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Weekend Newsstand: December 6, 2014
The Raptors commemorated Nelson Mandela last night on the anniversary of the South African anti-apartheid leader's death. That's just a touching thing from a great basketball team. In the news: the Toronto Star has placed politicians in each of the eight political ideologies common in Toronto, a local lawyer walked the border of Toronto, and NOW Magazine won't stop selling sex ads.
Which famous Canadian are you most like? As part of its continuing examination of the political divides in our city, the Toronto Star has matched each of the eight political ideologies common in Toronto to a Canadian politician. There’s a brief overview of each politician’s life as well; while we might not need it for Jack Layton or Doug Ford, some readers will probably be grateful for the chance to brush up on the life of Anti-Establishment Leftist William Lyon Mackenzie (Toronto’s first mayor).
One man walked the perimeter of Toronto in five days. Albert Koehl—a local lawyer, advocate of transit, walking, and cycling, and all-around fun-loving adventurer—laced up his shoes, put on four hats, and took 175,000 steps around the city. Koehl told the Star that he saw a lot of space being poorly used and a lot of unsafe conditions for pedestrians and cyclists. Koehl ran for City Council against Joe Cressy on a platform of making King Street a pedestrian mall, a proposal he said would help cut down on congestion for the 504 streetcar. While it only makes sense that the man with that plan is going to find fault with the car-first nature of the suburbs and the large roads connecting them to downtown, Koehl raised the point that with 2 million new residents expected to arrive in Toronto in the next 20 years, a lot of the empty space in the suburbs (lawns, large roads, etc.) could be put to use housing more people.
NOW isn’t going to stop selling advertising space to sex workers any time soon, even though the new prostitution law will make advertising for sex work illegal. The magazine doubled down on its commitment to free expression and refusal to discriminate against sex workers, and has sought legal advice from one of the lawyers who successfully challenged the previous prostitution law in the Supreme Court.