May 1, 2007
A Busy Day For City Council, Sikh Patron Shunned By Marlowe? Facebook Continues To Worry Grownups
Despite loud public complaints, Toronto City Council has begrudgingly approved Astral Media's street furniture bid with a few conditions: reduce the total amount of per square foot advertising, guarantee that all billboards follow city bylaws, estimate how much energy will be used illuminating advertisements, and ensure there is no loophole in the contract which would allow Astral to screw the city over.
The council was more enthusiastic about endorsing a $159.5 million taxpayer-financed office building on the waterfront that will be leased to Corus Entertainment. The development is seen as a way to lure more people down to Toronto's waterfront, which currently looks like a barren wasteland despite the delightful spring weather.
After that, City Council voted unanimously to audit Councillors Rob Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) and Doug Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre) because they're not charging office supplies to their expenses.
"A proud turban-wearing Sikh" alleges that the owner of Marlowe refused him entry to the Richmond Hill resto-lounge because his turban did not comply with their no-headgear policy. "If you heard our side you'd be shocked," says Marlowe's management. "Right now there are so many lies and accusations going around, it's unbelievable."
New fad: breast-feeding your friend's baby! I might pass on that one, regardless of precedent.
Five Grade 8 students in Thornhill have been barred from attending their class trip to Montreal after writing derogatory comments about their teachers on Facebook. Enough already: someone needs to sit down and have a talk with tweens about how the internet works. You can say anything you want about other people over ginger ale and Cheetos in the privacy of your own sleepover, but the minute you start typing it out on Facebook or Blogger, you're setting yourself up to get slapped with a libel suit.
In related news, 7th grade Civics teacher Mrs. Chisolm smells like cat pee.
Photo courtesy of FrankTheRabbit.
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Sadly, those conditions have NOT been passed yet. They were moved, but they are being given to city staff for their recommendations. Given that they've back this preposterous deal from the start, I'm not holding my breath.
Saddest of all are the left wing councillors who hated the deal but voted for it because the mayor likes it. I rather thought they were supposed to represent their constituents' views, not the mayors.
"Despite loud public complaints" ...
Not to belabour a point made in another thread, but there were no complaints made by the public en masse, there were complaints by interest groups formed for the very purpose to complain about this decision. Suggesting there was mass opposition to this deal is (at the very least) misleading. The system worked as it should: the activists were able to make their depositions and the councillors had that information in front of them when they made the decision to approve. Those councillors obviously thought other concerns outweighted the issues raised by the activists (or that certain of those concerns could be addressed by supplementary motion).