Even with the success of acts like Lonely Island and Flight of the Conchords, people still tend to view musical comedy with some suspicion, and not without reason. Those high-profile success stories aside, at the club level, musical comedy is too often the province of people who aren’t quite good enough to make it as musicians, but not quite funny enough to make it as comedians.

Two local comics, Robert Keller and Rush Zilla, are out to change that perception with their show, Off Key Comedy, which features a wide variety of acts whose only commonality is that they combine music and comedy in one form or another. The third edition of the monthly show will take place on May 23, at Comedy Bar.

Despite the fact that the last show in Buddies in Bad Times Theatre’s 2012/2013 season is titled Of a Monstrous Child: A Gaga Musical, Lady Gaga herself takes a secondary role. There are no homages to raw-meat dresses and gold-plated wheelchairs here. Instead, writer and director Alistair Newton uses the House of Gaga as a pathway into the history of the notable performance-art stars that came before her in the pantheon of queer iconography, and how she is and isn’t a construct of all of them put together.

It’s entirely possible that an early work by the next Atom Egoyan or David Cronenberg will screen on Wednesday night at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. With the 2013 Student Film Showcase featuring the best from post-secondary schools around the country and the Next Wave Presents: Jump Cuts Young Filmmakers Showcase kicking off the evening with Toronto-area high-school students’ films, the night will be a coming-out party for a new crop of talent. Judging by the polished creativity of some of the entries, it’s safe to say that young people are more prepared than ever to start telling stories on film from an early age.

In a documentary about the Battle of York that aired on CBC Radio’s Ideas last week, Sandra Shaul, project manager of the City’s War of 1812 bicentennial commemorations, noted she was “intrigued as to why the City of Toronto would want to commemorate a battle that we so badly lost.” She reflected that it might be our city’s nature to celebrate losers (“look at our sports teams”).

But even if the American invaders won on April 27, 1813, thousands of Torontonians turned out exactly 200 years later to show their respect for the British military units and First Nations warriors who took to the battlefield to defend what is now our home.

Many of Saturday’s commemorations honoured the role the First Nations played in the battle. From the symbolic fruit samples distributed during a sunrise ceremony to a round dance at Fort York that closed the ceremonies, the native warriors who served as York’s first line of defence were saluted by their descendants. “We’ve waited for a long time for this moment,” observed Mississaugas of the New Credit Chief Bryan LaForme. “We will no longer be a footnote in Canadian history.” LaForme reflected that if it hadn’t been for the overall efforts of natives during the war, we would be “another star on the Red, White, and Blue.”

Natives and the War of 1812

The military salutes began with the receipt of new colours by the Royal Canadian Regiment from its colonel-in-chief, Prince Philip. One of the largest military parades in Toronto history followed, with an estimated 1,700 members of the Canadian Forces marching from Queen’s Park to Fort York. (Military demonstrations and processions were once a staple of Toronto life—they figured in holiday celebrations during the Victorian era, and were used to send off deployments of troops during World War I.)

While the parade wound through the core, over 500 people followed the path of the Battle of York during a two-hour walk from the Palais Royale to the fort. Heritage Toronto unveiled a new commemorative plaque at the American landing site, one of five stops where historians described the main stages of the battle.

Holding up a “Brown Bess” standard-issue British musket, Richard Feltoe used the backdrop of the Fort Rouillé monument to describe military equipment and techniques used during the battle. He explained how troops on both sides lined up in rows to fire volleys at each other, creating dense clouds of smoke. Bright uniforms and high hats allowed opponents to see each other amidst the fog of musket fire, ensuring continued carnage.

At the site of the Western Battery near the Princes’ Gates, Ken Purvis talked about the antique equipment used by the British during the battle. The oldest artillery gun, which is displayed at Fort York, dated back to Oliver Cromwell and the English republic of the 1650s. (For perspective, imagine American Civil War equipment deployed in modern conflict.) Purvis also performed, on fife, the tune the advancing American forces played as they approached Fort York: “Yankee Doodle,” a song the British later used to taunt them while parading prisoners in Montreal.

Almost 200 Years Later, a Look Back at the Battle of York

Also mentioned on the walk was the last letter American Brigadier General Zebulon Pike wrote to his wife Clarissa. Written the night before the invasion, Pike hinted that the battle might cause his demise: “I shall dedicate these last moments to you, my love, and tomorrow throw all other ideas but my country to the wind.” When Fort York’s grand ammunition magazine exploded, a boulder crushed Pike’s spine. It was reported that the dying Pike was presented with a captured British flag, which he used as a pillow. One source reported that upon receiving the flag, Pike whispered, “I die contented.”

