Toronto to boost street festival security funding in the wake of Lapu-Lapu Day attack
The announcement followed a safety summit in Toronto on Monday morning, where 150 representatives from festivals across the city met with elected officials, including Mayor Olivia Chow.
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CTV News
a day ago
- CTV News
Media challenge publication ban on Lapu Lapu attack suspect's fitness hearing
A woman lays flowers at a memorial during a vigil in Vancouver, on Friday, May 2, 2025, on a provincial day of mourning for the victims of the vehicle-ramming attack at the Filipino community's Lapu Lapu Day festival. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck A media consortium has challenged a publication ban on evidence at a hearing to determine if the man accused of killing 11 people at Vancouver's Lapu Lapu Day festival is fit to stand trial. The ban, which is supported by both prosecutors and the defence, says evidence in the British Columbia provincial court hearing is not publishable until it's lifted or after the end of a criminal trial. Adam Kai-Ji Lo faces 11 second-degree murder charges over the ramming attack in April, when an SUV drove through a crowd at a Filipino community festival. Lawyer Daniel Coles, representing the consortium that includes The Canadian Press, argued that lifting the ban would be in the public interest, and the public is already aware of details including that Lo had 'significant interactions with police in connection with mental health issues.' Coles says it's essential to the public interest and the open-court principle to allow the media to report on the matter, as it is not often possible for members of the public to attend court and coverage 'fills that void.' Prosecutors and Lo's defence lawyer Mark Swartz oppose lifting or changing the ban, with Swartz arguing the ban safeguard's Lo's right to a fair trial, and there is risk that publishing details of the fitness hearing could taint a jury. Last month, Lo appeared in a Vancouver court as forensic psychiatrists Dr. Robert Lacroix and Dr. Rakesh Lamba testified as expert witnesses in the fitness hearing. Their evidence cannot be described due to the ban, but their names and roles are allowed to be reported. Lo, who attended Tuesday's hearing by video, is expected back in court to continue the fitness hearing on Friday. This report by Brieanna Charlebois, The Canadian Press, was first published Aug. 19, 2025.
Toronto Sun
3 days ago
- Toronto Sun
RapidTO: Transit commuter's dream or 'absolute nightmare?'
The red bus lanes are coming in time for the World Cup, but some people on Bathurst St. aren't pleased — and there's still a lot to be figured out. A dedicated red bus lane is seen on Eglinton Ave. E. at Bellamy Rd. N. in Scarborough on Wednesday August 6, 2025. The concept is coming to Bathurst and Dufferin Sts. as part of city hall's RapidTO initiative. Photo by Jack Boland/Toronto Sun After years of planning, two downtown-area bus-only lanes got the green light, triggering outrage among those affected by the new rapid-transit lines on Bathurst and Dufferin Sts. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account In July, city council approved plans to set up transit-only lanes on Bathurst and Dufferin Sts., south of Bloor St, – and quickly. Mayor Olivia Chow wants these lanes, which are to be painted red, done in time for the FIFA World Cup in June 2026, and later to be expanded north. The RapidTO idea isn't new, it just took years to get out of the planning stage. However, Bathurst wasn't initially picked as a RapidTO priority – and now that it's suddenly in the fast lane, some people are howling. 'Public consultation was an outright disgrace, if they want to even consider it that,' said Paul Macchiusi, whose pot shop, Minerva Cannabis, is on Bathurst, near Dupont. 'There was a lack of transparency, a lack of collaboration.' Macchiusi also lives in the area, and his group, Protect Bathurst, spoke out against RapidTO. South of his business, the streetcar lanes will soon be marked red, street parking will vanish and a single lane of vehicle traffic will stop every time someone gets on or off transit. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'It's gonna be an absolute nightmare,' he said. Paul Macchiusi, local resident and owner of Minerva Cannabis on Bathurst St., is part of a group that wants the city and TTC to pause a rapid transit plan for the street. Photo by Stephanie Macchiusi / Handout The ward's councillor, Dianne Saxe, might not call it a nightmare, but she knows it will be disruptive. She said Bathurst is overdue for change. 'The fundamental point about RapidTO is we have streets that were built for a city of maybe 500,000,' Saxe told the Toronto Sun . 'That's not the city we have. There's nowhere to put bigger streets, nor would it be good for our city.' That means Torontonians will have to get used to fewer trips by car, Saxe said. In her University-Rosedale ward, most people don't own a car, she said – which is a good reason why streetcars and buses on Bathurst should get through their routes faster. Recommended Video The city has a few tools to clear the way: remove the parked cars, remove the cars blocking an intersection trying to turn left, and give transit its own lane. That's RapidTO. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Those are the only things we got. There is no magic wand to make the bus go faster when there's a car in front,' Saxe said. But the RapidTO worries don't end there. The red bus lane concept, which already exists in the city in Scarborough, allows bikes to use the lane. But bikes aren't being encouraged on Bathurst south of Bloor, an area Saxe said would be rough for cyclists. At July's council meeting, Jacquelyn Hayward, transportation services planning director, said RapidTO could push drivers away from Bathurst and Dufferin to Spadina, Jane or Keele – but that last street exists south of Bloor as Parkside Dr., perhaps Toronto's most notorious problem street for planners, typified by the drama over its speed camera. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The city is projecting improved transit speeds and ridership, but those are just predictions. For some, the greater unknown is what the changes will do to traffic. 'RapidTO,' Councillor Stephen Holyday scoffed during July's meeting. 'It should be CongestionTO! I think it's rubbish, and a lot of other people do, as well.' Toronto city councillor Dianne Saxe of University-Rosedale speaks to reporters outside of the mayor's office front doors about the budget and upcoming election on Thursday February 16, 2023. Jack Boland/Toronto Sun/Postmedia Network Then there is the accelerated timeline, done to get the red paint down in time for the World Cup next June. 'Quite frankly, it's bulls—,' Macchiusi said. 'Who in their right mind is coming to FIFA, spending $2,500 minimum on a single ticket, and then staying up at Eglinton and Bathurst, expecting to take transit down to the game? 'It's so far-fetched. It's just another excuse.' Saxe said she gets this response. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'The World Cup is a big event,' she said, 'but we have lots of big events, and we have lots of big events that come every year. What the World Cup did was give us a kick in the rear, to look again at plans that had been stalled for years.' In what was the 'nicest part of this horrible experience,' Macchiusi said, the RapidTO fight planted the seeds for a BIA in his neighbourhood. He intends to speak at the Toronto and East York community council meeting in September when Saxe and her colleagues discuss more ways to speed up the Bathurst bus route. Saxe said she'll do even more community consultations on those ideas once they've been fleshed out. There's a rough plan to remove parking only on one side north of Bloor, to address an unusual problem with northbound traffic in the afternoons. She also wants to hike parking rates on Bathurst from $3 an hour, which she said is 'way too low.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. But Macchiusi is stuck with the sense that substandard consultation 'is just an ongoing trend, I guess in this city, but especially in this ward with Dianne.' The dedicated red lanes in Scarborough, as with most under RapidTO, are for TTC buses, school buses, Wheel-Trans and bikes. Eglinton Ave. E. at Bellamy Rd. N. on Wednesday August 6, 2025. Photo by Jack Boland/Toronto Sun City hall has admitted things aren't perfect. 'The consultation process for RapidTO Bathurst and RapidTO Dufferin was certainly more accelerated than we would typically undertake for this kind of a project,' Jacquelyn Hayward, of the transportation division, said at July's meeting after a question from Councillor Jamaal Myers. Bafflingly, Myers asked Hayward soon after: 'So, this has been consulted to death. Is that a fair statement?' Macchiusi said it fell on his group to tell an arena and rec centre near Bathurst and Dupont about the changes. Saxe said the city spent months on consultation and heard from 'hundreds and hundreds of people,' but of those two institutions, she admitted, she 'didn't specifically ask them their opinion.' 'I am well aware of their parking concerns,' she said. 'Again, we need people … to switch. They can't all drive. More people need to take the bus, and that's only possible if we make the bus better.' And as for those who feel City Hall just doesn't listen these days? 'The people who don't want change tend to say, 'I wasn't consulted enough,'' Saxe said. jholmes@ Read More Toronto & GTA Money News Columnists Canada Toronto Blue Jays
CTV News
5 days ago
- CTV News
Ontario allows more density, building height near Toronto transit
PC MPP Rob Flack attends Question Period at Queen's Park in Toronto on Tuesday, May 13, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston TORONTO — Ontario's housing minister says the province has approved a plan for Toronto to allow higher and denser buildings near transit stations. Rob Flack says the changes to Toronto's official plan will allow for 1.5 million more homes throughout the city over the next 25 years. He says that having more people living near transit will also help to ease gridlock pressures on city streets. Mayor Olivia Chow says the former mayor submitted a similar plan to the province five years ago that would have only allowed for 500,000 more homes, and these changes will now facilitate three times that amount. Chow says the plans would still be subject to city council approval. The plan would increase density and maximum heights near 120 transit stations across the city, and the province says it will continue working with Toronto on plans for 14 other transit station areas. The announcement comes as the province falls behind the pace of residential construction needed to hit its own goal of building 1.5 million homes across the province by 2031, with just 94,753 started last year, including long-term care beds, retirement home suites and post-secondary student housing beds. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2025. Allison Jones, The Canadian Press
