The Last Exile

Maybe its my inner cynic asserting herself but I suspect this German effort to reach out to Islamic extremists is doomed for failure…now maybe there would be a chance for a suicide bomber hotline in Iraq, Islamabad or even Kandahar but Germany? Jerusalem Post:

The German government set up a ’suicide bomber hotline’ Monday to aid Muslims who want to quit extremism. The service should not be confused with a standard ’suicide hotline,’ which provides help to individuals who are considering hurting themselves.

The hotline is called “HATIF,” which means “telephone” in Arabic. A statement from the German Federal Constitution Protection Office said “the primary goal of HATIF is to prevent violence in the name of Islam.”

A spokeswoman for the German domestic intelligence agency, who was talking on condition of anonymity in line with agency policy, declined to say how much money had been allocated or how many employees were working for the program. However, she said the agency would guarantee confidentiality to users, and also help with safety measures if people seeking to quit are threatened by radicals. “Our program is an offer for those who want to leave extremism behind,” she said. “Once we find out what their needs are, we will develop the program accordingly.”

One last thought – since there is no actual strategy or plan of action for callers; I kind of have to wonder if someone came up with a rather nifty idea to get the German government to finance research for their thesis topic.

I woke up this morning and it hit me – how really good it is to be me. There have been many birthdays in the last 48 years when I woke up thinking the exact opposite. In fact, I can easily recall mornings when my first impulse was to curse because I woke up and realized this thing called my life wasn’t a dream. This isn’t one of those days. Oddly enough, the older I have gotten, the less those kinds of days plague me even though life has gotten much more perilous in so many ways. It is good to grow old and only the lucky do.

I woke up being profoundly grateful for what I have rather than worrying about what will come or what I lack. It’s not that I lack for things to be fearful of. My most beloved daughter has a neurological disorder of some kind and all the obvious potential explanations of what it could be are gut wretchedly horrendous. Although, I get through each day by praying it all ends up being one of those mysterious medical one-offs that no one understands or even can begin to explain. After all, the human brain is still a deep uncharted country. She looks fine, she moves fine, she thinks fine, she sees fine; therefore, for this moment she is fine and that is as far as I need to know today. Tomorrow will look after itself.

Sure there was one moment in the last month when I gave into the dark tea time of my mind and let my fears overcome my heart. I started down the path asking why her? Why my daughter, my only daughter, a daughter who hasn’t yet had a chance to fall in love, marry, have a family or even a career . But it wouldn’t really matter if I had 100 daughters, as I would only have one Kiki Tzipporah, only one Amazon. My daughter, who has spent most the last 19 years of her life helping others get through theirs. And if not my daughter, whose daughter would I pick to change places with mine? This is not something I can wish on someone else’s child, so this is our lot, our portion, and whatever the outcome, she is alive and what she needs from me is to show her how to live with the time she has been graced with rather than to die a little every day. I can do this. I was made to do this. It’s a talent of mine and I do it well.

And the future, the future is unknown but I will all face it when it comes, until then, there is simply today and that is really all that is knowable or important. No matter the outcome, we live and we live in today. So I woke up and discovered the house cleaning faeries visited my home and left everything shiny and gleaming. The magical house cleaning faeries even programmed the coffee pot to automatically turn on so all I had to do was pour, sip and survey my kingdom… and count my blessing.

I could blog about Canadian politics or the meltdown of the Obama-nation to our south. It just that it all blows for me right now as each side polarizes into absurdity and I find it just engages me less and less. North American politics has become so sporty – like a football game where everyone chooses sides and roots for their home team regardless of any other consideration. Ideas, integrity and principles are thrown aside for the sake of pragmatism in the quest to score the winning goal. Perhaps, it has always been like this and I have been wearing my rose-coloured glasses far too long.

