‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and the whole damn thing
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ and the whole damn thing
Stories about the state of media
You might’ve already noticed some recent sponsorship intervention, and there’s a word from a different partner in this issue. So, it feels like newsletter rebuilding season is well underway. Want to talk about a message of your own? 1236@1236.ca
Nothing really matters to anyone
Justin Trudeau singing “Bohemian Rhapsody” in a London hotel lobby the Saturday night leading up to Elizabeth II’s funeral may well have delighted the deceased Queen.
Back at home, a fabricated tweet shared by skater Jamie Salé drew further attention to Trudeau having branded unvaccinated Canadians as extremists.
Pressure to lift COVID-19 border restrictions and mandatory ArriveCan app use is evidently being heeded, but Trudeau will have the final decision.
The city of Toronto pulled a series of videos that promoted vaccination for children as their ticket to freedom, admitting the spots “missed the mark.”
The view from platform shoes
The Halton District School Board will no longer be answering questions about Kayla Lemieux, who’s now the most infamous manufacturing technology teacher in Oakville, Ontario.
The board also attempted to correct the sources that were incorrectly identifying Lemieux as a different teacher who’s “completely unrelated to this matter.”
Dress codes at the school don’t technically prohibit a staff member from sporting overly large prosthetic breasts, but the board is looking into that now.
Oakville Trafalgar High School anticipated a Monday morning protest, but only one person showed up. A more organized attempt is set for Friday.
Rumble leaves Canada behind
Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski drank some rum to mark the video platform he founded in Toronto going public on Nasdaq, after boasting of growth based on belief in free speech.
TikTok and YouTube hope senators will take a sober second look at the details of the Online Streaming Act that was already passed in the House.
Disney has also approached Ottawa to request that Broadcasting Act amendments will allow productions like Turning Red to count as Cancon.
Committee hearings are ahead for the Online News Act, which has independent publishers hoping to be heard, to prevent this from being a windfall for clickbait via legacy players.
Streaming against the current
Corus Entertainment set a date for the Canadian launch of ad-supported streamer Pluto, which will offer endless reruns of The Love Boat, just like Global TV once did.
Postmedia cancelled Monday print editions at nine urban dailies, five years after it happened at the National Post. (The Toronto Sun is still doing six days.)
Now Magazine’s acting editor-in-chief Radheyan Simonpillai quit the job which he wasn’t getting paid for lately, even as the website kept running advertorials.
Zoomer Media made a $16.4 million deal to buy the Vancouver-based publisher of Daily Hive websites—which includes assumption of $2.4 million of debt.
Toronto Mike is making podcasts. Want a podcast? Get in touch with Toronto Mike.
Finally, unbundling album charts
Nav is the Toronto rapper whose initial Billboard chart-topping success came from bundling downloads with merchandise, until the criteria was changed. And yet, he recently scored a No. 2 album without gaming the system, with help from Vancouver riot-inducing Lil Baby—alongside Travis Scott making a comeback after the tragedy at Astroworld: