La Palette’s horsemeat hiatus didn’t last long—viande chevaline will return to the menu at the Queen Street bistro as of this week. Co-owner Shamez Amlani stopped serving the French delicacy late last summer after the Toronto Star exposed questionable sourcing in the horsemeat industry, but he didn’t let the matter drop. “We’ve spent the past six months doing as much research as we can,” he told Post City. “We’re very certain that we’ll be serving our customers high-quality meat.” So what makes him think the meat is now safe? One reason could be that President Obama recently lifted the American ban on horse slaughter, meaning American workhorses would no longer be mixed into the Canadian food supply. We have a hunch this isn’t the end of the story, though—horsemeat, like shark fin and raw milk, always seems to stir up controversy. Read the entire story [Post City] »
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There was a launch party last night for H&M’s Girl With The Dragon Tattoo collection at the Thompson Hotel in Toronto, but Montreal-based blogger Natalie Karneef will not be raising a signature cocktail in support of what she describes as a collection that “[glamorizes] rape survivors.” As a survivor herself, she is uncomfortable with the idea of creating clothing that is modelled after a rape survivor’s armour against the world. “Your innocence in the way you present yourself is lost, and the way you dress then takes on a new meaning,” Karneef says. She brings up some interesting criticisms, but we prefer to think of Lisbeth Salander as more than a rape victim—she is an accomplished hacker, and since we’ve seen Hackers, we know Salander is dressing in a manner befitting her tech vigilante lifestyle. Perhaps H&M was simply celebrating just that. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
The Toronto Star dropped a cheeky “Ride the Rocket” joke; BlogTO played on the “mile-high club;” Newstalk 1010 spoke of “bunnies” and “knickers;” OpenFile succinctly stated “What? How? For the love God, why?” And the Toronto Sun did this—on its front page. Bless.
Rob Ford’s old website is hacked—but sadly, not by the Toronto Star
(Image: screen grab from robford.ca)
When the mayor’s registration of RobFord.ca expired earlier this year, an opportunistic prankster seized the opportunity, registering the domain and redirecting traffic to the Toronto Star’s website. Since the prank made news yesterday, the page has also featured a “Robert Ford” beauty contest and directed visitors to a Wikipedia page for a certain cowardly killer. It now features the email address outlaw@robford.ca and is apparently “occupied”—but the content seems to be ever changing. Given the long-standing public feud between Ford and the Star, this might look like a dirty (read: clever) trick by the newspaper. But the Star maintains its innocence. Which, really, is too bad. This kind of playful scheming is a lot more fun than a front-page hissy fit. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
Ryerson journalism professor to the Star: Fight the power (quietly)
The long-running spat between Mayor Rob Ford and the Toronto Star ramped up last week: first the Star filed a complaint with the city integrity commissioner, then Doug Ford responded, and then the Star ran a story on Ford’s response with the headline “Doug Ford to Star: Drop Dead.” Ryerson journalism professor John Miller says the Star is right to file a formal complaint—but that it should do so quietly. The paper’s dirty laundry isn’t front-page news. Read the entire story [J-Source] »
With most of the onerous socioeconomic number crunching out of the way, the Toronto Star ended its three-part series on condo life with a list of the risks apartment dwellers face. The paper has the skinny on exploding-glass balconies (nickel sulphide), how long it takes to escape a burning building (from the 50th floor, six to 12 minutes), a breakdown of the birds that end up splattered against high-rise windows (531 golden-crowned kinglets met glass in 2005) and what happens when a skyscraper gets hit by lightning (for the CN Tower, that’s 75 times a year), among other fun facts you may or may not want to know. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
The Toronto Star versus Rob Ford: the paper returns fire with a call to the commish
The Toronto Star is going to the city’s integrity commissioner to settle its long-standing grudge match with Mayor Rob Ford. Ever since the Star published a story claiming Ford roughed up one of his players while coaching at Newtonbrook Secondary School, Ford has refused to speak to the paper (except for the time a “groggy-sounding Ford” commented on his kidney stone). Apparently, Ford even took the spat a step further recently, asking the paper’s competitors not to tell the communists at One Yonge (we assume Mammoliti can smell them) about a brief on arts funding. The Star’s return message to Ford: don’t mess. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
(Image: Rob Ford, Christopher Drost)
Horsemeat poised to make a comeback in the U.S.
(Image: James Byrum)
Top Chef Canada made headlines (and alienated horse lovers everywhere) earlier this year when it featured horsemeat during a classic French cuisine challenge. The scandal prompted an in-depth investigation of the industry by the ever-intrepid Toronto Star, which explained how a 2007 slaughtering ban in the United States led to a boom in Canada’s industry. Now, according to a story in the Chicago Tribune, horsemeat may be making a return to the U.S. market in the coming months.
