[PHOTO] Looking west down the tracks, from Strachan Avenue

[BLOG] Some Monday links

• blogTO identifies four Ontario towns of note for visitors.


• Joe. My. God. notes President Obama's commemoration yesterday of the first official report of HIV/AIDS, 35 years ago.


• Marginal Revolution looks at real estate issues in London.


• Savage Minds notes that, from the mid-20th century apogee of academia, academic jobs have been steadily declining in number and quality. (That blog wrote about anthropology, but I think it applies to academia generally.)
  
• Torontoist notes a racist police newsletter that saw no policeman punished.


• Towleroad observes the assassination of a Honduran LGBT activist.


• Window on Eurasia notes Moscow's enunciation of a doctrine requiring it to intervene on behalf of ethnic Russians and looks at the new security state.

[NEWS] Some Monday links

• Bloomberg notes concern in Asia regarding Brexit, and reports on a Taiwanese call to China to heal from Tiananmen.


• CBC notes a shocking proposal to assemble a human being using an artificial genome.


• io9 notes the interest of the Chinese government in setting up a local science fiction award.


• MacLean's notes Russian crime gangs are blackmailing gay men.


• The National Post observes one suggestion that Stonehenge was originally Welsh, and reports on a Wildrose parliamentarian in Alberta who compared a carbon tax to the Ukrainian genocide.


• Open Democracy examines English identity in the context of Brexit and reports on South America's Operation Condor.


• The Toronto Star reports on an African grey parrot that may be a murder witness and notes Trudeau's statement that preserving indigenous languages is key to preventing youth suicides.

[ISL] "Shoal May Become Military Line in Sand on South China Sea"

Bloomberg's David Tweed notes a maritime dispute between China and the Philippines that might be heating up.

Global defense chiefs meeting in a plush hotel in Singapore on the weekend were faced with one of Asia’s biggest looming security challenges, but left without any tangible sense of how to tackle it.

The elephant in the room at the Shangri-La security forum was a uninhabited shoal about 230 kilometers (143 miles) from the Philippine coast, a triangle of reef and rocks that barely stretches above high tide. Occupied by China since 2012, the Scarborough Shoal threatens to become the biggest flash point in disputes over the South China Sea.

U.S. Admiral John Richardson raised the prospect of China building on the shoal in March and the following month the U.S. sent air force planes into its vicinity. An airstrip there would add to China’s network of runways and surveillance sites that U.S. Pacific Command chief Harry Harris said last year would create “a mechanism by which China would have de facto control over the South China Sea in any scenario short of war.”

The potential motivation for China to build on the shoal is a coming international arbitration ruling on a case brought by the Philippines against its South China Sea claims. China didn’t take part in the hearings, arguing the tribunal lacks jurisdiction.

If the non-binding ruling is unfavorable to China, it might respond by putting structures on the shoal to give it a military outpost right on the Philippines’ door. Chinese Admiral Sun Jianguo said on Sunday China will not accept the tribunal’s ruling, expected by mid year.

[ISL] "Residents deserting tiny community on remote Danish island of Christiansø"

The English-language Copenhagen Post reports on disputes which may threaten the long-term future of Christiansø, Denmark's easternmost island, as a populated territory.

Christiansø is the largest island of Ertholmene, a tiny archipelago located about 20 km north of Svaneke on Bornholm. The archipelago are an unincorporated area that does not belong to either a municipality or a region. The islands are state property governed by an administrator appointed by the Ministry of Defence.

An email sent to TV2/Bornholm said that many residents are considering leaving Christiansø due to dissatisfaction with the current administrator, Orla Johannsen.

Johannsen said there are residents moving away, but it’s due to natural attrition and people taking new jobs, and not any dissatisfaction with his leadership.

“These are just ordinary resignations from positions that are frequently changing, as well as someone retiring and a contract expiration,” said Johannsen.

Johannsen said that one couple and their children are leaving after seven years on the island, another couple have reached retirement age, and another couple’s contract has expired.

The departure of the 11 residents will drop the population of the island from 94 to 83.

[URBAN NOTE] "'Please God! Let us be out': Portrait of a fishing town's 'Brexit' debate"

CBC's Margaret Evans reports from the eastern English fishing community of Boston on Euroskepticism there. Knowing what the demographics of communities like these are like in Atlantic Canada, I would think Bostonians would be grateful for an actual influx of people.

An impeccably dressed woman in her 70s with carefully turned out hair sits on a sunny terrace not far from the famed tower of St. Botolph's Church in the English town of Boston, making a fervent wish.

"I want to be out. I want, want, want, want — please God! — let us be out."

This is Yvonne Stevens, a local councillor for the U.K. Independence Party or UKIP. Its roots date back to the 1990s and British opposition to the signing of the Maastricht Treaty enshrining key tenets of European integration.

[. . .]

Stevens says the town doesn't have the schools or health-care services needed to cope with the added numbers. She insists she's not a racist.