At Fort York, the public mingled with period re-enactors and modern military. Visitors perused displays of objects ranging from wampum belts to pre-painless-dentistry surgical instruments. The ceremonies included the unveiling of three plaques to be placed in a new visitor centre, scheduled to open next year: two were refurbishments of fading bronze plaques installed shortly after the fort converted to a museum in 1934, and the third was a new marker honouring the First Nations.

Our gallery includes images taken throughout the day.

Additional material from Capital in Flames by Robert Malcolmson (Montreal: Robin Brass Studio, 2008).

Images 16-28 by Jamie Bradburn/Torontoist.

The truth behind the tales people tell about Toronto.

Rosalia Bambo and son, Santiago, observing the whale vertebra at the ROM. The bone was unearthed in 1988 during construction of Harbourfront LRT.

Prior to breaking ground for the new Harbourfront LRT in 1987, construction crews were told to keep an eye open for historical artifacts unearthed while digging into a landfill that a century earlier had been under water. The discovery of centuries-old military relics or First Nations artifacts was a real possibility.

Imagine backhoe operator Jose Resendes’s surprise when he spotted what at first was assumed to be an 11,000-year-old whale vertebra protruding from fill in the bucket of his machine. The remains of a saltwater mammal buried in the freshwater sediments of Lake Ontario was a geological game changer.

Or was it?

This was not the first time TTC construction crews had unearthed an antediluvian relic, either. Twelve years earlier, nearly to the day, crews excavating the future site of Islington Station dug up the 12,000-year-old fossilized remains of an undiscovered species belonging to the genus Rangifer.

If whales had inhabited the waters off Toronto’s shoreline as Resendes’s find appeared to indicate, portions of North America’s glacial history needed tweaking.

Until the Queen’s Quay whale bone appeared in the sediment, it was assumed the saltwater shoreline of the ancient Champlain Sea, a temporary Atlantic Ocean inlet caused by the weight of retreating glaciers, reached its westerly limit around Brockville, Ontario.

The brownish-white whale vertebra weighing approximately 4.5 kilograms, along with soil samples from the former lakebed, was transported to the Royal Ontario Museum for further analysis.

For a brief time the story had a global audience. The Los Angeles Times ran a piece under the headline “Bone discovery could have whale of impact.” Immediately following the initial media reports, however, the Toronto Star was contacted by an Orillia historian, Allan Ironside. Ironside claimed the prehistoric whale bone was actually part of a display from a zoological garden once located in the vicinity of the present day Fairmount Royal York Hotel. Ironside theorized that after the whale became too degraded for display purposes, portions were disposed of in the lake.

Plausible, yes. Scientifically sound? Not really.

It was true, in the 1880s former city alderman and entrepreneur Harry Piper operated a zoo at that location and for a time displayed a dead whale for the public’s enjoyment.

While ROM paleontologist Kevin Seymour was hard at work unraveling the truth behind the find, armchair historians quickly latched on to Ironside’s speculation. A year later when Seymour published his findings, Ironside’s theory explaining the vertebra’s origin had become firmly entrenched in the city’s psyche.

A replica of the Queen’s Quay whale vertebra held in storage at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Seymour’s research, including carbon dating and pollen analysis, proved equivocally the bone was neither prehistoric nor part of a local late-nineteenth-century menagerie. DNA testing revealed the bone belonged to a killer whale. Orcas generally grow to six to eight metres, nowhere near the 16-20 metre leviathan reportedly displayed by Piper. Pollen analysis dated the find to the 1840s, coincidentally around the same time as Piper’s birth.

To this day Ironside’s theory continues to overshadow the archaeological facts about the bone. We may never know why the historian, now deceased, so quickly concluded the vertebra had once belonged to Piper’s whale.

Toronto-based documentary filmmaker Peter Lynch deserves the final word regarding this murky urban legend. Researching the vertebra’s origin, Lynch nearly became as obsessed with the Queen’s Quay bone as Melville’s Captain Ahab did in pursuit of Moby Dick.

Scouring North America for clues, Lynch’s exhaustive quest is documented in A Whale of a Tale.

After investigating the subject baleen to fluke, the award-winning director concluded the specimen now on permanent display at the ROM Crystal was likely a discarded souvenir tossed into the harbour nearly two centuries ago for reasons unknown.

Additional material from Rotunda (Volume 22, no. 1)

On Friday night, over 1000 Idle No More supporters gathered at Queen’s Park for a solidarity rally, part of a global day of action coinciding with a summit in Ottawa, where First Nations chiefs and Prime Minister Stephen Harper discussed budget bill C-45 and its impact on First Nations relations.

Idle No More was started in Saskatchewan, in early November, by four women: Sylvia McAdam, Jess Gordon, Nina Wilson, and Sheelah Mclean. Appalled at Bill C-45′s implications for First Nations people, they started holding rallies and teach-ins. Over the past two months Idle No More, propelled by social media, has exploded into a nationwide phenomenon. Supporters in cities all over Canada have staged drum rallies, road blockades, and flash mobs to raise awareness.

