news
Newsstand: November 11, 2010
Illustration by Jeremy Kai/Torontoist.
A Thursday for remembering, and the news today is mostly a bummer: white poppies not always welcome, MP misfires with double-duty mail-out, cameraman hit by a car, no news from false clues in Markham home invasion, Mariam’s dad won’t get bail, and King Street will get more condos.
If you think you see white poppies among the red today, don’t go calling the eye doctor just yet. Activists have been handing out and promoting white poppies for peace (kind of like an albino cousin to the more traditional flora) as an alternative means of remembrance. Remembrance Day is sacrosanct territory, and, as NOW Magazine points out this week, anyone uneasy with the ceremony’s relationship to current military conflict can expect some backlash. White or red, be careful with your poppies, folks. Those pins are sharp.
Speaking of invading Remembrance Day territory, Simcoe-Grey MP Helena Guergis wants you to remember to vote for her as an afterthought to your remembering war veterans. The former Conservative cabinet minister (who was booted from the caucus earlier this year) sent out a flyer to her constituents on the sombre topic of November 11 and attached a tear-off reply card asking whether residents would vote for her in the next election. No longer welcome in the Conservative club, Guergis will be running as an independent next time around. In defending her actions, Guergis points out that the printer usually calls her to point out errors. Unfortunately, that service applies to typos, not to errors in judgement.
Police investigations have turned up a red herring in the sad and disconcerting story of the Pan family’s home invasion in Markham Monday night. Police issued a release yesterday saying that a silver Acura captured by a nearby surveillance camera may have been used as a getaway. The owners of the car contacted the police after seeing their car on news reports, and they have since been ruled out as suspects. Police continue to hunt for three men associated with the crime.
More sad times: CityTV cameraman Bill Atanasoff was struck by a car on Kipling Avenue while covering a police investigation Tuesday night. He is currently in hospital with life-threatening injuries. Atanasoff was crossing the street between intersections, and police aren’t sure whether the camera on his shoulder may have obscured his view of oncoming traffic.
Vakhtang Makhniashvili, father to missing teen Mariam, remains in police custody after appearing in bail court yesterday. His lawyer said that there was no possibility of finding someone to act as a surety for bail at this time, due in part to the fact that his client was in violation of another set of bail conditions at the time of his arrest last week. Mahkniashvili turned himself in after allegedly stabbing David and Dolores Langer in their home. The couple posted bail for Mahniashvili earlier this year in a separate assault case.
Real estate condo man Brad J. Lamb (of the not-at-all-embarrassing ad billboards) has won to right to build a forty-seven-storey condo tower beside the Royal Alexandra theatre on King Street. Ward 20 Councillor Adam Vaughan originally opposed plans for the tower in March but supported a modified proposal later this year. Comparing his task to “civilizing the wild west,” Vaughan plans to keep condo cropping in the area under control with heritage restrictions.