#Closing Cost in Ontario

[jacksondom]

I Want to Sell My House Fast: 7 Effective Ways to Speed Up the Process

If you're in a hurry to sell your home, the process can feel overwhelming, whether it's because of a job move, downsizing, or unexpected life events. I want to sell my house fast, but I'm afraid to wait months or have countless showings. Fear not! There are efficient techniques to speed up the process without compromising its quality. Even in a competitive market, we'll walk you through seven tried-and-true methods in this blog post to help you sell your home quickly.

1. Set the Right Price from the Start

The secret to selling your home quickly is setting the right price. Buying at a discount can save costs, but buying at a premium can turn off potential buyers. Make sure your home is priced fairly and not too high. Check out the most recent deals in your area to get the best deal. If you want to sell your home quickly, you can learn a lot by talking to a local real estate agent. They can help you set a price that will maximize your chances of a successful sale by considering comparable homes in your neighbourhood as well as current market conditions.

2. Enhance Your Home’s Curb Appeal

When it comes to selling a home, first impressions are hugely important. The exterior of your home should look good when potential buyers arrive. Start by mowing the grass, planting some new flowers, and removing any trash. A clean driveway and a fresh coat of paint on the front door can make a big impact. When you're trying to decide how to sell your house fast, curb appeal is a great way to improve your chances. A well-kept exterior makes the home more appealing overall by giving buyers the impression that the interior is just as well-maintained.

3. Declutter and Stage Your Home

It's important to declutter each room because a cluttered home can make a space feel small and unwelcoming. To start, clear the area by getting rid of excess furniture and personal belongings. Think about arranging your home to show off its best features, setting up a neat and uncluttered space that lets potential buyers see the home's full potential. The goal is to create a setting that lets people buying the home see themselves living there comfortably, whether you decide to use your own furniture or hire a professional stager. This small action can have a significant impact in attracting the right clients.

4. Make Minor Repairs and Upgrades

Homes that require a lot of maintenance turn off many buyers. But taking care of small issues like peeling paint, cracked tiles or leaky faucets can make your home look better and more well-maintained. According to House Buyers Ontario, even small improvements like changing out light fixtures, updating cabinet hardware or adding a new backsplash can increase the overall appeal and value of the property without breaking the bank. These small changes can have a big impact in attracting new buyers.

5. Use High-Quality Photos in Your Listing

Since most home buyers these days begin their search online, it's important to have great, professional photos to make your listing stand out. Photos of each room that are clean and well-lit make it easier for potential buyers to see what's in your home. This can be especially important when listing a property like Power of Sell Homes Hamilton, where great photography can greatly influence interest. Investing in high-quality photos can make your listing stand out, whether you hire a professional real estate photographer or take your own pictures with a fancy camera.

6. Consider Selling to a Cash Buyer

If you're looking for a quick transaction, selling your house to a cash buyer can be a great option. Cash buyers, who are typically business people or investors, purchase homes quickly and don't require traditional financing, appraisals or inspections. The speed of the transaction is a significant advantage, even if you don't get the full market value for your home. Working with a cash buyer can help you complete the transaction in as little as a week or two, whether your goal is to buy house in Hamilton or you just need to sell quickly.

7. Be Flexible with Showings and Offers

The selling process can be sped up considerably by accommodating offers and showings. To fit the schedules of potential buyers, offer your home for viewings multiple times. Be prepared to negotiate terms or price if you receive multiple offers. You may be able to close the sale more quickly if you are more flexible. Working with buyers to meet their wishes can be a huge advantage if you are trying to sell quickly. Hamilton Buy House may be the best way for interested parties to find buyers who are willing to cooperate.

Bonus Tip: Work with a Skilled Real Estate Agent

One of the best strategies for selling your home quickly is to work with an expert real estate agent who is familiar with the local market. They offer practical advice on marketing, staging, and pricing to set your property apart. Additionally, they can help you get the best deal in the shortest amount of time due to their experience negotiating with buyers. If you are interested in the performance of Hamilton real estate, such as homes that have sold, an agent can provide you with the most recent trends and sales information to help you make a decision.

Conclusion

Selling your home quickly doesn't have to be difficult. You can speed up the process and enter your new chapter with ease by putting these seven practical strategies into practice. Presenting your home in the best possible light, setting a competitive price, and accommodating bids and showings are all essential to a quick and successful sale. These processes can help you sell your home quickly and for the best price, whether you want to sell to a cash buyer or deal with an Ontario real estate agent commission basis.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Ontario tabled a bill Monday that aims to shutter 10 supervised consumption sites the government deems too close to schools and daycares.

The bill, if passed by Premier Doug Ford's majority Progressive Conservative government, would also require municipalities to get the health minister's approval to apply for an exemption from the federal government to launch new supervised consumption sites.

Health Minister Sylvia Jones said there is no situation in which she would approve a new one anywhere in the province.

"I want to be very clear, there will be no further safe injection sites in the province of Ontario under our government," Jones said at a news conference about the bill. [...]

Ontario is shifting away from harm reduction to an abstinence-based model and it intends to launch 19 new "homelessness and addiction recovery treatment hubs" — or HART hubs, as the province calls them — plus 375 highly supportive housing units at a planned cost of $378 million.

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland, @vague-humanoid

[ana-bananya]

Support the Hammad family

Moin

$20,420/$30,000

#752 on Operation Olive Branch's masterlist

Moin's instagram

Moin's campaign is supporting himself, his parents, his two sisters, and his baby nephew. Many members of his family are also suffering from health complications, including his mother who has a heart condition and his sister who is suffering from complications with her heart and liver. Moin himself is still recovering from a wounded leg.

Most of what the Hammad family's campaign has raised so far has been used to purchase items essential for survival. The funds that come in are quickly depleted because of the high inflation in Gaza. Moin and his family urgently need help so they can continue to afford supplies and be ready to evacuate at the next opportunity when the borders reopen. Please donate through either gofundme or paypal.

Kholoud Hammad and family

$3,660/$38,500 CAD

Kholod's instagram

Kholod is Moin's sister. She has a separate gfm to help cover the needs of her, her husband, and their son, Muhammed. The funds will be used to afford necessities, including diapers and baby formula for Muhammed, and save for their evacuation costs.

Haitham

£31,843/£70,000

#28 on Operation Olive Branch's masterlist

Haitham's instagram

The funds from Haitham's campaign will be used to help support his family and help him seek treatment for his dislocated shoulder and torn nerves.

Banan

$100/$10,000

#184 on Operation Olive Branch's masterlist

Banan's instagram

Banan was able to evacuate to Egypt, where he is seeking treatment for his injured foot. The treatments needed to correct his injury are expensive and on top of that he also has rent and groceries to pay for. What money is left over from his medical bills and living expenses will be used to support the rest of his family in Gaza.

