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Newsstand: November 8, 2011
Whoa, it's Tuesday and R.E.M. is not together anymore. It just hit us. In the news: cyclist's death sparks calls for more safety measures, Ontario coroner probes pedestrian deaths, Beaches war memorial is defaced, Sheppard subway plan not going to plan, and a lack of proper representation in politics.
Cycling advocates are calling for more safety measures after a 38-year-old woman was killed in a collision with a truck near Dundas Street West and Lansdowne Avenue on Monday morning. Police are still not certain if any charges will be laid, but Constable Hugh Smith called the collision “totally preventable.” More bike lanes would be one way to totally prevent cyclists from such a tragic end. Another would be mandatory side guards on trucks, which a lot of people have been calling for, including the City of Toronto coroner. In 1998.
Not long after announcing its own probe into cycling deaths, Ontario’s chief coroner is announcing a probe into all pedestrian deaths last year. Like the probe of drowning deaths that was completed this summer, the pedestrian probe will seek input from experts as well as members of the public. Factors such as age, weather, and urban versus rural settings will all be taken into consideration.
It’s been a bad month for war rememberers, as monuments great and small to our fallen brethren and sistren are being defaced and pilfered all over town. First came the Poppy Box Thief, now the Malvern Memorial Menaces. Just days after a $40,000 restoration of the memorial statue at Malvern Collegiate was unveiled, four young hooligans wrapped blue duct tape around the statue, in the process knocking some letters off Lance Corporal Cecil Pugh Annis’ name and upsetting a lot of people in the community. Repairs are estimated at $2,000, and donations to the cause have already been pledged. Police are investigating with the aid of a handy video surveillance tape of the incident, much like in the case of the Poppy Box Thief, which leads us to conclude that these guys really must hate the military, the birthplace of all that is stealthy.
Remember when you believed all the words that came out of Rob Ford’s mouth? Weird, us neither. Well anyway, let’s all feign surprise that the mayor’s Sheppard subway plan—extending the line from Downsview station to Scarborough Town Centre—will not, as he promised during the election campaign, be completed in time for the 2015 Pan Am Games. No, no, says Gordon Chong, Ford’s advisor for this transit plan, the subway won’t be finished by then, but construction may have started, and he counts that as a promise fulfilled. Apparently Chong’s having a hard time finding the $4 billion in private cash Ford said would fund the bulk of the project. Surprise surprise.
And, this just in, white people still have disproportionate control over things. Visible minorities make up only seven per cent of municipal council members across the GTA despite representing 40 per cent of the GTA’s population. Seven per cent! And the numbers at provincial and federal levels aren’t much better.