Things between Anonymous and the Church of Scientology have been getting downright nasty lately. Vindictive, even. For much of the last week, Project Chanology's local adherents have been holding court at Scientology's Yonge Street chapter, carrying out what they call "flash raids." Unlike the broader, theme-based demonstrations of the past few months—addressing everything from the Church's notorious Fair Game policy to its very own, admittedly hilarious private navy—the community-targeted, information-based flash raids are, in......

The Worldwide Short Film Festival opened last night so it's too late to call this a preview, but we wanted to make sure we'd seen as many of the programmes we could manage before we offered you any opinions on what to go and see (and what to avoid). After the jump, previews of official selections Crime & Punishment and Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me; Japanese spotlight Genius Party; Celebrity Shorts;......

Forgive us if we're breaking rules 1 and 2, but it didn't take us long to figure out that this fake Wii Battletoads website (site has changed, see Google cache for original) was a viral marketing campaign against the Church of Scientology's "Fair Game" policy. This past Saturday marked the latest "in real life raid" against the Church. This wave of protests focused on a memo issued by L. Ron Hubbard in 1965, which......

Following demonstrations on February 10 and March 15, Anonymous once again occupied the sidewalks across from 696 Yonge Street on Saturday. This time, however, the windowshades of Scientology’s Toronto outlet were drawn, its ground-level offices apparently vacant; with the exception of one lonely camera jockey, Hubbard’s loyal army of hyper-vigilant paparazzi were conspicuously absent. Maybe they called their day on account of rain. By noon, April showers had made smeary messes of one or......

Photo by exMOHAX Led by the group Anonymous and their ongoing campaign against the Church of Scientology, Project Chanology, protesters gathered outside the church's Toronto headquarters on Sunday to mark Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's birthday. It was the second such worldwide protest in just over a month; the last protest—a surprisingly massive one—took place on February 10th. More photos from our Flickr Pool after the jump.......

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. Phillyist explored an impending implosion and lived to tell the tale.Gothamist marveled at the city's new NYC-branded condom campaign––especially the use of a Toronto landmark in the advertising. (Also, fun fact: Gothamist turned five years old yesterday.)Tired......

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. Searches of domain registrations weren't particularly fruitful, especially after the......

Photo by Kamillionaire (Chicago). A spokesperson for the Church of Scientology labelled Sunday's protest outside its office at Yonge & St Mary—part of a worldwide series of protests—a "religious hate crime" and said that the "hate crimes of Anonymous should be condemned," as reported in Torontoist, CTV and the Toronto Sun, among others. That got us thinking. Accusing someone of a "hate crime" is pretty damning. Are the protestors guilty of it? Our preliminary......

If you passed the Church of Scientology’s Toronto chapter at Yonge & St. Mary on Sunday, you may have momentarily entertained a dark fantasy that Tom Cruise would emerge from the masked masses amid gales of manic laughter, igniting the dissenting throng with bolts of righteous lightning. Sadly, no such fun. Rumour has it that Mr. Cruise was under lockdown during Anonymous’ global day of action against L. Ron Hubbard’s brainchild. As the Toronto......

City councillor wants to bring in the army—literally—to fight gangs. Torontoist ultimately decided to link to the Star's version of this story over Holy Shit Somebody Actually Said That Weekly. You are welcome. Mitt Romney delivers passionate speech defending religious plurality in America. The gist of the speech is thus: "Don't be intolerant of me because I am a Mormon; be intolerant of those agnostics and atheists over there who should not even be......

For some of us, Tuesdays can only mean one thing. Yes, "Family and Relationships" day over at Globe Life, the Globe's lifestyle section that was introduced in the April redesign. But it seems like they’re having some trouble finding material, because yesterday’s Globe Life section featured not one, but two pieces on what to do when you accidentally offend a colleague, either by mistakenly hitting "Reply" instead of "Forward" (à la Aileen Siu), or by......

The good people at Brunswick Theatre are hosting another week of free film screenings! Return their love and boost attendance by coming out to see one (or a few) of the following films: Monday, July 9 Darwin's Nightmare—7 p.m. Big Bucks, Big Pharma: Pushing Drugs & Marketing Disease—9:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 10 Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Price—4:30 p.m. Mardi Gras: Made in China—7 p.m. Scientology and Me—9 p.m. Wednesday, July 11 9/11......

Something strange is happening behind the scenes at the Globe and Mail web site. On the weekend there was a photo story called Catwalk Slideshow (highlighting the best of Paris fashion week). The photos accompanying the piece included some rather wacky ALT tags. So what's an ALT tag? This is a piece of optional code that is attached to an image, providing a textual description of the photo or graphic. It's often included for visually-impaired......

It seems like that the TIFF has raised more questions than it answers. The most pressing one is just how do you pronounce the titles of two much talked about films Volver and Babel. Vickie at Moviepie Musings chimes in: If, like I did, you’re wondering how to properly pronounce Volver, allow me to tell you: it’s pronounced vol-VEHR. Preferably with a rolling R. A plea: if anyone went to see Babel, please feel free......

Londonist prepares a Happy Birthday bath for Buddha this week and then things get all cliched. A madman goes on a rampage while axe-wielding and London's mayor warns an American diplomat to avoid the kitchen if the heat bothers him so much. LAist has finally come around to purchasing tickets for Clipper Train. Hyper local dating sites are spamming L.A. neighborhoods and the fascinating Dame Darcy talks with LAist about art, the city and earthquakes.......