The Harper government will introduce legislation to protect consumers more effectively from dangerous products, in part by holding importers more accountable for the goods they bring in. Christmas isn't going to be the same without the traditional lead-laden toys and minor brain damage. Facebook is suing a Toronto porn company for allegedly trying to hack their databases and steal info about members. Istra Holdings, trade name SlickCash, is being accused of making multiple attempts......

It looks like there will now be a reprieve for all of you filthy, dirty scum who have dared to engage in file-sharing, downloading, and the elusive but nonetheless nefarious "time-shifting." Canadian Industry Minister Jim Prentice has, for now, backed off on plans to introduce a new and comprehensive copyright bill to the House of Commons, at least until late January of 2008. The new bill was supposed to be introduced this week. The......

The good folks at TiVo have decided that now would be the optimum time to unleash their initially-much-talked-about-but-not-so-much-talked-about-anymore product on Canadians, a mere eight years after its release to the U.S. and U.K. markets. (Way to capitalize on a phenomenon, fellas!) TiVo can be credited––at least according to Canada.com––with "making TV watching less of a laborious task," which is a relative understatement considering how exhausting sitting through commercials can be to the average viewer. Don't......

In spite of legislation passed by opposition parties requiring the government to achieve Kyoto standards by 2012, the Conservative government has presented their original plan which doesn't even come close. A spokesperson said "We wanted to meet our Kyoto obligations, but it looked like it was going to be really hard." The government did say they were commited to ensuring that future generations had a climate of some kind. The Three Amigos summit ended......

City Hall ups the road repair budget this year to $230 million, and at the same time admits that it's not even close to being enough to reduce the backlog of required repairs. There ought to be a word that auto-defines as "the debilitating effects of when Toronto doesn't get enough federal and municipal funding," so we could all just say it and save ourselves some breath. Like, "klunge" could be shorthand for that......

City council says up to 2,500 tonnes of dog poop are deposited in park trash bins every year. This is problematic since our garbage dumps in Michigan refuse to take it. So where should we put our growing heap of canine feces? Councillor Pam McConnell (Ward 28, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) thinks the city should provide green bins in parks, while Councillor Paula Fletcher (Ward 30, Toronto-Danforth) doesn't think it's a big deal for dog owners......

City considers indexed fees for garbage pickup. This is barely news, really, because we all knew increased garbage fees were coming sooner or later, and we all know they're ultimately necessary (even if some of us don't much like that). But it's nice (or chagrin-causing, depending on your point of view) to see it finally coming about. Ontario hydro consumers saved enough electricity to power a town. Which is a great first step, but unfortunately......

It's something that usually only comes up during election time, but in the City of Toronto, wards are designated by numbers. For example, the area bounded by Dovercourt Road to the west, Christie Street and Bathurst Street to the east, the CPR tracks to the north and Lake Ontario to the south is officially known as Ward 19. Nobody really calls area by its numerical name (hey dude, let's party in the 19th tonight!), but......

Recently, the Toronto Sun reported that over 500 pit bulls have been killed since the breed was banned sixteen months ago. With temperatures in Toronto well below freezing, those still lucky enough to be alive are suffering due to their salt-ridden and frozen paws, unable to lick them because of the muzzles on their faces. The pit bull police were back in court in December, presenting new evidence that all pit bulls are "inherently......

The University of Toronto received $2.4 million in a class-action settlement pertaining to vitamin price-fixing thanks to a court-ordered distribution of penalty funds. Seven other universities received the other $17.6 million in the settlement, including $4.8 million to the University of Guelph. No word yet on what U of T will do with the money, although rumours swirl that the university's president will ask for it all in twenties, pour it out into one......

Few things are more representative of the holiday season than the bell ringers and familiar red shield of the Salvation Army. Ever-present at malls, street corners and inside TTC property, the London-based organization collects cash for its Christian outreach services benefiting 30 million people in Canada and abroad. The Sally Ann is one of the world's largest, richest and most visible philanthropic agencies, recently providing significant relief for victims of Hurricane Rita and support for......

The Supreme Court of Canada upholds logging rights for aboriginal citizens. There's a sleazy joke to be made here about wood, but I'm not going to make it. I have standards. Parliament is set to vote on same-sex marriage. Again. And they're just voting to see if they want to vote about same-sex marriage. If this gets defeated expect Stephen Harper to introduce legislation to see if Parliament wants to vote about wanting to......

Toro Magazine, free to Globe and Mail subscribers, released its Men of the Year issue yesterday. Featured honourees include Steve Nash, Brian Mulroney, Paul Haggis, The Trailer Park Boys, Kiefer Sutherland, William Shatner and sweet, hot luscious Ryan Gosling. Torontoist favourites like Final Fantasy and Lukas Rossi were runners up in the music category, but how do you compete against Neil Young? Evangeline Lilly was named Woman of the Year, because she runs around the......

Mississauga City Council candidate, Adnan Hashmi, has been charged with impersonating a police officer after his rival, Ishrat Nasim claimed he tried to pressure her landlady into denying she lived in Ward 10, which would make her ineligible to run. All lies, says Hashmi. A crown attourney has labeled former social worker Sara Villella a "merchant of death" for her role in smuggling guns to Scarbroough street gang, the Malvern Crew in 2004. The president......

In Rome, at least 1 person has died, and 10 more have been seriously injured in a subway collision involving two trains. It has been over 10 years since the Russel Hill incident here in Toronto. The Toronto Star's editor-in-chief Giles Gherson and publisher Michael Goldbloom resigned on Monday. Goldbloom wrote about the declining newspaper industry in his resignation letter. Canada's prison system is systemically discriminatory against aboriginals, according to the ombudsman for inmates. Also,......

