news
Newsstand: June 4, 2013
Hey, where'd our summer weather go?! In the news: Ford hires new staff, Flaherty chats with the mayor, Torontonians are split on the alleged Ford video, Byford gets a transit surprise, a Star reporters is arrested at Union Station, the Liberals are considering new fees, and cops are looking for help investigating a death.
Mayor Rob Ford hired four new staffers over the past week, to replace those who departed in the wake of reports from the Toronto Star and Gawker of a video that allegedly shows Ford smoking crack cocaine. The Globe and Mail gives the four new employees as Rob Krauss, Katrina Xavier-Ponniah, Victoria Colussi, and Jonathan Kent—they’ll be special assistants to the mayor, focused largely on taking calls from constituents. The National Post reports that two other existing staffers—Amin Massoudi and Thomas Beyer—have been given new roles. Ford told reporters outside his office yesterday that he plans to hire more staff, so now would be an excellent time to update your LinkedIn profile.
In other Ford news, federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty told reporters that he had “personal” talks with the mayor and his family since the scandal begun in May. Flaherty is a longtime friend of Rob Ford and the Ford family, and declined to comment on the specifics of the conversations. And an Ipsos Reid poll found that just over half of respondents believe that a video showing the mayor allegedly smoking crack cocaine does exist, while others think the reports of a video—which Mayor Ford has said does not exist—are examples of a media agenda against the mayor. Support for the mayor is, probably unsurprisingly, highest in his native Etobicoke.
Other things are also happening, we swear! For example, TTC CEO Andy Byford was apparently surprised to discover that there is no plan for easing congestion along the city’s ever-expanded waterfront included as part of Metrolinx’s The Big Move plan. So that’s reassuring, 512 and 504 streetcar users! In a Canadian Club lunch talk on Monday, Byford called on the federal government to contribute more financially to Toronto transit.
A Toronto Star reporter, Alex Consiglio, was arrested, handcuffed, and ticketed at Union Station after taking photos of two GO Transit workers who were injured in a skirmish with a man who tried to open the doors of a moving train on Sunday. Metrolinx communications staff told theStar that members of the media aren’t allowed to take photos at Union Station without permission, while acknowledging that the same restrictions don’t apply to tourists or other non-reporters. Go Transit is reviewing the incident.
The provincial Liberals could be considering a host of new fees and fee increases as a means to raise money, according to an internal memorandum found among documents related to the cancellation of two power plants. Some of the listed suggestions include bringing back photo radar, a 75-cent surcharge on phone bills, and making inmates pay rent while incarcerated. Finance Minister Charles Sousa said that photo radar would not be returning, but didn’t reject any of the other ideas at this point, saying that at this point they are still “recommendations that are brought forward.”
Finally, the police are seeking the public’s help in investigating the death of Rigat Essag Ghirmay, after parts of her dismembered body were found in a duffel bag in the west end on May 24. Adonay Samuel Zekarias, who is 41, has been arrested and charged with indignity to a dead body, and it’s expected that the charges will be upgraded to murder. Police are working to recover the rest of Ghirmay’s remains and to learn more about how and where she died. A detective told the Star that it’s believed Ghirmay died at her home at 285 Shuter Street, and cops would like to speak with anyone who may have seen the accused with a black, yellow, and green Tracker bag with rollers in the Humber Boulevard and Alliance Avenue area over the past two weeks.