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Newsstand: December 8, 2010
Illustration by Jeremy Kai/Torontoist.
It’s Wednesday, but it feels like a late Tuesday, doesn’t it? In the news: ombudsman does some wrist slapping, Ford and McGuinty trade forced dead grimaces, and the MMA circus is coming to town.
In case you had any doubt, Ontario Ombudsman André Marin’s report on the infamous fence law revision calls it “illegal” and “likely unconstitutional.” Marin asserts that the amendment to the 1939 Public Works Protection Act was used by police during the G20 summit last June not only to keep you and me away from the celebri-politicos and damn near everything else in downtown Toronto, but as an excuse to search and detain people kilometres away from the meetings. Marin also said that he received “zero” co-operation from the Toronto Police Service during his investigation, which probably didn’t surprise him.
Mayor Rob Ford reasserted yesterday that he doesn’t feel he needs city council approval to cancel Transit City, claiming that there was never a council vote to implement the light rail transit plan in the first place. The comments followed a meeting between Ford and Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty, which the mayor characterized as “productive,” although it only up took twenty-five minutes of the scheduled hour. Later in the day at his inaugural address, Ford compared himself to William Lyon MacKenzie, first mayor of Toronto and leader of the spectacularly unsuccessful Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, who Wikipedia notes “was largely ineffectual as a mayor” and whose “management style provoked frequent quarrels on the City Council.” Hmmmm. McGuinty said of the meeting only that he looked forward to seeing a “healthy, vigorous, and important debate that will unfold” in Toronto. Click through to the Star article for a photo of Ford and McGuinty which is just begging to be captioned.
Hockey icon and famed halfwit Don Cherry is seeing some backlash on his bizarre speech at Rob Ford’s investiture yesterday. Left-leaning councillor Gork Perks noted that Cherry had set a particular tone for Ford’s mayoralty, while councillor Pam McConnell likened it to “bring on the clowns.” Cherry, a Mississauga resident, referred in his speech to “pinkos who ride bikes” and “left-wing kooks,” later also demanding that President Truman get rid of all the commies in the State Department before the Russians get the H-bomb.
Toronto will soon be enjoying the kind of arts that Rob Ford can get behind, which is to say mixed and martial. Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White was in town yesterday to say that MMA event UFC 131 will be held at the Rogers Centre on April 30 of next year. White’s press conference follows the provincial government’s announcement that applications will be accepted to stage MMA events in Ontario as of January 1, 2011. It’s estimated that the event will pump around sixty-million dollars into the local economy, and about four gallons of alcohol and testosterone into the bloodstream of the average fan.
Toronto drivers can soon look forward to a sweet, sweet, saving of five bucks a month. A staff report out of city hall says that mayor Ford’s proposed January 1, 2011 cancellation of the vehicle registration tax will cost the city about sixty-four million dollars, sixteen million dollars more than originally estimated. The difference comes partly because assumptions were that the tax wouldn’t disappear until later in the year, and because some motorists who paid for two years up front will get refunds.