A decade after North American blackout, power grids more reliable, but still vulnerable to failure

The North American power grid has come a long way since a massive blackout plunged parts of Canada and the eastern U.S. into darkness 10 years ago, but experts say the system is still vulnerable to cyber – threats, human error and extreme weather.

The electrical failure – the worst in North America’s history – began when a tree branch touched a power line in Ohio and then spread through eight U.S. states and Ontario, affecting more than 50 million people. Some cities did not get their power restored for four days.

“The blackout really tested the system,” said Ontario Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli, who was mayor of Ottawa at the time.

He said Ontario’s aging electrical system was “very, very weak.”

“We had a deficit of electricity, we were importing on a regular basis and we had actually lost generation in the province of Ontario because of lack of investment. The transmission system had been leaking, we had less capacity in transmission because of a lack of investment by previous governments.”

The situation wasn’t much better south of the border.

Industry leaders had been calling for years for the mandatory implementation of industry standards across the continent, which experts say could have prevented the blackout.

“It’s one of the major changes that came out of the 2003 event,” said Gerry Cauley, CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC). “There had been discussions before as early as the mid- to late-nineties about the need for mandatory reliability standards, but it really never got over the finish line.”

Mr. Cauley said it took two more years before the U.S. Congress passed the Energy Policy Act, which gave the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission authority over grid reliability and the hammer of potential civil penalties and fines up to $1-million (U.S.) a day.

FirstEnergy Corp., the Ohio-based company at the heart of the power outage, went to great lengths to update their capabilities to prevent a similar disaster from happening again.

“We’ve added new facilities, new equipment, we’ve enhanced our operator training and implemented new NERC operational standards and the key piece is they are now mandatory and enforceable,” company spokesman Mark Durbin said. “We believe that’s helped enhance the reliability of not just our piece of the transmission system, but of the transmission system as a whole.”

But despite the improvements, industry experts and government officials agree the grid now faces more threats than it did in 2003.

“One of the highest priorities of NERC today is cybersecurity and severe weather events … they’re priority areas, but I don’t think there’s 100-per-cent comfort in the system yet in those areas,” Mr. Chiarelli said.

“We see foreign countries invading the cybersecurity system of embassies in different countries and it’s that type of cybersecurity that is also a risk to the energy system,” he said. “So they’re upgrading the cybersecurity on an ongoing basis to ensure that that doesn’t happen.”

Ontario’s energy watchdog said the grid’s susceptibility to these threats grew in the years following the blackout.

“Cyberthreats are becoming more and more of an issue … they probably escalated in the last five or six years from where they were in the last seven or eight years, but then so has our readiness,” said Kim Warren, vice-president of operations of Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator.

“You never say never in this line of business, but things are significantly enhanced from where we were in 2003 … the types of things that we do try to balance the risk against these extreme type of events and the costs of increasing readiness.”

Some U.S. politicians initially said the power outage originated in Canada. That did not sit well with then-Toronto mayor Mel Lastman.

“All I heard was the Americans blaming it on us, and I made a statement where I said ‘the Americans are always blaming it on Canada,’ and that went right across the United States,” he said.

“It was crazy, they didn’t know anything, we didn’t know anything – it was too early to know whose fault it was and there they were blaming it on us.”

Although terrorism was an early focus of the joint U.S.-Canadian task force that investigated the cause of the blackout in the following months, it was soon dismissed as the cause of the blackout.

Ten years later, it is much more of a concern.

“I think we’re in a whole new ball game now with all the terrorism aspects … I’m not up to date on all of the precautions and measures that are being taken to try and protect against that, but it’s certainly a much bigger concern than it was even then,” former Ontario premier Ernie Eves said.

Ontario’s power grid has undergone many improvements in the past decade.

An executive at Hydro One said the possibility of a similar event occurring today is low, but unpredictable human error could lead to problems across the grid again.

“From the lessons learned, we are in a better position to restore the system in a more efficient and perhaps quicker manner,” said Bing Young, the company’s director of transmission system development.

