Full disclosure: I work with the abused survivors of a number of Ontario institutions. A year ago this week, they met with Kathleen Wynne, who promised to help them. A few months later, they followed up with a letter – and got nothing back.

This isn’t just another case of government being insensitive – it’s in fact outrageous. And these people – who were herded into these province-run institutions when they were children, and routinely beaten and sexually abused – deserve far better from a government that, even now, still refuses to acknowledge it owed them a duty of care.

More to come on this. For now, their presss release, just out:

Did Premier Kathleen Wynne Break Her Promise to Abused Institutional Survivors?

Before she was Premier, Wynne said she would help but now that she is Premier, the victims are ignored

TORONTO, May 31, 2013 /CNW/ – Survivors of the Huronia Regional Centre (HRC) have followed up on yesterday’s dramatic Queen’s Park press conference, demanding to know why – after a full year – Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne has yet to make good on a personal promise she made to address the horrific abuse they suffered.

Patricia Seth and Marie Slark, plaintiffs in a class action lawsuit against HRC and the province of Ontario, met with Wynne at a Truth and Reconciliation gathering in Toronto – exactly a year ago this week – and told her about the abuse they endured by those entrusted to care for and protect them. Patricia and Marie were impressed with the attention the Premier paid to their plight. “She really seemed to care about us,” recalls Marie of the meeting. Patricia added, “Kathleen looked us right in the eye and said she would help us. But she hasn’t. Nothing has happened and we never heard from her again. Justice seems so far away.”

The institutional survivors followed up on their meeting with Wynne. In January 2013, Patricia and Marie wrote to the then-Minister during the Ontario Liberal leadership race, imploring Wynne to help them and all the other victims receive justice in a fair and timely manner. “She never really responded to that,” said Patricia.

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Anything else?

Anything else?

Anything else?

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Downloaded that Blackberrry 10 update yesterday, before leaving for Ottawa. Device has not worked since. Dead as a doornail.

In case you’re wondering, did this wee post on my iPhone. There’s a moral, there.

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Over 300 tickets have been sold, I’m told.  See you tonight!

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Thirty years ago, in Ottawa, a guy walked into the place where Chris and I were sitting. He handed me a Joan of Arc medal, and walked out. I’ve been wearing the medal around my neck ever since.

Joan was murdered by the English nearly 600 years ago in Rouen – for looking like a boy. Her story is here.

Why have I worn her around my neck for so many years? Because I admire strong women, that’s why.

Here she be:

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…and the source, as it turns out, is none other than Rob Ford.

His talking point: there is no video, but I know where the video is.  Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia, etc.

Link here. The Star:

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford told senior aides not to worry about a video appearing to show him smoking crack cocaine because he knew where it was, sources told the Star.

Ford then blurted out the address of two 17th-floor units — 1701 and 1703 — at a Dixon Rd. apartment complex, to the shock of staffers at a city hall meeting almost two weeks ago, the sources said.

The mayor cited “our contacts” as the source of his information, according to insiders familiar with the unusual May 17 session in his office.

Staffers were alarmed by the implication of hearing so precise a location, sources said.

This report is based on accounts given by those privy to what was discussed the day after the Star and the U.S. website Gawker published news of the crack-cocaine video shot on a cellphone.

Ford has called news of the video “false” and said: “I do not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine. As for a video, I cannot comment on a video that I have never seen or does not exist.”

Around the table at city hall on May 17 were operations and logistics director David Price, then deputy chief of staff Earl Provost, press secretary George Christopoulos and others. Missing from the meeting was Mark Towhey, then Ford’s chief of staff. Also not in attendance was communications special assistant Isaac Ransom.

Towhey was fired last Thursday after counselling Ford to seek help for his health. Christopoulos and Ransom resigned “on principle” Monday, and Provost is now chief of staff.

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As the House Communist© at Sun News, I draw to your attention this and this.

Fair’s fair. If CBC gets yet more “mandatory carriage,” so should the SNN.

I support both. The CRTC should, too.

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(And, yes, I was one at the Ottawa Citizen and Calgary Herald, many moons ago.)

• If Rob Ford was indeed heading out to Dixon Road to get really f**ked up periodically…
• …and since he’d be unable to drive himself afterwards…
• …and since he’d repeatedly refused even a police plea that he use an official driver (for reasons you can now surmise)…
• …then he’d need a driver post-binge, and not one who was a Somali drug lord or a cab driver.  One (a) he trusted with his life (b) one who knew the culture (c) and one who would therefore end up knowing the exact address of where the video was shot, and who shot it.

Ipso facto, my question: anyone got footage/pix of the “beat-up beige compact” or a certain Range Rover out near 320 Dixon Road, referred to in this NOW magazine story? Or, has anyone yet matched the private vehicles of Ford staffers to the address in question?

If you do, you’ve got something almost as good as the video: you’ve perhaps got evidence that Ford was indeed there, and that a member of his staff/circle drove him there.

Boom!

 

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The seventeenth floor at 320 Dixon Road, in Kingsview Village.  Bullet marks can be seen on a door on that floor, above.

The Sun has more:

“Several days after the shooting, the Toronto Sun learned the holder of the video that allegedly shows Rob Ford smoking crack also lives on the 17th floor of 320 Dixon Rd.

Toronto Police won’t talk about the video or the shooting, so it’s unclear if the two are connected.

Police have confirmed that homicide detectives are investigating after learning of the whereabouts of the video from a senior staff member in the mayor’s office — now believed to be Ford’s former chief of staff Mark Towhey, who was fired last week…

Whether or not investigators have the video — which Ford has claimed “does not exist” — remains a mystery.

Interestingly, the man who is believed to have shot the 90 seconds of footage with his cellphone, and may have been killed for it, also lived in Kingsview Village.

Anthony Smith, 21, was shot to death outside a King St. W. nightclub March 28 and his 19-year-old pal, who can’t be named because of a publication ban, was wounded.

Both men are also in a much publicized photo where they and a third man appear to be socializing with the mayor.”

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This is the view, right now, of the Don Valley Parkway – which Son One and I take to get downtown every day. We won’t be going that way. Thanks, Rob Ford.

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