Banan's gfm account was closed, so he is now using paypal.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jennifer Rubin at The Contrarian:

After two days of watching the markets tank, President in Name Only Donald Trump’s lackeys began to talk about a “compromise” on his wrongheaded, disastrous rollout of steep across-the-board tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada, and China. This is a common Trump stunt: Make a boneheaded move, watch the fierce blowback, make a meaningless deal, and declare victory. In this case, the “compromise” appears to include a one-month reprieve from tariffs for automakers. However, after the one-month pause, those tariffs apparently will go into effect. No such relief was offered for other goods. Whatever wiggle room Trump provides, the damage is done. Markets, businesses, and consumers are rattled. (Even Trump acknowledged during his congressional rant that tariffs would require a “little adjustment.” I trust that may be code for “inflation plus job losses.”) In sum, Trump’s economic imbecility and on-again-off-again tariff scheme risks job losses and higher inflation. And he may have irreparably harmed relations with our closest neighbors. It is not hard to see why Trump should look for an out. On Tuesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated that “there is absolutely no justification or need whatsoever for these tariffs.” The excuse that Canada has not stopped the flow of illegal fentanyl is “totally false.” He stressed that this was all Trump’s doing. He even taunted him. “Now, it’s not in my habit to agree with the Wall Street Journal,” he said. “But Donald, they point out that even though you’re a very smart guy, this is a very dumb thing to do.” (One can seriously question the former; the latter is objectively true.) In fact, the Wall Street Journal’s editorial board citing the tariffs the “dumbest in history” may have been an understatement. The board went on: “Mr. Trump is whacking friends, not adversaries. His taxes will hit every cross-border transaction, and the North American vehicle market is so interconnected that some cars cross a border as many as eight times as they’re assembled.”

In addition to Trudeau, Ontario Premier Doug Ford (in multiple TV appearances) went right over his head to the American people, American businesses, and Americans who possess any degree of economic literacy. “Canadians love Americans. We love the U.S. It’s one person that’s causing these problems… It’s not you, it’s your president that’s causing this problem,” he explained on Tuesday. In direct, respectful language he explained how dumb the tariffs truly are—for both countries. “The market is going to go downhill faster than the American bobsled team. And we’re going to continue seeing in the U.S. plants closing, assembly lines shut down,” he said. All of this is “unnecessary,” he said. All Canada can do is “retaliate.” (Almost comically, he then apologized to the American people.) Ford also made clear how utterly isolated Trump is on the issue. “I’ve talked to Senators and Congresspeople and governors, Republicans and Democrats, not one of them agree with him,” he said. He added, “President Trump ran on a mandate to lower costs, to create more jobs. This is going to do exactly the opposite.”

Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum at her Tuesday press conference blasted Trump. “We don’t want to enter into a trade war,” she said. “That only affects the people.” She also made crystal-clear that any border issues are a pretext for Trump’s tariff war.

[...] Thanks to Trump’s thick-headedness and ignorance, American consumers, businesses, and workers will all face unnecessary pain. Sadly, Canadian and Mexican leaders have a far better grip on what benefits the American people than does Trump or his sniveling MAGA allies. Democratic leaders have an opportunity to defend our workers, consumers, and investors. They must seize it.

Love this excellent column from Jennifer Rubin on how Trump is clueless on the economy, unlike Trudeau (CAN) and Sheinbaum (MEX).

[mariacallous]

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has already waded into his future trade wars before taking office. His proposal of a steep import tax on all products from the country’s top trade partners gives a preview of exactly how his zero-sum approach to economics could quickly become zero-benefit for businesses and consumers.

Trump, who vowed during his campaign to slap tariffs on everything that moved, said on Nov. 25 that he would, on his first day in office, put a 25 percent duty on all imports from Canada and Mexico—the United States’ two biggest trade partners, all bound together by a trilateral, tariff-free trade deal that Trump himself wrote. For good measure, Trump also threatened a 10 percent tax on all imports from China. His demand was for those countries to take immediate steps to curtail U.S.-bound deliveries of drugs and migrants.

The response, at least from the country most directly targeted, was pointed: Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told Trump in a letter, “Migration and drug consumption in the United States cannot be addressed through threats or tariffs,” and vowed the same kind of retaliation that the European Union and China have already promised if Trump makes good on his threats. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reportedly spoke with Trump sometime after he posted his statement online; Ontario Premier Doug Ford compared the threat to “a family member stabbing you in the heart.”

There are two ways to consider Trump’s latest threats of tariffs, trade wars, and economic friction. The president-elect’s backers view his threat of tariffs as a clever way to force China, Canada, and Mexico to come to grips with two things he considers primordial: drugs and immigration. Those folks believe that Trump will not have to implement the tariffs because those countries will somehow overhaul their vigilance and enforcement of two of the thorniest questions in cross-border relations. 

Alternatively, given that Trump has called tariff the “most beautiful word,” he could actually do what he just said he was going to do, as he has done in the past. Given that the combined trade of the United States with those three countries is around $2.5 trillion a year, with a lot of interconnected supply chains and a deep, decades-old interdependence that could not be jury-rigged on the fly, such a move would be economically devastating. 

Prices in the United States—Trump ran in part on fixing the problem of that runaway 2.5 percent inflation—will go up, because whether it is Canadian lumber, Canadian oil, Mexican produce, or perhaps most importantly, all of the many components that go into making a car or a light truck, all of it would cost more than it did before.

The charitable view of Trump’s tariff threat is that it is just silly and would be ineffective, as his previous four years of hectoring China over trade matters and fentanyl achieved very little. The uncharitable view is that it would be silly and catastrophic.

Mexico is the biggest source of U.S. agricultural imports and a big outlet for U.S. exports, as well. The problems with a neighborly trade war are many, and they hit close to home.

“The idea that we are going to have a guacamole tax on day one, right before the Super Bowl, is nonsensical,” said Scott Lincicome, a trade expert at the Cato Institute in Washington.

The first problem for Trump to do what he said he would do is that the United States, Canada, and Mexico have one of the world’s biggest free-trade agreements, the USMCA, or NAFTA 2.0, that Trump himself undertook and which went into effect in 2020. 

The proposed tariffs are “definitely a violation of the basic USMCA commitment to charge zero tariffs,” said Simon Lester, a trade lawyer who worked on NAFTA and USMCA issues for years. Trump could invoke the national security exception in the agreement, as he did years ago, to raise taxes on imported steel and aluminum, but that would just trigger a dispute settlement process, which would take longer to play out than the inevitable Mexican and Canadian retaliation would, Lester said.

There are problems even with using that national security exception: It would require an iron-clad executive order, potentially publishing notices in the federal register, and maybe a declaration of a national economic emergency. Social media posts are not policy.

“On the procedural issues, there are so many hurdles and gray areas,” Lincicome said. “I don’t expect those tariffs to be implemented.”

Regardless of the more mainstream names picked for key positions in Trump’s economic braintrust, such as hedge fund manager Scott Bessent to run the Treasury Department, many in Washington don’t think that will be a check on Trump’s anti-trade tendencies.

“Trump loves tariffs, and there will be tariff threats and maybe even tariffs,” Lester said.

The stock market seemed to take the tariff threats with a grain of salt: The Dow Jones industrial average, the blue-chip index, barely wobbled. The U.S. dollar hardly gained against either the Chinese renminbi or the Canadian loonie; the Mexican peso’s slippage against the dollar could be for any number of reasons.

But, given that Trump did campaign on the explicit promise to raise taxes and impede trade, what if they’re wrong? 

