LOCAL
The city of Toronto faces a potential $10-million lawsuit if it tries to block the artificial turf at U of T’s back campus sports field, councillors were told Wednesday. The university wants to begin work July 1 to replace the natural grass with astro turf so the Pan Am Games can host field hockey, which, ironically, can’t take place unless the field is obliterated. [Toronto Star]
The province released a damning report on prisons that describe guards who beat convicts, lie about it, then scare them and their fellow inmates into silence. Six officers restrained an inmate who was acting aggressively to the guards, then beat him to a pulp, initially stating he hit his head on the floor. [Toronto Star]
A 28-year-old man from Richmond Hill is in custody after carjacking an SUV that ran over the motorcycle he ditched earlier, causing both vehicles to burst into flames. Before crashing the SUV into the motorcycle, the suspect allegedly crashed his motorcyle into the SUV, which belonged to a stranger stopped at a red light, after a break-and-enter attempt at a variety store. [CBC]
NATIONAL
Two veteran CBC foreign correspondents are being held in custody in Turkey. They were reporting on the protests, but thankfully CBC has made contact with the reporters and they said they are in good condition. [Toronto Star]
Alberta’s Health Minister Fred Horne fired the entire board that oversees the province’s health care-delivery over its refusal to cancel executive bonuses. Chairman Stephen Lockwood defied the order from Horne on Tuesday to cancel $3.2-million in payouts to be split between 99 executives. [National Post]
Quebec has become the first province in the country to create legislation so individuals can request a form of medically supervised euthenasia. The bill, called An Act Respecting End-of-Life Care, sets out the right of terminally ill patients to die in a way they see fit. [Globe and Mail]
INTERNATIONAL
The cry for help from an inmate of a Chinese Labour camp somehow found its way inside a Halloween decoration that was sold to a mother of two at a K-mart in Oregon. In wobbly English, the writer described how he worked 7 days a week, for 15-hours a day under the eye of sadistic guards in a camp where prisoners can be sent for petty crimes for up to four years without trial. [National Post]
The man widely acclaimed as the best living soccer player, Agentina’s Lionel Messi, has been accused by the Spanish tax authorities of fraud totalling over 4-million Euros. It allegedly began when his father was handling his affairs, before he was of age, and allegedly used a complex network from companies in different countries to keep his income out of sight. [The Guardian]
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, has defied a wave of international criticism and issued a chilling warning to protestors. “We have not responded to the punches with punches. From now on security forces will respond differently…this issue will be over in 24 hours.” [The Guardian]
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