Group at statue of Queen Victoria, Queen’s Park, ca. 1912. From the City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 2211.

The Golden Jubilee, celebrating Victoria’s 50th year on the throne, prompted an outpouring of patriotic fervour in Toronto in 1887. So large was the crowd attending a special Jubilee church service, with representation from most of the city’s denominations, that they couldn’t all fit in the Metropolitan Church. After a series of effusive speeches by the lieutenant-governor, premier, and mayor, the proceedings closed with a song—composed especially for the occasion by F.H. Torrington—”sung with great spirit and feeling” by all assembled, according to one in attendance.

The next day, a grand procession—composed of civic officials, school trustees, members of the city’s charities and societies, military units and veterans, all carrying banners and flags—marched past throngs of cheering spectators to festivities in the beloved monarch’s honour at the exhibition grounds. It was said that the procession was so long that it took an hour to pass a single point. Of the parade in the beloved monarch’s honour, Conyngham C. Taylor wrote in Toronto “Called Back” from 1888 to 1847 (Toronto: William Briggs, 1888): “The grand event so long anticipated was one to be long remembered as perhaps the most remarkable and the most thoroughly delightful day in the history of Toronto.”

Such was the loyal adoration Torontonians held for Queen and Empire. Yet, despite Victoria being the most commemorated British monarch, with statues in her honour scattered throughout the expansive British Empire, it took over 30 years of desultory efforts before Toronto erected a permanent Victoria statue of its own.

Photo of Queen Victoria monument at Queen’s Park, 1870, by Arthur R. Blackburn. From the Toronto Public Library Digital Collection.

Queen’s Park was originally intended, Mark Osbaldeston writes in Toronto 2 (Dundurn, 2011), to feature a statue of Victoria—the queen of the park’s name—in a place of honour at the head of University Avenue. When the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) officially opened the park on September 11,1860, he laid the cornerstone for the base of a statue for that very purpose.

A statue of Victoria, however, wasn’t added to Queen’s Park until April 1871—and then only temporarily. At that time, city council gave permission to Marshall Wood to install his bronze depiction of a young Victoria, standing regally, on a tall wooden pedestal. It was almost an exact duplicate of the statue erected the same year in Montreal’s Victoria Square. When the proficient English sculptor—who did a brisk trade in selling his statues of the queen to communities across the Empire—travelled to Canada for the Montreal unveiling, he brought with him an assortment of other Victoria statues he hoped to sell around the country. Installing the statue in the urbane setting of Queen’s Park was part of his sales pitch. It worked.

Soon Toronto’s municipal committee on walks and gardens recommended that the statue be purchased by the city for $3,000. City council debated the expenditure at great length in the fall of 1871 but never quite reached a final decision. Some aldermen balked at the cost. Others, Osbaldeston writes, went as far as questioning whether Wood’s statue even looked like the queen. At long last, in the spring of 1873, council finally formally voted against purchasing the statue—which had remained right where Wood had left it in the interim—and asked Wood to remove his sculpture in 1874. After years of neglect in storage, Osbaldeston’s research revealed, the statue Wood had placed in Toronto was eventually installed in Quebec City’s Victoria Park in June 1897.

There were efforts in the mid-1880s by the St. George’s Society to commission a statue of Victoria for Queen’s Park, with a sketch of the proposed monument prepared by English sculptor Percy Wood for presentation to the membership at a June 1886 meeting. And, in the 1890s, there was a proposal to create a grand public square—named for Victoria and centered upon an immense statue—adjacent to the new City Hall then under construction at Queen and Bay streets. Neither proposal was ever completed, making the city’s most noteworthy commemorations of the queen during her lifetime the Victoria Hospital for Sick Children, which opened in 1892, and the university that relocated to the University of Toronto grounds the same year.

The proposed Victoria Square at Queen and Bay streets, January 1898. From Wikimedia Commons.

It was therefore a source of mild embarrassment for a city with claims to imperialist enthusiasm when, upon Victoria’s death in January 22, 1901, the only public representation of Victoria in Toronto that could be draped in black as a sign of mourning was a patriotic column in honour of the Boer War that had stood in Eaton’s department store until being installed in the main corridor of Old City Hall.

The Toronto Star (January 23, 1901) bemoaned this conspicuous lack of a public monument to Victoria:

The city of Toronto has grown from a little place in the wilderness to its present proportions as a great city during the time that Queen Victoria has occupied the throne, and probably no people in the Empire have been quicker to assert their loyalty and to declare the love and respect they bore to Her Majesty, yet to-day, at the end of the Queen’s long reign, there is not in this city a public statue of Her Majesty.

It was unsurprising then that, within days of the queen’s death, Premier George William Ross committed to seek appropriations during the coming session of the provincial legislature for the purposes of erecting a suitable statue of the Empire’s longest-reigning monarch.

At this, the Star quickly shifted tack and argued that no public funds should be expended on a memorial. “What we hope to see,” the editors opined on January 24, 1901, “is not a statue erected officially, for such actions are sometimes perfunctorily done, but one set up by the voluntary act of the people as an unmistakable manifestation of the popular regard for that good Queen whose marvellous hold upon the hearts of the Canadian people nothing could over-emphasize.” The Hamilton Times concurred: “In our opinion monuments to the Queen, in Toronto or elsewhere, ought to be paid for by subscription, or not erected at all. If the people want to show that affection and esteem which they profess for their late Sovereign, the money will be produced without the intervention of the tax gatherers.”

Right: Queen Victoria Monument, Queen’s Park, after 1903. From the City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1568, Item 203.

One interested Torontonian, S.F. Walker, suggested to the Star that funds raised through public subscription be limited to $1 per person so that “all would feel that they had an equal share in Toronto’s loving tribute to the memory of ‘Victoria the Good,’” and even the city’s poorest might contribute to the cause. Nevertheless, the provincial government committed $10,000 to acquiring the Queen’s Park statue, including the cost of a granite base.

At the municipal level, City officials convened public meetings to debate what would be best suited “to commemorate the memory and noble qualities and acts of our late Queen Victoria,” as a resolution passed at one public meeting read.

While everyone could agree that something ought to be done in Victoria’s honour, the trouble became that—besides a statue—no one could agree on what tribute would be most fitting. Speaking on March 1, 1901, Mayor Oliver Aiken Howland felt strongly that while a statue—”a monument of the living image of the great departed”—for Toronto was essential, it would be “inappropriate, unusual, and unprecedented” for the city to duplicate provincial efforts and erect a second statue.

Throughout the winter and into the spring of 1901, the Star published dozens of ideas and proposals for alternative tributes penned by prominent and unknown citizens alike. One Torontonian suggested a Home for Old Men; another amended the idea to be a Home for the Aged because the queen was a friend to all sexes and creeds. While one citizen proposed a home for consumptives, a doctor called for a sanitarium. There were advocates for a museum of history, an art gallery, or a reference library being built and named in her honour. The Women’s Canadian Historical Society of Toronto pressed for a Memorial Hall, perhaps constructed at the University of Toronto. Finally, several Star readers argued that the failed Victoria Square proposals of a few years earlier ought to be revived and pursued.

Left: Queen Victoria monument at Queen’s Park, 1910. From the Toronto Public Library Digital Collection.

Meanwhile, in July 1901, the Ontario government chose to purchase an exact replica of a Victoria statue in Hong Kong designed by Mario Raggi. An Italian sculptor who trained at the Accademia Carrara and Rome before relocating to England in 1850, Raggi worked under Matthew Noble until setting up his own North London studio in about 1875. Until his death in late November 1907, Raggi was known for his memorial busts and statues of famous personages such as Lord Beaconsfield, Lord Swansea, Benjamin Disraeli, William Ewart Gladstone, and others in the United Kingdom and around the Empire. On news that his work had been selected for Toronto, the Star (July 24, 1901) reported that Raggi was “considered a sculptor of the first rank.”

Commissioned to provide Hong Kong a statue of Victoria in the wake of the Golden Jubilee, Raggi completed the work in 1890, but it would not be unveiled on the reclaimed land of Statue Square until May 28, 1896. The bronze statue depicted Victoria as an older figure, crowned and seated on a throne, holding an orb in her left hand and a sceptre in her right. Grander than what was later installed in Toronto and elsewhere in the Empire, the original monument in Hong Kong included a carved stone cupola covering the statue atop Corinthian columns. However, Victoria was among a number of Hong Kong statues looted as scrap metal by the Japanese during the Second World War. Repatriated a few years later, the statue was reinstalled in Victoria Park—without the domed enclosure.

Statue of Sir John A. Macdonald at head of University Avenue, looking south from Queen’s Park, August 1, 1914. From the City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1231, Item 1274.

“Those who have seen the Hong Kong statue, of which that in the Queen’s Park will be a replica, say it is the best of Queen Victoria extant,” the Globe (July 31, 1902) proudly asserted, noting Raggi’s particular skill at capturing the queen’s features and stern expression, as well as the realistic draping of her robes.

No sooner had the statue for Queen’s Park been selected, than controversy arose over the placement of the statue. In the absence of a Queen Victoria monument, the prime place of prominence at the head of University Avenue had been occupied since 1894 by Hamilton MacCarthy’s statue of Sir John A. Macdonald. The premier recommended relocating the former prime minister in deference to the crown, while opponents of this idea were adamant that Macdonald should remain right where he stood. Still others proposed compromises, like placing the queen in the centre of a new University Avenue median near College Street, or placing her in the centre of a widened King Street West near Simcoe Street.

The only ones seemingly unconcerned about this debate were Mayor Howland and city officials. Exasperated by the necessity of negotiating with an unresponsive city, Attorney General Sir John Morison Gibson carried out a war of words on the newspaper page. He complained that the mayor was purposely “violat[ing] the rules of courtesy” by dragging out responding to the government’s overtures. “Oh, I do not know,” Gibson wearily responded to journalist questioning in the Star (August 20, 1901), “but unless Sir John is moved, I suppose we will have to put the Queen up nearer the building in some secondary place.” That’s exactly where she ended up—to the east of the main entrance to the Parliament building.

