The strangest bedfellows of Facebook snooping. The New York Times named the Royal Bank, along with Netflix and Spotify, as companies allowed to access supposedly private messages. RBC is now doubling down on denial that it had these privileges:

Merry Christmas from Doug Ford. The holiday that Liberals stopped naming has returned to the premier’s greeting card. Meanwhile, the premier is ending the year by accusing “certain groups” of skewing public consultation on the sex-ed curriculum, but DoFo expects Ron Taverner to become OPP commissioner following a probe.

The Wine Rack sneaks a new artisanal image. Kensington Market activists are still trying to prevent a giant bar from opening in a vacant grocery store. In the meantime, the most gentrified of wine surfaced on Augusta Avenue without its branding:

Garth Drabinsky turns up in California. After a Toronto comeback with Sousatzka proved a non-starter, the U.S. fraud case against Drabinsky was quietly dismissed. Now he’s overseeing a Berkeley Repertory Theatre musical, Paradise Square, initiated by Larry Kirwan of the band Black 47.

The high price of telling you that “Newspapers Matter.” Blacklock’s Reporter confirmed that the Canadian News Media Association received $384,870 from Heritage Canada for a campaign to promote print. (Antoni Porowski of Queer Eye was probably the most famous participant.) But here’s an outsider prediction of where all this effort is headed:

Dean Blundell is trying for his third shot. After getting cancelled by 102.1 the Edge, then fired from Sportsnet 590 the Fan, he’s filling shifts at Newstalk 1010. Blundell’s latest radio rebrand is starting with him blogging about everything he’s been through.