Results tagged “queenspark”

Enduring bouts of rain and hail, about a thousand students, workers, and community members marched through downtown Toronto yesterday as part of the Drop Fees for a Poverty Free Ontario campaign. At 4 p.m., they arrived at Queen’s Park to demand that the provincial government start "investing in the people, 'cause we are the solution," as the chant went.

We have to admit we kind of like Fever Pitch. Sure, it's a formulaic rom-com, but it's a lot better than what we typically have to sit through. More to the point, it makes such great use of its Boston locations (particularly the stuff in and around Fenway Park) that you would hardly know how much of it was shot here.

                     

On Sunday, more than five thousand people gathered on the lawns of Queen's Park in front of the Ontario Legislature for an impassioned demonstration against the disputed re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the subsequent violence against supporters of the defeated opposition candidate Mir Hussein Moussavi in Iran. With some protesters flying Iran's current flag while others waved the country's flag as it existed before the Islamic Revolution, emotions ran high in the crowd: some argued first with one another, and then—as police moved in to form a barrier at the front of the crowd as several people remonstrated forcefully with the speakers—with the police themselves.

       

Tamil candlelight vigil

On April 5, 1893, The Empire's headline, "Legislators in Fairyland," reflected the jubilant atmosphere that greeted the opening of the province's handsome new Parliament Building in Queen's Park. As throngs crowded in to explore the building's corridors and gaze at its ornamental carvings, few likely noticed initials carved into a stone above the columns on the right side of the main entrance. Belonging to Christopher Finlay Fraser, the initials were "fitting tribute," according to the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, to a man whose role over a twenty-five year political career remained similarly invisible to the public. As the long-time Commissioner of Public Works, Fraser had overseen the erection of the Parliament Building from conception to completion over the course of twelve years. While the monumental project never succumbed to the financial scandals seen in the construction of legislative buildings in Quebec or Manitoba, Fraser's project was not without its controversies.

At 11 a.m. today, more than two hundred irate truck drivers will besiege Queen’s Park, demanding their right to push the pedal to the metal when necessary. Various groups are up in arms over Bill 41, a piece of legislation passed in Ontario last June that requires large rigs to carry engine microchips restricting their maximum speed to 105 km/h.

Photo by Jonathan Goldsbie.

All three parties in the Ontario legislature are backing a bill that will ban smoking in cars carrying anyone under the age of 16. You know, when Torontoist was young, we'd roll around seatbeltless in the back of flimsy subcompacts doing 150 on the highway while our parents drank beer and spewed out lungfuls of carcinogens, and we turned out okay.

Dalton McGuinty unveiled a new plane yesterday, which will be used by the OPP to deter dangerous drivers on Ontario highways. To encourage courteous motoring, the plane is armed with four Maverick air-to-ground missiles and a 30 mm cannon capable of piercing two inches of armour plate. Actually the plane just reports bad driving to ground units, but I'd bet my idea would be more effective.

Toronto's extensive work on the silver screen reveals that, while we have the chameleonic ability to look like anywhere from New York City to Moscow, the disguise doesn't always hold up to scrutiny. Reel Toronto revels in digging up and displaying the films that attempt to mask, hide, or—in rare cases—proudly display our city.

Today's ad features your stereotypical 1950s architectural professional: trenchcoat, tie, hat (preferably a fedora), and a fistful of building plans. The building this dapper construction supervisor is depicted next to would quickly become one of St. Clair Avenue's architectural landmarks.

It's been thirteen years now since the Royal Ontario Museum's McLaughlin Planetarium was shut down. The utilitarian building––half a dome unceremoniously shoved on top of a rectangular prism––was, until recently, all but forgotten, obscured by construction offices for the extremely un-utilitarian Crystal being built around the corner. When those construction offices moved out in December, however, leaving a mass of wide open space that hadn't been wide open for several years, the Planetarium quietly re-asserted its presence, and the one big question that has circled around it since it was closed seemed as important as ever: what on earth is going to become of it?

At first we assumed it was Scientology. After all, who else has the money to produce and purchase space for such glossy anti-pharmaceutical ads, which have been popping up all over transit shelters and buses in Ontario and Montreal? Google wasn't much help, and their Blog Search just pointed us to other people as perplexed as we were. And poor spellers with domination fantasies.