On December 11, Attawapiskat Chief Theresa Spence began a hunger strike in the hopes of forcing Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Governor General David Johnston to meet with her and other First Nations leaders. Although Spence’s strike was unconnected to Idle No More, she has become the patron saint of the movement. She boycotted Friday’s meeting and still hasn’t given up her fast, which has been ongoing for more than a month.

During Friday’s meeting, Prime Minister Harper pledged to hold further talks on treaty rights and land claims with First Nations chiefs.

There are three specific aspects of Bill C-45, enacted in December, that Idle No More stands against. Changes to the Navigable Waters Protection Act—a law written in 1882—will lift protections off some of Canada’s busiest lakes and rivers. The revised Act protects only 62 rivers, 97 lakes, and three oceans out of the thousands of bodies of water in Canada. Changes to the Indian Act allow reserve lands to be leased without majority support from all of a First Nations community’s eligible voters. Decisions like that can now be made by a majority vote among community members called to meetings about any such proposals. Protestors say this makes their land more open to developers. The Environmental Assessment Act, which was overhauled in the first phase on Harper’s omnibus budget implementations in April, is weakened further. The changes are intended to streamline resource development by reducing the number of projects that require an environmental assessment to go forward.

On top of all this, First Nations protestors feel that their treaties have been broken. They want a say in any legislation that affects their lands. The omnibus bill was passed largely without their consent. They feel as though their needs and concerns are being ignored by the government.

Idle No More’s global day of action on Friday involved rallies in dozens of cities across the world, from Canada to Germany to New Zealand. At Queen’s Park, a peaceful gathering of supporters lit candles and an elder performed a sacred water ceremony. Then a candlelight march proceeded down College Street to the Revival Nightclub for a benefit concert. Police blockaded intersections along the way and drivers honked their horns or thrust their fists out of windows while passing by, to show solidarity.

“We want to see greater awareness in Toronto,” said Crystal Sinclair, an Idle No More Toronto organizer, while marching down College Street. “A lot of solidarity groups have joined with understanding what Bill C-45 is trying to do, which is erode our native rights. We have taken a stand that we will not accept that. Our treaties are a sacred binding agreement.”

The rally stopped at College and Shaw streets and raised a rousing drum chant. The concert that followed rocked late into the night, with a lineup of mostly First Nations artists.

Jennifer Podemski, a prominent First Nations actor and filmmaker, was the MC for the evening. “I’ve had very little time to be physically involved with this awakening that has occurred across the country, so it’s a great honour to be hosting the event,” she said. “The stronger we are together, the more we can pressure the government and the powers that be to acknowledge some of these issues and address them respectfully.”

Sinclair, the organizer, was having similar thoughts. “I feel like the word has gotten out,” she said. “People are starting to pay attention to the politics of the day.”

“We have groups from all over the world that have contacted us in solidarity, standing with us in other countries like New Zealand, Columbia, all over America. It’s unstoppable.”

Love it or hate it, Yonge-Dundas Square is the crossroads of Toronto. Not necessarily because it’s the face of anything, or because it somehow represents the city’s character at large, but simply by virtue of being the snarled, heaving, chronically blocked artery through which a majority of the city’s population passes. Stand on the sidewalk opposite the Eaton Centre on any given Saturday and chances are pretty good you’ll see something you don’t expect.

Over the years, the imposingly commercial intersection has been the epicentre of music festivals, protests, and more than a few acts of religious outreach. In 2008, a barricade across Yonge Street separated demonstrators sympathetic with Palestine from those partial to Israel; during the Arab Spring, in February 2011, Yonge-Dundas teemed with close to 400 demonstrators calling for Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s ousting. If you want to be seen, it’s the place to be.

But when we arrived at the square on Saturday night, it was for something that, we admit, we never thought we’d see there: a large-scale gathering that organizers claim was Yonge-Dundas’ first-ever pagan festival.

As we approached, so did a number of costumed spectators clad in everything from antlers to peaked witch’s hats, suggesting a division between the Wiccan devout and locals longing for a Halloween holdover. The occasion was the Wheel, a local pagan celebration of the ancient Gaelic festival of Samhain.

In terms of contrast, you couldn’t have asked for a more interesting study.

Samhain is one of four seasonal Gaelic festivals. It’s a harvest celebration that also marks the halfway point between the autumn equinox and the winter solstice. “The Wheel” refers to the Wiccan idea of the wheel of time—or, more specifically, the wheel of the year. (In Wiccan cosmology, every time scale is cyclical.) Beyond its meaning in nature, though, Samhain is one of two Gaelic (and later Wiccan) celebrations connected to the transit of the dead through the world of the living. Like the fertility ritual of Beltane, which happens around the first of May, Samhain is a time when the “otherworld” is believed to be closest to the domain of the living, its intangible boundaries more permeable as a result. Pagans celebrate these days by inviting the spirits of the dead to join them, to dance with them, and, for the recently departed, to say a final goodbye before embarking on whatever supernatural journey follows.

