Buck-a-Beer was played well by President’s Choice. Loblaw will be ending its participation in Doug Ford’s beer discount scheme one week in, after scoring plenty of free media exposure for PC Genuine Lager. But beer writer Ben Johnson sees a cannabis lobby connection to Shoppers Drug Mart’s owner jumping on and off this particular buckwagon:

“We must have analysis to say what we are doing that is good and what we are doing that is less good. It is an essential element of a democracy.” Justin Trudeau pledged to defend an independent press, in contrast to the latest attacks from Donald Trump—which have turned to Silicon Valley. Meanwhile, even if they don’t have to, Facebook will start charging GST in the name of transparency.

A former columnist’s writing feeds some mystery polling.  Burlington mayoral candidate Marianne Meed Ward finds her history of published rhetoric coming up in questions posed on the phone to voters. Campaign Research, the firm also working for John Tory, says the poll is being conducted on behalf of an unidentified “third party client.” Meed Ward is eager to find out who’s paying for it:

Aura Dolls won’t be opening for business. After a week in which chatter about a silicone sex brothel in a Yonge and Sheppard strip mall shifted from jokes about the clientele to concern about incel violence, councillor John Filion confirmed that his old Willowdale adult entertainment zoning bylaw will indeed prevent the lease from being legal.

The former Jazz.FM91morning host is suing for $420,000. Garvia Bailey’s sudden departure from the non-profit radio station in April was part of a string of incidents that’s found Jazz.FM without any in-studio voices in the morning. Now, a lawsuit connects her exit to other issues with former CEO Ross Porter, who says the accusations against him are “isolated, distorted and manipulated out of context.” 

TIFF’s outgoing chief is surprised to learn that its top ticket price is $75. “To be honest, I lost a bit of touch with that,” Piers Handling tells the Globe and Mail, while adding he was surprised by the allegations against film fest regular Harvey Weinstein. As for the future of TIFF, the man who wrote the book about its past is sizing stuff up:

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