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Newsstand: February 2, 2015
The world's oldest wombat lives at the Toronto Zoo and just turned 33—everyone wish Hamlet a happy birthday. In the news: Ontario courts are trying to find ways to help decrease domestic violence, the TDSB is angering residents who don't want their schoolyards sold to the highest bidder, and the public colleges of Ontario will soon have sexual-assault policies.
In an effort to reduce “preventable” tragedies like the stabbing death of eight-year-old Jared Osidacz in 2006, Ontario is looking into an integrated court system for domestic violence and criminal cases involving the same family. Osidacz was killed by his father, Andrew Osidacz, on a court-mandated visit while criminal courts had required his father to stay away from his mother, Julie Craven. After killing Jared, Andrew attacked Julie as well. There is a long and well-documented history of criminal and family courts failing to communicate, sometimes with horrific results. And because family courts require judges to weigh different probabilities—rather than, as with criminal courts, considering a defendant innocent until proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt—not having information about a party’s criminal history or current cases can be incredibly dangerous.
As the Toronto District School Board attempts to deal with the nearly 20 per cent of its schools that have been declared underpopulated, an associated problem has flared up in some communities: if schools are closed and sold, what happens to the land around those schools? The Globe and Mail uses Bannockburn Public School as a primary example. Families who moved into the area around Bannockburn enjoyed having the large schoolyard and park to let their kids play. If that land is put on the auction block, neighbours worry it will be purchased by a developer intending to rip up the green space and turn a profit. Meanwhile, Education Minister Liz Sandals has given the TDSB until February 13 to come up with a plan for the underused schools.
Colleges Ontario, which represents 24 public colleges in the province, has created a sexual assault policy for its member schools to implement. None of the 24 public provincial colleges surveyed by the Toronto Star had a sexual assault policy, and just nine of 78 universities in Canada did. Sexual assault on campuses is widely regarded as a problem ill-understood and often hidden in plain sight. The policy that Colleges Ontario will implement is 14 pages long and includes “definitions, points of contact, promises of support and academic accommodations and lay[s] out responsibilities for staff—including a requirement to report an allegation of sexual assault to the school if they become aware of one.”