August 18, 2003
Toronto Star reporter, Robert Cribb, wrote an article that was published on August 7 entitled: "3 stores charged with selling illegal meat." Cribb wrote about charges having been laid after some small Toronto grocery stores were alleged to have sold chickens that were killed in underground slaughterhouses and sold without inspections being done by either the provincial or federal government. Improperly slaughtered meat can of course lead to serious health hazards such as E. coli and salmonella poisoning.
Cribb wrote, in part, "Out of sometimes blood-soaked barns and basements without running water or refrigeration, illegally slaughtered meat makes its way into a hidden trade spanning numerous ethnic communities across the city".
Ethnic communities???? Cribb singles out ethnic communities as the ones who are eating the meat and, presumably, selling it as well. Cribb probably singled out ethnic communities in Toronto because it’s the truth. But this article appeared in the Toronto Star, the newspaper that sees itself as a defender from racism, sexism, and all kinds of other "isms." If a Tory--let’s use Bob Runciman just as an example--ever singled out an ethnic community--he would have been decried on the front page of the Star. Ooops, he was. This is the same newspaper that loves to portray the Toronto police and the Toronto Blue Jays management as racists. Ethnic communities indeed. It seems so surreal.
John Nunziata--is he still "on the right"
When the media labels politicians as being on the right or the left, perhaps they should define exactly what they mean by those terms. In Toronto’s mayoralty race, veteran Liberal MP, John Nunziata, is consistently portrayed as being "on the right." In a recent ‘some-candidates’ meeting (only the top 5 are ever invited, so it is not really an all-candidates meeting) Nunziata became the focal point of the discussion with his plans to remove homeless people from the streets of Toronto. According to the former rat-packer, anyone who decides to sleep outside in the cold lacks the mental capacity to make their own decisions, and should be forcibly removed from the streets. If the shelters are full, they should be dumped in the rotunda at city hall. According to the Mel Lastman wanna-be, the homeless would not be arrested; presumably because they would not have committed any crime. Rather, they would be "brought to public facilities". Nunziata had previously exploited the death of Holly Jones by proclaiming that, as mayor, he would not allow any sex offenders to live in "his" neighborhood. How he would have released sex offenders run out of town was not clearly spelled out.
Nunziata’s policy regarding the homeless has nothing to do with law and order, because no laws are being broken. The media continues to portray him as being on the right when his "solution" to the homelessness in Toronto more resembles Stalin’s purges than it does to anything that is found in the Common Sense Revolution.
No wonder there’s gang violence
A little over a week ago, there was a shootout in Rexdale in the northwest part of the city. Four men were shot, although none of the injuries were considered life threatening. Police reported that at least 4 handguns were used in the incident, and the shooting took place close to a residence where a 4-year-old was having a birthday party, attended by many children.
As a result of this incident, CBC did a piece on Canada Now, the network’s local Toronto newscast. The program dealt with gun violence, but started with the use-of-force by Toronto police. Since 1993, when the police were required to keep statistics on the use of force, more force was used than ever before, and this year saw a 16% increase in the use of force over the average of the last five years. Toronto lawyer, Barry Swadron, was interviewed, if you can call it that, and said "police policing police." The CBC reported that most of the force used consisted of police officers drawing their guns. The program then went on to discuss gang violence and the increasing criminal use of handguns.
The way that the segment was presented implied that the increased use of force by the police somehow causes more violence in the city. When it comes to the men and women in blue, the Toronto Star has nothing on the CBC.