The International Plowing Match will not be denied. The expectation that MPPs will show up at a rural expo in Chatham-Kent necessitated an overnight session to complete the required debate on a revised bill to cut Toronto city council. The move met with waves of Queen’s Park protest. But all of the standard procedures proceeded inside:

“Let’s drive the devil out of Toronto!” Giorgio Mammoliti is still on the campaign trail, having proclaimed that youth violence is a byproduct of “the attack on Christians and other faiths.” His tweet earned an arch-atheist take from Ricky Gervais: “That’s why there are no religious people in prison.”

Kensington Market laneway landlord hasn’t been seen since 1900. That’s when R.B. Denison, the last recorded owner of a pothole-laden strip of land behind Bellevue Avenue, died with no living inheritors. As a result, the laneway is private property that the city will have to expropriate in order to fix:

No child left behind with Presto—as long as it works. Parents told by the TTC that their under-12-year-olds needed to buy Presto cards in order to ride transit for free can now get around the expense. Meanwhile, the Toronto Star followed up on a 13-year-old stranded because of a Metrolinx mistake.

Jian Ghomeshi succeeds at being extremely unavoidable. “Reflections from a Hashtag,” Ghomeshi’s essay for the New York Review of Books, generated much incensed reaction, along with some principled defenses. NYRB editor-in-chief Ian Buruma didn’t help matters by admitting limited knowledge of the accusations against Ghomeshi.

The problem with being a Canadian protest singer in America. Steven Page has a new album, Discipline: Heal Thyself, Pt. II, which includes a song in which he rages against the alt-right. However, he grapples with the paradox of being a resident of Manlius, New York who lacks the abliity to vote in U.S. elections. But he enjoys shopping at Wegmans:

TIFF critic is sorry for cardiac sarcasm. Amidst a new wave of critics, stalwart Hollywood Elsewhere blogger Jeffrey Wells made a return to Toronto—although his takes were diverted by chaos he caused after jokng to an inquisitive TIFF volunteer that he was having a heart attack. At least Wells shared praise for the aesthetics of Petro-Canada.