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Newsstand: December 23, 2014
The Toronto Maple Leafs made a ridiculously awkward holiday greeting card video to wish fans happy holidays. After presumably losing some sort of bet, Leafs players Joffrey Lupul, Jake Gardiner, and David Clarkson were recorded belting out their best version of “Jingle Bell Rock,” which may go down as one of the worst renditions ever sung. In the news: Toronto Hydro says it's learned from the ice storm of 2013, Ontario’s ombudsman threatens to launch an investigation into the Toronto South Detention Centre, and the TTC speeds up a review of bus and streetcar operator safety after the death of Amaria Diljohn.
Toronto Hydro president and CEO Anthony Haines says he is confident that the utility has learned a thing or two from last year’s massive ice storm that left 600,000 customers across the GTA without power and cost the City of Toronto an estimated $106 million. Haines says that Toronto Hydro would be better prepared for a major storm and has made improvements to service, including better computer systems to allow for more reliable customer outage reporting. Emergency response drills have also lead to improved disaster relief readiness. So now let’s just hope Mother Nature does her part to keep the massive storms at bay this season.
Provincial ombudsman André Marin has threatened to launch an investigation into the Toronto South Detention Centre after a report revealed that sick inmates are being held in solitary confinement because the infirmary and mental health unit at the jail is not yet open. Of the 292 complaints logged against the detention facility in the past 11 months, 144 have been related to health services and segregation, mainly due to the fact that prisoners experiencing any diseases, mental illness, or injuries are held in solidarity cells. Marin says that the practice is shameful, and has called on the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services to come up with an alternative immediately. The ministry says that staff recruitment has played a large part in the delay of the health care facility, and that the practice of using segregation to deal with health issues is to allow inmates to have a private location to recover from illness. Tory MPP Rick Nicholls (Chatham-Kent-Essex) is not buying it, though; the corrections critic has requested a tour of the detention centre, saying that the standard of confining ill inmates is shocking and inhumane. NDP corrections critic Lisa Gretsky (Windsor West) says that the Liberal government needs to get its act into gear and open the health care facilities immediately. Correctional services minister Yasir Naqvi says that the ministry is working as quickly as it can to open the health care unit, while also ensuring the safety of doctors, nurses, correctional staff, and inmates.
In the wake of the hit-and-run accident in which a Toronto Transit Commission bus struck and killed 14-year-old Amaria Diljohn in Scarborough on December 19, TTC CEO Andy Byford has announced that a comprehensive review of the training, recruitment, and recertification processes for bus and streetcar operators will be expedited. The review began a few weeks ago following reports of drivers running red lights, and is seen by the TTC as a way to give the public assurances that safety is important to the transit agency. What is more important right now, though, is that there are no new details as to how Diljohn was hit by the bus as it made a right turn at Finch Avenue and Neilson Road in the early evening. Police would not comment on why the bus did not remain at the scene of the accident, but TTC spokesperson Brad Ross says that the driver—who turned himself in to police and has yet to be charged with any crime—has not been fired, although he is no longer driving a vehicle.