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Newsstand: September 17, 2012
Yippee! It's Monday! How wonderful! Ah, the power of positive thinking. Works every time. Today: the Ford brothers return to the airwaves; NHL players, sadly, do not return to the ice; an Eaton Centre shooting survivor throws a pitch at a Jays game; ex-staffers from Marineland continue the fight to save the animals; and the Gardiner re-opens.
They’re back! The Ford brothers returned to the air on Sunday, and they had plenty to get off their chests during their weekly talk show. They managed to fit in attacks against critics of Mayor Rob Ford’s coaching of youth football during working hours; attacks against media they consider to be “lefties,” “elitists,” and lazy “cocktail socialists”; and discussions about the Team Toronto Business Mission. Phew! Mayor Ford also worked in an opportunity to guilt-trip Torontonians who believe that a mayor should, you know, be at work instead of partaking in extra-curricular activities stating that “I’m going to continue coaching football, and if I don’t get re-elected for helping out kids, you know what, I feel sorry for this city, I really do.”
The NHL lockout began midnight Saturday and for those hoping for a quick resolution, it will likely not cheer you up to know that there were no formal talks between the league and the players in the three days before the previous agreement expired. You might also hope to forget that the last NHL lockout, in the 2004–05 season, meant the cancellation of the entire season. But there is a silver-lining here, folks: if the entire season does go off the tracks, you can simply assume that this would have been the year that the Leafs took home the cup. In fact, let’s all just blame Gary Bettman if it takes another 46 years for that to happen.
In much more positive sports-related news, Connor Stevenson, the 13-year-old who was shot at the Eaton Centre food court on June 2, threw the first pitch at Sunday’s Blue Jays game. Okay, forget Gary Bettman, let’s all channel our energy into being happy for young Connor, who survived a complicated neurosurgery three months ago, instead!
Former employees of Marineland, along with members of Zoocheck Canada, will deliver a petition today with 76,000 signatures to the office of the Premier, calling for the laws that will control zoos and aquariums. This follows a Toronto Star investigation that found numerous examples of the mistreatment of animals in the Niagara-area facility.
Good news, Monday morning commuters: the Gardiner Expressway, which had been closed in both directions for maintenance work since early Saturday morning, has reopened. Happy driving!
