Nygard International’s building in Times Square was raided by the FBI and NYPD in connection with a sex trafficking investigation that followed a report in the New York Times. While he blames the denied accusations on a former neighbour, Peter Nygard stepped down from his role as head of the company. (A park in Deloraine, Manitoba, remains named for him.)
The premier of label making
Ontario NDP transportation critic Jennifer French is among those staying on the licence plate visibility issue as symbolic of Doug Ford’s management style. Adding to the premier’s embarrassment is how this sort of work was central to the family business that he ran. The government is recalling the 49,000 plates that have been issued.
Peter MacKay says that he’d ban Huawei from Canada rather than legal weed. Nonetheless, the Conservative leadership candidate stepped in it again by telling the Kelowna Daily Courier that he felt the Liberal legalization of cannabis was a mistake. MacKay’s campaign clarified that he wasn’t aspiring to re-criminalize weed as PM.
Comic cut too Close to Home
A daily comic panel by John McPherson of Albany, New York, has been syndicated for 27 years without much attention. But a portrayal of the Lone Ranger and Tonto in a recent Close to Home gag gained traction on Twitter, following its publication in the Calgary Herald. Postmedia then confessed to offensiveness, and has quit printing it:
Foodora couriers are now allowed to join a union. A ruling from the Ontario Labour Relations Board will let its take-out deliverers organize on the grounds that they’re working as dependent dispatchers. Foodora, which operates in seven Canadian cities, failed to argue that these couriers were independent contractors like others in the gig economy.
Podcast to broadcast paradigm
Recent winners of Canadian Podcast Awards reflect a quirky mix of corporate media productions and independent shows that may or may not have any listeners. But even if this bubble is bound to burst, Global calculated that a podcast based on past TV news reporting could easily be turned into cost-effective Canadian content for TV:
Niagara Falls is ready for some amount of close-up. Disappearance at Clifton Hill is getting Cineplex screen time and also some mass media coverage, including for David Cronenberg playing a podcaster. And while the Toronto Star no longer has a staff critic to appraise Canadian releases like these, the thriller was reviewed by the New York Times.
Finally, the last Zamboni story
David Ayers has done everything an emergency NHL goalie could dream of: a tearful Today show appearance with his mother, a cameo on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and an entry on Wikipedia to honour his one-game statistic with the Carolina Hurricanes. What’s left to do but interview his Ryerson University colleagues:
