Photo: "The texture of posters long past" by Ad|Cam, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

Monday morning traffic in the downtown has been snarled [CP24], due to a protest by thousands of Tamils. Protesters have converged on University Avenue, which has been forced police to close it to cars between College & King, and both Dundas and Queen are now also closed from Spadina to Bay (although it's reported that streetcars are able to slowly get through).

Swine flu has landed in Eastern Canada, and Toronto is bracing itself [Star]. If anything, the hype/fear serves as a reminder that we should be vigilant in fighting viruses by practicing proper washing, sneezing into our sleeves, and shaking feet instead of hands. It also brings back memories of SARS... and... whatever happened to those invading killer bees?

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Should we have better checks and balances in place to ensure that food servers are not spreading communicable diseases? A Tim Hortons in Newmarket is the latest food service outlet to be dealing with Hepatitis A [NP]. If workers were required to provide proof of vaccination, this wouldn't likely be an issue.

Auto workers at Chrysler have voted overwhelmingly in favour of accepting huge cuts to their benefits in order to keep their jobs [G&M]. About $19/hr equivalent will save the automaker some $240 million annually. Down in the US, it's rumoured that today will bring news that a whopping 21,000 jobs, and the Pontiac brand [CP24] are going to be cut by GM.

If Toronto were to score the 2015 Pan Am Games, an athlete's village in the West Don Lands development area [Star] could be a huge boost to the waterfront. Housing, sports facilities, and a transportation hub east of the downtown core makes sense to me.