LRT budget so low that some worried bidders couldn’t meet it, inquiry hears

Local

CBC: The $2.1 billion Ottawa LRT budget had many key players worried about bidders not being able to keep proposals on budget before the Rideau Transit Group eventually won the bid. The strict budget drew criticism when a public inquiry into the LRT last fall studied whether it had contributed to the two derailments last summer as well as a number of other technical and commercial issues. Marian Simulik and Rob Pattison, both having roles in the initial LRT proposal, defended the choices made and testified that it isn’t out of the ordinary for projects to be designed with a predefined budget, and that two experienced companies submitted under-budget bids. More witnesses are scheduled to appear Thursday, including former deputy Nancy Schepers and John Trianopoulos of Infrastructure Canada.

National

National Post: Members of Toronto’s black community were 2.2 times more likely to be strip-searched or endure other forms of aggressive enforcement interactions, claims an investigation that was made public Wednesday, June 8. Toronto’s Interim Police Chief James Ramer apologized to those affected and confirmed that complaints of racial discrimination made by members of racialized communities were warranted, based on the data looked at during the investigation during a press conference discussing the investigation. The results of the same behaviour in Indigenous and Middle Eastern communities were touched on during the press conference where it was stated they were also impacted by unfair and racially motivated police actions. The interim chief highlighted steps he will take to fight against the systemic racism within their force, but others like Beverley Baines, a member of No Pride in Policing Coalition, are dissatisfied with the proposed measures and lack of individual responsibility taken by offending officers.

International

Global News: Signs of alien life detected earlier this year were reported by the Chinese state media outlet Science and Technology Daily on June 14. Signals deemed suspicious were captured by China’s Sky Eye radio dish telescope and have been the centre of an investigation to determine if they truly are technological traces of life in the cosmos or if they were a result of radio interference. This uncertainty might be what lead the news outlet to remove the article but it had already got the attention of other news outlets. Zhang Tonjie, chief scientist of the extraterrestrial civilization search team stated in the article that the signals differed from those previously captured at the same site, yet share some similarities with others, such as 1977’s famous WOW signal.