Home Decorating Made Easy

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There can be many confusing choices to make when renovating or decorating your home. You can choose the do-it-yourself approach, which in the case of my talented artistic wife, works quite well. Or you can hire a professional to assist you or even direct the project.  But be careful. Since the Renaissance, the line has blurred between amateurs and professionals in this field.

At the top of the scale for major work, is the Interior Architect. Now, to call yourself an Interior Architect, you have to have a degree in Architecture – no ifs ands or buts. It is a highly regulated profession where structural design, electrical  and lighting systems, and plumbing infrastructure are involved.

The next on the list would be the Interior Decorator and Designer, a skilled professional certified and degreed to improve the aesthetics in your home, but NOT an Architect.

At the bottom of the list, but not to deny their innate skill in finger painting, are the HTDs, as the trained, certified professionals call them. No not a sexually transmitted disease, but rather the dreaded Housewives Turned Decorators. No formal studies or training, but a couple of well-placed jobs decorating friends’ homes and you have a business. Now, the real “Lace Curtain” decorators, designers and architects can spot a “Shanty” HTD a mile away, but the average customer may get fooled.

So if you have a major project on the go, check for the certificates and accreditation and do a thorough background check. A flashy website can make even a Pig in a Poke look good.

 

By the way, the three top recommended Interior Decorators and Designers in Caledon are Chabot Interiors, Sontacchi Design, and Dream Home Designs

 

Shame on Caledon

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Once upon a time there was a little village north of Toronto. It was once known as the “Greenest Town in Ontario” but that was before Highway 50 became one of the busiest truck and traffic corridors in Ontario. The once little green town now bears the shame of bing one of the most congested.

The problem is both local and provincial. Waiting for the Province an Metrolinx to get appropriate public transit into this are has been glacial in progress. So, I have a local solution. Now that the Emil Kolb Parkway skirts the Town, we can put up signs on Highway 50 to direct through traffic to go around the Town – so easy! However, when faced with a wide open double lane road, why detour? Here’s why.

Change highway 50 back to a little two lane Town Road, let’s call it Queen Street, between Coleraine to the south and the Emil Kolb roundabout in the north. Strictly enforce a 50 km/h MAXIMUM speed limitPut in traffic calming planters, bike and walking lans from Tim Horton’s to the south and The Caledon Centre for Wellness and Recreation to the north. That’s tight – only local Bolton traffic on that quiet little road through Town.

As for the BIA – permit short term parking in front of the shops – on both sides of Queen Street during business hours. Insist that the facades of every store look as historically classy as the former dentist’s office at 34 Queen Street South. If you make it attractive and easy to access, they will come. What we don’t need piling thorugh our Town are all the commuters heading north at high speed.

Perhaps, just maybe, the shame will go away and we can justly reclaim our title as “the greenest Town in Ontario.”

The way I see it.

***

Skid Crease,

Caledon

True Crime, Part 2

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Breaking News!

The Toronto Police as of 1:00  p.m. today have released their report indicating that they believe that Barry and Honey Sherman were victims of a targeted double homicide. They have indicated that they are pursuing a number of leads but that they have no suspects at present.

This supports the family’s ongoing private investigation. Preceding the double-hoomicide announcement, it was released to the press that the current President and CEO of Apotex, the pharmaceutical company founded by Barry Sherman, had resigned.

The police would not speculate on possible motives or suspects, only indicating that their attempts to get access to private and business computers owned by the Shermans has been quite litigious.

The double homicide conclusion will allow shiva ceremonies and insurance claims to go forward without impediment.

 

Fire and Fury at Caledon Town Council

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“Never retract, never explain, never apologize; get things done and let them howl.”