Claws were out at Sunday's Liberal leadership debate. Bob Rae accused Michael Ignatieff of waffling on foreign policy. Stephane Dion compared Rae, former NDP premier, to spendthrift icon Rich Uncle Pennybags ''giving monopoly money to the people''. Ken Dryden compared politics to his hockey career and drew applause. But all agreed one thing: "Liberals, we need to get back to power as soon as possible." Toronto's famous entertainment promoter, Gino Empry, died this weekend at......

If you're like Torontoist, you like to have a good time. You also like to save your money to be able to afford those aforementioned good times. Get ready to fork out more cash because the Ontario government has given Toronto new taxing powers, and the savings go directly to City Hall. The new legislation gives Toronto's city council the ability to impose more municipal taxes on alcohol served at bars and restaurants as......

The police admit that they've been protecting witnesses and sources to the Jane Creba shooting. They've put up a $50,000 reward and got 20 investigators working on it. Here's hoping they close the case soon. Natalie Novak, the Ryerson student allegedly murdered by her estranged boyfriend apparently had a rocky past with her ex-beau. He was even convicted of assaulting her and barred from seeing her. Finally a baby and mom narrowly missed getting shot......

Three divisions of Toronto Police will be trying out tasers in the coming year the Sun reports. We've written about tasers before and how other jurisdictions have had problems with them. We hope that Toronto Police approach this with caution and aren't trigger happy with their new toys. The Star reports that Durham politicos are getting set to fight the greenbelt. Durham is one of the few affected municipalities where there's still opposition to......

A TTC janitor might just be subject of one ot those TTC employee ads after spotting a four-year old boy that was snatched and Amber-Alerted. A 34-year old woman was also arrested. The Post reports on what happened to the Redpath Sugar sign on the waterfront. Bob Rae and Carolyn Bennett are both now officially in the Liberal Leadership race. A car ran into a streetcar on Queen and River injuring three people. Spacing Wire......

When it comes down to it, we should all be glad Niagara Falls exists. Yes, it’s a gash in the landscape surrounded by tack, but on the other hand, it’s a guaranteed day you don’t have to look after your friends or relatives when they come to visit. Just put them on a bus and forget about them. The George F. Walker penned film, Niagara Motel could probably do some damage to this tourist trafficking,......

The Guardian Angels hold their first recruiting session and vow to be on the streets by the summer. The mayor and the chief of police gave them the cold shoulder last time but criticism is a little more muted this time around. Torontoist remains lukewarm on the volunteer crime-prevention group. We'd prefer to see trained police officers doing the job of crime prevention and community policing but can understand how people in the city feel......

It's no secret that the city is cash-strapped. There's a $500 million chasm in the city's budget and rolling back councillor's wages can only put so much of a dent in that huge financial mountain. The city's gotten quite creative too, there was the frightening proposal to give up naming rights to Nathan Phillips Square, which thankfully was shot down. One other creative solution is for the city to start selling lotto tickets. The new......

A couple interesting flip-flops in the new government today - namely a crossing of the floor and an unelected senator and Minister of Public Works and Government Service. Although Harpsy is flipping and flopping like a fish out of water, these moves are not without precedent. According to our numbers, the last time there was a cross-over cabinet member was Belinda Stronach in the Martin tenure and the last unelected cabinet ministers were Stephane Dion......

By now, most everyone in the city knows of the single most unfortunate event in Toronto this year: On Boxing Day, while shopping, 15-year-old Jane Creba was killed by errant gunfire. Six other innocent bystanders were also wounded. Just as any other human being in this city - or rather anyone else privy to this story - we feel deeply affected by this. And, as it should go without saying, our utmost sympathies to any......

The sound of lips smacking echoed through downtown on Saturday afternoon when dozens of women participated in Toronto's first Kiss-In since 1976. To show support for two Montreal women attacked for kissing each other in public, female kissers of Toronto flooded the streets with a smooching protest. The women, Joelle Perras and Brook Morrison, were assaulted in Montreal's Plateau Mont-Royal district when they stopped to kiss on the corner. Following news of the Jan. 21......

Like most media outlets, Torontoist loves those hot button issues. And right now, what hot button issue is hotter than Canadian spies operating overseas? In a year-end interview with the Edmonton Sun, Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan finally got around to addressing Canada's imminent spy problem. "We may want to redefine the existing section of the CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) legislation to give them broader powers abroad, and perhaps to gather different kinds of......

It's official. Should you want to take that Ontario ice wine you've been saving for a special occasion out to dinner with you, you now can. The province decided to follow Quebec, New Brunswick, Alberta and B.C. in changing the legislation to entice more restaurant customers to come in from the cold, bottle in tow. It's about time, thinks Torontoist. Taking Chateau Diana to Burger King just got that much easier. We kid. Fast food......

That health minister of ours. He's more forward thinking than all of Scandinavia put together! While other countries innovate with solar heating, or universal access to higher education, Canada's official health hound, Ujjal Dosanjh. has been busy repeating the following three words: Reduced Ignition Propensity. What does it mean in layman's terms? A mighty good question. You need not fear that your car ignition is losing its will to live, growing passive and despondent at......

Dude, it used to be that you could rely on the legion for communal smoking, and a good roast beef raffle every now and then. But Health Minister George Smitherman says that may soon be no more - the smoking that is, not the beef. Despite the GTA-wide smoking ban, an exemption had been in place for private clubs. But Smithy says the new legislation will outlaw smoking in any building that's not a private......