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Newsstand: March 9, 2015
What did you do yesterday to celebrate International Women's Day and the women in your life? Did you think about how awesome women are? In the news this morning: traffic and daylight saving time are connected, train derailments in Ontario call safety into question, and the York strike might be over very soon.
With daylight saving time, which kicked in yesterday, pedestrians may be slightly safer in the city. Toronto police say the city had just 29 pedestrian collisions this week last year, which pales in comparison to the year-long average of 41 per week. City police also told the Toronto Star that 23 people died in traffic accidents last year.
The 35-car train derailment outside Gogama, Ontario on Sunday was the third derailment the province has seen in a month and the second in that area alone. Given that, provincial legislators are calling on the federal government to strengthen its regulations on trains carrying crude oil. Following the Lac-Mégantic disaster in 2013, the government updated regulations for trains carrying oil (a practice that has increased as pipeline projects have been stalled or dropped). But the trains derailed on Sunday were up to the new standards, leaving many wondering if those standards are actually good enough.
Last week, graduate students and course instructors at both the University of Toronto and York University walked off the job; their respective negotiations with each university had failed to find resolution. CUPE 3903, the union that represents York teaching assistants and contract workers, has come to a tentative deal with York administration, and the strike there could be over as early as Tuesday. One of the major points of contention (for both unions) is guaranteed funding that leaves graduate students, who do much of the teaching and student interaction, living well below Toronto’s poverty line. Details of the agreement at York are not being discussed publicly until the union’s membership has had a chance to look at and vote on the agreement.