“But if there are jurisdictions out there south of us that have not been complying with the standards and have allowed situations to occur … that’s not entirely within our control.”
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One dead after TTC bus and truck collide at Scarborough intersection

A TTC bus and a truck collided at a north Scarborough intersection late Tuesday morning, leaving one dead and injuring more than a dozen people, according to Toronto EMS.

One of those injured is reported to have life-threatening injuries, and two others are reported to have serious injuries following the crash around 11:30 a.m. at Steeles Ave. E. and Middlefield Rd., near McCowan Ave., according to Constable Clint Stibbe.

The victim who died of her injuries is a woman in her 50s, said EMS spokesperson Kim McKinnon.

Police report that the woman was waiting to get off the stationary vehicle when it was struck by the eastbound truck. The truck is alleged to have veered across the road into the bus as it attempted to make a left hand turn.

Twelve people in total were taken to hospital and more were treated on scene.

The intersection will be closed for approximately four hours – well into rush hour, said a police spokesperson.

A TTC spokesperson said two routes are affected — 130 Middlefield and 53 Steeles East — and are currently being diverted in both directions.

Andrew Knox, who works down the street from the scene of the collision, said he heard the crash.

“It sounded like an explosion,” he said. “It was extremely loud.”

His work colleague, Dave Bryson, said he could see a woman lying on the floor of the bus.

One homeowner, whose house backs onto the crash scene, said he was in his yard raking leaves when he heard a crash and screaming.

“Sometimes my kids are with me in the yard,” said Britpal Saini. “Thank God this time they weren’t.”

Saini has lived in his home for seven years, and said just recently a car crashed into his neighbour’s fence when trying to negotiate the same left hand turn.

“It’s really bad, I’m scared to live here,” he said. “It’s a really bad intersection.”

A reconstruction team will be on site imminently to determine whether the crash resulted from mechanical failure.

The driver of the bus was one of the patients taken to hospital, said Andy Byford, TTC CEO, but he was unable to confirm if the other injured people were on the bus.

“This is a very serious and shocking incident,” he told reporters at the scene. “Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased and the other injured passengers.”

TTC Chair Karen Stintz tweeted, “Sincere condolences to the loved ones of the deceased in today's tragedy. My thoughts are with our operator, passengers, & their loved ones.”

The intersection is currently closed and there are live hydro wires dangling down from a damaged hydro pole.

Nearly 5,000 Power Stream Inc. customers were without power as a result of the crash but it has since been restored according to the company’s Twitter account.

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Toronto Star tries to offset advertising losses with new digital paywall

The Toronto Star has joined the mass of other Canadian newspapers to monetize their website, launching a "digital access" program on Tuesday.

Like other sites, the Star says it will charge for access to content online, while allowing a few free views every month before the paywall kicks in.

"This marks a major transition for the Star that will help us provide, in print and online, the best and most comprehensive package of news and information in Canada," Publisher John Cruickshank said in an article posted on Tuesday.

The announcement that the Star, Canada's largest newspaper by readership, would go behind a paywall had actually been made late last year. Some had begun to wonder when the newspaper would implement the change.

The Star is just the latest major Canadian newspaper to slip behind a paywall. The Globe and Mail already has one in place, as do Postmedia papers, including the National Post and Montreal Gazette, and the Quebecor-owned newspapers including the Toronto Sun.

There's no great secret behind the move. The newspaper industry is struggling, and seeking new revenue streams to make up for a dramatic downturn in subscriptions and print advertising sales.

Quebecor recently shut down 11 local newspapers and cut their staff by 150 people. Postmedia similarly struggled last quarter, posting a $112 million loss.

On Monday, it was reported that the Globe and Mail would stop delivering to Newfoundland and parts of northern British Columbia, with subscribers in the area being offered a discount on digital subscriptions.

The Toronto Star's online subscription is being relied on to make up some financial ground being lost by parent company Torstar Corp. Print advertisement revenue dropped 16 per cent in the first quarter of 2013 at a cost of about $11 million.