So instead I want to mark a personal milestone. I’m a reader, my daughter is a reader, and my oldest son is a reader. We might even be called a family of readers except my youngest son rarely reads. It’s not that he can’t read, he just finds it boring beyond belief which quite frankly an attitude that completely baffles me is. I’ve tried just about every kind of book to engage him with to no avail…until two days ago when

I caught him reading for pleasure. And it was all purely by accident. I bought an English translation of a book by Israeli writer Etgar Keret called, ‘The Bus Driver who thought he was God & Other stories’. I am not a fan of short stories and avoid them much like one does to avoid swine flu. An acquaintance begged me to give him a chance and suggested I needed to read him to get a better grasp on Israeli pop culture.

I finally found one of his books at a used bookstore I regularly patronize. Let me say this, it wasn’t cheap even for a ‘used’ book. I bought it, brought it home, and read it in one sitting while I laughed and alternately squirmed under Keret’s prose. I knew my older son would appreciate how far Keret is willing to go to expose the thoughts of ordinary people doing often bizarre or irrations things for the most absurd reasons. Actually, reading Keret is kind of like sitting in G-d’s confessional booth. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to discover Keret has already written a story about G-d’s confessional booth.

Montana liked it and left it lying around the bathroom which is where Isaiah Sender found it. It was Isaiah Sender’s turn to clean the bathroom and he only gave it a quick read because he mistakenly thought it was a Captain Underpants novella he missed reading as child owing to the graphics on the cover. Or at least that’s his excuse when I found him reading it instead of cleaning. Apparently, the first story sucked him in and he’s stayed with it until it’s done. Now he wants more. Baruch HaShem, but did he have to pick an author whose books seem only to be published here at upscale prices? Anyhow, between Keret’s stories I thought I might try sneaking in a little Vonnegut.

The Toronto Star has a pointless little bit of nothing on ‘pick-up’ lines. I know something about pick-up lines having experienced them in the field as both a giver and a receiver. Yes, women do use pick-up lines – well, at the least all the women do who actually want to meet any given man who catches their eye. The women who don’t use pick-up lines are usually the ones out with their girlfriends on Saturday night whining about never being able to meet single men. I never really had much sympathy for those women simply because the world is literally filled with men who are relatively easy to meet. The trick is, finding a ‘keeper’, but you don’t get to shift the wheat from the chaff unless you go out into the field and gather the wheat yourself.

Growing up almost entirely surrounded by male cousins I discovered a few things along the way about how males think which has turned out rather handy. Firstly, most men aren’t terrible good on spur of the moment dialogue with a complete female stranger without a great deal of prompting. If a man is terribly good at it – it’s only worth proceeding with extreme caution. Men who are a little too comfortable with woman are usually men who spend a great deal of time in the company of other women. Generally, those men break down into two categories; gay and what we called in the old days womanizers. I think correct term today is ‘player’.

The first thing a man does when seeing an attractive woman is rack his brain trying to decide if he has a ‘chance’ with the woman and whether it’s worth his effort. If he decides in the affirmative, then he starts to play out all kinds of pointless scenarios – mapping out a kind of mental strategy. In other words, he’ll be too busy thinking of his ‘best’ approach so the opportunity is usually lost by the time he finishes mapping out his approach and gathers his courage.

As hard as it is to believe; it is true that most men are not the brave fearless sort when faced with an unknown attractive woman. I have even met combat soldiers who are utterly fearless in battle and decorated to prove it but who become hopeless tongue-tied when faced with an unknown attractive woman. This is also why often you won’t meet any men in a bar until last call. It takes them that long to get their act together. Of course, some men are just that cheap and figure they will wait until the end of the night so they don’t have to buy you a drink. Forget them too. Of course, approaching a strange woman can be fraught with all kinds of hidden dangers.

Through the years, I have heard the most dreadful lines running from ‘are you ready to get your world rocked’ to ‘are you ready to have nightmares about me!’. Any pick up line which uses ‘are you ready’; should be a non-starter. Same goes with the ‘Baby you look like big bucks’ to which the only reply you need to express is the affirmative and point out he merely looks like small change. It is at this point you need to get up and move far, far, far away. Forget the oddball twists on old cheesy lines like – are you ready to have nightmares about me (yes, a man actually said that to me once), of course the ‘are you ready’ makes the line a double fail. Any approach needs to be non-threatening and sincere but not too serious; if only so you can keep yourself respect in tact.