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Apparently, senior citizens (with chronic pain) are lying on beds made of gravy
Having slashed councillor expense budgets, city hall is looking for new ways to save money. One idea is to eliminate the Toronto Hardship Fund, which the city’s website describes as a way to “meet the medically based needs of residents where the cost of these items would cause undue financial hardship.” If that sounds at touch abstract, the good folk at the Toronto Star (who may or may not be headed for the chopping block themselves) did what good journalists do and followed the money—all the way to a $3,500 bed for an elderly woman, Shirley Schillinger, who suffers from chronic pain.
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Today the Star gave us a glimpse inside the temporary detention centre where police held alleged troublemakers during the G20 weekend last summer—and it’s a much less polished look than police originally offered media. The footage is evidence in the trial of Michael Puddy, a man whose offenses amount to carrying a pocketknife on his belt (he’s a construction worker) and wearing a t-shirt that said “Police Bastards” (they’re a band). The video clip from the detention centre leaves a lot to be desired, but it does provide a rough idea of the conditions therein—portable toilets with no doors, cells packed with 28 prisoners and lights still blazing at 3:30 a.m. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
Reaction roundup: guess which city columnist called Rob Ford a “rotund, rich, balding guy from the suburbs”?
(Image: Christopher Drost)
Because newspaper columnists love tying their columns to milestones—for instance, say, the first anniversary of Rob Ford’s 2010 election—some of the city’s finest weighed in this weekend on the mayor’s tenure so far. The columns were roundly predictable, but they do provide something in the way of worthwhile analysis, as well as a few lines we’re sure to be quoting for the coming months (the Toronto Star’s Royson James said the mayor treats Toronto “like a bastard child he’s never hugged and doesn’t know how to love”; we reluctantly concur). A roundup of who said what on Ford’s performance thus far, after the jump.
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The Toronto Star’s latest police scandal reporting sounds like something out of a Martin Scorsese movie: the paper reports that Toronto cop Daniel Costa is facing perjury charges after he misled the police about the location of his brother, who was wanted for questioning regarding the murder of a millionaire jeweller. Shortly after the “execution-style” murder of Alexander Kucovic, who apparently “looked the part of one of the buff, tattooed characters in Jersey Shore,” police began to suspect Costa’s brother Michael, who may now be in Italy, might be involved. For his part, Daniel told investigators, under oath, that he didn’t know where his brother was, but prosecutors are alleging the opposite. Given the Star’s tenacious commitment to dogging the cop shop, we’re pretty sure there will be more on this story to come. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
Pusateri’s shut down after failing public health inspection, could reopen tomorrow (MORNING UPDATE)
The Toronto Star is reporting that the Avenue and Lawrence location of fancy food institution Pusateri’s has been shut down by Toronto Public Health “due to poor sanitation and pest infestation.” Well, at least that’s what a public health spokesperson told them. Pusateri’s general manager John Mastroianni, on the other hand, insists the closure was “equipment related.” Ever intrepid, the Star goes on to report that workers could be seen through the windows “cleaning and scrubbing shelves before returning the gourmet cookies and biscotti to their places.” The Yorkville and Bayview Village locations remain open for any urgent fancy food needs.
UPDATE Oct. 20 at 10:42 p.m.: we received a press release from Pusateri’s this evening acknowledging that as of 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, the store was temporarily closed following a visit from public health. From the release:
During the investigation, a small portion of the storage area and walk-in coolers as well as “hard-to-reach and obscure locations” seem to have been infested by pests, which may have been missed as a result of human error during our on-going routine maintenance. The situation is already being dealt with including the complete removal of all goods in the effected areas to ensure no further problems arise.
None of our public areas have been affected by this incident. Our location has operated for 25 years with complete compliance Toronto Public Health regulations. We are committed to following our track record as soon as this incident passes.
The City of Toronto DineSafe page for Pusateri’s has also been updated to reflect the latest inspection. The report lists eight infractions, including “inadequate pest control” and “improper maintenance/sanitation of non-food contact surfaces/equipment.”
UPDATE Oct. 21 at 9:45 a.m.: a spokesman for Pusateri’s has let us know that the store is being scrubbed down by professional cleaners at the moment, and could reopen as soon as tomorrow. Apparently, the infestation problem seems to have been caused by a shipment of wicker baskets from abroad; they’ve since been removed from the site and destroyed. He also told us that the store’s last routine pest control check was performed just over a week ago.
• Rats, roaches shut down gourmet grocery store Pusateri’s [Toronto Star]
Gawker gotchas: a roundup of Toronto’s most embarrassing moments according to the gossip giant
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Earlier this week, the Globe and Mail’s “Caption Writing Person” set off an online frenzy with a series of epic one-liners mocking Hollywood excess in the age of the Occupy Everywhere movement. But it wasn’t long before people began wondering—for no good reason, really—whether the Globe had been hacked. For its part, Gawker published a post saying the caption writer had gone “rogue” (an adjective we think remains best reserved for failed vice-presidential candidates). Of course, we’re just grateful that this Can Con moment was far less embarrassing than the usual appearances. Nonetheless, some Toronto Gawker headline highlights, after the jump.
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