A 12-year-old Boy Arrested for Gun in Backpack
A 12-year-old boy has been arrested for carrying a loaded handgun in his backpack at his Toronto middle school on Friday. A teacher and the principal of Oakdale Park Middle School near Toronto’s Jane and Finch area, discovered the 38-calibre Colt revolver after the Grade Seven student got into a fistfight with a peer.
The child cannot be identified publically, thanks to the Youth Criminal Justice Act, but the boy, who has been suspended, is facing charges of assault, and several weapons charges.
To make matters more interesting, the boy allegedly said, according to police, that he found the gun on the ground on his way to school. Oakdale Park Middle School, which has 548 students in grades six through eight, held a parent-teacher meeting about the incident on Wednesday evening.
Tobacco Companies Launch Legal Battle Against Warning Labels
Stay alert, stay safe? Canada’s tobacco companies are filing back-to-back lawsuits against new regulation which insists that 75 per cent of packaging be covered by an anti-smoking warning label, up from the current 50 per cent. The lobby claims this health prevention advertising restricts their customer’s right to freedom of expression, as guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Back-to-back lawsuits have been filed through the Ontario Superior Court by Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd. and JTI-Macdonald Corp. partly as a reaction to a $27-billion class action lawsuit launched in Quebec by long-time smokers. Though Canada introduced the 50 per cent warning label on packaging back in 2001, these companies claim the proposed legislation takes the anti-smoking movement one step too far.
In 2007, a similar lawsuit brought forward to the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the 50 per cent label rule was a reasonable restriction for tobacco companies, and anti-smoking activists expect the current legislation to stay intact as well.
Gingrich to Bow Out of the Republican Presidential Bid
Well, so much for the moon colony. Likely after watching U.S. President Barack Obama slow jam the news with Jimmy Fallon on Tuesday night, Republican presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, has announced plans to end his bid for the coveted nomination.
Gingrich, a former House speaker, said on Wednesday that he plans to formally redact his leadership campaign on May 1, and endorse frontrunner Mitt Romney. How lovely. Vice Presidential pandering is afoot!
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Joanna Adams writes for Toronto Standard. Follow her on Twitter at†@nowstarringTO.
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