Victoria Day in Toronto: even the TTC assaults involve fireworks
Sometimes, it must be really terrible to be a TTC employee. If they are not getting robbed, spat on or heckled, somebody thinks it’s a kick to shoot them with a Roman candle. That was the case yesterday, when a bus driver was attacked in north Toronto. We’re assuming that the driver—who was mostly unharmed and refused ambulance care—was unimpressed with the festive nature of the Victoria Day assault.
Apparently there’s nothing particularly new about this kind of crazy. According to the Toronto Star:
A 12-year-old boy suffered second-degree burns after being hit in the back with a Roman candle-type explosive in Queen St. E. and Parliament St. area in May 2007.
A woman and her 8-month-old baby narrowly avoided injury when a rental truck filled with fireworks was set on fire by a tossed Roman candle near Kingston Rd. and Markham Rd. in May 2006.
This may be the kind of wackiness that people get up to when there are plenty of small explosives for sale on holiday weekends, but that doesn’t make it any less weird. Rather than make light of a nasty and cruel incident, we’ll simply wait for the inevitable grandstanding from our city councillors and mayoral candidates.
• TTC bus driver attacked with fireworks [Toronto Star]
• Man throws fireworks on TTC bus [National Post]
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/victoria-day-in-toronto-even-the-ttc-assaults-involve-fireworks/&title=Victoria Day in Toronto: even the TTC assaults involve fireworks&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/RomanCandle.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_27399" align="alignleft" width="133" caption="Roman candle for an English queen (Image: Samuel Johnson)"][/caption]
Sometimes, it must be really terrible to be a TTC employee. If they are not getting robbed, spat on or heckled, somebody thinks it's a kick to shoot them with a Roman candle. That was the case yesterday, when a bus driver was attacked in north Toronto. We're assuming that the driver—who was mostly unharmed and refused ambulance care—was unimpressed with the festive nature of the Victoria Day assault.
Apparently there's nothing particularly new about this kind of crazy. According to the Toronto Star:
A 12-year-old boy suffered second-degree burns after being hit in the back with a Roman candle-type explosive in Queen St. E. and Parliament St. area in May 2007.
A woman and her 8-month-old baby narrowly avoided injury when a rental truck filled with fireworks was set on fire by a tossed Roman candle near Kingston Rd. and Markham Rd. in May 2006.
This may be the kind of wackiness that people get up to when there are plenty of small explosives for sale on holiday weekends, but that doesn't make it any less weird. Rather than make light of a nasty and cruel incident, we'll simply wait for the inevitable grandstanding from our city councillors and mayoral candidates.
• TTC bus driver attacked with fireworks [Toronto Star]
• Man throws fireworks on TTC bus [National Post]){kind=link}
Perhaps they should ban fireworks to anyone under 21 like alcohol as they do in UK for knives. In the wrong hands these things as said above are dangerous. I hope this driver is alright now after this after all it is not the drivers fault the fares have gone up just a factor in the economy and the government’s reluctance to spend more money in this sector. I hope they find the culprit of this stupid and dangerous behaviour by this young man as it creates a bad stereotype of young people today and should not be encouraged or tolerated.