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Newsstand: December 1, 2010
Illustration by Jeremy Kai/Torontoist.
It’s Wednesday, December 1; today, Rob Ford officially becomes mayor and you get to buy a new Metropass. Beside that, Rogers wants to be corporate king of all sports, plastic bags could be free again, and the SIU is backpedaling on a G20 arrest.
The Star is reporting that media giant Rogers Communications is in talks to buy a majority stake in Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment for $1.3 billion. The deal would give Rogers, which already owns the Toronto Blue Jays, control over the Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors, and Toronto FC, meaning a virtual monopoly (ex-Argos) over local professional sports franchises. The key benefit for fans would be a single toll-free number to complain about your wireless, cable, internet, and losing sports teams.
Rob Ford got what will likely be the first of many middle fingers from the province in regard to funding he didn’t even ask for. The McGuinty government advised Monday that they won’t ante up the full $53.7 million requested by the city months ago to help fund welfare programs. Finance Minister Dwight Duncan said the ask was “way too much” and suggested that this would be a good chance for the incoming mayor to exercise his celebrated thriftiness. Ba-zing!
Also, new public works chair Denzil Minnan-Wong unofficially proclaimed the start of Toronto’s War on the Environment by musing about the removal of the five-cent levy on plastic bags in Toronto stores, as well as opining that the Miller administration had spent far too much money on transit and it was time to divert funding back to roads. Other proposals from the new administration will reportedly include the “Urban Logging Initiative” and the “Asbestos for Everybody” home insulation program.
The Special Investigations Unit has reopened the case of Adam Nobody, whose arrest and alleged beating by police during the G20 protests was videotaped and posted on YouTube. The SIU had originally said there was no way of identifying the officers involved, and Toronto police Chief Bill Blair had said the video had been tampered with (i.e. edited). However, the man who shot the video came forward and signed an affidavit saying that he had not edited the footage and that Nobody had never attacked the officers as claimed. Not to diminish the gravity of the case, but if this thing ever gets to court, there’s potential for a real “who’s on first” situation.
The National Post reports that a Toronto mother has turned to Facebook to crowd-source a name for her upcoming baby. So far, the leaders in the online poll are Aria, Melania, and Sophia. You know what would be a great name for a little girl? Newsstandia! If you want to vote, go to fabfindbaby.com.
If you haven’t got the holiday spirit yet, this won’t help. Thieves in Montreal tested the depths of loathsome scumbaggery by breaking into a car belonging to the wife of former Leafs coach Pat Burns hours after her husband’s funeral. Among the items stolen were suitcases of Burns’ clothes, numerous family photos, and hockey memorabilia set to be auctioned off for charity.
While Rob Ford’s incoming team does, by and large, have some experience and smarts behind it, the National Post headline “Meet Rob Ford’s Brain Trust” still sounds like it’s waiting for a punchline.