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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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The Informer

Black Watch

September 1, 2011 | 4:30 pm

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Conrad Black talks to Matt Galloway about the broken American criminal justice system (and how it’s done him wrong)

(Image: Charles LeBlanc)

We’ve learned a lot about Conrad Black this week—be it his ability to make friends in the big house or that his verbose style of elocution even extends to anal cavity searches. Today, in an interview with Matt Galloway on the CBC’s Metro Morning, we also learned that Black is a self-professed victim of the American criminal justice system (of course, we’re used to hearing Lord Black insult the court—but this was a little bit different). “Once you’re targeted in the United States,” Black told Galloway, “you don’t really have much chance. And that’s not how a justice system should operate.” We sympathize, Conrad—we all know the American system is broken. But he loses us once he seems to suggest that when people talk about overcrowded prisons and unfairly treated prisoners they’re also talking about wealthy former media barons.

• Conrad Black speaks with Matt Galloway [Metro Morning]

The Informer

The New Normal

June 9, 2011 | 3:49 pm

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SlutWalk continues to inspire a global movement, this time on the streets of New Delhi

SlutWalk has spread to cities around the world (Image: ChicagoGeek)

The story of SlutWalk is one that we find pleasantly surprising. In case anybody missed it, the narrative went like this: cop says something stupid and misogynistic; women are understandably offended; cop apologizes; offended women march on police headquarters to underscore the fact that the things the cop said were stupid and misogynist. But the best part might be what happened next—the march spread to cities across the United States and has now reached New Delhi, where it sounds like it’s sorely needed.

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The Informer

My Name Is Lucre

March 18, 2011 | 3:02 pm

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With Canada’s coins getting lighter, we geekily measured loonies against other currencies

The Royal Canadian Mint has weighed in: Canadian dollar and two-dollar coins need to go on a diet. New coins, with a new metal composition, will be released with the next mintage. Canadians, however, don’t have the heaviest pockets in the world—that honour goes to Brits, whose pound coins weigh two grams more than the loonie. Here, a quick survey of major currencies and how they measure up our golden birds.

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The Informer

The Harrowing Present

March 17, 2011 | 2:30 pm

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In the midst of Japan’s nuclear crisis, demand for iodide pills rises near leaky Pickering plant

Pickering A nuclear generating station (Image: ilkerender)

With the news that Japan may be on the brink of a serious nuclear crisis, Ontarians living near the Pickering power plant seem to be increasingly worried about the adverse health effects that come with living near a nuclear reactor. Those fears got an extra boost when it was discovered that the plant leaked tens of thousands of litres of demineralized water into Lake Ontario. Experts say that the risk posed to locals is “negligible,” but that hasn’t stopped people from planing for the worst. The Toronto Sun reported yesterday an increased demand for potassium iodide pills at pharmacies in the plant’s surrounding areas. While potassium iodide can help prevent thyroid cancer caused by radioactive iodine, it’s probably not as effective as people think.

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The Hype

The Fame Monsters

March 15, 2011 | 12:33 pm

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Will Charlie Sheen’s Torpedo of Truth live show come to Toronto?

Not long after joining Twitter and setting the Guinness world record for fastest acquisition of 1 million followers, Charlie Sheen proclaimed himself to be “bi-winning” and will soon embark on a one man show entitled Charlie Sheen LIVE: My Violent Torpedo of Truth. The show opens on April 2 in Detroit, and will repeat in Chicago on April 3. Unsurprisingly, both shows sold out in a matter of minutes. Sheen appropriately tweeted, “Fastball; Detroit/Chicago sold out in minutes… Thanks to Sheen’s Cadre..! #WINNING c.”

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The Hype

The Beat

February 23, 2011 | 3:15 pm

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HMV looking at closing stores in Canada as music sales appear to be capital-D doomed

His master's void: profit gaps responsible for possible closures (Image: bm.iphone)

This manages to be even less surprising than the Blockbuster bankruptcy filing in the United States: according to The Daily Brew, HMV may be looking at closing some—or even all—of its Canadian stores. As sales of CDs and DVDs stumble, HMV’s search for other options hasn’t paid off:

The closures will likely be announced before an April test of its borrowing rules, which are expected to be tight. And, while the HMV Group will apparently seek to end its leases in shopping malls across Canada, an imminent exit altogether isn’t seen as likely.

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The Informer

My Name Is Lucre

February 4, 2011 | 10:16 am

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Measured against other countries, are Canadians getting hosed by their ISPs? Let’s compare

One of the biggest questions raised by this week’s usage-based billing fracas is whether Canadians are getting ripped off by their Internet service providers (ISPs). The problem is that comparing Internet service between countries raises all sorts of apples-to-oranges objections—regulations are different, infrastructure is different, markets are different. We’ve put together a chart with three factors (cost, speed, location) that should give an idea of what a dollar can get you in different countries around the world. The fairest comparison is between Canadian and American ISPs, but we’ve included several European countries to give a wider view, and a couple of Asian countries just to make ourselves cry. Oh, and Australia.

Our comparisons, after the jump.