Leading up to Saturday’s event, organizers heralded Samhain as “the real Halloween,” which is partly true. Like other festivals bookending the harvest season, Samhain is one of a handful of calendar events that cumulatively led to the modern-day celebration of ghouls, goblins, and gastric agony.

As we waded through the Yonge Street crowds, the rhythm of the Dragon Ritual Drummers—just back from Salem, Massachusetts, of all places—filled the chilly Saturday night air. We passed the usual religious proselytizers, but it was a new addition to the roster of Yonge’s apocalyptic prophets, wandering with a bullhorn into the streetcar tracks in front of the Cineplex, whose presence stood in especially striking contrast to the Wiccan ceremony going on metres away. Perhaps affected by all this 2012 nonsense, the man bellowed with every second sentence that the wrath of Hurricane Sandy, its death toll still rising, would be “nothing” compared to the judgment to come. From a strictly non-religious perspective, it didn’t seem as though his message was a particularly positive one.

Meanwhile, the pagans on the other side of the street continued to dance, inviting death itself to celebrate life.

The Powerhouse of Terror
The Powerhouse Recreation Centre
(65 Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive)
October 11–30
$20

Jutting up in front of the skyline at 65 Colonel Samuel Smith Park Drive, the aesthetics of the Powerhouse are creepy enough. Built in the early 1930s by patients of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Centre, it bears hallmarks of the imposing, semi-brutalist efficiency of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the flat, red-brick surface shrouds deep coal bunkers, and a 100-foot-high chimney stack stands as a monument to the industrialized days of West Toronto’s waterfront. It lingers today like a ghost of the city’s past.

Now imagine the Powerhouse’s already-ghostly interior teeming with zombies, homicidal carnies, and the promise of, let’s say, being buried in a coffin. Alive. That’s what the evil, evil geniuses behind the Powerhouse of Terror have been horrifying Torontonians with for the last six Halloween seasons. This year, it’s being staged in partnership with PACT‘s Urban Peace Program, which provides at-risk youth with coaching and vocational training. The Powerhouse of Terror provides PACT’s young participants with a place to learn skills ranging from set design to makeup and costuming. It’s an exercise in what the organization calls “scaring for a cause.”

This year, however, the Powerhouse of Terror may have scared its last visitors.

According to founder Lorne Andrews, the Powerhouse of Terror has become too big to sustain itself, with estimates of 2012′s total attendance nearing fifteen thousand visitors. He doesn’t see himself running things next year. His hope, he says, is that another charity group will step forward to run the Powerhouse in coming years—one with the resources to support, on average, ten thousand visitors in a three-week period.

Though there has been interest, most of it has come from elsewhere in the city. “We’d like it to stay in Etobicoke,” Andrews told Torontoist, noting the event’s wild popularity with youth in the Lakeshore area.

The problems started with a season of controversy two Halloweens ago, in 2010. Then, the organization was publicly chastised for, some said, taking the psychiatric legacy of its facilities too lightly. Starting with an editorial in the Toronto Sun, a Powerhouse attraction called “The Asylum” began to be discussed in the historical context of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital. The resulting public debate led to criticism of the Powerhouse of Terror’s apparent insensitivity toward the mental health community. Though public support remained no less vociferous—many supporters, particularly volunteers, called the criticism “hurtful,” “out of context,” or “slanted”—the SickKids Foundation, a major recipient of of the Powerhouse’s fundraising at the time, nonetheless backed out over the controversy.

By 2011, the scary-mental-ward theme was jettisoned, and resources were instead concentrated on making other imaginings of the space as horrifying as humanly possible—”CarnEvil Manor,” “Insidious,” a haunted house probing the unseen, and “Quarantine: Zombie Apocalypse” among them.

“We didn’t change [the attractions] because of the complaint,” producer and creative director Jason Dasti told the Daily Planet last year, “we changed it out of respect because we want everyone to feel there’s something here for them.”

For the project to go forward in 2013, a new operator will need to be lined up within the next two, maybe three months. An event of this scale, Andrews says, requires nothing short of year-round organizing and commitment. “I deeply appreciate how the community bonded over this community theatre production to entertain and raise funds for good causes like PACT and [diabetes charity] Avery’s Angels,” says Andrews. “The project reaches deep into the community and has helped organizations raise funds and helped hundreds of at-risk youth find purpose through contribution.”

“I will miss the fun,” he adds, “but it’s time to focus on my businesses.”

In 2012, the Powerhouse’s other charitable recipients include the Franklin Horner Community Centre, as well as local schools and sports associations.

We look at concepts and products which, for better and worse, were developed in Toronto.