The Canadian Press reports that isn't the only change coming for the company. Two sites focused on local business, YourMississaugaBiz and YourHamiltonBiz, were shut down on Monday.

Notably, both sites had been paywalled earlier this year.

That is not to say paywalls cannot succeed. According to the Globe and Mail's editor-in-chief, the newspaper has found success since launching its online subscription service last year.

John Stackhouse told a media conference in June that the Globe now has more digital readers than print readers. The paper touts more than 90,000 online subscribers, with "tens of thousands" of those being online-only readers.  He added the site is slowly recovering after losing about 40 per cent of its readers when it launched the paywall.

The Star would clearly prefer to retain its readers from the start, or at least hope for a similar rebound. In his announcement, Cruickshank appealed to readers to invest in “high-quality reporting, ground-breaking investigations, opinion writing and digital innovation.”

The price for digital access is about $5 if you subscribe to the newspaper and $10 if you do not.

But never fear, even if you don't sign up for a digital subscription you will continue to have access to the newspaper's classified advertisements and obituaries.
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Man rushed to hospital with life threatening injuries after shooting at north Toronto apartment building

Police were on scene outside a north Toronto apartment building where a man in his 20s was shot in the head and shoulder on Thursday night.

Police were called just after 7 p.m and the victim was transported to hospital with life threatening injuries.

Investigators confirmed that the shooting occurred in an underground parking lot adjacent to the apartment complex at 80 Forest Manor Road, near Don Mills Road and Sheppard Avenue.

Investigators confirmed that the shooting occurred in an underground parking lot adjacent to the apartment complex at 80 Forest Manor Road, near Don Mills Road and Sheppard Avenue.

As of 10 p.m. Thursday, police had no suspects in the case and could not comment on whether the shooter and the victim were known to each other.

The victim was in surgery at 10 p.m. and his condition was unknown.

More than 100 apartment residents had gathered outside the building, barred from entering the parking lot where police tape could be seen surrounding a parked car. Police had shut down the elevator in the building, which is believed to be a “secondary scene” where “something may have occurred,” said Det. Mark Charuk.

He said investigators were interviewing witnesses who were in the underground during the shooting. Police are  also reviewing surveillance footage from the parking lot and building, Det. Charuk said.

A car was reportedly damaged, but the detective could not confirm if a stray bullet was the culprit.
EMS said the 911 caller had described the victim as in his 40s, but first responders clarified that he was in fact in his 20s.

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Bouncer injured in overnight shooting at King West nightclub in Toronto

TORONTO — Police say two people have been hurt in an early morning shooting at a downtown Toronto club.

Investigators say both have been taken to hospital, and one is considered a suspect.

They say more than a hundred people were inside the COBRA nightclub at the time of the shooting. One of the injured is a bouncer at the club, CBC reported.

Meanwhile, police continue to investigate a shooting in the city’s northeast that left a man with critical head injuries.

Police say the man was shot in the head and shoulder around 7 p.m. Thursday night in a parking garage near Sheppard Avenue East and Don Mills Road.

He remains in hospital after undergoing emergency surgery.

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toronto Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti charged with five campaign finance offences, calls claims ‘frivolous’

A special prosecutor acting on behalf of the City of Toronto has charged Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti with five campaign finance offences relating to the 2010 election.

The charges come after a forensic audit of the York West councillor’s books that uncovered apparent contraventions of the Municipal Elections Act, including having exceeded the legal spending limit by 44%. A first court appearance is set for August 15.

The city’s compliance audit committee launched legal action in February, and the city retained Brian Gover, of Stockwoods LLP, to decide what, if any, charges would go before a court. Mr. Mammoliti is accused of exceeding the candidate spending limit, failing to record or incorrectly recording campaign contributions and expenses, failing to keep records of campaign expenses and accepting cash contributions over $25.

He was charged on July 16. The alleged offences are provincial, not criminal. If found guilty, he could be fined up to $25,000 per offence and, in some circumstances, disqualified from office.