One of the biggest threats to the economies of the United States, Canada, and Mexico would come in the automotive sector. The original NAFTA, by breaking down trade barriers among the three North American countries, set the stage for an integrated auto industry where bits of a car or truck are made thousands of miles apart. This is big business: Automaking accounts for about 11 percent of all U.S. manufacturing and 5 percent of all U.S. private sector jobs, not even counting all the corollary and related jobs the sector provides. 

Trump’s revised USMCA made the relationship between the automotive sector and regional trade even clearer, especially by mandating that roughly 75 percent of all cars and trucks be sourced locally. One way to avoid the cost of tariffs, if they are implemented, is to source goods from elsewhere. That is not an option for autos. 

Trump’s trade policies are now going full circle. Manufacturers cannot get cheaper inputs from anywhere else, lest they fall afoul of Trump’s USMCA, but would have to pay more for everything because of his tariffs.

Similar stories could abound in agriculture, textiles, and even the construction industry. One of the big advantages of the USMCA, for example, was greater U.S. access to the Canadian market for agricultural products: What would be first on the list of Canadian retaliation?

Trump’s threatened tariffs would be economic insanity, which is probably why his surrogates present the very specter of tariffs as gamesmanship, and not a real blueprint. The fear, and it’s genuine one, is that tariffs just like those are exactly the blueprint Trump ran and won on. The worst-case scenario could become the default setting.

[kilov3books]

Canada's Super Bowl LIX commercial Warning to Americans:

Lights Out, Jobs Gone, and how Canada can easily Cripple America Overnight

By: Ki Lov3 Feb 10, 2025 (c)

During Super Bowl LIX, millions of Americans sat glued to their screens, expecting to see the usual mix of beer commercials and blockbuster movie trailers. Instead, they were met with a chilling message from Canada.

The ad, titled "Your Ally to the North," wasn’t selling a product. It wasn’t promoting tourism. It was a not-so-subtle reminder that Canada holds the keys to something Americans take for granted every single day—electricity and jobs.

Canada’s Hidden Power Over the U.S. Grid

Most Americans don’t realize just how dependent their country is on Canada for electricity and employment. Right now, 37 major transmission lines connect the U.S. and Canada, forming an integrated power grid that allows electricity to flow freely across the border. From New England to the Midwest, millions of homes, businesses, and even critical infrastructure rely on Canadian power.

And if Canada flipped the switch? Major cities would go dark. Hospitals, factories, airports—crippled. The economy? Devastated.

But the real disaster wouldn’t just be in blackouts—it would be in job losses. The American manufacturing industry is powered by cheap, reliable Canadian electricity, allowing factories to stay open and millions of workers to stay employed. Without that power, those jobs vanish overnight.

Why Would Canada Drop This Bombshell Now?

It’s no coincidence that Ontario spent a staggering $8 million on a 30-second spot during America’s biggest game of the year. The timing is crucial.

Recent U.S. policies are exerting pressure on Canada as tensions over trade disputes, tariffs, and political instability increase. The target audience for this advertisement was not Washington politicians. It was a stark warning to the American people that if trade ties worsen further, it would be common Americans who suffer, not politicians.

The subtext was crystal clear: "If you want to keep the lights on and keep your jobs, you better treat us right."

Who Is Actually Stealing American Jobs?

Trump's Hypocrisy. President Trump has been telling Americans for years that jobs are being taken by unauthorized immigrants. He isn't telling you, though, that his own policies are endangering millions of American jobs. Trump is doing precisely what he claims immigrants do: taking employment from Americans, by undermining a century-old U.S.-Canada power agreement that has sustained the American economy.

There will be more than simply higher electricity costs if Canada reduces its power exports. It means American manufacturers will come to a standstill, workers will be laid off, and entire industries would close.

There will be millions of job losses. So, consider this: Who is the true danger to American employment? Is Trump blaming the immigrants or himself?

What If the U.S. Tries to Take Control? 🪖🇺🇲

What if the U.S. government, under pressure from blackouts and public outrage, forcibly seized Canadian power stations?

It sounds like a dystopian nightmare, but in a world where economic warfare is becoming more common, it’s not unthinkable. If an administration were to take such an extreme measure, it would lead to:

🌎International Chaos – A blatant act of aggression against a longtime ally, sparking diplomatic crises, economic retaliation, and possibly even military consequences.

🔌Grid Collapse – The U.S. power grid isn’t designed to suddenly replace massive amounts of lost electricity. A Canadian energy embargo could take years to fix, leaving parts of America in permanent energy shortages.

💲Skyrocketing Prices – Even a brief disruption in power imports could send electricity costs through the roof, crippling industries and draining Americans’ wallets.

This Wasn’t Just an Ad—It Was a warning ⚠️

Canada’s "Your Ally to the North" campaign was anything but friendly. It was a strategic reminder of a truth most Americans don’t think about: our lights, our jobs, and our way of life are more dependent on Canada than we ever realized.

With tensions rising, it’s time for Americans to ask a hard question:

What happens if the north decides we’re no longer worth helping?

The answer?

You might want to:

✅start buying candles🕯️

✅looking for a new job 💼

✅Shop for new country &/or president 🇺🇲

[alicenpai]

idk if this is a dumb question or not, but how do you calculate shipping for pre-orders? ive searched around but nothing has given me a clear answer and i was hoping you might have some info? (im canadian btw, jic thats helpful info lol)

hiya! basically you just weigh the item and go to your shipping courier's website (e.g. im assuming most likely canada post, there are also places like stallion express and chitchats within canada) and you're aiming to find 3 basic rates: - domestic* - USA - international** within USA is easy since it's all one rate (i'm in toronto, for example if you're sending something as close as NYC, compared to cali, or hawaii, the shipping rate isn't that much different in my experience, maybe just a few cents) *within canada if you've ever sent mail, it depends based on distance, as you probably know. so id divide it up based on region and find a general rate for those (e.g. ontario, quebec, maritimes, northwest territories, prairies, BC) my rule of thumb is like, my home province is my "base" rate, and every other region would be like a few dollars more, places like the north where shipping might not be as accessible will be the highest unfortunately **internationally it depends on the country, and obviously it's impossible to generate a rate for all the countries in the world HAHA. i find UK the cheapest intl area to send mail to, and id price it around the same as other provinces in canada. generally it is still okay to send stuff to the EU and UK, none of my customers have had tariff complaints (and if you did im sorry :( i cannot control em...) places like australia and south east asia i find unusually high. with intl you also want to check if canada will even send mail there in the first place, mail might not get delivered to some countries/areas, especially if there are intl conflicts unfortunately, or remote areas. how to find shipping costs in the first place? well firstly you need an address.. and to find addresses? you can look up postal codes by area (this is public info) and plug that in, some websites won't work without a full address however. this is a really funny way to generate an address but ill like. find the city hall address or like, the address of a public building and plug that in.. and voila you get a general shipping cost for an area. it's weird but it works... there's also a canadian con discord channel that you can join and you might find useful! hope that helps!

