Newsstand: June 22, 2009

Toronto city workers on strike (The Globe and Mail): "Toronto residents will be without garbage collection, daycare and a wide range of other services starting today after a legal strike was called by the city’s 24,000 unionized workers. The job action by locals 79 and 416 of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, came just a few minutes after a 12.01 a.m. Monday strike deadline, with city and union negotiators unable to seal a deal on five separate collective agreements. " [More coverage in The Star, The Post, and The Sun. The City of Toronto's complete strike plan is online.]

Love and hate by the five-cent bag (The Star): "Some shoppers question if the five-cent fee is a deterrent or a penalty. Lawyer and mother of two Tierney Grieve is annoyed, she says, pushing a cartload of groceries in plastic bags to her car where she has defiantly left her reusable bags. 'People judge you,' she says. She needs the plastic to line rubbish bins at home. 'There's a lot of social pressure to demonstrate how socially conscious we are,' says Grieve. 'Screw it. I need some bags.'"

Emerging from the wreckage at York (The Globe and Mail): "Reasonable is not the first word one associates with York University, a school with a long history of unrest and campus radicalism. In the past nine months alone, labour strife led to the longest strike at a Canadian English university and extended the academic year to June. Student politics and ethnic tensions boiled over to the point where some students have said they felt physically intimidated on campus. And it’s not over yet."

Globe and Mail workers vote to back strike mandate (CBC): "Globe and Mail news and sales employees on Saturday voted 97 per cent in favour of authorizing their bargaining committee to call a strike unless the company comes up with a better deal to replace their expiring contract. The 500 editorial, advertising and circulation workers' current four-year contract expires on June 30, and a strike or lockout at the Toronto-based daily newspaper could take place on midnight of that day."

Times tough on TIFF (The Globe and Mail): "Slated to serve TIFF36 in the fall of 2011, the [Bell Lightbox] project is still $49-million short of the $196-million pegged as the goal of its capital/endowment campaign. Private-sector funding, it seems, has dried up along with the economy." [Previous coverage on Torontoist: Lightbox! Camera! Action! and Let There Be Lightbox.]

Dozens Protest Animal Suffering At Humane Society (CityNews): "Protesters gathered in front of the embattled Toronto Humane Society Saturday calling for the resignation of the entire board." [More coverage in The Sun.]

St. Nicholas proposal still has residents steamed (Toronto Community News): "Roughly 50 downtown residents attended a community consultation on Wednesday, June 17, regarding a proposed development at St. Mary and St. Nicholas streets and, though many concerns were raised, most left the meeting with a sense that the development would be given the green light. The application, brought forth by Urban Capital, calls for a 29-storey mixed use residential building on a site currently occupied by an old planing mill."

Perez Hilton claims he was assaulted at MMVAs (Toronto Sun): "Perez Hilton—who normally spreads the word on celebrity spats—seems to be at the centre of one himself this morning. The celeb blogger—born Mario Armando Lavandeira—claims he was assaulted by Black Eyed Peas frontman Will.I.Am at an after party after last night's MuchMusic Video Awards."