ETOBICOKE GUARDIAN | Friday, August 17, 2012 |
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Opinion Ian Proudfoot Marg Middleton Peter Haggert Clark Kim Warren Elder Jamie Munoz
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The Etobicoke Guardian is published every Thursday and Friday at 307 Humberline Dr., Toronto, ON M9W 5V1, by Toronto Community News, a Division of Metroland Media Group Ltd.
Our police budget must be discussed in communities
L
ike a broken record, the loop that is the Toronto Police Service budget is coming around again. Wednesday’s police board meeting has raised the budget spectre once again. Reaction – on both sides – sounds very much like it did last year. The debate between city hall and the police service around how much money it takes to protect the City of Toronto comes up every year. This time, Police Chief Bill Blair has warned there could be layoffs; and the city’s budget chief, Councillor Mike Del Grande, is musing about an indeour view pendent study justifying the about-5,600 officers currently Give residents employed. Wrangling between politia say on where cians and police does nothing to solve the issues faced by dollars are spent communities affected by violence, gangs, guns and drugs. All it does, if anything at all, is create Band-Aid solutions without speaking with those most affected by the problems. Given the spate of gun violence in Toronto recently, we suggest police budgets should not be discussed solely by politicians and police. The conversation must be in the community first. Councillors should seek to engage directly with their constituents on this issue specifically. Only that way will a truer picture emerge of the local impact of the resources currently being applied. Those conversations will generate a pathway for future resource application. The Danzig Street shooting has spurred politicians to hold community forums and town halls. Leaders in the Scarborough community shaken by the violence have also taken up the mantle as well. But the reality is these forums, although very beneficial, go nowhere without continued and consistent interaction between the community and the police. In a perfect world, money would be no object. With civic budget restraint already reflected in communities across the city, how the money spent on the police budget should be scrutinized – just like any other department’s. Frank discussions are needed. The result may be that we find out certain areas of the city may need less of a police presence than others. The result may be that officers need to be re-deployed to other neighbourhoods. Perhaps more initiatives are needed – like the school resource officer program where the community gets to the know police officers. Regardless, police interaction with the community should be more direct and compassionate – and efficient. Giving the community a say will provide a better picture over where those dollars should be spent. Toronto Community News is a division of Metroland Media Group Ltd. The Guardian is a member of the Ontario Press Council. Visit ontpress.com newsroom
Some thoughts about the coming fall
T
he arrival of rainy days of the type we have not seen for far too long appears to have heralded a change of season. Since then there has been a shift in the weather and you can almost smell a hint of fall in the air. The days are getting cooler, the air conditioners are being turned off, and covers are definitely returning for comfortable nighttime sleeping. There are also signs of the upcoming political changes taking place this fall. Along with the days becoming shorter and the leaves falling from the trees, we will soon be seeing politicians returning to their various levels of government. While most people are still in relaxed summer mode, there is a definite grumpiness amongst politicians who have been frustrated with the polarized state of politics. It will be interesting to see whether that feeling of discontent will translate into reaching some sort of compromise or more talk of elections. At this point nobody wants to talk about elections as the economy is still too fragile to see a big
guest column
Joe Cooper
change in government at any level. Likewise, it is apparent the people of Ontario are not willing to have conservatives in power at both the federal and provincial levels of government. The real issue everyone is watching is whether the global economic changes taking place will have repercussions in Canada. At this time the economic market is acting more like a pinball machine where the economy is bouncing off one crisis after another in an almost random manner. When stock market conditions change this quickly, all predictive financial indicators simply stop working. All we can do now is to wait and see where the market settles and if all goes well, the landing will be relatively soft. Unfortunately, economists are trying to decide which “R” word to use for the next fiscal quarter:
recovery or recession. By September we may be facing some very important questions regarding trends in employment, economic growth and property values for the next year. No matter the rhetoric that will be flung about by different political parties, the only real issue for most people will be either keeping the job they have, or finding one. Let’s see how the province fares as we pass through this unsettled time with two decades of cutbacks in government services behind us. More cuts may appeal to those ideologically inclined to see such policies as improvements. However, they have not translated into either jobs or prosperity in either Toronto or the province. Maybe it’s time to start considering a policy of properly investing in the economy through a reformed taxation system where everyone pays their fair share without exception. n Joe Cooper is a long-time Toronto resident and community activist. Contact him at nym@insidetoronto. com
To the editor: Recently, the Federal Court of Canada said it is legal for a blogger to quote and link to an online news article in a post. So if you copy a news article headline and summary – with a link to the full version – and post it to your blog or website, you haven’t violated Canada’s online copyright laws. Social media makes it too easy to just share website links on Facebook, tweet research on Twitter or embed another’s YouTube video. But this online content costs owners time, resources and money to create and publish. A blogger or web publisher should still follow a few basic rules when using content from an Internet news site or other online source on their own. At the very least, the date, name of publication and title (with a link) of an Internet article must be included in the body of a blog post. A direct quote from an online news story should include a full citation to it at the bottom of a blogger’s article: just like a university student must do to show their sources for a research paper. A Google Internet search makes it easy to find an image or logo to embed – or link to – within a blog post. But if an image or logo is trademarked, a blog owner should obtain per mis sion from its owner before including it in their own blog article. Tom Wolfer
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