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Newsstand: April 23, 2013
Supposed to have another nice day! In Toronto this counts as patio weather. In the news: police are looking for two bank robbers, the mayor's executive committee will talk transit funding, Queers Against Israeli Apartheid is up for debate (again), and fewer and fewer kids are getting music classes at school.
Toronto police have appealed for the public’s help in catching two individuals who on Monday allegedly robbed a TD Canada Trust bank at St. Clair Avenue West and Mould Avenue and shot both a bank employee and a customer. Yesterday, cops released a video from security-camera footage showing the final moments of the robbery: one of the perpetrators gets tackled by a customer, who was later shot in the stomach when he pursued the robbers into the parking lot. In the confusion, a female bank employee was also shot in the leg. Both are expected to recover. Police are hoping that the video’s release will help them capture the two male suspects, and up to $100,000 has been offered by the Canadian Bankers Association for information leading to their arrest. Toronto cops would also like to remind people that attempting to intervene in an armed robbery is generally inadvisable.
Mayor Rob Ford’s executive committee meets today to decide if it will endorse new taxes or tolls—which could include development charges, a fuel tax, a parking levy, or a GTA and Hamilton-area sales tax—to raise money for transit funding, but yesterday the mayor refused to rule out the possibility of just burying the report recommending the new funding sources. “I personally won’t be supporting it,” Ford said on Monday. “I know a couple of my executive members aren’t going to support it, but I can’t speak for the rest of them right now. It very well could get filed.” The committee will also look at the possibility of implementing high-occupancy toll lanes, highway tolls, or other taxes in 2020, after some transit projects are finished.
At today’s meeting, the executive committee will also consider the issue—again—of allowing the group Queers Against Israeli Apartheid to participate in the city’s annual Pride parade. Last year, city council allowed the group to march but voted to officially condemn the phrase “Israeli apartheid.” Today the executive committee will consider a report saying that the phrase doesn’t contravene Toronto’s grants policy, guidelines, or anti-discrimination policies.
Music classes are on the decline in Ontario schools, according to an annual survey done by advocacy group People for Education. The report, released yesterday, found that just 44 per cent of Ontario elementary students have a music teacher this year, compared to 49 per cent last year and 58 per cent in 1999. It also found that students in lower-income areas are less likely to have opportunities to attend live performances or be part of a school band or orchestra. Only a third of students in the province get to work with an artist, be in a musical group, or learn to play an instrument, People for Education found.