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Morning Brew: Two dead in Scarborough shooting, Rob Ford lands top fundraiser, man charged in heritage site arson, we're world class, and ads coming to library slips
All eyes are on Scarborough this morning after last night's horrifying shooting that killed a teenage girl, a man in his early twenties and sent 19 others to hospital. Roughly 200 people were gathered at a house near Morningside and Lawrence avenues for a block party when two gunmen opened fire in a crowd during a dispute. Shaken, police chief Bill Blair described the crime as "the worst incident of gun violence in my memory anywhere in North America."
Elsewhere, Rob Ford has won the support of a top Bay Street political fundraiser who says he believes the mayor has got the "big things" right so far this term. Ralph Lean, who backed the unsuccessful Smitherman campaign two years ago, told the Globe and Mail he "loved" the mayor's first budget and would help Ford seek re-election in 2014. Does this mean Ford will win backing from other political figures in the run up to the next election?
Toronto police have charged a man in connection with an arson that destroyed a 122-year-old building at Yonge and Gould in 2011. According to the National Post, the man could also be charged with other unexplained fires elsewhere in the city, too.
Americans and Brits think Toronto is a world class city even if we don't always rate our town so highly, according to a poll by Angus Reid. Yum, validation.
Ads will soon be appearing on the back of library reminder slips once the Toronto Public Library finds a company willing to sell the space, reports The Star. The move is part of a broader foray into advertising for the city, which famously includes the sale of naming rights to subway stations. Mississauga and Calgary are the only other cities in Canada to sell this type of ad space.
With the temperature expected to hit 37 degrees, today could be the hottest day of the year so far. Make sure to pack sunscreen - the UV index will be high and the humidity could make it feel like 43. Scorchio.
Finally, here's a video montage of Marc Soares playing the jaunty Maple Leaf Rag on 20 of the 41 pianos dotted around the city to mark the countdown to the 2015 PanAm Games. Enjoy.
IN OTHER NEWS:
- Jose Bautista leaves with injury as Yankees dump Blue Jays [National Post]
- NORAD jets intercept Toronto-bound plane [CP24]
- Ford aide Earl Provost to take over as mayor's acting chief of staff [National Post]
- 11-year-old boy among 9 injured in QEW rollover [CTV]
You can catch up on all things blogTO on the go. Download our apps for the iPhone and iPad. On Android? We've got one coming for you too.
Photo: "Humber Bay Bridge" by gdquerubin in the blogTO Flickr pool.
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Wow...pretty well sums up the problem if they think gangs are a game.
As for the second story - it is nice to see who the elites in this city are backing. I guess Rob makes it really easy to push forward their agenda of making Toronto a city for the ultra-rich Bay Street bankers. If this loser wants to back the Mayor, I say go for it. He clearly did well the last time around. He really knows how to pick a winner. Any sane person will run far away from Mr. Ford and his cabal of bumbling idiots.
He doesn't watch a lot of news, does he?
Especially compared to places in the U.S. and U.K. like London, San Francisco, and New York City.
The progressives desperately need to step up their game and distance themselves from (perceived) pencil-necked whiny downtown lefty artists ... or they'll be eaten alive in the next election.
Ford can win without having to reach out to downtowners, and the sooner the progressives realize that, the better.
There are several problems:
1) Why is he campaigning now and not governing?
2) You cannot get something for nothing
3) While unions don't lend themselves to any sympathy because of their actions, they are seen as viruses that need to be eradicated. Why is that? How will these actions affect the standard of living for everyone else?
4) How can someone purport to be a representative of all Torontonians when he only represents a few?
So, if this is the narrative he and his team will be running on, then I still stand by what I say - sane people will run away and back someone else.
I will say this, downtowners (of which I am not one) are not helping their cause by electing equally polarizing individuals.
Once a moderate candidate is found (surely with backing from the city elites as well) Rob Ford will be exposed for what he is - an incompetant person that got lucky.
- - - - -
Wow the police chief doesn't read any news at all ever ever ever. Idiot drama queen.
I was in Nashville just after the Eaton Centre shooting and when talking to locals, seeing as i was from Toronto, they all heard about the shooting and how it was such a big deal to hear about that coming from a city like Toronto. Then they would have a good laugh and say shootings like that and worse happen almost every day in cities throughout the US. And that they dont even make a blip on the news anymore.
So for Blair to say this is the worst incident in North America, is so ignorant its appalling.
