Mayoral Race
• George Smitherman's long, scripted march [ Toronto Star ]
• Mayoral candidate proposes fast-tracking good building designs [ Toronto Star ]
• Keep David Miller's program [ Toronto Star ]
• George Smitherman: Firm stride, uncertain compass [ Globe & Mail ]
• Peter Kuitenbrower: Curious George (Smitherman) goes for a walk [ National Post ]
Transit
• Jarvis lane change puzzles drivers on bikes and in cars [ Toronto Star ]
• We're number two! [ Toronto Sun ]
G20 Aftermath
• Police arrest seven more 'most wanted' from G20 suspects [ Toronto Star ]
• Bail decision expected on G20 explosives charges [ Toronto Star ]
Eco Fees
• Liberals hear consumers' cry, vow to retool eco-fee [ Toronto Star ]
• Grits backtrack on eco fees [ Toronto Sun ]
• Eco fee confusion grows [ Toronto Sun ]
Other News
• City wrong to pay councillors' legal tab [ Toronto Star ]
• The solar panel divide [ Toronto Star ]
• OPP probing corruption by staff in at least three ministries [ Toronto Star ]
• Vaughan mayor hails 'new era' as election date looms [ Globe & Mail ]
• Niagara ads depicts Toronto as a cramped, noisy and ugly city [ National Post ]
• Internet jokesters disqualified from condo-naming contest [ National Post ]
• Beach bathrooms brutal: Levy [ Toronto Sun ]
• Yonge building still in shambles [ Toronto Sun ]
Here’s a question: How is it that Canadians were so blasé about the mass G-20 arrests, but now seem to be intriguingly hot and bothered about Tony Clement and Census-gate? And, as an admittedly tangential follow-up, what can this apparent contradiction in public opinion tell us about Toronto’s mayoral race?
Starting with question one. Think about our national motto, and especially the second two imperatives. Canadians don’t veer towards the authoritarian, as happens in the United States, but we like to keep things tidy, and the scenes of mayhem from the G20 protests certainly cast the die on public opinion.
But the same instinct is apparent in public reaction to the Conservative’s move to scrap the mandatory census long form. The census, apart from all its statistical usefulness, is an institution that imposes quantitative order on government and society, and therefore it supports our apparent craving (frequently unsatisfied) for “good government” (i.e., good = rational).
In a country not given to ideological extremes and starkly shaded political principles, many people intuitively understand the relationship between data and decision-making. The census is, above all, a supremely pragmatic document.
Mayoral Race
• Hume: Reports of Toronto's demise are exaggerated [ Toronto Star ]
• The real cost of Rob Ford's financial hard line [ Globe & Mail ]
• Rob Ford: The lone wolf [ Toronto Sun ]
G20 Aftermath
• Face painting, dancing, bubbles.... at G20 protest [ Toronto Star ]
• The greatest trial of Alok Mukherjee [ Globe & Mail ]
• G20 protests starts with a 'bubble-in' [ Globe & Mail ]
Urban Green
• Hamilton: Clouds over Ontario solar plan [ Toronto Star ]
• Waste diversion makes for a greener, cleaner Ontario [ Toronto Star ]
City Building
• Infrastructure matters [ Toronto Star ]
• Big changes coming to Oshawa waterfront [ Toronto Star ]
• Worst intersections: Lonsdale Road and Avenue Road [ Globe & Mail ]
• Toronto art star's mosaics will grace Dufferin underpass [ Globe & Mail ]
Other News
• Just one thing... [ Toronto Star ]
• Does Toronto still want the Indy? [ Toronto Star ]
• True crime, Canadian style [ Toronto Star ]
• Latest effort to audit subway stations causes barely a ripple [ Toronto Star ]
• From Spacing magazine to flying kites sky high, Dave Meslin is involved in this city, and thinks you should be too [ National Post ]
• Cyclists win symbolic victory on Jarvis [ National Post ]
• Honda Indy a gas: fans [ Toronto Sun ]
The Brick Works have been acknowledged by photographers, urban explorers, graffiti artists, homeless people, and underground events promoters as the perfect place to do… just about anything. The long-unoccupied Kiln Buildings are now covered from wall-to-wall, kiln-to-kiln with so many pieces of artwork that Evergreen, the group restoring the entire Brick Works facility, considers the graffiti a representation of its history – the abandoned years.
