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Newsstand: November 12, 2014
Yesterday, clothing retailer The Gap got called out for poor taste because of its gloriously inappropriate idea to offer Remembrance Day sales. A Tesco store in England may have one-upped them, though, by offering remembrance-themed pizzas featuring pepperoni and bell pepper poppies. Tasteless marketing knows no bounds. In the news: the negative impact of Crosstown LRT construction on Eglinton Avenue West businesses, a new smartphone app for Beck Taxi, a colon surgery live on Twitter, and platform-edge safety doors to prevent subway track suicides.
Eglinton Avenue West businesses are already feeling the impact of construction on the Crosstown LRT. According to Monique Drepaul, Executive Director of the Eglinton Way BIA, approximately 20 businesses have shut down since construction began in the area early last year, while many other that remain open are losing money. Metrolinx does not provide tax breaks or subsidies to businesses during construction projects where land is not required either on a temporary or permanent basis; however, mayor-elect John Tory said he would entertain the idea of a compensation scheme for businesses impacted by long-term transit projects.
The taxi cab smartphone app is not a new invention, but an upcoming Beck Taxi app makes some pretty bold claims. “This is the biggest undertaking we have ever participated in. It’s going to change everything for everyone,” says Kristine Hubbard of Beck. Or else it will just let you pay for cab rides with your smartphone—like Uber already does—and track the arrival of your ordered ride—also like Uber. Expected to launch in December, the new app coincides with a fleet-wide technology upgrade for the company, which includes a navigation tool aimed to make trips quicker and more efficient. Welcome to 2014, Beck Taxi.
So what are you up to this morning? Chances are, you’re not performing a laparoscopic right hemicolectomy. You might not even know what a laparoscopic right hemicolectomy is. Thankfully for his patient, Dr. Shady Ashamalla of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre does know that it is a surgery to remove the right side of a colon in order to get rid of cancerous growths. This morning at 8 a.m. you can see Dr. Ashamalla and his team perform the surgery via a live Twitter event that will include a live-tweet view of the procedure, and tips on colorectal cancer prevention and screening. According to Sunnybrook, nearly 423 Canadians are diagnosed with colorectal cancer every week, and the aim of this event is to encourage curiosity while educating the public. Follow tweets from @Sunnybrook or use the hashtag #SBcancer to participate.
A new report by Toronto Public Health titled “Suicide Prevention in Toronto” says that platform-edge safety doors should be installed on all Toronto Transit Commission subway platforms—both new and old—in order to prevent suicide attempts and deaths on the public transit system. The report outlines 12 suicide-prevention recommendations for the TTC, including safety doors that have already been incorporated into infrastructure designs for new stations to be built along the Spadina subway extension. The only problem is that, at a cost of $5 million to $10 million per station, the TTC does not actually have the money to build them. Suicide by laying on subway tracks is not an altogether common occurrence, according to the report. Between 1998 and 2011, 238 deaths can be attributed to it. By comparison, in the same time frame, 912 people in Toronto committed suicide by some form of hanging or suffocation, and 745 people ended their lives by jumping from a high area. The report also reveals that in 2009, suicide in Toronto claimed four times as many lives as homicide. Even so, mortality rates from suicide have remained stable over the past decade.