Morning Brew: January 4th, 2008

blogTO Morning Brew
Photo: "Reflections on Toronto" by blogTO Flickr pooler andyscamera.

Your morning news roundup AND POLL for Friday January 4th, 2008:

The Internet and the ubiquity of social networking sites are proving to be a test for traditional practices like gag orders issued by officials. Crime victims and suspects names sometimes become known to the public and reporters via Facebook these days.

A proposed joint committee of the AGCO and the city aims to crack down on the wild behaviour on the streets of the downtown club district. Abolishing bottle service and better controlling queues on the sidewalk are on their radar.

The highly controversial, new gas-fired power plant that Toronto apparently so desperately needs is slated to be operational by June. This shouldn't mean that we should stop worrying about conservation though.

Some city councillors want to put you and your cell phone camera to good use by following the lead of a successful London, UK citizen reporting project. You snap photos of neglected areas, things unsafe, and eyesores like dumping and graffiti, then upload them to a website where everyone can see them, and appropriate action can then be taken.

Watch that cash register, and look carefully at your purchase receipts - some retailers have not yet done as they should have on January 1st and reduced the GST by a point (whether on purpose or not).

February Family Day poll:
Some love the idea of the new holiday, while others are rather frustrated about it because they're either being forced to work, or use a floater day. Others aren't affected at all.

Reader Reviews and Comments

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re poll: I think Family Day is a no-brainer, slam dunk (etc). I think it is no coincidence that what I think of as the worst part of the year was the 3+ month stretch with no long weekend.

Posted by: Ben at January 4, 2008 10:24 AM

Hey Ben,

I also think it'll be a landslide in favour of the holiday.

The poll was actually inspired by a comment made by reader Chester Pape in yesterday's Brew:

"I'll bet if you canvas around you won't find that in fact "most Torontoians" are in fact welcoming family day."

http://blogto.com/city/2008/01/morning_brew_january_3rd_2008/

Posted by: Jerrold at January 4, 2008 10:29 AM

At a student at one of the few schools where Family Day follows immediately after but doesn't overlap reading week, I cast my vote for WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Not sure it'll be about playing Monopoly with my kids, though.

Posted by: Chris Orbz at January 4, 2008 1:25 PM

The cell phone thing reminds me (half-way) of Steve Mann and all his sousveillance stuff. Can I upload photos of the eyesore that is Yonge and Dundas, or do they only care about non-corporate vandalism?

Improper dumping seems like it might be the most useful thing to address with this, because I'm sure we've all encountered some horrible mess somewhere totally inappropriate and not known what to do about it.

I think I'd like to see a more accessible and effective general complaints process or set of processes. If I have some huge problem with junk or graffiti in some location I could probably figure out what to do about it via the phonebook, but what about things like ad campaigns that are widely regarded as distasteful, why aren't citizens given room to point that sort of thing out and have it be potentially addressed?

Posted by: Chris Orbz at January 4, 2008 1:36 PM

Actually, Chris, if you have a praise or complaint about advertising campaigns you can address them to Advertising Standards Canada. http://www.adstandards.com/en/

Posted by: Maria at January 4, 2008 2:13 PM

So, I just came back from the Varsity where I got movie tickets for tonight, and they have not made the GST reduction. When I asked about the reduction I was told to contact head office, I was talking to the manager and she couldn't do anything. Instead of showing a sign with the ticket price, admission charge, GST and total printed on it, why don't they just show one that says "the GST has gone down but you still pay the same price or something". I was not going to make a scene for 20 cents, but it's quite annoying.

Posted by: Maria at January 4, 2008 3:44 PM

my superviser told me if I do not work on 18 feb i do not get paid for that day .So this holiday not help me

Posted by: roger at February 12, 2008 7:43 PM

I was told today,15.02.08 to come to work on Monday 18.02.08 although we have hardly any work to do. I would like to know if this is a "Real Holliday" or can employers opt out of this. This appears to be like everything else Mr. McGuinty does.

Posted by: mike at February 15, 2008 6:44 PM

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