news
Newsstand: February 21, 2011
Illustration by Jeremy Kai/Torontoist.
Here’s how Monday measures up: Torontonians rally in Yonge-Dundas square in support of Libyan protesters, two doctors in jail after an alleged drugging and sexual assault, Torontoist writers are tough shit on skates, more on the feral cat watch, and it’s Family Day, so we’re making bad jokes about it.
Trivia time: did you know that Family Day is only celebrated in three Canadian provinces? In two additional provinces, the holiday masquerades under the names of Louis Riel Day and, most suspiciously, Islander Day. We’re not telling you which provinces those are. Family Day isn’t federal, but that’s probably just because those folks in Ottawa want to trick you into thinking remind you that THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS YOUR TRUE FAMILY. (We don’t really want to think about how Stephen Harper might fit into that equation: he’s got this whole ‘brought to you by the makers of formaldehyde’ thing going on that makes us doubt his suitability for the role of patriarch. He’s more like someone’s well-medicated aunt.)
Anyway, on with the show:
The Libyan government cracked down on protests this weekend by sending elite troops into Benghazi, the country’s second-largest city, which has been controlled by anti-government demonstrators since Friday. At least two hundred people have died in the clashes. With the country effectively under blackout, Canadians with family in Libya (see: Family Day, above) are scrambling to stay in touch with their loved ones. Torontonians yesterday showed their support with a rally at Yonge-Dundas square that drew three hundred and fifty people out in solidarity with the Libyan anti-government protests. Over the last month, the same square has often been filled with Torontonians rallying in support of the people of Egypt.
Two Ontario doctors are in jail while police continue to investigate allegations that the men drugged and sexually assaulted a twenty-three-year-old woman. Amitabh Chauhan and Suganthan Kayilasanathan, both thirty-two and practicing doctors, are alleged to have put an unknown substance in the victim’s drink at a bar near Wellington and Spadina. They were offering her career advice.
The latest from the Scarborough Bluffs unofficial feral cat watch: most of the cats have been placed in foster homes to protect them from the coyotes that have recently started picking them off. Though the cats may be safe from canine jaws now, most aren’t taking well to life on the inside, and very few are turning out to be good candidates for domestication. Eight cats from the original clan of twenty-five-ish are still out on the bluffs, where volunteers take shifts watching over them overnight.
Trivia time redux: Torontoist has at least two roller derby aficionados on staff, and one of them is quoted in this article about the rise of the hard-hitting sport in the GTA. It’s the Spot the Torontoist Staffer game! (Don’t worry, it’s a lower-impact game than roller derby.) For those of us who may or may not be prone to the fear of everything all the time every day, we’re glad to know there are writers out there who are h-core.
Ask not what your family can do for you; ask what you can do with your family on a godforsaken day when stuff closes in the city. Actually, it’s not so bad, really: some things are closed, but some things aren’t. Distressingly, the LCBO won’t be open today, which seems like a real drag for anyone who’s hanging out with people they’re related to.
But seriously, all the cheap family jokes aside: the truth is that we’re actually really sentimental and family-loving, and we think you should call your mom. In fact, we already talked to your mom today, and she told us to tell you that.