Paying a professor to look like an influencer
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University of Toronto Mississauga finance lecturer Mitchell Huynh responded to a wave of attention, initiated on Reddit, about how he gives students additional “engagement” grades for following him on social media and buying his book. “You can’t please everyone,” says Hnynh, while the school declined comment on his approach.
White paper on free parking
Folded foolscap might be all it takes to avoid parking fines around downtown environs of University of Toronto—and a CBC News investigation traced all of the observed cars to campus police officers. School cops used to avoid tickets by putting crests on the dashboards, which ended when others figured out how to buy the patches on eBay.
Peter MacKay confirmed his Conservative leadership bid. “J’y vais! Restez à l’écoute,” tweeted the party stalwart, to less reaction than his declaration in English. The advance word of MacKay’s intention came after a report that Rona Ambrose would sit out the race to replace Andrew Scheer, but that turned out to not necessarily be true.
Harper is really still lurking
CBC and CTV both issued corrections to stories that claimed Stephen Harper was calling for “regime change” in Iran; the actual words he used were far less loaded than a call for militaristic intervention. And then came more news about the former PM, as pundits attempted to decipher why he resigned from the CPC’s fundraising arm:
Martin Scorsese got distracted from Second City. “He’ll release it when he thinks it’s ready,” says Eugene Levy about the SCTV documentary, which is centred on a cast interview Scorsese shot in Toronto in May 2018 for Netflix and CTV. Bell Media head Randy Lennox laments that the lag was due to the director focusing on The Irishman.
Sussexit sausage squeezed
“The charms of Toronto for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle,” by Stephen Marche at The New Yorker, contributes to this ongoing thinkpiece ecosystem. While the Duchess faces the prospect of her father testifying against her in court over sharing a personal letter with the Mail on Sunday, her revived Canadian life is bringing on better press:
Rocky “Soul Man” Johnson dead at 75. Born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, the professional wrestler, whose career spanned 27 years, passed the torch to his son Dwayne—who became known in the ring and beyond as “The Rock.” His dad’s recollections were published last summer as Soulman: The Rocky Johnson Story.
Finally, bristling at bread truth
Pete Buttigieg started getting questioned about the Canadian bread price-fixing scandal when details emerged about how his work with McKinsey & Co. involved research for Loblaw. Connections between his consulting and 🍞 📈 were denied by his campaign. When the subject was raised to his face, Mayor Pete wasn’t pleased:
