mel has been using vanish and we see the truth. Mel has never been fighting Mike Harris. He's been in a boardroom with him and certain corporate and media interests all along. They want the Adams Mine and they probably want all sorts of similar secret-clause deals to go through - take waterfront redevelopment for example. The sort of democracy you saw today is what you are going to see over and over.

   The fix is in. The people are out. Give thanks to the Mayor of the Flies.
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Adams Mine Garbage Fight will Rage on Today at City Hall - Oct.11.2000
   Howard Hampton and the entire NDP Caucus were among Northerners, natives and Toronto residents who went to Toronto Council yesterday to oppose the proposed mine dump. Rightwing media outlet CFRB had a show going out in the square with a talk show hostess desperately trying to plug the deal while callers trashed it.
   Perhaps the key here is that Mel Lastman and friends want to portray this as a left against right battle when it isn't that. Throughout the entire Adams Mine debate, the Harris Conservatives have never been able to guarantee the project's safety from an environmental standpoint, so this is really a situation where the public is wiser than many on council, and sees disaster coming with the deal.
   A day earlier more than 500 people dumped garbage bags full of straw on the tracks of Ontario Northland Railway, and one caller to CFRB at City Hall noted that a rail engineer had pointed out the vulnerability of trains. Not long ago in Belleville some kids tossed a rod on the tracks and destroyed three cars in a nasty derailment.
   You really need full support in the deal and it isn't there. Jack Layton says that those who are supporting this outrageous idea owe it to the public to stand up and explain why they're doing it. But is explanation enough? I personally think that it is questionable as to whether such a foolish decision can be explained. There has to be something stinky behind this deal that we don't know about.
   Mel Lastman keeps saying he wants to get it over with. He wants it dealt with. But voting for it doesn't get it over with; it just prolongs the fight. And when the mine dump leaks a cleanup will be impossible and the trouble will never end.
    Angry people were being dragged out of council yesterday. The scene on TV looked quite shocking. Some of the councillors supporting the deal seemed to be acting like puppets under the control of someone else.
   Who is that someone? I think this is going to get uglier before it gets better.
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Advantages of Incumbents in Toronto's Election - Oct.11.2000
   At the debate in council this week over the Adams Mine councillors were agreeing that the new council would be formed of all incumbents that get re-elected. These people obviously see themselves as unbeatable and have little reason to listen to the public.
Here are some of the advantages of incumbents as listed in a Toronto paper yesterday.
-  larger new wards make it harder for grassroots candidates to challenge incumbents. The scale has become overwhelmingly stacked against challengers.
- In the first megacity election in 1997, only one non-councillor - Sandra Bussin (East Toronto) managed to be elected.
Perks available to incumbents are:
- a $59,000 office budget to communicate with constituents, which allows councillors to send newsletters to residents. Some councillors also sponsor community sports teams.
- a $237,000 annual budget to hire staff and they assist in the councillors' re-election effort.
- restrictions on the use of election signs until 25 days before voting day.
- the fact that important people know challengers will likely lose and won't endorse them or donate to them.
- a change in rules that allow councillors to send out single-issue notices to communities until Oct. 8, giving them a chance to put their names before voters at taxpayers' expense.
- and media coverage that reinforces name recognition.
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Toronto Election - Vote help
   You should get a vote-at card in the mail later this month that tells you where you can vote. If you don't get a card, call Toronto Vote 2000 at (416) 338-1111 for help having your name added to the list. The list is also available for viewing at city hall, any of the city's five civic centres, the North York Central Library, Toronto Reference Library and the Urban Affairs Library.
   Bring the card to the polling station, and at least one piece of personal identification. A hydro or water bill, proving residency, will do as well.
   The ballot will list the candidates with a broken arrow beside each name. Complete the arrows beside your choices.
Toronto Vote 2000's Web site -
http://www.city.toronto.on.ca/vote2000/
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Adams Mine Opposition Continues- info from the newsletter
   A large protest is planned - TORONTO CITY HALL, Tuesday October 10th, 9:30 AM. Toronto protesters will be joined by large delegation from Temiskaming including politicians from all levels of government.  The pressure and energy will be unprecendented!
One Thousand People Gather For Thanksgiving on Adams Mine Road
Kirkland Lake -- Just hours after police issued injunctions against a rail blockade at the Adams Mine rail crossing, residents from across Northeastern Ontario and Northwestern Quebec poured onto the site for a massive thanksgiving celebration.
    The size of the crowd and the amount of food brought in surprised the members of the rail site occupation.
    "We had hoped for 500 people," said Pierre Belanger, spokesman for the Against the Adams Mine Campaign, "But the turnout of people has been astounding."
    The celebratory nature of the event contrasted sharply with earlier in the day when a massive show of police shut the road to all incoming traffic. Ontario Provincial Police attempted to serve members of the base camp with injunctions and threatened them with mass arrests if  they refused to leave. Rail traffic had been held up along the Northeastern Ontario corridor since Monday.
    After a tense stand-off, police offered the concession of allowing the camp to pull back 50 feet from the rail line.
    When the road reopened, a flood of vehicles, carrying residents from as far away as Toronto and Thunder Bay, began moving down to the protest camp.
    Among those present for the celebration was Chief Carol McBride -- Grand Chief of the Algonquin Secretariat, Federal MP Benoit Serre, Temiskaming MPP David Ramsay, Timmins MPP Gilles Bisson, Bloc Quebecois MP Pierre Brien, Kirkland Lake Mayor Richard Denton and numerous other mayors and reeves from across the district.
For more information
Contact Charlie Angus (705) 679-5533
Against the Adams Mine Campaign
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Green Mayoral Candidate Drops Composter at Mel Lastman's Home
(Do the rich and powerful provide better for themselves?)
- Read the rull report from Doreen
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Just Updated - Oct.7 - PJ The Cat's - Weird Election News
PJ the Cat  speaks on Council Candidate Disero's plan for Marijuana Taverns
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Mel Passes the Mine Buck - Oct.6.2000
(Battle over garbage deal to continue)

   Mel Lastman passed the buck to the federal government today saying that the city will not go ahead with the controversial plan to ship garbage to the Adams Mine in Kirkland Lake if the feds call for an environmental assessment before Februrary 2001. In that case the city would then move forward with another plan to ship to a US landfill. David Anderson (Anderson.D@parl.gc.ca) is the federal environment minister.

   A clause on incineration will find its way to the trash bin and the Mayor also said that if section 10.6 called Unavoidable Costs is not struck out through agreement with Rail Cycle North, the contract will die and our garbage will go to the Republic landfill in Michigan.

   Lastman is still trying to get the contract through in an amended form and he has called another meeting of council for Tuesday. In spite of what other media says, Gordon McGuinty, spokesperson for the Rail Cycle North consortium, appears ready accept the amended contract. I was standing next to him as he did a media interview, and though he wasn't happy his tone of voice indicated that he finds the amended deal acceptable. The Star has Jack Layton talking about Rail Cycle North walking away from the deal, but that isn't going to happen. The push to get this thing through is still very much alive.

   By chance I ended up sitting near Gordon McGuinty in a restaurant after the council meeting. A female friend of mine (Doreen) went over and had McGuinty nodding in agreement as she explained that his grandchildren would also be harmed through the water contamination from the mine dump.

   The issue got discussed further on a streetcar party held by mayoral candidate Tooker Gomberg. The vintage car rolled about the city with singing, dancing and country musicians playing. Tooker took the time to thank people who showed to give Lastman and Council a hard time. He feels that we took back city hall today with a strong public presence that included clapping, booing and heckling. The general sense now is that the public has a hold on this thing and if we show at council and squeeze harder next week we can strangle it.

   During the council meeting I was one of the hecklers, shouting that the secret deal would leak and so would the mine. At that time I did not know that the deal had already been leaked to the Toronto Star.

   I did take some interesting notes on the meeting. Here is a capsule.

   It began with Councillor John Adams announcing that a security breach allowed public access to council e-mail. (Guess we now know how the Star got the details of the contract)

   When Pam McConnell asked Mel Lastman if he was aware of the criminal charges against Waste Management Inc., Lastman replied saying that he is not aware. He's only a little mayor in TO.

   On the clause in the contract on the building of an incinerator, Lastman said that the clause has no significance or meaning. It means absolutely nothing. Mel Lastman hates talk of incinerators and blames the media for making it an issue. Later during the meeting councillors went on so much about incineration that Lastman's obvious pain amused me.

   One of Mel's reasons for getting the contract through now is that he feels that after the election the people with the knowledge will be gone

   Michael Walker accused Lastman's staff of strong-arming members of council. Lastman replied saying that it is nothing that hasn't been happening over the last three years.

   Olivia Chow pointed out that 37 municipal councils don't want the mine deal and that polls and referenda in the North show 78 to 98 percent of the people against the deal. She asked if Lastman was worried about more municipal councils opposing the deal.