[darkmaga-returns]

by Nicolas Hulscher, MPH

A new study by Chaufan et al titled, “It isn’t about health, and it sure doesn’t care”: a qualitative exploration of healthcare workers’ lived experience of the policy of vaccination mandates in Ontario, Canada, was just published in the Journal of Public Health and Emergency:

Background: When coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines became available, healthcare workers (HCWs) were prioritized for vaccination. Despite controversy, vaccine mandates were implemented in most healthcare settings across Canada, with many still in effect. Many studies have examined the perceived problem of vaccine hesitancy within the healthcare labour force. However, few have investigated the lived experience of mandated vaccination from the perspective of HCWs themselves. In this study, we examine this experience in a purposive sample of HCWs in the province of Ontario, including their decision-making processes, the mandates’ impact on their lives and livelihoods, and their views on the effects of mandates on patient care. The study is part of a mixed methods study reassessing the COVID-19 policy response in Canada. Methods: We performed a reflexive thematic analysis of qualitative data of responses to one open ended question and open-ended entries to closed questions, offered by 245 HCWs in a published survey of a purposive sample of 468 HCWs in Ontario, of diverse vaccination status, professions, ages, socioeconomic status, races/ethnicities, and genders. Respondents were recruited through snowball sampling via social media and professional networks of the research team.

[wrestlingisfake]

Finally caught up on this weekend's Maple Leaf Pro shows, so here's some thoughts about the promotion.

The Forged in Excellence shows back in October set a very high bar, and made me feel like I was watching a very good TNA pay-per-view. But a lot of that was due to all the stars they brought in from AEW/ROH, New Japan, and TNA. The Mayhem shows had to follow that up with no Konosuke Takeshita, no Mike Bailey, no Athena, no El Phantasmo, and only an unadvertised run-in by Josh Alexander. So this time around it felt more like watching an decent episode of TNA Impact.

Without the star power from Forged in Excellence, the Mayhem shows seemed to revolve around...QT Marshall, of all people. Listen, I recognize QT's skill in playing a heel; he's very good at the little things. But a lot of his heel heat is less "I hate this bad guy" and more "they're pushing this washed-up loser again?" It's the same shit as Bully Ray in 2010s ROH, or Jeff Jarrett in 2000s TNA, or Baron Corbin's entire WWE run. Matt Cardona makes it work in GCW and the indies, but it feels bush-league when he tries to do it in TNA. I suppose MLP is bush-league, but in a lot of ways they manage to look better than that, so the QT stuff undercuts that.

As far as I could tell, the only TNA talent this time around were people who recently exited the promotion, and I think that's telling. MLP basically came about because Scott D'Amore was pushed out of TNA, and a lot of wrestlers were vocally upset about it. The exodus will be gradual as contracts expire, but we're starting to see which performers want to follow D'Amore out of TNA. Anthem has very little incentive to let their roster work MLP shows, so I expect them to close that particular forbidden door, if they haven't already.

I was surprised to see Kylie Rae vs. Zoe Sagar billed as a WWE ID match, because I didn't realize either of them was affiliated with the program. Apparently WWE covers travel costs when an indy promotion books two ID wrestlers against one another, so it makes sense from MLP's end. I doubt any Raw/Smackdown/NXT talent will be allowed on MLP any time soon, but I guess WWE ID is in a gray area that can co-exist with wrestlers from AEW/ROH. Whether it stays that way remains to be seen. Sooner or later I think D'Amore will be forced to choose between WWE-TNA or AEW-NJPW-CMLL-Stardom-RevPro. Where that would his relationship with the NWA or NOAH is anybody's guess.

My little fantasy for MLP is for it to be seen as a national Canadian promotion--probably not like CMLL in Mexico, but at least like RevPro in the UK. Even if they mainly stay in Ontario, I'd like to think eventually they'll run shows in Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver, to establish that national-level credibility. It helps, I think, that the men's and women's titles they're creating are each the "MLP Canadian championship," as opposed to "MLP championship" or "MLP world championship." They're never going to be the top promotion in Canada, but they can be the top promotion that is exclusive to Canada. To that end, I think they'd be better off aligning with AEW and its partners, effectively taking the place TNA used to have. We'll just have to wait and see if anything like that happens...

[leaujongyongnews]

How Customs & Border Pro­tection catches coun­terfeit products coming into the U.S.

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Thousands of people cross the Canadian border from New York every day. There are 16 border crossings across the state that are all hot spots for counterfeit products to make their way into the U.S. economy.

“We liken it to looking for a needle in a needle stack. Actually, that's how difficult it is,” said Kevin Corsaro, watch commander for U.S. Customs and Border Protection said.

What You Need To Know

Thousands of people cross the Canadian border from New York every day through one of the state's 16 border crossings

Counterfeit products are becoming more common across the border and it's taking a toll on our health and safety, as well as the U.S. economy

U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents are trained with manufacturing companies to keep a close eye on the details that can differentiate real and counterfeit products crossing the border

The most common counterfeit products are apparel, perfumes and electronic goods

Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported that an Ontario importer pleaded guilty to trafficking $4.2 million in counterfeit merchandise from approximately Oct. 2016 to Aug. 1, 2017, and those costs come out of companies' revenues that make everyday products more expensive

Earlier this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported that an Ontario importer pleaded guilty to trafficking $4.2 million in counterfeit merchandise from approximately Oct. 2016 to Aug. 1, 2017. That process starts with a close eye used by trained agents at the border who know what to look out for.

“On the primary line, our officers are basically interviewing the driver and reviewing the paperwork," Corsaro explained. "If there's inconsistencies in the paperwork, they will refer that truck to the secondary area for an exam. And then from there, they're looking for any merchandise that's either unmanifested or any merchandise that may be counterfeit. Obviously, any illegal narcotics or any illegal substances that are in the truck that are being illegally smuggled into our country."

But as counterfeiting becomes more frequent, so does the cost of goods, which ultimately continues the cycle.

“It happens, often. Actually, it happens, maybe not on a grand scale, like in a large container,” he explained.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection sees about 3,000 trucks crossing the border every day. That’s where they find the most counterfeit goods at the border by land. Although, they can also be found via air and train travel, as well as in postal services.

“We interdict products that we suspect to be counterfeit," said Gaetano Cordone, U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s port director for the Buffalo area. "And we have strong relationships with the trade community. To talk to some of these companies and explore some of the products that we encounter and then make the determination as to whether or not it's a legitimate or something that's counterfeit, and that we actually need to seize."

Counterfeit products are most common in apparel, perfume and electronic goods, so agents have a working relationship with many brands to be trained on how they create the product, and how agents at the border can spot the differences.

“So the stitching here is not even across the cap here. So this actually starts to tell away and go low and then back high again. So this is not something that New Era would endorse and produce on their end, as well as the sturdiness of this cap. When you purchase these caps, they're a lot more firm than this. They're not falling as this cap is doing here,” Cordone showed. “We have things like these counterfeit jerseys here. They're labeled by Nike. But again, this is not a product that Nike would normally manufacture with this poor stitching. The labeling, the letters, not all of it being situated in the right fashion."

Items displayed are only about 5% of what they’ve seized so far this year.

“Some of it is folks just don't want to pay the top dollar for legitimate and noncounterfeit items," Cordone said. "So it's much cheaper to purchase these products at a lower price. But in doing so, they don't realize some of the unintended consequences that occur from that, as well as some of the harmful impact to the economy and to trade and certain health risks as well."

Health risks could apply to counterfeit perfumes or colognes. In many cases, they say, these counterfeit products are not made in an FDA lab, so the products could be made from harmful bacteria when applied to our skin.

