The Lee's Palace Mural is Dead! Long Live the Lee's Palace Mural!
Peeve Patrol
Why You Should Never Take Kate Carraway to IKEA
Polling Booth: "Kick a Ginger" Controversy
Third Floor, First Rate
Metro grocery stores to charge for plastic bags (Toronto Star): "Another major grocery store chain will soon ask shoppers in Ontario and Quebec to spend a nickel for each throwaway plastic bag, a practice that environmentalists believe will soon become the norm at supermarkets nationwide." [Previous coverage on Torontoist: Picking Up After Yourself?]
In rare ruling, court agrees to hear Conrad Black's appeal (Globe and Mail): "In a ruling that surprised many legal observers, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review cases against Lord Black and two former colleagues who were accused of siphoning more than $6-million (U.S.) from his media conglomerate, Hollinger International Inc." [Previous coverage on Torontoist: Black Ice, The Most Wonderful Day of The Year.]
TDSB: Train plan off track (Toronto Sun): "Four Toronto public school board trustees are raising what they say are 'grave concerns' about the health of almost 30,000 students in the area around Metrolinx's proposed rail expansion that includes a link to Pearson airport." [Previous coverage on Torontoist: Bubbles to Clear the Air of Diesel Exhaust?]
Isotope shortage looms with Chalk River shutdown (CTV): "A shortage of diagnostic isotopes could occur as early as Saturday after yet another shutdown of the nuclear reactor at Chalk River, Ont."
Tamil protesters skeptical of rebel leader's demise (National Post): "'He wasn’t killed. Who’s telling you this, the Sri Lankan government, right? Have they showed you the body? Have they showed you anything yet? No they haven’t, right? So, why would you believe that?' said Gavin Anton, a student at Centennial College." [More from the Star. Previous coverage on Torontoist: Torontoist vs. Torontoist in… Tamil Protests and Tamil Tiger Trashers Take to the Skies.]
A Sikh's cost of fitting in: lopping off long hair (Toronto Star): "Like other new or second-generation immigrants, many Sikh youngsters are desperate to fit in with the school crowd, while others complain of racism because they wear the turban. [...] The end result? Many youngsters cut their hair, leading to family friction and, in some cases, lasting estrangement."
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I look forward to Metrolinx telling us how west Toronto schools should be run...
So it is your view that Metrolinx is uniquely qualified to speak to whether high frequency diesel train lines pollute their surrounding neighbourhoods?
James: meet downlingm and his friends tongue and cheek.
Charging 5c for plastic bags is still cheaper than me buying biodegradable dog poop bags (which are about 10c each). Works for me. Plus the grocery bags work well for organics recycling.
How about those diesel-spewing school buses that TSBD uses to transport students?
Wait... I thought the Tamil's here weren't supporting the Tigers (LTTE)? I thought they wanted peace? So NOW it comes out that he's their fearless leader? What a load of crap, trying to play people in this city like that, good thing the average Torontonian isn't that naive.
Bottom feeders, the lot of them.
I don't have a particular opinion on this whole Sri Lanka thing (aside from less killing = good) but I gotta ask, TorontoTheGreat, what exactly did you think all those Tamil Tiger flags were supposed to mean?
It's not about what they are supposed to mean, but rather what they "claimed" the (protests) to mean. Just read any of the posts by the supporters of these protests.
I guess you missed my sarcastic tone. You must fall in the: under 49%.
True, a lot of the protesters were Tiger supporters. But there were just as much (and if not more) who were simply protesting against the humanitarian situation there. A lot of these people started protesting because people were being killed not in the hundreds, but in the thousands.
On a note of sarcasm, I love how people fail to distinguish between Tamils who support the Tigers, and those who don't; those who attended the more out of control protests and those who didn't. It's what the Government has been trying to do for all these years: Label all Tamils as LTTE supporters, and thus terrorists, and making their killing right.
The instant you start labeling all Tamils as terrorists, you are doing what is essentially the same as labeling all Afgans as terrorists for the actions of the Taliban.
As for the Tamils starting the war, perhaps people should read into the history of the conflict before taking such a hard political stance. This conflict arose as a result of discrimination and reduction of rights for the Tamils. It began roughly in 1943. Tamils protested against these restrictions, they lobbied politicians, all things that normal people would do in a diplomatic society. However, the restrictions of rights continued.
Where a Sinhalese person could get into university with a lower mark, for the Tamil to get the position, they would have to score much higher. Slowly other rights were taken away including fishing and cultivating rights.
