Weekend Newsstand: April 11, 2015

Weekend morning news: Ukraine's controversial pianist will not be playing at a north Toronto church, a Pan Am Games sex-work sweep might hurt the workers involved, and a profile of two low-wage workers in the city.

By Tannara Yelland • Illustration by Matthew Daley

Valentina Lisitsa, the Ukrainian pianist barred from performing with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra over remarks TSO president and CEO Jeff Melanson called “offensive,” announced on Thursday that she would perform a free concert at a Toronto church. But a representative of Lawrence Park Community Church, minister John Luk, said that was incorrect. Lisitsa, Luk said, had requested permission to perform at the venue but had been rejected. Lisitsa is still scheduled to perform with the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra in June.

Sex-work advocacy groups such as Maggie’s are arguing that a Toronto police plan to do a sweeping round-up of sex workers in advance of this summer’s Pan Am Games will actually harm many sex workers. By forcing workers who don’t want interruption or who are fearful and wary of police to work in more isolated spaces, they allege, the police sweep would expose more street-level sex workers to danger and remove them from areas where they could more easily find help.

“I work hard and I still can’t make enough, so I think something has to be done.” Those are the words of Nicole Mason, a wine-store employee and mother of two,and one of two low-wage workers profiled by the Toronto Star as part of a series on low-income workers in the city. Both Mason and Rassal Mohammad describe their ongoing efforts to pay for the bare necessities, and their frustrations with being unable to provide their children with more.