Richmond Hill is just saying no. A couple of north GTA municipalities being offered controlled cannabis retail stores by the province are pushing back against the idea. Dave Barrow, the mayor of Richmond Hill, expects constituent objections will lead to a vote against; Markham mayor Frank Scarpitti thinks there are still too many unanswered questions. But former Vaughan MP Julian Fantino faces no such flak for his marijuana storefront—especially now that he’s part of a larger trend:

Scarborough subway fumes might follow Andy Byford all the way to NYC. The outgoing TTC chief thinks the extension plan should be discontinued if costs go above $3.56 billion—although council voted against studying whether even an under-budget subway is good value for money. Meanwhile, the Toronto Star obtained text message evidence that Byford misled the public about a briefing note that exaggerated the cost of the LRT.

The snobby symbolism of an upside-down Christmas tree. The trend of treeing on a ceiling has now become the stuff of clickbait explainer articles, even if it’s costly to try this at home. But one turns up in Shawn Micallef’s annual review of corporate Christmas greenery. An upside-down tree resembling “a Bond-film torture device” was docked points after being seen in its illuminated state:

Bathurst Manor Plaza’s last starring role. Canadian indie film Wexford Plaza—whose opening was popular enough to extend its theatrical run at the Carlton Cinema—is named for the Lawrence and Warden strip mall best known for its greasy spoon. But shooting was based in a Finch and Dufferin plaza that closed last summer. The eclectic suburban strips that remain, like the actual Wexford Plaza, inspired a rhapsody from Edward Keenan.

CBC ombudsman rules that Terry Milewski isn’t racist. Jagmeet Singh’s first Power & Politics interview as NDP leader, where Milewski repeatedly asked him to condemn some Sikh temples displaying posters of alleged Air India bombing mastermind Talwinder Parmar, generated about 20 formal complaints. Ombudsman Esther Enkin didn’t agree that the line of questioning was “a racist attack by a racist journalist with a racist axe to grind about this issue,” but acknowledged that Milewski should have provided more context. Now “mostly-retired,” he has plenty of time to keep fighting critics:

Sam’s son stands apart from the Sam’s sign. Despair is in the air about how the neon discs look above 277 Victoria. (One tweet compares the pair to Britney Spears and Madonna dance-duelling in the video for “Me Against the Music.”) Amidst it all, Jason Sniderman, who ran the 347 Yonge store in its final years, is resurfacing this weekend as the opening act for the Rheostatics at the Horseshoe Tavern, even though his project officially depicts “Ensign Broderick” as an entirely mysterious figure.

‘It’s certainly ominous… I think it’s a trap.” Howard Levitt, the employment lawyer who’s working pro bono for Laurier student Lindsay Shepherd, was told by the Waterloo university’s lawyer that there was nothing that could be described as a formal complaint against her. The Chronicle of Higher Education covered her censure this week—even acknowledging Shepherd’s perceived new status as an “alt-right heroine.”

Word of the moment

LAND OF THE SILVER BIRCH

Toronto music teacher Violet Shearer has launched a $75,000 lawsuit after her High Park school apologized for her decision to teach this song, which they deemed "inappropriate and racist."




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