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Newsstand: October 12, 2011
This is the kind of Wednesday you want to bring home so your parents can put in on the fridge. In the news today: a city councillor fights for the right to snack for free, the land transfer tax brings in a boatload of money for the city, a citizen calls on police not to be jerks at Occupy Toronto this weekend, and someone wants to buy the Toronto Zoo.
Torontonians rose up en masse to prevent library branches from being cut and to save Riverdale Farm. Hundreds of citizens have stood before city council and voiced their opposition to cuts to services they consider to be essential. So it was only a matter of time before someone came to the defense of one of the earliest casualties in Mayor Rob Ford’s jihad against gravy. We’re of course talking about the free snacks at council meetings, which Councillor James Pasternak (Ward 10, York Centre) wants to see brought back after they were cut as one of Ford’s first orders of business as mayor. Too bad almost no other councillors are on his side, unless the Hamburglar wins his upcoming by-election.
That pesky land transfer tax is in the news again, and this time it’s not over whether or not the tax will be done away with. No, despite being reviled by Fords across the city, the tax is largely responsible for Toronto running a $140 million surplus in 2011. Once again, the old adage holds up: if realtors hate something, that thing is probably good. Naturally, there has been no comment from Rob Ford, but budget chief Mike Del Grande says the money should be put away for the future instead of being spent now. So there probably won’t be a monorail or repairs to Main Street in the city’s future.
A letter has been circulating the Internet calling on Toronto police to play fair at the Occupy Toronto protest coming up this Saturday to avoid another G20 police arrest and beatdown fest. The letter apparently wasn’t written by an Occupy Toronto organizer, but rather just some guy who doesn’t like to see police behaving badly with the world watching. The Sun is not amused.
There’s already interest from the private sector in purchasing the Toronto Zoo, after city council voted to sell it off a couple of weeks ago. The interest comes from Parque Reunidos, an international theme park tycoon who runs several zoos as well as traditional “roller coaster, cotton candy, puke your lungs out” parks. There has been no word yet on how the zoo would change if sold to Reunidos, but the man’s international stature is cause for concern for many. Plus the emus have been digging ever since the story broke, and that’s never a good sign.