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Newsstand: August 31, 2011
It’s the last day of August, don’t be sad, do-dah, do-dah. Last day of August, don’t be sad, fall is coming, hooray! Today: Strikes and more strikes, Conrad Black's family back in the news, police behaving badly, and cheese!
GO Transit workers say they’ll “most definitely” strike after September 19 if their wage demands aren’t met in current contract talks. Their employer is offering a very attractive zero per cent increase in the next two years, but the employees—which include bus operators, technicians, station attendants, office and service personnel—somehow aren’t into it. The Amalgamated Transit Union local’s 1,530 workers have voted 95 per cent in favour of a strike. In other striking news, Ontario college support staff are also looking to hit the pavement, and could do so as soon as Thursday.
The venerable Black bailiwick is taking another wallop. The son of former media plutocrat (now lugubrious jailbird) Conrad Black is in court after an ex-girlfriend said he threatened her and sent “unwanted” text messages after their schism. Jonathan Black, a 33-year-old bond trader, says he doesn’t even think the case should be in court and says he’s only getting so much attention because of his infamous father. They clearly breed them with a strong respect for the justice system in this family—in a recent interview, his father described his own court proceedings as “idiotic nonsense.”
Those dang kids, always being so bad! So intolerably, handcuff-worthily bad! Toronto police are defending their decision to handcuff a nine-year-old with Asperger Syndrome who had barricaded himself in a room and was throwing paint around his daycare facility. After all, they didn’t want to have to lay the smack down on him (remember?) and thought handcuffs were their best option. Case in point: once restrained, he had a casual chat with the officers about his hobbies.
And in more police-are-so-trustworthy news, an area activist was reportedly arrested last week after posting the names of two alleged police infiltrators on his blog. The Toronto Media Co-op says the OPP arrested Dan Kellar on August 25 after he named a man and woman alleged to be police informants on his blog, peaceculture.org. His charges include “unlawfully publishing materials that are likely to injure the reputation of an undercover officer in a way that is designed to insult the officer,” and he has since been released on bail. OPP Det.-Sgt John Vanden Heuvel reportedly also “threatened to track down and arrest anyone who reposted the message.” Access to Information documents have revealed that 12 police officers infiltrated activist communities in the lead-up to the G20 summit in Toronto.
Oh yes—there was also a push to celebrate Wednesday “with the perfect cheese tray.” Ho-hum.
CORRECTION: August 31, 2011, 8:30 AM This article originally indicated that GO Train workers might go on strike in September, when in fact it is GO Transit workers. We regret the error.