Toronto Should be Outraged about Innocent Shooting Victim, Ferguson and Fletcher Not Answering Phones: TorontoIAM

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Where is Community Outrage around Shooting Death?

Arvin at Metroblogging is not only concerned that another innocent life was taken by gun fire in Toronto last night. He’s also concerned by the lack of “citizen outrage.” The victim “was shot near Gerrard and Broadview… He was just a guy working when a coward pulled out a gun and started shooting.” There’s “talk of outrage,” but our blogger doesn’t see it.

He wants to know where are the people “telling their councillors, their MPPs, their MPs... their neighbours, that this should be stopped.” Citizens themselves have to do something and the “city has to work together.” We need tougher laws “because right now there doesn't seem to be much hope in lessening gun violence in Toronto.” Everyone, citizens, police, legislators, must work together to solve this issue “because there is just no point for most folks to have a gun,” he concludes in his post.

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment Dragging Their Heels on GM Decision

Howard Berger on HockeyBuzz.com writes that just because the Maple Leafs have had a little “two-game revival,” it shouldn’t deter ownership “from determining the immediate future of the hockey club.” MLSE is known for acting slowly, “and without much regard for the people it employs.” GM Ferguson “is the latest victim.” He’s now aware Cliff Fletcher has been approached to replace him and he must be feeling the heat. During the past two games, “he has refused to be questioned by groups of reporters.” Last night he “holed himself up in his private booth during the hockey game, refusing to come out and speak.”

Possible replacement Cliff Fletcher is also “returning very few phone calls these days,” writes Berger in his post. “Cliff is on vacation in Mexico, but he could be on Mars and he'd normally be prompt at getting back to people.” Fletcher, too, must be uncomfortable with the situation. He was “enthusiastic in discussing a possible return to the Leafs last summer,” but the idea was to work “alongside Ferguson Jr., not to replace him.” MLSE should know whether it plans to make a move. And “if Cliff is their man, he will take over from Ferguson as soon as he returns from vacation.”

New Holiday Forces Minor Traffic Charges to be Dismissed

According to Maneesh Mohindra of the Torontoist, due to the new Family Day holiday, “an estimated 1,100 minor traffic charges will be dismissed because Toronto courts will be closed that day.” For anyone who has a traffic ticket and was supposed to appear in court on February 18, 2008, you can go ahead and “rip it up.” More “serious offenses and criminal cases” will not be affected by the court closures.

Mohindra reports in his post that “the court closure is estimated to result in $50,000 in foregone revenue for the city.” City spokesperson Brad Ross told CityNews that after reviewing all the cases, they “determined that some of them we would have to withdraw because the undue delays would actually end up costing the city more in court costs.” Mohindra also points out that the media have brought up other possible “detrimental effects” of having a new holiday, “but really, is anyone that broken up about having an extra day off?”

The Gathering Space Invites Artistic Community Input

Over at Blog T.O., Laura Mendes features community artist and educator Loree Lawrence, the founder of a growing arts initiative called The Gathering Space. The space was inspired by the work of two British artists she met at a conference in 2003 who have been “running projects in disused shops and mobile trailers in Sheffield and Liverpool… as a base to create artworks around the themes of people, community, identity, and place.”

According to the post, “what began as a mobile arts project has developed into a full-fledged community studio,” which now operates out of the Cool Hand of a Girl coffee shop on Dundas West. The Gathering Space hosts a variety of creative activity. Over the next few months they will host regular Homemade Movie Nights “where people can bring in their old home movies to watch together over popcorn and beer.” In addition, they have scheduled a “Home Sweet Home” installation and performance event in April, which “involves residents embroidering “home sweet home,” meaningful sayings, lyrics from songs, or lines from poems on fabric.” The Gathering Space is seen by visitors as “an emerging community studio and gallery that invites their input.”

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