Morning Brew: Miller cancels event due to poor ticket sales, federal parties will conduct parliamentary review of G20, hoarding at 200 Wellesley, candlelight vigil held for gay youth, alleged Central Tech shooter faces 10 charges
endorsement of Joe Pantalone for the next mayor of Toronto, the executive director of the local Canadian Club was cancelling Miller's October 13 farewell address due to poor ticket sales. Just 19 people had signed up to hear Miller's "Our Magnificent City" speech, so the club decided to abort the event with the support of the mayor's office. Miller maintains, however, that his legacy in Toronto has indeed been "magnificent," telling the Globe and Mail, "I disagree fundamentally with the premise that Torontonians are angry. It's just not true. And there wouldn't be a poll that said I would win if I ran if that were true." Still, does this latest flop show Miller's endorsement of Pantalone to be the kiss of death? Or does it even matter?
Though there has been a renewed call for a public inquiry into police action, all four federal parties agreed yesterday to a parliamentary inquiry into costs and tactics used during the G20 summit. Five days of hearings will be held with testimony from 30 witnesses, half of whom will be chosen by the government and decided this week. "We're going to hear from students and media and lawyers and innocent bystanders who had their right to peacefully assemble and express themselves was absolutely trampled," said NDP MP Don Davies. The Toronto Police Services Board is already conducting a G20 "review," led by former associate chief justice John Morden, and the federal Auditor-General is also looking into what went down during the summit in Toronto this summer.
Public health officials have issued at least 20 formal orders to Toronto Community Housing to deal with hoarding 200 Wellesley St., the high-rise that was recently plagued by a six-alarm fire. According to spokesperson Susan Sperling, Toronto Public Health investigated the building in the summer as part of a bedbug pilot project and found "a number of issues around health and safety dealing with several units." Despite finding hoarding and possibly mould in several apartments, no work orders were issued for any units in the highrise, not even the jam-packed unit on the 24th floor where the fire started, in the immediate time leading up to the blaze. Formal orders have now been issued, and the cause of the fire still remains under investigation.
Hundreds of people gathered at Church and Wellesley streets last night to hold a candlelight vigil in remembrance of the gay youth who have recently committed suicide in North America, as well as to bring attention to issues of homophobia in Toronto. The group marched towards Queen's Park at around 8:45 p.m. yesterday, chanting slogans like "End the silence on homophobic violence." Police stopped traffic for the peaceful protest, which was held after Tyler Clementi of Rutgers University in the U.S. jumped off a bridge after his roommate allegedly posted a video online of him having sex with a man, and Jeanine Blanchette and Christine Dube were found dead this past weekend in Orangeville.
In brief:
The 17-year-old who was arrested Friday after shots were heard at Central Tech high school now faces 10 charges, according to police. The boy, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, appeared in court Friday, though police just revealed this information yesterday.
A 40-year-old man from Toronto is facing charges for allegedly videotaping women in a North York public washroom. Guo Wu would supposedly enter an adjoining stall once a woman entered the washroom and record her using a pen equipped with a hidden camera. Creepy.
Photo by Derek Flack in the blogTO Flickr pool.
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