Although the press was optimistic in early 1902 that the statue might be installed and unveiled by Victoria Day, by the early summer Raggi’s cast had still not been shipped from England. On the morning of June 13, an official sod-turning ceremony was conducted by provincial treasurer and acting premier Richard Harcourt, and D.T. McIntosh of the McIntosh Granite Company, who would build the substantial stone pedestal. A large crowd had turned out for the 9:30 a.m. ceremony, but by the time Harcourt showed up over a half-hour late, the number of spectators had dwindled significantly. “The acting Premier took the spade in hand like a master,” the Star (June 14, 1902) reported, “drove it into the earth and deftly raised and turned the sod and thus commenced the work of preparing the spot on which is to stand the statue of the late Queen.”

Right: Fall cleaning of Queen Victoria statue, Queen’s Park, ca. 1920. From the City of Toronto Archives, Fonds 1244, Item 3033.

By the end of July, the McIntosh Company’s work on the nearly nine-foot-tall pedestal was finalized, save for the installation of two bronze bas-reliefs by J.L. Banks—depicting the queen’s first council meeting at Kensington Palace in June 1857 and the deceased queen lying in state—which would adorn the statue base. On one side of the six-ton pedestal was a bronze wreath of oak and maple leaves containing the letters V.R.

After numerous false reports of the statue’s arrival in Toronto in mid-September 1902, it finally arrived on September 22, encased in a wooden packing crate. That same afternoon, a derrick that had been waiting beside the stone pedestal in Queen’s Park for weeks raised the Raggi’s 5,600-pound bronze Victoria and swung her into place. Premier Ross and other interested officials looked on, but no speeches were made. “It is perfect in likeness and beauty of detail,” the Globe (September 23, 1902) assessed of the nearly 10-foot-tall statue, “and bears out all that has been said of Raggi’s ability to execute an appropriate monument to so great a Queen.”

“The statue was left unveiled after being put into position,” the Globe added, “and it is understood that a formal unveiling ceremony will be dispensed with.” Indeed, the Star and Globe contain no record of any official unveiling the following spring. Given that the statue of Sir John Graves Simcoe was unveiled at Queen’s Park in May 1903 by a governor general and the band of the Royal Grenadiers, and the unveiling of the Robbie Burns statue at Allan Gardens was afforded a half-page article in the Globe, it seems a strange slight to not provide a formal occasion after the decades of effort it took to finally (permanently) install a statue honouring the Queen’s Park namesake.

Sources consulted: Gerald Utting, Toronto the Good: An Album of Colonial Hogtown (Bodima Books, 1978); John Warkentin, Creating Memory: A Guide to Outdoor Public Sculpture in Toronto (Becker Associates, 2010); and articles from the Toronto Globe (June 5, 1886; June 13, July 11, 22 & 31, and September 23, 1902; May 23 and June 2, 1903); and the Toronto Star (January 23, 24, 25, 28 & 29, February 1, March 2, 16, 18 & 20, June 14, July 24, and August 20, 1901; January 22, June 14, and September 23, 1902; May 27, 1903; and May 17, 2008).

Every Saturday, Historicist looks back at the events, places, and characters that have shaped Toronto into the city we know today.

Curious about how the much-discussed Rob Ford crack video came to be viewed by the Toronto Star‘s Robyn Doolittle and Kevin Donovan? Wonder no more! They’ve captured the adventure in an article that ran in the Star today.

Well, it seems that if Mayor Rob Ford does have a drug problem, he may already have a solution in mind. In 2005, the then-city councillor told the National Post that problems in his own family have taught him “tough love” is the only way to battle drug use. Rather than focus on harm-reduction strategies, Ford at the time advocated for enforcement and rehabilitation measures, saying if drug users had to dry out in jail, great! We wonder if he’s still singing the same tune today? We could try asking him at his next press conferen…never mind.

Here’s a bit of good news for Team Ford: The Magnetgate scandal isn’t likely to stick. Sure, the jokes may continue, but city officials have dropped the complaint as, according to the City’s acting director of licensing, “Mayor Ford did not commit a breach of the bylaw, as he is not in the business of being a bill distributor within the meaning of the licensing bylaw.” Nope. That he is not.

Were you lucky enough to catch Kanye West’s video debut last night? If you were outside the ROM between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m., The Bay between 10:15 p.m. and 11:15 p.m., TIFF Bell Lightbox between 11:30 p.m. and 12:30 a.m., or Much Music from 12:30 a.m. to 2:45 a.m., you may have caught a glimpse of the new video for his latest song, “New Slaves,” on the walls. In total, the video was projected on 66 buildings across the world. Toronto thanks you, Kanye, for including us, and gifting us with your video presence.

The GTA’s Marineland, which has received quite a bit of bad press this year, will open its doors for the season today. To mark the opening, a group of protesters—and police—are expected to attend following a rough off-season of widely publicized claims of animal abuse and neglect with no charges laid. While protesting at Marineland is certainly nothing new, the way the park is dealing with it seems to be. It’s being reported that unlike years past, protesters will be kept on the other side of a fence erected around Marineland’s parking lot, rather than close to the entrance. Ah, yes. Protesters. Those most likely to stay where, and do what, they’re told.

Jessica Salgueiro, Ben Irvine, David Christo, and Sochi Fried caught in each other’s mind games in The Charge of the Expormidable Moose. Photo by Yuri Dojc.

