The above video—not safe for work unless you're using headphones—was shot by the late Peter Walker and is a clip from Min Sook Lee's documentary Hogtown: The Politics of Policing (winner of the best Canadian feature prize at Hot Docs 2005). Uploaded to YouTube fewer than three weeks ago, it's been passed around online over the last few days, since being linked to by Toronto Life's Philip Preville in a Friday blog post. The......

The Ontario Provincial Police Association has asked the O.P.P. to phase out the state-trooper-style hats which have been a signature of the official garb since 1997. Apparently, the flat, wide brims fare more like a Frisbee when working by passing highway traffic or during a windy day. Extending well beyond the ears, the unwieldy topper also bumps around the cruisers in annoying ways. Basically, too much untimely slapstick for such a dignified uniform. Though......

Say hello to a "prudent" budget. Stéphane Dion criticized the bill for being ineffectual, but of course not so ineffectual that the Liberals would vote against it and force an election. (Elsewhere, Thomas Walkom points out that the budget includes a new system of income tax shelter that will, and I am sure you are surprised by this, primarily benefit wealthy Canadians.) Julian Fantino complains about "discount sentences." Apparently, the idea that experienced criminals......

Barack Obama thumps Hillary Clinton in last night's primaries. Obama for the first time won the majority of Latino voters, the majority of women voters, and the majority of senior citizen voters, while broadening his support in the demographics he was already winning. On the bright side for Hillary, she did manage to win the vote of nearly 87 percent of the voters who thought she was more qualified to be President than Obama.......

City to designate laneway "Ben Kerr Lane." It is predicted that the laneway will become the center of Toronto's booming hot sauce scene. Howard Hampton promises to roll back MPP pay hikes and to raise the minimum wage to $10/hour. Good thing Hampton hasn't actually published an economic plan yet. I mean, there's only less than a month until the next election, wouldn't want to tip your hand too early... Economics researcher links higher gas......

Toronto's tap water places third in blind taste test. So the next time somebody from New York tells you how awesome it is there, you can say "well, sure, but our water is delicious." Professional wrestler Chris Benoit found dead along with wife and son. Police are investigating it as a double murder/suicide. For those of you who do not follow wrestling, the "Crippler," born in Montreal and raised in Edmonton, was quite possibly......

A body that was discovered in 1968 north of Toronto has been identified as a 17-year-old New Brunswick teen. Richard Hovey moved here to take part in Toronto's thriving counterculture scene but sadly met a tragic end. Shaun Bruce, the 22-year-old that ran against David Miller, is back at this old job as a zamboni driver. No word on where Jane Pitfield and Stephen LeDrew are now, and do we really care? There's an old......

Former Toronto police chief and current OPP commissioner Julian Fantino is being sued for allegedly using a Police Services board case to maliciously advance his own career. The suit accuses Fantino of multiple skullduggeries, including wiretapping the chair of the Police Services Board. Now, I know what you're thinking - "but Julian Fantino was such a nice police chief. Except for the corruption scandals and the racial profiling and the homophobia." TTC considering leasing out......

Is it still shocking if you're not surprised? It's been revealed that former police chief Julian Fantino's special task force on police misconduct was most likely formed only to avoid a full-scale public inquiry. It's all spelled out in a 2001 report that's being labeled "a blueprint for how to conceal from the public the malfeasance and the corruption that had been going on in the [Toronto police service]." Golly. Another report confirms that neighborhood......

It is Friday the 13th! Wooooooooo! Auspicious time to begin new news column! Luckily we do not suffer from triskaidekaphobia, or we'd all be in trouble. Mohammed Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, wins the Nobel Peace Prize. Yunus created the Grameen Bank on the theory that microcredit loans could be of great help in alleviating poverty, and it turns out he was right about that. Yunus is the first Nobel Prize winner from Bangladesh,......

An audit of litter on Toronto's streets shows that Mayor Miller is on to something. The amount of litter on our streets is down 40% from 2002. The Mayor credits investment in city streets (ie. garbage cans, street cleaners) and you, dear citizen. High-profile lawyer Peter Shoniker is spending 15 months in jail for money laundering. Shoniker is well known among many of the city's powerful and during his court case received words of support......

Christopher Hume laments the destruction of the Inn on the Park, a great example of Modernist architecture. It's being replaced with an auto dealership. Hume points fingers at a City Hall unwilling to stand up to business interests, and negligent in protecting the City's architectural history. The Post weighs in here. In other building news the Bay-Adelaide project might start up again. The project was first started in the 1980s but the property market fizzled......

The honeymoon for new police chief Bill Blair begins today. The media seems to be falling for our new police chief, and compared to Julian Fantino, there's a lot to like. For one, he actually lives and works in the city unlike our embattled previous chief whose previous job was the gay-hunting chief of police for London. Fantino's last days at his post were also marred by accusations of racial profiling and protests by activist......