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Morning Brew: Board of Health is against a casino, term limits for council, racist letter is a hoax, Cabbagetown on coyote watch, and bird strike building owners acquitted
Toronto's board of health has come out unanimously against a downtown casino by endorsing a staff report that says a major gambling facility in the city would cause more harm than good. The findings showed a casino would be unlikely to change the unemployment rate and would disproportionately rely on revenue from low-income families, among other things.
Term limits for city councillors are on the agenda over at the Star. Columnist Royson James says it's time council placed restrictions on how long elected officials can remain in office in Toronto. Currently, a councillor can stay indefinitely provided they have the votes. Would you like to see term limits or would that restrict the will of electorate?
A letter that purportedly told Richview CI students in Etobicoke to avoid eye contact with their African American classmates is a fake. The text of the letter, which seems to appear on the school's letterhead, is similar to another hoax that circulated online in 2011.
A Toronto cardinal will be part of the group that elects a new pope. Thomas Collins, the Archbishop of Toronto, will make his decision in Rome when high-ranking members of the Catholic church gather to choose a new leader. It's thought Marc Ouellet, from Quebec, is a leading contender to take over. If that were to happen Ouellet would become the first non-European pope in history.
Cabbagetown residents are on coyote watch after one of the wild canines was spotted near Sackville and Carlton streets. The animals are native to the Toronto area and packs are known to still live in the Don Valley. Animal services says the city's coyotes may be more active than normal for this time of year and are telling local residents to supervise young children and pets.
Speaking of wildlife, a judge has acquitted the owners of a Yonge Street building that allegedly poses a risk to birds. Justice Melvyn Green agreed that more than 800 birds had struck the reflective windows of Cadillac Fairview corporate centre in North Toronto in 2010 but decided the company had done its due diligence to prevent the deaths. The case could establish a precedent that building owners are responsible for the wellbeing of birds.
IN BRIEF:
- Lots of rookie ministers in Wynne's expanded cabinet [CBC]
- Photos released of subway sex assault suspect [CityNews]
- Quiet GO train areas may be expanded [Toronto Star]
- Toronto shooting leaves 15-year-old boy dead [CBC]
- Leafs defeat Flyers in Luke Schenn's return [CBC]
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Image: "Across The Don Valley" by Dominic Bugatto/blogTO Flickr pool.
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Are we that devoid of Canadian culture in our schools and general society that we identify American speak as Canadian
No, it did not. Courts of first instance never establish precedent.
Keep in mind that this whole "downtown vs suburbs, left vs right" nonesense is a fight being perpetrated by the more longer standing Councillors - the newbies for the most part don't subscribe to that nonsense and are far more interested in trying to figure out how to get things done, and have shown a willingness to work with anyone on this Council, regardless of their political leanings - which is why the "mushy middle" (made up largely of recently elected councillors) has largely led this Council in the last couple of years.
We need the regular turnover that term limits will bring, in order to ensure we get new blood and new ideas at the City Council level, and don't find ourselves constanting re-hashing the same arguments over and over again. There are defintely ways to do this in order to minize the disruption on Council (staggered terms, for example), but this is an idea that needs to be seriously explored. We cannot as a city continue on with a constantly fractured council that is more interested in revenge and undoing the previous guy's work, than in dealing with what this City needs to keep prospering in the future.
I truly hope this comes to pass.