City
Morning Brew: Streetcars a Go, Schoolyard Slicing, Cocaine Raid, Casual Confession
Photo: untitled by unfamiliar_tide, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.
What's happening in the GTA (and sometimes beyond):
Toronto will be getting its new streetcars. Tomorrow, Mayor Miller and Premier Dalton McGuinty are going to make the announcement at Bombardier, that funding is in place to satisfy the $1.2billion build contract. How much of the feds share will come from their economic stimulus package remains unknown, but hopefully it doesn't come in an envelope labeled "fuck you".
Parents and students are stunned by a violent morning incident yesterday at St. Joseph Catholic Secondary School in Mississauga. Five people, including a teacher, were hospitalized after a student (allegedly on a revenge mission) went knife crazy on another student, and others tried to intervene. Police have arrested both students involved in the initial clash, and have charged them both with attempted murder. Life changes dramatically for these boys - in an instant.
Parking machine fraud in Toronto has gone up, even though millions of dollars were invested by the city to curb the problem. Any canceled credit card with a valid expiry date can be used to trick the curbside ticket machines, and apparently enough people know this and do this regularly - bogus credit card ticket purchases account for 8% of the total!
A clubland lounge, known to police for being the scene of violent incidents in the past, was raided by police and the three brothers/owners were charged with cocaine possession. One was pinned with a slew of drug trafficking charges as well. I'm always amazed when police reveal how long the investigation leading up the raid took - in this case, 6 months.
How will a seemingly impending city union strike affect you? The Globe and Mail has a decent roundup of what services will be affected and what contingencies the City is imposing in the event that Monday night eclipses without contractual agreements being reached.
If a person confesses to a murder (or other severe crime) to a priest, should the priest take that secret to the grave, or should the priest call police? I know what my answer is. It's an easy one. I don't care if it's in a confession booth or in a homeless shelter.
Is it possible to consume enough alcohol to be double the legal blood alcohol limit - while sleeping - then get into a car and drive without realizing you're drunk? John Soong, a Wilfred Laurier student, will hear the judge's decision tomorrow.
Discussion
18 Comments
Sort By Oldest First / Newest First
Subscribe
Seriously!?! Lawyers & psychiatrists have to tell the police if they have information on one of their clients; priests should be held to the same standard, no matter where or how the 'confession' takes place. If they don't, they should be charged with harbouring a criminal.
By Catholic doctrine, true confession requires contrition and penance. In other words, to be forgiven by God (priests do not forgive, they intercede) you have to admit everything, and take your punishment. A priest is going to tell a murderer he has to turn himself in, and is obliged to help the criminal do this in a safe manner, just like a lawyer is required to do. The only difference is a lawyer cannot keep the crime secret, whereas a priest may be forced to if the criminal does not submit to the authorities. That is a rare occurance, as criminals who do not feel guilty enough to turn themselves in do not tend to go to confession.
And is the name-calling really necessary, Andrew? Sheesh.
Six months of intel on from who, to whom, from where and how they trafficked the coke is far more valuable to the police than getting these guys off the street. The longer you wait on drug traffickers, the more connections and links to other traffickers you find out about. At some point there are diminishing returns and that's when you move in.
Boys? One is 16, the other is 17. They're old enough to drive, they're old enough to know that a knife attack is idiotic. It was their personal choice to become criminals. That last sentences makes it seem like they were propelled by faith.
And if you can tell a priest and be fine, then I'm going to steal a couple Maseratis and Lamborghinis, and then make sure to tell a priest right away. Getting a few million worth of cars for free beats the hell out of working.
(Not to go off on a tangent, but everybody should watch The Wire. And don't confuse it with "The Line", the Canadian knock-off starring Maestro Fresh Wes.)
BTW - the pic today is very cute (heeheehee!)
Lawyers only have to intervene if they are aware of a crime BEFORE it occurs. The sanctity of privilege, and how recent changes have reduced privilege with accountants, has been a key advertising point for tax lawyers. All major firms have highlighted this benefit on their websites and accountants have lost a substantial amount of business thanks to these changes.
This is basic civics. How the living hell do you not know this and why the hell do you think that it should be violated?
...at the Federal level we have the Conservatives fucking us
...at the Provincial level we have the Liberals fucking us
...and at the Municipal level we have the NDP fucking us.
How is it that any one of these three parties have support in Ontario?
We'd probably be better off voting for the Bloq...
- "I am a lapsed-Catholic atheist"
- "criminals who do not feel guilty enough to turn themselves in do not tend to feel guilty enough to go to confession"
My comment is far from pro-Catholic propaganda, as I have many reasons to despise the Catholic church. None of them have to do with pederasty, by the way, despite having been an unmolested alter boy. We had rather good parish priests despite the creeps that other parishes have been dealt. The heirarchy is largely corrupt, as most are; and celibacy sexism is completely insane.