There really one two good ones. The second one is a strategy and really only works for men. It’s a variation on an appeal to authority but with a twist and it only works in a crowded scenario when you see a woman out with her friends. Instead of taking the direct approach edge your way towards one of her girlfriends and ask for her help. Then tell her what a great guy you are but in a self-depreciating way explain how you get hopelessly tied up in knots when you try to talk to a woman for the first time. Tell her you are tired of getting shot down before you open your mouth because you can’t come up with any witty one-liners and ask her to introduce you to her friend so you will have a few extra minutes to attempt to make a positive impression before she blows you off.

There are three potential outcomes. The girlfriend will tell you to get f-off which means she’s a heartless bitch and your better off not getting a girlfriend who has a collection of mean friends. Trust me on this. Or she may decide she wants to get to know you for herself which makes it a win-win. Finally, if the ‘target’ still blows you off there is always a good chance the girlfriend has an attack of pity and wants to give you a chance herself.

Don’t get uptight on carrying the pity vote as it shows she has a good heart. A woman with a good heart beats mean heartless viper on any given day. And under no circumstances (should you be shot-down) should you approach the target’s friend directly and ask if she wants to be next. No one wants to be considered leftovers. Although, you could go to the girlfriend and thank her for her help and see what happens.

The first strategy, well, it starts with ‘Hello’, I am________. Simple really and it works for either sex; except, it isn’t really all that simple. It has to be friendly and non-threatening but presented in a sincere way from a man without too much seriousness… and from a woman – you have to possess a certain amount of confidence to pull it off to reap its’ full power. Usually, I employ the ‘Hello’ or the ‘Wellllll, Hello’ with double whammy of both body language and tone of voice. It helps if the man catches your eye and he sees you give him a very slow once over with your eyes from his bottom to his top. Keep your head slightly down and raise your eyes to look directly into his and then say ‘Hello’. Drop your tone on the ‘lo’.

I first discovered the ‘Hello’ technique by studying how the actresses of Hollywood in its golden age did it in the movies. It sounds cheesy but when you could not show a physical seduction in the flesh on the silver screen there had to be a way for an actress to project it in a believable way so the audience could fill in the details. Start by taking a hard look at how actress like Marlena Dietrich, Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth, Jean Arthur, Ingrid Bergman, Marilyn Monroe carry themselves and the tone of voice they used. Take their ‘tips’ and apply what is comfortable and natural of their technique to yourself. Don’t try to be a Marilyn if you’re the girl next door type – you’ll look like a fracking idiot. I’ve argued and taken bets with everyone over the use of the simple ‘hello’ and won every time.

Since the G20 Summit in Toronto there have been continuous protests calling for a public inquiry into police conduct during the G20 with no end in sight. No mass arrests have occurred, no police cars have been burned or store windows smashed. Although, the lack of violence, vandalism and thuggery may owe more to the fact that the Harperites don’t have their people coordinating Toronto’s policing than any other reason.

So just how far will the various levels of government go to avoid any public examination on the largest mass arrests in Canadian history? Well, the federal tories are now filibustering in an attempt to force the Commons Committee on Public Safety not to reconvene and put the matter to a committee vote. The Globe and Mail.

Stephen Harper’s Conservatives are filibustering to block opposition efforts to launch hearings on policing at the Toronto G20 summit, accusing political rivals of seeking a platform to build sympathy for “thugs and hooligans” who rioted there. Parliament is adjourned for the summer, and the opposition majority – the NDP, Liberals and Bloc – forced the Commons committee on public safety to reconvene on Monday to vote on whether to start federal hearings on the G20 security.

