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Weekend Newsstand: March 19, 2011
Illustration by Jeremy Kai/Torontoist.
Weekend! Weekend is here! How’s about you stay for awhile, weekend? In the news: business owners get their too-late G20 compensation cheques, and they’re too little too; Councillor reimburses office blessing expense; Mayor Ford’s next target; some really bad people are living in our midst; and trusty old subway disruptions.
Business owners are none too impressed with the Harper Government’s paltry compensation cheques for G20 losses. Steve’s Music Store, which had windows smashed and its sign singed by flames from cop cars, requested eighty thousand dollars to repair the damage. They got twenty thousand. A car dealership wanted $146,000. They got only $3,704. The dealership’s director of operations says it cost more to put the claim together. He also said the CFO spent one hundred hours putting the claim documents together, which sounds like an exaggeration worthy of a car salesman.
Speaking of handing over money, Michael Thompson (Ward 37, Scarborough Centre) is reimbursing the money he paid a pastor to bless his new office. Thompson, an ardent supporter of Team RoFo, spent three hundred dollars from his office budget to perform the ritual. When asked if the reimbursement cheque was an admission of wrong-doing, Thompson responded with pious word choice befitting of the situation: “Heck no.” According to City rules, councillors are allowed to make taxpayer-funded donations to churches and/or children’s sports teams in their ward, but Thompson said his constituents had mixed feelings about this particular donation.
Mayor Ford may have found his next target: Mother Nature. With all the snow that piled up this winter, the City is set to use the entire snow removal budget allotment, leaving nothing behind to buoy next year’s efforts. Last year’s mild winter left a sixteen million dollar surplus that went into the big surplus pile Ford used to balance the budget without having to raise taxes. Lord knows how Ford will launch his defensive against the white blight, but we expect he will come up with something. He always does.
In the running for most heinous crimes: Toronto police are searching for a man that’s been randomly attacking mentally challenged people in Parkdale. There have been five attacks since January and police say the attacks have been getting more serious. They also suspect the assailant has been stalking his victims before attacking them. None of the incidents involved robbery. The attacker just approaches his victims wearing a ski mask, doesn’t say a word, and attacks them, unprovoked.
Oh wait, we have another entrant: a fifty-nine-year-old door-to-door salesman was charged with sexual assault when a teenage girl accused him of attacking her after he came to her door to sell air fresheners. Police fear there are more victims, and are urging them to come forward.
And it wouldn’t be a weekend in Toronto without some subway disruptions. The Spadina line will be closed between St. George and St. Clair West until 2 p.m. on Sunday.