From concrete blocks to weed lottery win
The extremely strange case of CAFE
The lottery for more licences to open weed stores in Ontario included a win for a numbered company whose Toronto address, 104 Harbord Street, is currently one of four illegal locations of Cannabis and Fine Edibles. While applicant Rob Heydon claims “no connection,” CAFE itself says that it was selected at this stage of the licensing process.
Sticker shock has worn off
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association still plans to challenge the province’s anti-carbon-tax stickers in court, even though the threat of a financial penalty for not displaying them was lifted. Now the focus has shifted to the Ontario government asking a court to keep letters to cabinet ministers about their mandates away from the view of CBC News.
Lisa Raitt lost her bid to hear Justin Trudeau book tapes. The deputy Conservative leader, backed by MP colleague Peter Kent, believed that an interview the PM did about the SNC-Lavalin affair for Aaron Wherry’s book Promise and Peril merited an airing at the ethics committee. Raitt’s motion failed, then Liberals voted further probing down.
The continued de-Crystaling
Daniel Libeskind’s addition to the Royal Ontario Museum officially entered the next phase towards its potential demolition with the opening of a new terrace and plaza on Bloor Street—which follows cancelling the Crystal as the ROM’s primary entrance:
“Neil Young’s Lonely Quest to Save Music.” A New York Times Magazine feature begins with Young ranting to writer David Samuels about how digital music is harming our brains. But it takes a turn after Samuels tells Young about his 5-year-old son’s cognitive struggles, which get alleviated through Mozart music therapy at Toronto’s Listening Centre.
Finally, some “April in Memphis”
Bruce Cockburn releases an all-instrumental album, Crowing Ignites, on September 20. It’s preceded by an animated video by Toronto artist Kurt Swinghammer. The track was inspired by Martin Luther King Jr., as Cockburn reflected upon his assassination: