Readable, teachable news.
Saturday, April 20, 2024
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford went to Chicago, Illinois in the U.S. this week.
He went to promote goodwill between the two cities and also to make some business deals. But he couldn’t shake the scandal that he’d left behind in Toronto.
The mayor has been accused of using city staff to help with his personal hobby of coaching football.
He has also been accused of charging the cost of his car and other expenses to the city, even when they are used for football.
Toronto is banning plastic shopping bags in stores.
Starting in January 2013, you’ll have to bring your own reusable bag to the store to cart your goods away.
More than 250 million bags end up in landfill every year, never breaking down into compost, according to a report by CBC News.
Plastic bags can also clog drainage systems and, when they are washed out to sea, can hurt fish and other marine animals.
Every year, news editors across Canada vote for the “newsmaker of the year” – the person who dominated the headlines.
For 2011, that person was Jack Layton.
A whopping 90 per cent of editors polled said they thought the NDP leader was the newsmaker of the year.
Layton helped to build his political party up from just 19 seats in 2003 when he took over as leader, to 103 seats last year — enough to make the NDP Canada’s national opposition party for the first time in history.
Layton died from cancer in 2011 and the country mourned for this great “representative of the people.”
