The springtime order to avoid the outdoors
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The latest stay-at-home order issued for Ontario brings on another round of questions about what you can’t legally do, although the conditions have mostly met with cynicism. Queen’s Park was faced with having to explain busy shopping malls after moving to shut down patios. But this time, big-box stores are required to block non-essentials.
Why we’ve been forced inside
The data that shows Canada’s superiority over the U.S. fading fast when it comes to COVID-19 cases is corroborated by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute updating its misery index to account for the effects of lagged jabbing. The country has been losing the race between vaccines and variants, while many appointments remain unfilled.
The Beer Store figured out how to lose $51 million in 2020. Ontario’s foreign-owned brewers’ retail can partly blame fewer kegs bought by restaurants and bars. But it also corresponds with more competition, despite an ongoing fight to preserve its status quo. (Doug Ford’s goal to bring beer and wine to corner stores has been stalled.)
Anti-capitalists of Kensington
A cornerstone of Toronto’s Kensington Market had its residents protesting renovictions in 2019 after new owners offered tenants $5,000 to leave their cheap units to make way for gentrification. With the building at 54-56 Kensington Avenue for sale again, a city council motion seeks to steer $3 million to aspiring non-profit landlords:
The Weeknd’s manager is helming Universal Arabic Music. Wassim “Sal” Slaiby, who entered the industry with Ottawa rapper Belly, will run the imprint for acts like Jordanian teen pop star Issam Alnajjar. Meanwhile, rapper Kardinal Offishall is now a vice-president at Universal Music Canada.
Finally, the retro rotary club
Kathryn Calder got a two-year appointment as Victoria’s artist in residence concurrent with her continued playing in the band the New Pornographers. But the absence of touring with the latter allowed more focus on the former. Her projects included curating a phone line dedicated to moments of calm, on nine extensions that don’t require a dial:
