Robots sure do get around these days. They star in Bjork’s music videos, steal people’s jobs, vacuum, and haunt our dreams. It’s a classic “rapidly expanding field,” robotics is, with applications cropping up in more and more spheres from health care to household chores, manufacturing to space exploration. And though we’ve known the robots were [...]

A couple of weeks ago, K’naan’s “Wavin’ Flag” took on a whole new dimension. Not because of the many weird and wonderful versions of that song which have been released in celebration of the World Cup (“Wavin’ Flag” is the tournament’s official theme), but because of a small group of determined kids in Parkdale. They’d [...]

The Children’s Storefront soon-to-be new storefront. Photo by Nancy Paiva/Torontoist. On a chilly autumn morning last November, the air still fouled by the stench of charred debris, Roona Maloney, Executive Director of the Children’s Storefront, stood on the sidewalk across from 1079 Bathurst Street and stared in disbelief at the burnt-out shell of a building. [...]

Photo by Erin Balser/Torontoist. The Children’s Book Bank is a dream of a book store. The stock is diverse and plentiful. Colourful mobiles hang from the ceiling, lounging is encouraged in the overstuffed chairs, an art corner beckons with markers and posterboard, and posters of classic literary characters adorn the walls. Children are running around, [...]

Avery Timm is famous, and, as it usually goes for internet-forged stardom, the thing that brought that fame about is both altogether banal and totally wonderful. In December, the twelve-year-old Sarnia girl created her own music video for Ke$ha’s “TiK ToK.” With glasses that magnified her eyes and wispy brown hair, Avery might in different [...]

Lucy, holding an additional letter she wrote for her dad. Yesterday, Torontoist visited the Learning Enrichment Foundation (LEF), a Weston-based community centre that caters to recent immigrants, for the Toronto launch of Canada Post’s letters to Santa program. The event, which was an offshoot of LEF’s regularly scheduled children’s arts program, equipped kids from the [...]

Ryva Novick, seen here overlooking a reading session, founded the Children’s Storefront over thirty years ago. Imagine a place packed with your favourite books and toys—a place with no schedules, few rules, and filled with your best friends. Then, imagine if that place were destroyed overnight. The Children’s Storefront, a community based child-care centre located [...]

Top: Broadway bound, but first a group hug. Bottom: never fear, the only filter is for talent. Photos by Dawn Gawdie. There’s a little white logo riding on the back of a pair of black, size four yoga pants striding purposefully just ahead. You recognize the ubiquitous emblem without having to squint inappropriately: Lululemon. It’s [...]

Same-sex marriages have been valid in Ontario since 2003, but not many people know that it had already been legal for a few years to adopt children together as a gay couple. Following a series of court decisions, Paul Farrell and David Smagata became the first same-sex couple in Canada to jointly adopt a child [...]

Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo or (two) from a photographer in Torontoist’s Flickr Pool, our way of showing off their great work and starting the day off as prettily as possible. Observe Report BY JEREMYSALEJR