By BRUCE DEMARA
THE SKINNY AT CITY HALL
As global politics becomes local, Mayor David Miller is facing the squeeze.
The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibet and many of the world’s Buddhists, arrives in Toronto on April 25 to preside over a major religious festival, called the Kalachakra for World Peace.
This understandably does not sit well with the Chinese government, which — depending on your world view — violently overran or peacefully annexed the mountain nation half a century ago.
Chinese Consul-General Chen Xiaoling fired off a warning letter to city politicians in January in which she notes she is “deeply concerned” and strongly urges the city not to roll out the welcome mat.
The consul-general also makes many unflattering statements about the Dalai Lama, which — again, depending on your world view — are scathing but accurate or just so much historical hogwash.
In closing, she expresses her “best wishes in the Chinese New Year.”
In a recent letter from the other side of the political coin, Norbu Tsering, president of the Canadian Tibetan Association, points to the tourism potential of the visit, expected to attract thousands of people from around the globe.
Tsering also provides a wish list, including that Miller bestow the key to the city upon the Dalai Lama, make a speech at the SkyDome on April 25 and hold an official reception.
A hint as to which side has the upper hand came in a recent “Message from the Mayor,” which should give Buddhists cause for peaceful, reflective alarm.
While effusive in tone, the message does not contain the words Dalai Lama or make any mention of the spiritual leader — an omission too obvious to have been accidental.
The mayor will have to meditate carefully over how to handle this political pickle. This is one fence not easily straddled.
Ex-councillor Irene Jones has a new job post-politics — recently joining Urban Intelligence, one of the better-known lobby firms around city hall, as a “senior consultant.”
The irony is a bit rich, since council lefties have traditionally had the same regard for lobbyists as farmers for plagues of locusts.
Jones, who ran unsuccessfully for the New Democratic Party in last October’s provincial vote, is nonetheless on a well-worn path, as Councillor Bill Saundercook — defeated in 2000 and back in 2003 — and former councillor John Adams could tell you.
In order to serve, the Toronto Police Service has to protect its budget.
As the budget season rolls inexorably toward its gut-wrenching and messy conclusion, our city’s finest appear to have taken an if-you-can’t-beat-’em-join-’em attitude to lobbying in trying to retain their own substantial piece of the fiscal pie.
Officers of various ranks appeared before the police services board in far greater numbers than in the past.
At the day-long budget meeting last week, with more than 140 deputations, Toronto police budget honcho Frank Chen seemed to be pacing as various community activists called for reining in police spending. At least one pro-police citizen noted he was there at the request of his local police division.
The police service already has plenty of council cheerleaders seeking to score cheap political points by labelling others as anti-police — among them Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, who announced last week he went on a “ride along” with officers.
“It amazes me that the mayor of Toronto and some of our city councillors are even considering cutting resources from the Toronto police at a time when crime is on the rise on the streets of Toronto,” says Mammoliti’s self-congratulatory missive, entitled “Mammoliti Watches Forensic Team As They Remove Bullets From Car.”
Reality-check time: The fact is the police budget is going up — UP! — not down. It’s merely a matter of how much.
Federal NDP Leader and former Toronto councillor Jack Layton seems to have grown a bit of an ego since he went to Ottawa more than a year ago.
A notice to gay/lesbian/yadayada voters in Toronto Centre-Rosedale invites them to “meet Svend Robinson, MP, and Michael Shapcott, Toronto Centre candidate for Jack Layton’s NDP.”
Well, Jack, if your party doesn’t make substantial gains in the upcoming election, it’ll be somebody else’s party soon enough. Maybe even Svend Robinson’s.
