news
Newsstand: November 24, 2011
Thursday, we couldn't be happier to see you if you were based on a real day. In the news: St. James Park is mostly vacant after police evict Occupy, more details on the G20 spies, a new NHL-sized arena planned for Markham, picket lines at Finch station, and transit dreaming.
Yesterday was the day the yurts died and we were singing, “bye bye Occupy.” After 40 days in St. James Park the police rolled in and, with name badges for all to see, they asked nicely if perhaps the occupiers wouldn’t mind packing up the tents. A few arrests were made, but the scene was mainly calm. But let’s get our priorities straight and announce that, yes, antsy dogwalkers, your pet can poop there again.
Meantime, any goodwill the Toronto Police Services may have been regaining with their pepper spray– and baton-free Occupy eviction was sullied up once again by old faithful, the G20. More details are emerging about what the RCMP is calling “the largest JIG ever assembled in Canada,” and they ain’t talking about Michael Flatley’s St. Patrick’s Day plans. No, they mean the undercover police operation, or Joint Intelligence Group, that infiltrated activist groups well ahead of the G20 summits. According to some of the activists, one infiltrating officer didn’t only know where vandalism was likely to go down, she suggested some targets. Creepy.
So one of the hockiest hockey guys of all Toronto hockey wants to build a giant arena in Markham. But if for some crazy reason you thought that maybe GTA Sports and Entertainment, the group proposing the space, and its CEO W. Graeme Roustan (who is also the chairman of hockey equipment-maker Bauer) were building the arena to house a new NHL hockey team then you’re crazy. The man and the group—and Markham city councillors—will not say that a new hockey team is anywhere in the plans. The giant skating rink is obviously just for concerts and maybe Disney on Ice. Maybe. If you, and the Leafs, are lucky.
Striking York region transit workers are giving an MPP sort of what he asked for: a major picket line at a busy transit hub. About 200 picketing workers showed up at Finch station this morning after Conservative MPP Frank Klees said he hadn’t seen much picketing in the five week–long strike. So if Klees doesn’t see this, it doesn’t count guys.
Speaking of transit, the TTC is taking a look at its wishlist. The commission decided yesterday that Presto cards would be the payment method of the future after agonizing over the decision to adopt the province’s precious Presto. Subways should be outfitted with the declining balance cards within 18 months, while the entire system can expect to have Presto systems installed by 2015. Even further afield, Metrolinx says an extra rapid-transit line through the downtown core is still in the cards, along with all-day all-way service on all GO Train lines, and a pony.