Long arm of the law

A Quebec aid worker pleaded guilty Monday to multiple counts of sexually assaulting young orphans in Haiti, becoming only the third Canadian convicted under laws against child-sex crimes committed overseas.

Armand Huard, 65, admitted his guilt on 10 counts of sexually touching minors or inciting minors to touch him and was sentenced to three years in jail.

His guilty plea came on the day the eight victims - Haitian boys aged between 13 and 16 years old at the time of the incidents - were set to testify at his preliminary hearing by video conference from the Canadian embassy in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Their testimony proved unnecessary because of the plea.

— "Canadian Aid Worker Guity of Assualting Haitian Boys"

Apparently the guy was working in an orphanage in Okay (a.k.a Les Cayes).

Read My Lips: More New Taxes!

So, over the weekend, I remembered that I needed to get my license plates renewed on my birthday, and that I had let that slip my mind. So this morning, I popped up, quickly, to the nearest renewal place.

Renewal is relatively easy for me: although my car is getting older, I'm not required to get emissions testing ('cause it's a hybrid), so I can just go, show proof of insurance, pay my money, and get out of there.

Apparently, on September 1st, the city of Toronto started collecting a $60 per year tax on personal vehicles. I usually renew my plates for two years at a time (the maximum), so that was a sudden $120 more than I was expected (and it was almost as much as the renewal itself -- a two year renewal is $148, or thereabouts).

I'm okay with the tax -- I hope the money will be used on TTC services, and to implement the new "Transit City" I've been seeing talked about in the subway posters. I also approve of cars as a choice of things to tax -- Toronto has too many of them. I've always supported, for example, Toronto's attempts to be allowed to take part in gas tax (although that's never succeeded). Part of me wants the amount to be higher for certain vehicles (*cough*SUVs*cough*).

And, really, I'm lucky to have a good job, and it's no big deal to cover an extra expense of 120 bucks. But I hated being surprised about it. And that hate took a moment or two to get over.

When Jargon Collides

Someone on a Toronto community mentioned that they were trying to find a book binder. And my first reaction was "What? WTF? How does that work?" And then I was, like, "oh, silly me."

Since when are they gendering lube?

This broke my brain.