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Newsstand: September 13, 2010
Illustration by Matt Daley/Torontoist.
Mondays are the best! Ripped from the headlines this glorious morn: TIFF descends with appropriate pomp, hotel workers picket, and a break-in at the Canadian Tamil Congress.
Oh the glitz, the glamour, the desperately taut skin and trim waistlines! TIFF blew into town last Thursday like a lipstick tornado, and Torontoist has been scrumming it, snapping up photos and jotting down quotables from what we’re forced to describe as Hollywood’s Biggest Stars. From Robert De Niro to Megan Fox, there’s enough A-list star power in town to dazzle even the most doggedly unimpressed.
Employees at the Hyatt Regency hotel were among the few hospitality workers not rolling out the red carpet this weekend. Instead, they’ve picketed their employers three times since the festival kicked off, demanding a contract that better addresses workplace safety and issues surrounding shift work. They even attracted some support from the West Wing and Repo Man—actor Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez joined picketing workers on Friday.
A Megabus travelling from Philadelphia to Toronto crashed into a low-hanging bridge early Saturday morning, killing four people. The double-decker bus was not on its assigned route when it collided with a bridge in a suburb near Syracuse. All of those who died were seated on the top level of the bus, near the front. There were twenty-eight passengers aboard, including seven Canadians, who all escaped with minor injuries. The accident is the most serious since Megabus began operating in 2006, and the accident is under investigation by the New York State Department of Transportation.
The Post‘s roving Toronto scribe Peter Kuitenbrouwer recently sat down for a lengthy chat with Robert Deluce, founder and chief executive of Porter Airlines. Better known as “Mr. Porter” to his employees, Deluce has been fighting to keep his little Toronto Island airline afloat since day one. Though Porter is much beloved by customers (who doesn’t like free smoked almonds and biscotti?), Deluce admits that too many flights are departing with not enough customers on board. Porter has lost forty-five million dollars since it opened in 2006, but the plucky Deluce says they’re nowhere near closing up shop.
The names of hundreds of Tamil asylum seekers aboard the MV Sun Sea were stolen from the Canadian Tamil Congress in Toronto this weekend. The break-in at congress headquarters in Scarborough occurred either late Saturday night or early Sunday morning, and though several rooms were ransacked, the only thing taken was the computer at the front desk. Congress members believe the act was either a hate crime or an act of espionage by Sri Lankan intelligence, and Toronto police are investigating.