But during a two-hour meeting, Conservative MPs on the committee repeatedly requested speaking time to object to holding an inquiry now, and the Tory chair refused opposition demands for a vote. Opposition MPs together can out-vote the Tories on the committee. “I don’t agree with the NDP and the fact it seems to be lining itself up with anarchist groups that went to Toronto and caused damage,” Tory MP Dean Del Mastro told the committee. “To recall this committee on an emergency basis is nothing more than a cheap political stunt.”

I’ll take cheap political stunts over the use of coercive power of the law against bubble blowers any day, and if that aligns me with the anarchists, so be it – I’ll stand with the bubble blowers. What’s the old line about Al Qaeda – they hate us for our freedoms? Seems like the police do too. Victor Davis Henson once wrote – “It is never wrong to be on the side of freedom – never.” For a political party which campaigned on and promised ‘accountability’ in governance it sure seems they spend most of their political capital playing duck, hide and cover.

In a more better world the Tory filibuster would be met by opposition members blowing bubbles. Now that would be cheap political theatre although there is always the risk the Tories might call in the mounties to arrest the MP’s for conspiracy to commit mischief…

h/tip Stageleft for Bubbles

Ynet News:

At around 5 am last Thursday, residents of Hankin Street in Holon were awakened by loud noises coming from an apartment in the area. Annoyed by the ostentatious groans and moans, they called the police. Four officers were alerted to the designated home.
 
“I opened the door to the police covered in a pillow, with my partner wearing nothing but underwear,” the recently detained woman told Ynet. “The officers’ accusations and their aggressive attitude shocked me, so I answered them cynically.”
 
But the officers were apparently not amused. They assigned the noisome couple a fine of almost $100 at the scene, after the woman asked the female cop whether she did not emit similar vocalizations while performing intercourse. But there was more to come. When the couple descended the stairs in an attempt to get the fine revoked, the officer asked the woman for her ID. When the latter refused, she and her partner were cuffed on the spot, and forcefully inserted into the police cruiser.
 
They were placed in custody, and criminal records were filed against them for insulting a public official, a charge that carries a prison sentence of up to six months.

Personally, its been my long held belief that all government officials deserve to be insulted and mocked daily as a trade off for the coercive force they so often weld over our lives and freedoms.

This weekend other than my mother has spent the last two weeks seriously ill in hospital. After a lifetime of no one paying much attention to what she says, her sisters decided they would honour her wishes for a change and not tell me she was so ill – as in life and death ill. I’ve tried frantically to get a hold of her for the last two weeks and finally the mystery was solved. I agree that I couldn’t have done ‘any’ to help her condition, and yes, I am dealing with serious health issues on the home front, but still, she is my mother. And she wonders why I prefer my father’s family – they would have told me.

My Siberian friend once said to me that the reason we need to have children is to make life fair. We torment our parents, grow-up and then in turn, turn out our own personal set of tormentors. Then the children have children who torment them and we get to watch. It’s all good. Life is fair.

I have loved nothing more than having children. I made a big mistake years ago in not starting sooner so I could have had at least six children. Of course, it might have happened; if I could have a husband who’d lived could have at least managed to live out a decade being married to me. C’est la vie.

My children have been the source of my greatest joys but indubitably there is a full set of matching luggage which comes from having children. While my children have given me my greatest joy they have also been the well-springs of my greatest fears, largest worries and most desperate waking nightmares, and from where I sit and can observe; I have had it rather easy compared to some. This doesn’t mean my children are angels even if they are perfect. They still stay out break curfew, argue, talk back, break my rules and most prized possessions, torment their teachers and give me a fast race every day of my life. Most days, I feel like the Law Society of Upper Canada is meeting permanently at my kitchen table. I get no days off – not even for the Sabbath.

For all of that, I wouldn’t trade one single moment of the last 19 years for my childless days. I had a good life while I was single. I traveled, danced and music has filled my days. There was no angst worrying where the next date would come from and pining away home alone on any given night – unless I felt the need to pine. All I had to do was go out my door and I was bound to meet some man who was eager to pick up the social slack. Of course, I had friends, and my greatest trouble was finding the time to be ALONE to do the things I wanted to do…odd how that has yet to change.

