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Newsstand: July 22, 2010
Illustration by Matt Daley/Torontoist.
Today in your city: a G20 protester turns herself in, more activists are arrested, the Golden Horseshoe grudge match continues, and your 416 area code just got cool.
A woman police accused of causing thousands of dollars worth of mischief during the G20 summit turned herself over late yesterday afternoon. Twenty-one-year-old Kelly Pflug-Back, a Guelph resident wanted for six charges of mischief, was taken into custody by Peterborough police and is scheduled to appear before a court at Old City Hall this morning. Pflug-Back is alleged to have caused over five thousand dollars worth of damage, including destruction of a police car and Toronto storefronts during an anti-G20 protest on June 26.
In more activist news, last night Toronto police arrested nine who had taken over an Ontario Liberal Party office as a means of protesting welfare cuts. Following a rally held by 200 to 300 people in response to the government’s decision to nix a special diet allowance for welfare recipients, a small group proceeded to march into offices located two blocks south of Yonge and Bloor streets, presenting a fake invoice for welfare cuts and hanging a large banner from the windows of a second-floor office. Police remain tight-lipped on exactly what charges have been brought against the nine who were arrested.
A story in the Star last night suggested that as the CRTC works on new “area code relief planning” for Toronto, your 416 area code may gain some whole new cachet. With 416 numbers nearly exhausted, and all the remaining 647s expected to be called for by 2015, Toronto will see a new area code gradually introduced over the course of the next four years. Given the apparent difficulty in defining new area codes that are also “cool,” that 416 (or even 647) may soon seem as hip and vintage as the old school Member’s Only jacket you just picked up in Kensington. (Incidentally, the report regarding the hip factor of old-school area codes came just hours after the Huffington Post declared Toronto “the New Capital of Cool.”)
The rabble around the Niagara Parks Commission’s ad campaign dissing Toronto continues, with mayoral hopefuls George Smitherman and Joe Pantalone (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) using the incident as a pawn in their respective leadership bids. The Sun reported that Smitherman, characteristically furious over the ads, hauled himself out of bed at 5 a.m. yesterday morning to hand-deliver a cease-and-desist letter to Niagara Parks officials. Little did he know that the NPC had already yanked a number of ads out of rotation. Pantalone responded by saying that the problem wouldn’t be rectified until all the ads were taken down, accusing Smitherman of “political posturing.” Down the QEW, a Niagara Falls hotel is cashing in on the controversy. Appealing to Torontonians’ frail egos, the Falls Avenue Resort is launching a “We Love the GTA” promotion, offering GTA residents rooms for seventy-nine dollars a night for most of September, with proceeds donated to the Hospital for Sick Children.
And if you’re planning on driving anywhere this weekend, you better get planning quickly. Several road closures will be in effect as the Beaches International Jazz Festival, New Bloor festival, and Kensington Pedestrian Sundays close stretches of several major roadways in the downtown core. The City of Toronto’s website has a full list of closures and restrictions.