Newsflashes

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NEWSFLASHES

Lefty councillor in cop kerfuffle

City councillor Olivia Chow is in a bit of a fix.

While her co-councillor Kyle Rae has been burning up the telephone lines planning to make life difficult for Julian Fantino if he decides to seek the top job of Toronto police chief, Chow champion of the oppressed, is stuck doing the hire.

"He's the darling of the right," says Rae of Fantino.

And while the buzz is that Chow, who sits on the polices services board that will hire the top cop, is in private cahoots with those who want to make sure the conservative poster boy doesn't jump the queue and land the job, she says she plans to stay neutral.

Fantino, currently York Region's police chief, has a bad rep in both the gay and black communities for his past enforcement exploits in London and, before that, To.

As for those who think Chow should be exerting her progressive influence on this important issue, she says, "I'm here. I'm not going anywhere. I'm at police headquarters as we speak."

Meanwhile, Zak Kham, who's not saying much except that he's a citizen concerned about crime and morals, was collecting names on a draft-Fantino petition at the corner of Yonge and Dundas on Wednesday.

"I don't see him as a racist," he said. "I'm a minority myself — which caused one passerby to quip, "Why don't we just hire the Hell's Angels?"

— LR