Photo by Nancy Paiva/Torontoist.

Anyone flipping through the classified pages of the March 6, 1919, edition of the Toronto Star might have thought a paragraph bearing the headline “SAVING LIVES” was a pitch for the latest quack cure-all tonic. Those intrigued enough to read further discovered one of the first ads for what became one of Canada’s most trusted cold and cough remedies—even if its flavour is an acquired taste.

The ad says:

That’s what Buckley’s White Bronchitis Mixture is doing every day. It is curing Bronchitis, Coughs, Colds, Bronchial Asthma, Hoarseness, when all other remedies failed. I sell it under an iron bound money back guarantee to cure any of the above ailments. No cure no pay. Can I do more than this to prove to you its wonderful healing power? Ten times more powerful than any known cough cure, acts like magic, one dose gives instant relief. Never wait for a cough or cold to wear off. It wears away the lungs instead. Price 50c, 15c extra for mailing. Take no substitute. There is none just as good. Sold only by Buckley, the Druggist, 97 Dundas Street East, Toronto.

Left: advertisement for Tamblyn Drug Stores, the Toronto Star, October 13, 1920. Right: advertisement, the Toronto Star, December 2, 1925.

Unlike some competing cold concoctions, Buckley’s was made by a certified pharmacist. William Knapp Buckley moved from his native Nova Scotia to attend the Ontario College of Pharmacy in 1914. He was class president when he graduated the following year. Buckley worked for Eaton’s before opening his own pharmacy at Church and Dundas streets circa 1918 or 1919. In the wake of the global flu pandemic that hit Toronto around that time, Buckley’s customers sought a stronger cough suppressant than those that were readily available. Buckley devised a mixture of ammonium carbonate, menthol, pine-needle oil, and Irish moss extract. He blended it all in a butter churn.

Despite how it tasted, the remedy sold 2,000 bottles in its first year. In March 1920, the pharmacist established W.K. Buckley Ltd., and soon opened a manufacturing facility at 142 Mutual Street. Print and radio ads touted the mixture’s effectiveness (“acts like a flash”) and money-back guarantee. Never mentioned was the taste, which Buckley admitted was “brisk.” The only hint to potential users that taking a spoonful of Buckley’s Mixture was not pleasurable was a suggestion to add an equal amount of honey before downing it.

Advertisement, the Toronto Star, January 5, 1929.

Though his mixture was successful, Buckley continued to run his personal pharmacy and test lab until 1935. Later additions to his line included Buckley’s White Rub, Buckley’s Nezine nasal drops, and Buckley’s Cinnamated Capsules. The original formula remained the company’s top product, though—especially after a smaller, lower-cost bottle was introduced during the Great Depression.

Buckley remained in charge of the company until his death in January 1978. He was succeeded by his son Frank, who, aside from being involved in the family business, was an early executive of Global Television and sat as chairman of the Metro Toronto Planning Board during the early 1970s. Frank inherited a stagnant brand with annual sales of $2 million. In 1985, he approved a new ad campaign for the original mixture with the now-famous tagline: “It tastes awful. And it works.” With Frank as the company’s genial spokesperson, annual sales reached $15 million by the dawn of the 21st century.

Advertisement, the Toronto Star, March 11, 1931.

When asked why the company never abandoned flavouring that can kindly be called an acquired taste, Frank Buckley replied: “If we do, we will be just another ‘me too’ cough medicine.”

Additional material from I Know That Name by Mark Kearney and Randy Ray (Toronto: Dundurn, 2002), the February 24, 2001, edition of the National Post, and the March 6, 1919, February 25, 1935, and January 5, 1978, editions of the Toronto Star.

Speaking at a press conference a few minutes ago, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty added a bit more detail to today’s surprise announcement that the provincial legislature is prorogued and he will be stepping down as Liberal party leader. He will keep his seat representing Ottawa South until the next provincial election, but will give up the reins of power as soon as a new party leader is chosen, and is urging the party to hold a leadership convention soon.

Dalton McGuinty was first elected to the provincial legislature in 1990, and assumed the Liberal party’s leadership in 1996. After two terms as opposition leader he became premier when the Liberals won the 2003 election.

Immediately after today’s announcement, speculation mounted that McGuinty might be stepping down provincially in order to launch a bid for the federal Liberal party leadership. Tonight McGuinty said that he didn’t “have any plans” for what he’d be doing next, but he refused to rule out that leadership bid outright. He cited his daughter’s recent wedding as a reminder of what “was really important,” as one key factor in his decision to step down. The other deciding factor, McGuinty went on, was the party’s annual general meeting last month, at which he received strong support (86 per cent of delegates backed him) and which convinced him of the party’s stability. “My responsibility is to look to the future and ensure renewal,” he said tonight. He also said that AGM convinced him “our party had the strength, the rigour, and the vigour” to withstand the pressures of a leadership race.

