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Pianos And The Pan American Games

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The Pan American Games are coming to Toronto, Ontario in 2015.

The Games are like the Olympics, but only athletes from North, South and Central America and the Caribbean compete.

It is different from the Olympics because it celebrates culture as well as sports. And that’s where the pianos come in.

The Games don’t start for another three years, but last July a Pan Am project called Play Me, I’m Yours, put 41 painted pianos around Toronto.

The pianos stood for the 41 countries and protectorates belonging to the Pan American Sports Organization. (Protectorates are countries that have their own government but also get protection from stronger countries.)

Each piano was decorated by an artist who lives in Canada but was born in one of the 41 countries.

The pianos were placed in public parks, streets and squares.

Play Me, I’m Yours invited everybody to play. It didn’t matter if you were piano teacher or could only play Chopsticks.

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News

Pope’s Butler On Trial For Leaking Documents

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The Pope’s butler is on trial.

The Pope is the leader of the Catholic Church around the world. The current Pope is Pope Benedict XVI.

The Pope’s butler is named Paolo Gabriele.

His job is to look after the personal needs of the Pope—for instance, serve the Pope his meals and help him dress.

Naturally, he has access to some very private areas of the Vatican, like the Pope’s bedroom and other rooms.

For months, Italian media have been publishing private information about the Catholic Church. No one knew where the media got the information.

It looks like the butler may have done it.

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Lighter

New Canadian Bills Can Melt If Left In A Hot Car

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The Bank of Canada recently unveiled the country’s new $20 bill.

The bills, like the recently updated $100s and $50s, are made of a polymer (a type of flexible plastic) instead of paper.

The new bills have a transparent “window” in them.

The new $20 bills are more environmentally friendly than the old bills, because they are more durable so they won’t have to be replaced as often. The government says they last 2.5 times longer than paper bills.

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Politics

Canada And UK To Share Office Space

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Canada has hundreds of offices around the world in many different countries.

Recently, Canada and the United Kingdom (UK) signed an agreement to share some of their embassies.

The two countries have a “common history and shared values,” Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said in a press release. He said the new arrangement will help Canada save money on office space and resources. It will also allow Canada to have offices in countries where they don’t already have them.

“Canada will be sharing space, as we do with other trusted countries, to get maximum reach at minimal cost to taxpayers,” said Baird.

Baird’s UK counterpart agreed that the two countries share common interests. The most “pressing international issue on our common agenda” is the situation in Syria, said William Hague, the United Kingdom’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

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Sports

Bad Calls By Replacement Refs Irritating NFL Players, Fans

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In any sport, referees sometimes make mistakes.

After all, no one’s perfect.

But major league football teams have been irritated by the unusually high number of bad mistakes made by the referees these days, including a bizarre call on Monday night.

The National Football League (NFL) is using stand-in refs.

The league’s usual referees are in a contract dispute and are unable to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.

So the NFL has brought in replacement refs that aren’t as well trained or as experienced.

And they’re making some bad calls.

On Monday night, there was an especially poor call made by a ref that directly affected the outcome of a game.

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Sports

Lockout Threatens NHL Season

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The start of the NHL season, and the season in general, may not happen as expected.

The NHL has locked out its players.

For the second time in eight years, the NHL is experiencing problems between its owners and players.

The Collective Bargaining Agreement between players and owners has expired.

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Environment News

The “Average Canadian Family” Has Changed

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Do you think you live in an average family?

According to the latest Census of Population, published by Statistics Canada, “average” has changed.

Every five years, Canadians are asked questions about their families and their life.

For instance, “How many people live here?” and “What are their ages?”

Some new information from the 2011 was recently published.

That census counted 9.4 million families in Canada, up 5.5 per cent from 2006.

The other thing a census tells us is what Canadian families look like.

For instance, in 1961 (according to that census) the average family comprised 3.9 people.

In 2011 (according to the most recent census) the average family comprises 2.9 people.

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News Politics

Rob Ford’s Problems Follow Him To Chicago

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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford went to Chicago, Illinois in the U.S. this week.

He went to promote goodwill between the two cities and also to make some business deals. But he couldn’t shake the scandal that he’d left behind in Toronto.

The mayor has been accused of using city staff to help with his personal hobby of coaching football.

He has also been accused of charging the cost of his car and other expenses to the city, even when they are used for football.

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Arts Entertainment News

CUT! It’s A Wrap For TIFF 2012

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The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival ended last Sunday.

For 10 days, movies from more than 60 countries were shown around the city.

Thirty-eight of them were premieres, or films that were shown in Toronto for the first time. And all the big players–famous actors, directors and producers–came out to see them, and to be seen.

A film festival is an event about movies: watching movies, making movies and acting in movies. And of course, it’s about the business of movies. Many big movie deals are made during TIFF. Storytellers meet writers. Writers meet producers. Producers meet directors. Directors meet actors. And later–often years later–a movie is made

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News Politics

A Plan To Help Eurozone Countries In Debt

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Europe’s central bank thinks it has a good plan to help countries like Greece, Spain and Italy. Those countries are struggling because they took on too much debt.

The idea is that the European Central Bank will agree to buy some of the debt.

In return, the troubled countries must agree to spend less money and to put their finances in order.

When countries lend money to other countries, they receive small payments called interest.

When a country borrows too much money, some of the people who lent the money begin to worry that they won’t get their money back. So they demand higher and higher interest payments.

This puts pressure on countries that are already having trouble paying back all the money they borrowed.

It pushes their debt even higher.

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