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Toronto thoughts – 2020

posner gerryBy GERRY POSNER I belong to a large and getting larger group of former Winnipeggers living in Toronto.

And I suggest it is fair to say that there is a general feeing in this group that life in what was once known as “ Hogtown” isn’t exactly what we hoped it would be. It is likely many of us in this group have a range of emotions with respect to living here, but for most of us, living in Toronto provides no joy in our lives. Why? you might ask.

Well, the reasons are varied and many. I attach no greater significance to the order of presentation. Firstly, there are those, me included, who long for the quiet and easy pace of Winnipeg. To say that there is a frenzy here is to understate it immensely. That I do not have to work here is a blessing, but for those that do work, the pressure in traffic, parking and time is horrible. I suggest that there is a thought process one goes through in Toronto that was absent in, and I suspect remains absent in Winnipeg – even in 2020. That is to say, in Toronto one has to think ahead as to the best time to go anywhere, the speediest route to take in order to reduce possible traffic tie-ups, and lastly to find a possible place to park. There is a great deal of planning before one puts a foot in the car. Now, I know I used to complain whenever I had to drive from the south end of the city to the north end. But, that little trip is a sneeze compared to the pneumonia in Toronto.

On that note, let me add that the Covid 19 crisis has had one salutary effect. Driving now in Toronto reminds me of Winnipeg on a crowded day in the streets. Thus, the whole issue of transportation is a huge factor in the level of dissatisfaction for all of us “Peggers.” Even the subway, my preferred mode of transport, has breakdowns frequently and there are almost always service interruptions on weekends for work to be done.

Connected to the congestion issue is the noise that comes with it and the sounds of sirens all day long. I long for the quiet and solitude of Winnipeg. The quiet is a result in part due to the easy and more relaxed attitude of the citizens of the city. Yes, there are peaceful places to wander about in Toronto, but you are rarely alone. A walk along Wellington Crescent would serve me well right now.

Another area which affects many of us is the inability to integrate into the Toronto world. There are many of us who would be interested and ready to meet new people and to form new relationships with the residents here. Alas, there is not that same level of interest from the locals. It is not that they are unfriendly; I have found them to be quite social with me in conversation. What the root of the problem is that they are quite satisfied with the friends they already have without taking that next step to include newcomers into their fold. The result is that those of us from wherever we have moved tend to cluster together with the common thread being denial into Toronto society. This is not life’s greatest defeat, but it does make it seem like I am more of a visitor than a resident.

Of course, for some of us the problem about living in Toronto as compared to Winnipeg is the ability to own a home. Give up that idea. For $1,000,000.00 you can buy a home in Toronto – just no home that you might want to live in or, if you do, the home is located in an area where you would want to avoid. Ok, I exaggerate, but you get the drift of it all. When we moved here, we sacrificed space for proximity to our children and grandchildren. I deal every day with the absence of space – not a game changer, but a difficulty nonetheless.

Lest I forget, the weather, which they ridicule Winnipeg for (and you can count on that to happen), is no piece of cake in Toronto. The winters may not be as long or quite as severe, but Toronto lacks sunshine. Also, Toronto has cold winds and high humidity. I will take the prairie sunshine and the pleasant evenings in Winnipeg anytime. Let no one fool you into believing the weather here is better.

Finally, and for me the biggest challenge about living in Canada’s largest city and one I have commented on in other articles and conversations, is that inner sense of satisfaction (for me at least), of going into a room (in the days when you could put people together as in BC, or Before Covid) and having people recognize and greet you by name. Or, you could look around the building and know the names or at least the faces of those around you. It is a comforting feeling. I miss that feeling some seven years after my move to Toronto.

Therefore, when it is all said and done, although Toronto offers a lot (and the mayor here is quick to tell us that fact if we did not know it already), there are many good reasons to say to him: Mr Mayor, it’s not your fault – but I’ll take Winnipeg, thank you.

 

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How DIY Auto Repairs Can Help You Cut Costs—Safely

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Regular maintenance and minor repairs are the greatest approach for many car drivers to save money without sacrificing dependability. DIY repairs can save you a lot of money over the life of your car since most of the expense is in the labour. DIY helps you learn how things work and notice tiny issues before they become costly ones. Every work requires planning, patience, and safety. 

Test Your Talents with Safe Limits 

DIY solutions succeed when one is honest about their talents. Wiper blades, air filters, and occupant filters are beginner-friendly. With the correct equipment, intermediate owners can replace brake pads, spark plugs, coolant, and brake fluid. Pressurized fuel, high-voltage hybrids, airbags, and timing components are risky. Only professionals should manage them. Limitations protect you and your car. Drivers trust sources like Parts Avenue to find, install, and schedule manufacturer-approved work.

