Newsstand: October 1, 2009

Say whatever you want about her, City Councillor Sandra Bussin isn't afraid to call a spade a spade, or at least to call John Tory a "three-time loser" on his own radio show, and if an anonymous phone call is what it takes to publicly slag the former PC leader and current talk-show host, then so be it. "Sandra from Toronto" let loose on the air this past Friday, chastising Tory and his co-host Tarek Fatah for making "ridiculous" comments about David Miller. Tory claims he didn't realize who the mean lady on the phone was, though Fatah didn't take long to call Sandra's bluffin'. But don't settle for our play-by-play—not when the real deal is right here on the internet! Bussin apologized yesterday.

Following up on the incident, the Sun paired a news article with a super-classy sidebar detailing Bussin's notorious past. Hats off to their writer for spicing up the rundown of Bussin's so-called "follies" with gems of phrasing like the weirdly exploitative-sounding "trying to buy cheap Chinese eats at Kingston Rd. and Main St." Hey...what's the byline on that hit list? It looks familiar.

And Toronto's public space is facing imminent invasion by poetry! That is, at least, if Dionne Brand, the city's new Poet Laureate, gets her way. But can Brand really be serious about bringing rhyme and reason to Toronto Life Yonge-Dundas Square? If she can manage that, Toronto may just have to up her honorarium.

Remember when Saad Khalid was handed a fourteen-year sentence for his role in the Toronto 18 terrorist bombing plot? Khalid's sentence was viewed as an indicator of the sort of penalty the other accused conspirators, one of whom has since confessed, could face—until the Crown challenged it yesterday. Calling fourteen years with credit for time served "not proportionate to the gravity of the offense," the attorney-general is appealing to have Khalid's sentence made more severe. The other confessed member of the plot, Saad Gaya, will be sentenced tomorrow. Gaya's lawyers maintain that he had a lesser role in planning the foiled attack than Khalid. A third convicted would-be bomber has already completed his sentence and been released.

And although Toronto has dumped Halton Recycling for sending organic waste to a regular landfill last month, the city is still looking for closure from the firm. Toronto cancelled its contract, worth a million dollars per year, after the company admitted to sending "six or seven" truckloads of green-bin waste, which it was supposed to process into compost, to a Michigan dumpsite in violation of their contract. Simply dumping waste costs less than making compost from it, so the City wants part of its money back too. A Halton Recycling spokesperson said the waste shipments in question were sent to the landfill because they had become "an unusually soupy, smelly sludge" while being stored in Torontonians' freezers during the city outside workers' strike, and Halton employees—experienced rotten-garbage professionals—found it difficult to even be around the stuff. Now how about some fresh air? Enjoy your morning!