One day Pamela Anderson stood in the centre turn lane of a highway, clad only in a Canadian flag...picturing it? Welcome to the lead photo for the "Best of Canada" edition of SNAP!. Now in its seventh year, SNAP! combines a juried competition for established and emerging photographers with a gala fundraiser on March 2 at the National Ballet School. Organizers predict that the works offered in live and silent auctions will raise $140,000......

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. Slip into Boutique LeTrou (940 Queen Street West) on any given afternoon and odds are, you'll be hello darling'ed......

The AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT) holds condom stuffing parties every first and third Wednesday of the month to make packages of condoms, lube, and info on ACT and safer sex. ACT delivers the packages to clubs and venues in the Church and Wellesley area as part of its community outreach program to reduce the risk of transmission of sexually transmitted infections. In 2007, volunteers helped ACT create over 120,000 condom packs. The parties......

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset. Rob Ford has said some remarkably stupid things during his tenure as a City Councillor. We could harp upon......

The Hidden Cameras are back home, and we are all better off for it. As we mentioned in this week's music listings, the Cameras––they of the Mississauga-bred now world-famous exuberant gay pop fame––are playing an AIDS benefit concert this Thursday night at the Great Hall in Hart House (7 Hart House Circle), with proceeds going to Toronto People With AIDS Foundation and AVERT International. The show, with Montreal's Sister Suvi and Toronto's Allie Hughes, will......

It’s funny that we mentioned The Rocky Horror Picture Show in our introduction last week, because it’s showing tonight at 11:30 p.m. at the Bloor. It’s been a while, in our memory, since the last time it showed, which would imply that the fans in Toronto aren't as rabid as elsewhere, but we’d still recommend that you don't head along unless you’re very familiar with the film. Who knows what could happen. Speaking of......

The half-wit OCAD student who planted a fake bomb at the ROM on Wednesday has turned himself in to police and been charged with mischief and common nuisance. Ha, closing a major thoroughfare, wasting the time of hundreds of police and emergency service personnel, and forcing the cancellation of an AIDS gala—what a lovable scamp. The death rates at Canadian Hospitals have now been made public in a report from the Canadian Institute for......

Thorarinn Ingi Jonsson has, as he put it to Torontoist in a phone interview earlier today, "seen better days." The Integrated Media OCAD student and his final project for his advanced video class are the direct cause––intended or not––for yesterday's bomb scare at the Royal Ontario Museum, and, a day later, Jonsson is now suspended from OCAD and is wanted for questioning by police. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp's readymades pieces (the most famous of......

This weekend, resist the urge to do the same old bar hop and try a more sophisticated means of indulging your party ADD: the art show hop. Okay, so we just invented that term, but the city does have three rad art happenings going on almost simultaneously this Friday, November 30. And we say, why choose? To start your adventure, knock back a whiskey for warmth and head down to the Harbourfront, where the......

Photo by David Topping. A mysterious bag discovered in an alleyway beside the Royal Ontario Museum at about 7:00 p.m. tonight has shut down all traffic––pedestrian and vehicular––on Bloor between St. George and University and on Queen's Park southbound from Bloor and Harbord. UPDATE (10:45 p.m.): CTV is now saying that police have found "what appears to be a pipe bomb," and that the building was (half-)evacuated (contrary to what we were originally told).......

In the opening line from 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa, author Stephanie Nolen illustrates a feeling many of us understand. "I looked at AIDS in Africa for a long time before I understood what I was seeing," she writes. Nolen is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past several years as our eyes and ears on the AIDS pandemic in Africa. As the Africa correspondent for the Globe and Mail, Nolen has written......

When the Information and Privacy Commissioner for Ontario published its guidelines for the use of video surveillance cameras in public places back in October 2001 [.PDF], it summarized that institutions considering their use "must balance the benefits of video surveillance to the public against an individual’s right to be free of unwarranted intrusion into his or her life. Pervasive, routine and random surveillance of ordinary, lawful public activities interferes with an individual’s privacy." As......

Bluma Appel, philanthropist and patron of the arts, died last night in a Toronto hospital from complications of cancer. She was 86. Her death comes as a sudden blow to the city and to her family; she was diagnosed with lung cancer only two months ago. Appel and her husband celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary last week. Torontonians knew Appel as a passionate advocate for the arts and particularly for the theatre community, where she......

Once a year Toronto the Good becomes Toronto the very naughty. FFN (formerly known as Folsom Fair North) is Toronto's annual fetish fair. Now in its fifth year, the Fair features everything from play areas and parties to an art tent. Festivities kick off July 20 with the Welcome to Toronto party, being held at Alibi. The next night is Agitator, FFN’s big deal sports-themed fetish blowout at the Opera House. The FFN web......

The good people at Brunswick Theatre are hosting another week of free film screenings! Return their love and boost attendance by coming out to see one (or a few) of the following films: Monday, July 9 Darwin's Nightmare—7 p.m. Big Bucks, Big Pharma: Pushing Drugs & Marketing Disease—9:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 10 Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price—4:30 p.m. Mardi Gras: Made in China—7 p.m. Scientology and Me—9 p.m. Wednesday, July 11 9/11......

Every weekday, we pick an image from the Torontoist Flickr Pool and feature it here on the site. It's our way to give the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention they deserve! With the quality of a product shot, this photo by Flickr pool contributor gp0256 is beautifully composed to focus on the water bottle instead of the runner. Framed by the vibrant green trees and haloed by a gorgeous summer sky, the......