Set Up a Reliable Workspace and Tools 

Good tools pay for themselves quickly. Ratchets, torque wrenches, combination wrenches, heavy jack stands, and wheel chocks are essential. It is advisable to engage specialists for specific tasks. A clean, flat, well-lit, and open space is essential. Please take your time. While working, keep a charged phone nearby to read repair instructions or write torque patterns. 

Find the Problem before Replacing the Parts

It may cost more to replace something without diagnosing it. Instead of ideas, start with symptoms. OBD-II readers detect leaks, sounds, and DTCs. Simple tests like voltage, smoke indicating vacuum leaks, pad thickness, and rotor runout might reveal failure. A good analysis saves components, protects surrounding parts, and fosters future trust. 

Maintenance That Pays off is Most Crucial 

Jobs compensate for time and tools differently. Prioritize returns and maintenance. Change the oil and filter, rotate the tires, evaluate the air pressure, replace low brake fluid, clean the coolant with the right chemicals, and replace belts and filters before they fail. These items extend automotive life, stabilize fuel efficiency, and reduce roadside towing issues that can take months to resolve.

Do as Instructed, Utilize Quality Parts, and Follow Torque Requirements 

Understand the service. Set the jacking points, tighten the screws in the appropriate order, and use threadlocker or anti-seize as suggested by the maker. Rotor wear can cause leaks, distortions, or broken threads. Choose components that meet or exceed OEM requirements and fit your car’s VIN, engine code, and manufacturing date. Cheap parts that break easily cost extra. 

Test, Record, and Discard Carefully 

Safely test the system before patching. Check under the car for drops, bleed the brakes again, and check fluid levels after a short drive. Note torques, parts, miles, and repair date. Photo and document storage for car sales. Properly dispose of oil, filters, coolant, and brake fluid. Controlling hazards protects your community and workplace.

Know When to Seek Professional Help 

Self-employed individuals recognize their constraints. If a task is challenging, requires special instruments, or involves safety, consult an expert. Collaboration makes cars safer, cheaper, and more efficient. Selecting, planning, and implementing processes properly improves performance, lowers costs, and ensures safety.

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What It Means for Ontario to Be the Most Open iGaming Market in Canada

Ontario is the most open commercial iGaming market in Canada, having been the first province to open up to commercial actors in the online casino and betting space since 2022.

Since gambling laws in Canada are managed on a provincial level, each province has its own legislation. 

Before April 4th, 2022, Ontario was similar to any other Canadian province in the iGaming space. The only gaming site regulated in the province was run by government-owned Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, also known as OLG. However, when the market opened up, numerous high-quality gambling companies established themselves in the province, quickly generating substantial revenue. As the largest online gambling market in Canada, it’s now, three years later, also one of the biggest in North America.

The fully regulated commercial market is run under iGaming Ontario and the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario. These licensed casinos and online sportsbooks are thus fully legal and safe for players to play at, while at the same time, the open market allows companies to compete and offer different products and platforms as long as they all fit within the requirements set up by the state of Ontario.

This means that Ontarians have a wide choice of licensed sites, whether they’re interested in sports betting, live dealer games, or slots – all with strict consumer-protection rules that keep them safe while exploring the many options. (Source: https://esportsinsider.com/ca/gambling/online-casinos-canada)

There are many benefits to online gaming, especially in a country that’s as sparsely populated as Canada, leaving physical venues often few and far between for those living outside the biggest cities.

Even before Ontario launched its own gambling sites, online gambling had been common among Ontarians. Regulating the market and offering alternatives regulated by the province has often added safer and more controlled options.

Since 85% of Ontarians now play at regulated sites, the initiative of opening up the market seems a clear win in more than one way.

Despite the huge success of the Ontario market, most provinces in Canada haven’t changed much in the iGaming sector in the past few years. Some provinces keep Crown-run monopolies, while others limit activity to a single government-run platform. This often leads Canadians to seek offshore alternatives instead, since the options are so few in their own province.

But 2025 marks an important change. The provinces seem to have noticed that Ontario picked a winning strategy, and Alberta has clearly been taking notes. 

While the province of Alberta has previously opted for controlled gambling through one government website, the province is now opening up the commercial online gambling market. The Alberta iGaming Corporation will be in charge of licensing and inspecting actors that operate in the province. This will mean many more options for players, coupled with consumer protection and a high level of safety.

Meanwhile, the Ontario iGaming market continues to prosper, grow, and develop. Now that a second province is following in its footsteps, it seems more likely that other provinces will also start following the trend.

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I know exactly why leftists aren’t celebrating this ceasefire

Palestinians walk among the rubble of destroyed buildings in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Oct. 10.

Relief that the fighting may be at an end is one thing. Joy — after all this suffering — is another

This story was originally published in the Forward. Click here to get the Forward’s free email newsletters delivered to your inbox.

“We can’t hear you, Zohran,” read one New York Post headline this week: “Pro-Hamas crowd goes quiet on Trump’s Gaza peace deal.”

“It seems awfully curious that the people who have made Gazans a central political cause do not seem at all relieved that there’s at least a temporary cessation of violence … Why aren’t there widespread celebrations across Western cities and college campuses today?” the article asked.

The Post wasn’t alone in voicing that question. A spokesperson for the Republican Jewish Coalition posted on X that “The silence from the ‘ceasefire now’ crowd is shameful and deafening.” Others went so far as to imply that the protesters had been lying and never actually wanted a ceasefire — because what they really wanted wasn’t freedom and security for Palestinians, but the ability to blame Israel. If pro-Palestinian voices had really wanted a ceasefire, the thinking went, they would be celebrating.

I read these various posts and articles and thought of Rania Abu Anza.

I have thought of her every day since I first read her story in early March 2024. Anza spent a decade trying to have a child through in vitro fertilization. When her twins, a boy and a girl, were five months old, an Israeli strike killed them. It also killed her husband and 11 other members of her family.

A year and a half later, a ceasefire cannot bring her children, her husband, or her 11 family members back. They were killed. They will stay dead. What is there to celebrate?

This does not mean that the ceasefire is not welcome, or that it is not a relief. On the contrary: It is both. Of course it’s a relief that the families of hostages don’t need to live one more day in torment and anguish. Of course it’s a relief that more bombs will not fall on Gaza.

But celebration implies, to me anyway, that this is a positive without caveats. And in this situation, there are so many caveats.

The families of the surviving hostages will still have spent years apart from their loved ones, in no small part because their own government did not treat the hostages’ return as the single highest priority. The families of those hostages who were killed in the war will never again sit down to dinner with their loved ones, who could have been saved. And it is difficult to fathom what’s been taken from the hostages themselves: time spent out exploring the world, or with family and friends, or at home doing nothing much at all but sitting safely in quiet contemplation.

And a ceasefire alone will not heal Israeli society, or return trust to the people in their government. It will not fix some of the deep societal problems this war uncovered. A Chatham House report this August found that: “Israeli television ignores the suffering of Palestinians in Gaza, while the rhetoric is often aggressive. Critical voices, from inside Israel or abroad, are attacked or silenced.” If the country is ever going to find its way back from Oct. 7 and this war, a ceasefire is a necessary precondition, but not a route in and of itself.

In Gaza, Palestinian health authorities have said that about 67,000 people — not distinguishing between combatants and civilians — have been killed by Israel’s campaign in response to Oct. 7. A full third of those killed were under the age of 18. The ceasefire cannot bring those children back to life.

It cannot turn back time and make it such that Israel admitted more than minimal aid to the embattled strip. It will not undo the damage that has been done to the people of Gaza who were denied enough to eat and drink and proper medical care. It will not give children back their parents, or parents back their children. It will not heal the disabled, or make it so that they were never wounded.

It will not change that all of this happened with the backing of the United States government. (This is to say nothing of the West Bank, which has seen a dramatic expansion of Israeli settlements and escalation of settler violence over the course of the war). And as American Jewish groups put out statements cheering the ceasefire, we should also remember that it does not reverse the reality that too many American Jews were cheerleaders for all this death.

Protesters calling for a ceasefire have regularly been denounced as hateful toward Jews or callous toward the plight of Israelis; American Jews who called for one were called somehow un-Jewish. (Yes, some pro-Palestinian protesters also shared hate toward Jews; the much greater majority did not.) The charge of antisemitism — toward those calling for a ceasefire, those calling for a free Palestine, and those who called attention to Israel’s abuses during this war — was used to silence criticism of Israel and of U.S. foreign policy. Some American Jews went so far as to call for the deportation of students protesting the war.

A ceasefire doesn’t change any of that. It can’t.

I have hopes for this ceasefire. At best, it will allow people — Israelis and Palestinians and, yes, diaspora Jews — to chart a new, better course going forward. But it almost certainly will not do that if we delude ourselves into thinking of this as a victory or a kind of tabula rasa, as though the lives lost and hate spewed are all behind us, forgotten, atoned for. The last two years will never not have happened. What happens next depends on all of us fully appreciating that.

This story was originally published on the Forward.

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