Archive for News

Here’s the full public notice for the next public meeting the TTC is holding in regards to the planned Ashbridges Bay LRV storage and maintenance facility and the Leslie Street connecting track.

TTC Public Information Meeting on LRV Plans
Wednesday, 2010 July 28, 6:30 pm – 9 pm
Toronto EMS and Fire Academy, 895 Eastern Ave

From the notice: “The meeting will address impacts and mitigation measures for such issues as the removal of contaminated soil, noise and vibration levels and traffic associated with this project.”

An update on the new streetcar yard in the riding from Councillor Paula Fletcher:     Read more »

I was locked inside College Park for an hour this afternoon after rioters smashed the windows there.  There were about 200 frustrated and fearful people with me, including some cranky children and a tearful young teen who just wanted to get home.  What the perpetrators accomplished was to anger a lot of people and justify the massive police presence that until this point had just seemed like an embarrassing exaggeration.     Read more »

This evening I attended the launch of Canada’s climate calendar.  It’s an interactive tool you can see online which compares Canada’s per-capita emissions with those of other countries in the world.  It is horrifying.     Read more »

Last week, I attended a speech by former Governor General Ed Schreyer, who predicted that the moratorium on deep-sea drilling would be shortlived – embraced briefly while attention focused on the devastation of the gulf but enduring only to the time that fuel prices began increasing again.     Read more »

I have been watching in horror as events have been unfolding in Thailand.  The world should have insisted that the Thai government exercise restraint as tensions escalated over the weekend.  It is outrageous to respond to a largely peaceful protest by sending in the army to break it up.  Instead we stood by as dozens of civilians were gunned down.     Read more »

It has been many years since I’ve had a moment of true pride in my government but yesterday I had such a moment.     Read more »

Climate Progress reports on the recent paper “Sequestering carbon dioxide in a closed underground volume” in the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering.     Read more »

I’m being a sore loser today.  I helped Andrew James this morning at the Danforth clean-up event.  We didn’t win.     Read more »

A few days ago, I attended the meeting about the new streetcar yards at Leslie and Lakeshore and the route the new cars are expected to take.  As with most public consultations these days, the format was pre-determined to minimize disruption, opposition and effective input.  It’s a veneer of public accountability masking a process that’s alienating and distant.     Read more »

Thanks to the members of the Toronto-Danforth Federal Green Party for electing me to be the new CEO.     Read more »

On Thursday, March 11, WATERFRONToronto held an open house to discuss their proposed new soil recycling facility on the Portlands.  I’m cautiously supportive of this one, with some reservations.

The good news is that all the soil in question is already on the Portlands.  The other good news is that it’s being cleaned up from its current toxic state in order to enable more human uses of the Portlands area.  This includes making way for the Don Mouth revitalization project that’s really kind of inspired.     Read more »

Public Consultations into the New Streetcar Yards at Leslie/Lakeshore
Thursday, 2010 April 8, 6:30-9pm
Fire Academy, 895 Eastern Ave

On Tuesday, March 9, I was invited to help out and listen in to a meeting where Leslieville residents got together to begin forming an association.  The issue that galvanized the community into action was the proposed new streetcar yards at Leslie and Lakeshore on the Ashbridges Bay Treatment Plant site.  It was a packed hall and strong opinions were voiced from many angles.

The plan is to have almost 100 streetcars leave the new site every morning between 5 and 7 am and slowly spread throughout the city, way up to St. Clair, downtown to King Street, and all along Queen, College/Carlton/Gerrard, Dundas, Spadina and so on.  The Connaught and Roncesvalles yards will also be maintained, though the Connaught yards will have to be changed to accommodate the new design.  The streetcars will be four times the length of the current non-articulated models, or double the length of the articulated designs on the street today.     Read more »

Just got the news.  Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

For a tiny bit of exercise this morning, I chose to walk to Broadview Station instead of taking the streetcar.  I knew it wasn’t a good sign when I saw the bouquets taped to the pole outside the Pizza Pizza at Broadview and Danforth.  I’d like to bicycle, but I’m too much of a chicken.  This was a man on crutches, with a walk signal.

I’ve wanted to write for a while about Afghan prisoner issues, but for a while every day brought new revelations.  And now for days I’ve wanted to write about the prorogation of Parliament, but I’m honestly stumped about what to say.  And obviously I’m heartily ashamed of Canada’s performance at Copenhagen, which earned us the “Fossil of the Year”  award once again.

Maude Barlow ties all this together, and more, here.

Well I got a letter published in the National Post, and to my horror, in my haste I made a mistake.     Read more »

One thing is clear from the Canadians selected to inform our negotiating team in Copenhagen — environment minister Jim Prentice has no interest in science, nor the environment.     Read more »

Canada is poised to torpedo international climate negotiations now underway in Copenhagen.  Canadians concerned about a future for the next generations can have a dramatic impact by pressing their government today.     Read more »

Mike Schreiner, new Leader of the Green Party of Ontario, was interviewed by Steve Paikin on The Agenda.

(Original broadcast: Tuesday, 2009 December 8, 8 pm.)

Green Party of Canada leader Elizabeth May and deputy leader Jacques Rivard are joining hundreds of Canadians in Copenhagen to press for the international treaty most Canadians voted for and to oppose the dangerous proposals Canada’s official delegation brings to the table.

Over the next 10 days in Copenhagen, the successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol is to be negotiated.  This treaty will bind participating nations to emissions reductions, forest protection and economic and technology transfers over the next decade.  It has tremendous economic implications for the next few decades and overwhelming human rights implications for the next generations.     Read more »

Find out what gets Mugnatto-Hamu excited.

The Canadian Health Coalition is concerned about new threats to our universal public health care system.  They are concerned that the new head of the Canadian Medical Association, who owns private clinics himself, is promoting a mixed model of health care delivery.

I applaud the goals of the Canadian Health Coalition, which has just launched a website to address this new threat, and urge everyone to sign the pledge online, which I appear to have signed twice in my enthusiasm.     Read more »

Here’s today’s press release from the Green Party of Canada regarding the coup in Honduras:     Read more »