Guns, Butter, and Led Zepplin

[ShadowHM]

Maybe you should look around more.
Now drop a natural disaster in the middle of Montreal and see how well your Disaster preparedness works out.  Who gets saved?  How many poor people freeze each year in your urban slums?
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I cannot speak for Montreal. I do know that, in the past, disaster response in the Toronto area did work well.

On the evening of November 10, 1979, a Canadian Pacific train lost one of its wheels, resulting in the derailment of 24 cars. Included in these cars were six dangerous ingredients: propane, caustic soda, styrene, fibreglass insulation and chlorine. These flammable liquids and vapours caused a massive explosion that could be seen more than 100 kilometres away.

Evacuations began two hours after the explosion. In total, 218,000 residents had been asked to leave their homes. It was almost a week before many would return home. With no fatalities or serious injuries, many considered the derailment the "Mississauga Miracle."

The city immediately used Transit buses to conduct evacuations. Many had nowhere to go, and schools and community centres were utilized. The two evacuees that I did know fared better than that.


Would we fare as well now? I don't know. I do know that there are contingency plans in place. But that is not the same thing as actually following through with them in flawless execution, as occurred back in 1979.

As to death by freezing, I am sorry to have to report that indeed, there are annual deaths here by freezing - despite the presence of free hostels for the homeless, there are still those who eschew them, for reasons that vary from good to groundless. It is illegal here to deny heat to anyone who has a domicile. The utility companies cannot cut anyone off during the winter months.

Now, as to what I perceive as the main thrust of your argument: Our backyards are in fact not clean. There is poverty here, and mis-management of government resources here too. Surely this does not mean the the likes of Ninjadruid have no right to comment on problems they see elsewhere?