Morning Brew: Smitherman's brother likes Ford, Hazel McCallion to run for 12th term, Toronto 18 plotter seeks reduced sentence, minor league hockey coaches require more screening, gourmet food carts, cell-phone taser confiscated

This isn't the city of brotherly love, at least for the Smitherman clan. George Smitherman's older brother, Arthur Smitherman has announced that he will back the Ford campaign over his own brother's. The two brothers apparently just don't see eye to eye when it comes to politics, and according to Arthur, just aren't that close. Arthur will also be running in the election for Ward 8. The relationship between the Ford brothers is quite different, Doug Ford, the elder brother, is running for a council seat with his brother as well as managing his mayoral campaign.

Hazel McCallion, 89, is planning to run for a 12th term so long as her health holds out -- and her reputation. Over the summer McCallion became involved with a project aiding her son's plans to build a $1.5 billion dollar hotel near city hall that she claims was for the benefit of the city and not her son.

One of the men involved in the Toronto 18, Steven Chand, accused of fundraising for the terrorist cell, as well as training recruits, is currently awaiting sentencing. Chand's lawyer is pushing for a sentence of 8-years with a 2-for-1 deal on years served pretrial, which would effectively release him upon sentencing. However others involved with the terrorist cell only served 7 years for lesser crimes. For a man who aided in a plot to behead politicians and blow up parts of downtown Toronto and Ottawa is four years really enough?

Hockey coaches for amateur leagues will require stricter background checks from now on. The changes include background checks on anyone whose birthday and gender match up with anyone on the RCMP database. With around 7,000 kids in the league, this is a welcome step in preserving their safety.

Street meat is getting an overhaul, hopefully. As much as I love hot dogs, I love gourmet food even more, and the possibility that gourmet lunch trucks could be roving the city fills me with indescribable joy. Unfortunately, there's difficulty in acquiring licensing for such vehicles. The emergence of gourmet lunch trucks in other cities have been met approval, so why not us?

A 27-year old Toronto man was charged with possession of a taser disguised as a cell-phone. Although legal in some states, they are prohibited in Canada. The man was stopped at Birchmount Rd. and Kingston Rd. This baffles me; if I was going to make a weapon concealed as something else, I probably would choose to make it look like something that doesn't spend a lot of time near my face.

Photo by PLTam in the blogTO Flickr pool.