“If they're not manufactured in a safe way, someone buys these Christmas lights online and then they put them up at their house, and then they can actually be a fire hazard in their home," he added.

However, he says the impact counterfeit products are having on the U.S. economy can be considered most impactful.

“If we're purchasing counterfeit goods, then the legitimate companies, in order to be able to make up the revenue loss, they are then increasing their prices. They have to increase their prices in order to continue to compete and make up for the revenue loss of the millions and billions of dollars that they're losing as a result of these counterfeit products being so,” Cordone explained. “Folks may ask themselves, 'Why does this matter? Why does it matter if I want to save a couple extra dollars to purchase a counterfeit jersey?' It does matter. The implications are significant. Some of these counterfeit products are produced through forced labor. Others are used to support the illegal drug trade. We're a week from Sept. 11. Some of these support, you know, transnational criminal organizations and terrorist organizations. So it has that negative impact on the economy and the businesses in the United States. So when folks are trying to maybe save a dollar, sometimes they have to take a step back and think about the other impacts, not just to themselves, but to our folks and the businesses in this community."

Cordone says that Louis Vuitton reports a $1 billion loss of revenue on an annual basis as a result of manufactured counterfeit products. The agency has also found dozens of counterfeit Super Bowl rings and high-end designer products. Its most expensive counterfeit catch so far this year was a watch that’s estimated at more than $1 million in value if it was real.

"If it's a Josh Allen jersey and you're getting it for $25, it's likely that it's probably counterfeit,” Corsaro said.

“This is just a small snapshot here for Buffalo. So I mean we have containers and containers of this stuff coming in through our ports of entry across the country,” Cordone said. “We encourage folks that when they're purchasing something online and it seems like the price is too good to be true, most likely that's accurate. It probably is too good to be true, and most likely is counterfeit."

As trends continue, and costs increase, the consequence can end up on the consumer.

“If we're purchasing counterfeit goods, then the legitimate companies, in order to be able to make up the revenue loss, they are then increasing their prices," Cordone said. "They have to increase their prices in order to continue to compete and make up for the revenue loss of the millions and billions of dollars that they're losing as a result of these counterfeit products being so."

USCBP says if consumers feel they’ve purchased something that may be counterfeit, if there is incorrect spelling on a product, or if the size or font is different, or packaging is poor material, they have the opportunity to report it to Customs and Border Protection at cbp.gov.

[vaingod]

making an appointment to talk to my doctor about booking my phalloplasty and im endlessly peeved that ontario has exactly 0 bottom surgery options for me outside of hysto. im not going to montreal i flat out refuse to be in their stupid healthcare where they make doctors/ surgeons/ nurses give out instructions in french even if the patient understands only english like id rather never get bedicked if i had to tackle bullshit like that during such a big surgery (or ykno go to a much more experienced hospital if im not gonna understand the language but even then if I go to Thailand i guarantee theyll speak more english to me than in GRS montreal 😒) .

so my only options are NY/ SF/ TX and ive already emailed them for consults, ideally id get it done in ny and traveling costs will be minimal but i wouldn't mind going to tx for the best surgeon - its hard to decide cus my best prospect fell through when he closed his waitlist to perfect his technique w abdo phallo and outside of him the nhs does the most successful abdominal phalloplasty and thats not an option for me obviously and ive recommited to a different type of phallo entirely while waiting - and MLD isnt exactly practiced everywhere. I kinda wish someone would start a phallo practice in toronto but even then i know they will only do forearm which wont work for me :^)

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Hamilton, Ont., is close to introducing a first-of-its-kind renoviction bylaw in the province that will force landlords to obtain licences to legitimize repairs they make to their properties. The new legislation, carried 13-0-2 in a committee vote Wednesday, forces property owners to apply for a special permit for their rental addresses at a cost of around $700 when seeking a provincial N-13 notice — ending a tenancy due to a desire to demolish, repair or convert a rental unit. University of Waterloo professor Brian Doucet, who studied housing insecurity and recorded findings in the Hamilton Neighbourhood Change Research Project, characterizes the bylaw as a movement that will be “blazing a trail that others in Ontario will soon follow.”

Continue Reading

Tagging @politicsofcanada

[covid-safer-hotties]

Ontario dropped wastewater testing early, with no plan for feds to step in: documents - Published Sept 1, 2024

Ontario ended its wastewater testing program earlier than planned this summer, despite having funding in place until the end of September.

The Ontario government abruptly ended its wastewater surveillance program earlier than planned this summer, despite having funding in place until the end of September and being warned that the move could leave gaps in crucial information for public health, internal documents indicate.

The government pulled the plug at the end of July on the globally praised program that, at its peak, covered about 75 per cent of the province.

The program, overseen by the Ministry of the Environment, provided an early warning signal to health officials about the spread of COVID-19, influenza, RSV and other infectious diseases, based on wastewater testing.

Documents obtained through access to information by the Ottawa Citizen indicate that the province’s hasty decision last spring to end the program came before Ontario’s Ministry of Health had even begun negotiations with the federal government about taking over wastewater surveillance.

It also required terminating existing agreements with the academic laboratories that did the surveillance.

In public statements, the province said the federal government was moving to expand its sampling to additional sites in Ontario.

“To avoid duplication, Ontario is working closely with the federal government to support this expansion while winding down the provincial Wastewater Surveillance Initiative.”

Despite stating that Ontario was “working closely” with the federal government on the issue, negotiations between the Ministry of Health and the federal government about transfer of the program had not even begun when the province moved to shut it down, according to documents. Nor did the ministry know when the federal government would be ready to take over analysis at the proposed sampling locations.

An internal memo warned that was a risk.

“Negotiations with the Ministry of Health and the federal government have not yet begun. The ministry does not know when the federal government would be ready to take over surveillance at their proposed sampling locations and there may be an interruption in availability of results from when Ontario winds down to when the federal government is able to resume.”

The federal government indicated in early 2024 that it wanted to expand its wastewater surveillance network within Ontario to include sites in Hamilton, London, Windsor and Ottawa, in addition to existing sites in the GTA.

Since the province shut down its program on July 31, there has been no word from the federal government about plans to expand wastewater testing in Ontario, even as the province is experiencing a large summer wave of COVID-19.

The internal memo also noted that wastewater surveillance “offers the ability to test the whole population to identify trends in viral spread, such as COVID-19 or influenza, at a relatively low cost, which provides public health the ability to quickly identify, prevent and respond to health threat surges and waves to protect the health and safety of the population.” Since 2020, the Ontario government, through the Ministry of Environment Conservation and Parks, invested $79 million to build and operate the wastewater surveillance network. That funding mainly went to 13 academic and research institutions for sampling, analyzing and reporting to public health units.

That money included $13.1 million for its final six months until Sept. 30, some of which was not spent after the province decided to end the program early.

Researchers working on the program were not notified until the end of May, just two months before the shutdown.

At the time, Rob Delatolla, the uOttawa engineering professor who led the movement to begin wastewater testing at the beginning of the pandemic, said he had been shocked to learn funding would end on July 31.

His lab is one of a small handful of wastewater surveillance programs in the province that are continuing beyond that date, using research funding.

In recent weeks, that data has provided Ottawa Public Health with information about a summer COVID-19 surge and potential infectious disease increases heading to the fall.

