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Newsstand: January 24, 2011
Illustration by Jeremy Kai/Torontoist.
Oh Monday, you slay me: Toronto Pride passed muster but still got passed over, Jane-Finch schools aren’t closing, Toronto’s roofs aren’t going green anytime soon, and let’s make a movie called SIU and the Toronto Police: A Love Story
Documents obtained by the Canadian Press under access to information rules show that Toronto Pride 2010 passed muster in a bid for federal government stimulus funding, but was ultimately passed over. The year prior, Pride had been successful in a bid for a similar grant, taking in four hundred thousand dollars of federal money. The funding was approved by then-minister Diane Ablonczy, a move that sent social conservatives in her party reeling, and soon thereafter responsibility for the Marquee Tourism Events Program that dolled out Pride’s funding was transferred from Ablonczy to Industry Minster Tony Clement. Documents show that the following year Pride’s application met the ministry’s criteria and that organizers were given encouraging words by bureaucrats involved in the review process, but in the end, they weren’t given any stimulus money and were forced to curtail plans for growth. There will be no round three: the Marquee Tourism Events Program hasn’t been renewed for 2011.
Last week, TDSB officials warned Jane and Finch residents that public schools in their community were being considered for consolidation or closure, but this week they went “Nah, just kidding!” The TDSB say that they’ve heard the public’s cry, and the schools are staying open. And hey, as a bonus, for a whole week the media reported on something other than a violent crime in Jane and Finch. Maybe we could talk them into keeping that up.
Speaking of reneging on things, under David Miller back in 2009, the City passed a by-law that made Toronto the first city in North America to make green roofs mandatory on buildings over two thousand square metres. Roofs covered with vegetation cost more to build, but have significantly lower environmental impacts, improving both air quality and building energy consumption rates. The by-law—which passed 36-2 with Rob Ford and Doug Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre) proving the only dissenters—was slated to come into full effect this January 31, but City staff are now delaying that roll out date to April 30, 2012 while they find a way to desperately backtrack work with industry stakeholders to find alternatives. Look, no worries, we totally understand where they’re coming from: it’s totally reasonable that Rob Ford really wants to suck face with industry big wigs keep Toronto’s relationship with industry healthy.
With the man who allegedly beat Adam Nobody at the G20 summit last summer due in court today, the Globe and Mail takes the opportunity to look at the relationship between Toronto Police and the Special Investigations Unit who took the police to task. In 2008, Ontario Ombudsman André Marin issued a report accusing the SIU of being soft in the face of police resistance to investigations and insufficiently transparent with the public. Soon thereafter, former crown attorney Ian Scott took over as director, and both the rigour of the unit’s practice and visibility of their public image have made a turn around. Though Marin now praises the SIU’s work, others are less than pleased, with chief of police Bill Blair issuing public criticism of the SIU’s investigations. Now, as court proceedings against Constable Babak Andalib-Goortani get underway, the SIU will be called upon to prove its mettle.
Last but not least: it’s the last day of the cold snap. “It’s a dry cold”: just keep telling yourself that.