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Newsstand: March 3, 2011
Illustration by Jeremy Kai/Torontoist.
Show us what you got, Thursday: TCHC holds an emergency meeting while Rob Ford tries to figure out what he can do about them, apparently we are now living in “Ford Nation” and we hate Dalton McGuinty, gold and ballerinas on the loose in town, and the Urban Affairs Library closes.
The Toronto Community Housing board is holding an emergency meeting Thursday morning with Auditor-General Jeff Griffiths. The meeting is open to the public and their deputations, so long as you sign up before 8:15 a.m. Despite a (sort of) request from the mayor, no board members have resigned over the allegations of improper spending and shady procurement practices revealed in a report by Griffiths. The mayor is considering taking his request to clean out the board and CEO to council, the only body invested with the power to fire them, where he’s confidant he’ll get the support he needs. Ford has also publicly considered privatizing the TCHC, which could mean a lot of different things.
Despite its best efforts, the Toronto Public Library has voted to adopt its new budget and effectively close the Urban Affairs branch. Thankfully those wishing to know a thing a two about municipal and urban issues can still consult the collection in its new home at the Reference Library, and the community that came to rely on the Metro Hall branch can use the one at City Hall. Handy how that worked: funneling the people put out by a City Hall directive to City Hall. Might as well tell ’em how you feel while you’re picking up your holds.
Another week, another nickname for the Big Smoke: “Ford Nation.” Once again speaking through the media, Rob Ford threatened to mobilize his so-called “Ford Nation” to vote the Liberals out of Queen’s Park if Dalton McGuinty continues to refuse Ford’s request for millions of dollars in funding. Responding to Ford’s quote from a radio interview, Finance Minister Dwight Duncan maintained, “there is no money.” Watch the six o’clock news tonight when the mayor will announce he’s bogged down at work and won’t be home for dinner.
Have you seen these golden kangaroos? Toronto police are hunting down ninety-five Australian gold bars allegedly bought with a fraudulently obtained bank draft. The bars and the bank draft are from Montreal, but, just like in the seventies, it seems the money may have travelled east down the St. Lawrence. Toronto police have arrested two suspects for trying to sell some Aussie gold, and are the lookout for more. In return for any information about the almost two million dollars worth of gold, the Canadian Bankers Association is offering a fifty thousand dollar reward.
Also, be on the lookout for five Cuban ballerinas believed to be defecting after performing in Montreal and taking classes at the Canadian National Ballet here in town. Not that they need to be turned in or anything, but they could probably use a friend.