By Hamutal Dotan

Swine flu confirmed in Canada (Toronto Star): “Canada’s six confirmed cases of swine flu likely won’t be the last, federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq and Canada’s chief public health officer Dr. David Butler-Jones predicted on Sunday.” [More coverage in the Globe, Sun, and CBC; federal government updates here.]
CAW workers ratify Chrysler agreement (National Post): “Canadian Auto Workers members working in the factories of Chrysler LLC have agreed to swallow unprecedented cuts to their compensation in exchange for a promise the automaker will save its Canadian plants in the event it seeks bankruptcy protection.” [More coverage in the Globe.]
Ontario government picks Toronto waterfront for Pan Am athletes village (CBC): “A chunk of land near downtown Toronto will go from barren wasteland to gleaming village on the waterfront in just six years—but only if Toronto hosts the 2015 Pan Am Games. The West Don Lands was officially announced Sunday as the planned home of the 32-hectare athletes village.”
Marquee day for arts festivals (Toronto Star): “Today will be an unusually happy one for the Toronto International Film Festival, the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and the Shaw Festival…all three will come out winners in a series of announcements that will be made more or less simultaneously concerning the federal government’s recently created Marquee Tourism Events Program. The upshot: a $3 million lifeline for TIFF and the same amount for Stratford. The Shaw Festival will get slightly less, but well over $2 million.”
Agency says its Maple Leaf inspections flawed (National Post): “The Canadian Food Inspection Agency did not conduct required in-depth audits of the Maple Leaf plant in the year leading up to the deadly listeriosis outbreak last summer. Quarterly audits were supposed to be done until December 2007 at the Toronto meat plant, but the agency confirmed yesterday that government inspectors only conducted one that year, in March, to make sure Maple Leaf was complying with all of the government’s food-safety regulations.”
Thousands of Tamils blocking University Ave. (Toronto Star): “Thousands of Tamil demonstrators continue to block a stretch of University Ave. just south of three of the city’s busiest hospitals even as the morning rush hour kicks off.”
Liberals push hard sell for unloved blended tax (Toronto Star): “A backlash is brewing over Ontario’s move to a new harmonized sales tax and the Liberals are clearly spooked.”
Ontario’s ‘Nanny Hotline’ goes live (Toronto Star): “Foreign caregivers working in Ontario who believe they’ve been abused by labour recruiters or employers now have a direct line to the provincial government. A special ‘Nanny Hotline’ has been set up by Ontario’s Ministry of Labour to inform caregivers of their rights under provincial labour laws, and document alleged cases of abuse.”
Full speed ahead…and…don’t spare the shoe leather (Toronto Star): “”All you need is a good pair of shoes,” says Jerry Belan, a Toronto parks and recreation project officer. For 18 months, Belan has been consulting dozens of city staff, environmentalists and walking groups to create a new parks and trails map highlighting the city’s 800 kilometres of hard-surface recreational trails.”
Toronto FC suddenly grabs top spot (Toronto Star): “It’s a new era and a new position—first place. Toronto FC players, stunned by Saturday’s resignation of head coach John Carver, put the off-field distractions aside last night to defeat the Kansas City Wizards 1-0 at BMO Field, vaulting to the top of Major League Soccer’s Eastern Conference standing.”
Jezebel shows burlesque scene’s got legs (Toronto Star): “Replace “sleaze” with “tease” and another piece in the ongoing yuppification of Ossington Ave. falls into place. On April 30, a new club called Jezebel, taking its cue from Toronto’s long and storied burlesque past, opens near the corner of Ossington Avenue and Dundas St. W.”