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Newsstand: November 18, 2014
Apparently Charles Manson was granted a marriage licence and plans to marry his 26-year-old fiancee some time before February. For the perpetually single, try not to let your morning be ruined by the fact that a convicted murderer will be married before you. In the news: A condo in Liberty Village was evacuated following an explosion, Conservatives held on for victory in the Whitby-Oshawa by-election, a police blitz targeted illegally parked drivers, and a lack of accurate statistics about sexual assaults on the TTC.
Hundreds of people had to be evacuated from a Liberty Village condominium following a gas explosion that sent one person suffering from burns to hospital. The explosion happened on the with floor of 85 East Liberty Street on Monday evening and was so powerful it blew out a set of elevator doors and surrounding windows. Residents were able to return to their units after a few hours. An investigation by the fire marshal is ongoing.
Tories are breathing a sigh of relief this morning after two federal by-elections yesterday were both held by Conservative candidates. Jim Eglinski won in the Yellowhead riding with 62 per cent support, while Pat Perkins won in Whitby-Oshawa with 49 per cent. Perkins kept the riding that was held for a decade by late finance minister Jim Flaherty in Conservative hands, albeit by a significantly smaller margin than in previous years. Liberal also-ran Celina Caesar-Chavannes garnered 40 per cent of the vote, which is a drastic improvement over the fairly dismal 14 per cent support earned by the last Liberal candidate in the riding during the 2011 federal election. Speaking of dismal, let’s talk about voter turnout in both by-elections for a second. Only 30 per cent of eligible voters cast a ballot in in Whitby-Oshawa, and less than 15 per cent did in Yellowhead. Tsk, tsk!
A police blitz yesterday morning saw over two dozen tow trucks out around the downtown core to help officers ticket and tow illegally parked vehicles in an effort to ease gridlock. It began at 7 a.m. and lasted through the morning rush hour, with police also targeting drivers who were blocking traffic lanes, and making prohibited turns. Cyclists and pedestrians were also charged for crossing streets mid-block. There is no word on how many cars were towed, nor charges laid, but Toronto Police say that more of these targeted zero-tolerance blitzes are planned in the weeks to come.
While Toronto Police search for a man wanted in connection with three sexual assaults committed on the same Toronto Transit Commission bus route since late October, Torontonians might be wondering just how common these incidents of sexual harassment are on public transit. For now they will just have to keep wondering, because while the stories of women being catcalled, threatened, and assaulted while riding the TTC are numerous, the TTC says it does not have up-to-date statistics. According to TTC mouthpiece Brad Ross, there does not seem to be a general increase in the number of complaints, but they rely on getting their official statistics from the police. The problem is that these numbers are difficult to compile, because monthly statistics do not separate sexual assaults from different attacks and confrontations on the TTC. Constable Jenifferjit Sidhu says that these numbers are kept track of, but not centrally. Instead, each division compiles its own numbers. And then, the city’s sex crimes unit also has its own statistics. Except those city-wide numbers will not be compiled until the end of the year. In major cities across Canada and internationally, sexual abuse on public transit is not uncommon. In London, an estimated 15 per cent of female transit riders reported incidents, while in Vancouver, a safety crackdown lead to a 23 per cent spike in complaints in just over one year.