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Torontoist Week in Review: June 8-12
A lot happens in the course of a workweek. Here’s a look back at the top stories from the past five days that you might have missed, or might care to revisit.
Photo by Ilona from the Torontoist Flickr pool.
Everyone has been fearing a 20-foot, severely toxic, triffid-like plant otherwise known as giant hogweed. Well, Toronto, you can finally relax. We learned that the terrifying plant has essentially been eradicated from the city.
From the article:
A severely toxic plant called Giant Hogweed, despite seasonal media attention, is really not a widespread problem in the GTA according to experts. At least, not any more.
Illustration by Brett Lamb
Last week, we said goodbye to Glad Hand. This week, we looked back at editorial cartoonist Brett Lamb’s very best works for Torontoist.
From the article:
For five years, Brett Lamb has provided us with Glad Hand, our weekly political cartoon. Last week, we said goodbye to our good friend, who has retired his political cartooning implements (for now, anyway). We took a look back at some of our favourite panels from over the years.
Glad Hand, you’ll be truly missed.
Still from Wheel 4 Woman.
If you like to ride-er, bikes-this is, well… bike porn, literally. Some people really love their bikes.
From the article:
Bicycles can be ridden sitting down, standing up, or—as local actress Elle Chronique shows in a recent scene of niche erotica—in reverse cowgirl position. That steamy scene is from Wheel 4 Woman, a short that sees Chronique and fellow artists Natascha Malta and Becca Jaine use the two-wheeler as an object of desire, and a driving force to explore sexuality.
Photo by That Boy, from the Torontoist Flickr pool.
With Mayor John Tory’s announcement to end carding, Andray Domise outlines important issues and lessons to learn from the debate.
From the article:
With his troubled history of misunderstanding privilege, and by giving more weight to his staff, Chief-Designate Saunders, and Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack, Tory unnecessarily cast himself as yet another privileged and out-of-touch mayor incapable of dealing with the needs of a diverse city. Even Rob and Doug Ford understood this instinctively. To avoid messes like the carding fiasco in the future, Tory should reconsider using a single go-between to Toronto’s communities of colour, and give more thought to diversifying his staff.
Photo by twurdemann from the Torontoist Flickr Pool.
On Monday, Mayor John Tory addressed the Empire Club about the fate of the east Gardiner, but some of his facts did not add up. We fact-checked John Tory’s speech word for word; it took a while.
From the article:
We went through the speech to separate fact from fiction in advance of tomorrow’s council session, where the issue will be debated; those familiar with our fact-checks will recognize that Tory’s mendacity in this speech was greater than any we have checked since Rob Ford’s 2014 speech to the Economic Club—not a mark to which one should aspire.
Photo by Jamie Bradburn/Torontoist
The Royal Ontario Museum explores life in Pompeii before the volcanic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD inPompee: In the Shadow of the Volcano.
From the article:
The cloud first appeared in Pompeii in the early afternoon. As the day wore on, the shower of pumice and other debris spewing out of Mount Vesuvius increased. People were crushed to death in their homes as the barrage of volcanic rock caused their roofs to collapse. By the next morning, escape was impossible, as the cloud gave way to lethal pyroclastic flows of ash and gas.