Observers, however, are quick to point out that McGuinty and his party are under serious fire for Energy Minister Chris Bentley’s decision to scrap two gas plants, at great expense. Bentley has said he won’t resign; some today speculated that McGuinty may have decided to take the fall. He didn’t, however, apologize for that situation when asked to directly tonight by a reporter.

The minority Liberal government is also in the midst of tense labour negotiations, which have seen McGuinty alienated from the teachers whose support he sought and received for years. The Liberals are calling for a pay freeze and other concessions—a call that the teachers are challenging in court. Negotiations are also tense with many other bargaining units, all of whom are facing similar demands as the Liberals attempt to eliminate the deficit, which Finance Minister Dwight Duncan pegged at $14.4 billion today. McGuinty said that his party will continue to “negotiate directly with our labour partners,” and also try to strike up “civil” conversation with other parties, while the legislature is prorogued. He expressed hope that those conversations might go better than they have to date if they happen outside of the pressures of a legislative session.

A mock-up of the vehicles that will run on our new light rail lines.

Less than two weeks ago, Metrolinx announced that the TTC would have no role in operating or maintaining the four new light rail lines—Eglinton-Crosstown, Finch West, Sheppard East, and the revamped Scarborough RT—city council recently, and in defiance of Mayor Rob Ford, revived. Instead, the entire project would be tendered to the private sector. Bob Chiarelli, minister of transportation, dissed the TTC, saying, “There have been TTC projects that have been long overdue and sometimes much over budget.” On the new lines, in effect, the TTC’s job would be reduced to opening the doors at connecting stations.

Yesterday, Metrolinx and the TTC announced that the TTC will operate the new lines after all. A joint press conference with Chiarelli, Metrolinx CEO Bruce McCuaig, and TTC Chair Karen Stintz overflowed with talk of partnership, sharing, and new milestones for their respective agencies. Smiles all around.

What actually happened here?

The family spat between Metrolinx and the TTC appears to be over for now, but “partnership” is hardly the word to describe the result. The transit projects remain firmly in Metrolinx’s hands, with the TTC taking a junior position like a boy who gets to play with daddy’s train set.

The original “DBFOM” arrangement (design, build, finance, operate, and maintain) would have given almost cradle-to-grave responsibility for the lines to a private consortium for almost every aspect of the LRT projects. The TTC had actually endorsed this scheme in a letter to Metrolinx. Why? They did not want to operate something without control over construction and maintenance standards, especially for safety-critical systems. This concern has evaporated with an agreement that the TTC will contribute to the specifications.

The new deal picks one letter out of the acronym, giving “O” for operations to the TTC, but leaving everything else in private hands. TTC staff will drive the cars, manage the lines and stations, and control access to the system. However, they will not maintain vehicles, structures, and systems—a large component of what transit companies traditionally call “operations.”

Regarding the “F” in that list, accounting rules dictated by the provincial auditor require that Metrolinx retain “demonstrated control” of assets carried on provincial books. This magic lets Ontario hide some provincial debt, and gives cover for a takeover of Toronto’s transit projects. Most of the cost will be paid by the Ontario government, with about one-eighth coming from the private sector. In short, private sector involvement notwithstanding, most of the financing remains on the public books, and the assets remain in public hands.

Anything to do with building, maintaining, and eventually refurbishing those assets must be done by Metrolinx or its agent, a private contractor. Chiarelli skipped any mention of the TTC acting in this role.

TTC CEO Andy Byford described the announcement as “really good news” for the TTC, saying that the projects would combine provincial money and procurement expertise with the TTC’s operational skills to produce a “world-class system.”

One might ask why Toronto must wait so long to achieve what boosters once claimed as the city’s natural state, and why such world-class excellence does not pervade the TTC today.

Transit riders will wind up with a “seamless” trip paid for with a single fare, according to Chiarelli. How the operating costs and subsidies might be arranged between the municipality and the province remains for future talks—and the target for an agreement on this is conveniently far off in the future: two years before opening day. Few of those speaking at the press conference will still be around to garner praise or blame when that time comes.

When the province cut out the TTC two weeks ago, Karen Stintz declared that no subsidies would flow from the City of Toronto to Metrolinx to pay for a line that the TTC did not operate. That condition is no longer an issue, but a question remains about what incremental costs Toronto and its transit riders will bear as a result of the new light rail lines. Stintz mentioned that there will be some avoided costs for Toronto—LRT will replace bus lines and the aging Scarborough LRT—and by implication, some money will be available to pay for the new service.

Any new major transit facilities will push up net TTC costs regardless of who builds and operates them. Toronto already saw this with the Sheppard subway, and the TTC expects the Spadina subway extension to lose money from the day it opens. Greater operating subsidies, higher fares, or service cuts must compensate for the higher cost of more frequent, faster trains and dedicated infrastructure. Whether a private operator looking to minimize costs and maximize profits will provide cheaper maintenance than the TTC is anyone’s guess, and it will be a decade before there are any comparative data.