I have friends’, who have never had children, when and if, they start to fret that they are missing something, they come to visit and take a seat in the back benches of my kitchen table. A couple hours and a few stiff drinks later the angst and urge usually passes. If we lucky, we live lives which give us choices, and if we are sensible, we are always grateful for what we have.

I have no idea who Michael Taube is. I suppose I could google him to find out – if I really cared enough to want to know. Really I learned all I needed to know about him from his Toronto Star opinion column. There is just so much foolishness to spread around that I am conflicted on which little bits of choice stupidity to highlight first. So let’s co-opt the middle.

First, Blair did a good job overall in containing the violent behaviour of radicals and anarchists like the Black Bloc. The police were able to control the left-wing fringe elements — and prevented others from turning into an angry mob. No deaths occurred at or near the G20 summit site. Reinforcements from the military and RCMP didn’t have to be called in.

It’s a thankless job for the boys in blue to keep our streets safe. If they use excessive force, they are condemned by some people. If they allow violence to escalate, they are condemned by others. By most accounts, Blair was able to maintain control and prevent both scenarios from coming to fruition.

(…)

Yet unlike the violent behaviour of anti-globalization activists in Seattle and Quebec City, left-wing radicals did not succeed in turning Toronto into a war zone. For that, we should be thankful, and not resentful, of the police’s successful plan of action.

I am going to break conservative ranks and say the apparently unsayable; the Toronto Police didn’t do a ‘good job’ in policing Toronto during the G20 Summit and I am damned tired of every conservative ninny and Liberal whinger suggesting it was so when it was so clearly.

If anything, the suppression of Charter rights and arbitrary arrest and detention of over 700 citizens is proof of just how badly the citizens of Toronto were served by Blair’s boys in blue. When you arrest a uniformed TTC worker going to work or have to gang up and beat up an amputee who is handcuffed – you don’t quarter marks because a leader at the G20 Summit didn’t die on your watch.

While there are those sanctimonious conservative rubes who throw around tidbits of foolishness and attempt to justify their descent into totalitarianism by saying things like – if you didn’t want to be arrested – don’t go out of your home, don’t stand around watching the demonstrators, take pictures or wear black, carry a backpack, or live, breathe and sit on a downtown city bench. Well, I would like to remind you that Freedom of Association and Assembly are as much charter rights as Freedom of Religion and Conscience. You want people to pick and choose which charter rights to barter off in the name of security – well then, I will only give up the Freedom of Association and Assembly as long as you are willing to give up Freedom of Religion and Conscience.

I could rant on and on and those ‘law and order’ self-styled Christie lickers still probably wouldn’t get it. So instead, I’ll quote commenter ‘Eric from the Torontoist’ and see if he can speak sense to your ‘higher power’. (h/tip Fern Hill – Dammit Janet)

As a serving member of the Canadian Forces and a combat veteran, I can say with absolute clarity and conviction that i am disgusted by the actions of the supposed “other half” of our nations security, the civilian shield to the army’s sword. I managed to fight and win battles while vastly outnumbered, against a heavily armed, mobile, guerilla force with as few as 10 fellow Canadians. 10 Canadian taxpayer funded and trained, government employees fighting and dying to prevent the lawlessness and injustice the so-called Black Bloc seems only too willing to promote. 10 Canadian ambassadors (because that is what you are when your wear and salute your nations flag) that knew their jobs and acted as consummate, trained professionals in all things, which incidentley is why i am alive to type this. The enemy we fought was entrenched within a civilian population and knew only too well the problems that could be created by putting innocent Afghans in the center of the conflict. So as is our duty and our job we let them bait us and let them crow and then when we had a shot we took it WITH NO CIVILIAN CASUALTIES. How could I know? Because we were the medical center for the region and we visited the villages regularly.

