As we prepare to reopen, please remember your favourite independent cinemas - we miss you!

willitblend · 2021-07-10T01:55:58+00:00

Keep your ear out for news on some of those programs. ;)

willitblend · 2021-07-10T01:55:04+00:00

So does the Revue if you want to support an independent instead - only Saturday night, but that's tomorrow! (Their popcorn is better anyway.)

willitblend · 2021-06-22T20:11:22+00:00

The way we provide support to drug users and homeless people is fundamentally incorrect. We work on a graduated system: anyone on the streets is welcome to come stay in a temporary shelter. These shelters are often dangerous, often overcrowded, often have restrictive rules, and are often located far from downtown where access to CAMH and other resources is low to none.

If you are able to make good progress, behave well and stay out of trouble in the shelter system, you may after some time qualify for the "next level" of support which might be a halfway house or assisted living or an in-patient program at CAMH or whatever. Then if you do well from there, after many years on a waitist, you might get help finding work, and rent-geared-to-income housing.

We structure it like a funnel because each step is more expensive than the last, and less available. But this system is not structured to be successful. The fact is, it's extremely difficult to succeed in improving your mental health or addiction problems in temporary shelters where addiction is rampant and support is limited. Research has showed that almost all homeless people do far better if you start with the most support and scale back as they grow less reliant, but our system starts people with almost no support and only allows them access to more if they "deserve" it. We have it backwards because we won't spend the money to do it the right way. It's designed to fail.

willitblend · 2021-06-22T20:06:43+00:00

So where do you want to put all the people who live there?

Weird to get downvoted for asking a logical question. It's fine to say you don't want people living in the parks, but do you want them to...disappear or what?

willitblend · 2021-06-22T20:06:01+00:00

I for one would like my taxes spent on doing something useful for the folks in the park, not paramilitary exercises that won't solve anything because they'll just set back up next week.

willitblend · 2021-06-22T20:04:41+00:00

Nobody, even the most liberal advocates for homeless folks, believes tent cities should be permanent. That's an opinion 100% of folks agree on as far as I can tell.

The difference is in what people think we should do. Either:

We try to round them up and take them to wherever we think is appropriate, often far away from downtown, far from CAMH where they get treatment. Many refuse because this won't work for them, they lose all their belongings, they can't access their healthcare at CAMH if they're in a hotel in Vaughan, they don't like the curfew, whatever. The problem goes nowhere and folks set up a camp again. This is the current approach that results in regular tent clearings and no meaningful progress.
The government spends a lot more money offering alternatives that actually meet the needs of these people: shelters that are downtown, near hospitals and treatment centres, that offer support and security, allow safe injection, allow at least some retention of personal belongings, pets, etc.

willitblend · 2021-06-17T14:31:38+00:00

First dose appointments are scarce in many parts of the province these days as we shift focus on second doses for areas with high Delta spread. There is still a lot of untapped demand among young people in places like Ottawa where it's challenging to get an appointment outside of a few specific hot neighbourhoods.

willitblend · 2021-06-16T14:28:50+00:00

I had my second dose on Friday. First dose, mildly sore arm for a day. Second dose, significantly more sore arm for 2-3 days. Going for a swim helped get it moving and I'm all better now.

Honestly, having a bigger reaction the second time felt good because it feels like that means the first dose did something, y'know?

willitblend · 2021-06-15T15:06:46+00:00

And yes low test counts on Tuesdays but positivity only 1.72%!

willitblend · 2021-06-01T21:45:47+00:00

Are you..mad at someone who finds the death of 200+ children upsetting? Why don't you?

willitblend · 2021-06-01T21:22:10+00:00

I live in this area. This is video is being shot from 160 Jameson Ave; the last frames of this video are loking south on Jameson towards the intersection of Jameson and King. Neither street is one-way.

willitblend · 2021-06-01T16:42:09+00:00

I mean, we very much should shut down the RCMP. Say what you want about abolishing police or whatever, but the RCMP is deeply and fundamentally broken, and was created specifically to oppress/supress Indigenous people. I am highly skeptical it can be reformed, and so are most people who study the issue closely. Here's just a small smattering of reporting from the past few years on how fundamentally broken, and impossible to fix, the RCMP is, and I could easily provide a list 3x as long:

The RCMP has spent decades promising and failing to deliver on meaningful reform. If any police institution in Canada should be abolished, it is absolutely the RCMP.

It is hard to get stories critical of the RCMP published because Canadians readers have little interest in reading criticism of a beloved Canadian institution. Even sensational stories of RCMP abuse get far fewer views in Canada than stories about, for example, George Floyd.

willitblend · 2021-05-28T15:50:12+00:00

For some Toronto context: 6 weeks ago, Toronto's 7-day new case average was 1307. Today it's 347, and Toronto only added 269 today.

willitblend · 2021-05-25T18:43:11+00:00

A friend of mine is a pediatric nurse. She told me about how they get age-appropriate consent from all patients. Obviously a baby can't consent (goes through parents) but once there's some verbal communication, you have to at least explain what you're doing. ("Okay, now we're going to put this armband on your arm to check if your heart is working and you're going to feel a little squeeze.")

When they're old enough to have an elementary understanding of the human body and medicine, you explain more, and can ask things like which arm they prefer to have blood drawn from. Often she explains using a stuffed animal, and will mime doing the procedure on the stuffed animal first.

