July 31, 2007
Air Canada Praised, Babies Entertained, Students Disarmed
A survey by British research firm Skytrax has named Air Canada the best airline in North America. Travelers who have endured experienced the Air Canada business model of surly staff, vanishing meals, and rising fares will marvel at how low the bar for airline excellence on this continent has now been set.
BabyFirst TV is coming to Canada. The first television channel aimed at babies will soon be offered on cable and satellite systems to media-savvy tots across the country. The channel focuses on educational programming, but hopefully will expand its programming roster in the future to include more entertainment oriented shows like Law & Order: Pre-School Unit and So You Think You Can Walk?
An 88-year-old shooting range at University of Toronto's Hart House has been ordered closed by the university administration. A spokesperson acknowledged that there were no safety or legal concerns, but said that the 450-member House Rifle and Revolver Club was inconsistent with university values. University officials are now looking closely at other campus activities which could be imparting inappropriate values to students, such as philosophy classes and touch football games.
Two employees at Toronto nightclub Republik have been charged with cocaine trafficking after police searched the premises early Sunday morning. Just a reminder, kids—when you're out for a night on the town, make sure that alcohol is your drug of choice.
Photo by neuroticjose from the Torontoist Flickr pool.
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Wow - Air Canada, what?!
Now, whenever I want to fly anywhere I go to Buffalo, even if it means taking a Greyhound bus there and then a cab to the airport.
That is how expensive Air Canada has become.
In other news, alcohol, haha. Yeah right :P
I seem to be the only one I know that has never had any problem with Air Canada. It doesn't really compare with British Airways, Lufthansa, KLM and Cathay Pacific, but I've been on more than 200 flights and my Air Canada ones have always been really good. Now American Airlines, on the other hand...
Air Canada's moto: "We're not happy until you're not happy".
Pat, I was literally LOL on the baby bit. NICE!
Air Canada compares somewhat poorly against some other carriers on international routes. But seriously within North America they probably are the best of a bad bunch.
OH YES, even despite the 3 hour drive and border hassles, making the trek to upstate NY to fly Jet Blue is soooo much cheaper. And seat-back TV!
(An example: ONE way to NYC on AC= $280; ROUND trip on Jet Blue is $140.)
I also find their staff to be fabulous (moreso than AC) and when my luggage was lost in Rochester they had it couriered to my home in Toronto within 24 hours, no charge.
At least, though, Air Canada gives you vouchers when things like the the TV doesn't work. I got $200 for not being able to watch a movie I would have slept through anyways en route to Vegas.
I used to shoot competition rifle and I always found the Hart House range a little dark and dingy, but I'm still sad that it's being shuttered. Now there's only one non-police, non-military range left in the (pre-amalgamation) city of Toronto -- the CNRA range on the roof of Union Station.
The more I think about it, the more I believe that the U of T administration is being embarrassingly reactionary in shutting down the gun clubs. The onus should be on the admin to prove that there is any demonstrable link between the clubs and crime or violence; I'm not sure it's right to penalize people for the sake of making a symbolic gesture. And, as some of the club members have observed, a university should be a safe haven for unpopular opinions.
That said, I support a general, country-wide ban on private handgun ownership. But, presuming people aren't allowed to bring outside firearms to a club, I also support the practise of sport shooting in secure, controlled environments such as this one, at least until their safety records becomes less than spotless.
AAAAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH So You Think You Can Walk?
i'll never understand why everyone hates air canada. maybe i'm just not that picky... i've taken greyhound across the country in the middle of winter so flying on any airline seems like a luxury. i don't know what people expect out of air travel... i flew air canada to tokyo rercent and had no problems on a 12 hour flight. i got there and back on time, got a meal, saw a few movies... it was great.
The Air Canada comment was in part just smartass stuff - I've taken a couple of long haul flights this year and for the most part it was ok. However, the ticket agents and cabin crew were generally indifferent at best and actively hostile at worst.
It's all relative. AC suffers bigtime by comparison to Singapore Airlines or Cathay Pacific, but next to Delta or AA it's downright luxurious.
AC is horrible, but it's much superior when trying to travel to non-hub cities. Buffalo is great for cheap flights to Vegas, NYC, and Florida, but doesn't compare for any other destination.
The hub and spoke system makes traveling across the US exacerbating and is inherently fragile. Problems anywhere propagate everywhere, and having stormy Chicago being one of the major hubs makes a bad situation worse.
The only real way to fly is to use Netjets and fly out of Buttonville, using the Island for flights to the cottage.
"Flights to the cottage"?! I didn't know Conrad Black was a TOist reader!
Wow, sounds like someone has an axe to grind with Air Canada. I've only ever had fantastic experiences with them. If you want poor service, cancelled flights and "who could care less" attitude, try Easyjet. Oh My God.
Let me clear the air here:
At about 1:15 am on Sarturday the police executed a search warrant looking for an individual that they allege was selling drugs. They raided the club, about 100 of them. Many of them allegedly entered the VIP area with their guns drawn. ETF was there in helmets and full armour.
Apprently, apprently the guns were drawn and everyone was ordered to the ground. Allegedly, customers were tazered and beaten with the ends of rifle butts. Apparently, a lot of people ended up going to the hospital. It is alleged that police threw a couple of waitresses to the ground and held them by their throat with their boots. One waitress had multiple cuts to her legs. Security offered NO resistance and was allegedly injured by the police.
All this to allegedly find less than an ounce of drugs. Charges of that even have yet to be proven. And in my opinion, is just a scape goat for the real cause.
It is my opinion that the police acted completely irresponsibly and apparently injured a lot of patrons and employees to send a message to clubland that we are no longer welcome. Alot of people are still in shock and are absolutely disgusted.
Its interesting that none of this has appeared in the media. Only the charges.
I know Dan quite well and it would be very shocking to me if he were guilty of these charges. I don't believe them for a minute.
...and the real shocker, this operation cost YOU, the city taxpayer $TENS of thousands of dollars to execute
DONT BELIEVE THE HYPE IN THE MEDIA
DONT TRUST THE POLITICIANS
DONT TRUST THE POLICE
This is not the end
Guest #14: The TPS executed a warrant they had obtained after having the club under surveillance for some time, which happened based on information they had collected that drugs were being distributed by club employees.
On Sunday, they arrested the Rebublik's Corporate Manager, who was allegedly in possession of cocaine, and also charged him and another Republik employee with alleged trafficking.
None of us know the behind-the-scenes details of what was going on, but cocaine just doesn't appear on the scene without violence being involved at some point in that process, so perhaps the ETF was deemed necessary.
You may know the person in question, and he is obviously innocent until charges are proven, but the police don't usually arrest people (or taser bystanders) so carelessly for no particular reason. Mothers of convicted gunmen often think they're innocent as well.
You are alleging these accusations, but apparently weren't there either, though if anyone was present and has a first-hand account of the incident, let us know your side of the story. As for being a "scapegoat for the real cause," what's the real cause?