• Wheels: Attention cyclists! The 4th MEC Bikefest is here to offer you a full day to satisfy your inner cycling needs. There’ll be plenty of things here to keep you occupied, like group rides throughout the city, tune-up tents (these are the best), workshops, exhibitor booths, and more. Online registration starts on May 4th. Trinity Bellwoods Park (155 Crawford Street), Saturday at 11 a.m., FREE. Details
• Music: You don’t see too much of the Looney Tunes gang these days, so here’s a chance to take a trip down memory lane. Bugs Bunny at the Symphony projects classic cartoons onto a huge screen while the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony plays the original Carl Stalling score live. This one-night-only show follows the performances done here back in 2011. Sony Centre For The Performing Arts (1 Front Street East), Saturday at 7 p.m., $39 – $69. Details

Ongoing…

• History: Looking to brush up your cultural and history knowledge on all things Toronto? Heritage Toronto 2013 Tours offers you an enormous chance to learn tons and tons about the city you love via walking tours, bike tours, and more. Some of the events on the agenda of this weekly series include tours of Fort York, Korea Town, Don Valley, and Black Creek. It’s running all summer long so don’t miss out! Multiple venues, Saturday at 12 a.m. and Sunday at 12 a.m., FREE. Details
• Photography: David Kaufman’s Early Sunday Morning photography exhibit simultaneously celebrates the heritage of Toronto’s architecture, while pleading for its preservation, in the face of gentrification and condo development. The building facades and structures, rich in texture and colour, are each captured at their most beautiful—basking in the light of early morning. Twist Gallery (1100 Queen Street West), Saturday at 11 a.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m., FREE. Details
• Music: The Lula Music and Arts Centre’s annual Lulaworld festival kicks off on May 10 with Ethiopian jazz innovators Jay Danley and Fantahun Shewankochew. The festival travels around the world for the month of May, with performances most nights (and some afternoons) from local world music purveyors Uma Nota, Cuban player Bobby Carcasses, the Ukrainian Telnyuk Sisters, and more. (For a full schedule, prices, and reservations, visit the Lula Lounge website.) Lula Lounge (1585 Dundas Street West), Saturday at 12 p.m. and Sunday at 12 p.m., FREE–$25. Details
• Theatre: If you’ve been paying attention to musical theatre news over the past two years, you know that The Book of Mormon has a passionate and devout following of fans who swear it’s the long-awaited saviour of the artform. The show won nine Tonys in 2011, the cast recording reached number three on the Billboard chart, and tickets for its Broadway run are rare and expensive. Princess of Wales Theatre (300 King Street West), Saturday at 2 p.m.,8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., Prices vary. Details
• Theatre: It becomes clear rather quickly in the first scene of BEA, Actors Repertory Company’s North American premiere of British playwright Mick Gordon’s 2010 work, that the title character doesn’t live on quite the same level as the nervous young man she’s interviewing for a job. As Beatrice, a young but physically infirm woman, Bahareh Yaraghi begins by bounding around a bedroom set, swinging acrobatically from the four-poster bed frame and a somewhat mysterious ladder, and dancing circles around Brendan McMurtry-Howlett’s Ray, who is applying to be her caregiver. We soon learn all this physical exuberance is an outward manifestation of Bea’s busy mind, which has been confined in the bedroom, and in a bedridden body, for years. Factory Theatre (125 Bathurst Street), Saturday at 2 p.m.,8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., PWYC–$25. Details
• Theatre: David Yee examines life’s interconnectivity in Carried Away on the Crest of a Wave. The play follows an escort in Thailand, a housewife in Utah, and a Catholic priest in India, and how their lives are simultaneously brought together and torn apart by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Tarragon Theatre (30 Bridgman Avenue), Saturday at 2:30 p.m.,8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m., $21-$53. Details
• Theatre: Ben and Gus are on a job, holed up in a basement, wondering who is in charge, and waiting for “the call” in Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter. Presented by Wordsmyth Theatre, the play ranges from tense and claustrophobic to ridiculous and surreal, while posing the question: how do you escape from a situation when there is no exit? Odyssey Studio (636 Pape Avenue), Saturday at 4 p.m.,8 p.m. and Sunday at 4 p.m., $15-$25. Details
• Theatre: Fans of the seminal 1968 horror-film classic, Night of the Living Dead, will delight in Night of the Living Dead Live, a new theatrical production of the story. Despite a weak second act, it’s a fun black-and-white romp with some inventive deaths—and even a chipper musical number. Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace (16 Ryerson Avenue), Saturday at 7 p.m.,11 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., $20–$80. Details
• Comedy: Classic comedy series Theatresports is back for another season of improv hilarity. Now in its 30th year, this comedy tournament continues the tradition of allowing the audience members to choose the content of the scene and letting them judge the results; finals will be held at the end of May. Among the planned guests are comedic greats including Lisa Merchant and Craig Anderson (Canadian Comedy Award winners), Kerry Griffin (Second City alum), and many more. Comedy Bar (945 Bloor Street West), Saturday at 8 p.m., $12. Details
• Theatre: Delve into the world of dating, love, and marriage—sans commitment—with Angelwalk Theatre’s presentation of the off-Broadway musical I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. Offered as a series of vignettes set to music, the show focuses on the disastrous, hilarious, and touching aspects of love and dating. Toronto Centre for the Arts (5040 Yonge Street), Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., $25-$45. Details
• Theatre: The 2012-2013 Buddies in Bad Times season goes out with a bang, and a growl, with the world premiere of Ecce Homo Theatre’s Of a Monstrous Child: a Gaga Musical. Bruce Dow plays legendary performer and master of ceremonies Leigh Bowery, with Kimberly Persona as Mother Monster herself. Using the music of Lady Gaga as a backdrop, the show is a crash course in the history of queer performance, celebrating everyone from Yoko Ono to Madonna, and Boy George. Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander Street), Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m., PWYC-$37. Details
• Theatre: Videofag, a performance venue in Kensington Market, has played host to a variety of events since it opened last November. It has transformed itself into a cinema, an art gallery, a nightclub, or whatever else has been needed. But its transformation for The Biographer, a new play from Daniel Karasik, is something else entirely. Videofag (187 Augusta Avenue), Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m., $15-$23. Details
• Theatre: The experience of watching The Charge of the Expormidable Moose is a lot like the experience of reading the play’s title. At first, it’s a little strange, a little off-putting, and very ambiguous. But eventually, its oddness becomes its appeal. Tarragon Theatre (30 Bridgman Avenue), Saturday at 8 p.m. and Sunday at 2:30 p.m., $13-$28. Details

