Results tagged “olympics”

Mark Rourke has had a busy day. As head coach of Dive Toronto, based out of the University of Toronto, Rourke has been arranging a meet-and-greet for his divers with Canadian diving star Alexandre Despatie. The Olympic silver medalist will be in town at various McDonald's, and the fast food chain is asking Rourke for local kids to appear alongside Despatie. Meanwhile, the phone has been ringing constantly as registration for Dive Toronto's fall season has just begun. "Enrollment always doubles after the Olympics," Rourke notes.

The Maple Leaf Foods meat recall has been extended to encompass more than 200 products made by the Toronto facility, and is expected to cost upwards of $20 million. In completely unrelated news, millions of Canadians have decided that maybe they're just going to have a salad for lunch today.

The Globe says at least $40 million of it is going to "2010 Olympic and Paralympic torch relays; the Road to Excellence program, which supports Summer Olympics athletes; and the Action Plan for Official Languages, which promotes bilingualism." And here we were, thinking that filling holes in one thing by creating holes in another was sort of a bad idea. [via CanCult]

The TTC management and its workers' union have agreed that the TTC is not an essential service. However, they are saying this not because they are saying, "Yes, we are useless," but because they both want to avoid contract arbitration. However, since management wants to pay workers less than they would receive through contract arbitration, and the union wants workers to get more than they would receive through contract arbitration, one side or the other has really, really not thought this whole thing through.

Some fifty-odd canoeists and kayakists collected on Lake Ontario last night to show some local water-based support for Canada's Olympic canoe and kayak teams.

Canada increased its medal count yesterday at the Beijing Olympics with medals in trampoline and triathlon, as well as a silver medal in the Equestrian team jumping event. It was a real team effort, and everyone gets a medal...except for the horses who did all the damn work. Sure, the horses will tell you that they do it for the love of the sport, but a little recognition never hurts, you know?

Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative, and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.

The Star took all sorts of suggestions for a theft-proof bike. They did not print Torontoist's suggestion, which was "a bike made entirely out of poop." This is because the Toronto Star fears truly innovative thinking.

Toronto's favourite YouTube personality is at it again. Over the past year, Raptors star Chris Bosh has campaigned for all-star votes as a self-promoting used-car salesman, he's started his own YouTube channel, and he's been Jay Leno's correspondent at the NBA Finals. Now that he's a US Olympian, CB4 is still finding time to flex his comedy muscles as a reporter for AOL Fanhouse.

Ontario's Environment Minister wants the province to have a scrap-tire recycling program. Tire retailers and collectors are opposed to the idea, because they make their money selling tires to be burned as fuel. Also opposed: the National Burning Stuff Association, who stated, "If we can't burn tires, what are they going to keep us from burning next?"

Raptors Guard José Calderon is in something of a bad spot. He and fellow members of the Spanish Olympic Men's Basketball team posed for a full-page ad that ran in Marca, Spain's largest newspaper, for courier company Seur. In that ad (pictured above), every team member pulls their eyes into slits. (The women's team has an identical ad.) Get it? Cause the Olympics—sorry, Orympics—are in China!

The Toronto Star discovered that there are propane sites all over Toronto! There could be one NEAR YOUR HOME! In fact THERE PROBABLY IS ONE! Thanks to the Star, you now know that you could be BLOWN UP AT ANY SECOND!

Each week, Torontoist examines the upcoming TV listings and makes note of programs that are entertaining, informative, and of quality. Or, alternately, none of those. The result: Televisualist.

Members of the Westboro Baptist Church were no-shows for their expected protest against The Pastor Phelps Project—the SummerWorks play going down at the Cameron House—after being stopped at the US-Canadian border. Says the Post: "One [counter-protestor] carrying a sign reading 'God loves sodomites' suggested they had been scared off by Canada’s notoriously vicious 'drive-by shoutings.'"

