Morning Brew: Live Green Toronto and a Convicted Rapist, Too Many Pedestrian Deaths, Gun-toting Crazy Man in Scarborough, Your Role in Not Getting Electrocuted

Photo: Convicted rapist Daniel Katsnelson (left) poses for photo with Mayor Miller, promoting the City of Toronto's Live Green initiative (August, 2009).

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

While many media outlets reported on the now convicted York University rapist story, only CTV was bold enough to draw the focus of their attention to the ties the criminal has to City Hall. Daniel Katsnelson (who, after being charged with rape and being put under house arrest, changed his name to Daniel Kaye) was somehow able to start and conduct a viable business that works intimately with the City of Toronto. The Live Green Toronto Membership Card was launched in August of 2009 and has a 5-year contract with the City. The photo above, which was Tweeted by the mayor back in August, appeared on Mayor Miller's Twitpic page but has since been quickly removed. Katsnelson won't be able to continue to work on this project from behind bars, and it'll certainly be interesting to hear the City's official statement related to their learning of these elaborate and unfortunate connections. Hat tip to jbalooey for snagging and sharing the photo before it was taken offline.

UPDATE: Here's the official statement from the Mayor's office: The Mayor met this individual briefly once, maybe twice, in a professional capacity and obviously had no knowledge of the charges against him. This individual was working for a company that was contracted by the city that has, by all accounts, done good work on the Live Green program.

Why have seven pedestrians been killed in seven days in the GTA? All of them were likely preventable and probably resulted from problems with distractions and inattentiveness on the part of both drivers and pedestrians.

A man driving a newer model pickup truck and who appears to be completely crazy is being sought in Scarborough. The Sun reports that this weekend, the suspect was impersonating a police officer, attempting to pull over drivers, waving a gun at teenage girls and threatening to shoot them if they didn't get in his vehicle, and more.

The trial of Rogers TV broadcaster Colleen Walsh, who was involved in an "air rage" incident last March when the flight had to make an unscheduled landing for a medical emergency, is underway. The court has heard arguments that Walsh was intoxicated and got violent. Can you imagine how horrible it would have been to be on that plane? Talk about a crappy cascade of events.

And Toronto Hydro can't fully control the "stray voltage" problem, and are launching ads and asking that preventing getting shocked on our sidewalks become the responsibility of pet owners and parents. Remember that kids' rhyme "step on a crack, break your mother's back!"? Maybe it's time we come up with a new rhyme to help ensure that our animals and kids don't get zapped when strolling on our city streets.