news
Newsstand: September 22, 2011
Thursday would do anything for news, but it won't do that. In the news: city council heroically stops the new Port Lands and then saves some puppies; unanswered questions about where the idea for the new Port Lands plan even came from go mostly unanswered; a reprieve for the Canadian Air and Space Museum; and food bank use is down in the GTA, but not down enough.
In news from city council that no one could have predicted a week ago would have been news after Wednesday’s meeting of city council: the City is banning the sale of dogs and cats at pet shops unless the animals are from certain places. Basically, as long as the pets didn’t come from puppy or kitty mills, they’re alright. After the plan for the shiny new, now-with-a-Ferris-wheel Port Lands fell through and Waterfront Toronto was officially tasked to keep on keeping on, council turned to saving puppies and kitties. We bet council’s feeling pretty good about themselves right now.
For anyone still bewildered by the Port Lands plan that never was, anyone still wondering “WTF was that all about?” here are a few answers. The plan seems to have been set in motion in May when a lobbyist from an Australian mall company met with the mayor, his brother, the mayor’s chief of staff, and economic development chair Michael Thompson (Ward 37, Scarborough Centre). It’s unclear who initiated the meeting or why Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) was there. It’s also unclear why Doug Ford was left alone with the mall guy at the next meeting. And so we continue to ponder, WTF?
There’s nothing like a replica Avro Arrow in a parking lot to get a point across. Volunteers at the Canadian Air and Space Museum in Downsview Park wheeled the Arrow out of the hangar that housed it, and the rest of the museum’s artifacts, in protest of their potential eviction from the park. On Tuesday news broke that the museum was behind on rent payments and the park wanted them to clear out to make way for some hockey rinks. That plan didn’t get too much support from war veterans, or the media, or people with souls, so now the park is now allowing the museum to stay for six more months.
Food bank use in the GTA is down in the last year, but still at “unacceptably high” levels according to a report from the Daily Bread Food Bank. Despite the drop, the number of food bank users is still 14 per cent higher than it was before the recession hit in 2008. The report also sheds light on the broad spectrum of food bank users, with an increasing number of people with undergraduate and postgrad degrees needing assistance.
And Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi was in town on Wednesday to steal our workers and make us feel bad about not living in Calgary.