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The CBC Marketplace episode Framed takes a very interesting look into the world of prescriptions and eyeglasses through their regulation and sale. This is an area of particular interest to me as I myself wear glasses and am forced to pay into this restrictive retail market.
I would like to start off by pointing out that the intent of this piece is not to make a summary of the video, something you should do on your own time, but instead focus on connections that the CBC failed to make in the episode. OC Transpo, the public transit service for the city of Ottawa, has one of the largest fleets of buses in North America with over 1000 buses on over 130 routes. The following is an overview of my advice on seating for a selection of the buses operated by OC Transpo.
This guide is written primarily for the average able-bodies bus rider as there is very little available about the regular seating on OC Transpo buses. The announcement today of a $700 million bid for Wind Mobile by Verizon Wireless has caused quite the stir in the mobile Canadian mobile industry, and with the most visible indicators of the impact of this news being the stocks of ROBELUS dropping a staggering 9% in early trading today you can see not only the fragility of the mobile market but also the severity of this news.
Though this bid might cause a point of contention with nationalists, privacy advocates, and carriers alike (who will undoubtedly make a play about being it not being Canadian owned) the reality is that it is in all our best interests. It has recently come to light in mainstream media that the US National Security Agency (NSA) has been tracking emails, instant messages, other forms of internet communication, and most controversially, keeping track of American’s phone calls. The funny thing is that this news has come as a surprise to many people who thought that communication over the internet is safe. This is a stark contrast to what you would get if you talked to any tech savvy person (especially conspiracy theorists) in the past 10 or 15 years who could have easily told you this was going on. On June 13th the City of Ottawa released an update to the Ottawa Western (Light Rail Transit) LRT plan. This update was meant to address the concerns of local Westboro residents (with opinions voiced mainly by those living along Skead St.) who complained that the original plan (to have the LRT in a semi-submersed trench, hidden by a berm, between Skead St. and the parkway) hindered visibility of, and access to, the parkway and river front.