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Newsstand: May 11, 2015
Racism in Peel, surgery for Rob Ford, a death at the Toronto Star, and extended bike lanes downtown: Monday morning news in a nutshell.
The black community’s population in Peel has exploded in the last several years: between 2001 and 2011, it increased by 64 per cent—double the rate of the general population in the area. Yet many black youth report feeling “unwanted, devalued, and socially isolated” and sick of being picked on by teachers and targeted by police. A coalition of groups called FACES (Facilitating Access, Change, and Equity in Systems) commissioned the research that reached these conclusions; FACES was organized after violent events that took place in Toronto and Peel, and is geared toward naming and then fighting inequality in the region.
Former mayor and current city councillor Rob Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North) is going into surgery today to have a tumour removed. The procedure may take up to 10 hours to complete, and Ford says he expects recovery to last about four months.
Toronto Star reporter Barbara Turnbull has died at the age of 50. Turnbull, an advocate for disability rights and organ donation, became a quadriplegic after being shot during a 1983 robbery of the gas station where she worked at the time. She died from complications related to pneumonia.
The separated bike lanes on Richmond and Adelaide, the objects of some controversy when they were installed last summer, have proven popular and will soon extend to Parliament. The lanes saw ridership increase in short order from just over 450 cyclists per eight-hour period to nearly 900.