“Peoplekind-gate” makes a great winter distraction. Just after the National Post took the trouble to investigate why Justin Trudeau used the word "peoplekind," the PM explained it away as a bad joke. (It was a way easier thing to discuss than why Canada is selling helicopters to the human-rights-abusing Philippines.) The flap provided a field day for conservative commentators: from Jordan Peterson on Fox & Friends, to Ben Shapiro summing up Trudeau as “what would happen if the song ‘Imagine’ took human form and then ate a Tide Pod,” and even Rebel Media's newest recruit:

Andrew Scheer will warble “in all thy sons command” until royal assent arrives. The Conservative leader is saying he won’t sing a gender-neutral national anthem before it’s officially official. Meanwhile, the Olympic bobsled brakeman Jesse Lumsden is apologizing in advance, in case he forgets the new genderless wording on the podium.

“I’ve spent 35 years building my reputation. In one fell swoop, these lies have prompted outrageous headlines and connected me to a story to which I have no business being connected.” Steve Paikin countered Sarah Thomson’s claim that he banned her from appearing on The Agenda after she refused to have sex with him. (She appeared twice on the show after the alleged exchange.) Five years ago, amidst Thomson's “ass-gate” allegations against Rob Ford, Barbara Amiel mentioned in a column that Thomson apparently propositioned Conrad Black in an attempt to land an interview for Thomson's Women’s Post—which Thomson attempted to explain:

Patrick Brown believes “the truth will come out.” Two weeks out of his leadership job, the Barrie MPP resurfaced with a tweet supporting #MeToo, so long as it’s true. Ontario PC star Sam Oosterhoff—a likely bellwether of social conservatives—has yet to endorse a replacement for Brown, but says he hopes the winner will respect “democracy, fiscal prudence, the value of life, and the rights of parents.”

Retroactive fact-checking swallows article at The Walrus. The social media wars surrounding CanLit were summed up by the Globe and Mail last weekend as Two Solitudes that “fuel each other in an aggressive and sometimes toxic way.” And that was stoked further by The Best Kind of People author Zoe Whittall’s essay on the issues surrounding UBC Accountable. The piece was initially revised to acknowledge that an assault claim against Steven Galloway was found to be unsubstantiated. Elsewhere in the piece, Whittall condemned the Globe for not fact-checking Margaret Atwood’s op-ed on the topic, which proved ironic, given how Whittall's posting was replaced with this:

The day the lights came down at Honest Ed’s. Ed Mirvish’s last bulb sockets are meeting their maker at Bathurst and Bloor. A portion of the sign will eventually be remounted across the street from Sam the Record Man's vestigial discs. Annex lifer Rick Salutin got in one last lament for what the Ed's sign represented. The marquee also stars in this music video encapsulation of New York without all the stuff:

Frank D’Angelo has to pay $162,500 for firing Mike Zigomanis over a dick pic. The glory days of advertising Cheetah Power Surge may be behind D’Angelo Brands—which was backed, in its heyday, by the late Barry Sherman—but a case involving a terminated spokesman has now been settled. An appeals court ruled that Zigomanis was wrongly terminated from his gig—which included appearing in commercial spots that featured Frank as a goalie—as it wasn’t the former Leafs centre’s fault that nude photos turned up on a revenge porn website. (And here D’Angelo was just basking in his best press ever, after interviewing Anthony Scaramucci.)

Word of the moment

INT'L ClASH DAY

Mayor John Tory proclaimed this in honour of the band whose biggest fans once tore up some chairs at the O'Keefe Centre.




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