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Newsstand: April 1, 2010
Illustration by Roxanne Ignatius/Torontoist.
Remember when we told you that certain people were murmuring about security concerns on the TTC after the suicide bombings in the Moscow subway? Well, we’d better hope the alarmist parties involved don’t get too smug about this: Police found a cache of explosives in a storage locker in east Toronto Wednesday night. Police safely blew up the explosive “cache” last night, after the scare shut down two Scarborough train lines and forced the closure of several major streets so the material could be convoyed to the Leslie Street Spit for controlled detonation. Police haven’t said yet what they were looking for in the raid or for what use they believe the explosives and weapons were intended.
What other crazy things happened? Oh, a crane tried to lift a bulldozer and fell over. April Foo—on, no, wait, this was yesterday. The toppling piece of heavy machinery came close to smacking a nearby apartment building and snapped electric lines, causing a power outage centered along Sherbourne from Queen to Front streets.
Bob Kinnear of the Amalgamated Transit Union that represents TTC workers will be taking the stage to hear riders’ comments and complaints at three town halls over the next month. Kinnear is promoting the events as an attempt to steer rider-employee relations towards a smoother course. The town halls are proceeding without involvement from either City Hall or TTC management. The first event is set for next Sunday at Downsview Secondary School—and guess who’s hosting it! A Scarborough high school and Ryerson University will also host town halls, on April 18 and May 2, respectively.
Does God care if pushy ads for a Bible-thumping, anti-gay website are plastered across the sides of streetcars? Well, that depends on who you ask, but the TTC is conducting its own review. The ad in question features a guy with some kind of neck tattoo asking if God is LGBT-positive, with a link to a BSBS webpage discussing the question. The site’s answer has been taken down, so we’ll spoil it for you: they said “no,” only with more hand-wringing. Whenever an ad draws five public complaints, it triggers a panel review. Last year, the TTC allowed the Canadian Atheist Bus Campaign’s ads to stay.
The salary disclosure list of public employees who earned more than a hundred thousand dollars last year is out and it’s bigger than ever. Hooray for prosperity! No, wait, boo for wasteful spending! Councillors Rob Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) and Denzil Minnan-Wong (Ward 34, Don Valley East) took their typical stance attacking the city payroll, but most of the spike in high-earners was due to a surge in overtime hours during the civic works strike. An extra 428 city workers made the list due to heavy overtime in Toronto’s water waste, solid waste, transportation facilities and real estate, and technical services divisions. And that’s your news.