Nellie L. McClung

***

The following quotes clarify this journalist’s reaction, and lack of apology, to the impassioned indignation of “them”, as referenced above in Nellie’s quote. On Tuesday, January 16, 2018, in the afternoon Town of Caledon Council Meeting, a recent Integrity Commissioner’s Report that looked into possible violations of the Council Code of Conduct by two Regional Councillors, found they were not guilty of violating their Council Code of Conduct:

“Look honey, I ain’t buying what you’re selling so get out!”  S.L.J. Shortt

“It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” William Shakespeare

“I’m not a crook.” Richard Nixon

“I did not have sexual relations with that woman.” Bill Clinton

“My two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart …. not smart, but genius, and a very stable genius at that!” Donald J. Trump

***

So, let me ask my readers to judge how all of that fire and sound and fury signifying nothing could have been avoided.  The fire was ignited by the misinformation and confusion that flowed from a public meeting hosted by a regional municipal councillor, with another regional municipal councillor in attendance. That misinformation concerned a false accusation that the Town was providing free taxpayer funded transportation from outside of Town to a local workplace. The second bonfire was set, again falsely, because the Town was allegedly slowing down the availability of medical facilities to be built on a “gift” of land, the fine details of which were being negotiated privately in-camera. That led to the Mayor and a “member of the public” invoking their democratic rights, and civic responsibilities, to file a Complaint with the Town’s Integrity Commissioner.

Prior to the Complaint being filed it should be noted that the “member of the public” had asked for an apology, a retraction, and a clarification of the information from the parties concerned. The Complaint was filed when that request was not fully honoured.

Imagine we had attended that local meeting public meeting. Imagine that two Regional politicians were in attendance. Imagine that the regional politician directing the conversations of the evening had simply said, “There is a private shuttle funded totally by the company to our local workplace with no cost to taxpayers.” Period. And that the location and lands, like our possible land “gift”, required for specific types of medical care facilities are sized and approved for use depending on population and transportation, and are Provincial responsibilities. Or imagine that the other regional politician, had misinformation been discussed, clarified with correct facts immediately.

I can only imagine. And because that did not happen, I applaud the Mayor and the “member of the public” for raising their concerns. Now, the Town’s Integrity Commissioner did not find that the Council Code of Conduct had been violated. That was very good news for one regional politician who had previously been found guilty of two previous violations for using racial slurs and bullying colleagues.

But the “poor me” histrionics were way over the top. Sorry, regional politicians, you may not have been guilty of violating the Code of Conduct, but you were guilty of allowing your constituents to leave your meeting with enough misinformation that they attacked the Mayor and integrity of Town Council on social media and in a local newspaper.

So, as far as this journalist is concerned, “I’m not buying what you’re selling.”

Your crocodile tears may have been appreciated by the tiny base of supporters that was present at Town Council that afternoon, but a political lie for survival is still a lie. Idiots, crooks, liars, and megalomaniac geniuses – you are in good company. Just make sure that the next time you hold a public meeting, the cameras are running.

Note to self: if you are that challenged and irresponsible that you can’t get a simple piece of factual information across to your audience, get off the stage … and out of public office.

***

Skid Crease, Caledon

A True Crime Story

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The Suspicious Deaths of Barry and Honey Sherman: suicide, murder, and insurance money

 The details of this story are based on all available public records at the time of writing. The specifics of the case are accurate; the speculation as to motive is pure conjecture based on the old adage:

“Follow the money.”

***

 You be the judge.

On the morning of December 15, 2018, the bodies of Barry and Honey Sherman, wealthy owners of Apotex Pharmaceuticals, were found in their home at 50 Old Colony Road, Toronto, discovered by a real estate agent who had been trying to contact them.

Their deaths were shocking. The passing of such great philanthropists was mourned by family, business associates, and friends. The Toronto Police were called in to investigate and announced that the deaths were “suspicious” and the cause of death was “ligature neck compression” usually associated either with strangulation or hanging. Now the question became, was it a double suicide, or a murder suicide pact, or a double homicide? In the one photo broadcast briefly on television, the crime scene showed two bodies in white robes or coats hanging at the edge of their indoor lap pool posed in symbolic elegance like something out of a Dan Brown novel.