But supplemental funding for the program based at uOttawa will only last until the end of September.

An internal memo from the Ministry of Environment, Conservation and Parks said the province has partnered with 12 academic research institutions as well as the National Microbiology Lab in Winnipeg, in co-operation with all 34 local public health units and 53 municipalities, “to create an integrated, province-wide sampling and analysis network that enhances the ability of public health agencies to province timely responses to COVID-19, influenza and RSV in many of our communities.”

The memo also noted that terminating or amending the existing agreements with academic institutions would be time-consuming and potentially costly.

“This takes a lot of time and resources for both (ministry) and the academic laboratories. With the timing so close to the end of the project activities, it is hard to justify changing the agreements.

“Ending agreements early would make stakeholders unhappy and could potentially cause loss of confidence in the government as agreements are not honoured and so little notice of the changes were provided.”

Research done by Delatolla and others showed that using wastewater surveillance to better pinpoint the start of seasonal RSV prevented 295 children from being hospitalized and 950 hospital visits, saving the province $3.5 million.

The cost per child for the surveillance program was 50 cents per season, according to Delatolla.

The provincial government and individual MPPs received thousands of letters from residents who were concerned about the decision to pull the plug on wastewater surveillance.

One of those letters warned that ending funding for Ontario’s network “will have dangerous consequences. We will no longer have a reliable early warning system to inform everyone about the spread of emergency SARS-CoV-2 subvariants and new threats such as avian flu. Without advance warning, hospitals may be completely overwhelmed when new hyper-infectious subvariants emerge and spread exponentially.”

Wastewater surveillance is being expanded in some parts of the world amid new threats from diseases such as avian influenza and mpox.

uOttawa’s Delatolla said at the time no explanation was offered to researchers about why the program was ending prematurely.

In subsequent public statements, the province repeated that protecting the health and well-being of Ontarians was its top priority.

But it didn’t answer directly why it was ending the project early and terminating existing agreements before talks had even begun with the federal government.

[canadiannurse]

A Grand Applause for the Heroes of Healthcare: A Satirical Ode to Ontario’s Nurses

May 2024

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the grand spectacle of Ontario’s healthcare system, where registered nurses (RNs) are the stars of the show, juggling flaming torches while riding unicycles on tightropes! Yes, you heard it right—our heroic nurses are now not just caregivers but also magicians and acrobats. Let’s give them a round of applause, shall we?

Act 1: The Wage Increase Illusion

In the center ring, we have the awe-inspiring 11.5% wage increase over two years for nursing home staff. It’s the biggest raise in over three decades! But wait, don’t look too closely. With inflation skyrocketing past 11%, this “generous” raise is more of a disappearing act. While the cost of living climbs higher than a circus trapeze, nurses are left wondering if their paychecks will stretch enough to cover their basic needs. Bravo, government, bravo!

Act 2: The Training Treadmill

Next, we present the daring expanded roles for nurses. Now, they can prescribe medications—after completing additional courses, of course. What a thrilling opportunity! Nurses, already swamped with patient care, now have the chance to squeeze in extra training sessions. It’s like adding another ball to their juggling act. And the best part? They get to do this all while dealing with chronic understaffing and burnout. Truly, a feat of superhuman endurance!

The Curtain Call: Mental Health and Burnout

As the curtain falls, let’s not forget the riveting subplot of mental health support. With burnout rates higher than ever, nurses are given access to mental health resources—because nothing says “we care” like offering help after the damage is done. It’s like handing out umbrellas after the storm has flooded the city.

Conclusion: A Standing Ovation?

So there you have it, folks. Ontario’s registered nurses: overworked, underpaid, and asked to do the impossible with a smile. But let’s not be too harsh. After all, isn’t the essence of a great performance the ability to keep going, no matter how challenging the act? Let’s give our nurses the standing ovation they deserve, even if what they really need is systemic change and genuine support.

And scene.

[dalt20]

Tooning in 6. Greg Bailey part 1 of 7

DL : So who are you and what are you best known for?

GB : I am Greg Bailey and known best as the director of the PBS series, Arthur.

DL : So growing up, how was your childhood?

GB : I had a pretty average north American suburban middle class upbringing and grew up in a family

of 5 kids. I lived most of my childhood years in Windsor Ontario under the Detroit skyline.

DL : When did you discover that you wanted to work in cartoons?

GB : I do remember being about 8 or 9 years old and discussing with a friend about what we wanted

to be when we grew up and I mentioned "cartoonist" since no one new the word animator

back then. My friend was shocked and pointed out that you had to draw like a million

drawings just to make the character blink. But I didn't really know it was that bad but it

made me think that it might be a pretty cool thing to do. I think more practically it wasn't

until late high school that I learned that some schools were teaching it and Sheridan

College in Oakville was pretty close to home and sounded like a possibility.

DL : So what were your favorite cartoons growing up?

GB : Popeye, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Beanie and Cecil, George of the Jungle, and any of those old

shorts they used to run early on Saturday like from Fleischer Bros or Merry Melodies.

DL : So no "canadian cartoons" like Spider Man or Rocket Robin Hood?

GB : I never thought of Spider Man being Canadian. I remember Rocket Robin Hood and would watch

it ,but either I was a bit old for it or just the quality didn't interest me. It was like

Hercules, I would watch it but it seemed like animation had gone down hill a lot in that

Time.

DL : Well, these cartoons were from american producers but made in canada for cost and laws there.

GB : I think another reason not to have followed them much was that they weren't funny. I really

prefer comedy animation and there were some pretty good funny cartoons at the

time. I wasn't much into superhero animation or realistic style characters.

DL : Ah makes sense, not really an action guy myself. So how was Sheridan College?

GB : Sheridan was quite small when I started the course and it was quite a risky course to take at the

time since there weren't really many studios in Canada. My graduating class in third

year had only 14 students. The school increased enrollment a lot even in the 2 years

after I was there. I was very hands on. you had your own desk that no

one else used and we basically just went back and forth from the animation room to the

life drawing studio. All the instructors were from outside of Canada from the US or the

UK and I guess Kaj Pindall was from Denmark. He came in the final year I was there. But

it was a very small compact group of students and teachers in the class I graduated

With.

DL : So you attended in 1976 right?

GB : Yes my first year was 76 I believe. I think I graduated in 79.

DL : So you knew John Kricfaculsci or Lynne naylor? They were in the same class as you.

GB : John was always a real character for sure. At school I remember is that he was a Sunshine Boy

in the Toronto Sun one time and I remember overhearing a big fight he was having with

the instructors when they were reviewing or grading the group project he was doing at

Sheridan. He left after that. I didn't see him much after that except at DIC when he

was fired. He was doing Beanie and Cecil. I was supposed to meet him for dinner but

he got fired that day and I remember him taking his belongings out of the studio

including a big moose head that was on a little dolly that he was pulling. It was just

kind of a nice image that stuck in my head.

DL : That was something. So anything on Lynne?

GB : I don't remember her much except she was with John. They went to LA together and she worked

at Filmation but I was at Hanna Barbera so I didn't see them in that period.

DL : Ah ok. so at sheridan, did you have an assignment where you drew your favorite cartoon

character? Because John said for the assignment where he drew Merlin from Sword

in the Stone and Lynne also drew Merlin.