Urban Planner is Torontoist‘s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email us with all the details (including images, if you’ve got any), ideally at least a week in advance.

Today, as they do every May 17, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) held ceremonies internationally to mark International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia. The Toronto ceremony takes place at the flagpole on the rooftop podium at City Hall—today a more frantic place than usual. As the event unfolded PFLAG president Irene Miller spoke about love and acceptance; as she ended a moving address on acceptance of sexual and gender diversity, Miller urged those in attendance, “hug one another, do not leave without a hug today!”

Then she went directly over to Mayor Rob Ford and embraced him.

The mayor’s appearance at the flag raising ceremony was his first public event since news broke that Ford was allegedly filmed smoking crack cocaine and making homophobic and racist remarks. Ford has yet to respond to the story, except to characterize the reports as “absolutely ridiculous.”

After reading a proclamation to open the event, an extremely red-faced Ford stood off to the side, literally cornered near the flagpole on the east side of City Hall. Following his brief embrace with Miller, Ford marched back to a second floor entrance to the building, ignoring questions from the phalanx of reporters asking questions about his alleged drug use and discriminatory comments.

Miller had a message for people who face discrimination based on sexual identity: “You have people who love and support you. You have people who need to advocate for you…you never need feel alone again.” She also reminded the audience that the damage from homophobic and transphobic comments goes beyond their targets. “There’s a mum, a dad, a brother a sister, a friend somewhere in the vicinity who is also hurt by your ignorance and your homophobia and your bigotry,” Miller said to cheers.

Toronto Pride organizer TK, who is trans, also addressed the crowd, saying that the acceptance displayed at the event would have been unimaginable years ago. “Growing up, I couldn’t have imagined a day like today. I couldn’t have imagined so much love and support in a public square, at City Hall no less.” TK hoped that the million-plus number of attendees at annual Pride festivities would grow next year, as Toronto hosts World Pride 2014.

Many attendees had tears in their eyes during and after Miller’s remarks. Ford himself seemed agitated during the ceremony; he shuffled in place during speeches and whispered to his press secretary George Christopolous. As the ceremony ended and the media swarmed him, the sense of goodwill the event had generated quickly evaporated, and Ford was once again fleeing from cameras and questions.

In a conversation with us after the event, Councillor Kristyn Wong Tam (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) applauded the inclusion of two trans speakers, TK and well-known trans activist Enza Anderson. “It’s not often that trans people are able to share the stage publicly and express their pride,” Wong-Tam said. “They are really brave.”

Wong-Tam also expressed strong feelings about the mayor’s attendance at the ceremony. “I was fairly conflicted when I saw him,” said Wong-Tam. She said that while the queer community is constantly trying to reach out to Ford, he rarely responds. “It’s not good enough for someone to show up once a year and then just expect us to applaud him,” she said. “There’s more to being an ally than reading a proclamation prepared for you by staff.”

It was only yesterday that Mayor Rob Ford proclaimed proposals for a Toronto casino “dead.” In the wake of the province’s foot-dragging on the issue, and reluctance to commit to giving the city the $100 million Ford thought was a “fair share” of the gambling revenue any new facility would bring in, the mayor abruptly cancelled the special city council meeting that had been scheduled to debate the issue on Tuesday, May 21.

Twenty-four hours later, a majority of councillors have signed a petition that will overturn the mayor and reinstate the meeting, ensuring that council holds its debate after all. The goal: clearly vote the casino proposal down, rather than follow the mayor’s preferred course and hold off on making any decision at all. Councillor Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) called reporters together to announce the news late this afternoon. We haven’t seen the list of signatories, but he said the councillors on the list represent a range of political views on council, united by the desire to have a clear decision on the issue.

City council will meet as originally scheduled on Tuesday, starting at 9:30 a.m. The full text of Layton’s letter announcing the petition follows.

Councillor Reinstate Casino Meeting by Torontoist

Over 5,000 Toronto Zoo members, as well as members of the press, got a special sneak peak at giant pandas Er Shun and Da Mao earlier today. The pair is expected to be at the zoo, on loan from the Chinese government, for the next five years.

