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Weekend Newsstand: August 1, 2015
It's Caribana weekend, August long weekend, and "no longer so hot I want to stick my head in an ice bucket" weekend. Cause for celebration all around! In the news today: a profile on the group Black Lives Matter Toronto, a possible increase to TTC fares, and West Nile mosquitoes in Mississauga.
The Globe and Mail has a profile of the Toronto chapter of Black Lives Matter, a group dedicated to protesting what many argue is systemic police racism in Toronto (and across the United States, where the Black Lives Matter movement began). The group has charged that the police killings of black men, including Jermaine Carby and Andrew Loku, and the frequent lack of any real consequences for the officers involved, stem from deep-rooted anti-black racism. Earlier this week, Black Lives Matter Toronto blocked Allen Road for almost two hours as a way to bring attention to their demands for action from the Toronto Police Service and Mayor John Tory. While they were on the road, they received notice that Tory had agreed to meet with them.
The TTC is considering raising cash fares in 2016 as a way to raise revenue, but a transit advocacy group has called the proposal “regressive.” The proposal was to raise cash fares—which have stayed the same for years—by 10 cents. TTCriders Executive Director Jessica Bell said that while the increase sounds small, it will make the transit system that much harder to access for the multitudes of Torontonians who are dealing with precarious employment and stagnant wages, as well as the spectre of rising inflation. Bell said finding alternate ways to bring money into the service would be better, and suggested the city re-implement the vehicle registration tax.
Mosquitoes testing positive for West Nile virus have been found in Mississauga, the first time this year that any in the Peel Region have tested positive. There have been other batches of bugs with the virus elsewhere in Toronto already this summer. Paul Callanan, Peel Region’s Director of Environmental Health, told CBC that West Nile-positive mosquitoes have shown up every year since 2001, and that it’s not necessarily cause for concern to the average person. “A lot of people who are exposed to West Nile Virus don’t see any symptoms at all,” Callanan said. “A fairly low proportion of people have non-specific symptoms and once they’re exposed they develop a natural immunity.” Those “non-specific” symptoms include headache, body aches, and fever. There were “only a handful” of human West Nile cases reported last year.