   "No," Lastman said.

   Councillor Cho wants to defer the deal because he feels pushing it through is depriving the city's lawyers of the chance to come up with something better. Cho says that this is the biggest municipal contract in Canadian history, so why rush it?

   Lastman said that Cho and others should listen to him and not the lawyers.

   Councillor Bosons said that there isn't a garbage crisis and that the city has lots of options. Her idea of democracy is taking the issue to the people and then deciding after the election.

   Councillor Fillion pointed out that most of the councillors who aren't running for re-election are in favour of the deal.

   Councillor Bussins was upset because the details of the contract seem to be changing on the fly.

   Michael Prue quoted Socrates telling Mel, "I would gladly be persuaded by you, but not against my better judgement."

   John Adams attacked Lastman, saying there are no recycling bins at Mel Lastman Square.

   Jack Layton attacked a secret clause as extra costs that will make the deal more expensive. The secret clause is part of the deal the public is not allowed to see. Layton says staff did not write the secret clause, Rail Cycle North wrote it. He calls the secret clause a cancer growing inside the agreement. Layton pointed out that if council signs onto the deal it will cost up to 200 million to get out of it.

   I was also shocked at the shameless way City Staff tried to push the deal while being questioned by councillors. City Staff looked more like Gordon McGuinty's staff. The agreement and the way all council accepts the idea of secret clauses and closed door meetings is a cancer growing inside City Democracy.
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Toronto Council continues to corrupt democracy in Secret Garbage Deal - Oct.5.2000
- read the report
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Megacity Democracy - How to Save the System   - Oct.4.2000
   Nearly all citizens feel that the Toronto Megacity is not a shining example of public participation.
- read a full report on how to fix the problem.
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Police Threaten Charges over Mayoral Candidate's Shirt - Oct.4.2000
   Mayoral candidate Enza "Supermodel" Anderson is the candidate in drag wearing blue mini-skirts, heels and vintage police shirts.
   The police shirts weren't a problem till last Wednesday when Enza was approached by a Toronto police officer that threatened to charge him with impersonating an officer. The officer decided Enza could go if he handed over the shirt. Enza was escorted to his apartment where he changed and gave the police officer the shirt.
   Enza said the shirt is his property and he paid for it.
   Staff-Sergeant Jim Muscat made this silly comment on the issue.  "If you wear a shirt and you're going around appearing to be a police  officer, technically it's possible you could be committing an offence."
   Since Enza has been in the media a lot impersonating an officer would not be possible. The dress is obviously a fashion statement.
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Toronto Mayoral Candidates Hit Compost Road - Oct.3.2000
   As the Toronto Garbage debate drags on and fires of citizen fury smolder in the North, Mayor Mel Lastman and his election opponent Tooker Gomberg are both journeying to Compost Plants.

Report on planned Gomberg trip from Gary Morton
   On Wednesday Oct.4th at 4.47 p.m. Tooker Gomberg and friends get on the Go Train to Newmarket. Join them at Union Station, Track 12. They'll be carrying clear garbage bags of food scraps from Kensington Market as they head for Canada Composting Inc's Newmarket facility.
   This facility in transforms "garbage" into methane gas, aka natural gas and is the largest digestion plant in Canada. Tooker Gomberg says that 'Instead of dumping our wasted resources into a hole and polluting the water, we should be transforming it into natural gas and using that gas for generating electricity, and heating and cooling buildings.' He feels it would be tragic if Mel Lastman and a majority of City Councillors chose the Adams Mine option. 'They could choose methane gas instead. The "garbage problem" then disappears.'

Report on the upcoming Lastman trip from PJ the Cat
   Mayor Mel Lastman will visit Edmonton next week to view revolutionary technology that turns garbage into valuable compost. It is not clear why Mel is making the trip when he is currently pushing council to finalize a deal with Rail Cycle North on Thursday that would see Toronto's trash shipped 600 kilometres north for disposal in a controversial water-filled mine site near Kirkland Lake.
    In search of further details I have jumped a fence and I am now listening at Lastman's window. So far I've heard him say, "If the Adams contract doesn't go through it will be criminal. I keep having nightmares about our parks being filled with stinky garbage. Sure I think we can learn a lot from Edmonton, but I want works commissioner Gutteridge out front of me at all times. I've heard terrible stories about people falling into vats in those composters. Case Ootes says he was there two years ago and when he looked into one of the tanks he saw a hand and a squeegee floating on the top."
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One Billion Dollars on the Table in Mayor Lastman's Secret Garbage Deal - Oct.2.2000
   Stacked hay bales and an effigy of Mayor Mel Lastman burned on the railroad tracks in the Timiskaming area today. Northern residents are now venting their fury and letting Toronto Council know that their plan to pollute the North with garbage will never succeed.
- read the full article on the Features Page

