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Newsstand: June 8, 2015
A fun TTC story for everyone who slept in, an update on carding in the city, and community-benefits agreements enforced by the provincial government: happy Monday!
Early risers who either commute or check Twitter when they get up got a surprise this Monday morning, when all four subway lines stopped running due to a “major communication issue.” As of 7:40 a.m., the system is back up and the trains are expected to resume travel within the half hour. The system went down around 6:30 a.m. this morning and the backup system failed to kick in, leaving the city with no running subways and no replacement shuttle buses.
After months of the issue being perhaps the most-discussed one in the city, Mayor John Tory has said he will call for a stop to police carding. Former police chief Bill Blair, who came into the office acknowledging and pledging to end racial profiling in the force, left earlier this year a staunch defender of stopping people under no suspicion of committing any crime, taking their information, and storing it. Current chief Mark Saunders has attracted criticism for vocally supporting the practice. Opponents of carding, including local journalist Desmond Cole, were excited. “This has been a long time coming,” Cole told reporters, adding a note of caution. “Now we have to make sure [Tory] and the Police Services Board and Chief Mark Saunders follow up on this announcement… so carding is actually ended.”
New infrastructure legislation passed last week includes a “community benefits agreement” framework that will require companies bidding on public projects to work with local apprenticeship programs for hiring. While these are common in the United States in private-sector or smaller public-sector projects, it’s the first time a provincial or national government has implemented one.