Toronto Opinions

Magazine slams Toronto as strike enters Day 26

Updated: Fri Jul. 17 2009 2:52:56 PM

ctvtoronto.ca

As Toronto's strike enters its 26th day, Maclean's magazine's latest edition knocks the garbage-strewn metropolis and Mayor David Miller on its cover.

The magazine features Miller in a garbage can with a banana peel on his head and surrounded by a mound of garbage and a raccoon. The headline reads: "Toronto Stinks."

At a Friday afternoon news conference, Miller said he didn't care what Maclean's says, "Toronto remains a remarkable place."

He noted that some are going out and mowing soccer fields so children have some place to play. "That says something much more important about our city than a magazine cover that people will forget about next week," he said.

CUPE Local 79 president Ann Dembinski, who represents about 18,000 inside workers, told CTV Toronto on Friday that she was not shocked by the provocative cover.

"This strike has received world-wide coverage. Toronto is certainly no longer Toronto the Beautiful," said Dembinski.

The city's tourism board told CTV Toronto it did not want to discuss the Maclean's cover.

A couple visiting from Tampa, Fla. told CTV Toronto the city is in terrible shape compared to when they visited 25 years ago. Back then, they thought Toronto was the cleanest city they've ever seen.

A visitor from England also told CTV Toronto that he found the garbage to be a shame, as Toronto was otherwise a fantastic city.

Illegal dumping continues to be a problem in some areas, particularly in Chinatown, at Spadina and Dundas. There are no easily accessible temporary dumps in the downtown core.

Business owners in the area say they have seen mice -- and some huge rats.

"I've seen more of them because of the trash on the street," local business owner Robert Mamou told CTV Toronto.

However, Dr. David McKeown, the city's medical officer of health, told Friday's news conference that while Toronto has rats like any big city, "some people associate sightings of rats with the strike, and that's not necessarily the case."

The city is not seeing an excess of rat-sighting complaints relative to non-strike periods, he said.

On Thursday, the city opened three more temporary dump sites. Protesters at Campbell park outdoor rink tried to block access.

They pressured people do drop their trash off elsewhere and laid a wreath to symbolize the poisoning of their park.

Also on Friday, CUPE accused Mayor David Miller of leaving the bargaining table, as well as, announced it plans to picket the ferry that takes approximately 600 residents from Ward's Island to the city and back.

Windsor strike

Elsewhere in southern Ontario, a three-month old city strike in Windsor shows little signs of ending anytime soon after striking workers rejected the latest contract offer by the city on Thursday.

It means some 1,800 inside and outside workers will continue to picket, while residents continue to live without services like garbage pick-up, road maintenance or child care.

A special session of Windsor city council will convene Friday to dealing with the labour dispute, but city officials said they have no plans to move on their position regarding post-retirement benefits, a key issue in the strike.

Two sides met in front of a new mediator appointed by the Ontario Ministry of Labour in early July -- the first talks since the union walked away from the table June 18.

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