Newsstand: March 16, 2015

Alanis Morissette was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the Junos last night. What did you do? Watch old TV shows? In the news: a senior OPPA official has been fired, protests against Bill C-51 drew crowds, and Naomi Klein won't cross the U of T picket line.

By Tannara Yelland • Illustration by Matthew Daley

The Ontario Provincial Police Association (OPPA) chief administrative officer who was placed on administrative leave late last week has been fired. Karl Walsh, the person in question, is part of an “RCMP investigation that alleges the top leaders of the police force’s union set up a sophisticated network of schemes involving secretly owned companies and offshore investments to defraud union members,” along with president Jim Christie and vice-president Martin Bain, both of whom took voluntary leaves of absence earlier this week. This investigation was the reason behind the RCMP’s raid of OPPA offices on March 6. The union’s Barrie office was also targeted in the raid, as well as that of a Toronto travel company.

Hundreds gathered in Nathan Phillips Square on Saturday to protest Bill C-51, the Conservative Party’s sweeping surveillance and anti-terrorism legislation. Many critics of the bill say its broad language could criminalize protest and dissent, and that it gives the federal spy agency, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, too much power with too little oversight. Saturday’s protest was part of a national day of action to stop the bill.

Naomi Klein, famed Canadian author of No Logo, The Shock Doctrine, and, most recently, This Changes Everything, released a statement Friday saying she will not cross the picket line at the University of Toronto if the current strike is still going on April 7, when she’s scheduled to give a talk. Klein’s statement said she “will not cross a picket line, especially at [her] alma mater.” Graduate students working as teaching assistants and instructors at the university have been on strike since February 27. They’re seeking an increase to the funding package they receive from the university, which is currently below the poverty line for a Toronto resident with no dependents, and to have the university come to the bargaining table.