Tag: Toronto

News

Celebs Sleep Outside For Homeless Fundraiser

Celebrities can usually afford a nice home, a comfy bed and tasty food.

But last Thursday, Arlene Dickinson and Brian Burke slept outside on the ground in only sleeping bags.

That night, the temperature dropped to 0-degrees C.

Dickinson is one of the “dragons” from TV’s Dragon’s Den, a show in which wealthy businesspeople invest in new businesses.

Burke is the General Manager of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team.

Both of them have plenty of money and can afford nice accommodations.

They were “sleeping rough” to help raise money for Covenant House, which provides shelter and services to homeless kids in Toronto and other big Canadian cities.

Sports

Proposed Blockbuster Trade Could Put Blue Jays In Contention For World Series

The Toronto Blue Jays stunned and excited their fans last week when rumours surfaced about a blockbuster player trade.

The trade is not finalized yet, and it still has to be approved by the Commissioner of Baseball.

If the trade goes through it would be, arguably, the biggest trade in Blue Jays’ history.

Twelve players are involved: seven going from the Blue Jays to the Miami Marlins and five going from the Marlins to the Blue Jays.

News Sports

Toronto Raptors Basketball Team Has A New Line-Up

The 2012/2013 National Basketball Association season is officially underway.

There are 30 teams vying for the Larry O’Brien Championship Trophy, including Canada’s only professional basketball team, the Toronto Raptors.

The Raptors have a new-look team this season.

Three of the five Raptors’s starters this year weren’t with the team last year.

The Raptors’s starting lineup includes two players who have been on the team before: DeMar DeRozen and Andrea Bargnani.

The Raptors believe in DeRozen as a player.

They recently signed him to a four-year, $40-million contract extension.

News Politics

Toronto Mayor In Another Unusual Situation

Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, is in the middle of another controversy.

It happened last week. He was on the field with the high school football team he coaches, the Don Bosco Eagles.

The coach of the other team got into a confrontation with the referee.

Police were called in to deal with the situation.

That’s where the situation gets confusing.

The police called the Toronto Transit Commission. Police asked the TTC to send a bus to the field to pick up Ford’s team.

Unfortunately, that meant kicking passengers off two buses—stranding them in the rain—and sending those then-empty buses to the field to pick up the high school football team.

The mayor said when the buses didn’t show up promptly, he called the head of the TTC and left him a message.

News

New Arts Centre Part Of The Rebirth Of Old Community

In September, Daniels Spectrum opened its doors.

Daniels Spectrum is a wonderful new 60,000-square-foot facility set up to help people learn art and business, including music and painting classes and moviemaking.

It even includes a Centre for Social Innovation where people with ideas for new businesses work with creative people to think up new ways to make communities better.

It is all part of the rebirth of Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood that has been taking place for more than 10 years.

News

Rebuilding A Special Community Castle

Last March a fire all but destroyed a very special playground in Toronto.

The city’s High Park children’s castle had been lovingly built by volunteers. Its destruction resulted in an overwhelming community response–including a day-long community celebration.

Celebrity contractor, Mike Holmes, stepped in with his crew to offer to lead the rebuild–an elaborate new playground structure.

Holmes filmed the rebuild for his television show, Holmes Makes It Right. It’s scheduled to air later this month.

The description for that episode reads:

When a beloved castle playground in Toronto’s High Park is damaged by fire, “Mike Holmes is fuming.

“He leads a legion of crewmembers, engineers, architects and firefighters into battle against extreme heat and construction challenges, all while the clock is ticking.

“With help from the community, Mike and his team overcome major setbacks to rebuild a brand new castle that’s fit for any King or Queen, teaching kids that they can rise above any obstacle and build their own kingdoms.”

News Politics

Dalton McGuinty’s Sudden And Shocking Retirement As Ontario’s Premier

On Monday night, the Premier of Ontario did something surprising. He quit his job.

It was shocking, because most people didn’t see it coming.

Dalton McGuinty has been the Premier for nine years.

He is also the leader of the Ontario Liberal Party, a position he has held for 16 years.

At the same time as he resigned, he also “prorogued” the legislature. That means he stopped all business taking place in the Ontario House of Commons.

Most of the work MPPs were working on has been cancelled until a new session is called.

No one knows exactly why McGuinty quit, and so suddenly.

Some people say he intends to run for leader of the federal Liberal party—in other words, take over the national Liberals so he can run for Prime Minister in the future.

Other people say he quit because his provincial government is in the middle of many difficulties including contract negotiations with some unions.

Health News

Pharmacists In Ontario To Have An Increased Role

When you’re sick, you go to the doctor.

She may give you a prescription for some medicine—for example, eye drops.

If you live in Ontario, you’d then go to a drug store and give that prescription to the pharmacist, who would “fill your prescription” – in other words, make up the eye drops and sell them to you.

As it is now, if you run out of your prescription eye drops and need more you would likely have to go back to your doctor to get another prescription.

This week the Ontario government announced a new plan that gives the pharmacist an expanded role in healthcare.

News Politics

Rob Ford’s Problems Follow Him To Chicago

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.

Arts Entertainment News

CUT! It’s A Wrap For TIFF 2012

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