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Newsstand: August 3, 2010
Illustration by Matt Daley/Torontoist.
Today: terrorists and plays don’t mix, there’s mystery in the Humber River, and more people drown in pools.
Want to show tourists all that Toronto has to offer? Well, applications are being accepted for a program that lets visitors experience the city “through the eyes of a local.” The “TAP into TO!” program is made up of seventy-five volunteer greeters. Introduced in 2005, the program took inspiration from similar ones in Chicago, New York, and Melbourne. Greeters show off particular neighbourhoods and can also ride the subway with visitors—you might as well take someone along since you’ll probably use the train anyway—to put them at ease with the transit system.
And here’s something for the volunteers to show tourists: a bunch of random rock sculptures have popped up in the Humber River by the Old Mill in the west end. There are thirty-nine of the “Inukshuk-like” figures, which were mysteriously assembled overnight.
One of the plays in this year’s SummerWorks festival is causing quite a stir, as it apparently offers a “sympathetic portrayal” of one of the Toronto 18 members. Shareef Abdelhaleem, who was found guilty of two terrorism-related charges involving a bomb plot downtown, will be the lead character portrayed in Homegrown. The festival got nearly ninety thousand dollars from the government, and the play itself got six thousand from the Toronto Arts Council, which has many, including the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, in a tizzy. The play’s writer said it does not condone terrorism, but that isn’t good enough for those calling it a “terrorist love-in.”
Many of you probably already have anxieties about going to the dentist, so at least make sure the clinic you’re visiting isn’t in a basement without a window and outfitted with a tattered, rusty dental chair and unsterilized equipment. Following an exposé in the Star, the Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario is investigating three underground dentists practicing in the GTA illegally. Offering cut-rate prices and frighteningly shoddy work (one man said his teeth fell out), the pretenders with no Canadian credentials perform all kinds of procedures.
Two more kids were pulled from pools and taken to the hospital yesterday; one was in critical condition, and the other didn’t sustain any serious injuries. Seven toddlers have drowned in Ontario this year, compared to only one last year. And it’s not just kids—a seventy-six-year-old woman was found dead in her backyard pool Monday evening. Last week, Ontario’s acting chief coroner announced he will investigate the rise in drownings.