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Weekend Newsstand: November 8, 2014
Did anyone else see tiny, dirt-speck-sized flecks of snow falling near the lake yesterday? Winter is coming. In the news this fine pre-winter morning: taking sexual assault allegations to the police is important and also often painful, the Toronto police union's contract is up Dec. 31, and the mother convicted of giving her son crack cocaine may have been convicted under specious circumstances.
In the wake of Jian Ghomeshi’s fall from grace and the accusations of sexual and physical assault from nearly nine women, Toronto Police chief Bill Blair asked survivors of such abuse, either by Ghomeshi’s hands or anyone else, to come to police with their allegations so the perpetrators can be investigated and potentially arrested. But as many women (and men) know, taking allegations of sexual assault to police isn’t always the curative measure Blair made it seem. Danielle Da Silva was sexually assaulted and after trying for nearly seven years to move past it, she took her case to the police; they treated her, in her own words, “like I don’t matter, they don’t take me seriously, I wasn’t being believed.” She says police need more training to deal with survivors of assault and that those who consider coming forward need to be prepared for a less-than-sympathetic response.
Speaking of Chief Bill Blair, he delivered a budget proposal to the city with a recommended increase of zero per cent, in line with the city manager’s request for all divisions and agencies. But that budget doesn’t include salary increases, and the police union’s contract ends Dec. 31. With 89 per cent of the service’s budget spent on salaries, benefits, and premium pay, if the police union negotiates an increase Blair’s zero per cent increase proposal will be meaningless. Mayor-elect John Tory will face pressure to keep the increase low or, failing that, added pressure to keep property tax hikes at or below inflation. Erstwhile mayoral candidate David Soknacki claimed Blair needed to look at the fundamental principles of policing in Toronto, rather than annual budget increases. He favoured “a substantial reduction” in the city’s police force coupled with a restructuring of the policing system.
Tamara Broomfield, the Toronto “crack mom” sentenced to seven years in prison for feeding her son Malique crack cocaine, was convicted primarily on evidence and testimony provided by a prominent Toronto toxicologist. That evidence is now being questioned, and, in October, a court of appeal overturned the convictions. Craig Chatterton, an Edmonton toxicologist, looked over and then criticized the methodology used in both the testing and the analysis of the results.