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Newsstand: July 28, 2015
We're sweating, and it's not the because of athletic exertion. Today's headlines: changes before the Parapan Am Games, a Black Lives Matter Toronto protest shuts down part of Allen Road, and the Supreme Court gets another Conservative-appointed judge.
The Pan Am Games may have ended on Sunday in a flurry of fireworks and mic-dropping celebrities (well, one mic-dropping celebrity), but there’s more mega-event fun in the offing. In the leadup to the largest-ever Parapan Am Games, which begin August 7, the Toronto Star reports that event organizers will be busy flipping the Athletes Village, altering HOV lanes (drivers, take note!), and prepping venues. The concert series at Nathan Phillips Square is also on hold until August 7, but expect some great acts when it starts up again.
A portion of Allen Road was shut down for about two hours last night as hundreds of people rallied around the cry “Black lives matter.” The protest centred on a call for justice for Jermaine Carby and Andrew Loku, two black men killed by police in the GTA in the past two years, but at least one organizer from Black Lives Matter Toronto also addressed issues of systemic racism. Activist and Torontoist contributor Desmond Cole also attended the protest, and spoke to the crowd. “This is not about people being inconvenienced for one night on the highway, it’s about almost 30 years of police brutality against one community,” he said. “That’s how people should view this.”
And in federal news, the Supreme Court has a new judge, who wasn’t appointed in accordance with Conservative promises to allow parliamentary hearings into potential new appointees. As the Globe and Mail reported, Justice Russ Brown’s new position is the third such appointment made by in the past 15 months without Parliament being involved in the decision. Brown, in his early 50s, could potentially extend the Harper Conservatives’ influence on the Supreme Court into the mid-21st century. But to some in his home province of Alberta, the new appointee is a good choice. “The left-wing defence lawyers I know breathed a sigh of relief,” said Edmonton criminal defence lawyer Brian Hurley.