Newsstand: March 13, 2015

It's a real spring weekend. In the news: protesters disrupted a meeting on the new sex-ed curriculum, measles is no longer in Ontario, and say hello (soon, we hope) to beer and wine in grocery stores.

By Tannara Yelland • Illustration by Matthew Daley

Angry protesters disrupted a meeting in Scarborough where two Liberal MPPs, Soo Wong and Bas Balkissoon, intended to discuss the province’s new sex-ed curriculum. When the protesters moved inside and created a distraction such that Wong and Balkissoon weren’t being heard, they ended the meeting; that also upset protesters, who wanted the two MPPs to take their message back to Premier Kathleen Wynne. Balkissoon said the group was not from that riding.

While there were fewer than 20 cases to begin with (compared to nearly 120 in Quebec), the recent measles outbreak in Ontario appears to be over. Meanwhile, the immunization-tracking system that has cost $160 million (up from an expected $85 million) may not actually provide all the information medical officials need. It only begins tracking children’s immunization rates once they enter school, and has no mechanism for tracking or ensuring adult newcomers to the province are immunized.

Torstar News Service has information on the Liberals’ tentative plan to bring wine and beer to Ontario grocery stores. While the plan to make more money from alcohol sales was initially centred on getting higher fees from the Beer Store, the public outcry over customer service and prices at Beer Store locations seems to have changed the Liberals’ minds. If all goes according to plan, hundreds of the province’s 1,500 grocery stores may soon be able to sell beer and wine to customers.