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Newsstand: October 18, 2011
Dust off the old dusty things, Tuesday's coming to town. And Tuesday is allergic to dust. But luckily Tuesday is not allergic to news! So let's get to it: cops cleared in Caribana shooting, Occupy Toronto occupies evening rush hour, the library board meets, and Rob Ford dodges late fees.
If you spent any part of Monday grumbling to yourself in your cubicle while listening in on two co-workers agree that Occupy Toronto is a “pointless protest since we live in Canada, duh” and then debate whether it’s “just people who hate the stock market or something” or “for socialists who hate capitalism,” then take a deep breath and brace for more. With no reason for stopping, Occupy Toronto entered its third day (and first weekday) on Monday. It/they began with a splinter group and ended with evening rush hour sit-ins at some of the downtown core’s busiest intersections as occupiers parked their keisters at King and Bay for a bit before moving on to Yonge and Dundas around 6 p.m. Apparently the group arranged themselves into a “99%” formation visible to people in the buildings above. Sounds like a pretty succinct message to us.
The TTC may start random drug and alcohol testing of its operators. If approved, the proposal would be the first of its kind in Canadian public transit. A similar proposal was struck down in 2008, opting for not-so-random tests instead to ensure workers’ rights to privacy. But the TTC says in light of recent events, like criminal charges laid in a fatal TTC bus accident, it may be time to revisit the random testing approach. That being said, a TTC spokesman said the tests would only be used to identify whether operators are impaired when they show up for work, and not punish people for smoking pot and watching cat videos in the privacy of their home.
The SIU has cleared two police officers of any wrongdoing in the Caribana shooting that left a man dead and a woman with serious injuries. After conducting interviews with civilian and police witnesses and reviewing video footage from the melee, the SIU concluded in a news release that the officers were acting within the law when they shot and killed 30-year-old Kevin Murray because of the “imminent threat to not only the subject officers but other people in the immediate vicinity.”
The Toronto Public Library board is holding off on making any cutbacks to branch hours. Potential cuts to branches were revealed Monday night ahead of that night’s board meeting. But the board says it needs more time to review and explore other revenue options before cutting hours or acquisitions funding. The board did not need more time, however, to consider job cuts, which it did approve.
Speaking of libraries, late fees. And speaking of late fees, the mayor doesn’t pay them. We mean, we’re pretty sure he would have to pay late fees on library books if he signed any out. But his campaign doesn’t have to pay late fees on invoices from family-owned Deco Labels or Doug Ford Holdings Inc. Like sand through the hourglass, so are the questions about the Rob Ford mayoral campaign finances.