Related - From the NDP - QUOTE OF THE DAY  "When Ontario law stopped the Premier's high school chum, Gordon McGuinty, from getting rich by shipping Toronto's garbage to Kirkland Lake, what did you do? You scrapped the law. When the plan was obviously so bad it couldn't pass an environmental assessment, you brought in Mr. McGuinty's own lawyer, Robert Power, to rewrite the Environmental Assessment Act so that the deal would pass. After rigging the Environmental Assessment, you let Mr. Power tell the Environmental Assessment board how to approve the Adams mine under the very changes he promoted. He was so good at it that your Premier made him the chair of the Trillium Foundation.  Minister, to push the Adams mine you rigged the law and you ignored the most incredible conflict of interest at the Environmental Assessment hearing. When are you going to admit that something stinks here and it isn't just garbage?"  NDP Environment Critic Marilyn Churley quizzing Ontario's environment minister.
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Poll - Candidates Have to Deal with Numerous Issues in Megacity Election - Oct.2.2000
    A Canadian Voter Contact survey conducted for City Hall Group Inc. last week drew the following results.
11.2% say Crime is city's main problem
11 % say Homelessness is city's main problem
10% say Education is city's main problem
8% say Health Care is city's main problem
6%  say Traffic is city's main problem
5% say Taxes is city's main problem
5% say Garbage is city's main problem
55% of those surveyed said they felt they were getting good value for their tax dollar and are satisfied with city services
37% -- felt the value was poor.
52% feel the city is safer or else there has been no change.
   Crime is still undergoing a natural decline and is at its lowest level in decades in Toronto. In spite of that voters are still influenced by daily crime-beat reporting and politicians that exploit the crime issue to convince them that a war on crime is needed. With only eleven percent concerned about crime, Mel Lastman's war on crime campaign will fail to catch fire. Tthose opposing it can easily point out that new studies on Target Policing and Community Action policing show that they do not attack crime, but merely lead to discrimination against the poor, youth and visible minorities.
   Garbage has never been an issue before. It is now. And the smart candidate will run a campaign dealing with all of the issues, and thus gain votes.
   The best tactic is to address those dissatisfied with services and the other seven main issues. Candidates should also note that homelessness, education and heath care have nearly tied crime as the number one issue.
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Ontario/Toronto High School Students Protest - Oct.1.2000
Teachers, Harris/Ecker and School Boards Rocked by Student Protests
   High School students across Ontario have been walking out of school to protest education cuts, lack of sports and extracurricular activities. Some have seized playgrounds that are about to be demolished.
- read a detailed report on the Education page
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Just Updated - Sept.30 - PJ The Cat's - Weird Election News
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At Eye Magazine - Weltschmerz Cartoon _ Lastman as Superman
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Adams Mine - Anglican Priest to protest Toronto's decision to ship garbage to Adams Mine
   On Friday Sept. 29, The Reverend David W. Opheim will begin a 174-km walk to Toronto to protest city council's decision to ship its waste to the Adams Mine site. Departing from his home at Six Mile Lake, Mr. Opheim will arrive at Toronto City Hall, on Monday October 2nd by 10:00 am. He will deliver a small container of home produced compost to the mayor and council as a symbolic gesture designed to encourage a change in attitude about what we all do with waste.
   The protest walk is based on three fundamental considerations.
1) Toronto can creatively deal with its own waste within its own boundaries. This is an adult model of operation and a good example for Toronto's youth.
2) The plan for waste management at the Adams Mine site is myopic, dangerous and based on greed.
3) As an Anglican Priest Mr. Opheim thinks he has a responsibility to support the aboriginal people who oppose the plan; A small way to add voice to the work of reconciliation given the ongoing pain resulting from the abuse suffered by First Nations people in residential schools.
e-mail - david@artist.ca
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Toronto Mayoral Race a Gated Community - Sept.27.2000
   In the US presidential race Ralph Nader has been pushing social policies that are supported by a majority of Americans. Responding to questions on the media, as to why he can't get any coverage, Nader said, "You've got to love these people. They think the American electoral process is a gated community."
   Here in Toronto it is much the same. Today in the Toronto Sun Sue Ann Levy says Mel Lastman has been anointed mayor. Like the other reporters in the big dailies she refuses to acknowledge that 18 candidates are running for mayor.
   Mayoral candidate Tooker Gomberg has campaign volunteers in the hundreds. He has already staged events, printed and distributed about 60,000 flyers, put up a web site that got 50,000 hits last week and he is talking about spending 100 to 150 thousand dollars on his campaign.
   Apparently that is not enough to enter the gated community called the Toronto Media Mayoral race. If Mel Lastman is being anointed it is being done by the media and not the public.
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The Garbage That Won't Die - Dead Adams Mine Deal will Cost Toronto Hundreds of Millions - Sept.28.2000
- Read full articles on the opinion page
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Toronto Playground Seized - Sept.28.2000
   The Toronto School Board's merciless demolition of school playgrounds hit another snag yesterday. Downtown students have seized a playground that was marked for demolition at historic Inglenook School on Sackville St. The high school students say they are defending the playground for younger neighborhood children. They have plastered their school with banners and are asking motorists to honk in support.
   Liberal M.P.P. George Smitherman appealed for Queen's Park to intervene and save Toronto's few remaining allegedly unsafe school playgrounds but Education Minister Janet Ecker declined.
School Board Ignores Voice of Parents
   Yesterday trustees voted down a parent supported motion proposal that surplus money from any sale or rental of school property should be set aside to rebuild the playgrounds torn down by the school board.
   "They seem always to forget to consult parents," said Sheila Carey-Meighen of Ward 12's Parents Committee.
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Read the citizens information flyer opposing Police Helicopters
Flyer Election 2000 -  Stop the Police Helicopters. Before It's Too Late!
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Toronto Mayoral Vote an Exercise in Fake Democracy - Sept.26.2000
   When only one candidate has the financial resources, political machinery and support from the major media outlets needed to run for mayor, we are not living in a democracy. The vote itself has become an exercise in fakery. Democratic reform is needed.
- Read the full article on the mayoral page.
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Brief Report and photos - Car Free Day in Toronto - Sept.21.2000
   Mayoral candidate Tooker Gomberg makes some promises as the first Toronto Car Free Day is celebrated via a Party on College Street.
- Read the report and view photos.
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Rude Judge Judy Case Develops between Moscoe and Rizzo in Eglinton-Lawrence - Sept.2000
   A feud has developed between Tony Rizzo and Howard Moscoe, the two candidates leaning to the left in Eglinton-Lawrence Ward 25. Moscoe runs an election signs company and has hauled Rizzo into court over a petty sum. Moscoe lives high and rides around in limousines.
   "The guy's a deadbeat," says Moscoe. "He wants to manage the finances of the entire city of Toronto but he can't manage his personal finances"
   The candidate on the right (Jason Daniel Baker, non-NDP candidate) say he is appalled at Howard Moscoe's disrespectful treatment of Mr.Rizzo. Baker disagrees with many of Rizzo's political views.
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Corporate Ads to Replace Razed Toronto Playgrounds - Sept.22.2000
   They have millions and millions to build a new School Board HQ. They have no funds for running, swimming, music, art, adult education, etc. And they especially have no money to replace the 27.5 million dollars worth in school playgrounds they are tearing out.
   Why is the Toronto School Board doing this to us? Are school playgrounds unsafe as they say? Well now the answer appears to be no. Children's play is to be replaced with more profitable corporate advertising. Ads targeting schoolchildren are to be put into the empty playgrounds.
   The pilot project has been endorsed by the Toronto District School Board's Business Opportunities Office. Advertising will be pasted on the sides of new garbage bins OMG Media is currently installing. The school board refuses to reveal details of the deal and defends the program as an opportunity to clean up littered schoolyards and promote recycling.
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Toronto School Board to put Cuts through - Sept.21.20000
   The Board of Education will cancel all elementary swimming programs, and facilities such as Swansea Public will be drained.  Arts and computer programs are also on the cuts list and trustees will meet next week to finalize these and many other cuts.
   Though Toronto and Mike Harris are supposed to be pushing sports and the Olympics, the School Board has just cancelled the annual cross-country running championships at Ashbridge's Bay.
   At the same the Board is building a new headquarters, which will cost upward of $30-million.
   In the past Trustees promised that they would not spend a penny on administration.
   A decision by the Harris Government and trustees to destroy playgrounds across Toronto will cost us 27.5 million.
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Seniors' Report, Toronto - 19 Sept, 2000
   The report "A City for All Ages: Fact or Fiction? The Effects  of Government Policy Decisions on Toronto Seniors' Quality of  Life" is being released today in Toronto.  It will be available at http://www.utoronto.ca/seniors.
   All three levels of government are failing Toronto seniors in everything from basic health care to recreation programs.The report recommends re-establishing a national housing program and rent controls, ensuring adequate funding for health care, and appointing federal and provincial ministers who focus on seniors' issues. It also calls for eliminating seniors' annual fees for medication and user fees for recreation activities.
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Adams Mine a Tax Sinkhole - Sept.19.2000
   Torontonians will be hit with tax hikes or service cuts due to the cost of sending trash by rail north to Adams Mine. The plan for Toronto's trash promises to be both a tax disaster and an environmental disaster.
   On the tax issue, works committee chairman Bill Saundercook and Councillor Joan King have conceded that there are two options available once council begins searching for the $50 million a year it will cost to send trash to the open-pit mine: Property-tax increases or program reductions.
   Mayor Lastman supports the trash plan. Mayoral Candidate Tooker Gomberg is trying to kill the plan.
