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Extra, Extra: Rent Increase Puts CAMH at Risk, U of T Anti-Vaccine Course Goes Away, and a Sinkhole Opens Another Dimension
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Photo by Philip Johnson.
- A massive rent increase at College Street’s Centre of Addiction and Mental Health could put the future of the facility at risk. According to city councillor Joe Cressy (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina), landowner Brookfield Asset Management is “trying to force out a mental-health hospital to make way for condos,” and accuses Brookfield of using “bully tactics” to get CAMH off the plot. The hospital is nearing the end of its 20-year lease and is facing upwards of a 300 per cent rent increase valued at over $100 million; CAMH, however, values the property at only $26 million, and has until next year to decide whether or not to re-sign the lease. The hospital is Ontario’s only 24-hour emergency psychiatric health-care facility.
- An investigation into an anti-vaccination course at the University of Toronto has concluded that the instructor’s approach did not warrant concern, but the course has too many flaws and won’t be taught in the near future. Beth Landau-Halpern, a fourth-year Alternative Health: Practice and Theory instructor, was investigated after health care professionals and U of T professors complained about the course, in which the instructor weighs in against vaccines. However, a three-page report by the vice president for research and innovation concluded that the course was not “unbalanced” or dangerous, as students were expected to be able to think critically in their final year of study. But Landau-Halpern, who is not a health care professional, will not teach the course again, and she is no longer on staff at U of T.
- A six-metre long sinkhole has opened up on Eglinton Avenue West between Keele and Richardson Avenue. Motorists are advised to avoid the area lest their vehicle be consumed by the angry mouth of Gaia.