The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

John Bowker of the Roncesvalles Village branch of the indie record store She Said Boom! informed me about this unfair development in Roncesvalles Village:

Today, the Toronto Star spent hours interviewing staff and customers at Karl’s Butchers and Grocery (105 Roncesvalles), which has sold fresh sausages on our street for 46 years. Karl’s has been forced out of business by the province.

In October, the provincial government decided to enforce a harsh, literal interpretation of the 2001 Food and Safety Quality Act. The Province took Karl’s out of the Yellow/Green inspection system operated by the City (where they passed every inspection), and placed it under provincial regulations. According to these regulations, Karl’s is now considered a “manufacturing plant,” because it makes its own sausages. These sausages, which have helped make Roncesvalles famous, are prepared fresh in the store, unlike most sausages which are packaged and shipped from centralized plants.

Under the regulations, Karl’s is forced to pretend it is like some mass-production facility, forced to conform to a massive list of regulations that make little sense for a small, local business – even one dealing with raw meat. The province must even test the water every week, as if they were some rural factory taking water in from a local well. The province is simply incapable of distinguishing between a local butcher and a factory slaughterhouse, and a part of Roncesvalles is being destroyed as a result.

According to Walter Jarzabek of Karl’s, they decided they could not fight the province, and so they decided to close just before Christmas. A lot of local residents are upset. We should be too.

Unless the province can show how a local butcher like Karl’s poses a threat to public health, they should find a way to distinguish a business like Karl’s from the large factory slaughterhouses that are the Act’s intended target. Just because a sausage comes from a box out of a truck does not make it healthier, and it certainly doesn’t make it tastier. The public should have the choice to buy fresh sausages from a trusted and responsible butcher like Karl’s.

I recently received an email from my friend Michael O’Connor Clarke who informed me that our mutual friend Jeneane Sessum was doing PR for a web company named MizPee, which has just launched here in Accordion City.

Here’s a quick description of MizPee, taken straight from their own site:

Do you ever find yourself desperately looking for a clean toilet in the city?

MizPee finds the closest, cleanest toilets in your area. You can add and review toilets, get some cool deals in your area and challenge your knowledge of toilet trivia.

(It has been a while since my knowledge of toilet trivia has been challenged…)

Here’s a sample of MizPee’s results when I asked for toilets near TSOT, where I work — 151 Bloor Street West:

Someone out there needs to rate the women’s washrooms at the nearby Four Seasons Hotel. It seems closer than the Second Cup, and I’m sure its washrooms are pretty good.