The latest census stats show conclusively that the poor are either getting poorer, or that they're not. The Star toes the OCAP line, rambling about free trade and crappy jobs, while the Post weighs in for the plutocrats by observing that family incomes have actually grown across the board, and that the income stats are misleading anyway. As Torontoist likes to say, you load sixteen tons, and what do you get? Another day older and deeper in debt.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper won't be attending the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, but says that it has nothing to do with the current situation in Tibet. A cautious Canada walks the middle ground of diplomacy, earning the emnity of the Chinese government without even making a useful political statement.

The hosts of Re-Inventors, Jeremy MacPherson and Matt Hunter, put one of their "re-inventions" to the test against Olivier Jean, a speed skater and Olympic hopeful, at the Ricoh Coliseum this week. The propeller strapped to MacPherson's back was based on a patent registered in 1948 by Horace M. Morrill, who intended the device to "provide a portable manually supported propelling unit" for people on skates, boats or bicycles.

Torontoist is one of fourteen cities in the worldwide Gothamist network. Each Sunday, the editors of every site—from LAist to Londonist—choose their most interesting article, a list which is compiled into the network-wide feature Elsewhere In The Ist-A-Verse.

London's transit story of the week—if not the year—was Tuesday's re-opening of St. Pancras rail station after £800 million (that's $1.6 billion) of renovations. Not only does the station provide London with a new terminus for a high-speed 300km/h rail link to Paris and Brussels (with a planned stop at the 2012 Olympics site in east London along the way), but it also upgrades the city's regional and suburban rail connections and improves access...

After decades of being situated as an icon of Queen Street West, it has been revealed that Citytv will be moving to a new high-profile location: Dundas Square.

Our friends over at Spacing Magazine have officially launched their foray into a whole new blogging environment, Spacing Montréal. Covering the urban environment five hours down the Macdonald-Cartier Freeway, Spacing's new blog looks at many of the same public space issues in Montreal (in a refreshing mix of both official languages) that the newly-rebranded Spacing Toronto examines here.

The Ontario government will spend around $27 billion on nuclear power between now and 2025 in a bid to keep the lights on in the province. If history is any indicator, the nuke plans will be characterized by inefficiencies, unanticipated delays,and massive cost overruns, but will at least ensure that future generations have access to a secure supply of radioactive waste.

Let's be real, folks. It might be a while until we host the actual Olympics. So clear your calendars August 24–26 and join an estimated 50,000 guests that will be attending the next best thing: the World Cyber Games Canada Championships being held right here in our very own Toronto. Two hundred professional gamers will compete for cash prizes and the chance to represent Team Canada in the WCG Grand Final in Seattle next October. The Grand Final is apparently known as "the video gaming equivalent of the Olympics," which would make the Canada Championships kind of a big deal.

Torontoist vs. Torontoist is an occasional feature that has two of our staffers debating an issue that is important to our city. We invite our readers to join the debate in the comments section following the post.

Pope Benedict XVI asserts that Catholicism is the only true church. The document he approved states that other Christian churches are "defective" and not true churches. Pope Benedict also plans to bring back the Spanish Inquisition and witch burnings later this year.

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs.

Spring is when we get busy here in the Ist-A-Verse. Very busy. But, after staying bundled-up indoors all winter, it's nice for us to be out, about, and collecting things to write about for you. Here's a glimpse at what's been keeping your favorite citybloggers busily away from home and out of bed.

We're guessing most of you are hungover from St. Patrick's Day. Some of us are too. But still, we're going to muddle on through our green haze and give you (drum roll please...) this Week In -ists.

Statistics Canada reports a national population increase of 5.4% since 2001, yet downtown Toronto only experienced an increase of 0.9%. The boom is being attributed to immigration, which experts predict will be our only means of population growth by 2030. It seems everyone is happy to settle in the suburbs as towns like Brampton (33.3%) and Vaughan (31.2%) are growing as fast as houses can be built. Milton has grown an astounding 71.4%. I nearly spat out my coffee when described Mississauga as "a little slice of heaven." (Read more...)

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing—what's going on in the World of the -ist's?