CITY HALL
- Adam Vaughan loses bid to join Rob Ford’s executive committee [Toronto Sun]
- Matlow’s crime fighting strategies won’t work [Toronto Sun]
- Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti has faced financial difficulties, records suggest [Toronto Star]
EMERGENCY SHELTER BEDS
- OCAP denied council emergency shelter-bed debate [Toronto Sun]
- Toronto council rebuffs debate on shelter crisis; keeps left wing off powerful committees [Toronto Star]
- OCAP threatens to take over Metro Hall if city does not address shelter bed ‘crisis’ [National Posted]
- City council avoids discussion on homeless beds [Globe & Mail]
OTHER NEWS
- More resources needed to battle crime in at-risk areas: Police chief [Toronto Sun]
- Toronto casino debate heats up online as MGM unveils new website [Toronto Star]
- Distillery project mixed old with new [Toronto Star]
- Improving diversity of teaching staff tough under new provincial rule, boards say [Toronto Star]
- Ontario Transportation Minister seeks creative thinking on gridlock [Globe & Mail]
2 comments
Agh! Please warn us when you link to Sue Ann Levy.
I don’t agree with much of what Levy is saying in her article regarding roots of youth crime… but neither do I agree with much of what Matlow is saying. There is an abundance of research suggesting lack of employment opportunities exacerbate youth crime and the crime situation generally. Toronto has had a chronically high unemployment rate for decades. The situation has been made worse by the high numbers of individuals in the underground labor market (many of whom originally come into the country through the Foreign Temporary Worker Program which was ramped up by Harper and Company). Is it possible that people don’t see any link between the high rates of youth unemployment and the fact that many organizations that typically used to provide employment opportunities to youth are now chosing to use temporary foreign workers. The argument made by Harper and the companies exploiting this situation is that the program is needed to fill “jobs that Canadians don’t want to do”. And yet, Canadians used to do these jobs. When companies say that they can’t find Canadians (or landed immigrants) to do the job, what they often mean is that they can’t find people to do the job UNDER THE TERMS (wages/conditions) THE COMPANY WANTS TO OFFER. The result is that wages/workering conditions have deteriorated, youth unemployment (and unemployment generally) is chronically high. The situation benefits employers, especially the unscrupulous ones — but let’s not pretend that having a huge labor pool of desperate, easily exploited people benefits us all. The Foreign Temporary Worker seems to be nothing more than the new slavery — and it is having extremely detrimental impacts in all sorts of areas.