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Mike CrisolagoMike Crisolago
I am a 29-year old Toronto-based journalist and writer who has a passion for theatre, literature, history and baseball...

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Bob Kinnear, Jason Wieler, , TTC Pictures

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Let me tell you a little something about the TTC: they’re kind of like Big Tobacco.

What other two industries can lure you in at an early age, offer their customers a product with little to no regard to the quality of said product, laugh off their detractors, raise their prices and arrogantly pat itself on the back for its public service, all without any major financial and corporate repercussions?

The most recent TTC gaffe, a pic of a sleeping TTC ticket collector by passenger Jason Wieler, brought derision and fury upon the transit system, prompting TTC union bonehead Bob Kinnear to respond by BLAMING THE PUBLIC for not checking to see if the employee was healthy and breathing.

Apparently Wieler failed to assume that a man peacefully reclined in his chair, hands folded neatly across his body, might have fallen that way after suffering a heart attack or stroke.

Almost as ludicrous, Joe Fiorito of the Toronto Star suggests that Wieler was employing “vigilante justice” (seriously, Wieler is Batman) by taking a picture and running off to the Internet instead of taking the photo to the TTC head office where “he’ll be disciplined as he should be.”

Will he be disciplined Joe? Really?

1 – The union head has already virtually absolved him of any wrong-doing because, as we’ve already been told, this whole situation is our fault.

2 – All disciplinary issues regarding TTC employees are private and confidential. So I guess we’ll have to assume the TTC will do the right thing. Especially in light of….

3 – The TTC received over 31,000 complaints in 2009 – a huge jump from previous years. And, as is evident by their increasingly unreliable service, fare hikes, strikes, token-hoarding, constant service interruptions, sleeping employees and now officials telling us it’s all the CUSTOMER’S FAULT, they clearly DO NOT CARE about the patrons who use their service each day.

But what are you going to do about it Toronto? Start your own transit system? Brave rush hour traffic in your own car? Bankrupt yourself by taking taxis? Write a letter and neatly place it on the pile of over 31,000 other similarly ignored complaints?

What else can we do, Mr. Fiorito, but utilize “vigilante justice”? When all other avenues are blocked, or ignored, or too expensive, or useless, what choice do we have?

Good for you, Jason Wieler. This is how people are going to start taking out their frustrations with our flawed system. More pictures (two more have already surfaced here and here), videos, testimonials so the TTC can’t just shove the issue aside like they do with private complaints. Take it to the Internet, the press, somewhere wide out in the open. Embarrass the crap out of them until they have to act. If they don’t, someone is going to take it to the extreme one day and bring a gun or a knife or a bomb into a subway station or onto a bus to make their statement. Of course I would never wish that, but that’s how some desperate, disturbed, angry people react.

And one day, God forbid, that picture of the TTC employee on the front page of the paper may actually be one who no longer shows any signs of life. And then Bob Kinnear can blame the public some more. And Fiorito can write about how the shooter should have just written the TTC a letter.

For more commentary and interviews with the people who help shape Toronto’s arts and cultural communities, check out Mike’s full Bastard Type blog.