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Newsstand: November 6, 2015
Apparently, today is National Nacho Day. That one is definitely worth observing. In the news: anti-poverty initiatives, men-only events in Vaughan, and the workplace safety board may be forcing injured workers back on the job.
City Council voted unanimously to endorse a 20-year anti-poverty initiative this week, although how it will be paid for remains to be seen. Mayor John Tory, who supports the initiative, is still seeking a two per cent cut in the budget of each city department (except for the police). Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale), meanwhile, said that endorsing this initiative meant rejecting that kind of austerity thinking. The vote on this initiative came the same week that the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty held a rally at city hall “to stop social cleansing” by way of closing downtown shelters; at that rally, OCAP member Gaetan Heroux told the crowd that when contacted by OCAP, not a single city councillor stepped up to say they would support additional shelter beds being built in their ward.
A men-only fundraiser sponsored by a wine company, put on for a mental health and addictions treatment centre, has sparked criticism of both the event and the number of politicians who attended. The Vitanova Foundation raises significant money through its annual Gentlemen’s Gala Event, tickets to which cost $1,000. This year, new Liberal MP Francesco Sorbara and provincial Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca both attended, with Del Duca commenting that he “was glad to see the organizers provided a service to ensure that individuals who chose to drink alcohol would be taken home safely,” though not on the appropriateness of serving alcohol at an event fundraising for an addiction treatment centre. Critics of the event say there are many men- and women-only events in the Vaughan area, with one person saying that “Vaughan has a reputation and hasn’t quite entered into the next century yet.”
According to both the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) and a group of psychologists, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board of Ontario (WSIB) is ignoring doctors’ orders and reports and ordering injured workers back on the job before they are ready. OFL secretary-treasurer Nancy Hutchison accused the WSIB of being “more interested in clearing the caseload than supporting workers,” and one psychologist said he’s heard from workers that after telling the WSIB their doctors don’t want them returning to work, the board has said the doctors’ reports “don’t matter.”