"Let's have people coming in who have a specific qualification that we need, not just people that are going to stand around drinking, defecating, urinating in our town and throwing all their rubbish," she says. "I'm not saying English people don't also throw some rubbish, but I think we've been trained a bit more to put our rubbish in the bins."

For the record, we noticed no defecating immigrants during our visit. And the Poles we did meet said they hadn't been faced with unwelcoming attitudes from local residents, although there are clearly tensions between communities.

Critics accuse EU migrants from the east of undercutting wages in the fields and packaging plants where many find employment when they arrive.

[URBAN NOTE] "Diverting Lake Michigan water for U.S. city's use sets ‘bad precedent’"

The Toronto Star's Michael Robinson reports about what might be the beginning of a severe environmental threat, to the water levels of the Great Lakes being drained by thirsty cities.

A small Wisconsin city has taken one step closer to gulping more than 30 million litres of freshwater a day from Lake Michigan, a move Ontario cottagers fear could signal the beginning of the end of the Great Lakes.

“We appreciate the scaling back of this proposal in part thanks to pressure from Ontario,” said Bob Duncanson, executive director of Georgian Bay Association, a group representing 20 cottage associations. “But we still feel that it sets a bad precedent for protection of the finite water resources in the Great Lakes.

“Despite the fact they look like large bodies of water, they don’t replenish easily.”

Since 2005, Canada and the U.S. have created joint and independent bodies to protect Great Lakes freshwater.

Waukesha, Wisc., is the first city to test the Great Lakes compact, a multi-state agreement adopted in 2008 that restricts water withdrawals to communities located within the Great Lakes Basin. Their proposal has triggered concerns that there will be similar requests down the road, potentially putting a strain on the Great Lakes water supply water supply.

[URBAN NOTE] "Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension track work complete"

This article, from the CBC, is exciting. I cannot wait to ride to the north.

It's been expensive, but track work on the Toronto-York Spadina Subway Extension (TYSSE) is now complete.

Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne appeared at the new line's future Vaughan Metropolitan Centre stop to announce the completion of the track work. The TYSSE will lengthen the western portion of Line 1 by 8.6 kilometres and add six stations north of Downsview.

Wynne said the subway, which connects Toronto and York Region, has "symbolic" significance and is a good example of the province's regional approach when it comes to transit development.

"Being a York Region girl myself, it's very exciting," Wynne told reporters.

TTC Chair Josh Colle said he's confident the new stretch of subway will be open by the end of 2017. The new stations, he said, are currently 90 per cent complete.

[URBAN NOTE] "City, province nudge relief line closer to reality"

From Transit Toronto's Robert MacKenzie:

This week, both the Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto and nudged the relief line subway project a few millimetres along its journey from the drawing board to reality.

On the provincial side, Ontario’s Minister of Transportation Stephen Del Duca and Metrolinx’ chief executive officer Bruce McCuaig met Toronto Mayor John Tory and the chair of the Toronto Transit Commission Councillor Josh Colle at the TTC’s Greenwood subway yards to announce that the province would help fund planning and designing the route and station locations.

According to an Ontario news release, “Ontario’s transit agency Metrolinx will be receiving more than $150 million to work with the City of Toronto and the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) on advancing the planning and design work that will ensure the proposed line is shovel ready…”

The future line would link the east end of the TTC’s 2 Bloor - Danforth subway line more directly with downtown Toronto and, the news release explains, “help manage congestion on the Yonge Subway line.”

Meanwhile, at a public information meeting this week, City planners presented what may be the final alignment for the future line — or at least the alignment they prefer the most.

There is much more at the Transit Toronto blog.

[URBAN NOTE] "Cheri DiNovo to run for federal NDP leadership"

If NDP Ontario MPP Cheri DiNovo were to run for the leadership of the federal party, as suggested by the CBC among others, this would indeed be notable. I like her, for the record.

A veteran member of the Ontario Legislature will become the first official candidate for leader of the federal New Democratic Party.

Multiple sources say Cheri DiNovo will declare her candidacy to replace Tom Mulcair as federal NDP leader in an announcement in her riding on Tuesday.

[. . .]

DiNovo is a champion of social justice issues, campaigning successfully to amend the Ontario Human Rights Code to include gender identity and expression, and introducing a bill to give same-sex couples the same parental rights as male-female couples.

She also convinced the Liberal government to amend the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act to recognize post-traumatic stress disorder as being work-related for police, firefighters and paramedics, after introducing four separate private member's bills over seven years.

[URBAN NOTE] "Toronto under severe thunderstorm watch"

CBC reports. I hope for a nice strong rain, myself.

Environment Canada has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for Toronto.

The watch, in effect as of 6:16 p.m. ET, said current weather conditions could produce severe thunderstorms. These storms may be capable of producing winds gusts of up to 90 kilometres per hour. It said small hail and weak funnel clouds are also possible.

According to Emergency Management Ontario, Toronto residents are urged to take cover immediately if threatening weather approaches.