Extra, Extra: The RCMP Want to Be Your Facebook Friend, Jeff Lyons Passes Away at 75, and A New Aga Khan Exhibit
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Extra, Extra: The RCMP Want to Be Your Facebook Friend, Jeff Lyons Passes Away at 75, and A New Aga Khan Exhibit

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  • Have your Facebook posts ever been “liked” by a waddle of penguins? If so, the RCMP may be watching you. Officers reportedly created a fake Facebook profile, Bebop Arooney, with a profile picture of three penguins gathered on a beach, to monitor and communicate more than two dozen Toronto organizations. These groups included Black Lives Matter Toronto, the Ukrainian Canadian congress, and six Jewish and pro-Palestinian groups. UNITE HERE Local 75 president Lis Pimental said, “The idea that the RCMP would attempt to interfere with the charter-protected rights of workers simply underscores the importance of those rights.” The social media account has since been deleted.

  • Once City Hall’s most powerful lobbyist, as well as a former TTC chair and vice-chair of the Toronto Police Services Board, Jeff Lyons, has passed away at 75 after collapsing during a run on Sunday afternoon. Lyons held many high-profile posts, including chair of Trentway-Wagar Properties and Gray Coach Lines Limited, and was on the board of agencies that included Via Rail and Ontario Place. His reputation was tarnished by the MFP computer leasing scandal that embroiled city hall in the early ’00s, and the subsequent Bellamy Report that provided a damning indictment of the kind of lobbying that made Lyons so powerful. The inquiry led to the implementation of Toronto’s accountability officers, and the influence of “Brother Jeff” was never the same.
  • The Aga Khan museum is now showcasing contemporary Arabic art. Founder of the Barjeel Art Foundation and prominent Arab Spring live-tweeter Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi’s Home Ground: Contemporary Art explores the impact of war, immigration, and women’s roles in the Middle East. The exhibit features 24 works of art from 12 Arab artists across the globe, and will run from July 25 to January 3.

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