Monthly Archives: February 2012

Hamilton public health response to my question: Why was Eat A Pita allowed to remain open?



Earlier story: Public Health inspector failed Eat A Pita on February 9, allowed to remain open

Hamilton’s public health department sent the following statement in response to my questioning why Eat A Pita was allowed to remain open after failing inspection on February 9th.

Public health states “the presence of Critical violations does not represent a “failed” inspection.”

As requested here is a summary of what has transpired with this Food Premise and the related Outbreak.

Food premises are inspected in accordance with the Ontario Public Health Standards. Premises in which a wide range of foods is prepared and there are multiple preparation steps requires 3 inspections per year. Observations made at the time of inspection are recorded as Critical or Non-Critical violations of the Food Premises Regulation.

The presence of Critical violations does not represent a “failed” inspection. Critical violations represent food handling errors that pose a risk of food borne illness. They fall into three broad categories: inadequate cooking and hot/cold holding; opportunity for cross contamination; inadequate hand washing or unnecessary hand contact with food.

Where critical violations are identified, the operator of the premises is given no longer than 48 hours to correct the deficiency. Short-term corrective measures are put in place during this period. In some instances, critical violations are corrected immediately during the inspection and no re-inspection is required.

Critical violations posing a high risk and that can not be immediately be resolved result in closure of the Premises under Section 13 of the HPPA.

February 9th: Routine Inspection of Eat a Pita was conducted. Both Critical and Non-Critical violations were present. All critical violations were corrected during inspection with some non-critical violations remaining and a re-inspection was scheduled for February 15th. This inspection report was posted on Food Safety Zone Website.

February 15th: Non-critical violations were corrected at Eat a Pita. This inspection was conducted to ensure non-critical violations were corrected. The Critical violations from Feb 9th were corrected during inspection on Feb 9th.

February 17th: One confirmed case of Salmonella was reported to Public Health. During the case interview this premises was implicated which resulted in an inspection as per policy. Later that day a second confirmed case was reported which also implicated this premises.

Feb 17th: Inspection resulted in new critical violations related to food handling which were different from the previous inspection and corrected at the time of the inspection.

Feb 18th: Re-inspection to confirm that critical violations were not repeated that were identified on Feb 17th. No Critical or Non-Critical violations were observed at this time.

Evening Feb 22nd : Fourth confirmed case received. All cases indicated Eat a Pita as common source.

Feb 23rd: Inspection occurs at Eat a Pita. Previous critical violations were identified and premises was ordered closed. Staff are working with the operator to ensure understanding of safe food handling practices. Premises will remain closed until requirements of the closure order are met.
Staff will be meeting with legal to discuss pending charges.

All reports pertaining to the inspections and re-inspection will be posted to the website as of Tuesday, February 28th.

Filed under: Hamilton, Hamilton Public Health Food Safety

Public Health inspector failed Eat A Pita, allowed to remain open



Related update: public health response to my question why was Eat A Pita allowed to remain open.

Public Health closed Eat A Pita on Main Street East near Kenilworth Avenue after the restaurant was linked to 16 cases in an outbreak of Salmonella were linked to the restaurant.

A public health inspector conducting a routine check of the restaurant on February 9th found two “critical infractions” and five “minor infractions”.

The restaurant was allowed to remain open despite these infractions. Public health informed the media of four confirmed cases on Thursday. Today, the number grew to 16 and the restaurant was closed.

Critical Infractions

  • Food is held at 4°C (40°F) or less (Corrected During Inspection)
  • Hot holding: minimum of 60°C (140°F) after cooking / rapid re-heating (Corrected During Inspection)

Minor Infractions

  • Compliance with the Mandatory Food Handler Certification By-Law (Not in Compliance)
  • Equipment, non-food contact surfaces and linen are maintained, designed, constructed, installed and accessible for cleaning (Not in Compliance)
  • Food protected from potential contamination and adulteration (Corrected During Inspection)
  • Sanitize test kit / thermometer readily available for verifying dishwashing and sanitizing temperatures (Not in Compliance)
  • Thermometers provided for temperature validation (Not in Compliance)

Actions taken:

  • Re-inspection Scheduled, Food Handler Education on Site
Filed under: City of Hamilton Government, Hamilton, Hamilton Public Health Food Safety

Full City of Hamilton statement: “Update: Claremont Access”



The City of Hamilton issued the following statement at 1145hrs today:

Update: Claremont Access

HAMILTON, ON – February 23, 2012 – The Public Works Department is continuing to respond to a wall failure that occurred along the embankment of the downbound Claremont Access yesterday afternoon.  City crews remained onsite overnight to monitor the situation and ensure the site was safe.  A contractor has begun clearing operations today to remove the material and debris. 

Downbound lanes will remain closed until the City assesses the potential risk for failure of the adjacent walls.  More details will be forthcoming about the duration of the lane closures.  The cause of the wall failure is still unknown at this time.  Structural and geotechnical engineers are onsite again today to continue their investigation to determine the cause and identify next steps.

More updates will be provided as new information becomes available. 


Filed under: Hamilton

Ash Wednesday is here!? and my schedule for today



I can’t believe Lent is already here and I haven’t prepared properly for it. Nonetheless, I’m not cut off from a few bad habits I need to change. It’s cold turkey.

It also means a busier than usual Wednesday. I work my “day job” in the morning and then head to St. Joseph’s Church at Locke and Herkimer for the 1315hrs Ash Wednesday Mass.

From there, I’ll likely proceed to the downtown public library and hide in a corner to complete an extremely late proposal.

At 1700hrs, I’ll go to City Council to cover the meeting. This is the reason I’ll miss my parish’s Ash Wednesday Mass tonight.

As soon as Council ends, I’ll be looking for the nearest restaurant to break my fast.

Best of luck to everyone on your Lenten goals.

Filed under: Not Politics

Higher education cost-spiral entering the crosshairs



As a ?former? higher education reporter, I very happy to see higher education affordability being discussed in the context of spiralling inflation and targeted financial aid.

President Obama is threatening to tie affordability to financial aid. It could be empty election year rhetoric. If actually implemented, such a move – tying funding to financial efficiency – would start a revolution in Anglo-Saxon universities.

As the financial crisis starts to impact higher education – and higher education is caught completely unprepared despite five years of warnings – I wish I were still covering higher education.

Things are getting very interesting and the cost-spiral may finally come to an end.

The big question – will any senior administrator be cut from bloated overhead at Canadian institutions?

 

Filed under: Higher Education

The Youth Criminal Justice Act and Twitter photos



A great citizen photo of police interrupting dinner to stop crime

Thursday evening, one of the Hamilton police ACTION teams interrupted their dinner at The Baltimore House to break-up what they thought was a drug deal in progress. What looked like a drug deal turned out to be one youth tagging a building with two friends blocking them from view.

A citizen in The Baltimore House took a picture of the officer’s yellow jackets and posted it to Twitter. The focus – that officers interrupted their dinner to stop a crime in progress. In the background the police officers are involved with suspects.

I looked at the photo, found it interesting, briefly glanced to see if any suspects were clearly identifiable confirming they were not and retweeted.

(I’ve intentionally not republished the link to the photo)

Graffiti arrest of three youths

The next morning, the police daily news briefing note included this about the arrests:

On Thursday, February 16th, 2012, at approximately 5:30 p.m., HPS ACTION officers were in the area of King William St. at Hughson St. where they observed three youths, two males and a female, acting suspiciously. On further investigation police revealed the youths were engaged in a mischief. Police allege that one youth was tagging the building while two others stood by and blocked the act from public view. All three youths were arrested.

Yikes… did the photo violate the YCJA?

I paused, quickly went back to the photo, and breathed a sign of relief. The photo did not violate, in my opinion, the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

This photo serves a good reminder to to be mindful of the YCJA at all times. The YCJA prevents the publications of details that could reveal the identity of a youth offender.

Not hard to violate the YCJA, as simple as a school uniform

Something as simple as a school uniform could be an identifying feature that violates the Act. If one of the youth were wearing a Cathedral High School uniform – not uncommon in the downtown core – a blurry photo with this detail could land the publisher (all tweeters are publishers) in hot water.

A distinctive jacket and cap could identify a youth to a community or neighbourhood – violating the YCJA.

A photo of a witness or victim of youth crime could lead people to identify the suspect youth – violating the YCJA.

A yellow flag warning – think YCJA before tweeting or retweeting photos

It’s best to avoid publishing photos of police interacting with any individual who may be under the age of 18.

Media organisations only publish about youth crime after much debate and often the involvement of legal counsel. The line for violating the YCJA moves based upon circumstances and the alleged offence.

Those of us independent of large newsrooms do not have the benefits of corporate infrastructure and, more importantly, legal protection.

Filed under: Journalism

Great time at Democamp Hamilton 5



Software Hamilton is achieving great success with the February 9, 2012 democamp turnout the largest thus far.

Ryan McGreal’s keynote “Services-First: A Better Way to Build a Web Application”  was inspiring and a helpful reminder for a journohacker of the fundamentals of web development.

Nick Tomkin of Orbital’s presentation of his smart home  iOS app, Synapse stole the show.

I can’t wait for DCH6!

 

Filed under: Hamilton

Power outages in Hamilton



I emailed my Ward Councillor, Brian McHattie, as a private citizen on Tuesday expressing concerns about the ongoing power interruptions in my area of Hamilton.

It seems not a week goes by without some interruption in the west downtown district. Many of them occur during clear weather with little wind. Each one listed on the Horizon Utilities website are caused by “distribution problems.”