Reached by phone in Vancouver, Mr. Gover said prosecutors must believe there is a “reasonable prospect of conviction” before filing the charges.

In a statement, Councillor Mammoliti blasted the “frivolous” claims and suggested he was not given enough time to respond. “We take this summons from the city very seriously and will vindicate ourselves by detailed explanation,” he wrote. He has hired prominent lawyer Morris Manning to argue his case.

Peter Li Preti

“Ultimately, taxpayers deserve an explanation on what appears to be a politically motivated and biased decision on their dime. The City has spent almost $500,000 to date on all compliance audits and expenses. This legal process will potentially cost the City another $200,000,” Mr. Mammoliti wrote in an email.

Meanwhile, Toronto’s compliance audit committee voted Friday to commence legal action against former councillor Peter Li Preti, the runner up in the 2010 Ward 8 election.

An audit by Froese Forensic Partners found Mr. Li Preti accepted 46 illegal corporate contributions and went over his $23,917 spending limit by just over $3,000, or 13%, among other apparent contraventions.

Following the decision, and ignoring his lawyer’s advice not to speak to the media, Mr. Li Preti expressed his disappointment.

“I don’t think I have anything to fear. I think this a political decision,” he said. “Rob Ford had the same number of contraventions, if you read this report. The committee did nothing. Other people had the same number of contraventions, the committee did nothing. But me, they’re proceeding.”

In February, the committee dropped the investigation into Mr. Ford’s campaign spending. Auditors identified a number of alleged breaches, including that Mr. Ford spent 3% over the legal limit and accepted 11 illegal corporate donations.

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Murder in Rexdale

A 21-year-old man was killed in a brazen, broad-daylight shooting outside a Rexdale highrise Monday.

Toronto Police say the gunfire erupted just after 3 p.m. at a complex on Armel Ct., in the Albion Rd.-Hwy. 401 area, sending cops and other emergency responders racing to the scene.

“Witnesses heard several gunshots,” Const. Tony Vella said Monday. “When officers arrived at the apartment building they found a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.”

It’s believed the victim was shot near a side entrance to 236 Armet Ct., one of three highrises on the culd-de-sac.

Paramedics performed CPR on the fatally-injured man as they whisked him into an ambulance and rushed him to a trauma centre.

“He was pronounced dead at the hospital,” Vella said. “So homicide detectives have taken over the investigation.”

The man, whose name was not immediately released, is the city’s 36th murder victim of the year.
A long-time resident said her eight-year-old daughter heard the gunfire erupt.

“People have been talking about the problems with security in this area for a long time,” she said at the gated complex. “It’s scary.”

All three of her young kids saw the bloody aftermath of the shooting.

“They’re asking me, ‘Why did the boy leave his red sweater behind?’” she said. “But it wasn’t not a red sweater.

“That says it all, I think,” she added.

Sadly, it’s not the first time the woman has had to explain such violence to her children.

“That’s the way the world is today unfortunately,” she said. “This stuff happens right outside your window.”

Investigators urge anyone who witnessed the shooting to call 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-TIPS (8477).

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Calling in O’Connor a slick political move by Toronto Police chief Bill Blair

That was a slick and brilliant political move by Chief Bill Blair.

By announcing the hiring of retired Justice Dennis O’Connor to probe “use of force” and death in police hands of “emotionally disturbed people” he has got out ahead of three looming reviews.

One will come from Ombudsman Andre Marin, who vigorously announced he will investigate use of force and made no bones about how upset he is with the fact so many have died.

The second is a upcoming coroner’s inquest into the police shooting deaths of three people who were said to be considered mental health calls.

The third, and perhaps biggest elephant in the room, is the upcoming ruling from the Special investigations Unit in the streetcar shooting death of Sammy Yatim.

If they do lay a charge, it would be the second on a TPS officer in a shooting death in recent time.
The chief taking outside action from a man of integrity like O’Connor is a rare move and a positive one.

