Toronto city councillor Michael Thompson faces two charges of sexual assault and will plead not guilty, his lawyer told the Star.
The charges against Thompson, who is seeking re-election in Ward 21 Scarborough Centre, were laid by Bracebridge OPP, lawyer Calvin Barry told the Star’s Betsy Powell on Thursday.
Another senior Toronto cop has been caught up in the promotions scandal, the Sun has learned.
Looking stern and displeased, Staff Sgt. Kirwin Marshall made his first appearance, albeit virtually, at a disciplinary tribunal Thursday on Police Act charges alleging he exchanged texts with Supt. Stacy Clarke that contained “racist or ethnic stereotypes.”
… “During your conversations with Supt. Clarke, you made comments that belittled the Pride parade, contained racist or ethnic stereotypes and were insulting to senior officers of the organization,” the notice alleges.
Hydro One says it is investigating an issue affecting power to Toronto Hydro and its downtown customers on Thursday.
The hydro company tweeted about the outage just before 1 p.m.
“We’re currently experiencing a large outage in downtown Toronto and working together with Hydro One to address it,” Toronto Hydro said.
Holy shit 😮 look at this madness #KingstonFest pic.twitter.com/0Sdc9x5eKs
— B • (@WomanofGold_) August 8, 2022
Kingston festival a complete disorganized disaster left after this… there goes my vip section…#Refund #KingstonFest pic.twitter.com/3GldGsSd9p
— Sherry Rampersaud (@SHERRYtheCOACH) August 7, 2022
h/t DM
“… It is no coincidence, said study co-author Karen Chapple, that Toronto and San Francisco were two cities with some of the longest, deepest lockdowns during COVID-19. Other Canadian cities also lagged behind their U.S. counterparts.
“It’s clear. You look at that ranking chart and you look at the red cities, which are the Canadian ones, and Canada had much stricter lockdown policies than almost anywhere in the United States, with a couple of exceptions. The San Francisco area, sometimes New York were almost on the Canadian models,” said Chapple, director of the School of Cities at the University of Toronto.”
The dramatic change would dilute the influence of municipal councillors in Ontario’s two largest cities, ensuring far more authority for the mayors over financial matters and appointments.
Premier Doug Ford is poised to give U.S.-style “strong-mayor” powers to the cities of Toronto and Ottawa, the Star has learned.
The dramatic change would dilute the influence of municipal councillors in Ontario’s two largest cities, ensuring far more authority for the mayors over financial matters and appointments.
Ford, long a proponent of mayors having greater clout than councillors, wants the Toronto and Ottawa chief magistrates empowered to oversee budgets and act unilaterally if need be.
Just imagine if Rob was still Mayor… unfortunately that isn’t the case and these new powers may accelerate Toronto’s collective suicide.
City of Toronto staff have unveiled a plan to lease a North York hotel for more than $68 million and convert it into a temporary home for refugees — just weeks after an auditor’s report slammed the city’s handling of contracts with local hotels it uses as shelters.
Coun. John Filion, who represents the area and is also vice chair of the city’s audit committee, said he only found out about the plan to lease the 17-storey Hotel Novotel from city staff less than two weeks ago. Even so, he said he’s committed to ensuring the red flags pointed out by Auditor General Beverly Romeo-Beehler last month are addressed.
“I’m all over the contract,” said Filion, who represents Ward 18, Willowdale. “I want to know everything that’s going on here.”
Adam Westland knows cars and trucks. His friends call him a “petrolhead” — someone who’s obsessed with vehicles.
And so when Julie, his wife, looked out their Toronto window in December and shouted — “Adam, the truck’s gone” — he swung into action. It was a few days before Christmas, and they were about to drive to Prince Edward County to see family.
Using the state-of-the-art tracker he’d installed, Adam precisely located his Ford F-150 Raptor pickup while on the phone to Toronto police. What happened next is becoming a common occurrence in Toronto. The police did not show up.
In a nutshell work on the assumption that your vehicle and its contents are a write-off and hope your insurance company will make it all better.
The road to 45 The Esplanade was paved with woke intentions.
Yet, some local residents say the reality of the hotel-turned-emergency shelter during COVID-19 was an enabling, urine-scented, theft and vandalism hell.
It was hard for many neighbours to see the good in this project as they watched drug dealers come around to cash in on addiction and then shelter residents taken out in ambulances.
The City of Toronto overspent by $13.2 million over two years on emergency hotel shelters, according to a fiscal audit by the city’s auditor general.
Money intended for housing support instead went to pay a host of hotel fees, the auditor general says, including one earmarked for tourism. That’s despite the fact the contracts preclude such fees.
In two years, $5.4 million was spent on hotel room vacancy fees, $5.3 million was spent on facility surcharges on meal invoices, and $2.4 million came out of a voluntary three per cent tax that the Greater Toronto Hotel Association uses to promote tourism.
Amidst the Victoria Day weekend mayhem at Woodbine Beach, two people were shot. There was also a home invasion in the north end of the city where one occupant was shot and another struck by a stray bullet.
As long weekends in Toronto go, setting aside the stupid wilding on the beach, the city actually got off relatively lightly for gun violence.
Which also can be said, historically, for those charged with crimes involving a firearm, whether they actually used the weapon or “merely” were in possession of it, upon arrest, who cartwheel through the bail system and are back on the streets lickety-split to continue terrorizing particular neighbourhoods.
Police say they’ve made 17 arrests and seven officers were injured after a violent night at Toronto’s Woodbine Beach that saw two people shot, one person stabbed, two others robbed at gunpoint and running street battle4s involving fireworks through Sunday evening.
Video posted to social media showed groups of people firing Roman candles at one another, physical fights and crowds spilling onto streets.
“I’m extremely troubled by the increase in carjackings we are seeing in the city,” Tory wrote in a tweet Friday morning. “I know Toronto Police are also concerned by this brazen, criminal activity and are working to do everything they can to arrest those responsible.”
In Tory’s letter, he said Toronto Police have reported a 55 per cent increase in carjackings compared to 2021 “representing the largest increase of all major crimes that they track.”
“It happened at the Cineplex theatre on The Queensway,” said a police source.
My neck of the woods. It’s good to drive an undesirable vehicle!
The City of Toronto says it is looking for private security guards to patrol major parks to ensure the spaces remain fully accessible to all residents and prevent the large encampments seen in the past.
The key parks include Trinity Bellwoods Park, Lamport Stadium Park, Alexandra Park and Dufferin Grove with two mobile teams for Moss Park and Barbara Hall Park, officials said.
A surprisingly good idea for a change.
