Save Toronto From the Rats in Trash Wars

Andy Chalk

One Flag, One Fleet, One Cat
Nov 12, 2002
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Save Toronto From the Rats in Trash Wars


Toronto's recently ended garbage strike, which sadly ended after only 39 days of not-nearly-hot-enough weather, has been immortalized in a new online Flash game called Trash Wars [http://www.qkmbrgames.com/play/trashwars/trashwars.html].

Toronto, the largest and most hated city in Canada, had been wriggling in the slimy grip of a garbage strike that began in mid-June and didn't end until July 31 [http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2009/07/31/toronto-garbage-strike-cleanup873.html]. Toronto's 1100 well-paid garbagemen walked off the job as part of a larger workers strike, leaving the city struggling to deal with a rise tide of choking, rancid filth that had at least one observer saying he "[hoped] that blighted scuzzpit of oblivious, self-centered jackholes drowns in it."

Anyway, one enterprising fellow decided to make the best of it: Hafiz Kassam, owner of Flash game studio Q-Kmbr Games [http://www.qkmbrgames.com/], has launched Trash Wars, a simple little action game in which players take up watch over a gigantic mound of trash and shoot rats to keep the infestation level down.

"It just popped into my head," Kassam told the Toronto Star [http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/669846]. "I have made games in the past... just for the sake of making them, but I wanted to (release) something for the mainstream public - something with a message versus just a game." He said he kept Trash Wars very basic in order to make it accessible "for people who don't play videogames that often," but noted that he might put out a more complex version in the future.

Interestingly, a poll on the game site indicates that over 1100 visitors were "against" the strike, while just over 300 supported it and just under 300 were entirely indifferent. The strike was particularly polarizing [http://www2.macleans.ca/2009/07/22/toronto-stinks/#more-70822] not just because it left the city buried in heaps of fetid trash, but because the striking workers are already well-compensated for their efforts and enjoy generous holidays and other contract provisions. The union's demand for more at a time of high unemployment and economic uncertainty appears to have robbed it of much of the public support it has previously claimed.

I managed to rack up a high score of 8,350 on hard mode; I probably could have done better but I had to fight my gut instinct to let the rats into the makeshift dumps so they could work their magic and hopefully displace the city's human population and ultimately turn Toronto into a literal city of disease-carrying vermin, rather than just a figurative one. Hey, at least there'd be less jerks.


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John Funk

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Dec 20, 2005
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Gee, Andy. I'm getting the feeling here that you're not a big fan of Toronto or something.
 

cleverlymadeup

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Malygris said:
Toronto, the largest and most hated city in Canada
not really the most hated, not even close. too many people forget that half the country lives in ontario and most of them don't hate toronto. at least it's not the most hated province, which is quebec.
 

somekindarobot

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Now I never had any illusions that I had a full grasp of the Canadian zeitgeist (aside from what the stereotypes told me anyway), but the hatred of Toronto came out of the blue. Is it the same reason that many Americans hate New York, i.e. a sprawling concrete wasteland that spawns the nastier specimens of humanity, or is it something special?
 

TraumaHound

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I've only been in Toronto once, many years ago, but I thought it rather nice (one couldn't smoke outdoors, which I thought was amazing; my exwife had to finish up her cigarette in the car before we hit the mall...I was living in Vegas at the time and back then you could smoke everywhere in Vegas.) I do recall the french fries at Arby's tasting a bit off; turned out it was the beef fat that they're fried in. *bleah*

Anyhoo, regardless of what one thinks about Toronto it's certainly better to have the trash picked up. We didn't have pickup last winter for nearly 2 weeks due to all the snow and ice and that was awful, can't imagine the horror of over a month of no pickup in the summer!
 

JRCB

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Pankeyman said:
CantFaketheFunk said:
Gee, Andy. I'm getting the feeling here that you're not a big fan of Toronto or something.
Nobody likes Toronto, not even the people who live there. Maybe the mayor, but that's just because s/he's in charge of the center of the Universe.
Oi! I like Toronto, and I live here.

On topic: The garbage strike sucked, and Malygris was right about the workers being well paid during these hard(-ish) economic times. I'm still confused to why they went on strike.

