Photo: "Dupont" by denmar, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):

After a roughly 1.6 square kilometre region of northern Scarborough was evacuated yesterday afternoon, it remains unclear whether or not 'the device' that caused the scare was a bomb or not. A Toronto Star report suggests that the van, owned by a 27 year-old Centennial College student, may have used some sort of alternative fuel engine, and that it was the suspect himself that informed police of the danger.

The major worry was sparked by the fact that the van had been towed to an impound lot on Markham Rd. right beside a sizeable propane tank. Although police downplayed the incident after the device was secured, the student has been arrested and will likely face criminal charges. Why do I get the sense that the whole story has yet to surface with this?

In another story that's yet to become entirely clear, a Burlington high school is closed today after a 21 year-old man was found running through its halls with a shotgun early this morning at around 2am. The suspect is in custody, and details are sure to follow.

For the first time since 1974, York University will be open on the Jewish holidays Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Although some are accusing the university of caving to charges that labeled the former practice unfair to students other faiths, York officials say the cancellation of the holidays is the result of a new fall term reading week.

The battle over the featuring of a Tel Aviv film program at TIFF rages on. After a press conference yesterday by Viggo Mortenson and Jane Fonda there was a small protest (about 250 peole) near Ryerson University. Perhaps in response to this, or to the controversy in general, well-known actors Jerry Seinfeld, Sacha Baron Cohen, Lisa Kudrow, and Natalie Portman have taken out an advertisement in today's Toronto Star (on page A13) to explain their position, which highlights freedom of speech. The controversy began when Canadian filmmaker John Greyson pulled his film from the festival last month.

And in more bad news for two-wheeled commuters, a police cruiser and a driver (rider?) of an e-bike (electronically propelled bicycle) collided last night near Kingston Rd. and Midland Ave. The operator of the bike, who was also carrying a passenger, has suffered life-threatening injuries. I don't know the circumstances of the crash, and I don't want to start a comment controversy on the back of this man's misfortune, but my experiences with these e-bikes is that they're very difficult to predict, both as a cyclist and a driver.