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School Issues - Megacity Election - Sept.19.2000
Poor Left Out in Council Plans to Replace Razed Playgrounds - Sept.20.2000
   A new plan by Toronto City Council to help parents, schools, and neighbourhoods replace torn-down playgrounds is unfair to children in less well-off neighbourhoods. Playground equipment in over 170 schools was torn out by the Board of Education because it was deemed to be unsafe.
   The city will match the funds that parent councils can raise. Parents in well-off neighbourhoods can raise more money than parents in poorer areas, so the new equipment they can afford will be superior.
   There is also more devastating news coming as the Board of Education meets today. Plans are to cut $15-million or so out of local schools by eliminating 800 lunch-room supervisors, psychologists, social workers, music teachers and others.
   $300-million annually is taken out of the Toronto system by Mike Harris. Inner-city funding has been reduced from $180-million annually to $49-million and 52.5 million more must be cut city-wide to satisfy Harris' funding formula. 30 more schools are to be closed, librarians wil be fired, swimming pools will be drained and special-education programs cut.
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   As part of his plan to destroy education in Toronto Mike Harris amalgamated the school boards into one huge board. In this scheme, the Tories now funnel billions of education dollars out of Toronto every year. The newly elected trustees make so little the job is hardly worth it. But a number of trustees were elected and they have made some big mistakes.
   At first they tried to fight the Harris cuts, then School Board head Gail Nyberg gave in and began to put them through. Acting like Harris, trustees began to ignore public input. 400 residents stormed the board trying to save adult education. And instead of listening to them, trustees went into a back room and voted away adult education programs, leaving the most vulnerable in society (those without a high school education) without hope.
   Currently we see Mayor Lastman along with Mike Harris and federal MPs across the water at the Olympics. While they boast of the great Olympic City Toronto will be, our high school sports teams are shutting down. The reason is user fees. For example - a team that paid $5,000 in user fees to use a gym regularly now finds those costs at about $55,000. They can't afford it, so there is no team. Incumbent trustees are doing little about this other than talking about arranging easier payment plans.
   If Mel Lastman and Mike Harris and the Prime Minister want to help sports in Toronto, why don't they cough up the cash so our kids can play? And why don't they eliminate the user fees for good?
   Recently Toronto's School Board decided to raze playgrounds across the city. To replace all of this equipment will cost us 27.5 million dollars. How did this happen? Well - it started when the province's Ministry of Community and Social Services under John Baird okayed new safety standards for equipment at day-care centres.  Day care is connected with schools and Baird didn't bother to oversee the matter. His failure set a deal in motion that everyone failed to stop.
   Experts and insurance people called for the razing of unsafe playgrounds, the school board went ahead without further study or consultation. Other experts involved in the standards only spoke out after the playgrounds were razed, saying it wasn't necessary. The provincial Ministry of Education didn't stop it and the Ministry of Community and Social Services didn't stop it. The School Board in its arrogance disallowed community hearings and consultations that would have brought the facts out.
   So here we have government by experts and bully politicians at its worst, and we now know how much it can cost when the community is not allowed to scrutinize the actions of government.
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Toronto's Olympic Dream Over- Sept.19.2000
   Don Wanagas, the City Hall columnist for the National Post makes it clear in his column in that paper today that Beijing will host the 2008 Olympics
   Sydney's mayor is the source and he has told Mel Lastman in a round about way to Stop Dreaming.
   Frank Sartor, a member of Sydney's Olympic organizing committee, said word coming out of the International Olympic Committee is that the Chinese capital's position as front-runner to host the 2008 Games is virtually unassailable. Samaranch wants it that way and that's the way it will be.
   The IOC's ruling on which city will get the 2008 Games will be announced in Moscow next July.
   And Toronto doesn't need them at all. This city has major problems that the mayor and council should be dealing with. It is time to end the Olympic fantasy once and for all.
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Mel not Invincible - Results of the last election show that Mel Lastman is not as invincible as people think. In '97 he won by 387,848 votes to Barbara Hall's 346,452. None of the other mayoral candidates ran real campaigns and thus never got out of the starting gate. If the downtown vote had not been screwed up totally by crowds, confusion, lack of ballots and errors, Lastman may have even lost.
Results also show Case Ootes, Bas Balkisoon, Peter LiPreti, Denzil Minnan-Wong, Sherene Shaw, Bill Saundercook and George Mammolitti as rightwingers who could be knocked off should a strong left or centre candidate run against them.
Bill Saundercook will be finished by David Miller. Case Ootes may be killed off by Gail Nyberg. Kim Scott has a chance of exterminating  Denzil Minnan-Wong. A strong candidate is needed in Ward 41 Scarborough to end the career of Bas Balkisoon. The same can be said of Ward 8 York West as Peter Li Preti is killable. In Ward 39 a strong candidate could bury Sherene Shaw.
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Environment Voters Planning to Target Ten Councillors - Sept.17.2000
    As it stands right now there is a good chance of getting 21 councilors that are liberal or moderate to left elected. There are a couple more tight races. In a 44-member council we need to do a bit better. To weaken MegaMel, Al Leach's Police State Services Board and Bromell, we need to out a few more right-wingers.
   Some good news has come in via a tip. Environment Voters are planning a campaign to knock off ten right wing councilors due to their support of Adams Mine. The Environment Voters worked in the provincial election and were instrumental in burying John Sewell. Working for George Smitherman the group tracked Sewell's support to Cabbagetown and the South. They then distributed 5,000 free videos in the target area.
   If the group gets involved and succeeds in knocking off some right-wingers, we may have Mel right where we want him. (Environment Voters, Tel: (519) 925-3440 Fax: (519) 925-2003 http://EnvironmentVoters.org)
   The other interesting story is the mayoral race. Now that John Nutziata is out, the only candidate running a real campaign against Mel is Tooker Gomberg, the Greenspiration candidate. He is building a coalition of grassroots groups that will bring up all of those issues that Mel does not want to discuss.
   If this is a green campaign, it is the mild mannered green worm keeper against Jolly Green Giant (Beast of the Adams Mine) Mel. And it will only be a campaign if Tooker manages to slay the first dragon, which is the Toronto Media. They may decide that the only story is the Coronation of the Great Olympic Mel, and cover only that.
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Low-income housing project to go ahead - Sept.2000 -  Swansea NIMBYS have failed to block a 42-unit apartment building for low-income tenants. City council's administration committee approved contributing $1.3 million in grants, loans and land to the project, to be developed by the Fred Victor Centre, a shelter for homeless women.
   The project goes to city council early next month for final approval.
   Councillor David Miller supported the project, and is at odds with Councillor Bill Saundercook, who is seeking to unseat him in the Nov. 13 municipal elections.  Councillor Chris Korwin-Kuczynski also sided with NIMBYS opposing the project.
   Almost no new affordable housing has been developed since 1995.
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Male Police Goons Raid Female Bath House - Sept.15.2000
   Officers from 52 Division Toronto showed Thursday night to harass several hundred women gathered at the Club Toronto baths for a ladies only event.
   Police say it was to search for any kind of liquor license violations, and they did not even bother to send in female officers.
   Event organizer Carlyle Jansen said, "We thought they would have had the courtesy to send female officers." The women at the event felt harassed."
   The women had a special occasion permit.
   When asked about sending male officers, Supt. Bill Blair stated, "We don't have the luxury of picking the gender of our officers to attend our calls."
   Police spent three hours touring the site and Councillor Kyle Rae says the police were mainly interested in seeing naked women. He is demanding severe discipline of the officers involved.
   Police harassment of gays, immigrants and the poor is a major issue in the election. Now they are harassing women.
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Nunziata Out of Race - unless he resigns as MP to run for mayor - Sept.15.2000
   Ontario's Court of Appeal has denied John Nunziata's bid to run for mayor while holding a seat in the House of Commons.
   The Independent MP for York South-Weston tried to register as a mayoral candidate for Toronto's Nov. 13 election, but city officials said provincial legislation required him to first resign his federal seat.
   Nunziata's tried to persuade a three-judge panel with the appellant court that the legislation is an infringement on his constitutional rights. All three judges ruled today that Nunziata must resign in order to join the megacity race.
   Nunziata has said that he won't run if forced to quit his federal seat.
   In part, Nunziata's case was irrational, with many people feeling he could not win. Judges would feel that his full services as MP must be given to his Riding, and that could not happen if he was running for mayor at the same time.
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Brief Report - Tooker Gomberg for Mayor of Toronto, Opening and Launch Party - Sept 14
   In spite of gloom and heavy rain supporters packed Tooker Gomberg's campaign headquarters on Gerrard Street. The mood at this launch party was quite lighthearted and upbeat.
- read the full report
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Norm Gardner Out of the Race - Sep.15.200
   Toronto Police Services Board chairman Norm Gardner has announced that he will not run for re-election to city council in November.
  Gardner was facing a tough race in WARD 23 - Willowdale against John Filion.
  Recent speculation in a Now Toronto story was to the effect that a secret meeting between Mel Lastman, Police Chief Julian Fantino and Police Union guy Craig Bromell may have been about Gardner.
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Toronto's Garbage Time Capsule - Sept.13.2000
- Jack Layton Alleges Council Skullduggery
   Citizens protesting Toronto's plan to send more than a million tons of garbage North to Adams Mine filled the OISE Auditorium tonight. At the rally Toronto Councillor Jack Layton alleged that a number of city councillors are happy with the Adams Mine garbage deal because some of the lobbyists and wealthy corporate types pushing and profiting from it are also working as fundraisers for them in the fall Megacity Election.
- read the full report
