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Newsstand: November 3, 2011
It's that time again: time to change your underpants and find out what's going on in the world. Ready? Onto step two, the news: maverick library board member revealed; Rocco Rossi's goodfella posters, and the accusations of racism, resurface at city hall; never before seen footage from inside the G20 detention centre; separated bike lanes might be on the way; and a sad story about sadness and poppies.
Some call him a maverick. Some, a bookist. Still others, a prop in a bizarrely intricate investigation by a team of Toronto Police officers and CBC makeup people into an alleged murder plot. But only one of those designations can accurately be pinned on Stephen Dulmage, and it’s that last one. Dulmage is the new library board member who stood firm against libraries, reason, and city council’s direct mandate not to close any branches when he suggested to the board that they close 38 branches, put a bunch of the books into a warehouse, and, hey, get rid of all the computers while they’re at it. Library chief Jane Pyper said the proposals, which the board rejected, created some “significant confusion,” a discombobulating feeling that you can probably replicate at home by reading the details of Dulmage’s involvement in that murder plot. Once again: that part is real. Branch closures are not.
A few elections back, before Rob Ford was mayor, fellow mayoral candidate Rocco Rossi put out some campaign posters depicting himself as a sort of godfather to the city, an all-around goodfella hoping to take over the mayoralty after Miller’s crossing into a different job. And now people who didn’t get enough of the mobster jokes the first time around are getting another chance (finally!), as someone has made a human rights complaint after glimpsing the poster hanging in the press gallery’s office at City Hall. As the people who know about and laugh at that poster everyday are the same ones tasked with writing about the complaint in the papers, it’s hard to say how this office drama will play out in the media. So far, when asked if the press gallery will remove the poster, president David Nickle replied something along the lines of “fuhgeddaboudit.”
Never before seen images from inside the G20 detention centre on Eastern Avenue while it was being used to hold people are now being seen. The security camera footage was used as evidence in the trial of one of the 885 people held at the temporary jail (a guy whose detention was deemed “completely without justification” by the judge). After seeing the footage, police services board chair Alok Mukherjee was all surprised and stuff that the conditions in the centre weren’t that great.
If approved, a pilot project could pave the way for separated bike lanes in the city. The Public Works and Infrastructure Committee will receive a report on the project today, and should they and council approve it, separated bike lanes could crop up on Richmond and/or Adelaide streets between Bathurst and Sherbourne. No joke.
And getting top honours from our sad-o-meter-story-judger, a man stole a poppy collection box from the counter of a Pizza Nova. As one veteran put it, “It’s a pretty bad state of mind that you’re in when you have to steal the Poppy Fund.” We don’t want to get too Goldie Hawn’s character in 1996 Woody Allen musical Everyone Says I Love You, but you’ve gotta wonder what would possess a guy to steal from veterans. Probably something sad.