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Newsstand: February 23, 2012
Thursday to bed, Thursday to rise, makes a Thursday the thing that's happening right now. In the news: Queen's Park finally gets around to repealing the G20 secret law, Rob Ford's inner circle admits subways may not be coming anytime soon, a Canadian movie premieres amidst poster scandal, and the future of blacksmithing in Ontario.
Just 20 months after the G20 summit, the Province is readjusting the dusty old Public Works Protection Act that was trotted out for the festivities. The Act—also known as the secret law—was given a slightly broader mandate ahead of the summits, and was widely blamed for mass arrests and a general air of police impunity when it came to searching and detaining people all around town. But now the law is being scaled back to its original, logical, jurisdictional confines of court houses and hydro generating stations.
In Canandian film free advertising news, posters for the new Jay Baruchel vehicle, Goon, were very ceremoniously removed from bus shelters on the very day the film had its gala premiere. Apparently, the posters were deemed offensive by at least one person. Maybe. The City says Astral was contacted about a possible complaint and took well-timed action. Meantime, a marketing guy for the movie’s distributor did a good job of sounding upset about the whole thing in the newspapers, and then added in a bit about how Canada is supposed to be a liberal country, man.
Members of Mayor Rob Ford’s inner circle are saying what we were all thinking: yes, firing Gary Webster was sort of pointless. Well, pointless if their goal is to reverse council’s decision to switch back to a light-rail transit plan. But not pointless if the goal was to just do a thing. Any thing. Because firing Webster sure was a thing. Ford insiders tell the Star they’d still like subways to be part of the long-term plan, but concede that LRT may happen after all. But whoever these mystery insiders are, maybe they should take a look at this editorial by Ford in which he vows, “I believe we should start building subways now. And we shouldn’t stop.”
Ontario may be a “have not” province these days, but what we lack in new jobs and a thriving manufacturing sector, we seem to make up for in horse tracks. Ontario has 17 tracks, and according to Finance Minister Dwight Duncan, the Province puts up more money for slot machines at those tracks than in Alberta, British Columbia, and Manitoba combined. But that may all end soon. The dreaded Drummond Report suggested the Province pull out from the revenue sharing agreement they’ve struck with the Ontario Harness Horse Association. To which the industry responded, “Won’t somebody please think of the blacksmiths?”