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News

1991

Rating: NNNNN


Medal detector

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On June 6, 1991, NOW breaks the story that Metro Toronto police chief William McCormack is not entitled to wear the war medals he seems intent on parading. In a terse interview, McCormack responds that he rightfully wears the decorations awarded to those who fought North Korea and China between 1950 and 1953. He served on the ship Empire Test in the merchant marines, ferrying troops to Pusan in 1952, he tells NOW. But alas for the chief, the British department of transport declares the ship never made it to Korea.

they said

We’ve been made the enemies of lawyers and judges our tax dollars support, and it’s time we turned around and said, “fuck you.” – Marc Emery launches his bid to legalize pot

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This is an emergency changes in media competition, technology and pornography have escalated the beauty myth to such a lethal rate that we can’t trivialize the issues any more. – Naomi Wolf, author of The Beauty Myth

The real reasons people are upset is that there are same-sex scenes, and Madonna and the other women in the video are in control of their sexuality – and that really interrupts the status quo. – Sue Golding of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre on the banning of the Madonna video Justify My Love

Our songs are very emotional. They aren’t tempered by sophistication or irony or sarcasm or any of these humour tools some really good songwriters are able to use. – Indigo Girls’ Emily Saliers

Record companies are a lot like the Wizard Of Oz. From the outside, they look so impressive. But once you get inside, you realize it’s all just some idiot standing behind a curtain pulling levers. Depending on which one he pulls, he can either help you or make you look like a fool. – Smashing Pumpkins megalomaniac Billy Corgan hates record label attention

we said

“When he isn’t fantasizing about sex, Anthony Kiedis gets all weepy and starts crooning like B.J. Thomas about how the city is his only friend and other sensitive things.” – about the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ less than spicy Blood Sugar Sex Magik

“Merrily stroking their uncircumcised guitars through a hard-rocking two-hours-plus set, they delivered the kind of show that makes them one of today’s biggest bands.” -about Metallica live

“For those wondering if there could be anything duller than watching a seated Shaun Ryder whine about his kinky afro and scoring dope to canned backing tracks in performance – how about a dodgy live recording of it made in a soccer stadium?” -about old-school Manchester kids the Happy Mondays

“The mealy meat patty has exuded ugly, purple foam – the sure sign of frozen meat that is grilled directly from the freezer. It eliminates the only decent escape one has, if one has for some reason been trapped in this mire. Down to the ice cream: how can anyone ruin store-bought ice cream? Ask Mr. Greenjeans.” -about the gimmicky tourist trap Mr. Greenjeans

top 10 albums

3rd Bass Derelicts Of Dialect

Cannibal Corpse Butchered At Birth

De La Soul De La Soul Is Dead

Coil Love’s secret Domain

Gang Starr Step In The Arena

My Bloody Valentine Loveless

Nirvana Nevermind

R.E.M. Out Of Time

Slint Spiderland

A Tribe Called Quest The Low End Theory

top 10 movies

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Silence Of The Lambs

The Fisher King

Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Barton Fink

Boyz N The Hood

JFK

The Commitments

Hearts Of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse

Delicatessen

Thelma & Louise

In this year

JANUARY

Police complaints commission criticizes Toronto police for using excessive force and denying access to legal counsel for 144 people arrested at the G7 Economic Summit in 1988.

Gulf War “One” explodes in the Middle East.

Tory Metro councillor Paul Christie introduces motion calling for the deportation without right of appeal of non-citizens convicted of a crime.

FEBRUARY

Contrast, Toronto’s oldest black journal, folds after 22 years.

Psych professor Phillippe Rushton’s theories on the racial superiority of whites unleashes daily protests at the University of Western Ontario where he teaches.

MARCH

Pointing to slow promotions and racism, black Toronto police officers form their own group outside of police union.

Four white cops beat motorist Rodney King, sparking LA riots which leave 50 people dead.

Premier Bob Rae comes under the gun for dumping flamboyant MPP Peter Kormos from cabinet after he posed for the Sun’s Sunshine Boy feature.

Rogers Cable pulls AIDS awareness show saying gay scenes of men kissing offend public taste.

Legendary nightclub Twilight Zone closes, marking downward spiral of warehouse-style clubs.

JUNE

Yugoslavia breaks apart. Slobodan Milosevic initiates ethnic cleansing of Croatians until the UN intervenes.

JULY

Saudi PR gesture to pick up first day admission to the Ex – a “thank you” for our role in the Gulf War – angers local Arabs who say the money could have been better spent helping Iraqi victims of the war.

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Summer pot shortage in Toronto – blamed on a shift from international to domestic supply – drives the price of weed to $500 an ounce.

AUGUST

Cold War ends as Soviet Union collapses. The Baltic states declare independence followed by Ukraine.

SEPTEMBER

Biosphere 2 begins its first mission. It’s a failure as crops die and oxygen has to be pumped in. Pauly Shore’s Biodome also a failure.

OCTOBER

The pre-Conrad Black Financial Post fires executive editor Steve Pretherbridge for running unflattering front-page story on declining financial fortunes of Canadian Airlines.

Prostitute rights group charges Toronto police are extorting sexual favours from sex workers.

NOVEMBER

RCMP decides not to charge Toronto police chief Bill McCormack for wearing Korean War medals he didn’t deserve.

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