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Newsstand: April 7, 2011
Illustration by Sasha Plotnikova/Torontoist.
Thursday’s back! Maybe if we feed it intrigue and scandal it will go away. Comin’ up: secret emails of a Toronto Sun columnist, Halton Catholic School Board asks gays to step a-SIDE, mayor’s questionable campaign financing raises questions, and another friend o’ Ford gets a sweet new job.
Toronto Sun columnist Sue-Ann Levy is now personally addressing her incendiary columns to chosen ones in the community. According to some emails obtained by Xtra, Levy has been lobbying (our word, maybe not the City’s [PDF]) leaders in the Jewish community to send mass emails to city councillors urging them to defund Pride Toronto because of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid’s involvement.
Those Rob Ford campaign funding issues we told you about Wednesday are still getting council all brouhahaed up. Revelations that some of the mayor’s campaign money came from a family holding company is getting mixed reactions at City Hall. Karen Stintz (Ward 16, Eglinton-Lawrence) says “It speaks to the challenges of running a municipal campaign,” while Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) is calling for a compliance audit or council decision to close up the gaping loop hole that Ford managed to slip through.
City councillors have hired a newish head for the newish Toronto Transit Infrastructure Limited, the group responsible for securing funding for the Sheppard subway line. Former metro councillor and GO Transit chairman Gordon Chong was hired by Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) and Norm Kelly (Ward 40, Scarborough-Agincourt) to do a job TTC chair Karen Stintz says the TTC could have done on its own. But the Toronto Transit Infrastructure Limited had $160,000 lying around from when it was “Toronto Transit Consultants Limited,” so they decided to give $100,000 of that to Chong. Also, this way meetings on the issue are not public. And the mayor owes Chong for serving on his transition team. And Chong can’t live on his municipal pension alone, now can he? His appointment is a win win win for us all!
The case for hiring Chong is buoyed by the success of Ford cronies that have come before him. Case Ootes and his one-man board approved the sale of 22 TCHC-owned houses at a “board meeting” on Wednesday. Ootes/the board listened to deputants’ pleas to let them stay, but decided to sell off the houses anyway. However, a few lucky residents will be exempt thanks to a 2001 decision by council not to evict any senior citizens. It’s unclear whether that exemption will extend to those residents who became seniors since that decision. Some people, unlike the vampire-esque Ootes, do grow old.
And the Halton Catholic District School Board’s answer to its gay-straight alliance issue: needs more acronyms! The board still refuses to offer GSAs, but they are encouraging students to join SIDE (safety, inclusivity, diversity, equity) spaces. We can just hear the fuzzy PA at morning announcements; “All the gays to the SIDE, please.”