GB : Yeah probably I did the same, Merlin. I guess we didn't have much to draw from in those days.

DL : Wow you all like Sword in the Stone, huh?

GB : I guess. I don't really remember it much. The course was very focused on Disney Style classical

animation. I don't remember anyone doing anything that was Disney now that I think

about it. Maybe they made it a requirement otherwise I would have done Olive Oil or

something more interesting and comedic character.I meant no one did anything

that wasn't Disney.

DL : Also was Glen Kennedy in the same class?

GB : I know Glen but he was a year later than me.

DL : So when did you leave for the states for the only time?

GB : I went to Hanna Barberra directly after Sheridan so that was 1979 and was there for a year. In

1984 I worked for the LA company DIC but I was working in Tokyo. I did that for

about 4 years. I was returning home from that when I was working at DIC LA and

saw John with his moose head. Last year I was working for Bento Box in LA but

I am working from here remotely. Other than that, I have been in Canada.

DL : So how was Los Angeles when you got there?

GB : I loved it. I still like LA a lot though it is really crowded now compared to when I was there. It was

a very interesting place to start working in animation. It was a very unionized kind

of workplace. It's the only place I ever worked that had a firm lunch hour break and

15 minute coffee breaks at the same time twice every day. It was a huge studio with

about 500 people so it was very interesting and lots of fun for a young person just

venturing out into the world. I found the people friendly and it was easy to strike up

a conversation with strangers. It was also very smokey in September because they

had fires all around Hollywood and the smog was incredible. I was trying to get by

with only having a moped for transportation and everyone there thought that was

crazy because you had to have a car. The shows we worked on were quite bad

when I look back at them now. It was Scoobie Doo and Casper and the Space

Angels and Flinstone remakes. It was a real factory kind of environment but I

figured that was how things were in animation since I was just starting. I had a lot

to learn so I look back on it fondly and was able to learn a lot in that first year.

DL : So how was Hanna Barbera? Did you like it? How was Joe barbera?

GB : Joe I never met. Bill Hanna was more the guy who looked after the animation studio. Joe's daughter Jane Barbera was a producer that kept tabs on the studio. I don't know her title but it would be something like a line producer. I bumped into Bill Hanna in the hallway a few times but mostly I just remember him assembling all the Canadians and other foreigners on visas and said they would not be able to renew our visas next season. I remember he suggested getting married to someone if you wanted to stay in the US. More interestingly though was that Tex Avery worked there as a designer and he was very old but he would also be standing in line with us at the coffee truck at break time. I think I was always too star-struck to say anything more than hi how are you to him.

DL : wow! John said he left the country illegally in a documentary. So he was an alien.

GB : We were all aliens but I was there with a work visa. I think he always was illegal down there. He went down on his own without a job offer or a work visa when I went there. He is more of a risk taker than I am I guess. John was not at Hanna Barbera.

DL : Yeah, he still doesn't have dual citizenship after he left Filmation and Hanna Barbera. And John

isn't deported yet puzzles me.

GB : I don't think he ever worked at Hanna Barbera unless it was after I was there. I do remember on

the day he left DIC with his moose that someone said he was upset because he

couldn't find the visa application papers that he had in his office when he left. I

think by that point he could have even applied under the amnesty that they had

down there in the early 80's. He should have been there long enough to get that

if he had tried.

DL : Oh ok. So how was Casper and the Angels?

GB : I just used that as an example. There were about 10 series that I must have worked on in that one season at HB. One was Casper and the Space Angels, another was The Harlem GlobeTrotters, along with Scooby Doo and Flintstones. All Saturday morning was made up of either Filmation or HB shows. Both companies' shows looked exactly the same. The shows like Casper were completely generic and forgettable and the characters and props and even the stories were exactly the same on each series. So I guess Casper was very generic except it had the character Casper the ghost in it. But everything then was really stiff and they all had the same blinks, the same mouth charts for lip sync . It made it so animators and ink and painters could easily move from one production to the another without learning to draw a new style. You could even hop from studio to studio without any significant drawing learning curve. The characters didn't move or walk forward in perspective and things were very flat. The big actions all happened off screen and they reused as much animation as possible using a xerox machine. All this got destroyed when DIC came along and started making shows with more perspective and effects because they were making the animation in Japan. It destroyed HB and Filmation quickly because their shows were too dull.

DL :

yeah, one person reviewed casper and summed it up perfectly "what is popular? uh charlie's angels. What's a character we haven't used in a long time? uh casper the friendly ghost? What are the kids into now? outer space!"

GB : Everything was a space something or other that year. Sales run by marketing people never makes a memorable show.

DL : like Buck Rogers or the Star Wars hype train? Or Battlestar Galactica?

GB : There was something with the Shmoo from L'il Abner as well. The Harlem GlobeTrotters all had some super hero power. Like one guy would pull objects out of his afro like bulldozers or ray guns. They all had some bizarre and ugly super power.

DL : the Harlem GlobeTotters! One of them had a basketball for a head!

GB : Another one was rubbery or could get really tall or something. I've tried to block out the memory of all that. I only remember drawing someone that turned in a big plate of spaghetti noodles for some reason. I only remember because it's a nightmare to draw all those lines of spaghetti.

DL : It's hard to draw lines in general!

GB : One thing about HB was that I learned how to draw perfectly clean lines through. It is still a struggle through. They were really fussy about perfect lines especially in the facial features and hands. So it was necessary at least for me to learn that still after Sheridan.

DL : So, did you drew anything off model at Hanna Barbera?

GB : Not after I handed in my initial scene to the supervisor. They sat you down pretty quickly and showed how they keep it in model. I am surprised now when people say HB shows were badly drawn and off model. I don't remember anyone getting away with that or maybe I was just not aware of others.

DL : Oh well, I guess some must slipup or it just smear frames or inbetweens.

GB : Maybe they were done at outside studios. Sometimes they sent extra work out to places like Ruby and Spears and they would handle surplus. At one point I picked up some extra freelance work there. I remember fixing a scene that was very fully animated scene of a character flying and rolling in and turning in perspective. It was ok but it just needed to be put on model on all the inbetweens. It was a lot of drawing like 200 full figure drawings. It was something from Filmation but I got it from Ruby and Spears.

DL : How was The New Shmoo?

GB : Same as everything else. Maybe they did it because it kind of looked like Casper. Round and white. It was probably a space something I don't remember it much , although I did a scene that kept some model sheets for a long time that had a waitress but she had some Jetsons type of features in her costume.

DL : Ah ok. Was Scooby Doo and Flintstones more happier and familiar?

GB : Scooby and Flintsones were more the high end show for them . They ran more than a season and they had lots of designs from previous years. Scoobie had been running for a long time when I got there. Remember they had the voice from Casey Cassum(?) doing Shaggy. We used to see him around the coffee truck sometimes and people would point him out. But I think they were more fussy about those 2 shows though and it was really the bulk of the work that I saw. Perhaps they kept those shows more in house and we would only see the other shows when they didn't have enough work for us on Scoobie for the short term. All the other shows I can only remember working really briefly on them like a few weeks at most. After the season at HB a studio Canimage opened in Toronto and we did work on Scooby and the Flintstones. By that point the HB LA studio was not doing animation anymore. It was done in Toronto and Taipei.