Fortunately, I was at my cottage for most of the strike.
 

whyarecarrots

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Nov 19, 2008
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somekindarobot said:
Now I never had any illusions that I had a full grasp of the Canadian zeitgeist (aside from what the stereotypes told me anyway), but the hatred of Toronto came out of the blue. Is it the same reason that many Americans hate New York, i.e. a sprawling concrete wasteland that spawns the nastier specimens of humanity, or is it something special?
I have heard Toronto described by one inhabitant as 'a cheap Taiwanese knock-off of New York', so there may be something in what you say ;)
 

IrrelevantTangent

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Oct 4, 2008
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Neat. Sounds like a pretty good game to play; maybe I'll give it a try sometime in the near future.

Too bad about Toronto, though. I'm pretty sure mountains of trash in the streets is on no one's agenda. Except the Freemasons'.
 

Fightgarr

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Dec 3, 2008
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Yeah, the strike was pretty fucking gross. Every park almost (the exception being High Park I believe) had a giant waste temporary storage area. Its still not totally over if I've heard correctly. The union are still being fucking dicks about it.

Also, with regard to Toronto-hate. I live in Toronto. I don't hate it. I don't think its the friendliest place, but that comes with large cities. All the hate for Toronto is generally countered with Torontonians love of their own city. I'm much more partial to my other home city of Montreal.
 

TsunamiWombat

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cleverlymadeup said:
Malygris said:
Toronto, the largest and most hated city in Canada
not really the most hated, not even close. too many people forget that half the country lives in ontario and most of them don't hate toronto. at least it's not the most hated province, which is quebec.
As far as I can tell, True. EVERYONE hates Quebec. Even the Quebecoius, who want their own COUNTRY.
 

fix-the-spade

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Feb 25, 2008
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Not from round there Mr Chalk?

I think Toronto's pretty nice, then again, I don't have to live with 'em.
 

Florion

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TsunamiWombat said:
cleverlymadeup said:
Malygris said:
Toronto, the largest and most hated city in Canada
not really the most hated, not even close. too many people forget that half the country lives in ontario and most of them don't hate toronto. at least it's not the most hated province, which is quebec.
As far as I can tell, True. EVERYONE hates Quebec. Even the Quebecoius, who want their own COUNTRY.
If they hate themselves I think they must just be in denial. They love their language. So much that, if you attempt to speak French, they will talk back to you in English to prevent you from murdering their darling.
 

Andy Chalk

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Nov 12, 2002
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There are two types of Canadians: Those who live in Toronto, and those who hate Toronto.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is either a liar or a dummy. (And in either case, probably lives in Toronto.)
 

cleverlymadeup

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Malygris said:
There are two types of Canadians: Those who live in Toronto, and those who hate Toronto.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is either a liar or a dummy. (And in either case, probably lives in Toronto.)
i don't live in toronto and i like toronto

i mean what city in Canada is Bruce Campbell visiting this year? that would be Toronto and it's also the home of Evil Dead the musical and it's one of 2 places in Canada Tool is playing this year

it's a better city than Montreal and what ever language they speak there cause it's not french
 

Wandrecanada

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Oct 3, 2008
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Malygris said:
There are two types of Canadians: Those who live in Toronto, and those who hate Toronto.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is either a liar or a dummy. (And in either case, probably lives in Toronto.)
I live in Winnipeg and have a love hate relationship with Toronto. Of course I may not hate it outright since I don't have to actually live there...

Many moons ago I visited this metropolis of evil, strangely enough during another garbage strike. The most lasting memory I have of the foul smelling cesspool that was downtown after dark was the mountain of garbage bags that had piled up beside a 2 story bar. It covered a whole half of a black Jeep Cherokee from bumper to bumper and ended halfway across the roofrack, with a stray bag falling down the windshield. You see downtown Toronto has no back lanes. If you go strolling in search of nightclub action (of which there is much and it's actually awesome) you will be more likely to be thrown to the pavement by a pile of black glad bags than by roving hooligans.

I did manage to shake hands and chat breifly with Tia Carrere though, so it wasn't a total loss! The Trailer Park Boys did not come close enough to the metal fence for me to lunge and steal Bubbles' glasses of which I was disappointed.

I dunno Andy... I'm torn. Can you both love AND hate Toronto?