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Newsstand: March 20, 2012
So Spring is saying it's just getting here today, but we're pretty sure it's lying. In the news this spring Tuesday: the NDP win in Toronto-Danforth by-election, the day before LRT vs. subway council meeting councillors still haven't seen subway funding plan, City's inside workers hold a strike vote today, and SIU cleared of any wrongdoing but questions arise.
The NDP is holding on to the riding formerly represented by Jack Layton, as Craig Scott won yesterday’s by-election in Toronto-Danforth. Scott won just under 60 per cent of the votes, beating the second-place candidate, Liberal Grant Gordon, by about 10,000 votes. About half of the riding’s registered voters cast a ballot. Though voter turnout may have been low, NDP support was high, with interim leader Nycole Turmel and Olivia Chow in attendance at Scott’s victory party. Next up for the NDP: the leadership vote on March 24.
A day ahead of council’s transit-meeting-battle-royale-Hunger-Games-The-Running-Man-showdown, councillors say they have yet to see a feasible financing plan for Rob Ford’s Sheppard subway fantasy plan. What they have seen, though, is pictures of LRT accidents, courtesy of a flier distributed by friend-of-Ford Norm Kelly (Ward 40, Scarborough-Agincourt). Though pictures of sadness aren’t exactly what councillors were expecting when they said they wanted to see the mayor’s plans for subway revenue tools, the bar isn’t set terribly high, with Josh Colle (Ward 15, Eglinton-Lawrence) saying, “A pie graph would be nice. Just something that would show where the sources of funding would come from.” Yes, wouldn’t it be nice?
In today’s “Showdown at City Hall” news, CUPE Local 79 will hold a vote to decide if they will be going on strike any time soon. The potential strike or lockout could start as soon as Saturday, with inside workers like city-run daycare, pool, and museum employees joining librarians on the picket lines. Local 79 union president Tim Maguire did have an informal meeting with City negotiators on Monday, but deputy mayor Doug Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre), who chairs the labour relations committee, said the meeting was fruitless.
The police officer who fatally shot a man after he walked out of Toronto East General Hospital last month has been cleared of any wrongdoing by the Special Investigations Unit. But the SIU director is raising questions about how police are trained to handle crisis situations, especially when dealing with people in mental distress. SIU director Ian Scott suggests a coroner’s inquest may be better able to answer the more complex questions, like whether more hospital staff should be permitted to carry tasers.