Toronto commuting times worst of 19 major cities, study says

A study has recently shown that Greater Toronto's commuting times are the worst of 19 big cities polled. The average commute time for a round trip journey takes 80 minutes. People in Toronto spend on average an extra 24 minutes driving around the city each day than in Los Angeles, 12 minutes longer than New York and 32 minutes longer than Barcelona. This is astonishing because the cities mentioned above are much more populated than Toronto. The Board of Trade Chief Executive, Carol Wilding, commented on Toronto's last place ranking and says it is "embarrassing". The provincial budget, which delayed $4 billion in planned transit spending did not help. "This isn't complicated. Everybody agrees that Toronto has a fantastic transit system , but for a city of about one million we stopped making meaningful rapid transit years ago", commented Mayor David Miller to reporters on Monday. In the report is stated that only 29 percent of Toronto-area residents chose to leave their car at home when going to work. In Paris, 74 percent of people chose to leave their car at home. However, Toronto has still managed to remain a very popular place to live. It recently has ranked number 2 in labour attractiveness, only behind Barcelona.


The results from the study reflect upon how inefficient our road and traffic system is in Toronto. The government needs to spend more time on this very important issue of road traffic. I think that it is a very underrated problem in Toronto, the government and people tend to spend more time worrying about other issues like the environment. Don't get me wrong, I know that the environment is still an important issue that the government promised to fix, but maybe they should consider issues that are proving to be a problem on a day to day basis like road traffic. This issue has been dominating the way people plan their days. People have to plan ahead of the daily traffic to get to their destination. The statistic that suprised me is that Toronto still remains a very popular place to live, even though it rated worst in daily commuting times(80 minutes round trip).



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Zundel released from German prison

Ernst Zundel was released from a German prison this Monday, after serving 5 years in prison for his denying that the Holocaust every took place. Zundel has finally made his way back to Canada after 7 years, 3 weeks and 3 prisons in Germany. Zundel did not comment when asked if he still believed that there was no Holocaust. "It's kind of a sad situation; there's a lot to say. I'll certainly be careful not to offend anyone and their draconian laws" he stated. The German born Zundel, had been living in Canada for the last four decades, where he made frequent court visits to argue his anti-semetic views regarding the Holocaust. He had expressed his beliefs in books and websites. Zundel was deported to Germany in 2005 after the Federal court ruled that he was a threat to National security. Zundel was arrested upon arrival in his home country, and held without bail. In 2007, he was convicted of 14 counts of inciting racial hatred and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Zundel had received the maximum sentence under the German law for denying the holocaust. In many European countries such as Germany, Austria, Poland, Belgium,and Spain it is against the law to say that the Holocaust did not happen. Zundel spent only three years in jail as he received credit for the 2 prior years waiting to tried.

Zundel has spent the last seven years of his life forced to live in Germany for expressing his own personal beliefs. Canada has done the wrong thing by deporting him, as Canada does not persecute people for expressing their opinions. This is a country where everyone is entitled to freedom of speech. However, I personally do not agree with what Zundel is saying, but the government does not have the right to take away his citizenship. It would be different if he were to be living in Germany and expressing his views there. Since Canada could not legally sentence him in Canada they had to deport him to Germany, where he was guaranteed to be charged with a crime.

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/03/01/zundel-release.html