Toronto

Toronto (ⁱ/təˈrɒntoʊ, -tə/,local /təˈrɒnoʊ, ˈtrɒ-/) is the most populous city in Canada, the provincial capital of Ontario, and the centre of the Greater Toronto Area, the most populous metropolitan area in Canada. In the 2011 census, Toronto had a population of 2,615,060, making it the fourth most populous city in North America, after Mexico City, New York City, and Los Angeles. An alpha global city, Toronto is an international centre of business, finance, arts, and culture, and is widely recognized as one of the most multicultural and cosmopolitan cities in the world.

Aboriginal peoples have inhabited the area now known as Toronto for thousands of years. The urban history of the city dates back to 1787, when British officials negotiated the Toronto Purchase with the Mississaugas of the New Credit. They established the Town of York, and later designated it as the capital of Upper Canada. During the War of 1812, the town was the site of the Battle of York and suffered heavy damage by U.S. troops. York was renamed and incorporated as the City of Toronto in 1834, and became the capital of the province of Ontario in 1867. The original borders of Toronto were expanded through amalgamation with surrounding municipalities at various times in its history, the results of which can been seen in the 140 independently unique and clearly defined official neighbourhoods that make up the city.

Bombardier Transportation

Bombardier Transportation is the rail equipment division of the Canadian firm Bombardier Inc. Bombardier Transportation is one of the world's largest companies in the rail vehicle and equipment manufacturing and servicing industry. The division is headquartered in Berlin, Germany, and has regional offices and major development facilities in Canada (Montreal and Toronto) and the United States (Plattsburgh, New York). Bombardier Transportation has many minor production and development facilities worldwide.

Bombardier Transportation produces a wide range of products including passenger rail vehicles, locomotives, bogies, propulsion and controls, and offers a number of services.

Laurent Troger is the president and chief operating officer of Bombardier Transportation. In January 2011, the company had 34,900 employees, 25,400 of them in Europe, and 60 manufacturing locations around the world.

History

Bombardier Transportation's first order for mass transit rolling stock was in 1974 for the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) (Montreal transport authority) to build metro trains for the Montreal Metro.

Norwegian Police Service

The Norwegian Police Service (Norwegian: Politi- og lensmannsetaten) is the Norwegian civilian police agency. It consists of a central National Police Directorate, seven specialty agencies and twenty-seven police districts. The government agency is subordinate to the Ministry of Justice and Public Security and has 13,000 employees, of which 8,000 are police officers. In addition to police powers, the service is responsible for border control, certain civil duties, coordinating search and rescue operations, counter-terrorism, highway patrolling, writ of execution, criminal investigation and prosecution.

The police service dates to the 13th century when the first sheriffs were appointed. As the first city in Norway to do so, Trondheim had a chief of police appointed in 1686, and Oslo established a uniformed police corps in 1859. The directorate is led by National Police Commissioner Odd Reidar Humlegård. Police districts were introduced in 1894, with the current structure dating from 2003.

Toronto Star

The Toronto Star is a Canadian broadsheet daily newspaper. In 2011, it was Canada's highest-circulation newspaper, although also the one with the second-largest decline in readership between 2007 and 2011 among Canada's top 25 newspapers. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., a division of Star Media Group, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation.

History

The Star (originally known as the Evening Star and then the Toronto Daily Star) was created in 1892 by striking Afternoon News printers and writers, led by future Mayor of Toronto and social reformer Horatio Clarence Hocken, who became the newspaper's founder, along with another future mayor, Jimmy Simpson. The paper did poorly in its first few years. It prospered under Joseph "Holy Joe" Atkinson, editor from 1899 until his death in 1948. Its early opposition and criticism of the Nazi regime saw the paper become one of the first North American papers to be banned in Germany.

Atkinson had a social conscience. He championed many causes that would come to be associated with the modern welfare state: old age pensions, unemployment insurance, and health care. The Government of Canada Digital Collections website describes Atkinson as "a ‘radical’ in the best sense of that term…. The Star was unique among North American newspapers in its consistent, ongoing advocacy of the interests of ordinary people. The friendship of Atkinson, the publisher, with Mackenzie King, the prime minister, was a major influence on the development of Canadian social policy."

Toronto Police Service

The Toronto Police Service (TPS) is the police force servicing Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Established in 1834, it was the first municipal police service created in North America and one of the oldest police services in the English-speaking world. It is the largest municipal police service in Canada and third largest police force in Canada after the Ontario Provincial Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

At a budget of over $1 billion, it ranks second only to the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) in the budgetary expenses of the municipal government of Toronto.

History

1834 creation to 1859 reforms

The Toronto Police Service was founded in 1834 when the city of Toronto was first created from the town of York. (Prior to that, local able-bodied male citizens were required to report for night duty as special constables for a fixed number of nights a year on the pain of fine or imprisonment in a system known as "watch and ward".)

The Toronto Police is one of the English-speaking world’s oldest modern municipal police departments; older than, for example, the New York City Police Department which was formed in 1845 or the Boston Police Department which was established in 1839. The London Metropolitan Police of 1829 is generally recognized as the first modern municipal department. In 1835, Toronto retained five full-time constables—a ratio of about one officer for every 1,850 citizens. Their daily pay was set at 5 shillings for day duty and 7 shillings, 6 pence, for night duty. In 1837 the constables’ annual pay was fixed at £75 per annum, a lucrative city position when compared to the mayor’s annual pay of £250 at the time.