George Stroumboulopoulos is starting a summer gig with CNN on June 9th. He’ll be doing ten weeks of a show called, simply, Stroumboulopoulos. The network says his guests will include fellow Canadian Ellen Page, as well as Robert Kirkman, who writes the Walking Dead comic books. Will Americans enjoy Strombo? Will they ever learn to pronounce and spell his name as well as we have?
Mark Towhey (left) with Rob Ford during Tuesday’s casino debate at City Hall.
For reasons that are not yet clear, Rob Ford has fired one of his closest advisors, chief of staff Mark Towhey. Reporters who were standing outside the mayor’s office at City Hall this afternoon were surprised to see Towhey departing unexpectedly, escorted by security. As he left he spoke very briefly, saying “I am no longer the chief of staff, I did not resign.” He was asked whether he gave the mayor any advice about how to handle the recent allegations he was caught on video smoking crack cocaine and making racist and homophobic slurs; Towhey said he did, but that advice would remain confidential.
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Photo courtesy of Michael Christian.
Remember Koilos? The scary, Lovecraftian steel sculpture that was suddenly removed from its spot in the Distillery District last week? The artist, Michael Christian, now tells us that its new home is “on a large dock off an island on Lake Muskoka,” where it can live out its retirement under the watchful eye of a new private owner. A picture of the beast in its new location is above.
Earlier this afternoon, the Toronto Catholic District School Board announced that Mayor Rob Ford has been fired from his other job: his gig as a part-time volunteer football coach for Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School.
The Starpoints out that the Catholic school board was already in the process of reviewing Ford’s involvement at Don Bosco before his recent drug scandal began making headlines. The review was a result of some disparaging things Ford said about his teenaged players during a March interview with David Menzies, of Sun News.
This is the unceremonious end of a political saga for Ford. He was frequently criticized in the press for devoting time to his football team at the expense of some of his official duties. He also took heat for using paid City staffers to help with some of his coaching duties, in apparent violation of City rules. On one occasion, he was also criticized for apparently commandeering two TTC buses to carry his players home from a game, though police and TTC officials claimed, at the time, that the mayor was not directly responsible for the incident.
Ford has been coaching for over a decade, and even heads a foundation dedicated to helping Toronto schools start their own football programs. His involvement at Don Bosco was a continual point of pride for him, even when it caused him political problems. The board hasn’t specified a reason for his dismissal, but no matter the cause, it’s undoubtedly personally painful for the mayor.
The full text of the TCDSB’s press release is below.
See complete Rob Ford coverage
