The new smiling faces of the Rogers empire
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Gurdeep Ahluwalia and Pooja Handa have officially reunited at Rogers after leaving in tandem at Bell, where they were stars of CP24 Breakfast. The roles are primarily for radio station CHFI, which had a summer housecleaning. Their launch coincides with the family owners seeking peace after the CRTC hearing over their deal to buy Shaw.
Possession as less of the law
Dr. Eileen de Villa will present a plan to the Toronto Board of Health that asks for exemptions to charges under the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act for small amounts of illegal drugs. “The status quo approach to the drug poisoning crisis is not working,” reads the opening of the proposal, on the heels of a similar provincial one from B.C.
Omicron variant makes its unwelcome debut in Ontario. The new COVID-19 variant arrived courtesy of two people from Ottawa who returned from Nigeria via the airport in Montreal. Two other cases are being investigated in Hamilton. But the province’s chief medical officer believes infrastructure is now in place for enhanced testing.
Lou Marsh needs no selfies
Toronto Star columnist Damien Cox is getting roasted on Reddit for a Live Private Sex browser tab showing in a screenshot of his latest hockey book. But before that, Cox was calling for a more measured approach in considering a change of name for the Lou Marsh Trophy. The calls are getting louder:
James Rocchi dead at 53. An early professional online film critic from Hamilton, Ontario, his job writing reviews for Netflix involved publicizing it through appearances as “Mr. DVD.” Subsequently, his disillusionment with “The Marvel-Industrial Complex” and movie reviewer pay rates led Rocchi to a new career as a schoolteacher.
Finally, tender metal flashbacks
Trapper is a band seven years into a project that launched with a cassingle cover of “The Warrior” and then saw it adopted as an opening act for Def Leppard. The collaboration of Emm Gryner and guitarist Sean Kelly was the kind of act that did a heavy metal homage to Mitsou. But you can’t wear this hair without a power ballad: