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Weekend Newsstand: April 4, 2015
Check out an investigation of the current search for a new police chief, a chicken-renting service, and find out which college at U of T demanded its dean be let go.
An “overwhelming” majority of Ontario Institute for Studies in Education faculty members at the University of Toronto called for the immediate ouster of their dean at a March 25 faculty town-hall meeting. According to members, dean Julia O’Sullivan has overseen support-staff layoffs that haven’t been explained to anyone; they have also asked for a “complete financial analysis of OISE.” O’Sullivan was invited to the town hall at which the vote took place in order to discuss the layoffs, but didn’t attend. U of T spokespeople said O’Sullivan will complete her term, which ends June 30, and will then be replaced by Glen Jones.
Even though it’s still technically illegal to own backyard chickens in Toronto, Rent the Chicken is expanding its business into the city. Customers can rent two or four chickens for six months, and then sell them back to the company for $1 for the colder winter months. Because money changes hands at both ends of the exchange, Rent the Chicken says people are actually buying the chickens (presumably leaving Rent the Chicken not responsible for any law-breaking). However, since City Council indefinitely deferred a vote on changing the backyard-coop law, the law isn’t being actively enforced.
The Globe and Mail has an in-depth examination of who might be Toronto’s next police chief. Frontrunners appear to be current deputy chiefs Mark Saunders and Peter Sloly; Saunders is the institutional choice, while Sloly would, according to the Globe, be the better candidate if the board is serious about reforming police practices. While the board made a lot of noise about national and international candidates when it first declined to renew current chief Bill Blair’s contract, the search outside the city seems to be hampered by the force of the Sloly and Saunders camps, and by the overwhelming perception in city policing circles that the choice will be one of those two.