Dalton McGuinty plans to form a committee to look for ways of replacing the daily recitation of the Lord's Prayer at Queen's Park, a practice which he says does not properly reflect Ontario's diversity. The Lord was unavailable for comment.

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.

Extreme cold alert! Be forewarned that this extreme cold is not extreme in the sense of "it is totally radical like Doritos and Mountain Dew," but rather extreme in the sense of "it can kill you if you stay out in it too long." Environment Canada will discuss the prospects of the extreme cold's effect on totally shredding slopes with your snowboard later today.

In this occasional feature, two Torontoist staffers face off to debate an issue that is important to our city. We invite our readers to join in the debate in the comments section after the post.

Torontoist is ending the year by naming our Heroes and Villains of 2007––the people, places, and things that we've either fallen head over heels in love with or developed uncontrollable rage towards over the past twelve months. Get your dose, starting Boxing Day and running into the new year, three times a day––sunrise, noon, and sunset.

It snowed a whole lot. Of course, you probably didn't need Torontoist to tell you this, unless you've been on a serious World of Warcraft run all weekend. In which case you are probably trapped inside your home, and soon will perish—which probably gives you just enough time to make it to level sixty!

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."

Photo by David Topping. A mysterious bag discovered in an alleyway beside the Royal Ontario Museum at about 7:00 p.m. tonight has shut down all traffic––pedestrian and vehicular––on Bloor between St. George and University and on Queen's Park southbound from Bloor and Harbord. UPDATE (10:45 p.m.): CTV is now saying that police have found "what appears to be a pipe bomb," and that the building was (half-)evacuated (contrary to what we were originally told)....

For the last 50 days, Donna Dillman has been on a hunger strike to protest uranium mining in eastern Ontario. Tomorrow (Tuesday), she brings that fight to the steps of Queen's Park, and she'd like you to join her.

Ever marvel at the architecture of Casa Loma, Osgoode Hall and the Ontario Legislature in Queen's Park? Those lovely red-brick buildings, dear friends, are the legacy of Toronto's vernacular building material—sweet slabs formed from the banks of the Don herself. From 1889 to 1980, the Don Valley Brick Works made some of the highest quality brick in the land. Why, in 1893, the Don Valley brick was crowned Best Brick at the Chicago World's...

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."

If you like crowds, candy, and Christmas, but hate––absolutely hate––having time off of work, celebrating holidays at the proper time of year, and snow, this weekend's Santa Claus Parade is your month-too-early Mecca. Now in its hundred and third year, the parade will begin on Sunday, November 18, at 12:30 p.m., traveling from Bloor and Christie, east along Bloor to Avenue, south on Avenue, around Queen's Park, and further south along University to Queen....

TTC EMPLOYEES WANTED PAY: 26.58/hr JOB REQUIREMENTS: • Able to be rude and unhelpful • Must be constantly late • Willing to waste tax payer moneyTTC service, union wages, and graffiti. If this post gets fewer than thirty comments, we'll be very sad. Thanks to Corinne Alstrom for the tip! And thanks to the people who helped decipher the hard-to-read middle bullet point. Photo taken by Jonathan Goldsbie, at the southwest street-level entrance to...

Hey, remember Nuit Blanche? You know: that all-night cultural art thing a little over a month ago that maybe wasn't all that great. That thing. While the city did a pretty spectacular clean-up job, they've missed a spot: a sign sturdily attached about ten feet up a pole outside the Isabel Bader Theatre at Queen's Park and Charles Street on U of T campus still welcomes visitors to Zone 3, and invites them to...

More than a week of protests in Toronto against the violence in Burma culminated last night with the Global March for the People of Burma. The demonstration began at 6:00 p.m. in front of the Chinese consulate on St. George Street before making its way to Queen's Park, where a vigil was led by monks from the city's Buddhist temples. According to the Toronto Star, hundreds heeded the call from Amnesty International and other human rights groups to rally in support of the monks in Burma, many of whom have been detained, murdered, or forced into hiding since the junta's crackdown began late last month.

With the provincial election upon us, Toronto's Davenport riding is in for a shakeup as a new candidate enters the fray: Lucky, Felis catus siamensis.

"Skeletons Out for a Walk" by emcnamee.