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Mayoral Candidate Tooker Gomberg's Web Site Launches Today (Sept.12) at
http://www.TookerForMayor.org
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Canadian Alliance Taking Over Toronto Politics
Lastman on the Extreme Right as Tom Long signs on - Sep.12.2000
   Canadian Alliance leadership Tom Long is now hard at work on the re-election campaign of Mayor Mel Lastman.
Square this with the fact that John Nunziata can't decide whether to run for mayor or for the Alliance federally.
   Long was the architect of Mike Harris' victory and he will bring Tories on board that will remake Toronto in Harris' image. With Lastman running on a police powers ticket, and reformatories on board, citizens should not only dread what may happen, they should take to the streets to stop it by getting someone else like Tooker Gomberg elected mayor.
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Phone Banks go up on Adams Mine Issue - Sept.11.2000 - Toronto Residents protesting against City Council's controversial decision to dump Toronto's garbage in the Adams Mine have obtained huge lists of target numbers and are targeting councillors. To aid the phone campaign call 483 6387.
   The last time citizens used a large phone campaign was during the Referenda on the Megacity and it was instrumental in the huge vote against a Megacity. Perhaps other groups like the Committee to Stop Target Policing should try to gain these lists.
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Mel's Flawed Law and Order Ticket - Sept.2000 - Mel Lastman says he is campaigning for re-election as Toronto Mayor based on a law and order ticket. Yet a new document on his past programs of Target Policing and CAP reveal his law and order agenda to be a failure, cruel to the poor and racial minorities, and fatally flawed in many other areas.
Read - Who's the Target?
(An Evaluation of Community Action Policing by the Committee to Stop Targeted Policing)
Posted at the bottom of our Target Policing Opposed page
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Toronto Tenants Campaigning for a Rent Freeze - new web page
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The Plan to Poison the North - Sept.7.2000
   Toronto mayoral candidate Tooker Gomberg, with NDP MPP Marilyn Churley and Shelley Petrie of the Toronto Environmental Alliance were feature speakers at a public meeting tonight in Toronto. The issue being a plan by Mayor Mel Lastman, City Council and the Harris Provincial Government to send Toronto's garbage by train to be buried in Adams Mine near Kirkland Lake. A plan that many think will lead to an environmental disaster in Ontario.
- read the full report and listing of upcoming events.
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Toronto's Rich Run with Mel
Elite Rule at Lastman Campaign Kickoff - Sept.8.2000
report from PJ the Cat at
   Mayor Mel Lastman kicked off his re-election campaign last night with a fundraising dinner that rivaled the elite parties of the Toronto Film Festival.
    1,600 people attended the posh dinner, which raised more than $500,000 for his campaign. Mel plans to spend about $1-million on his campaign for the Nov. 13 vote, and on top of that his campaign team plans to get millions more in free media coverage that opposing candidates will not receive.
   Toronto Runs With Mel is the new campaign slogan, but here at megacityelection.com we haven't heard of a single grass roots citizen being invited by Mel. And we weren't invited or informed of the event. Toronto's Rich Run with Mel would be a better slogan.
   According to reports from wealthier reporters who were invited, Mr. Lastman's brief speech was largely a string of self-congratulatory platitudes.
   Lastman has a campaign video, narrated by actor Al Waxman that features a long series of pictures of target police going about their work and of the police department's new helicopter. This indicating that Lastman is running on a police state ticket and wants to sweep the streets and fill the jails in anticipation of Toronto winning the Olympics in 20008
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When Disaster Strikes: Review of the first Megacity Election, 1997
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Activist Support Growing for Greenspiration Mayoral Candidate - Sep.2000 - People representing various citizens groups say they have already signed up to help Greenspiration mayoral candidate Tooker Gomberg. A large number of activists in various groups are talking about joining his campaign, meaning that if he gains all of this support he could end up in the election with a larger team of ground supporters than Mayor Mel.
   I have to wonder what the corporate media is going to say about that.
Contact tooker@web.ca phone 532-3939
- Read his flyer on this site for info on events and the campaign.
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Lastman Plugs Beggar Meters - Sept.7.2000
   Mel Lastman will consider installing beggar meters on street corners in a bid to stop aggressive panhandling. This is a coply of a US system where instead of giving change to panhandlers, people in some major U.S. cities contribute only to specially designated parking meters.
   The money will go to the homeless -- but with the city in charge of the purse strings. And where will the homeless be sent - up North perhaps, with a free ticket on Mel's garbage train.
   It is also questionable as to whether the city could divide any such money fairly.
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Election Candidate and Socialist Supporters Banned from Labour Day Parade - Sept.4.2000
   Ward 28 - Toronto Centre-Rosedale candidate for City Council, Wendy Forest says she was deeply hurt when the Executive Board of the Labour Council of Metro Toronto suddenly banned her and her socialist supporters from marching in the Labour Day parade. Speaking at the parade Wendy said she would be marching with the UAW due to the ban. She called it especially wounding because Carolyn Egan, Elizabeth Bryce and Linda Torney supported the ban. The reason given was that the Labour Council is endorsing Pam McConnell in Ward 28.
   Wendy's campaign literature was also prohibited. Here are some excerpts from her flyer.
KICK OUT CORPORATE POLITICIANS
----Pam McConnell is a right-wing downtown councillor who voted for cuts to the city workforce, cuts to social services and increased funding to the police. She is in favour of community action policing and increased funding to business improvement associations. She is financed by big corporations like Rogers Communications.
   Wendy Forest is a long time trade unionist…she will vote to replace repressive and racist legislation like Community Action Policing that targets Asian and African youth and the poor. Wendy has been arrested in the past while fighting for healthcare and decent housing for the poor. She will oppose Harris every step of the way and supports a one-day general strike against Provincial and Federal transfer cuts…call 323-0523
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Pro Tenant Candidate Runs in Ward 10 - York Centre - - Sept.4.2000 - Tenant activists from the Greater Toronto Tenants Association were present at today's Labour Day Parade. They say they have come up with a pro tenant candidate to oppose Mike Feldman in Ward 10. Daniel Radin is the man to vote for here. The GTTA has been organizing tenants across the city and Paul York says he will likely get another black eye from rival tenant organizations that think he is on their turf. On that score he says he doesn't care as these tenants aren't organized and somebody has to do the job.
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Reclaim Toronto's Name - Sept.1.2000
   The World Intellectual Property Organization recently ruled that the web name Barcelona.com belongs to that city and the commercial owner is not entitled to it.
   The same thing can be said about Toronto. The City of Toronto is entitled to the name Toronto.com and should take action to recover it or the revenues from it.
   Action should also be taken against Torontoelection.com. There isn't a City of Toronto page or any genuine election page at that site, meaning that during the election many people doing web searches will think that Toronto has failed to put up any election information. Or else they may think the info that does appear there is official city info when it isn't.
   I traced the purchaser of Torontoelection.com but could not get a reply from him as to what site, if any will appear on it. It seems to me that the city should take legal action to recover that commercial url for itself.
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Adams Mine dumpsite Leaky - Sept.1.2000
   Toronto plans to dump its garbage in a mine that leaks like a pail with holes in the bottom. This info is from Larry Jensen, a former Ontario government geologist who spent 30 years in the Kirkland Lake area. He says that contamination from the dump will flow through the underground rocks into Lake Temiskaming and even into the Ottawa River.
   He noted that water is flowing out of the former open-pit iron mine because it is only partly filled with water after 10 years of rain and snow, and water flowing in.
   Mr. Jensen says that before the final vote on the dump, he is willing to take city councillors up to the mine pit to explain on the site the dangers that the dump will pose to ground water in large parts of Ontario.
   "Voting for the development of a Toronto garbage-disposal site at the Adams Mine site, which has the high potential to pollute an area many times the size of Toronto, may be economically expedient but it is morally unconscionable," he said.
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Beaches Polluted in Sewer Summer - Sept.1.2000 - Toronto's 14 beaches have been closed 41% of the time this summer because of E. coli bacteria. Sir Casimir Gzowski Park Beach and Rouge Beach have been closed 93% of the season.
   Councillors like Brian Ashton and Ron Moeser want action and are calling for things like a coordinated effort between the city, Queen's Park and Ottawa.
   According to city staff rainfall has caused high bacteria levels. Yet the Toronto Environmental Alliance says blaming the rain for polluted beaches is like blaming the wind for smog.
   The city's sewer system is at fault and sewers are a responsibility of the Mayor and Council.
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Law Union says - Charge Police Chief and Police Union, and Investigate Mayor Lastman - Aug.31.2000
   The Law Union of Ontario says Police Chief Julian Fantino and Craig Bromell, head of the Toronto Police Association should be charged under the Police Services Act for their recent political activities. The lawyers' group also wants and Mayor Mel Lastman investigated in regards to a meeting he held with the police union and the police chief on the subject of the upcoming election. It is thought that Lastman asked the police to endorse his slate of candidates for council.
   Paul Copeland and Bob Kellermann told a City Hall press conference that both the Chief of the Toronto Police Service and Craig Bromell, president of the officers union, have contravened provincial law.
   The group will be raising its concerns today at a meeting of Toronto Police Services Board. At issue is the union's promise to endorse candidates favourable to police in the Nov. 13 civic election and a speech given by Chief Fantino to the Ontario Progressive Conservative's policy conference in Hamilton last February.
   "Unfortunately, Mr. Fantino has ambitions as a politician and he's mixing roles and he's playing the politician and he's appearing at the Tory conventions and so on at the same time as he's supposed to be a neutral enforcer of the law. That's dangerous," Mr. Kellermann said.
