When influence social distances from you
Video-chat lighting made the testimony from Marc and Craig Kielburger look more contrite than they might’ve if the parliamentary committee hearing had taken place in person. But the brothers now regret picking up the phone when Ottawa called. And they clarified how much We Charity paid Margaret Trudeau, prior to her PM son’s turn to talk.
The cross-country coronavirus
The count of positive cases linked to one day camp in Boucherville, Quebec, have become the latest viral story about a COVID-19 outbreak spread by young people. Theresa Tam’s national update revived discussion of an uptick, with warnings of renewed restrictions while wondering if Canada’s vaccine may be delayed without funding.
Toronto is getting its indoor restaurants and gyms back. Stage 3 of reopening Ontario will extend to everywhere but Windsor-Essex on Friday, as its daily number of COVID-19 cases dropped below 100 for the first time in four months. But the province will keep fingers near the trigger if a rollback to Stage 2 looks needed in a region.
A midsummer night’s face-off
NHL hub city scenes mean the media covering the games shuffle around in surreal silence while viewers at home marvel at the facial hair sprouted by Elliotte Friedman between periods on Sportsnet. And so, as the bubble tune-up games started play, a billboard in Toronto popped up to provide a reminder that America is also watching:
Choir! Choir! Choir! to the extreme in extremis. Rufus Wainwright may wish for stardom with his new album, but reviving his 2002 cover of the Beatles’ “Across the Universe” comes with 1,500 other long-distance singers. The globally virtual C!C!C! assembly comes with a lament that its live Toronto events are currently forbidden.
Finally, slave to a new grind
Sebastian Bach recently tweeting against Donald Trump seemed to surprise longtime fans of Skid Row who figured him as more of a right-wing fanatic than the son of a painter who happily left the U.S. would be. But then, he’d also been banking on a big anniversary tour this year, which leads to an Esquire interview about these days of frustration:
