news Front Page Challenge: January 26, 2016

In Front Page Challenge, Torontoist analyzes the best and worst of Toronto’s major dailies.

The Forcillo verdict rocked and confused the city yesterday, and is a main concern of all five of Toronto’s papers in this week’s Front Page Challenge. This complicated situation, with a jury seemingly ruling that when it comes to police shootings, “If at first you succeed, don’t try try again” needs some explaining—which of our newspapers is up for tackling it in detail on the front page?

Toronto Star

The Star asks the question many in the city had when the verdict was announced as its main headline: “How Can You Be Guilty Of Attempting To Murder The Man You Killed?”. The paper devotes major real estate on the front page to provide a rationale, and adds some editorial by writing that “some” are hailing the Crown’s decision to split the two volleys of shots police officer James Forcillo fired at 18-year-old Sammy Yatin into two separate charges as “a savvy strategy”. The Star is the only one of the five papers to feature the victim of the shooting on the cover, using a screencap from the chilling video of the incident captured by the streetcar’s security cameras. The Star also devotes the most real estate of any of the city’s papers in providing details of the jury’s decision on the front page, nearly crowding out a smaller article at the bottom of the cover on a probe of Motherisk.

The Globe and Mail

The Globe features the Forcillo verdict in the centre of the front page along with another ongoing Canadian story of the intersection between mental health and gun violence, the La Loche tragedy. The latter is accompanied by an article on the scrutiny now placed on the Saskatchewan government’s response to issues already identified in the province’s First Nations communities in the North before this incident. Lastly, the recent lifting of international economic sanctions against Iran is covered by the Globe as if the President of Iran was on a wacky shopping spree in Italy’s “grand bazaar” loading up a shopping cart with “passenger planes and pipelines”.

National Post

“This Simply Cannot Happen Again” says the National Post of the Forcillo verdict. What “This” means according to the Post isn’t immediately clear, although the accompanying headline to Christie Blatchford’s coverage adds in all-caps that the verdict “will SATISFY NO ONE”. Blatch’s piece points out that even though Forcillo shot Yatim in the heart and spine in the first round of shots, “no one, least of all Forcillo, knew the teen was mortally wounded”. Blatchford’s piece gives an inkling of concern of the possible handing-down of a mandatory minimum sentence on Forcillo, which is somewhat ironic considering the paper’s general editorial support of politicians pushing for mandatory minimums on their policy planks. Attention is also given to the recent death of a British explorer who was attempting a solo trek across Antarctica.

Metro Toronto

“The Trial of Officer Forcillo” coverage gets a bar on the top of the front page of the Metro, indicating that “Metro Explains” the details within the paper. Unfortunately last week’s new feature “Toronto’s Deadly Streets” seems to have taken over from “The Heroes of Toronto” as a regular Tuesday front-page concern, although the city’s plans to make Toronto’s roads safer may ironically spell the end of this new weekly feature. Otherwise, adorable children are featured on the front page of the Metro this week, including one who asks the Pope a question, presumably so Francis can later write a book answering him, the other Dreaming of Daycare (while pouring the contents of her cup over the edge of her high chair).

Toronto Sun

The Sun goes for the Schrödinger’s Cat angle on the Forcillo verdict with their front-page headline “GUILTY!…AND NOT GUILTY”. It’s also the only paper that provides minor comfort for the ‘Our Cops Are Tops’ constituency by playing up the “Not Guilty” aspect of the verdict, adding “Confused about yesterday’s verdict? We’ve got you covered” with “5 pages inside” including last week’s Front Page Challenge champion Joe Warmington—will his coverage express concern that the chilling effect on the force will mean the police will now have to hesitate between volleys of gunfire? Find out inside! It’s also worth noting that a dream may have come true for intrepid local reporter @goldsbie who finally makes it on the real cover of the Toronto Sun, albeit in the background. It may not match this parody Sun cover written by Torontoist‘s editor-in-chief, but it’s something.