As part of the plan to keep the Kiln Buildings as original as possible, at least 70% of the graffiti art is going to stay. But they’ve added another element to the long spray-painted walls – sticker portraits. Dan Bergeron was contacted by Diaspora Dialogues, a company that has done many art installations in buildings around the city (including at Union Station for Doors Open Toronto in 2009), and wanted to do something to the Brick Works that represented its history.
Bergeron considered the proposal for a while and discarded their idea of archival images of the quarry and building in favour of a concept that is familiar to him. Bergeron has done mass scale portraits around Toronto, such as his Regent Park Portrait Project, and decided to photograph some of the living employees of the Kilns. Those who traversed the Brick Works during Doors Open this year may have already seen the larger-than-life portraits created by Bergeron and an assistant. The faces of the six men, portrayed high up on the walls, represent not only the people who worked in the kilns, toiling away in front of 2,000 degree Fahrenheit fires, but the history of Toronto's structures. “They built the city,” Bergeron said, and he wanted to pay homage to them.
Today is the final installment in our week-long G20 Special. A lot remains up for debate but we couldn't wrap up this particular discussion without drawing attention to the ways our public spaces were divided and designated into zones in order to control protesters (and residents), peaceful and otherwise.
Tor Sandberg is the program director for Rabble TV and was in charge of coordinating their video coverage during the Summit. Sandberg met up with Spacing producer Mieke Anderson at Queen's Park, which only a few weeks ago was Toronto's only official protest zone, a.k.a. "designated free speech area."
Links to stuff from Spacing Radio's G20 Special, pt. V:
After weeks of protest about anything and everything G20, this weekend a more quiet form of civic disobedience will come to a public space in Toronto, but participants may not even know what they are protesting.
Artists Eric Moschopedis and Mia Rushton came up with the idea of Z’s by the C, a public napping project, three years ago when they heard about new bylaws being passed in Calgary. The bylaw, passed in November of 2006, is called the Public Behaviour Bylaw and basically makes it illegal to spit, loiter, or put feet up on benches. Moschopedis and Rushton felt this was a way to discourage homeless people from sleeping in parks, or anyone who wanted to take a midday break and snooze under a tree. “The regulations imposed on parks are imposed on people,” says Moschepedis.
Gathering people on a certain day to decorate pre-sewn masks and take a nap is a way to reclaim public space and act out against these restrictions on behaviour in public places. Since 2008, Moschopedis and Rushton have taken this project to public spaces in Zurich, New York, Ottawa, Calgary, and now, with the support of the Theatre Centre, they've brought the project to Toronto.
“Its designed so that people are sucked into a playful activity long before they realize that it was a form of protest,” says Mochepedis, adding that about half of the approximately 150 people that nap throughout the day are people off the street that they have spoken to and drawn in. “For people to participate in the project they don’t need to be aware of the issues… but they often become aware by the end,” he adds. Continue reading this post
Discussion in the leadup to the G20 Summit took a far more serious and ominous turn on Friday, June 25, when the Toronto Star ran a front-page story about an amendment to the virtually unknown Public Works Protection Act. The change to the law, the Star reported, was passed quietly by the Provincial government, and gave the police broad powers.
The amendment was brought to the Star’s attention by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), a group that distinguished itself as a steady and sober voice for the rights of civilians caught up in the law-enforcement web. Nathalie Des Rosiers, CCLA general counsel who has become a go-to source for reporters, spoke with Spacing’s Todd Harrison about the laws surrounding public protest, her group’s response to the G20 arrests, and the upcoming review by the Toronto Police Services Board.
Links to stuff from Spacing Radio's G20 Special, pt. IV:
EDITOR'S NOTE: Spacing Votes — our dedicated 2010 election blog — will feature regular posts form our contributors that examine campaign promises and platforms that focus on Toronto's urban landscape. Here's our first round-up of posts from the last seven days.
• As somewhat of a lackluster race as far as debate and platforms are concerned, Nabeel Ahmed takes a closer look at the media's role. As some of the candidates continue to coast as the elections are still three months out, Ahmed looks to the media to continue in critiquing the platforms (or lack thereof) and track records of the mayoral hopefuls.
• As the new Jarvis bike lane construction gets underway today, cycling is going to be a key point of discussion in the looming election. With more than half of Torontonians identifying themselves as cyclists, bike lanes and bike parking issues need to be addressed, argues Mike Radoslav.
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