Photo by Lina Aristizabal. Yesterday, January 21, was the 35th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision that decriminalized abortion in the United States. Monday marks the 20th anniversary of Canada's Morgentaler decision, a similar judgment that found the Criminal Code's abortion provision to be in violation of womens' Charter rights. In the Morgentaler case, Justice Bertha Wilson wrote the following:The decision whether to terminate a pregnancy is essentially a......

City Council considers removing the downspout removal subsidy. This news item brought to you by The Council For Reminding You That Municipal Politics Are Often Incredibly Dull Even If They're Necessary. (The group promises to come up with a better, catchier acronym as soon as possible.) RCMP to review Taser policy after the death of Robert Dziekanski. See, they're sorry, but they're not quite so sorry as to, for example, charge their officers with any......

Toronto came in 5th in the livability survey of the Economist Intelligence Unit, behind Vancouver, Melbourne, Vienna and Perth. While we can rightfully be proud of our score, it's kind of like being one of the kids who sits in the front of the room near the teacher while all the cool kids like New York and London are having a lot more fun down in the 40s and 50s. The Supreme Court has......

During the "Golden Age" of Hollywood, motion picture studios controlled every step of the production, distribution, and exhibition of movies in the United States. Then, in 1948, a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision ruled these practices anti-competitive and monopolistic, forcing the studios to divest themselves of the theatres they owned, and opening the market to foreign films, art films, and independent films—for the first time, movie houses that were not part of large chains......

Tony Blair resigns as British Prime Minister, and Gordon Brown takes over. For those not familiar with British politics, an analogy: remember when Jean Chretien stepped down and Paul Martin took over as Prime Minister, and everybody agreed that although it was clearly time to go, wow, was Paul Martin boring or what? It's like that, except pretend that Paul Martin was even more boring. Looks like the Hamilton Predators will not be in Ontario's......

Study finds that Ontario children's group homes are like jails. Managers of group homes dismissed charges that their homes were Dickensian by pointing out that their children are not highly skilled pickpockets. Yet. Supreme Court to hear Windsor man's "fly phobia" case. Waddah Mustapha found a fly in his bottled water in 2001, and claims to have suffered immense mental damage and a phobia of flies as a result. He was awarded over $300,000 in......

The TTC proposes an "experiment" to make King Street West (between John and Spadina) a pedestrian-and-streetcar-only zone during the summer of 2008, much to the chagrin of business owners on the restaurant strip. However, the plan would allow a single lane to remain open for taxis and deliveries. 15 British sailors were seized from their ship in the Persian Gulf by an Iranian naval vessel. This is going to be awkward... One of Parti......

Ontario Lottery Corporation recalls over a million scratch lotto cards after a customer complains you can see a winner without scratching. Between this and the retailers-stealing-jackpot-tickets flap a few months ago, it is probably even odds that every Ontario lotto jackpot in the last five years has been won by one guy in Whitby named Fred. Four mature maple trees cut down to make room for a screen from the Islington Golf Club. The......

Update on the stolen Taras Shevchenko statue story: its head has turned up at a smelter in Burlington, and one person has been arrested. With luck, all the assholes who stole the statue will get caught now that there's a lead. With more luck, the statue is recoverable. Stephen Harper's aides are quietly having meetings with major environmental groups in order to come up with a new environmental policy. More specifically, they're hoping to......

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......

KFC will be slightly more healthy when they switch to canola oil by early next year. 90 per cent of their menu will be free of trans fats, with the remaining 10 per cent to follow shortly. Wal-Mart may soon be offering banking services in Canada. Contrast this with 5 years ago, when TD was celebrating the fact that it was operating out of Wal-Mart stores. Toronto's Expo 2015 bid must be submitted by Friday,......

Hey, have y'all been using our new "Recommend this" feature at the bottom of each post? This week we're bringing you the "Most Recommended" posts from across the -ist world, as well as recommending some of our own. Phillyist thinks that readers recommended this post the most because "most of our quieter readers (probably) agree with us that rude commenting sucks." Know what else sucks? Philly's not getting the Olympics, but they are getting thinner.......

We’re all still busy basking in the warm glow of the revelation that the Royal, at least, will live again, and we know we mentioned it last week, but Superman Returns has been getting good enough word of mouth it might actually be worth checking out. Eye’s Jason Anderson claims “it's the rare blockbuster that lives up to advance hype”, but thankfully, good old trustworthy John Harkness of NOW gives it a kicking because the......

The last time a vote was this close the Supreme Court had to be called in. Last night's Downtown and East York final for City Idol went to three ballots and a run-off before Desmond Cole (shown here in between Boy Reporter and fellow finalist Karen Sun) was picked by a raucous crowd at Lula Lounge to be downtown Toronto's first City Idol. Cole will be running in Ward 20 alongside former TV broadcaster......

Shanghaiist probably knows a little more about China than the Chicago Sun-Times. Giving them the benefit of the doubt on that one. The city does to have a music scene. Don't even front like they don't. They also have Dorito bananas and white guys shopping for wives. What they don't have is any more tolerance for jaywalkers. Bostonist sees Boston and Somerville each whip out their art and face off. A plagiarized novel is the......

In a landmark decision for human rights, PM Paul Martin and the Liberal government will be allowed to introduce same-sex marriage unions to Parliament next year. The bill will seek to redefine marriage as "the lawful union of two persons," and will also protect the rights of religious organizations that refuse to perform same-sex marriages, like the National Post. In another bold move, Paul Martin called Canada the "world's most post-modern country" as a result......