The nation’s music station gets made in China
Discover more from Twelve Thirty Six
The revival of the MuchMusic brand as a path for Bell Media to cultivate Canadian content will be seeded through TikTok, which is fittingly moving into a Toronto office vacated by Vice. TSN’s spin-off brand, BarDown, launched in 2014, is cited as the model for disseminating these seconds.
Politicos called in from patios
Queen’s Park’s summer break is temporarily on hold so the Ontario PCs can invoke the notwithstanding clause to restore limits on third-party spending outside of an election year. A coalition of education unions sought this constitutional ruling in order to ramp up attacks on Doug Ford. The rest of the province will be distracted by reopening.
The strange claim of Jason Kenney’s secret Italian restaurant in Edmonton. A story from the Western Standard about Alberta’s premier having this dining hideout since January was labelled a fabrication by his office. Kenney did apologize for breaking pandemic rules after being caught in the Sky Palace, while his approval rating plummets.
Dearth of digital fingerprints
Calls for Canada to do more to fight Islamophobia have followed the truck attack that killed four members of the Afzaal family in London, Ontario. It’s also led to criticism of politicians who voted against Motion 103 four years ago. As for the accused murderer, Facebook removing his account after his arrest adds to the mystery of motivation:
Marie Henein will have a memoir published in September. Nothing But the Truth is billed as a personal story interwoven with experiences practicing criminal law with newsmaker clients like Jian Ghomeshi. Also set for fall is The Moment, in which Toronto’s Andrea Constand will detail how she stood up to Bill Cosby, and then took him down.
Finally, a payoff in the streams
Belly has sold 50 per cent of his publishing to the well-capitalized Kilometre Music Group: the value is primarily in big hit writing credits for the Weeknd. While the Ottawa rapper, born Ahmad Balshe, only made the mainstream news after the city of Toronto apologized for his lewd lyrics, today he’s dancing in the desert with Moneybagg Yo: