“Nobody had ever heard of a learner pool before,” says Merylie Houston, the former chair of the local community council that built the community centre and pool 31 years ago. “A number of adult males were angry we didn’t build a proper pool so they could swim laps. We said, ‘We built this for the children.’ ”

Frankland pool, it turns out, was a pure community creation. The local school near Chester subway station was crumbling — it needed to be torn down. Some parents started talking: we need some community space, why not build a community centre at the same time? So they did — parents working with teachers, the school board, city councillors and the provincial government. Houston’s husband was on the design team. Her son’s entry for a community centre crest won the competition.”

You can read Catherine Porter’s full article in the Toronto Star here

If you live within councillor Paula Fletcher’s ward visit her website here

This is Frankland Community Centre here…which by the way is also connected to a TDSB school here

Sign the petition here

After all of that if you feel this Community Centre is worth saving you can email Rob Ford at mayor_ford@toronto.ca and Giorgio Mammoliti at councillor_mammoliti@toronto.ca

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That’s right Councillor Katie Mahoney,  let’s blame it all on Rick’s Rants!

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Read Megan O’Toole full article in the National Post

“Mississauga is grappling with a rise in graffiti on city property, and one councillor blames an unlikely culprit: CBC comedian Rick Mercer.

Councillor Katie Mahoney says Mr. Mercer’s famous rants along Toronto’s graffiti alley, an area specially designated for that use, has damaged the anti-graffiti cause.

“Rick Mercer needs to know that he’s not doing anybody any good with his rants down the graffiti-tagged alley,” Ms. Mahoney fumed during a city council meeting Wednesday, suggesting the Mercer rants may have unintentionally encouraged the spread of graffiti throughout Canada.”

Starting on Thursday and continuing until Sunday, the Roller Derby World Cup is being held at Downsview Park in Toronto.

The National Post was nice enough to provide a graphical break down of what this is all about.

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It’s just about sums up this wonky story. Thanks to Julius No, Ph.D. from the CBC comment page, “ This kind of Bold behaviour should not be in the Playbook! They should Torch these guy’s passports for this! @ those RIM guys, here’s a Pearl of wisdom: your company has hit a Curve in the road but when you’re in the sky you need to play it straight. Sorry, best I can come up without my first Java….”

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From the Canadian Press

Drunk RIM workers fined $70K for disrupting flight

“Two Ontario employees of Blackberry maker Research in Motion are facing a big fine after their drunken rowdiness forced an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Beijing to be diverted to Vancouver on Monday.

Forty-five-year-old George Campbell of Conestogo and 38-year-old Paul Alexander Wilson of Kitchener have been ordered to pay restitution of $71,757 after pleading guilty to mischief.

They were also given suspended sentences and probation for a year.”

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2011/12/01/toronto-flight-diverted-vancouver-rim.html?cmp=rss

The good people at Friends of Canadian Broadcasting have put out new ads to show a “worst-case scenario arising from the government’s hostile attitude toward the CBC.” Enjoy!

CBC’s The National Redone

CBC Radio Remix 666

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FRIENDS launch STOP THE CBC SMACKDOWN

Ottawa (29 November 2011) The Conservative Party is gaining the trust of voters when it comes to Canadian culture and the CBC, but that trust could quickly evaporate if forecast cuts to the national public broadcaster’s parliamentary allocation come to pass.

These findings emerge from a national opinion survey sponsored by the watchdog group Friends of Canadian Broadcasting.

If Stephen Harper’s criticism of Canadian culture during the 2008 election campaign that many observers believe cost the Conservative Party a majority government was the low point in the public’s estimation of Mr. Harper’s trustworthiness on cultural matters, this survey provides some good news for the Prime Minister.

The survey found that the Conservative Party leads the other two major parties as the most trusted to handle matters of national culture and identity (Conservative Party 27%; NDP 24%; and Liberal Party 14%). 

The Conservative Party is most trusted by 3 in 10 voters (29%) to protect the CBC, second behind the NDP, which enjoys the trust of almost half of voters (46%) and ahead of the Liberal Party (25%).

“The Conservatives promised time and again before and during the election campaign to maintain or increase CBC funding.[1] It would appear Canadians, who in overwhelming numbers support public broadcasting, are responding in a supportive way,” said Friends spokesperson Ian Morrison.

But, the survey also found that the government’s hostility toward the national public broadcaster and its cost-cutting agenda could put the Conservative Party off side with voters, a strong majority of whom want to see the CBC’s budget maintained or enhanced.

• When asked what advice they would give their MP on how to vote in the House of Commons concerning funding for CBC, 46% would counsel maintaining CBC funding at current levels, while another 23% would advise their MP to vote in favour of an increase. Only 17% favour decreasing CBC funding.

• 52% believe that Canada’s level of funding of its public broadcaster is insufficient to maintain a unique and vibrant Canadian identity and culture vs. 21% who disagree.

“A ten percent cut to the CBC’s budget, as the Conservatives are contemplating, would have devastating consequences that would be visible and of great concern to the vast majority of Canadians.  In addition, the steady attack on the CBC by various government MPs could change the direction of public support in on this issue,” Morrison said.

CBC budget cuts could undermine the Conservatives’ new-found trust on matters related to culture and put them at odds with a majority of their own base.  Among Conservative Party supporters:

• 57% would advise their MP to maintain or increase funding for the CBC.
• 63% think the CBC plays an important or very important role in protecting Canadian culture and identity.
• 64% give the CBC high marks for meeting its mandate to inform, enlighten and entertain
• 70% believe that the federal government should be somewhat or very responsible for ensuring that Canadian programming and content on television and radio is protected.