Photos of trey anthony, Dawn Whitwell, and Gein Fence courtesy of Get Your Lit Out. Dear readers: please help give an author a chance to get married on the midway at this year’s Calgary Stampede. Really! While living in Toronto, Scarborough-raised Natalee Caple wrote many fine books, among them The Plight of Happy People in an Ordinary World (Anansi), and Mackerel Sky (Thomas Allen). We are sad we’ve lost her to Calgary, but thrilled......

It's the last day of Inside Out, and this afternoon, the gay and lesbian film fest presented a pretty exciting Q&A session with director Laurie Lynd. Lynd directed, among other things, gay-friendly fare like the film version of Torontoist-fave Daniel MacIvor's House as well as episodes of Queer As Folk, Degrassi: The Next Generation and Noah's Arc. But it was his latest project that brought him to the immediate attention of Inside Out. Lynd......

June Callwood, the journalist and social activist dubbed by the CBC as "Canada's Conscience," succumbed to cancer this morning at 82. Callwood is entrenched in Toronto's history as one of our most important and powerful social crusaders. She co-founded AIDS hospice Casey House (named for her late son) and more than fifty other social organizations, including the Canadian Civil Liberties Foundation, PEN Canada and Yorkville's Digger House youth hostel. Raised amidst early family instability and......

The atmosphere outside of the (Elgin and) Winter Garden Theatre last night was similar -- not quite the same, but similar -- to that of a rock concert. Various people stood in the cold, holding signs that said "Need One Ticket, PLEASE," while the large crowd jostled around three or four groups handing out flyers and pimping petitions. "Mary," yelled one woman, excitedly. "There's a petition to ban Styrofoam!" Inside, there was a much......

December 1st is World AIDS Day every year, but 2006 should stand out with particular significance. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the discovery of AIDS. And it was also the year that Stephen Harper decided to snub the International AIDS Conference. 40 million people are living with HIV/AIDS. An estimated 25 million have died from AIDS since 1981. There will have been another 2.9 million AIDS deaths by the end of 2006. One......

The Toronto-based harm reduction group TRIP! has been providing Toronto partygoers with straight up, no-nonsense information and services since 1995. From condoms to needle exchange, "safer snorting" straws to its threesomes guide, TRIP! has the "nightlife health" thing down. This October, the next round of training begins, and TRIP! wants you to volunteer. The weekly workshops cover diversity awareness, basic counseling, harm reduction, the safer side of "better living through chemistry" and HIV prevention.......

First some bad news. Southern Ontario and Quebec are going to be affected by the remnants of Hurricane Ernesto. The storm will be downgraded to a tropical depression but it'll make this long weekend wet and windy. On the bright side, climatologists and most of us would agree that this summer was pretty good. Fewer smog days, heat waves and rain. It was a bit of a goldilocks summer. The Star covers yesterday's four year......

Breaking the law, breaking the law. We -ist folks love us some crime, and no misdemeanor is too petty for a post on any of our sites. This week, join us for a rogues' gallery of miscreants major, minor, and alleged. Gothamist gets us started with "Law & Order", muppet style. Oh, you know what isn't a crime? Taking pictures on the MTA. So, why are cops stopping photographers? In other Gotham crime, a......

Dalton McGuinty not only has a personality, he's apparently been chosen "personality of the year" by a British investment magazine. Foreign Direct Investment magazine selected McG because of his efforts to promote research and attract investment to Ontario. It's not People's 50 Most Beautiful People but it counts for something. Three student designers from the joint York and Sheridan design program have won a competition to design a mission emblem for an upcoming shuttle mission.......

Dundas Square was a sea of light last night as thousands of people gathered with glowsticks in hand for the AIDS vigil that was held as part of the XVI International AIDS Conference. The one hour ceremony included speeches, music, lighting of candles and a moment of silence to honour friends, family and strangers alike who lost the battle to AIDS. Members of the crowd were also encouraged to call out the names of......

A 12-year old girl who has been missing for two days has been found after an exhaustive search in the city's east end. She had run away after a fight with her parents. It seems that the Feds are stiffing Toronto about $6 million in homeless funding. The shortfall means the city can't sign service agreements with social organizations. Construction of new facilities for the homeless will also be affected. Thank you Ottawa may we......

Everyone writes about the city's revelation that thieves are using two-by-fours to bust up the city's beloved lollipop bike posts. The Star's Betsy Powell, who broke the story last week, has her piece here. The Post marvels at how city staffers who are usually slow to act in August managed to react quickly to the problem. The Sun reports that around eight bikes have been stolen from busted stands in one week alone. Finally you......

General Idea's AIDS sculpture, newly unveiled at the corner of Queen's Park and Bloor, is used to graffiti, and the public's writings on the nine-foot-tall statue ("use protection ♥," "fuck homophobia," and "it can happen to you" are some of the messages on it right now) make it all the more powerful. Yesterday afternoon, a new message appeared on the statue's previously untouched base: "Stephen Harper, You Shame Us!!" The tag is almost certainly......

A day late this week, but when you see the crazy number of new shows recently announced, you’ll understand why. With so much variety, there should be something for everyone coming up in the next month or so. Due to the large number of show listings, there will be no links this week (hey, it takes a LONG time to link up this stuff, my friends). As always, if there’s something we’ve missed and......