news
Newsstand: June 2, 2011
Illustration by Sasha Plotnikova/Torontoist.
Good [time of day you’re reading this]! Sure is a lovely one, eh? Well, on to the news, shall we? Toronto’s poet laureate wins the Griffin Prize, big-ups Pushkin; a bunch of crazies are lining up to do a crazy thing; G20 hearings get underway; Doug Ford’s going digging for explanations on sole source contracts; and raccoons.
A series of public hearings into police behaviour during the G20 has sparked a series of articles about them. Last night was the first of three hearings that are being held as part of an independent civilian review launched by the Toronto Police Services Board. People lined up to tell their G20 stories and basically deliver a resounding “WTF?” to the police.
Construction of a disco road cost the City $76 million and led the pack for the most expensive sole-sourced purchase made in 2010. Wait, no, that’s supposed to be “construction on Disco Road [of a green bin organics processing plant]” was the most expensive sole-sourced contract. We can dream though, can’t we? Disco nap at least?
So Shakespeare, Alexander Pushkin, and Bob Marley walk into a bar… No, nevermind, they probably never did that. But what they did do was inspire Griffin Poetry Prize winner Dionne Brand. In her acceptance speech for the prestigious award, Brand thanked those writers and more who’ve “kept me company through the time I’ve been writing.” And as if being Toronto’s Poet Laureate wasn’t ballin’ enough, Brand takes home $75,000 in prize money (that’s $65,000 for the prize and $10,000 just for being short-listed, for those of you who, like us, are confused about the conflicting reports).
Tickets for the CN Tower’s new terrifying attraction, EdgeWalk, went on sale Wednesday, and the phone lines were jammed with orders. Officials said first-day sales were “terrific” but wouldn’t confirm any sales numbers. Though the Star feels comfortable judging the popularity by the sales line’s constant busy signal. Yes, the bleeping of a telephone busy signal, because EdgeWalk is not equipped to process online sales. Now, we’re not saying that EdgeWalk’s telephone-only purchasing system indicates a lack of familiarity with modern day technology that could translate into a lack of familiarity with modern safety technology. But that is the kind of crazy excuse we would make up to avoid going on EdgeWalk without admitting how straight-up scared we are of it.
And everyone’s talking about this raccoon thing. So.