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Newsstand: January 19, 2010
Illustration by Roxanne Ignatius/Torontoist.
Zakaria Amara, the mastermind of the bombing plan of the Toronto 18, has been sentenced to life in prison. It’s the harshest punishment ever handed down since Canada instituted its anti-terrorism laws in 2001. Amara was twenty years old with a wife and small child when he was accused of orchestrating a plot to bomb sites like the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2006. One of his younger followers, who was sentenced to twelve years in prison, said he was acting on behalf of Amara in an attempt to make Canada pull its troops from Afghanistan. Now twenty-four, Amara says he has renounced his former extremist views.
Toronto streets? Not exactly the safest. A sixty-year-old woman was struck and killed by a TTC bus as she crossed Eglinton Avenue on Monday morning. The incident is the most recent accident in a slew of pedestrian deaths this week, which is beginning to raise concern. As fatalities behind the wheel dwindle, pedestrian deaths in Toronto have steadily increased over the past five years, peaking at around two-thirds of all road deaths last year. There’s no clear blame for the trend, but this isn’t great news for a city that prides itself on being pedestrian-friendly.
And it’s not likely Torontonians will see much of a change in the Better Way any time soon. A year of expensive experimentations to improve wait times on the Queen streetcar line resulted in, well, not much. Attempts to split the route in half actually increased instances where travellers had to leave one car to wait for another by 90%. Another report signals more bad news for the St. Clair streetcar line. It predicts the final cost of the project to be around $106 million, about double the projected cost when it was approved in September. The reason? A lack of leadership and confusion over a myriad of small contractors. Confusion? TTC? NEVER.
Writers may already know that revenge is a dish best served laden in red ink, but now there’s proof! An angry Toronto Star editor who recently let off some steam may find solace in a new deal settled by the Star and its union, saving some of the seventy-eight editing jobs on the chopping block. Star editor Michael Cooke said in a memo (so far edit-free) that the plans to outsource the jobs have been dropped, though several dozen editorial and forty-three pre-publishing layoffs are still expected. Who’s excited for some juicy layout backlash?
While some of us are in rehab for our BlackBerry thumbs, Research in Motion co-founder Mike Lazaridis is flexing his philanthropic muscles. He is giving five million dollars to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival. Instead of one lump sum, Lazaridis and his wife, the aptly named Ophelia, will award the money in increments to match other individual donations throughout the 2010 season. The festival says it’s the largest donation to its general annual operations in history, which comes in the nick of time as it tackles two large production musicals and a star-studded season. And it also lets lovers of the Bard hear what it would be like if there was sexting in the Elizabethan era.
Good luck with your Tuesday—at least it’s not Monday, right?