This lead to the formation of a few small armed movements aimed at taking a harder stance against the government to change its oppression. In 1983, fueled by the murder of three government soldiers, the Sinhalese went on a riot killing thousands of innocent Tamils, none of which were affiliated with the LTTE who had done the killings.
The Government took no action, and for a time even denied it ever happened. Now with a situation like this, who will the Tamils side with? The government who has allowed the killing of innocent people for the wrong doings of another group? Nope... they took the side of the group who had claimed to be the sole representatives of the Tamil people.
Both sides have their hands dirty in this conflict. The recent end to the "War" will now only lead to an increase in "Terror" unless the government makes action towards resolving the differences of the past, and allowing Tamils to have equal rights.
There is propaganda from both sides, and with the lack of free media in the region, unfortunately people are either heavily biased to one side or another; Including people who are just now learning about the situation.
Tamil people (the moderates at least) are asking the international community for the following:
* Free access to international media
* Free access to humanitarian organizations
* A UN investigation into human rights violations conducted during the war
Now please tell me those are things that Canada cannot ask. The US has asked for it. The EU has asked for it. Australia has asked for it.
Here is a quote from the Times Online:
"“The EU calls for the alleged violations of these laws to be investigated through an independent inquiry. Those accountable must be brought to justice.”
The UN says that 7,000 civilians were killed in the fighting between January and May 7. Health officials in the area said that more than a 1,000 others were killed since then."
Now the result of this call by the EU?
The victory also prompted angry demonstrations against Britain, which has voiced concern at the plight of civilians during the last stages of the war. More than a thousand Sri Lankans protested outside the British Embassy in Colombo, pelting it with rocks and eggs and burning an effigy of David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, and throwing it inside the compound.
S. S. Moulana, 40, an anti-British protestor, told The Times: “The UK has pretended to be our friend, but it helps the LTTE [the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] terrorists by asking for the UN to take action against Sri Lanka.
“We now know our real friends are Russia and China. And they are members of the Security Council so we don’t need the help of the West.”
Somewhat disturbing isn't it....
Again, both sides have their hands dirty in this conflict. It is time for the cooler moderate heads to prevail, and to save the innocent lives of (currently) the Tamils, and in the future (unless this conflict is resolved) all Sri Lankans.
For more information, and hopefully a more level headed (hopefully) view of the protests:
http://tamilprotests.ca
>you are doing what is essentially the same as labeling all Afgans as terrorists for the actions of the Taliban
What you are doing is throwing a red herring. No taliban flags were/are flown
>True, a lot of the protesters were Tiger supporters.
There that's better...
>I love how people fail to distinguish between Tamils who support the Tigers, and those who don't; those who attended the more out of control protests and those who didn't.
Psst... Those are the protests were talking about here, sweetie.
Well my apologies if I misunderstood your original post.
It's just this particular post seemed like you were generalizing ALL Tamil people:
"Wait... I thought the Tamil's here weren't supporting the Tigers (LTTE)? I thought they wanted peace? So NOW it comes out that he's their fearless leader? What a load of crap, trying to play people in this city like that, good thing the average Torontonian isn't that naive.
Bottom feeders, the lot of them."
But I guess reading with a different perspective it sounds different. I guess thats the problem with text... it can't really convey everything people mean fully without some misinterpretation.
That said, I guess the main issue right now is the propoganda from both sides. Here is a copy paste of what I posted on BlogTO:
"Unfortunately, many of the more moderate views are either shifted out or silenced by the more extreme views.
If any Tamil person says anything at all slightly anti-government, they are automatically pointed to as a terrorist by government supporters.
Similarly, any one who talks against the LTTE (including Tamils) is quickly pointed out to be a person who supports the government and is apparently "anti-Tamil".
Many fail to see that there is in fact a middle ground. This is the side that beleives that perhaps just maybe it is the time to put differences behind us and look towards the future, and making sure that things like this never happen again. This means finding the root causes of the conflict and doing things to resolve them. In this conflict, the root cause for the armed struggle was apparently the back and forth discrimination, and the lack of transparency. Why can't all sides have equal rights? Why can there not be more international media in the area to alleviate the propoganda coming from both sides?"
PS: Keven if you're reading this, you can complain that I'm copying and pasting and spreading "LTTE propaganda", but I really don't feel like typing all that again ;) That plus I still don't really see how the above statement is LTTE propaganda... but I guess we're all entitled to our opinions :)