Autopsies were performed. Initial speculation of murder suicide was obtained by the press. The family did not think that reflected well on their parent’s legacy and so they stepped in to the crime scene. This is something that generally only the very wealthy can do. A poverty stricken family of a mentally troubled person who is from a visible minority does not have access to private autopsy doctors or private investigators. They have to go with the standard police investigation, conclusions and report.

If you are very wealthy, and there is a lot at stake in terms of an upper class family brand, inheritance fortunes, insurance money and corporate control, you can do these things. They had their own private autopsy done. No doubt that the owners and partners of Apotex had access to every pharmaceutical under the sun, so who knows what chemical mix could turn up in one or both of the bodies.

What if it turned out that the “murder victim” had been drugged into a total relaxation before the ligature compression was applied? What if a similar pharmaceutical mix was found to have been ingested later by the “suicide victim”?  What if the victims calmly waited side by the side at the edge of the pool until the drugs took effect and the weight of their sagging bodies against the ligatures took care of the strangulation part? If the blind bitch goddess of justice is truly impartial, these are the questions that should be probed by the Toronto Police and not by a purchased private autopsy report or a family financed private investigation. The perception of conflict of interest is tantamount to a conflict of interest, especially when billions of dollars are involved.

When an ongoing investigation does not immediately deem that the deaths are homicides, nor are suspects being sought, and police have stated that there is no public safety risk, it usually indicates that whatever happened at that crime scene is isolated to that crime scene. In this case, the home of Barry and Honey Sherman and the indoor lap pool at 50 Old Colony Road, a home that was up for sale for nearly 5 million dollars.

Besides tarnishing the honourable and philanthropic legacy of Barry and Honey Sherman, a police report of suicide or murder/suicide would slow down the settlement of the estate. It would definitely slow down any life insurance payouts, possibly even eliminate them. Unhappy with the police “suspicious deaths” label, the family hired private investigators to look into the deaths.

A little background: generally, in Canada, if a person commits suicide, insurance policies become null and void. If a person is murdered, the policy goes to the beneficiary. In the case of a double suicide, no insurance money. However, in the case of a murder/suicide, the money of the murdered victim goes to their beneficiary, but the suicide victim gets no payout.

Now, this is where being wealthy and being able to afford really, really good lawyers and a sympathetic judge are important. Who was the murderer and who the suicide victim? In a case where the victim has been stabbed to death and the murderer has a single gunshot wound through the top of the skull, the verdict is pretty clear. The person without a brain is most likely a suicide and the insurance payment goes to the murdered victim’s beneficiary. There are variations on a theme here, like when a murder/suicide pact note is found indicating that both parties wanted out. That nullifies any life insurance payments.

The simplest case of all is when the police determine that the victims were a double homicide. Insurance gets paid as soon as the investigation concludes. That is exactly the conclusion reached by the private investigators hired by the Sherman family. That report was released to the Toronto Daily Star on Friday, January 19. 2018. It proposes that proposes Barry and Honey Sherman were victims of a double homicide. The family purchased private report now contends that that Shermans were found kneeling at the edge of the pool with their hands bound. Insurance problem almost solved.

Almost. But given that this contradicts the Toronto Police report, and that no suspects are being sought and that no public safety warning has been issued by the police, enter really, really good lawyers and judges to settle the dispute. No pressure, but there are millions of dollars and 1% reputations riding on the outcome.

Crime and Punishment in Toronto 2018 … the story has yet to be concluded, but you can write your own conclusions and see how they compare to the next chapter.

Wait for the public autopsy, compare it to the private autopsy and then write one ending from the official police perspective, and one from the Private Investigators hired by the Sherman family. Write one from a Globe & Mail perspective, and one from a Toronto Star perspective. Maybe even one from a Toronto Sun perspective. You be the judge.

And then write the screenplay. It will be riveting.