Extra, Extra: Toronto Without Borders Edition

By Meg Campbell

Every weekday’s end, Extra, Extra collects just about everything you ought to care about or ought not miss.

• Since 2008, Toronto’s Lucy Zhao, director Tiffany Hsiung, and Golden Nugget Productions have been working hard to raise funds for the documentary Within Every Woman. It is a documentary about the tragic stories and, until recently, secrets of the Second World War’s “comfort women,” who were kidnapped and kept as sexual slaves for Japanese Imperial soldiers. The project’s goal is to record the stories of these women, now mostly in their 80s and 90s. To make sure the project is completed, the project’s organizers are using Kickstarter to help meet their June 30 fundraising deadline. Hsiung is also touring Toronto high schools to share what she’s learned with local students. See more details on how to donate and watch the official trailer here.
• Anyone who’s been there can sing its virtues, but now its greatness is official. Evergreen Brick Works is the second-best public space in Canada, according to the Canadian Institute of Planners. After a four-month selection process, sifting through approximately 6,000 nominations, CIP placed the Forks in Winnipeg in the top spot; Pippy Park, in St. John’s, Newfoundland, followed the Brick Works in third place.
• Social media’s place in political and social justice campaigns is already well known, but one Torontonian recently demonstrated the usefulness of Facebook’s crowdsourcing capabilities in the name of scientific discovery, too. Devin Bloom, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto Scarborough, was in Guyana’s Cuyuni River basin, researching fish species. The team he was working with needed to identify more than 5,000 specimens in order to get the government’s permission to leave the country, and Bloom came up with the idea to ask Facebook friends. The work was completed in less than a day. Gotta “like” that.
• Taking inspiration from our prime minister’s impressive reality-avoidance skills, Toronto musician Digits wrote a new song, “Smooth Liar,” and Torontoist illustrator Roxanne Ignatius created some great cover art to go along with it. You can listen to the song and see the art here.

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