Before you all attack me and call me "politically correct", I'm not suggesting anyone is racist for stating that - Morningside and Lawrence has a large "black" population so it is statiscally likely that many if not most of the patrons at the party were black, I'm just curious as to why that's relevant.
In other words, what would you glean from having that information except to allow one to conclude that "blacks are criminals", and if that is the intent, how exactly does that help isn resolving the issue - should it give police carte blanche to incarcerate any black person they see in order to reduce crime? I really want to know, because I see these commenters who almost desperately want to be right that the shooting involved black people, and I wonder why that matters to them so much.
http://www.reddit.com/r/toronto/comments/wokxt/breaking_news_11_people_shot_at_house/c5f61do
That's not saying "blacks are criminals". That's saying there's a problem in the black community that we need to get to the root of and find a way to help fix. The community itself also needs to be willing to fix it.
A community-focused effort needs to be established, but in a way that the police aren't involved, because they'll shun anything involving police. It's a really, really difficult problem, because there's a total lack of trust for any sort of authority.
Would you similarly classify white people like that? If so, my guess that the Irish, Scottish and English folks might have a problem with that, as would white people from most European nations. Hell, English and French in this country don't see eye to eye, neither do "white people" from Western Canada versus "white people" from Central and Eastern Canada, and more close to home, apparently many white downtowners and white suburbanites.
Hopefully you see what I'm getting at. Simply pointing out that they are of the same race doesn't really tell you anything, but certainly can feed assumptions and stereotypes very well. There is just as much diversity within the "black community" as with any other community, even if the media and poltical types choose to ignore it, and which is why efforts to address problems are often just as simplistic.
Getting back to the issue at hand, you would probably be surprised to find that black and white folks in that neighborhood probably identify with each other more than a black guy in that neighborhood and a black guy who lives in the Annex. In other words, the "community" is probably better idenified along socio-economic grounds than simply by race.
Bikers pull their motorcycle out of their suburban garage on the weekends and try to look cool. "Bikers" have a whole lifestyle, and they mostly keep their trouble to themselves.
Also, I too am wondering about the brightness of a block party being held on a Monday evening. Regardless, I'm sure Adam Vaughan will save us from illegal guns being used by criminals in their actions.
So just remember, they didn't do this because they were young and black, (if they were even young and black in this case, but you made the assumption, so lets go with it) they did this because they were poor and disenfranchised.
The single best way to keep this kind of thing from happening in the future is to give them the tools, resources and opportunities to realise that they don't have to join gangs to be successful. The priority neighborhood strategy is one way to do that.
Easy access to handguns? The community needs to change that from the inside.
Nonexistent parenting? The community needs to change that from the inside.
Fear of consequences if one snitches? The community needs to change that from the inside.
The only thing we can help with is the poverty, but it's kinda hard to get a good job when you think school's a joke and you show up to a job interview wearing baggy jeans copping a thug attitude.
It's the culture. It needs to change. We can't change that for them.
The only justification for Bill Blair's ignorant comment is that he's trying to push some stupid gun registry agenda through.
Pop quiz, which of these criminals had their hand guns legally registered?
Is that not also an assumption? What if they were rich? Maybe it was a simple beef over a debt, or a girl. Why does everybody think they know what happened before anybody even knows what happened. POTATOES!
Especially when you fail to add that those events also typically include a large police presence on hand to ensure that those otherwise wonderfully well-behaved bikers (because bikers are known for being well-behaved) "police themselves"
But then, I guess it's just easier for you to call me names than to actually acknowledge what I'm saying. Its okay - Im used to that sort of childish talk on the internets.
I was simply asking what the relevance of knowing that and how it would be helpful. So far, all I've read were more people trying to convince me and others that the people involved were black. Good for you. I'm convinced - now what?
Cheers. Always nice (although sadly, rare) when one can have a civil discussion about a controversial issue.
Cheers.
For my part it's not simply about race. I live next to public housing that includes a large Somali population and for the most part they are fine. I just think strong measures are needed to remove the bad apples, whatever neighborhood they may live in.
I'm trying really hard not to be ageist or sexist, but young guys tend to stupid stuff a lot, and when you give them access to guns then they're going to do dumb things with them. I don't see how we can completely remove access to handguns though, so maybe they should keep funding those youth programs that give these young men things to direct all their energy to that are non-violent.
The same could be said if the black community turned and said all the fraud going on in the banking and financial sectors is being done by white people...
Get a grip with reality people.
+1
/white guy
The perpetrators of the Scarborough shooting may have been black, but that doesn't mean the problem stems from their being black any more than the criminality of white-collar criminals stems from their being white.