But after the deaths of Reyal Jardine-Douglas, 25; Sylvia Klibingaitis, 52; and Michael Eligon, 29 — all shot by Toronto police officers — he had to do something.

Blair was good to his word in his statement after Sammy Yatim’s shooting that he aims to do something meaningful to address this.

In many ways, Monday’s announcement was an acknowledgment that the status quo, and perhaps the equipment and engagement style, needs to be modernized.

O’Connor, in the Walkerton and Arar inquiries, has shown he won’t hold back on making abrupt and uncomfortable criticisms and suggestions.

Smart of Blair to get out ahead of all of it.

He will be able to point to his action as an example doing something.

However, we will need to see the terms and scope before we know for sure if another probe will have any teeth.

The fourth authority Blair has to be concerned about is the public — many of whom fall into the category of being pro-police but also against lethal force against troubled people if there are other options.

There have been many reviews of use of force and recommendations in the past, so it seemed unusual it would be the chief who would call in a judge and not the Toronto Police Services Board.

But Chair Dr. Alok Mukherjee supports the chief’s approach and did not feel he went around the board.

“Not at all,”he said. “Under the Police Service Act, section 11, whenever there is an SIU investigation, the Chief is required to cause an administrative investigation to occur that looks into policies, procedures, training and conduct involved in the incident.”

Mukherjee said with the public cynical about another internal police review, this was a better way to go and within the chief’s purview.

“The Act gives that responsibility to the Chief, and he reports the results of his review to the Board. The Board then decides what, if any, action is required,” he said. “The Board also has the option to make the Chief’s report public if it so determines.”

The cost of hiring the highly regarded O’Connor will also be made public.

Justice John Mordin’s report on the G20 cost in excess of $1 million. But, said Mukherjee, if it saves lives it’s money well spent.

“The public needs to have confidence in policing,” he said, adding the public also needs to know police “will be held to account.”

In the end, the chief’s move here, while politically prudent, is also vital and wise because so many people dying in these calls is not tolerable.
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toronto Mayor Rob Ford's council allies mum on video

Mayor Rob Ford’s boosters on city council are remaining uncharacteristically mum on videos that surfaced Friday showing the mayor seemingly drunk at the Taste of the Danforth festival.

When asked their reaction of the amateur YouTube clips of Ford’s arrival at the food festival where he seems to slur his words as he shakes hands and poses for pictures, Councillors Denzil Minnan-Wong and Mike Del Grande declined comment.

“I don’t have anything to say,” said Minnan-Wong Sunday. “I’m not in the position where I’m going to make a contribution.”

Del Grande, who resigned as the city’s budget chief in January, said he’s heard about the circulating footage, but “I wasn’t there, I can’t make any comments.”

“The general public looks to a good role model, that’s all I can say,” he said.

Former deputy mayor and newly-elected Progressive Conservative MPP Doug Holyday — who has always been an ally of Ford — has previously said he has never seen (Ford) take a drink and continued to stand by that statement Sunday.

“I did see it,” Holyday said, referring to the video. “I don’t know what to make of it. It’s kind of a lot of background noise, I can’t say what’s going on. For him to talk to guys about football or call them buddies, he does that all the time.”

Holyday used one-word answers — “No” — when asked whether he felt there should be some sort of probe into Ford’s behavior or whether it impacted his ability to run the city.

In March, reports surfaced of Ford being asked to leave the Garrison Ball, a gala for military personnel, because of strange behaviour.

Three months later, allegations of a videotape capturing the mayor smoking what appears to be crack cocaine surfaced. Ford denied using crack and the existence of the video.

A source told the Toronto Sun at the time Ford’s chief of staff Mark Towhey was fired because he told Ford to get help for “personal problems.”

Toronto Police Traffic Services Const. Clinton Stibbe said they won’t be investigating the video because there’s no evidence of criminality.

“A person consuming alcohol and being filmed in of itself isn’t a crime,” he said. “At this point, I don’t know what video you’re referring to, but for Traffic Services mandate, it doesn’t fall within it, to be looking at that.”