DL : Wait, what was canimage? Was that a new Canadian studio Hanna Barbera opened like Wang Film in Taiwan?

GB : An animation company in Toronto that was around for a few years. 3 guys from a few years before me at Sheridan had been working at HB and when we got sent home they opened a studio in Toronto. They did HB for one season and then they did some overload work on Heavy Metal and I think that was all they did before it closed.

DL : Did you work on Heavy Metal? That film’s production was spread across Toronto, Montreal ,London and Los Angeles!

GB : Yes I did. In Montreal at Mike Mills and some freelance from Potterton Studio. The main production was centered in the main studio in Montreal. It was also in Ottawa besides the ones you mentioned. There were 3 studios in Montreal plus Ryan Larkin in his own studio.

DL : Oh ok. What segment did you animate on?

GB : I was at Mike Mills and there was a legal dispute that arose so our parts got redone at Halas and Bachelor really fast right before the delivery. We were animating the opening sequence where the car comes to earth and goes to the farm. And then there were parts that connected the different stories with Grimaldi. We were animating a carousel that was turning and had characters from each of the segments in the film. The carousel was growing and growing each time we saw it. Anyway this was all locked away and they made it really simplified with a green ball instead of the carousel and they made the car falling from the space station a really simplified-looking car. I animated a scene that I kept that was used for a publicity still in the Heavy Metal magazine. It was a guy in a space suit putting his helmet in the trunk of the car.

DL : Very interesting! So I can find anything from 1980-1983. Why is that? From IMDb credits.

GB : You mean I don't have Heavy Metal and Canimage listed in my profile. I should update that.

DL : Yeah or on imdb!

GB : I should go on IMDB and fix it.

DL : Do it! So what did you do in those years after Heavy Metal?

GB : I did commercials at Mike Mills which was really why I wanted to go there. It used to be an interesting job in animation because there was a good variety and the quality of the animation was often good and you got to work on the entire film including shooting it on the Oxberry. You would do everything from design and storyboarding and editing unlike working at a studio like HB where you only ever did one job like animation or in-betweening. For one year I went back to school to study in a technical engineering program because animation really fell apart in the early 80's. I started a film with a grant that I never finished, before I went to Tokyo.

DL : Well, wasn't Nelvana a thing?

GB : They were but not so much in the early 80's. That would have been when they pretty well lost it all on Rock and Rule . At least my timing was never good for going there.

DL : Oh yeah, I almost forgot. At least they were working on Inspector Gadget and Care Bears for DiC and American Greetings. So how did you get to Tokyo?

GB : Since I had worked in an American studio I knew how the lip sync system worked. And a company Aces in Toronto was doing some track breakdown and voice recording for DIC. When DIC in LA couldn't find animators willing to go to Tokyo they asked Aces if they knew anyone and I found out through a friend of a friend. About the only requirement they cared about was if I knew how to do lip sync in the US system of Saturday morning shows. I worked over there in the same little space with the creator of Gadget in fact. Bruno Bianchi.

DL : How was Bruno Bianchi?

GB : A nice person and very funny. He would spend a lot of his time drawing caricatures of people he worked with. He was really talented and had a great track record of creating new shows. He had started long ago with Jean Charlopin when he started DIC in Paris. So Bruno was a real old timer at DIC. DIC was an American company when I started there and it was partnered with DIC Tokyo.

DL : So how was Tokyo? Did you learn to speak japanese?

GB : Very interesting place. It was in the 80's as it was really the center of the universe and it looked like things would never slow down for them. It was definitely the hot spot in the world for animation. They were so far ahead of the west or anywhere else for that matter. The economy did collapse really shortly after I left because of the real estate bubble. I did learn to speak and I would take courses during the off-season or slow time. I forget almost everything now though. I could probably pick it up quickly again if I had a use.

[thiswaycomessomethingwicked]

In good political news today, Toronto elected Olivia Chow as mayor and I'm super stoked to have her back in City Hall.

From this CBC Article:

Olivia Chow was elected Toronto's next mayor in an unexpectedly close race Monday, promising to bring a more progressive approach after more than a decade of conservative leadership at city hall. The former downtown Toronto NDP MP and city councillor bested a record field of 102 candidates that included about a half dozen established contenders. Among those rivals was second-place finisher Ana Bailão — a past deputy to former mayor John Tory, whose shock resignation in February triggered the byelection. Chow, who was born in Hong Kong and came to Toronto at age 13, will become the third woman and first racialized person to serve as mayor in the city's history. She steps into the top spot as it grapples with a massive budget shortfall, an affordability crisis and public safety concerns. "If you ever doubted what's possible together, if you ever questioned your faith in a better future and what we can do with each other, for each other, tonight is your answer," Chow said in her speech to a crowd of cheering supporters. "Thank you to the people of Toronto for the trust you've placed in me and the mandate for change as your new mayor." [...] Among her headline commitments is a pledge to get the city back into social housing development and an annual $100 million investment in a program to purchase affordable homes and transfer them to non-profits and land trusts. [...]

Chow campaigned from the left, promising to boost rent supplements by introducing a "luxury home tax," an expanded land transfer tax on homes sold for $3 million and over. She also said she'll triple the city's existing vacant homes tax to three per cent. Chow will inherit largely untested strong mayor powers, however she has repeatedly said she wouldn't use them to override "majority rule" in council. In theory they would allow Chow to pass budgets with just one-third council support, veto bylaws and unilaterally shape the city's top-level administration. She did not release a fully-costed platform, and repeatedly declined to say by how much she would need to raise property taxes to pay for her suite of commitments — a focal point of criticism from her main rivals throughout the campaign.

The last week of the campaign saw Ontario Premier Doug Ford all but formally endorsed Saunders, warning at an unrelated news conference that a Chow mayoralty would be an "unmitigated disaster" and that she would raise taxes at an "unprecedented rate." Saunders finished third with 8.4 per cent of the total vote share.   Ford's pointed attack raises questions about Chow's relationship with Queen's Park as the city faces a $1.5-billion budget hole that will almost certainly require provincial help to fill. In a statement Monday night, Ford struck a conciliatory tone, saying he will "work with anyone ready to work with our government to better our city and province.  "Throughout Olivia's life, she has proven her desire and dedication to serving the city that many of us call home. While we're not always going to agree on everything, what we can agree on is our shared commitment to making Toronto a place where businesses, families, and workers can thrive."

Chow has long been a fixture of Toronto politics. She became a school board trustee in 1985, served 12 years on city council representing Trinity-Spadina and eventually became a New Democrat parliamentarian alongside her late husband and former federal NDP leader Jack Layton. Some of her notable policy stances include supporting an anti-homophobia curriculum in the 1980s, helping bring nutrition programs to Toronto schools in the 1990s and fighting against exploitative immigration consultants in the 2000s. For much of the last decade, she has run the Institute for Change Leaders at Toronto Metropolitan University where she trained community organizers.

The city being in basic bankruptcy position that will require provincial bail-out support is going to be contentious because Doug Ford is a nasty piece of work and vindictive as fuck - especially against Toronto Mayors - so we will see what she'll be able to get out of him (if anything). The Federal level will be able to help some, but it's really a municipal-provincial issue.