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Newsstand: December 4, 2009
Photo by Nick Kozak/Torontoist.
Think reporters drone on a little too much about city politics? Don’t worry, Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) has got it covered. He has suggested restricting media in city campaigns, saying it’s important to control the influence of journalists corporations in elections. Pantalone, a mayoral hopeful whose “platform” currently consists of the fact that he’d be the first non-Gaelic mayor whose first language isn’t English. While those credentials are obviously media gold, Pantalone’s aspirations have been continually eclipsed by rivals such as John Tory and Adam Giambrone (Ward 18, Davenport), who each host their own shows on Newstalk and CP24, respectively. If Pantalone ever clarifies his vague remarks about possibly having “restrictions put in,” we’d love to report it—but we wouldn’t want to step on any toes.
Demonstrators from First Nations communities angered that the new Harmonized Sales Tax takes away their point-of-purchase PST exemption moved through downtown, shutting down intersections as they passed to protest the new tax (pictured above). “We have an inherent right not to pay it,” Toronto resident Kevin Copegog told the Star. “We’re allies of the Queen, not subjects,” he added. The protest [video] began and ended at Queen’s Park.
A government-run shelter had to be sheltered from the government yesterday, when the centre for at-risk pregnant teenagers, itself at risk of having its funding cut, was encircled by a human chain to keep out government inspectors who the protestors feared will be looking for ways to lower costs by cutting services. The budget-cutting inspectors have promised to return to the Massey Centre for Women soon.
After it disappeared from the pages of Eye Weekly in October (and for what, extra room for the IKEA handjob slide-rule?) Sasha Van Bon Bon’s sex advice column “Love Bites” has gone the way of all flesh in Toronto: to NOW Magazine. With her switch from Eye to NOW, Sasha’s making the same move as Dan Savage, whose syndicated column left Eye for NOW back in 1999 and never looked back. Wonder if the two of them will get the chance to share awkward memories about that other Toronto alt-weekly they used to hang out with.