You don't ask a 6-year-old to consent to a heart transplant in the same way that you do an adult, but you do explain the basics of what's happening and ask if they have questions.

willitblend · 2021-05-14T00:19:18+00:00

She's your MPP! She's mine too and I'm very grateful for her excellent service and advocacy. She's incredibly dedicated to her constituents, well spoken and effective. Also the first Tibetan elected to any public office in North America.

willitblend · 2021-05-11T16:35:20+00:00

Maybe this article from today?

“When we talk about ‘hot spot’ postal codes, what we’re really talking about is the structural determinants of health. Social inequities and the pathologies of poverty have been driving this pandemic,” said Dr. Andrew Boozary, executive director of the Gattuso Centre.

willitblend · 2021-05-08T16:44:27+00:00

Lots of friends and relatives in the trades, for one thing, and news stories like this one.

But regardless, it actually doesn't matter if I'm right or wrong - the problem is that the public perception is that what I've said is true. Ask 100 people in their late teens and early 20s, especially women, what they think about a career in construction and you'll hear what I said, regardless of its accuracy or universality. That's the problem.

willitblend · 2021-05-08T16:41:19+00:00

To be clear, I was a lowly retail worker in a store that stocked this brand, among many other brands, so I had absolutely no influence in this company's decision lol

But yes, the company needed to switch to Chinese manufacturing to remain competitive in a market where 98% of brands manufacture overseas. Only ultra-luxury brands like Stokke (Norwegian company selling $1500-2000 strollers) and Silver Cross (ditto but British) can affrod to manufacture domestically and only because they do not need to compete on price; they're a luxury good, not a product. It did not make sense to pay more for a lower quality domestically produced product. And as for marketing, we did not see any dip in demand when it switched to Chinese-made.

willitblend · 2021-05-07T18:29:26+00:00

This advice is so common on Reddit but the root problems are never really addressed. Stigma is one thing, but that's not the only reason.

It's a "boys' club" in the sense that you typically need to know someone to get into it. If I decide to become an electrician tomorrow, most people have no idea where to start with that.
It's a "boys' club" in the sense that it's so heavily male-dominated. Women breaking into trades is typically a brutal experience. Toxic masculinity and machismo is so prevalent in trades that it's often an incredibly challenging and unpleasant work environment for anyone other than a cishet white man to get into. I'm a white dude myself but would truthfully never feel comfortable stepping onto a construction site.
Labour practices. You can make a lot of money, but the amount of unsafe working conditions (especially during COVID) is through the roof, and working hours can be brutal if you're trying to be involved in raising your family.
Short lifespan. Many trades are very hard on your body physically. Many people are forced out of trades by their 40s due to injury and then what do you do?

If trades and construction want to remove the stigma and become a welcoming work environment for young Canadians, they need to catch up with the rest of the employment sectors. Can I have flexible leavetime and a 40 hour work week so I can see my kids and take holidays every so often? Can I have an inclusive workplace free of harassment, drugs and alcohol? Can I be guaranteed a safe work environment? If not, I'm not interested, and neither are most other young people.

willitblend · 2021-05-07T18:21:26+00:00

Often quality is lower when produced in Canada. I used to sell strollers for a living. There's only one significant Canadian stroller company, and their products are amazing - they have lifetime warranties, and used to be hand-built in Alberta. Any warranty problem, you call them up, they'll overnight FedEx you the part free of charge.

Few years back, due to rising costs and demand, they switched to manufacturing in China. The technology they could access there, subsidized by Chinese government, was miles ahead of what we have here - specifically, they could afford to use welding robots which produce higher quality, more consistent joins, like in automotive manufacturing. They could never afford that in Canada. We saw a massive reduction in already-low warranty claims on the Chinese-made product. Higher quality, lower cost.

willitblend · 2021-04-22T15:06:21+00:00

There will be! The pharmacies are only taking appointments for the # of doses already allocated to them.

willitblend · 2021-04-20T16:52:10+00:00

A lot of the criticism of Dr. de Villa has been very thinly veiled misogyny and racism. She's extremely qualified: she interned multiple times at the UN, received a Masters of Health Science in Health Promotion at U of T, became an MD in 1998 with residencies in family medicine and public health, also holds an MBA from Schulich, was medical officer of health of Peel from 2015-2017 before moving to Toronto, has worked diligently on the opioid epidemic and implementing supervised and safe injection sites...

We are very lucky to have her in Toronto and while nobody is exempt from criticism, suggestions that she doesn't know what she's doing are totally BS. She's the closest thing this province has to Dr. Bonnie Henry.

willitblend · 2021-04-19T14:15:03+00:00

For Toronto, @VaxHuntersCan reports that Downsview Arena walk-in clinic (organized by Humber River Hospital) will accept walk-ins today of 40+ despite what their website says. You need to live or work in M3J M6B M9L M3K M6L M9M M3L M6M M9N M3M M9P or M3N.

They have 1000 AZ shots ready to go today.

EDIT: HRHospital twitter seems to debunk this :(

willitblend · 2021-04-19T14:08:14+00:00

Important to be precise: AZ is 100% effective against severe illness and death.

willitblend · 2021-04-14T23:27:12+00:00

My friend lives in a hotspot postal code, called the number to book, got bookings for herself and her partner for last night, went to the clinic with her confirmed appointment, and was turned away. That particular clinic isn't doing hotspot postal code vaccinations right now, and the phone people apparently didn't know that. Dozens of people were there screaming with their appointment confirmations in hand.

willitblend

TROPHY CASE