   The Law Union representatives are demanding that the Toronto Police Services Board instruct Police Chief Julian Fantino to kill police union plans to back select politicians in November's municipal election.
   "The (Police Services) Act is very clear: Police are not allowed to endorse candidates," said Law Union spokesman Paul Copeland, calling on Fantino to "do his job."
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City Pushing for Rent Freeze - Aug.30.2000
   City council's Tenant Defence Subcommittee wants all council to ask the provincial government for a rent freeze in Toronto until the Tenant Protection Act is amended or replaced.
   "This act has had two years to prove that it has been nothing but a scourge for affordable housing,'' said Councillor Michael Walker, chair of the subcommittee. "Seniors on fixed incomes, young people just starting out and people with low incomes just can't afford these unfair rent increases and evictions.''
   Since 1997, Toronto tenants on average pay $1,000 per year more on rent, Walker said. "The act is effectively eviction over time.'' He calls his motion a litmus test going into municipal elections, showing which councillors support our tenants.
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Tooker Gomberg for Mayor - 29 Aug 2000
   On Wednesday, August 30, 2000 at 12:30 p.m. Tooker Gomberg will officially join the race for Mayor of Toronto. Gomberg and supporters will kick off the campaign by gathering at Nathan Phillips Square, in front of City Hall, 100 Queen St. West. Gomberg will then file Nomination Papers at the Clerk's Office.
   Tooker's opening statement is that "Toronto is at a crossroads. I am committed to solving our garbage crisis and not off-loading it to northerners who should not have to deal with it."
   His campaign will also focus on dramatic and creative solutions to Toronto's smog crisis, as well as involving Torontonians in solving the homelessness emergency.
   "Through actions, and not just words, I intend to raise Toronto's profile as a leader in environmental and social responsibility. I will use more than Moose to put this city on the map."
   Gomberg served as Edmonton City Councillor from 1992 to 1995. For further information (egalement en francais): Tooker Gomberg (416) 834-2453 or tooker@web.ca
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Toronto Should be Honest on Helicopter Deal - Aug.29/2000
   Though the police and other helicopter boosters say these suckers are up there to fight crime, truth is they are part of the Olympic deal. Media reports today are to the effect that the Toronto Olympic Bid Committee is mentioning the helicopters as part of its lobby effort.
   Toronto already got into second place in the race to host the Olympics with a higher security rating, and it is thought that this higher rating is due to the fact that we will have helicopters.
   Today at the Waterfront, Police Chief Julian Fantino appeared as part of new team to boost the Olympics, and you can be sure Fantino wants the helicopters for the Olympics.
   Since the helicopters are now part of the Olympic bid, the public should be told the truth and the copters should be listed as Olympic expenses.
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Police Endorsement Declined - Aug.29.2000 - A reader of this site reports that Councilors Kyle Rae, Joe Pantalone and Michael Walker have refused to accept the police endorsement offered by Craig Bromell.
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Olympic BS hits the Fan - Aug.29.2000
   The media and politicians are screaming in delight as Toronto is now on the short list of cities bidding for the Olympics. This is not news but was expected. For those of us in the know, it will also not be news when Toronto fails to get the 2008 Olympics.
   Hiding behind Olympic boosterism, politicians like Mayor Mel Lastman are calling for us to go out in the streets and party for the Olympics. He doesn't mention that many of us don't really have to go out, because we are already out there and are jobless and homeless.
   Councilor Michael Walker comes across as a voice of common sense in saying, "A few business-people will make a killing from the Games and millions of ordinary people will pay for them."
   Meanwhile in Switzerland, protesters opposed to Toronto shipping its garbage to Northern Ontario staged a demonstration in front of the International Olympic Committee's headquarters. IOC President Juan Antonio Samaranch and Canadian IOC Vice-President Dick Pound met with the protesters and aboriginal leaders. Reports are that Samaranch was not impressed by the protesters. A former member of the Fascist Regime of Francisco Franco, one would expect that Samaranch would be more impressed by gassings or chain whippings.
   In spite of all the silly boosterism there is a bright side to the Olympics, and that is that Toronto won't be getting them, and lucky politicians will have numerous opponents that they can blame for the failure.
   Truth is that the Olympics are an elitist event, and not worth supporting or opposing. The very idea is obsolete. With genomics and drugs and god knows what else, there is no way to measure out a fair competition. The Olympics are destined to continue as an athletic freak show and then to die.
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City Censors Garbage Truck Mural - Aug.27.2000
   City councillors took offence to an environmental mural on a garbage truck and had it painted over. The controversial art referred to city's hated decision to send trash by train to Adams Mine in the North. Environmentalists say the mine dump will lead to water contamination.
   The mural showed train cars hauling trash, an unflattering rendering of two businessmen with money in their hands and a depiction of the city and a mound of garbage bags.
   Councillor Bill Saundercook said the mural sent a negative message about the city's decision to ship trash to the abandoned mine. Saundercook, chairman of the works committee, said the decision to paint over the mural was taken because the art differed from what had been approved.
   Artists say the city funded the mural then censored it when they didn't like the result.
   Sometimes the truth hurts enough that politicians censor it.
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Kiss of Police State Death - Aug.25.2000
Toronto Police union chief endorses 17 councillors
   Is it the kiss of police state death for council or for citizens of Toronto who want to live in a real democracy?
  Craig Bromell and his Boys in Black plan to endorse a slate of 17 candidates, and in this week's Now Toronto Magazine at least one candidate called a Bromell endorsement the kiss of death.
   Bromell has a team of American Republicans to mobilize volunteers and do advertising. A war chest of hundreds of thousands of dollars will be used to promote his chosen police state candidates.
   40 candidates have already been in the back rooms, begging Bromell for assistance in the coming campaign. The Mayor himself has had private talks with Bromell, and many of Bromell's choices are on the Lastman slate
    Police choices are (and check for bugs after any of them visit your home): Brian Ashton, Scarborough Bluffs; Milton Berger, North York Centre South; Rob Davis, York-Eglinton; Betty Disero, Davenport; Brad Duguid; Scarborough City Centre; Norm Gardner, North York City Centre councillor; Doug Holyday, Markland-Centennial; Chris Korwin-Kuczynski, High Park; George Mammoliti,North York Humber; Frances Nunziata, York-Humber councillor; Case Ootes, East York councillor; Joe Pantalone, Trinity-Niagara councillor; Kyle Rae, Downtown councillor; Bill Saundercook, Parkdale; Sherene Shaw, Scarborough Agincourt councillor; David Soknacki, Scarborough Highland Creek councillor; and Michael Walker, North Toronto councillor.
    Some of these choices are surprises, but the truth is that some Toronto councilors have been posing as progressives while at the same time being strong boosters of police state policies.
   Before you vote in this election, it would be best to ask for the candidates' position in regards to Community Action Policing or Target Policing and the Safe Streets Acts. If the councilor states support for these softly named police state policies, then vote for someone else. Don't forget that councillors who supported these draconian laws had no qualms about selling out the rights of the poorest members of our society.
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Turf Cat Trapping Councilor-  By PJ the Cat - August 24, 2000
   Councillor George Mammoliti has declared war on us cats, and in doing so he has proved that fringe lunatics sometimes do get elected to city hall.  Mammoliti boasts today that 239 of my unlucky friends have been captured and turned over to animal control since he started loaning traps to constituents.
   Mammoliti himself has probably trapped many of my friends as he claims that he hides in the bushes waiting to grab cats.
   People are baiting these traps and there is no guarantee that animals are being treated in a humane fashion. Facts are the citizens are not animal control officers and the practice of cat trapping should be outlawed by city council.
   Here at megacityelection.com, we are calling for voters in WARD 7 - York West to turf Mammoliti. And also to ask candidates in the election to support a ban on cat trapping and to oppose cat roaming bylaws.
See my site page at the pets link or
http://www.interlog.com/~cjazz/cat.htm
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Environmental Candidate for Mayor to Oppose Mel's Garbage Train - Aug.23.200
   Green inspiration guy Tooker Gomberg is planning to run for mayor with garbage as the top election issue.
   Despite public opposition, city council decided to send Toronto trash north to Adams Mine near Kirkland Lake. Environmentalists believe this will lead to ground water contamination and another Walkerton-style water crisis, when we really should be reducing the amount of city garbage through other well-known methods.
   According to news reports, Tooker Gomberg sees gridlock, transit, the growing gap between rich and poor, homelessness and smog as issues where Lastman has a poor  record.
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New site page: Target Policing Protests and the Beating Death of Otto Vass - Aug.2000
   Media reports today are to the effect that Mayor Lastman wants to bring in Target Policing all year round in Toronto and he will make it a key plank in his fall election campaign.
   The truth is that citizens are protesting against this form of discriminatory policing and even Chief Julian Fantino is said to oppose it. I have put up a web page and photos covering the recent protest on Target Policing and the beating death of Otto Vass to draw attention to this issue.
   Please read it at - http://www.interlog.com/~command/targetp.htm
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Mayor Mel's Garbage Train - Adams Mine may be another Walkerton - Aug.20.2000
   Mike Harris and Mel Lastman have both been big supporters of a plan to dump Toronto's garbage in an abandoned open-pit mine near Kirkland Lake. Mel even went so far as to bully the deal through city council.
   But this plan has a lot of leaks and holes in it. Leaks that could contaminate ground water and rivers, leading to another Walkerton-style poison water horror.
   Last Thursday hundreds of residents of Kirkland Lake turned out at a public meeting denouncing the deal which Toronto city council voted for this month. Many of them have place picket signs on their lawns and there are homemade billboards along the highway leading to Kirkland Lake.
