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Newsstand: January 5, 2009
Stephen Harper, it seems, is even better than we thought at finessing his way around Canada’s democratic process. His parliamentary do-over will protect his government from the Afghan detainee issue and kill off some legislation that had gone liberal sour but won’t disturb Tory plans to destroy Canada’s long-gun registry. Meanwhile the best plan anyone has come up with for putting a stop to Harper’s abuse of power is taking its cues from an episode in the English Civil War. No, really.
You want better news? The big race is over! Wait, election? What election? No, we’re talking about the guys who rode Toronto’s entire streetcar network in eight hours, documenting the trip and timing the TTC’s best and worst lines. They made the run on a Sunday when traffic was lighter and two of the city’s streetcar lines don’t actually run, so your mileage may vary.
Alright, you got us. We do have some news about that other race. While Councillors Adam Giambrone (Ward 18, Davenport) and Joe Pantalone (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina), along with George Smitherman and John Tory, dawdle about filing their nomination papers, Rocco Rossi was pretty quick off the mark. But wait, even though it’s buried in the fourth-last paragraph of a Sun article, this is news: apparently the election already has too much Rocco for just one candidate!
A Toronto forensic lab is trying to get to the bottom of a firebombing at a Hamilton school and mosque. Police aren’t talking about motives for the attack, but the school’s principal is. “This is distressing and disheartening that in the 21st century people are still dealing with others this way based on their religion,” Zakir Patel told the Star. “To attack a school of innocent children—part of me is very angry.” The bombing is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
The Don Jail already had a bad name, even for a prison, and that was before an inmate there became Toronto’s first homicide victim of the decade—and the jail’s second in two months. People familiar with the prison say the killings are just symptoms of terrible overcrowding, a problem so bad that brutal violence is basically expected to break out.
And finally, if you have children, or if you are a child who’s enough of a prodigy to skim the morning news at such a tender age, then 680News doesn’t want you to forget: kids need a second H1N1 shot, and public health clinics are now ready to deliver it. Parents, brilliant young news junkies, and the rest of you, off you go!