news
Newsstand: March 31, 2010
Illustration by Roxanne Ignatius/Torontoist.
Sad news to start your Wednesday—a sixteen-year-old Oshawa student was stabbed and killed by a classmate in front of their school yesterday afternoon. As the final bell rang at Monsignor Paul Dwyer Catholic High School, a fight broke out between Mike McDonald and another eighteen-year-old at a nearby bus stop, apparently over “a girl and ten bucks,” resulting in the stabbing. Classmates say McDonald, or “Biggie,” had a long-standing feud with the other student, who was quickly arrested and taken in for questioning. Later on yesterday, a separate stabbing occurred outside a Mississauga elementary school. A fifteen-year-old boy is now in critical condition in hospital.
GO trains and VIA rail services were MIA when nine CN cars derailed just outside the Pickering GO station. All the capitalized letters must symbolize the frustration commuters felt as rush-hour service was a no-go for several hours, although luckily no one was injured. This recent accident marks the sixth freight train derailment in the Durham area in as many years and the second in the last five weeks, making Liberal MP Dan McTeague (Pickering-Scarborough East) “pretty steamed.”
Since the province halted his Transit City plans, Mayor David Miller has been seeing red—but not of the rocket kind. With more delays on streetcar projects, buses were on deck to pick up the slack. But now they’re on the chopping block, too. Along with removing four billion dollars from LRT transit funding, the province has also cancelled its bus replacement funding, which allowed the TTC to upgrade its vehicles to more modern, environment-friendly models. Without the forty-two million dollars the program would have offered over the next four years, we’ll be riding dirty—really dirty—on 195 buses that were meant to be put to pasture during that time.
For all the recent budgetary setbacks and political drama facing T.O., we still can’t stop booking large-scale events! Up next: the MLS Cup championship game, which will host up to 21,800 spectators at BMO Field in chilly November evening weather. Look out for 1. Traffic, 2. Snow, and 3. The bare-chested fan beside you looking greedily at your TFC scarf.
In unrelated soccer news, Manchester United will play in Toronto this summer, but not at a BMO Field near you. The exhibition game against an unknown opponent will most likely take place at the Rogers Centre.
After seventeen years of co-hosting CBC Radio’s As It Happens, Barbara Budd announced Monday she is leaving the show. The CBC will start a search for her replacement soon, with plenty of candidates to choose from. Anna Maria Tremonti? Jill Dempsey? Minnie Mouse? Now that’s how to appeal to a younger audience.
And we’ll end with good news for starving artists and part-time teens—minimum wage increases to $10.25 today! Does this apply to blog posts, too? Eh? Eh?