Morning Brew: October 2nd, 2008

20081002_mb.jpgPhoto: untitled by a virtual unknown, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Your Toronto morning news roundup for Thursday October 2nd, 2008:

What's being described as a "head-butting" rift between Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair and Ontario Provincial Police head Julian Fantino is reportedly going to lead to less cooperation between the two forces in battling organized crime. Ontario-wide public safety at risk of being compromised, mainly due to egos of these hot shot top cops, is disconcerting.

A new report pegs the cost of a TTC strike to the city at $50million per day, and as a result once again raises the question about essential service declaration of the transit system. If we give them more of what the union wants but make striking illegal, does that make up for the potential losses caused by strikes? On a related note, Viva is still not running north of the city, and Mississauga Transit votes today on their new contract.

The much loved flashing neon sign at the former Sam the Record Man shop will be lit up one last time this weekend in celebration of Nuit Blanche 2008. Watch for the Flickr pools to light up with Sam sign shots one last time too.

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A Toronto jeweler, who had a huge amount of cash and a couple of gold bars seized by authorities at Pearson airport in 2003 (citing the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Act), wants his bling back and is taking it to the top courts. This story is shady in so many ways.

Toronto author Gil Adamson has won the First Novel Award for her book The Outlander. It took her 10 years to write, but I suspect she's feeling redeemed now. Congrats on winning a prestigious award for your first novel!

And the Toronto Star has taken a page out of CityNews' book and published a news item (in the GTA section, no less) about some idiots in Tampa and California who called police over trivial things like needing a ride to the store and not liking how their cheeseburger was prepared. I guess everyone, including the Star, deserves the opportunity to try to achieve internet-meme-cool status.

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Testing 1, 2, 3... is this thing on? :P

Posted by: Jerrold at October 2, 2008 9:51 AM

Slow news day I guess. No mention of the Canadian debate? I guess everyone is looking forward to Palin's media suicide instead.

Posted by: sippy at October 2, 2008 10:21 AM

Watching the Canadian election debate will be like watching a group of kids beat up on the nerdy guy, and watching the US VP debate will be like watching Nascar for the crashes. :P

Posted by: Jerrold at October 2, 2008 10:45 AM

Someone recently shared the following comment, from the Q107 morning show, with me:

Watching the debate between Joe Biden and Sarah Palin will be like watching a debate between your demented uncle and the local Hooters waitress.

Posted by: Mark at October 2, 2008 11:35 AM

Demented uncle? Hardly. Biden is said to be one of the best debaters in American politics. He's also known for not being afraid to tell it how it is. He will rip Palin a new one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1op8vwF5UA

I expect tears before it's all over (For the record, I'm now talking about Dion)

Posted by: Ryan L. at October 2, 2008 12:05 PM

Of course Q107 would call Biden the demented uncle. They play left leaning songs, but the hosts are definitely right wing.

Posted by: Ben at October 2, 2008 12:22 PM

I'm not saying I agree with the quote (I don't really know much about Biden) but I found it amusing.

Not sure about the political leanings of the Q morning crew. They just seem to spout the opinion that is broad and general enough to get the most listeners nodding their heads and saying "ok, fair enough." Just like pretty much every other annoying morning radio team, except the guys over at the Edge, who make the worst lowbrow jokes and then laugh for 20 minutes afterwards.

Posted by: Mark at October 2, 2008 12:28 PM

I think you'll find Derringer on Q-107 is pretty right-wing, they have Bill Watters on, who's extremely right-wing (there would be no visible minorities in his Canada) and of course their brother station (as they call it) is 640 a.m. (right-wing talk radio).

Is there any doubt then? But I listen for the music, and the guys with Derringer are pretty smart and funny (Ryan and Bill Hayes). Derringer reminds me of the stoner guys in my high school who smoked, carried a case of beer (2-4) on their lumberjack-clad shoulders and hated all non-whites, wondering where their next toke was coming from.

Posted by: Nick B at October 2, 2008 4:03 PM

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