Zoo director of public relations Katie Gray said that the day was meant as a warmup for the pandas’ official unveiling on Saturday.

“Today is a learning opportunity,” she said. “We’re trying to manage the crowds and see how fast people move through the exhibit, but overall everyone’s having an amazing experience and the pandas are being amazing.”

The pandas, for what it’s worth, were remarkably unfazed by both the crowd—which included both children and adults squealing with delight—and the dozens of cameras being pointed at them. Four year-old male Da Mao lounged in the sun, eating bamboo, sitting in a remarkably human-like posture and staring back at the crowd, while five year-old female Er Shun avoided the heat and lay sprawled out in the indoor part of her enclosure. This seemed to be more than enough for the onlookers. That’s the great thing about pandas. They don’t have to do much to impress you. They’ll spend 16 hours a day eating, reject roughly 85 per cent of the bamboo you offer them, poop roughly 40 times, then go to sleep for eight hours, and you’ll love them for it.

The exhibit also features an information centre, where zoo-goers can read about pandas and their habitat, watch panda videos, and play panda-related touchscreen games. The space was designed by architecture firm Reich and Petch. Project coordinator Carolyn Smith said that the aim was to create something that was distinctly Chinese, but without resorting to cliched imagery.

“We wanted to create something that was fresh and informative and kid-friendly and modern,” said Smith. “There have been so many other panda exhibits that have done the old school, hokey kind of Chinese pagodas, and almost stereotyping China. China is very modern and forward thinking, and they’re making a lot of great efforts to save the pandas, and we wanted to tell that story.”

Overall, Gray said she was pleased with the day, both logistically and in terms of crowd response.

“I think the best thing I’ve heard is people referring to them as rock stars,” she said. “That’s sort of the hype around them…and they’re definitely acting the part. They’re just laid back and chilling out and having a great time.”

We don’t know whether he did it or not, but we do know this much: three reporters say they have seen a cell-phone video that appears to show Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack.

After the news broke on Gawker Thursday evening, the Twitter reaction was immediate and explosive. The silence in local media, meanwhile, was deafening. No Toronto outlet other than the Star had seen—or, at any rate, would admit to having seen—the video in question, which was recorded, supposedly, by a man believed to have provided Ford with the crack he allegedly smoked.

After the Star‘s article went up, around midnight, it took until morning for much of the rest of the city—and the world—to catch up. And boy, have they.

Here’s what’s being said about Ford’s latest scandal.

Locally, various city councillors have begun to weigh in. Ford’s deputy mayor, Doug Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre), had this to say, according to the Globe:

“I have not seen any indication of him using any substances like this, or anything else for that matter.”

Meanwhile, John Parker (Ward 26, Don Valley West), Ford’s deputy speaker, called on the mayor to address the allegations head on:

“We all hope that the inferences that are floating around are untrue and the only one who can set us straight on that is the Mayor.”

And the police are also aware of the situation. The same Globe article quotes TPS spokesperson Mark Pugash saying the following:

“…we are monitoring the situation closely.”

Whatever that means.

Ford isn’t the first big-city mayor to find himself in this position. In 1990, Marion Barry, who was then the mayor of Washington D.C., was videotaped smoking crack by the FBI. He was later convicted of drug possession.

In an interview with Washington Citypaper, Barry had this to say about the Ford case:

“Unless he was entrapped by the government, it’s not similar.”

It’s worth noting that although Barry lost the mayoral election following his arrest, he did win a city council seat after being released from prison. Then, in 1993, he was elected mayor again.

And that’s not the only international press the story has attracted. Spurred on by Gawker, lots of out-of-town outlets are starting to discover Mayor Ford.

The BBC has picked up the story on its website.

New York Magazine has something on one of its blogs.

NBC is running a wire story from Reuters, meaning Mayor Ford’s name could start appearing in lots of other places fairly soon.

And, naturally, there’s a Taiwanese animation of the story now making the rounds on YouTube:

Another thing to come out of this whole affair was a Twitterfight between a Gawker editor and a reporter at the Toronto Star. The main bone of contention was the fact that the Star is referring to its story on the crack video as an “exclusive,” despite the fact that Gawker had reported on the video hours earlier.

Granted, it was a pretty one-sided fight. Let’s take a look, shall we?

And finally, let’s not forget the several Indiegogo campaigns that have sprung up in an attempt to pay for the crack video’s release. The owners are reportedly asking for six figures. There’s one semi-legit one that was set up by the Vancouver Province, and then at least one other whose legitimacy we can’t vouch for.

And, in the past hour, Gawker has launched its own Indiegogo campaign. It probably stands the best chance of succeeding, but that’s not an endorsement of spending your money on this. We all want to see the video, but do we really want to pay off the guys who took it?

Toronto mayor Rob Ford is denying allegations that a video seen by reporters at two outlets—Gawker and the Toronto Star—shows him smoking crack cocaine. After brief encounters with reporters outside his home and his office earlier this morning, Ford held a scrum at City Hall at about 12:25 p.m. that lasted no more than a few seconds. His remarks in full: “Anyways, like I said this morning these allegations are ridiculous. It’s another story with respect to the Toronto Star going after me. That’s all I have to say.”

