Poor OCAP. They can't even complain about the police watching them without the police watching them. At noon on Wednesday, the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty held a press conference (not a rally or an action or a march but a press conference) at the northeast corner of Dundas and Sherbourne, and there was about one police officer for each person in attendance (around twenty). As eight or so cops casually observed the conference from......

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......

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. Caribana 07 BY H@RSH RELATED ON TORONTOIST: Jump Up And Get Mas-sive!, Caribacchanalia......

We publish a lot of articles here on Torontoist, and sometimes it's hard to keep up with all of them. Populist is a weekly recap intended for the casual Torontoist reader, featuring some of the coolest, most interesting, most commented, and most recommended posts from the past week on Torontoist. Populist will appear every Sunday night. This week on Torontoist featured bleepin' boobs, Brass Rail burn-outs, coulrophobia, Guitar Girls, Giambrones, and Alsop architecture. Here are......

So much for Brampton. Back in July, Zanta (a.k.a. David Zancai) told The National Post that he was done with Toronto, leaving for Brampton to be with two of his three sons. At the time, Zancai told the Post, "I can’t be me, I can’t be free, and the city of Toronto is to blame....I’m totally a prisoner in my own city. I have to get out of here." To teach the cops who he......

Top photo by News46 from the Torontoist Flickr pool; bottom photo by Marc Lostracco. Caribana celebrations are still underway down on Lake Shore West and elsewhere in the city, and hundreds of thousands watched today's spectacular masquerade celebrating this year's theme of "Petit Monde." Torontoist was in the mas camps and the parade for a photo roundup, which can be seen after the jump.......

Caribana, North America's largest street festival, wraps up this weekend with the spectacular parade along Lakeshore Boulevard. A celebration of Caribbean culture, but not just for those in the West Indian community, the parade brings more than a million revelers from all over the world to join the sensational Carnival of food, dance, and music. Read on to learn how Caribana came about, and what's in store for this weekend.......

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! Caribana descends on Toronto again next week, and on the 40th anniversary of North America's largest street festival, we found this photo from 1993 quite fascinating. The two performers are standing in Exhibition Stadium (demolished 1999; now the site of BMO......

Paramedics dispatched to a house fire in west Toronto ended up on the Danforth because of a duplicate street name. Even worse, the fire may have resulted in the death of a 65-year old woman. This begs raises the question: why hasn't the city fixed the problem? The Star reminds us that the city has actually done a study about this problem (there are about 100 or so duplications around the megacity) and done nothing.......

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......

The Star does a little digging and pulls out the startling fact that 21 of the 32 accused murderers this year were under court orders. Toronto homicide detectives are concerned that so many people accused of violent and gun crimes are able to get bail so easily. Police and residents near Keele and Sheppard are on guard after a brutal sexual assault last night outside an apartment building in the area. School Trustees have given......

Three hit and runs in Etobicoke over the weekend has killed one and injured five others. Two of the hit and runs were possibly sparked by earlier disputes. Sgt. Cam Wooley, our favourite OPP officer, regales us with tales of idiotic drivers on Ontario's highways. Highlights include a man driving without a license with other adults in the car who did, and concerned citizens who told officers that the speeder they were ticketing was also......

The Diamond Cherry Reading Series – run by local poets and small-press publishers Devon Gallant and Julie Cameron Gray – kicks-off the week with performances by audio poet Hilary Peach (Poems Only Dogs Can Hear) and singer/songwriter/poet Nik Beat. The series takes place each month at the Zemra Lounge – 778 St. Clair West – and starts at 8pm. It’s free, too, so you have no excuse not to go. On Monday, head down to......

From where the men are men and the women are wrapped in layers of clothing comes the five piece cinematic stylings of Huskey Rescue. Smooth, chilled out and laid back is their way, which should be a perfect reprise for those soaking up the heat from the Caribana parade. To enhance the evening's events, you'll also discover the delicate and devastating sounds of The Elanors and the always interesting mix ups from turntable fanatics......

Yes we know that our headline sounds like something out of X-Men IV but it's not. Unless you went to bed at 9pm, you probably saw that really bad summer storm kick the snot out of the heatwave. You're not so tough now are you heatwave. Sadly about 150,000 Ontarians are without power because of the storm. The Star reminds us that you have the right to demand air conditioning from your cabbie. Apparently in......

Big news on the municipal election front. Former mayor John Sewell wants back into the concrete clamshell. He's running in Ward 21 against Miller ally Joe Mihevc. Sewell has the support of Margaret Smith and many from the Save Our St. Clair campaign that lobbied against the right-of-way. Sylvia Watson, current councillor in Ward 14 (Parkdale-High Park), wants out of City Hall and is looking to fill Gerard Kennedy's seat at Queen's Park. This will......

Police announced this morning that eight men have been arrested for the Boxing Day shooting of Jane Creba. Police have pointed their fingers at two west-end gangs. The Creba shooting was a huge priority for the police and at one point 20-full time investigators were working on the case. The province passed the new City of Toronto act yesterday. The new act doesn't fix everything but Mayor Miller feels it's a step in the right......

Things are getting ugly between the city and the Carribean Cultural Committee, the organizers of the huge Caribana festival. Citing the lack of a clean audit, the city is refusing to give $400,000 or so of funding and asked another group, the Toronto Mas Band Association, to take the reins of the festival. TMBA won't be able to use the name though, the CCC owns that, and CCC organizers have vowed they'll put the fest......

Another Caribana Parade, another disgusting amount of money pumped into our city. Torontoist hit the Caribbean celebration on Saturday, spending some of our money and picking up a few tidbits of Jamaican Patios Patois in the process. Words: dally: verb; to weave from side to side on a bike. irie: adj.; cool, good, nice. sinsemilla: noun; a term used to describe the highest grade of Jamaican marijuana. biscuit: noun; a particularly attractive woman. boonoonoonous: adj.;......

Why is Jay Z's grill all up in your grill, all up over our website? There's no reasonable explanation. It's true Mr Z is in Toronto this weekend for his MuchMusic gig tonight (with Kanye the Jesus freak), and at the cheese bar Montana's on Saturday night (Montana's is not actually a bar that serves cheese, rather a cheezey hangout for cheeseball people), but it's not as if any Torontoist readers or cohorts will be......