You, too, could someday become Fake News
Discover more from Twelve Thirty Six
The genuine popularity of a false story from February 25 that claimed Canada’s privy council clerk Michael Wernick was going to quit drew more attention to its source: the Buffalo Chronicle. Justin Ling started researching a piece about the Chronicle’s fake-news ways, which it acknowledged with a bizarre article.
You read it first in the Buffalo Chronicle
Michael Wernick, who was relatively unknown before he cautioned about “trolling from the vomitorium of social media” amidst the SNC-Lavalin affair, will soon be leaving his spot as top bureaucrat of Canada, upon determining that his “relationship of mutual trust and respect” is now impossible with non-Liberal parties. (He’ll be replaced by Ian Shugart.)
Facebook Canada plans to probe every political post. A committee from across the political spectrum will help to determine whether “issue ads” placed by sources that aren’t political parties meet the established criteria for “Issues of National Importance.”
Brian Mulroney’s petite regrette
Caucus is not a democracy, Ontario attorney general Caroline Mulroney reportedly said about the Ontario PCs removing MPP Randy Hillier, citing the wisdom of her dad. Meanwhile, the former PM, after defending his daughter’s role in a government that cut francophone services, showed some remorse:
Noise complaints from Burton Cummings got a Moose Jaw dance studio six bylaw charges. The story started with the 71-year-old singer—who settled in Saskatchewan after a serious car crash in L.A. last year—walking into the middle of a class at Dance Fitness to gripe about how its music was leaking into his loft.
JBP’s lobster trap victory lap
U of T student protests are no longer about Jordan Peterson, who’s readying an online education program, to be peddled by Postmedia. And he’s also confusing critics by doing what every other aging rock star does:
Garfield’s gastronomic legacy is reborn in Toronto. The app-enabled restaurant GarfieldEATS, which currently operates in Dubai, will evidently open at Bloor and Dovercourt any day now. While cartoonist Jim Davis says it’s the first time that his 40-year-old fat cat was asked to brand an eatery, Canada also once had Garfield Tortilla Chips.
Finally, letting the dogs back in
Who Let the Dogs Out, a documentary from Vancouver’s Brent Hodge, is getting press from its premiere at SXSW. The focus is on a Wikipedia editor’s obsession with how the song ended up a 2000 hit for the Baha Men. Some convoluted roots trace the song to a 1995 Toronto radio jingle that singer Anslem Douglas later claimed as his composition: