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Ford set to kill citizen committees, because he’s all about respect for taxpayers

City hall by night (Image: James Burry, from the Toronto Life Flickr pool)

The City of Toronto has a lot of committees, so it may be tempting to cheer when a small-government mayor like Rob Ford announces he’s going to do get rid of a slew of them. The problem is that he’s not shutting down some committee that spends a massive amount of money—he’s shutting down the free ones. According to the Toronto Star, city workers are recommending that council disband committees that have no budget and are full of volunteers. Suspiciously enough, the committees that staffers say we should axe are the ones that don’t jive with Ford’s agenda—the ones that are meant to give a formal voice to pedestrians, cyclists, Aboriginals and people working to help drug addicts. In other words, the polar opposites of the denizens of Ford Nation.

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The Informer

Medical Attention

April 13, 2011 | 5:07 pm

3 Comments

First prostitution, now pot: Ontario courts keep targeting taboos

The Ontario Superior Court has been busy lately, striking blows against contradictory laws. First there was last fall’s ruling against the province’s weird prostitution law (which can be summed up as “prostitution is legal unless money changes hands”). Today, the court has struck down some of Canada’s laws on using marijuana for medicinal purposes (which can be summed up as “it’s legal unless doctor after doctor refuses to help”). According to the National Post, the court has nullified the parts of Canada’s drug laws that have to do with producing and possessing drugs.

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The Informer

Election Whoas

April 13, 2011 | 4:40 pm

4 Comments

Reaction Roundup: what the country’s saying about last night’s leaders’ debate

For two hours yesterday, Steve Paikin did his community service of herding the four cats party leaders onto a stage and forcing them to answer questions. The leaders—Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff, Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe—proceeded to ignore those questions and talk about whatever their aides told them to talk about. Throughout the night, Ignatieff would try to bring things back to “the original question,” sounding like he both respected voters and thought maybe his opponents were easily distracted. There were no truly devastating moments, though there were some odd ones: Ignatieff at times seemed to pause mid-sentence and give his internal CPU a reboot, while Harper at one point kept saying “Mr. Speaker,” which just reminds us of how practised these guys all are at shouting at each other.

The real debate, though, isn’t won on TV. It’s won in the minds of the pundits of the nation. How did the debate go on that front? Here, our roundup.

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The Informer

Cityscape

April 12, 2011 | 3:39 pm

6 Comments

Rob Ford’s next war on David Miller’s legacy: Waterfront Toronto

Conception of the Lower Don Lands after development (Image: Waterfront Toronto)

After putting an end to Transit City and declaring the “war on the car” over, Rob Ford is apparently looking for new leftist monsters to battle. If the National Post is right, the mayor and his allies have found their next enemy in the offices of Waterfront Toronto. We certainly hope that nobody out there has been holding expensive Christmas parties à la the TCHC, because the people running city council are in a cutting mood, and the long-delayed redevelopment of the city’s waterfront is at stake (it was initially promised by Pierre Trudeau in the 1972 election).

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The Informer

Medical Attention

April 12, 2011 | 11:29 am

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Cancer rates lower in Toronto than in the rest of Ontario: CCO

Cancer Care Ontario has released data suggesting that people in the GTA are dying of cancer at a rate less frequent than the provincial average. The Toronto Sun’s reporting suggests that there are three big reasons Torontonians are doing better than people elsewhere in Ontario: fewer smokers, lower rates of obesity and a mix of people from places with fewer instances of cancer.

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The Informer

Battleground Toronto

April 11, 2011 | 4:26 pm

2 Comments

Five things Torontonians should look for in the federal election debates

This week, Canadians get to watch two debates among the leaders of the four official parties in the House of Commons—the English one is tomorrow night, and the French one the night after (apparently there’s a sporting event of some kind on, so the French debate was moved up a day). As with the last several English-language debates, Steve Paikin will be moderating the showdown, but unlike in 2008 this will be an entirely Green-free event. What can we look forward to when four white men get onstage and redefine “diversity” to mean “Jack Layton’s moustache”? Some ideas, tailored for Torontonians:

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The Informer

The New Normal

April 11, 2011 | 2:32 pm

1 Comment

Ontario teachers told not to friend students on Facebook

We assumed it went without saying, but apparently it doesn’t. The Ontario College of Teachers has put out an advisory on the proper, professional use of social media, including the YouTube clip above (way to get social, teachers!). The message for Ontario’s army of classroom wardens? When it comes to social media, just say no. Or, if it’s impossible to avoid any kind of electronic media contact with students, then be aware that there are all kinds of risks—and not just the risk of people creeping you.

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The Informer

Election Whoas

April 11, 2011 | 12:05 pm

1 Comment

Auditor general: Stephen Harper and Tony Clement lied to Parliament and may have broken laws before G8/G20

Barack Obama, Abdoulaye Wade and Nicolas Sarkozy at the G8 conference in Huntsville last June (Image: seneweb)

This morning the Canadian Press is pushing a hot story that may influence the outcome of the federal election: a report from Auditor General Sheila Fraser says that Stephen Harper and Tony Clement may have broken the law while they were busy burying Huntsville under fresh new highways, airports and money. The run-down was supposed to have been tabled in Parliament, but the election call shut official Ottawa down, leaving it to be released mid-campaign.

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The Informer

March of Crimes

April 8, 2011 | 11:42 am

10 Comments

“Cancer faker” story comes to an appropriately weird close

Screen shot from a Facebook group page for Demanding Ashley Anne Kirilow Be Held Accountable (Image: Facebook)

Last year, Toronto’s press was all over the bizarre story of Ashley Anne Kirilow, the young woman from Burlington who shaved her head and eyebrows to fake the appearance of someone undergoing intense chemotherapy, and who managed to bilk around $12,000 from well-wishers. That story came to a close yesterday as Kirilow pleaded guilty to the last counts against her in court. The conditions of her sentence are, appropriately enough, as “interesting” as the crime itself.

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The Informer

Election Whoas

April 7, 2011 | 11:37 am

2 Comments

Is the CBC’s Vote Compass skewing left-wing? (Or, Internet survey produces dodgy results? The Sun is there)

A screen shot of the Vote Compass results when all questions are answered "niether agree or disagree" or "same as now"

A reasonable reader might just assume that in 2011, everyone knows self-selected Internet polls are not to be taken seriously. Not so, apparently, the Sun papers. They’ve been using the CBC’s Vote Compass as further evidence that the Crown broadcaster is all Libbed up. It started last week when someone told the Sun’s Brian Lilley that the “CBC vote quiz creator worked for [Michael] Ignatieff,” the headline the Toronto Sun ran with and that’s still at the top of the Web copy.

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The Informer

Election Whoas

April 6, 2011 | 12:05 pm

1 Comment

Watch a comparison between strikingly similar ads: one for Stephen Harper, one for a U.S. Republican candidate

The Liberal Party of Canada is sending around a video implying that Conservative Leader Stephen Harper has borrowed American material for one of his campaign ads—even though the ad itself seems to suggest that it’s super Canadian to vote Tory. (Frankly, it didn’t t make us want to vote for him so much as to buy surplus 2010 Olympics gear from The Bay.) The Conservative commercial in question appears to borrow heavily from a similar ad for Republican Tim Pawlenty, who has launched a bid to unseat Barack Obama in next year’s American presidential election.

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The Informer

The Sporting Life

April 1, 2011 | 4:15 pm

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More than just wins and losses on the line as Leafs-Bruins rivalry builds

The Toronto Maple Leafs kept their playoff hopes alive with another thrilling victory Thursday—a 4-3 shootout triumph over the Boston Bruins. That should hold them off until Sunday at least, when the eighth-place New York Rangers could lock up the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference with a win over the Philadelphia Flyers. But this late in the game, what’s more interesting than the post-season ramifications is the rivalry unfolding between the two Northeast Division clubs.

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The Informer

Summit Survivor

April 1, 2011 | 3:57 pm

3 Comments

Toronto cops flood “sunshine list” of public servants pulling in over $100,000 (Officer Bubbles included!)

Police at the G20 conference in Toronto, June 2010 (Image: Ronnie Yip, from the Toronto Life Flickr pool)

Ontario’s sunshine list has once again let everyone know which public servants made at least six figures in the previous year. Leading off this time around are the two CEOs of Ontario’s hydroelectric utilities, OPG and Hydro One, as well as Governor General David Johnston, who pulled in a cool million as president of the University of Waterloo before he became GG (and took a substantial pay cut). One profession in particular saw a big bump in wages, and it’s not terribly surprising: police officers. The cops who worked overtime during the G20 made a tidy sum this year, with some notable Toronto cops making it on to the sunshine list.

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The Hype

Telling Tales

April 1, 2011 | 11:38 am

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Shania Twain’s alleged stalker arrested at the Juno Awards

Shania Twain was in for a surprise at last Sunday’s Juno Awards. It wasn’t her induction into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, which was announced ahead of time, but rather the unexpected appearance of Dr. Giovanni Palumbo, Twain’s alleged stalker. According to the Toronto Sun (who else?), Palumbo had stalking charges against him withdrawn earlier this month but was ordered to stay at least 500 metres away from the midriff-baring Canadian country superstar. When a member of Shania’s people spotted Palumbo in the Juno Awards audience, police were contacted and he was arrested for breaching court orders.

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