Knowing when to apply force and how to apply it can be a very simple thing when you assign value to the thing you are leveraging that force against. Am I prepared to kill the human being who is placing the IED or recoiless rifle that will kill three of my brothers? 3 of my fellow Canadians who have answered the call to defend what we so often take for granted half a world away? Without pause yes, and I will for the rest of my life, I took an oath that does not end with a contract.

When you put that uniform on you are no longer John Smith of Toronto. You are a member of the Canadian Forces, just as you are a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer, or an Ontario Provincial Police Officer. A government employee who’s mandate and training is to PROTECT the public. Not to protect themselves from threats within the public. It is their job as the civilian arm of our nations security to be the blue line between those that would see our way of life burnt to it’s end and the Canadians who see more than a simple flag.

Instead they formed a black wall and responded to WORDS with unrelenting, armed and often random VIOLENCE.

I don’t care if Osama Bin Laden himself is hiding on Queen Street like Waldo… you don’t just drop an airstrike on the village.

You PARTICULARLY don’t do it after the entire village sang Oh Canada in fear.

I understand the effect of an unsuspecting ambush tactics to confuse and demoralize… but when the first three ranks of ‘protestors’ are waving peace signs standing outside the gap wearing American Apparel and drinking starbucks… I might tailor my tactics accordingly.

People have said that they ‘understand’ why Police might have been on edge due to the events of the day before…

Bullshit.

I understand that i watched friends die and then the next day went out and did my job with the professionalism expected of someone who claims to serve his country and as in holland i gave chocolate to children while the engineers rebuilt.

When you back people into a corner… they will fight and sell their lives dearly to escape.

The ‘kettle’ is a useful tactic to isolate ‘riot ringleaders’ but with even minor coordination it can simply be turned into a turnstyle type processing operation as opposed to a way to jack up arrest counts to justify budgets and manpower.

Too little too late from the Police especially after the complete lack of presence as the city they are paid to protect, burned the day before.

A number of extremely reputable journalists and civilian truth mongers have been given unprecedented ability to expose the absolute incompetence of both the police leadership and of the individual line trooper.

This is as sure a black stain on their official colors as it was a death knell to the Canadian Airborne after one of their members killed a Somali boy. I would hang my head in shame if i affected any part of Sunday’s riot operation, willing or not.

I have a relative who was caught up in the crowd. Just a student who is young and wants to take inspired photos, and does it damn well. He was detained (not arrested) But I have seen his footage and i am disgusted.

I did not put my life on the line and watch my best friends take their last breath to come home and watch the largest gathering of law enforcement this country has ever seen… cowed to the point inaction as the city and its citizens endure the wanton destruction to their homes and business, only to have it answered by a heavy handed and indiscriminant hammer blow against quite possibly the very same people they so utterly failed to help previously.

I understand that to put a riot line in front of the black block may have caused injuries and violence.

Well… they asked for it. Says so right on their sign.

Guess what else. That’s why you took the oath of service to your country. If you don’t want to get injured on the job… be a yoga instructor.

Excuses are quite common apparently everyone has one. I would advise anyone reading this to write their local MP and ask what your government is doing to police it’s members and policies that have utterly failed in their duty to this country. I was in the city all weekend and if i had a dollar for every group of 6 police officers i saw sitting on corners shooting the shit… I would probably have enough to hire a ten man infantry section for the weekend to lead the police through some drills, of how to serve the nation they are sworn to defend.

This should not be taken as a sweeping assault on the police as i even have a few relatives and many friends among their ranks. But just as I would not stand for injustice within my own house… I will not stand for it in theirs. I have met countless officers who uphold our laws with dignity and professionalism. I would gladly give my life for anyone of them. What will not stand is when under the guise of ’security’ police are given sweeping powers with no chance of reciprocity, the need to explain themselves or chance to defend against bullying tactics employed on a peaceful gathering of my country’s citizens.

I don’t give a flying squirrel if they were threatening, or there were reports of weapons. You have full body armour and shields. Suck it up. Besides, you should be happy. Bricks move a lot slower than bullets. I support our law enforcement as i support our troops. But my support is not a blank cheque to be held cheaply against the values and rights you trample as surely as you stepped on our flag. You will find me a tenacious opponent and one now who wants to know just how that cheque i did write you was used… and i think after saturdays impotence and sundays ignorance someone has to pay the piper…
and this time, it won’t be me.

