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Extra, Extra: Amir Johnson Says Goodbye, Pals For Hire, and Taxi Drivers are Frustrated
Every weekday’s end, we collect just about everything you ought to care about or ought not to miss.
Photo by Mark Runyon from the Torontoist Flickr Pool
- In perhaps the most bittersweet Canada Day to date, as Raptors favourite Amir Johnson took to social media Wednesday night to bid adieu to his Canuck fans after signing a two-year, $24 million deal with the Boston Celtics earlier in the day. He said in an Instagram post, “You guys are just as much a part of my life as I am yours. I love the city of Toronto and the fans immensely and I will never forget the times we had.” D’aww.
- Want to use the new HOV lanes but don’t have enough passengers? Feel weird about buying two blow-up dolls to take their place? Look no further. For only $55 per hour one way into Toronto, you can now hire Kris Chaput and Michael Burton, two childhood friends from Georgetown, to take up space in your car. However, if you are iffy about also providing snacks, sharing exactly 50 per cent of the music playlist, and discussing “capitalism and the fundamental problems of Big Data running rampant in the technological world we currently live in,” perhaps it is best to shell out a little extra for the potentially more pleasant albeit less talkative alternative.
- Members of the Toronto Taxi Alliance spoke today at City Hall in an emergency meeting asking city officials to put an end to Toronto’s Uber operations. According to a June 29 media release posted on the group’s website, President and CEO of Baird MacGregor Insurance Philomena Comerford, who also spoke at today’s meeting, is concerned that Ontario drivers are under the impression they are able to work for ride-sharing companies under only their own personal insurance. She stated, “To the insurer, it does not matter if the car was dispatched using an app or [telephone]. If you’re making money from it, you are carrying paying passengers,” adding that drivers need an OPCF 6A Endorsement as part of their auto insurance policy to carry paying passengers. Toronto Taxi Alliance member Sam Moini stated today, “We want UberX to follow the same rules we do,” and called the service a safety risk.