   The Campaign Against the Adams Mine includes petition and letter-writing campaigns. Another public meeting is planned for Tuesday near the Adams Mine and 300 people attended two similar meetings last week in New Liskeard and Englehard.
   Waste Management Inc., a U.S.-based multinational with a long record of environmental damage and a history of paying fines for its waste-management practices will be running the garbage into Adams Mine.
   Environmentalists and the NDP Party have vowed to lie down on the tracks to block the Toronto Garbage Train. See - http://www.adamsmine.com or http://www.peanut-tree.com/scam/
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Mel Lastman, Police Union & our City Election- Aug.2000
   Rumour is that Craig Bromell and the Police Union's campaign strategy for the fall megacity election is being headed up by Marcel Wieder, a local political consultant, best known for 2 election campaigns. American Republicans are also being brought in by the police union and they will have a budget of close to a million dollars..
   Wieder worked for the police union during the 99 provincial election on a campaign to elect law-and-order candidates. The most visible ad was a controversial poster featuring a (US) photo of a Latino street gang, with the caption "There's only one thing these guys fear. Your vote." Many people objected to the poster as racist.
   In the Ward 13 campaign against David Miller, the union might to spend as much as 4 times the amount Miller is allowed to spend. Miller is not on the Lastman team, was very active against the hated police union True Blue campaign, and involved in the Jane Doe case. Which is why the police union wants to target him.
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Mayor, Police Chief and Police Union involved in Backroom Election Talks - Aug.2000
   Olivia Chow says that Mayor Lastman, Police Chief Fantino and police union president Craig Bromell should not have gone behind the back of the Toronto Police Services Board chairman to discuss policing issues.
   The rendezvous was convened at the Marriott Eaton Centre hotel and a major part of the discussions between the three men dealt with the union helping the Mayor's key council allies in the Nov. 13 election.
   The Police Services Act is very clear that the police should not be involved in politics. The union is known to have hired American Republicans and will use a large war chest to support favoured candidates in the megacity election.
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Statement from the June 13th Committee on Police Harassment and repression- Aug.2000
   Policing and brutality are certainly issues in the Toronto election, especially as this article is being posted just as a local man was brutally beaten to death by four policemen. The June 13 Committee has sent out a detailed post on policing issues - it covers harassment of gays, repression of political action groups, the Black community, Raves and it calls for mutual support and common action.
- read the report on the opinion page.
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Support Groups say increase city aid to the poor - Aug.2000 - The Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants, a coalition of 40 ethnic community groups is demanding that city council take action on the widening gap between Toronto's rich and poor. The coalition wants the city to adopt a short-term relief package providing supplementary benefits for welfare recipients, rent subsidies, neighbourhood-based support services and day-care programs. The money would come from the city's $26 million welfare surplus in 1999.
   Debbie Douglas of the coalition said that apartheid-like conditions call into question the right of full citizenship for the city's racialized majority. Her group plans to act during the upcoming election.
   The coalition is outraged because Mayor Mel Lastman and city councillors have failed to respond to a recent study that outlines huge inequalities in income, employment, education and rates of poverty among ethno-racial groups.
    A large part of the city's problems come from the hostile provincial government of Mike Harris. The Harris cuts in housing and social services are taking a huge toll and there is no sign of relief for debt-ridden Toronto.
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Police Union Bully brings in team of Americans – Aug.6.2000
(Police Union money and right-wing Americans are being used to destroy Megacity Democracy)
   The majority of Toronto’s 58-member city council signed a petition in February opposing the police association’s raising of money to fund political causes. But now some of them are seeking the support of police union bully Craig Bromell and his high-priced team of American Republicans.
   Mayor Lastman has met with Craig Bromell twice in the past month to discuss the fall vote, and it is known that the intimidating union will focus its attention on 12 races in the new 44 city wards. Bromell was instrumental in getting Lastman elected in 1997, and also in getting Mike Harris elected.
   Most insulting is the fact that a team of U.S. Republican political strategists has been hired to run the police association electoral machine. A war chest of several hundred thousand dollars will be provided so these Americans can do damage to City of Toronto Politics.
   1,000 police canvassers (called volunteers) will be dispatched to key wards and 300 of them will drive people to ballot boxes on Election Day.
   To date Bromell is endorsing or has gained control of Case Ootes, the Deputy Mayor, Bill Saundercook, Rob Davis and Milton Berger. Which means that Bromell and his Americans will be opposing Gail Nyberg, David Miller, Joe Mihevc and Anne Johnston.
   Ootes, Saundercook, Davis and Berger are part of Mel Lastman's slate of candidates.
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Activist Council the Issue
   Ward 28 candidate Wendy Forrest is working the make an activist council the issue in the upcoming election. During the last term most councilors bit their nails and did little as Mike Harris stomped on Toronto like a mean Godzilla.
   Wendy is promising to create a community action centre, oppose privatization, user fees and target policing. She wants the city to defy Harris' Safe Streets act, which has led to harassment of the poor and to mobilize to fight the province's cuts to city services.
   In her view an activist council would also fight for public housing, an end to homelessness and it would fight for decent working conditions and wages.
    Next Meeting - Wendy Forest Saturday August 12th, 3.30 pm at 240 Wellesley St. East, sub basement. Phone 836 5186
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The Stink Lingers from Toronto Garbage Plan– Aug.5.2000
(Citizens will block the trains)
   In spite of opposition from environmental groups and the Mayor of Kirkland Lake, Mayor Lastman managed to bully a majority of councilors into supporting a controversial mine dump.
   Now the stink will linger into the megacity election as New Democrat Member of Parliament Nelson Riis has called on the federal government to stop the plan to bury garbage in the Adams Mine near Kirkland Lake, Ontario. The plan could pollute the water supply of millions of people living in the area and along the Ottawa River.
   NDPers take the issue seriously an plan to lay on the tracks to block the garbage train.
   "The Ottawa River is pivotal to Canada's second and fourth biggest cities and runs through two provinces," Mr. Riis said. "Ontario's narrow environmental assessment is not good enough."
   He called on Environment Minister David Anderson to immediately order a federal environmental assessment.
   Reiterating NDP demands for a green infrastructure program to help cities reduce the amount of garbage they create, Mr. Riis said waste reduction is the best solution for Toronto's garbage problem.
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Ravers Protest for the Right to Dance - Aug.1.2000
   Thousands of youths carrying signs saying Stop Poverty not Raves and Dancing is not a Crime, gathered at City Hall today for a Ravers protest. Various speakers addressed the crowd. Some were from the Toronto Youth Cabinet, others from www.tribemagazine.com/.
   At issue is the City ban on Raves, which they hope will be lifted tomorrow at council. Dance safety committees feel that driving raves underground simply makes them unsafe.
   Earlier this year ravers found themselves next in line to squeegee kids, the poor and homeless, as the latest group to be demonized by an aging society that is obsessed with a new sort of moral majority confusion.
   It's not just the right to dance, the streets should be taken back from Mayor Mel, Premier Mike, their squads of target police and everyone else that wants to label and exclude certain groups from full participation in society.
   Like the poor, youth have been excluded from full economic participation and they are now being put off the streets. In this case moral society feels they should be locked indoors.
   Perhaps they need to break out and run out - into the streets.
      Wait too long and they'll all be dancing in those jails Mike Harris wants to build for people who try to dance around the police state rules.
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Toronto smog plan fails the test – Sat.29.July.20000 - This city barely merits a passing grade in terms of meeting its smog-reduction goals. Over all, the city rated only a C-minus on the annual evaluation of its smog plan, according to the Toronto Environmental Alliance.
   As many as 1,900 premature deaths will occur in Ontario this year as a result of air pollution. About 1,000 of the deaths will be in Toronto. Smog-related illness results in 5,500 emergency-room visits in the city each year, according to the Toronto Board of Health.
   Toronto spends half of what Vancouver and Ottawa spend and less than a fifth of what cities in California spend on smog reduction.
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Fringe Mayoral Candidates Join Protesters at Toronto Court House Rally - July.22.2000
   A crowd of protesters with signs and banners gathered at Old City Hall this morning for the bail hearing on arrested leaders of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.
   Sarah Vance denounced police tactics from the steps of Old City Hall and at one point lost her cool. She started swearing at Detective Steve Irwin over police tactics of arresting people at strange times and places long after the June 15th protest. John Clarke was arrested on the Bloor Viaduct - an intimidating place to make an arrest if ever there was one. Irwin was also looking the people over and at one point he was near me looking me up and down.
   One man was arrested outside (I forget his name, but he is the black fellow from the Street Guerilla group). He shouted a statement of strong support for OCAP from the steps, and as he walked away the police jumped him, rushed him into a cruiser and raced him away.
   The court was full and a crowd remained outside. I saw reporters present and heard two lawyers saying it would be a straightforward release. Meaning they should all be out today. Two fringe mayor candidates were present - Kevin Clarke, a very loud homeless candidate, shouted things against the arrests at the rally. Inside the courthouse John Steele, a mayoral candidate for the communist league, denouced the arrests.
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Cut the Police Budget to Fund Housing - July.2000 - Reader says plummeting Crime Rate justifies reallocation of funds
- on the letters page.
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The Province Toronto Committee has a news site up on Provincial Status for Toronto  - Click Here
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Humanize Toronto is running a slate of candidates. See their web site for details www.web.net/hto