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The Informer

My Name Is Lucre

January 17, 2011 | 3:50 pm

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Who’s zoomin’ who? Dubious details surrounding a Canadian auction of Bernie Madoff’s valuables

Jewellery, artwork and other valuables of former Wall Street financier and infamous Ponzi scheme perpetrator Bernie Madoff made their Canadian debut at the Oakville Conference Centre for auction on Sunday—or so the event advertised. Both the Toronto Star and the National Post report the privately run auction lacked signs of legitimacy, featuring poorly organized and roughly displayed merchandise, cheesy glamour models advertising jewels and, most troubling of all, promising Madoffian authentication of the valuables only upon purchase. Um, right.

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The Hype

Prime Time

December 8, 2010 | 2:53 pm

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After 50 years, Coronation Street still strangely popular

Coronation Street has been captivating Canadian viewers with its seemingly endless tales of Weatherfield, Manchester, for the past 40 years. It’s just two days until the show’s 50th anniversary—it didn’t make it across the pond for the first decade—and Corrie lovers Canada-wide are getting ready to celebrate.

As both the Globe and the Star point out, our love of Coronation Street is a strictly Canadian phenomenon in North America. The afternoon soap never caught on in the United States, but its popularity endures here. Over the past 50 seasons, the characters on the show have endured a few things, too. A look at the numbers puts the show’s incredible longevity in perspective.

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The Informer

From the Print Edition

November 15, 2010 | 9:56 am

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The 1% Club: the story behind Weizhen Tang—Toronto’s Bernie Madoff

Weizhen Tang told his investors they deserved to be rich and only he could make them so. Even now, after he lost all their money and was charged with running one of the country’s largest Ponzi schemes, his disciples still want him to keep trading. They believe it’s the only way they’ll get their $30 million back By Nicholas Stein, Illustrations by Jeffrey Smith

When Air Canada flight 88 from Shanghai arrived an hour late at Pearson airport last January 13, a group of officers from the Toronto Police fraud squad were waiting to meet it. They were there to apprehend Weizhen Tang, a 51-year-old native of China who had lived in Toronto since the early 1990s. Tang was accused of perpetrating one of the largest investment frauds in Canadian history: a Ponzi scheme involving up to 200 victims in Toronto, the United States and China. Two weeks earlier, he had agreed to surrender to authorities at Pearson, but he never arrived, prompting police to issue a warrant for his arrest. They feared he’d stay in China to evade prosecution.

As the passengers of flight 88 watched from their seats, the officers entered the aircraft and made their way through the cabin. This time, Tang was on board. They handcuffed him, escorted him into a police cruiser, and drove to 51 Division. As the car pulled up, Tang stared forlornly out the window at the media horde gathered to document his capture. Wrapped from the neck down in a dark coat and scarf, his eyes peering from behind wire-rimmed glasses, he looked small and vulnerable. Inside the station, he was stripped and searched.

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The Hype

The Fame Monsters

November 11, 2010 | 12:54 pm

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Reaction roundup: what Snooki and the world are saying about Lake Shore

The cast of Lake Shore (Image: lake-shore.ca)

When the “sizzle reel” for Lake Shore, Toronto’s despicable answer to Jersey Shore, went viral this week, American media jumped on the clip, revelling in the opportunity to say Canada is no better than the States. Reactions ranged from bemused to pitying, but the overarching theme was playing on such tired Canadian stereotypes as a love of hockey. Here, our collection of reactions from our neighbours to the south.

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The Informer

Opine for Business

November 10, 2010 | 12:52 pm

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CNN acknowledges Canada’s success, existence

Recent boosts to Canada’s public profile haven’t exactly been polishing the brand: we’ve already mentioned the wretched Lake Shore (’nuff said), and then there was that episode of the guy who flew from Hong Kong to Vancouver disguised as an old man. CNN has been covering the latter story like it was the moon landing, because a) it somehow got an exclusive, beating out every Canadian network, and b) anything involving planes, latex and deception plays on modern fears. There’s good news this week, though, as CNN’s sibling Fortune is willing to give Canada some kudos where it counts: for our financial swagger.

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The Hype

To-Do List

October 4, 2010 | 4:16 pm

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The one thing you should see this week

Today we launch a new column from our culture editor, Stéphanie Verge, who’ll let us in on the week’s must-see event every Monday.

This week’s pick: Sons of Perdition

There’s no going home for a child who can say with unflinching certainty that according to his family, “It would have been better for me to die than to leave.” The bewilderment that stems from giving up everything permeates Tyler Measom and Jennilyn Merten’s heartrending documentary about three teens who leave the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and are left twisting in the wind of their newfound freedom.

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The Informer

Mayor May Not

August 19, 2010 | 11:17 am

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After initial forgetfulness, Rob Ford comes clean on the time he was caught with pot and refused to take a breathalyzer

Rob Ford poses with puppet version of Rob Ford (Image: Shaun Merritt)

Rob Ford has had what anyone would call a pretty bad week. After his performance at the debate on Tuesday night, Wednesday was filled with questions like “Is Rob Ford prejudiced?” That night, things got worse when Toronto Sun reporter Jonathan Jenkins called up and asked him if he’d ever been arrested on a drug charge in the United States. His answer was no. Then emphatically no. Then yes.

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