A narrowly averted tragedy at a weekend festival

Plus, demanding answers about Neveah and cataract surgeries going private [The Star] First Up [By Kevin Jiang] By Kevin Jiang Good morning. Here’s the latest on police preventing a “catastrophic” shooting, calls for an inquest into Neveah’s life and death, and moving cataract surgeries to for-profit clinics. DON’T MISS Hamilton Police Service crime [Officers prevented a potentially ‘catastrophic’ shooting at the Winona Peach Fest]( Hamilton police tackled a man with a loaded gun near a large crowd, stopping “what could have been a tragedy” on Saturday night, officers say. A fight broke out between two men at the Winona Peach Festival, one of whom was ready to fire a modded handgun in an area with hundreds of people — including families and children, Nicole O’Reilly reports. [Here’s what happened next](. - Scene of the crime: As officers tackled and fought to control the 23-year-old man, a large crowd closed in on the scuffle. Police repeatedly shouted for people to move back, eventually fending off the crowd with pepper spray and a baton. - Meanwhile: Within hours of the altercation at the festival, five people were injured in two shootings and a man was viciously attacked with a baseball bat — all believed to be unrelated incidents. - Cause and effect: [Police had stepped up their presence at community festivals]( following a spate of swarming attacks and robberies involving youth last year. Richard Lautens/The Star the invisible girl [Child advocates are demanding answers after the Star’s revelations about Neveah]( Child advocates are urging the province to not “look away” from the death of a four-year-old girl whose body was found in a Rosedale dumpster in 2022, Jennifer Pagliaro and Wendy Gillis report. They’re calling for a coroner’s inquest into her time in Ontario’s child protection system — especially the decision to return Neveah to the care of her mother just months before her death. [How was this allowed to happen?]( - Forgotten: More than a year after police identified her remains, the Star published new details about Neveah’s tragic life — [which began in Toronto’s child welfare system, with marijuana coursing through her days-old body](. - Wait, what? Neveah’s mother struggled with addiction and housing insecurity, and child protection workers identified safety and sanitation concerns in her home. Despite this, Neveah was placed back into the custody of her mother in 2021 — after living most of her life with a foster family. Dreamstime Photo health care [Cataract surgeries moving to for-profit clinics leave low-income Ontarians behind]( Who’s really benefiting from Ontario throwing money behind cataract surgeries in private, for-profit clinics? Not low-income residents, Kenyon Wallace reports. A new study found Ontario’s poorest patients are being left out after some publicly-funded procedures were moved to private clinics last year — even though the funding was meant to increase access for all Ontarians equally, experts say. [Take a look at why this might be happening](. - By the numbers: The rates of cataract surgeries in for-profit clinics fell nine per cent for Ontario’s poorest patients. Meanwhile, rates rose 22 per cent for the province’s wealthiest patients, relative to pre-pandemic trends. - Crisis in care: The study comes after Ontario moved thousands of its publicly funded procedures into for-profit clinics, [in hopes of cutting down on hefty surgical backlogs](. - Word from Ontario: “Our plan is working. From April 1 to December 2023, close to 18,000 people conveniently completed their cataract surgery at community surgical and diagnostic centres, with almost 6,000 of those being performed at newly opened centres,” a spokesperson for the Ford government said. WHAT ELSE [GO Transit service will resume today]( on the Milton line and Hamilton GO station. Why this Toronto courthouse is being [slammed as a “billion-dollar bungle.”]( Liberty Village residents bemoan [gridlock caused by summer festivals and Gardiner construction](. A top Biden adviser is urging Canada to [join the U.S. in stemming the flood of Chinese EVs](. Israel and Hezbollah traded their most intense fire in months — [but backed off from starting a long-feared war](. These are the four tactics that make Pete Buttigieg [one of the finest communicators in America](. What was Toronto like in the ’90s? [Take a look back at some of the things that made the city great](. Are you crafting your retirement plan? [Here’s why you should count on living to 100](. WATCH: We quizzed Zoomers on the movies, music and television of the ‘90s. [The results might surprise you](. The quaint Seaton Village home where Meghan Markle once lived is now [up for sale for $1.9 million](. Kevin Pillar is leaving Toronto with special memories and a tattoo — [even if his Angels leave without a win](. Are we ready for it? [Toronto is seeing a surge in demand for short-term rentals and hotels on Taylor Swift’s concert dates](. POV Guy Felicella/Supplied Photo [I wouldn’t be alive today without supervised consumption services.]( CLOSE-UP Nick Lachance/The Star LITTLE JAMAICA: Hundreds of hungry customers waited in line for the re-opening of Toronto’s iconic Randy’s Patties shop after its abrupt closure in 2022. [Here’s why you don’t want to miss this beloved family-run bakery](. Thank you for reading. You can reach me and the First Up team at [firstup@thestar.ca](mailto:firstup@thestar.ca?source=newsletter&utm_source=ts_nl&utm_medium=emailutm_email=6C53B63A8E3FAD70AD4EF13004527437&utm_campaign=frst_1102). I’ll see you back here tomorrow. If you're not enjoying these emails, please tell us how we can make them better by emailing newsletterfeedback@thestar.ca. 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