TONIGHT’S JACKPOT
FUNNY BOSS LIVE-ACTION THRILLS WITH SICK SENSE OF HUMOUR {Review page 21}
$20
NO DEAL JUDGE REJECTS PLEA BARGAIN FOR NELSON
{page 33}
TORONTO
Weekend, July 8-10, 2011 www.metronews.ca News worth sharing.
Streetcar named melee Spat between driver, rider leads to standoff between 50 passengers and TTC officials Streetcars backed up at Bathurst station Situation resolved after police were called
A melee broke out on a crowded streetcar over a simple question. “Why are you late?” a middleaged woman, who didn’t want to be named on advice from her lawyer, recalls asking a streetcar operator at Bathurst station around 5 p.m. Monday. “We’ve been waiting for almost 40 minutes now.” “I don’t like your attitude and you are not getting into my car,” she remembers the operator saying. After he left for a break, the woman hopped on. When he returned, he spotted her.
“There were many times I’d come home and say to myself I could have handled an incident better.… I’m not making excuses. But people must remember that we’re human beings, too.” UNION PRESIDENT BOB KINNEAR, WHO DROVE TTC VEHICLES FOR 10 YEARS
“Then he yelled at me to get out of his car,” she said. “But I said no, I have a subway pass and paid for my fare.” The operator then called his supervisor, following TTC protocol. Then it got ugly. One woman, known only as Shari, filmed part
of the fracas, which Citytv obtained. The supervisor noticed Shari’s camera, marched up the stairs and placed his hand over it. It isn’t clear what happened next. Brad Ross, a TTC spokesperson, said the supervisor didn’t take
the camera, but pushed it down “in an attempt to defuse the situation.” Then, Ross said, an elderly passenger grabbed the supervisor from behind in a bear hug. “I didn’t see a bear hug,” the woman said. “The driver grabbed the camera and then another man grabbed his arm and took it away.” That’s when a standoff began. Many of the passengers refused to disembark, but TTC officials weren’t moving the streetcar, which created a convoy of streetcars behind it. TORSTAR NEWS SERVICE
Breakthrough
Blood stem cells isolated T.O. team’s discovery should lead to better therapies for treating leukemia {page 2}
The Kate Effect Fashion choices help fuel sales, buzz {page 14}
A nation is born: South Sudan South to officially split from north on Saturday {page 8}
Israel puts forces on alert
Kincardine, Ont.-born supermodel Jessica Stam — named one of the world’s top-15 earning models by Forbes — arrives Thursday at the Berlin Fashion Week 2011. Berlin Fashion Week is held twice a year, transforming the city into an international capital of fashion and lifestyle.
Stepping out in Berlin
MARKUS SCHREIBER/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Considered part of the crop of models described as “doll faces,” Jessica Stam was discovered in a Tim Hortons coffee shop after a day at Canada’s Wonderland.
Pro-Palestinian activists planning to board flights to Tel Aviv {page 12}