McHattie sent an email to Horizon asking for them to respond to my request for a more detailed explanation.

The director, engineering & operational improvement of Horizon  responded to my email and is investigating. I’ll share the information I receive back.

Filed under: Hamilton, Hamilton Power Outages

Hamilton Ward Map — almost done



I’m almost ready to release the Hamilton ward map I’ve been working on the past week.

As many of my readers are aware, I’ve been requesting this data for 18 months without success. Using the Statistics Canada census tracts as a skeleton, I’ve been able to draw all the ward boundaries.

Unfortunately, my first version was slightly incorrect – I misread the census tracts in Stoney Creek and didn’t place the Ward 10/11 boundary in the proper place. This error was discovered by an eagle-eyed reader of Raise The Hammer.

I’m now drawing this boundary and am hoping to complete it shortly:

Drawing the Ward 10/11 boundary

There are more screencaps on my Twitter feed starting here.

 

Filed under: Hamilton

HSR detours due to SIU investigation on Quigley Rd



Route 4 Bayfront SB from Nash/King. East on King, right, south on Greenhill continue to EOL. NB , regular route to Greenhill and Quigley, left on Quigley, right on Veevers, left on Greenhill to King. Left on King to Nash and regular route.

Route 5 Delaware, 5E. EB Regular route. WB from EOL at Greenhill and Quigley, right on Veevers, left on Greenhill, left WB on King to Quigley and regular route.

Filed under: Hamilton

As long as you don’t throw eggs at me…



Ever have those days in which your mood swings, you know why, but you can’t seem to fully control it?

Today’s one of those days for me. Thankfully there are people who help make it better by brightening me day. I had the pleasure of meeting one at noon today.

I went to the Farmers’ Market at noon and bought a dozen jumbo eggs. That’s always a pleasant experience. I decided to not get a bag, instead carrying the carton, as a small environmental gesture.

Off I head to think|haus and onto the B-Line bus. I insert my bus ticket and ask for a transfer.

I see the driver talking to me, but can hear him – I have headphones on blaring music.

I take them off, “sorry, I didn’t hear you”

The driver responds “as long as you don’t throw any eggs at me”

I pause, confused. Then, I realize he’s referring to the eggs I’m carrying.

“I prefer eating my eggs”

“Ah, good. There’s your transfer,” the driver says to me with a smile.

It was a small exchange of humour.

It’s great to think about how each one of us can make each others day better with small doses of humour.

Filed under: Not Politics

Hamilton area census files GIS files in KML and SHP



Please note this post is a “working mess” meaning it’s for quickly providing others with access to the StatsCan GIS data as I extract Hamilton-specific GIS data.

City of Hamilton CMA Census Tracts:

SHP (ShapeFile) in ZIP file: Hamilton_CMA_2011_Full

KML (Keyhole Map Language) in ZIP file: Hamilton_CMA_2011_Full.kml

Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada.

Filed under: Hamilton, Open Data, Open Datasets

Man in green bodysuit = Victory!



In what is the most bizarre non-scandal in a student union election I’ve ever seen, the last place finishing candidate in the McMaster University student union election is claiming electoral fraud.

Alex Ramirez, who asked his fellow students to “Join The Revolution”, posted to his campaign blog Friday alleging the “vote count was manipulated.”

I don’t want to take anything away from the excellent analysis of the claims by McMaster’s student newspaper The Silhouette, go read their excellent dissection of the absurdity of Ramirez’s claims.

I’d like to highlight the most absurb and unique of the claims – Ramirez claims that a man wearing a green bodysuit “gathered a substantial amount of enthusiasm” for his campaign and this support is evidence of manipulation as the green suit swung more than the 704 votes he received.

Taking a look at photo’s Ramirez’s campaign posted of the suit person, I’d say it was more bizarre than ingenious.

Man in green bodysuit = Victory!

I don’t think so.

Filed under: Student Politics, McMaster Students Union Inc.

Return of the Studebaker …. name



Studebaker is back! …. sort of

The trademark of the legendary automobile manufacturer, which ended production in 1966 when the last car rolled off the Hamilton production line, ended up in the public domain and now belongs to Colorado businessman Ric W. Reed.

Reed hopes to relaunch the brand and is recruiting investors with sleek plans on the new Studebaker Motor Company website.

The new Studebaker takes a strong stance against unionisation with Reed stating to WSBT-TV “I don’t need a labor union babysitting me, telling me what to do and not do.”

The WSBT-TV story provides good background and is worth the read.

The capitalisation required to launch a new automotive company is massive and the regulatory hurdles high. Could disruption arrive on the automotive scene? Could we return to the days of the backyard mechanic modifying their beauty?

We’ll have to wait and see.

Filed under: Links to News, Studebaker Motor Company