news
Weekend Newsstand: October 22, 2011
Try as they might, those grey clouds and that vicious hangover just can't dampen the incredible power of Saturday. In the news: some honest feedback for Rob Ford almost a year into his mayoralty, paramedics are totally cool with being made an essential service, police identify a suspect in the Nuit Blanche shooting, and mountain bikers weigh in on a new course in High Park.
Can you believe it’s almost been a year? Between cutting vehicle registration taxes, skipping Pride Parades, breaking campaign promises like raw spaghetti, giving people the finger, and being a tool in his rare media interviews, Rob Ford’s 12 months as mayor have consistently brought controversy and probably high blood pressure as well. Today his first year is scrutinized by two major papers, and while both agree the mayor hasn’t been doing so great so far, they sort of differ in their views of whether he can salvage the rest of his mayoralty. There are links, but see if you can guess the paper based on these quotes: “With three years left in his term of office, he has plenty of time for a comeback” and “Ford treats the city like…a bastard child he’s never hugged and doesn’t know how to love.”
On Tuesday, city council will vote on whether to make paramedics an essential service, and that’s just fine with Toronto’s EMS workers. In fact, almost all of them support the designation. And it’s not just the evidence suggesting services deemed “essential” are better paid, or that paramedics are only allowed to cut service by 25 per cent during work stoppages anyway. The lack of an essential service designation was just starting to get embarrassing. Seriously, some paramedics were even pretending to be bus drivers when trying to pick up at bars. Don’t our emergency personnel deserve better?
Police have identified a suspect in the Nuit Blanche shooting that turned out to have very little to do with Nuit Blanche and much more to do with gang hits. The bad news is the guy has a history of violence and is likely dangerous. The good news is he’s probably on his way to Nova Scotia at the moment, so he’s Halifax’s problem now.
In one of those moves that’s so logical you’re almost surprised when bureaucracies do it, the city is asking mountain bikers for suggestions in the design of a new off-road biking site at High Park. The site will replace Snake Mound, the park’s unofficial off-road course, which the city closed earlier this year. And, to make all you bike lovers even happier, the top candidate for the new site is a parking lot. Put that on your handlebars and ring it.
The Diwali festival is coming up this week, and if you thought bite-sized candy bars and orange marshmallow thingies were the sweets to get excited about this October, prepare to have your mind blown and blood sugar skyrocketed. The five-day festival will have the Gerrard Street India Bazaar buzzing with delicious edibles, giving non-Hindu/Sikhs/Jains something to celebrate as well.