Can I get an amen?

Who fracking knew when you buy dish soap you now have to pay an Eco Fee but it’s not a tax according to Steward Ontario. Non-profit agency regulated by the Ontario government to manage ‘waste’ disposal that very few had heard of until the ‘eco fees’ hit you at the cash register on July 1st. Try figuring out just how these ‘stewardship’ councils were created and good luck with that. Toronto Star

Checking her receipt as she left a downtown Canadian Tire, Chris Colorado noticed a new charge. Her $1.99 bottle of dish soap was accompanied by a 13-cent “eco fee.” The levy for thousands of new products, from pharmaceuticals to fire extinguishers, quietly came into effect July 1, the same day as the harmonized sales tax.
But unlike that tax, provincial agencies have done little to publicize the new fees, catching consumers like Colorado by surprise. “I’ve never heard anything about this fee. No one’s talking about it,” she said. “The fact they just put it without us knowing, I don’t think it’s honest. I don’t like it.”

Manufacturers must pay the province a levy for recycling their products. Some companies are passing these costs, ranging from a few cents to several dollars per product, onto consumers. Stewardship Ontario, the agency overseeing the eco fees, began its $2.5 million public education campaign at the beginning of the month, which consists of posters and radio spots, as well as a group which tours public events and provides information about the program. “We would rather spend the money to educate people than to spend the money months ahead to say, ‘Hey, there’s a new eco fee coming,’ ” said spokeswoman Amanda Harper Sevonty. “Our message to consumers isn’t about the eco fees. Our message to consumers is about here are the materials and what to do with them.”

(…)The fees now cover all aerosol containers from hairspray to whipped cream, pharmaceuticals, syringes, mercury-containing devices and other toxic, corrosive or flammable products. The start date of the new levies was set when the program came into effect two years ago and by coincidence fell on the same day as the HST launch, Harper Sevonty said.

(…). However, Harper Sevonty stressed that the fees aren’t a tax. “They are the program cost to collect and manage this material out of the waste stream,” she said.
The companies that produce the goods are being charged a levy, which pays for the hazardous waste to be properly recycled instead of being dumped into landfills. It’s up to the manufacturers and retailers whether to download the charge onto customers, she said. At Queen’s Park, Environment Minister John Gerretsen defended the recycling fees as “the right thing to do.” “It’s not a tax. The government does not see one penny of it. It all goes to the stewardship councils to make sure that all of these materials do not end up in our landfill sites,” the minister said.

Yadda, yadda, all sound and righteous fury coming from the environmental fascists aside, if it’s not a tax; why is this fee coerced out of my pocket book via government regulation Ontario? I really don’t care which branch of a governmental organization/agency gets the levies thieved from my pocket. Personally, the only thing left that I can do is hold out a faint hope there is a special place in hell reserved for McGinty. Until then, the provincial motto needs to be changed from ‘Ontario, yours to discover’ to ‘Ontario, McGinty’s to punder’

This program is going to be another one of those stupid government programs which will keep taking money out of my pocket like a open sucking chest wound. Let me give you a hint as to why. The nearest station to where I live in downtown Toronto isn’t serviced by public transit and is a 51 minute hour walk away according to google maps. Has anyone worked out the environment footprint left by those who drive out (times the number of households 60-100,000?) in the downtown core to these Orange Drop sites? Just sayin’.

I can’t speak for other Ontario cities, but here, in the Centre of the Universe, we already pay for waste disposal under municipal taxes. Then of course, who knew the plastic bottle I bought my dish soap in isn’t to be put into the blue box program but taken to an orange drop? I fully expect someone to tell me I can still put my plastic soap container into the blue box program but I would just like to point out; why pray tell then is there an eco ‘fee’ put on the purchase of the bottle? A tax by any other name is still a tax.