Two studies-in-progress look at possible sources of revenue to finance transit expansion and operations. The City of Toronto has just published an overview of transit funding options [PDF] and plans to take this on the road to Torontonians in a public consultation process. Metrolinx has its own forthcoming investment strategy, a study of how to pay for the provincial “Big Move” plan (a substantial portion of which is made up by Toronto transit projects), due out by June 2013.

McCuaig observed that the public is “in some cases ahead of us” on the funding question, while Chiarelli cooled expectations on that front saying that once published, the Metrolinx proposals would have to be weighed against public input. Political courage about any new funding (read: taxes) will be limited by the delicate condition of the Liberal minority at Queen’s Park, who may not even be in power by the time Metrolinx’s investment strategy hits the streets.

In coming months, Toronto City staff will have the thankless job of conducting a consultation about transit funding and planning while the mayor and his supporters are adamantly opposed to any new taxes. (Rob Ford rejected the revenue tools listed in the City report just yesterday morning.) A coordinated push to build support for better transit funding can’t even get out the door at City Hall.

With the TTC operating the new LRT lines and a separate maintenance company working for Metrolinx, there will be pressures to shift expenses between the municipal and provincial partners. Chiarelli emphasized that interest on the capital debt, itself an “operating cost” on provincial books, would be carried by Queen’s Park, omitting to mention that such interest has never been treated as a transit contribution in the past. With this attitude, Toronto should not hold much hope for better operating subsidies.

Politically, a fight between Queen’s Park and Toronto is in nobody’s interest, especially with the provincial reputation for sound project management under daily attack. Better to find some common ground, to get on with actually building transit infrastructure, and, in the distant future, operating new services.

This announcement gets past the most recent transit crisis, but more are sure to come as municipal and provincial agencies and politicians wrestle over the details in these multi-billion dollar projects.

Jimy Hettes tries unsuccessfully to trap Marcs Brimage in a rear naked choke during a preliminary bout of UFC 152 in Toronto. Photo by Nancy Paiva.

UFC 152, held on Saturday at the Air Canada Centre, began much sooner than the pay-per-view event’s scheduled start time—even earlier than the first televised prelims went live. Starting at 6:45 p.m., three preliminary bouts were broadcast exclusively on Facebook, and these opening matches were incredibly fine examples of the diversity and excitement that categorized the card as a whole.

Facebook prelims

A mere 45 seconds into the very first welterweight bout, Kyle Noke somewhat controversially defeated Charlie Brenneman with a technical knockout (TKO). Brenneman was adamant that although his body briefly went limp he was not unconscious, and the ref’s stoppage had been premature; his frustration was palpable and would provide fodder for debate throughout the night. Next, barely over a minute into the second match, Mitch Gagnon caught fellow bantamweight Walel Watson in a crushing rear naked choke. The third Facebook prelim made it all the way to the fourth minute of the first round before welterweight Seth Baczynski defeated Simeon Thoresen with a devastating knockout punch that left us, and those audience members that arrived early, screaming. All three finishes were sudden and dramatic, but each was the result of a completely different strategy. The Facebook prelims neatly highlighted how unpredictable the sport can be, and how sudden, careful sizing up of one’s opponent can erupt into a spectacular display.

The rest of the night featured more decisions than finishes, which many—preferring clear finishes settled in the cage over fights that go to the judges—found frustrating. Nonetheless, the experience throughout was riveting.

FX prelims

After those first matches, featherweight Marcus Brimage defeated Jimy Hettes by unanimous decision, the result of Brimage effectively stifling his opponent’s every effort to execute his game plan, refusing to allow the grappler to keep him on the ground, and instead turning the fight into a stand-up affair. Canadian welterweight Sean Pierson won a dramatic decision over Lance Benoist: after dominating the first two rounds, Pierson was caught with a nasty left to the jaw in the final minute of the round that sent him into survival mode, hanging on for the victory.

Lightweights TJ Grant and Evan Dunham put on a vicious performance that would ultimately take fight-of-the-night honours. At the conclusion of the bout, Dunham’s face was covered in blood after one of Grant’s knees opened a nasty cut in the middle of his forehead. The only finish of the second set of prelims came via submission when the returning Vinny Magalhães caught Igor Pokrajac with a beautiful arm-bar a little more than a minute into the second round, demonstrating with confidence that he has the skills to survive in the UFC.

This set of fights was full of drama and excitement, to be sure, but also illustrated the bloody chess match that MMA can be, as each fighter pits his specific skill set against another combatant with as much precision and forethought as possible, while simultaneously being flexible enough to respond to whatever his opponent throws at him.