Flanked by security, Ford then got into the elevator outside his office and went down to the City Hall roof, for an appearance at the rainbow flag raising to mark International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

UPDATE: May 17, 2013, 10:50 AM Earthquakes Canada is now reporting that the quake was 5.2 magnitude and occurred near Shawville, Quebec. There was a 4.1-magnitude aftershock.

Once a week, Vandalist features some of the most interesting street art and graffiti from around Toronto. Find something great? Email vandalist@torontoist.com.

Last night Gawker published a lengthy post by its editor, who wrote that he had seen a video that apparently showed Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine, and that said video was being offered for sale by those who shot it. A couple of hours later the Toronto Star published their own article, in which two reporters write that they saw the same video two weeks ago, and confirm the description of the tape outlined in Gawker. The mayor and his office have yet to respond publicly to the allegations.

Also yesterday, a strike at the LCBO was averted just a day before the start of the long weekend. A tentative deal between the LCBO and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union was announced at 10 p.m. last night, just two hours before the strike deadline; details of the deal have not yet been released as it awaits ratification. “Did we get everything we were asking for? No. Did the LCBO get everything they were demanding of our members? No,” said OPSEU president Warren “Smokey” Thomas.

Shortly after Mayor Ford called a deal for a Toronto casino “dead,” Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. chair Paul Godfrey was ousted and the corporation’s entire board resigned in protest, warning that Godfrey’s dismissal threatens the OLG’s planned modernization. Godfrey and Premier Kathleen Wynne had clashed over their differing visions for the corporation, including plans to build more casinos—in particular one in downtown Toronto. “I can totally understand why she would want someone she’s more comfortable with,” Godfrey said at a news conference last night. “I didn’t accept that there is a different direction, because I don’t think this government can afford to go in a different direction.”

Two trustees from the Toronto Catholic District School board are moving to have gay-straight alliances eliminated from the board’s schools in the city. Trustee Garry Tanuan (Ward 8, Scarborough), plans to introduce a motion at a May 23 board meeting that states that TCDSB schools are not allowed to have gay-straight alliances (GSAs) or similar clubs; trustee John Del Grande (Ward 7, Scarborough/North York) seconded the motion. Ontario law states that students can’t be prevented from setting up a GSA in any Ontario school.

Home sales in Toronto dropped 10 per cent in the first half of May, but prices in the city continue to rise. The 5.4 per cent jump in prices, compared to last year, was largely due to the sales of detached homes, though even condo sale prices rose by 1.1 per cent overall in the GTA despite a 13 per cent drop in sales. Price increases were highest in the 905—up 7.5 per cent—and held to just two percent in the 416 due to lower inventory.

Ryan G. Hinds, host of Comedy, Cabaret, and Coffee Talk. Photo by Tristan Harris.

• Offbeat: New Adventures in Sound Art is co-presenting the Trans X Transmission Art Symposium, a four-day meeting of artists who use sound as their medium. You may not be so intrigued as to join for the full four days, but for the layperson, there are also public exhibits launching at Theatre Direct at the same time, as part of the Deep Wireless Festival. Eleanor King’s Barns opens Friday, as do weekend installations of works by Csenge Kolozsvari, Alyssa Moxley, Robert Mackay, and more; admission for these installations only is set at $15 ($10 for students.) Artscape Wychwood Barns (601 Christie Street), 9 a.m., $10–$15/$40–$70. Details
• Comedy: Comedians Dylan Gott and Bryn Pottie are teaming up with filmmaker Dustin MacLean to make a comedic web series about conspiracies entitled Truth X-Posed. But to fund their weird “research,” they’re going out on some weird limbs. At their comedy show fundraiser, the two have committed to all manner of embarrassing tasks, including the cinnamon challenge, a make-out session, and if they hit their target of $1000, getting “tramp stamp” tattoos. (Some of Gott’s friends have already declared they’ll pay big money to ensure this happens.) Also performing and making fun of the two: Todd Graham, Freddie Rivas, Brian Ward, and more. Comedy Bar (945 Bloor Street West), 8 p.m., PWYC fundraiser. Details
• Comedy: Cabaret performance artist Ryan G Hinds hosts Comedy, Cabaret, and Coffee Talk monthly at the Flying Beaver Pubaret. This month, Hinds welcomes musically talented guests Bobby Hsu, Kiki Moritsugu, and El Toro. The Flying Beaver Pubaret (488 Parliament Street), 9 p.m., $10 in advance / $15 at the door. Details
• Performing Arts: Trading on some nostalgia for “the golden age of television,” TV PARTY has paired musicians like Rae Spoon, Laura Barrett, and Vanessa Fischer (of Lioness) with filmmakers, and the collaborative works will be presented live in front of (and “on”) a 30-foot mock-up of a wooden CRT television, recalling the Saturday morning cartoons, early ’80s MTV heyday, and groundbreaking programming on cable before the rise of the world wide web. SPK Beverley Halls (206 Beverley Street), 9:30 p.m., $12 in advance, $15 at the door. Details

