In case you were wondering, it's probably not a great idea to be hanging out in the entertainment district at 3:15 a.m. Especially if you're in a luxury SUV. And especially especially if you've got a ponytail.
Results tagged “atoronto”
Every weekday morning, bright and early, we feature a photo (or two) from a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool. It's our way of giving the many excellent photographers in our pool the attention that they deserve. A Toronto Kind of Love BY SILLYLITTLETHINGSYOULAUGHABOUT...
The Stephen Harper government unveiled its plan for the country in the Throne Speech last night, emphasizing the usual panoply of tax-cuttin', crime fightin', environment dismissin' Conservative virtues. Jack Layton and Gilles Duceppe have already stated they will not support the government, while Liberal leader Stéphane Dion will decide whether to force an election after consulting with his caucus. Dion is envied by the other opposition leaders for his massive caucus.
Employees of the Alcohol and Gaming Commission, which now oversees the Ontario Lottery Gaming Corporation, will not be permitted to buy lottery tickets in Ontario. A representative of the affected staffers complained, "why do you think we wanted to work here in the first place?" before shotgunning a 40-ouncer of Absolut and collapsing to the ground.
Ontario plans to ban incandescent light bulbs by 2012 to promote the use of CFLs. Good ban, Ontario.
Nerd alert! A Toronto company made biometrics news this week when they announced a new camera that not only functions as a plain, ol' webcam, but also scans your face in three dimensions. Headquartered in Markham, Bioscrypt has been known for devices like fingerprint authenticators and smartcard readers, and they feel that facial scanning is a friendlier (and more sanitary) alternative to finger or iris scans.
L’Oréal Fashion Week kicked off this morning with an 11 a.m. press conference at Queen's Park. Seems the Ontario government excludes fashion from its definition of culture. So members of the Fashion Design Council of Canada want fashion visionaries to get the same recognition as their colleagues in art, dance, theatre and music. Clearly Toronto Fashion Week isn't the same kind of high-octane glamathon as Paris or Milan. In fact, most shows will be held in one venue—The Liberty Grand—so instead of rushing from venue to venue, most buyers and editors have to cool their heels in the hallway between collections.
Thousands of college and university students rally across Canada for lower tuition fees and greater education funding. FUN FACT:This is approximately the 17th or so national day of rallies for lower tuition fees and greater education that I have seen, and interestingly, tuition fees have never actually gone down during that time, but instead gone up steadily!
Only a day after it was reported that the customer information database for Winners was hacked, a hard drive with the private information of 470,000 CIBC clients was lost/stolen. So even if you shred your personal documents before putting them in the trash, those pesky identity thieves can still get you where you buy your panties.
Amazingly, Maher Arar is
The City is paying over $28 million to make sure we get bigger recycling bins. The plan is to make recycling easier for Torontonians. We think the Sun's headline spells it out best "Recycling now 4 times the fun." Who could hate that?
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.
City staff are hard at work looking for a place to dump our sludge. Fortunately Mayor Miller has said that the city is not considering dumping sludge into the lake. Like, we needed any more gunk in our lake.
After much righteous chest-thumping over fiscal responsibility and respect for the taxpayers, council barely decided to give itself a 9% pay raise. The vote passed 22-21, and the three interim councillors who won't be running in November's election, all voted in favour of the increase. Councillors' salaries have now been bumped up to $95,000 and the Mayor's salary will be hiked to $160,000. Jane Pitfield has vowed to make this a campaign issue so we won't be seeing the end of this anytime soon.
Jane Pitfield is opening a campaign office in the Junction area, close to Mayor Miller's High Park home. Both campaigns are gearing up for the fall and raising money. Mayor Miller is going grassroots and offering anyone who puts up raises $100 for his campaign an "I <3 David Miller T-Shirt." Oh we want one of those.
Despite criticism from the media, many councillors and Rick Ducharme's public admission that his actions as TTC chair made him quit, Howard Moscoe made it clear he won't be stepping down from the Chair. That is until he talked to his wife. Gloria Moscoe, his wife of 46-years, would like him to spend more time with his family which means Moscoe might step out of the TTC Chair's role but not until after the November election. Many say that's not soon enough.
The Star weighs in on Dalton's new rent laws. The big improvement is that landlords can no longer jack up the rent permanently after making repairs, tying rent to inflations, and guaranteed hearings for those about to be evicted by non-payment of rent. Star columnist Thomas Walkom doesn't think it's enough and doesn't actually do anything to help with skyrocketing rents.
Say, hypothetically, you were given $25 a week to buy popcorn and beer. Finding beer is relatively easy, as it's only sold in bars, the Beer Store and LCBO. But popcorn?
The U of T Humanities Department's Voicing Toronto Conference is a mixture of lectures, screenings, performances and readings. Attempting to rope in six humanistic disciplines, they're offering something for everyone, or at least for anyone who lives in Toronto and enjoys the occasional foray into obscure local history. The film events include works by Don McKellar, Clement Virgo and David Cronenberg. The music component includes shows about Glenn Gould's Toronto and A Toronto Songbook. And the art component is a show that attempts to explore the idea of Toronto art. Also of note is a show of Toronto souvenirs, as curated by the MA Museum Studies students at the U of T. At least someone is saving all those misspelled 'I survived Sars' Tees for posterity.
, has cancelled all appearances.
Please excuse the shorter mixtape this week - a certain university is trying to ruin my life (rhymes with Dyerson).

Newsstand: November 19, 2009