The main card

The main card proved to be a near-perfect example of why fight fans will gladly bear the expense of pay-per-view to catch UFC: some events are so absorbing in their intensity and operatic in their narrative drama that waiting to see them, or missing them entirely, is simply not an option.

The first fight of the main card kicked off with fireworks, as Cub Swanson caught Charles Oliviera with a vicious punch to the temple that caused the fighter’s body to fold up as if all his joints had been suddenly clipped, but on a weird second-and-a-half delay after the blow actually landed. Swanson would later say he had “never seen a guy fall like that in an actual fight.”

The closest thing to a dull moment came in the following light heavyweight match. Matt Hamill slowly ground out Roger Hollett over the course of three gruelling rounds, which displayed both Hamill’s ring rust (he hasn’t competed in over a year) and the fact that he, coming to the UFC after a stint in Bellator and Canada’s MFC, was completely outclassed. Luckily, the drama of the middleweight match between Michael Bisping and Brian Stann quickly reignited any cooling emotions. While the smack talk frequently flew between the two fighters leading up to the event (mainly from Bisping), the fight was an absolutely beautiful example of two intense, driven, physical fighters pushing themselves to their absolute limits. While Bisping eventually defeated Stann by unanimous decision, the profound respect the two men had for each other as competitors stood out as strongly as Bisping’s hand speed and footwork. The win puts Bisping firmly in the upper echelon of the middleweight division, and possibly in line for a title shot.

History was made at UFC 152 when Demetrious Johnson defeated Joseph Benavidez in a wild and action-packed five-round fight that displayed both fighters’ inhuman speed, endurance, and guts. In the end, Johnson was simply faster, more dynamic, and more technical than Benavidez, though both men kept the fight intense and incredibly competitive to the end (a fact that was reflected in the split-decision victory, with one judge apparently rewarding Benavidez’s heart). Although audience members were hungry for a finish and at times expressed their frustration in the form of some unwarranted booing, this fight proved definitively that the featherweight division is an exciting addition to the UFC.

The light heavyweight championship battle

The main event of UFC 152—a title fight to decide the fate of the light heavyweight belt—was guaranteed to be entertaining, but no one could have anticipated to exactly what degree. Former champion Vitor Belfort, who last held the belt five years ago and was considered by many to be outclassed by the new breed of competitor, embodied in his opponent Jon Jones, put up more of a fight than anyone could have anticipated. He surprised Jones with an arm-bar in the first round that nearly ended the fight; Jones was ultimately able to free himself, but not without sustaining significant damage to his elbow in the process. The fight lasted well into the fourth round, with Belfort surviving more than one round of vicious elbows and Jones’s lanky striking and reach advantage; he was eventually forced to tap out due to an Americana (arm lock), which earned Jones a submission of the night nod as well. The fight was more competitive than critics predicted, with the near-shocking submission by Belfort on the dominant champion, and nerve-wracking to the end, a testament to the skill and courage of both men.

The skill behind the sport

MMA is very much a sport designed for the contemporary attention span. The matches are short and sharp, containing the promise and tension that something extraordinary could happen at any moment. As well, there’s the appeal of the fighters themselves, the very human stories and dramas that form the background to these events. While the spectacle, pageantry, and outlandishness of the UFC give it a great deal of flash and fun, it is the sport’s humanity and skill that will ultimately make it successful in its bid for mainstream status.

There is more to the UFC’s reaching for this much-mystified “mainstream” than simple financial success. It is also a matter of reaching a larger and more varied audience, and turning more of them into passionate fans. There is, in other words this problem: MMA is a somewhat misunderstood sport, and the reality of competition doesn’t match the expectations of someone who might be unfamiliar with its specifics, intricacies, and nuances. The prevailing notion—that MMA is a vicious and brutal sport that’s as straightforward as it is violent—still remains. Many people assume, falsely, that the primary pleasure of watching a mixed martial arts match derives from sheer bloodlust—the cathartic, gladiatorial pleasure of watching two men do their best to physically beat and dominate each other—and that somehow, the enjoyment of such a sport is base and primal, something to be vaguely ashamed of.

There is violence in mixed martial arts, of course—it is a combat sport. But there is also grace, strategy, honour, and intelligence. It requires rigorous training and extraordinary mental fortitude, a combination of disciplined preparation and sheer heart. Fighters need to be extremely well-rounded athletes, possessed of both endurance and power. As a sport, MMA is a precise balance of ceremony, celebration, and risk.

It’s a balance that many Torontonians got to see in person this weekend, and hopefully UFC 152—remarkable for its exciting and varied action and for its subtlety, marked by drama, and extraordinary performances—made it easier for them to see just why MMA can be so compelling.

Additional reporting by David Demchuk.

CORRECTION: September 24, 2012, 3:56 PM In a previous version of this post, we misspelled David Demchuk’s name. Torontoist regrets the error.