Voters who identify the Conservatives as their second choice also strongly support public broadcasting:

• 81% would tell their MP to maintain or increase funding for the CBC.
• 78% think the CBC plays an important or very important role in protecting Canadian culture and identity.
• 84% give CBC high marks for meeting its mandate to inform, enlighten and entertain
• 75% believe that the federal government should be somewhat or very responsible for ensuring that Canadian programming and content on television and radio is protected.

The survey found that Prime Minister Harper and his Conservative government carry a reputation for being hostile to Canadian culture and the CBC:

• Half (52%) of Canadians think Canada’s level of public broadcaster funding is insufficient to maintain a unique and vibrant Canadian identity and culture, and 55% think Canada’s level of public broadcaster funding is indicative of the federal government’s treatment of the cultural sector overall.
• Half (50%) think the Harper government is underfunding the CBC so that it can turn it into a private, commercial broadcaster. Only one in four agree that privatizing and commercializing the CBC is the right thing to do.

CBC remains extremely popular with Canadians, who by wide majorities give the CBC high marks for meeting its mandate to present programs that inform, enlighten and entertain (77%) as well as its mandate to serve the broadcasting needs of Canada’s regions (68%)

In defence of our national public broadcaster, Friends of Canadian Broadcasting is launching STOP THE CBC SMACKDOWN, a satirical online campaign calling on the Conservative government to keep its election promise to maintain or increase CBC funding.

“This effort dramatizes what is perhaps our greatest fear – one that grows with each passing day’s events on Parliament Hill – that the Conservative government secretly intends to privatize some or all of our national public broadcaster, selling it to the highest bidder.  Two SMACKDOWN videos portray this worst-case scenario arising from the government’s hostile attitude toward the CBC,” says Friends’ spokesperson Ian Morrison.

The videos feature messages from the new CBC’s new owner, Lance Fury.

A personal friend of the Prime Minister and a former professional wrestling promoter from the US, Lance has purchased the CBC for an undisclosed amount.  In his video messages, the new owner-operator of the former public broadcaster outlines a radical overhaul of CBC News and his plans to introduce commercial advertising to CBC Radio.

Fury says, “Canadians are gonna love this.  I mean, let’s be honest.  They’re very unique in that they’re just like Americans, except for the Quebeckians, who are more like the Puerto Ricans.  But now that I’m here, there will be something for everyone.  But don’t worry Canada, I won’t be touchin’ your wheat.”

“As the survey demonstrates, the CBC continues to enjoy high levels of public esteem.  The video campaign is about lifting those numbers off the page to demonstrate that without great care and support for our national public broadcaster, the new found gains in public trust the Conservatives have achieved could be short lived,” Morrison said.

The online survey of 2022 adult Canadians conducted from November 4 to 10 has a margin of error of +/- 2.18%, 19 times out of 20.  The survey was designed and administered by political scientists, Daniel Rubenson, Associate Professor at Ryerson University and Peter Loewen, Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto.  The survey was fielded by the national polling firm Angus Reid/Vision Critical.

It couldn’t have been easy for Chad and the boys.  Talk about a rough start.  The hard knocks band from Hanna, Alberta, released their third album Silver Side Up on Tuesday, September 11, 2001.  But since that day, Nickelback has raked up 32 Awards from Billboard Music, AMA’s, MuchMusic Video, The Grammy’s and The Juno’s.  They’ve sold more than 50 Million records.  So why so much hate for this truly Canadian band?  The answer may never fully be understood.

“There’s almost something fun about disliking Nickelback,” says Sam Sutherland with Toronto-based AUX TV, which created the Nickelblock plug-in for Firefox and Google Chrome. “I think it bonds people.”

It’s a meme, a sort of pop cultural flu, says Robert Belton, a professor in the faculty of creative and critical studies at the University of British Columbia. “Someone somewhere said, ‘Nickelback stinks,’ and it was funny, so everybody else piled on, whether they actually think that or not.”

Well, not everyone has been piling on – the Canadian Football League petition only had 52 signatures as of Wednesday.”

Well here’s hoping the City of Detroit made it through their Thanksgiving Day game shedding more tear for the Lion’s 27 – 15 loss to the Green Bay Packers than to Nickelback’s halftime performance.

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The letter reads as follows:

“This game is nationally televised, do we really want the rest of the US to associate Detroit with Nickelback? Detroit is home to so many great musicians and they chose Nickelback?!?!?! Does anyone even like Nickelback? Is this some sort of ploy to get people to leave their seats during halftime to spend money on alcoholic beverages and concessions? This is completely unfair to those of us who purchased tickets to the game. At least the people watching at home can mute their TVs. The Lions ought to think about their fans before choosing such an awful band to play at halftime.”

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Here’s Nickelback’s response on Funny or Die ~ http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/5166240802/nickelback-responds-to-NFL-petition

Well maybe not love but he’s got to be kicking a screaming at the fact our two  largest Asbestos mines (Jeffrey Mine in Asbestos, Que. and Lac d’amiante du Canada in Thetford Mines, Que.) have shut down.  Dang it!

“Canada’s once-mighty asbestos sector has ground to a halt for the first time in 130 years, as production of the controversial fibre has stalled in both of the country’s mines.

A shutdown this month marked a historic milestone for the Canadian asbestos industry, which at one time dominated world production and led to the construction of entire towns in Canada.

Proponents of the industry insist it’s way too early write the obituary on Canadian asbestos; they’re hoping to start digging again as soon as the spring.”  Read the full article here http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2011/11/24/asbestos-shutdown.html?cmp=rss

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I know this infographic was a while ago but its one of the many reasons why I love the CBC, CBC Radio and CBC Radio3 in general.  Oh and the LA Times like them too.

It’s a precursor to 2012.  Enjoy!

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Only William Shatner can keep you safe from TURKEY FIRE!  Thanks State Farm

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