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Who Needs Community Councils? (summer.2000)  Perhaps there is a better option.
- read it on the opinion page
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Toronto Squeegee Youth Program a Success - article on the opinion page
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Public Policing Nightmare as Red Necks take all  Police Services Board Spots - July.2000
- article on the opinion page
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Mayor Mel's Moral Majority -  Lastman and friends have created a new sort of Moral Majority that gets kind coverage from corporate media.
- Full article on the opinion page
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Democracy without Representation - July.2000 - In this megacity election we vote for 44 councilors instead of 57 as Ontario Premier Mike Harris has again restructured local government without consulting the people.
- full article on the opinion page.
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June.15th Poverty Protest Riot - Mayor and Council Duck the Issue
We need a Public Forum and not a Probe - July.2000
- read the article on the opinion page
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City Study - Rampant Racism and Cruel Poverty Built into the Social Structure - July.2000
Read it on the features page
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Mel's Toronto Charter a Non Starter - July.6.2000
   City Council has been nearly unanimous in its decision to seek a Toronto Charter. The Charter would give Toronto greater powers of self-government, and the ability to raise funds through means other than property tax. More funds are needed because the Megacity, unlike the old six cities, is heavily in debt.
   The Charter is really a non-starter. We need Mike Harris' approval to get it. Yet the reason we need more funding mechanisms is because Mike Harris robbed us in the amalgamation deal and will continue ripping us off in the future.
   Mel Lastman says he will fight Harris to get the Charter and it will be an election issue. But what will he say to Harris? Does he tell him that the province must save Toronto through the gift of a Charter? And that the bad guy crook Toronto is being saved from is also the province?
   If that is the case, then we don't need a Charter. We have to come out of the bushes and tell the public that Harris is ripping us off. Then we must go ahead with citywide actions to force the province to back down.
   So the truth is that the Charter is a way of ducking the fight with Mike Harris or of making it look more civil.
   The second error of the Charter is that it doesn't free the city from the dictatorial province. They can change their minds and screw Toronto whenever they want.
   A third error is the false idea that a Charter would improve city democracy. In reality it would just give more power to a handful of representatives that have too much power already. What Toronto really needs is something like a Citizens Assembly to give the public a real voice on issues.
   The Charter idea is not a solution, but people who can't grasp the facts will waste a lot of time on its dead-end street.
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Unfair Election Signs Rule in Megacity Election - July.1.2000
   When city council made up the new election rules they grandfather-claused them so current councilors can put up their election signs beforehand. Councilor Howard Moscoe even owns an election sign manufacturing company, which puts him in a perfect position to take advantage of the rule.
   Moscoe has signs up while opponents can't put theirs up or they'll be busted for breaking the law. Perhaps this should be an issue as much hay has been made in the press over the fact that John Nunziata could be gaining an advantage due to his position as an MP.
   Currently candidates like Moscoe have the advantage and are off and running while opponents can't even get started.
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PJ the Cat says Poop on Councilor George Mammoliti - Friday, May 26, 2000
   Felines and feline loving residents of Toronto, join me (PJ the Cat) in my campaign against Councilor George Mammoliti and his forces of anti animal cat trapping evil.
   Details - Councillor George Mammoliti plans to take us back to the dark ages by planting baited  traps in backyard gardens to capture helpless kitties. He then plans to turn us over to the city's animal services department to have us put down.
   If George is concerned about cat crap, then maybe it's time we crapped on him and city council, which is what they do to us most of the time. I will be gathering the names of all councilors supporting Mammoliti here at my web page at http://www.megacityelection.com and I will be bulk e-mailing all Toronto residents during the upcoming election, asking them to help me oust anti cat councilors.
   In the Toronto Sun Mammoliti says,"If I have to hide behind the gardens and tomatoes and meow to get them into the cages, I'll do it."
   Well he better hope it isn't me he finds behind there because I'll scratch his rotten eyes out - should he dare touch me.
   Councilor Mammoliti has failed to do a basic study on nuisance cat control and due to it he is way out of line. Traps are cruel and unnecessary. Fines, pound fees and anti-feline roaming laws are also not needed.
   Traps are baited and lure the animal onto the property and when you are snatching someone's family pet that is kidnapping.
   Unwanted cats can be easily repelled with simple substances. Ropel granules are time-released granules, which can be spread to repel cats. The smell of the granule is mild but irritating to cats. Defense Buds are small objects, which are hung on plants or shrubs to create an invisible fence that the cats do not like to cross. Defense buds are time released. Ropel Liquid will stop cats from scratching fences and so on. A special enzyme called Dawgon Odor Neutralizer removes the smell of dog or cat urine and feces.
   Tell Mammoliti he's a piece of poop.
    Contact him at City Hall,100 Queen St. West, Suite B27,Toronto, M5H 2N2,                                 Phone: (416) 395-6401, Fax: (416) 392-4120
councillor_mammoliti@city.toronto.on.ca
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 Mayor Moose's Moosebusters - May.24.2000 - Mayor Mel Lastman has announced the creation of a 24-hour hotline to stop what he says are irresponsible and stupid vandals who have been damaging moose sculptures installed as part of the city's Moose in the City event. Police and parks department officials will form an unofficial moose patrol, he said.
   Local companies and organizations have purchased hundreds of moose statues to help raise charity funds. Five of 27 installed were damaged over the long weekend. Three had antlers broken, one was spray-painted and another lost its beaver companion.
   When coming up with the moose program the city overlooked the silly factor. The damn things just look plain silly and they act as magnets for vandals. If Lastman and council want to raise money, why don't they have real people standing on those corners? Perhaps even some of those poor panhandlers and squeegee kids they want to ticket and jail.
   At present it looks the like the mooses will stay and the poor will be harassed by target police all summer. In Toronto silly sculptures count while real people are treated like trash.
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Are Parkdale Councilors Putting the Boots to Tenants?-  reprint from the Parkdale Tenant - May.2000
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City Evictions Soar - Tenants thrown on the street as a result of the Harris Tenant Protection Act  - May.16.2000
   Evictions have gone up 45% and more Torontonians are being evicted than ever before. Landlords filed 25,968 applications to terminate tenancy in 1999. That's up 45% from 1992, when just 17,914 applications were filed.
    Mike Harris has created a lot of misery and evictions are going to be an issue in the Megacity Election this year.
   Councilor Michael Walker calls the numbers unconscionable.
   There has also been an increase in the use of sheriffs to forcibly turf tenants onto the street. And this huge increase in evictions is directly due to the Harris Government's Tenant Protection Act
   Landlords can now use just about any excuse for an eviction. Tenants have seen rent increases as high as 200 percent. The huge increases create economic evictions.
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From Harrisville to Melville - May.13.2000 (A report on the Province of Toronto or City State idea)
- Read the full report
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The Breakfast Club that runs Toronto - April.23.2000 -
   Mayoral hopeful John Nunziata says Toronto is run by a club. He feels this city is not currently democratic.
   The club is in fact Mel Lastman's Breakfast Club. Every few weeks on a Monday, Mayor Mel Lastman and his fixers gather for a breakfast of bagels and muffins at John Tory's boardroom table at Rogers Cable Inc.
Here are the Breakfast Club Members.
-  Hershel Ezrin, 53: A Liberal who ran the federal unity office for prime minister Pierre Trudeau and worked as David Peterson's chief of staff. Ezrin now heads up Multinational Government Policy Consultants, a lobbying firm.
- John Tory, 46: Oncechief of staff for premier Bill Davis. A red Tory who has run innumerable election campaigns for Progressive Conservative politicians. He's chief executive officer of Rogers Cable Inc.
- Bob Richardson, 38: Senior vice-president of Angus Reid Group, a research and polling firm. He was chief of staff for Liberal MPP Lyn McLeod. He's the chief operating officer of Toronto's Olympic Bid Committee.
- Dale Lastman, 43: Lastman's oldest son. A corporate lawyer with the Bay St. firm Goodman Phillips and Vineberg.
- Mike Colle, 55: Liberal MPP who defends Toronto in the Legislature. He was a member of Metro council and is the municipal affairs critic for the Liberal party. He worked on Lastman's election campaign.
- Rod Phillips, 35: The mayor's chief of staff. A Tory who spent five years with consulting firm KPMG, was Elizabeth Witmer's executive assistant when she was labour minister, volunteered for Mike Harris on his 1995 campaign bus and co-chaired Jean Charest's federal Tory campaign.
- Paul Godfrey, 61: A newspaper publisher who works the back rooms and then makes the headlines support his chosen man. Godfrey, former chairman of Metro Toronto and current president of Sun Media, worked behind the scenes on Lastman's 1997 mayoral campaign.
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Tax Freeze is Freezing out the Public - Apr.13.00
   Waterfront Olympic Dreams and the Police State are growing like beanstalks in Toronto while needed spending for the public is getting frozen out in Mayor Mel Lastman's tax freeze.
   East York Councilor Michael Prue says we have become slaves to the zero tax increase.
   City services are being cut and spoiled with fees, yet the police budget has gone up for the past three years. The police overspent their budget by more than $9 million last year, and they're slated to get an additional $11 million this year, bumping their funding from $523 million to $534 million. What makes it worse is that millions are spent on target policing that local residents oppose as harassment of the poor and youth.
   Some councilors are holding out on approval of the budget. Councillors Sandra Bussin, Pam McConnell, Frances Nunziata and David Miller are withholding support for the budget unless there's a commitment to phase out user fees. Councillor Olivia Chow wants council to come through with the $7 million it promised for children.
 

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