Saturday May 17, 2008
Being held to the sternest of tests is good - if it's applied to all
Taken together, the Law Society of Upper Canada decisions of last year, the first vindicating Sharon Shore as a person of sufficient good character to be a lawyer and the other awarding her $91,500 for legal costs she incurred defending herself at an uncommon admissions hearing, add up to 31 pages. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Man's 3rd murder trial ends with verdict of guilty
A fatigued jury convicted Ontario chiropractor Kirk Klymchuk of second-degree murder yesterday after deliberating for five days over whether he had bludgeoned his 27-year-old wife, Maria, to death with an axe on Easter Sunday, 1998. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Premier McGuinty's balancing act needs some work
Liberals love balance. It's in their blood to want to bring everyone together under one tent in a spirit of compromise.But Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government is finding this ideal hard to live up to on policies dealing with the exploitation of the province's vast natural resources. In two current cases, it is struggling to find the fulcrum point between entrenched views among interest groups and within government ministries. The performance of Kumbaya is on hold. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Ottawa's dollar-match promise sparks plea for donations
A promise by the Canadian government to match donations for the victims of natural disasters in Myanmar and China has prompted community leaders to urge Torontonians to give generously.As the death toll in both countries has climbed, to 200,000 by some estimates in Myanmar, formerly called Burma, and 50,000 in China, concerns among the international community have grown about how donations will reach the victims. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Permits put the kibosh on the kaboom
New rules in Toronto meant to crack down on dodgy convenience stores hawking fireworks to children appear to have dramatically reduced the number of places where things that go boom can be sold in advance of the Victoria Day long weekend. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Developer woos ward to avoid OMB hearing
The developer of a controversial east-end shopping mall has approached the city with a proposal aimed at avoiding a costly Ontario Municipal Board hearing over the project, but so far has been rebuffed. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Baltovich case doesn't warrant inquiry, Attorney-General says
The Ontario government will not call a public inquiry into the case of Robert Baltovich, who spent 18 years under a cloud before his conviction for murdering his girlfriend was overturned. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Cyclists get in gear to speak with a unified voice
Ask any cyclist, and they'll tell you the hardest thing about riding a bike in Toronto is that you feel invisible.''A lot of drivers just don't look,'' says Vanessa Fong, an architect who rides her black folding bike to work every morning. She says motorists don't see bicycles the way they see pedestrians or other cars. She has been cut off, pushed around, and nearly run over. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Rights body's 'angry agenda'
Ontario agencies are adept at accepting licence fees for all sorts of activities, including fishing, while education and enforcement are next to nil. That leads to two kinds of poaching: deliberate and inadvertent. Both might have been involved in the dispute in small-town Ontario which the Ontario Human Rights Commission deemed to be a race-based assault on Asian-Canadians. No one really knows; the OHRC did not investigate (What's That Fishy Smell? An Empire? - May 15). From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Rights body's 'angry agenda'
Perhaps the problem with human-rights commissions is their nomenclature. If they were renamed as Commissions for Human Rights, Privileges, Responsibilities and Obligations, their rulings might be more useful. Their recent reports prove they have outlived their usefulness. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Sharpen your pencil, Mr. McGuinty
Some days, it feels like Canada's auto industry is as preoccupied with making speeches as making pickup trucks. The unions say Canadian car factories are getting killed by the rising dollar and by unfair trade, and ask the government for financial aid. The auto manufacturers say they're getting killed by the rising dollar and high costs; they ask the unions for lower wages and the government for financial aid. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
FIVE REVELATIONS: YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TORONTO THIS WEEKEND
1ExodusIt's Victoria Day weekend. That means the ritual punishment of a bumper-to-bumper drive up Highway 400 to cottage country. If you travel early (or late) enough to avoid the traffic, remember to keep your lead foot off the gas pedal. Two OPP airplanes will be spotting speeders. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
How condo developers could be our school saviours
Toronto's public school system has two big, urgent problems. Its student population is dwindling and close to 100 of its schools are more than 80 years old and often in need of serious repairs. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
