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Extra, Extra: Pulitzer Winner Quits the Toronto Star, Council Debates a Casino, and Cineplex Downsizes Pop
Every weekday’s end, we collect just about everything you ought to care about or ought not to miss.
Courtesy of Toronto Star
- Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Paul Watson has resigned from the Toronto Star over the paper’s “refusal to publish a story of significant public interest.” He announced on his blog Tuesday, “Resigning is the only way I can resume that reporting, complete the work and fulfill my responsibilities as a journalist.” Watson’s article focuses on the search for 1845’s Franklin Expedition’s lost ships and the inaccuracies of the Erebus discovery found during the Victoria Strait Expedition in 2014. The inaccuracies allegedly originate with a person close to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who had significant input and personal investment in the project, and has influence within the Star. Watson won the Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his photograph of a dead American soldier being dragged through the streets of Mogadishu during the Somalian civil war.
- Today, council will decide on whether to expand Woodbine’s gambling operations, which could see over 100 table games and nearly double the amount of slot machines added to the Rexdale casino. While Mayor John Tory argued that the expansion will bring much needed jobs to the area, others, including councillors Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) and James Pasternak (Ward 10, York Centre), argued that gambling is not a “sustainable economic driver” and instead sucks money out of the economy.
- Cineplex moviegoers who opt for a large soft drink at the concession stands will now have to pay the price of a large for a drink that’s 12 ounces smaller. While the large drink will take the size of the previous medium size (32 ounces), the medium will be reduced to 24 ounces with the small unchanged, all at an unchanged price. We’re not quite sure why this is news (refills on large pops are free) but hey, why not?