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Toronto Trump tower’s investor revolt bigger than thought

Well over a year after Toronto’s Trump International Hotel & Tower officially opened, investors in more than 200 hotel-condo units have yet to close on their suites in the troubled project.

This fact, which is just hinted at in a recent court filing, means rookie developer Talon International has yet to collect final payments on all but about 50 of the 261 hotel-condo suites in the 65-storey luxury landmark.

It also means that Talon International is still on the hook for many of the day-to-day costs of running those units, including maintenance fees averaging well over $3,000 a month and commercial taxes on the roughly $800,000 units, which are three times the residential tax rates.

Since opening, the landmark lux hotel has been hobbled by an investor revolt and a $40-million lawsuit launched last fall by purchasers of some 25 units who claim they were victims of “an investment scheme and conspiracy.”

Talon, which is controlled by Russian steel magnate and rookie hotelier Alex Shnaider, has denied those allegations.

It has launched countersuits against investors, saying buyers were warned that real estate — and hotels — can be risky businesses.

Talon acknowledged Friday that “fewer hotel condominium units were closed than originally expected,” it but added that the hotel-condo units, which are rented out for overnight stays, “are a real estate investment of Talon and generate cash flow.”

The company noted it also has the investors’ deposit money.

It also stressed, through an email statement, that other condos in the building have closed or are up for sale. That refers to 118 more conventional residential units, although it’s unclear from Talon’s statement how many buyers of those units have taken title.

The hotel-condo units, on the other hand, are part of a rental pool, and investors had expected to get returns based on room rates of more than $500 per night and occupancy rates of at least 55 per cent, as set out in marketing materials graced by Donald Trump’s smiling face.

Instead many investors walked away because they can’t get mortgages on units that banks consider commercial rather than residential real estate or because they can’t afford the monthly maintenance fees.

“Trump International Hotel & Tower Toronto continues to be adequately financed, Talon continues to remain in control of the project with the full support of its lenders and there are absolutely no concerns whatsoever with respect to the financial condition of this project in any regard,” Talon said Friday.

“Since launching in 2004, Talon has made it its mission to ensure Trump International Hotel & Tower Toronto is a world-class building that will stand the test of time. Nothing has changed in that regard, and the company continues to provide the highest level of service and amenities to both residents and guests to the hotel.”

Last fall Toronto lawyer Javad Heydary launched a lawsuit, which seeks at least $40 million and the return of deposits, on behalf of some 38 investors who bought about 25 hotel-condos they expected to generate income.

Instead, the lawsuit alleges, they found themselves unwitting partners in a money-losing hotel operation, saddled with sizable costs — through their common element fees — of running a restaurant, spa and other amenities.

Lawyers for the investors have been asking Talon for months for detailed financial disclosures of those costs and others.

In an amended statement of defence filed July 26, Talon takes the view that because the plaintiffs have sought to rescind their deals they aren’t “owners” and therefore not privy to any financial details.

It’s in that document, filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice, that Talon hints at the magnitude of the investor revolt. Talon notes that the hotel-suites, which were registered as a condo corporation in October, 2012, have a condo board. But it still has no owners on it because “Talon has not at this time transferred 20% of the units in the corporation” to owners.

That is “unusual” for units that were registered so many months ago, said real estate lawyer Bob Aaron, who has clients who walked away from Trump hotel-condo units.

Two major Toronto condo developers said it’s almost unheard of to have so few titles on units transferred to owners 10 months after project has registered. (The hotel was officially opened in April, 2012 by Trump and his family.)

Closing monies are critical, they said, in satisfying lenders that the project is financially sound. The proceeds are used to repay construction loans.

Even the construction process has turned out to be costlier than Talon expected, according to other legal documents filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

At the peak, there 14 outstanding construction liens against Talon, the last of which was removed in January, 2012, after Talon had paid some $200,000 in costs.

In June, one of the co-founders of the project, Val Levitan, stepped down as CEO. He’s been replaced by Neil Labatte, a highly regarded former Fairmont Hotels executive.
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