Results tagged “novascotia”

Dual protests are set for tomorrow afternoon in Vancouver and Toronto in an effort to maintain media awareness of the misuse of force by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that led to the death of Robert Dziekanski, captured on video by a witness. The video, since viewed (in its various incarnations) by millions of people, documents a confused and clearly agitated Dziekanski sweating and pacing until a fatal confrontation with four RCMP officers killed the 40-year-old Polish immigrant. This week, the government of British Columbia has announced a public inquiry to investigate Dziekanski’s death, “and rightly so,” writes the editorial board in this week's Eye Weekly: "Perhaps the inquiry’s report can communicate some simple steps to prevent this sort of tragedy from ever happening again, and communicate to the RCMP that it is their job to protect people and expose lies, not to kill people and invent cover stories to protect themselves."

A massive fire at a townhouse complex on Jarvis Street near Mutual resulted in the death of an unidentified victim on Saturday night. Construction on the townhouses had been abandoned for ten months and the building was being inhabited by squatters, says a resident at the adjacent Radio City condo tower.

Ottawa denies entrance to Nelson Mandela's wife. Winnie Madikizela-Mandela was supposed to give a speech at a fundraiser gala last night, but was told that she was denied a visa because she had been previously convicted of kidnapping and fraud. The fact that she was allowed in the United States three weeks ago means nothing. Come on, the U.S. never lets anyone in!

When theatre "It Boy" Daniel MacIvor wrote Marion Bridge, a play which is finally getting its Toronto premiere after being performed out East, in New York City and being adapted into a film, he figured it would never be performed in the city. A big contrast to his edgy one-man shows, Marion Bridge is a family drama about three sisters reconnecting at their mother's deathbed that MacIvor supposedly wrote because he wanted to do something his mom would be able to enjoy. The play was supposed to be a rural drama meant for a rural audience, but The Company Theatre, lead by Artistic Director Allan Hawco, decided that if it was good enough for NYC, it was good enough for Toronto and got MacIvor to direct their production of his play.

We have good news for fans of Joel Plaskett Emergency. Tomorrow (Wednesday, May 2), Joel's going to be shooting a video for "Fashionable People," the first video from his latest album, Ashtray Rock, and everyone's invited to take part.

One of two winning lotto tickets in Wednesday's $38.7 million Lotto 6/49 jackpot has been turned in by twenty carpenters. That means there is one more winning ticket worth $19.7 million out there, people! It is time for the wacky Dave Barry-esque hijinks and capers to commence! I call dibs on conning an old lady out of her wheelchair by wearing an obviously fake moustache and pretending to be Ringo Starr. (Also amusing: the article noting that the carpenters all plan to continue working, as if winning less than a million dollars is cause to quit one's job and live idyllically on a desert island somewhere.)

Guy Maddin is given an all-day retrospective at this year’s Rendezvous with Madness Film Festival, which opens tonight (at 7:30pm, with short Pretty Broken and Ole Christian Madsen’s Kira’s Reason: A Love Story). There is a full schedule, of course, with programmes carefully grouped to certain aspects of mental health, such as sexuality (Queer Madness) or addiction (Hell’s Half Acre); programme All in the Family includes a screening of Cottonland, which played at this year’s Hot Docs and deals with substance abuse in Nova Scotia.

A brief aside; The London Film Festival is currently running and our sister site Londonist are covering it, and have already given a sterling review to one of our favourites from TIFF, Reprise. You might want to check it out.

Who is Bryan Lee O’Malley? With the strength of character displayed by Scott Pilgrim, the protagonist of O’Malley’s breakthrough comics series, it’s easy to imagine that he is Scott Pilgrim - the unskilled bass player for a go nowhere band in Toronto, dating an American girl, sleeping in the same bed as a gay dude and getting into all kinds of crazy adventures. The kind of guy you could imagine punching a guy “so hard he went round the entire world”.

Who can promote a irresponsible multinational corporation? Sprinkle it in dew? Cover it in chocolate and a miracle or two?

Joel Plaskett, Musician

Hailing from Nova Scotia, Matt Mays & El Torpedo play the kind of music that simply sounds "Canadian", for all the positive and negative connotations that may come with the tag. We're talking big, rootsy rock in the grand tradition of Neil Young & Crazy Horse - thundering guitars, raw vocals, a healthy dose of twang - nothing groundbreaking, but when it's done right it's a marvelous thing. And Matt Mays does it pretty damn well.