The last technically illegal marijuana high holiday. Stoner celebrants in Toronto plan to light up at Nathan Phillips Square without a permit, on a day where weed’s impending legalization finds Canadian cannabis huckster Gene Simmons on the front of the Wall Street Journal. Despite some 4/20 giggling from Harvey's and Cinnabon, weed is turning into another big business striving to show a social conscience:

Artist defends the right to have fun with where he comes from. Now Magazine’s cover story, "Decolonizing Cannabis," features an illustration of a bear wearing a marijuana headdress. The image stoked outrage on Twitter before Jason Carter, the Aboriginal illustrator from Edmonton, responded to stick up for his creative licence.

“Are we really to believe that he’s going into the offices of the senior members of the Trudeau cabinet just to show them cool features on Facebook?” NDP ethics critic Charlie Angus was less than impressed with how Facebook Canada’s public policy head, Kevin Chan, explained the work that he does in Ottawa. Concern over a social network trying to integrate with the power structure is something Chan might have discussed more if he didn’t flee from reporters chasing him. So, the game goes on, with a bit more transparency to expose what’s behind all those clickable political ads:

The Economist is now deconstructing Doug Ford. A newspaper for people who drink champagne with pinkies in the air considers the Ontario PC leader fit for print, in a piece about how Canada's populists are courting the immigrant vote. The polls continue to show that these strategies are working out well.

This week in coverage of the housing crash that could actually happen for real one of these days and then what. Oakville buyers who got snagged in changes to provincial policy provide the starting point for another Maclean’s article foreshadowing the imminent wake-up call. What makes the crash appear more plausible now are new tales of builders who have walked away:

“Bloor is the new Yonge” theory keeps going west. High-rise communities planned in places like Mirvish Village and the Galleria Mall, along with Bloor and Dufferin and the lower Junction Triangle, have attained enough momentum for the Toronto Star to print a trend piece. At the top of the article are new renderings for a development that will replace a strip plaza once dominated by Zellers:

Ghostbuster’s Daughter aims to explain Harold Ramis. Concurrent with Martin Scorsese’s SCTV nostalgia is a book about the late head of its original cast. Violet Ramis Stiel’s memoir reveals that her dad had another daughter, too, born to Clueless director Amy Heckerling. (The film Ramis left SCTV to direct, Caddyshack, is itself the subject of a new book that's appropriately excerpted at Golf.com.)

Word of the moment

DESPACITO

The subway is under seige by two accordionists, who seem to exclusively play this song, even though the TTC warned them that unauthorized busking isn't allowed.




Facebook icon Twitter icon Forward icon