news
Newsstand: July 30, 2010
Illustration by Matt Daley/Torontoist.
Happy long weekend, folks! Today in the news, a G20 charge vanishes, the city helpline overloads, and Tory keeps Thomson guessing.
It’s the most wonderful time of the year. We’re heading into the Civic Holiday long weekend, which is a pretty sweet one. Since it’s not a statutory holiday, a lot of stuff that’s often closed—like malls and some liquor stores—will be open, so you don’t have to race around stocking up for Monday’s binge drinking.
Hey conspiracy theorists, check this out! The only charge laid under the law/regulation/guideline/urban myth designed to keep G20 protesters away from the Green Zone fence has mysteriously vanished. Dave Vasey turned up at court on Wednesday only to find that not only was his charge not on the docket, but there was no record of it ever existing in the first place. A Toronto police spokesperson said the missing charge was probably an administrative error, and not related to the G20. In the meantime Vasey is free to roam our streets, approaching fences at will. Won’t somebody think of the children?
“Beep…beep…beep…” is the sound of you not getting that raccoon out of your kitchen. Some Twitter users are reporting busy signals at the city’s 311 information line. The number, which was implemented last year as a one-stop shop for questions related to city services, has seen the number of calls received leap from about thirty-three hundred a day in May to about five thousand daily in June. If you need to get through, keep in mind that the line is open 24/7, and off-peak hours are the best times to call and find out the answers to questions like “What’s my garbage man’s middle name?” and “Could David Miller beat Rob Ford in a fist fight?”
Will he or won’t he? The Globe has uncovered email correspondence between mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson and John Tory in which he implies that jumping into the mayoral race remains a real possibility. In the July 13 exchange, Thomson asks Tory to make his intentions known as his candidacy would have an impact on both her fundraising and her campaign organization, and Tory replies that he’s not yet in a position to respond. Hey, you know what’s not considered a great leadership trait? Indecision! Sorry, but somebody had to say it.
Federal Liberal party leader Michael Ignatieff turned up at MuchMusic yesterday to do a little conga, answer a few questions, and show the kids he’s still as hip as ever. He also requested to hear K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag,” the anthemic World Cup brainworm that is surely destined to become a Coke commercial at some point. Draw-wise, Iggy’s no Miley Cyrus; his crowd consisted of the hyper-enthusiastic red-shirts who got off the bus with him and some aging, confused punks hollering at him to sing “Lust for Life.”
Favourite headline of the day: “Raw milk activist marks trial with operetta.” And you can actually go see it if you want.