news
Weekend Newsstand: November 22, 2014
The weather's not bad! Get out there and enjoy a crisp fall-winter day today, but not until after you read the news: A man acquitted of murder is suing the Peel police, Peel city councils need more diversity, and the Pan Am Games mascot has cost Toronto a lot of money.
Eric Morgan spent more than three years in prison and faced two trials for the murder of Mervyn (Mikey) Spence before being acquitted. Now he’s suing the Peel police for $25 million. The judge hearing Morgan’s second trial found that the police “had used ‘abusive’ and ‘threatening’ interview techniques in an effort to convict Morgan.” Investigators revisited key witnesses who corroborated Morgan’s alibi, and some who said Morgan looked nothing like the shooter, and subjected them to intense pressure and questioning.
Peel cities have been host to dramatic demographic changes in the last few decades, including a marked increase in visible-minority residents. Yet the city councils in the region have only one nonwhite councillor out of 23 coming into office after the October elections. That’s a problem, and it’s one no one seems quite sure how to solve other than to wait; wait for more residents to start voting in municipal elections, wait for the young crop of second-generation kids to become active in politics, wait for the current white incumbents to leave office.
Pachi the Porcupine, mascot for the 2015 Pan Am Games being held in Toronto, has so far cost taxpayers in the city $383,045. Despite picking the mascot from a competition, officials spent more than $30,000 on mascot research. Then there are costume cleanings, promotional stickers, and wages for the 17 workers who wear the costume at public events. Mascots are important for events like the Pan Am Games (and the Olympics) because they help to distinguish one year’s event from another, and because they offer host cities merchandising opportunities.