news
Newsstand: April 16, 2010
lllustration by Clayton Hanmer/Torontoist.
Just imagine—you’re on the daily commute again, heavy-eyed, claustrophobic, and patience wearing thin. What’s the last thing you want to hear blasted through the subway station speakers? Probably the voice of David Miller reminding us all to help his almost-defunct Transit City project. But that’s exactly what happened across the city at 6 a.m. yesterday, and will keep happening every ten minutes over the next few days. It may not be music to our ears, but David Miller’s people say it’s the cheapest most appropriate way to get their message across—at least more appropriate than sending notes in the mail saying “Save Transit City, because we know where you live. HAHA.”
But another part of Miller’s departing legacy met with success yesterday—his final $9.2 billion budget officially passed through council with only few changes made, such as dumping the twenty-five-dollar registration fee for recreational programs. Not surprisingly, super-saver Councillor Rob Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) was not happy with the final budget, and says he could have saved the city at least fifty million dollars (probably by paying for the registration fees out of his own pocket). He lead most of the barrage of last-minute motions to amend the budget, all of which were swiftly defeated.
But guess who just might have the last laugh? A new poll places latecomer Ford squarely within frontrunner range, slightly behind George Smitherman in Toronto’s mayoral race. His rise is mostly due to an over-saturation in the centre-right leanings of Smitherman and Rocco Rossi, leaving room for Ford on the right and Joe Pantalone (who also got a points bump) on the left. Could this be a turning point in Toronto voting apathy? Not really; 51% still say they’re undecided.
Something that most Torontonians are sure about is that they want an easier way to pay for the TTC, but it might be years before the Presto smart card system rolls out GTA-wide. For now, TTC Chair Adam Giambrone says the cards will only work for twelve high-volume subway stations while they try to answer that elusive question, “Who will pay for it?”
The life of convenience store owner Hafiz Malik changed drastically when he cashed in a Lotto 6/49 ticket worth $5.75 million. But it changed even more when the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp discovered the ticket wasn’t his at all. Yesterday, courts heard the posthumous testimony of one of his victims, who died of cancer last week. In a letter written weeks before she passed, Lorraine Teicht explained how the crime destroyed the friendship between her and those she shared the ticket with, three colleagues of the Toronto Catholic School Board. Teicht was diagnosed with bile duct cancer around the same time she received her winnings, leaving her less than two years to enjoy them before her health declined. Virtually all of Malik’s property has now been seized, including jewellery, two cars, three bank accounts, and a million-dollar home.
Alleged “family turmoil” turned violent yesterday morning when a man attacked a woman with a hammer and abducted her two-and-a-half-year-old son in the parking lot of her Etobicoke apartment building. The thirty-five-year-old Brampton man fled the scene as onlookers phoned the police. He turned himself in to police less than an hour later with the boy unharmed. His mother, however, is still in critical condition from severe head trauma.
Finally, Happy International Record Store Day tomorrow! Here’s a list of participating stores in Toronto and across Canada too, you know, for your records.