A rooftop garden fit for a philanthropist
When you sit down to lunch at the Royal Ontario Museum's C5 restaurant, you may be in elite company, but you don't get a million-dollar view. When the museum reopened last year, its glossy new restaurant faced a grim rooftop. ''It looked like 10,000 square feet of asphalt,'' architect Lisa Rapoport says. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Life is a cabaret, old chum
Apologies to the female guests who attended Fandango! 2008 Soiree Guinguette, but there really was no contest: The men dressed according to theme in a way that could only be described as merveilleux. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Pay your voluntary carbon taxes: Move into the fashionable high-rise city
Timing is everything. Anticipating the long weekend fill-up, I realize that every hour of procrastination will only increase its outrageous cost. That leads me to wonder what might have happened had Michael Ignatieff stood up for his one best policy - a carbon tax - two years ago, when the idea needed a champion undaunted by the predictable backlash. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
No trespassing allowed (millionaires excepted)
From inside Edgemere Estate, the largest private property on Oakville's ''millionaires' row,'' there is a stunning view of Lake Ontario sparkling in the bright afternoon sun.For a century, this view and Edgemere's 300 metres of shoreline have been the exclusive preserve of the five-hectare estate's wealthy proprietors - and if Edgemere's newest owner wins a looming battle with Oakville town hall, it will stay that way. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Toronto's white underbelly
David White, 50He's been homeless since his wife and daughter died in a car accident. ''Sometimes [living on the street] is better. You don't have to deal with people and you don't have to worry about people.' From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Even without drugs, vodka and Pop-Tarts, new coaster is a trip
The last time I went to Canada's Wonderland, I was 18 and my friends and I were thrown out of the park after one of us bear-hugged a costumed mascot too adoringly. Escorting us to our car, the earnest, well-meaning security guard wondered, ''Don't you guys know there's a real person inside that Scooby-Doo outfit?'' From Print Edition, 17/05/08
GOING OUT: THINGS TO DO AND PEOPLE TO SEE IN T.O. THIS WEEK
ART and LIT Peter Kingstone in conversation with Thomas WaughLocal artist Peter Kingstone never knew his grandmother. She was a sex-trade worker in Miami and other cities. For his four-channel video installation, entitled 100 Stories About My Grandmother, Kingstone interviewed other men who are grandsons of prositutes. Concordia University film professor Thomas Waugh and the local artist will talk about the touching stories he heard in the making of the video, which weaves together memories the men have of their grandmothers. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
LIPSTICK, CHERRY: LADY DJS SPIN AT THE DRAKE
From Print Edition, 17/05/08
STAND AND DELIVER: A SEXY IDEA
Torontonians have voted: This year's Astral Media Outdoor Student Design Competition winner is ''I am Toronto,'' soon to be seen on 70 transit shelters. The competition, in partnership with the Ontario College of Art and Design, engaged third-year advertising students to express their vision of the city through original artwork. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
The kindest cut
Toronto's cats and dogs will soon be short a few more testicles and ovaries - and that's good news for animal shelters and pet owners. The lucky pets will get snipped en masse at Spaycentral, the city's first high-volume clinic devoted exclusively to low-cost spaying and neutering. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Once the hipsters' bibles, Eye, Now shed readers
''My painkiller ingestion is pretty minimal right now,'' Now publisher and editor Michael Hollett jokes, ''but I still might trail off.'' It has been several weeks since Mr. Hollett was laid low by former Maple Leaf Mike Pelyk in the annual Juno Cup hockey game. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Pull up a seat at the Canadian chefs' summit. Dress casual: There will be pig
If you are one of the lucky people with tickets to the Drake Hotel's James Beard Foundation Gala dinner, then here's the scoop. ''I haven't told anyone this yet,'' executive chef Anthony Rose confides. ''I just talked to Martin about his dish for the meal.'' From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Just a little more off the top
''Forget hair,'' says Ray Civello, while striding into what used to be a dirt-floored cellar. ''This is the ultimate makeover. You can't believe what it used to look like!'' From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Al Purdy sculpture fired up and ready for its unveiling
It's taken a while, but Al Purdy is ready for his Toronto unveiling.The ceremony on Tuesday afternoon in Toronto's Queen's Park, a few steps from the Ontario legislature, will reveal a sculpture of the great poet sitting and gazing off, half in thought, half in amusement. From Print Edition, 17/05/08
Forward thinking
Why locomotives face both ways 16/05/08 6:58 PM
