“No government in Canada should take the contemptuous step of disregard for the Charter of Rights that the notwithstanding clause offers them.” Amnesty International formally condemned Doug Ford for cutting Toronto city council. The premier was also rebuked by Bill Davis. Altogether, it was just another day of chaos at Queen’s Park:

Sarah Doucette won’t be one out of 25. The prospect of running against Gord Perks doesn’t appeal to the Parkdale-High Park city councillor, who announced that she won’t be on the ballot in that scenario. But the pandemonium also evidently inspired George Smitherman to double down on running as a resistance candidate in Toronto Centre.

NDP messages struggle with the medium. “Ford chaos in Ontario notwithstanding,” tweeted Andrea Horwath, “my heart is in Humbolt [sic] with so many other Canadians from across the country tonight.” The provincial leader botched the spelling twice, then finally got it right, only to delete it amidst a backlash. Meanwhile, federal leader Jagmeet Singh took aim at the first-past-the-post voting system, which included likening Doug Ford’s “petty vendetta” to the views of a fringe candidate:

The L Tower crane was taken away—even if no one can tell. The derrick has descended from the 58 storeys at Yonge and Esplanade, although a building maintenance unit remains on the roof. It took even more time because of the swooping curve at the top of the tower, where the BMU will eventually retract. So, much like the ROM Crystal, anyone annoyed by this can blame Daniel Libeskind.

The future of the CBC is charging $4.99 a month for an app called Gem. A new streaming service announced by new CBC president Catherine Tait includes a paid option without ads. Programming presumably includes the reboot of Street Legal, refreshed for the era when we can learn more about the nerves of an actor than we ever wanted to:

A tipping point for the podcast industry. Malcolm Gladwell has started an audio company with longtime Slate editor-in-chief Jacob Weisberg. Projects will include Gladwell’s own Revisionist History—plus Broken Record, the podcast he’s teased with producer Rick Rubin and fellow Elmira, Ontario, native Bruce Headlam. The trio were snapped earlier this year visiting the Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, originally built for the Band:

Meredith Geddes adds 102.1 the Edge to the three radio stations that she already works at. The new afternoon drive anchor at CFNY does the same job, during part of the same time, at CFOX Vancouver—only with a different bearded co-host. Geddes also speaks through middays at FM96 London and Power 97 Winnipeg, making her the ideal multitasker for the current media economy.