Ongoing…

• Photography: David Kaufman’s Early Sunday Morning photography exhibit simultaneously celebrates the heritage of Toronto’s architecture, while pleading for its preservation, in the face of gentrification and condo development. The building facades and structures, rich in texture and colour, are each captured at their most beautiful—basking in the light of early morning. Twist Gallery (1100 Queen Street West), 11 a.m., FREE. Details
• Music: The Lula Music and Arts Centre’s annual Lulaworld festival kicks off on May 10 with Ethiopian jazz innovators Jay Danley and Fantahun Shewankochew. The festival travels around the world for the month of May, with performances most nights (and some afternoons) from local world music purveyors Uma Nota, Cuban player Bobby Carcasses, the Ukrainian Telnyuk Sisters, and more. (For a full schedule, prices, and reservations, visit the Lula Lounge website.) Lula Lounge (1585 Dundas Street West), 12 p.m., FREE–$25. Details
• Theatre: Fans of the seminal 1968 horror-film classic, Night of the Living Dead, will delight in Night of the Living Dead Live, a new theatrical production of the story. Despite a weak second act, it’s a fun black-and-white romp with some inventive deaths—and even a chipper musical number. Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace (16 Ryerson Avenue), 7 p.m. and 11 p.m., $20–$80. Details
• Theatre: David Yee examines life’s interconnectivity in Carried Away on the Crest of a Wave. The play follows an escort in Thailand, a housewife in Utah, and a Catholic priest in India, and how their lives are simultaneously brought together and torn apart by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Tarragon Theatre (30 Bridgman Avenue), 8 p.m., $21-$53. Details
• Theatre: Delve into the world of dating, love, and marriage—sans commitment—with Angelwalk Theatre’s presentation of the off-Broadway musical I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change. Offered as a series of vignettes set to music, the show focuses on the disastrous, hilarious, and touching aspects of love and dating. Toronto Centre for the Arts (5040 Yonge Street), 8 p.m., $25-$45. Details
• Theatre: The 2012-2013 Buddies in Bad Times season goes out with a bang, and a growl, with the world premiere of Ecce Homo Theatre’s Of a Monstrous Child: a Gaga Musical. Bruce Dow plays legendary performer and master of ceremonies Leigh Bowery, with Kimberly Persona as Mother Monster herself. Using the music of Lady Gaga as a backdrop, the show is a crash course in the history of queer performance, celebrating everyone from Yoko Ono to Madonna, and Boy George. Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander Street), 8 p.m., PWYC-$37. Details
• Theatre: If you’ve been paying attention to musical theatre news over the past two years, you know that The Book of Mormon has a passionate and devout following of fans who swear it’s the long-awaited saviour of the artform. The show won nine Tonys in 2011, the cast recording reached number three on the Billboard chart, and tickets for its Broadway run are rare and expensive. Princess of Wales Theatre (300 King Street West), 8 p.m., Prices vary. Details
• Theatre: Videofag, a performance venue in Kensington Market, has played host to a variety of events since it opened last November. It has transformed itself into a cinema, an art gallery, a nightclub, or whatever else has been needed. But its transformation for The Biographer, a new play from Daniel Karasik, is something else entirely. Videofag (187 Augusta Avenue), 8 p.m., $15-$23. Details
• Theatre: The experience of watching The Charge of the Expormidable Moose is a lot like the experience of reading the play’s title. At first, it’s a little strange, a little off-putting, and very ambiguous. But eventually, its oddness becomes its appeal. Tarragon Theatre (30 Bridgman Avenue), 8 p.m., $13-$28. Details
• Theatre: It becomes clear rather quickly in the first scene of BEA, Actors Repertory Company’s North American premiere of British playwright Mick Gordon’s 2010 work, that the title character doesn’t live on quite the same level as the nervous young man she’s interviewing for a job. As Beatrice, a young but physically infirm woman, Bahareh Yaraghi begins by bounding around a bedroom set, swinging acrobatically from the four-poster bed frame and a somewhat mysterious ladder, and dancing circles around Brendan McMurtry-Howlett’s Ray, who is applying to be her caregiver. We soon learn all this physical exuberance is an outward manifestation of Bea’s busy mind, which has been confined in the bedroom, and in a bedridden body, for years. Factory Theatre (125 Bathurst Street), 8 p.m., PWYC–$25. Details
• Comedy: Comedy and life partners Matt Baram (CityTV’s Seed) and Naomi Snieckus (CBC’s Mr. D) are workshopping a new show format (“come see it get built right before your eyes!”) in a weekly residency in April and May at Second City’s Training Centre. The master improvisers and co-creators of Script Tease have been busy touring and on television of late, and these Baram and Snieckus shows will be a rare opportunity to see our 2010 hero nominees in a back to basics comedy format. John Candy Box Theatre (70 Peter Street), 8:30 p.m., PWYC. Details
• Theatre: Ben and Gus are on a job, holed up in a basement, wondering who is in charge, and waiting for “the call” in Harold Pinter’s The Dumb Waiter. Presented by Wordsmyth Theatre, the play ranges from tense and claustrophobic to ridiculous and surreal, while posing the question: how do you escape from a situation when there is no exit? Odyssey Studio (636 Pape Avenue), 9 p.m., $15-$25. Details

Urban Planner is Torontoist‘s guide to what’s on in Toronto, published every weekday morning, and in a weekend edition Friday afternoons. If you have an event you’d like considered, email us with all the details (including images, if you’ve got any), ideally at least a week in advance.