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Newsstand: July 19, 2012
What Thursday is this? The kind that comes once a week, or the kind that never ends? Let's hope it's the first kind. In the news: Another fatal shooting; Rob Ford asks for more money for policing after shooting; a look inside the trauma centre that treated shooting victims; Mammoliti proposes a curfew, again; ongoing response to York University sexual assaults; and an effort to make a new park at Yonge and Wellesley.
A man is his twenties was killed last night in a shooting in the Lawrence West and Allen Road area. His death is the fourth in the last week to result from gun violence.
In response to Monday’s Danzig Street shooting, Mayor Rob Ford is saying things. Lots of things. Things like how upset and mad he was when he walked through the crime scene. And how all gang members should be run out of town, after doing mandatory maximum prison sentences, that is. And how Toronto needs more money to deal with the problems facing the city. (Not money for gang prevention, though. We already know he’s not a fan of that tactic.) But more money should be spent, said the mayor. Yes, money. And that money should be spent, said Ford, on more police officers.
Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti (Ward 7, York West) has a slightly different approach. He is saying things about an 11 p.m. curfew for all children 14 years old and younger. Mammoliti tried to put this to council in 2005, but that was for a 10:30 p.m. curfew for people 16 years old and younger. So it’s really totally different, you see.
Elsewhere in response to Monday’s shooting, we learn that the team in the Sunnybrook OR is bad ass. Dr. Homer Tien is the medical director of the hospital’s trauma centre and a sometimes military medic. He was responsible for organizing the melee in his emergency room as victims rolled in. Luckily, the hospital staff had trained for a such a big, unruly incident as part of their G20 preparations in 2010, which is both disconcerting and comforting all at once.
Students at York University are not happy with how their administration handled recent sexual assaults on campus, and they’re not afraid to say it to the administration’s face. (Side note: what would an administration’s face look like? All we know is it would probably wear glasses.) Students, faculty, and police from local 31 Division gathered Wednesday night for a town hall to discuss the incidents and the response. Organizers say the incidents stem from systematic gender violence. Police and faculty say, “iono.”
And, does a park grow in Yonge and Wellesley? Some local residents, plus councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) and MPP Glen Murray (Toronto Centre), would like to say yes, yes it does. After more than a decade of being boarded up and useless, a two-acre plot of land owned by the Province is up for sale. And Wong-Tam wants to make a park out of it. Or a Green P parking garage. Or an underground Green P parking garage with a park on top. Basically anything but a condo. She says the City can use its park land acquisition fund to buy the estimated $30–$60 million plot.
