Ontario’s Greenbelt
The protected arch of farmland, forests and wetlands surrounding the Golden Horseshoe turns eight. And environment groups call for its expansion into urban river valleys.
Native issues
APTN investigative reporter Jorge Barrera strikes a blow for native self-determination, winning the Canadian Journalism Project’s Newsperson of the Year Award for, among other things, “contextualizing issues for all Canadians” in his coverage of the Idle No More movement.
Contraflow bike lanes
Finally, the province clarifies that contraflow bike lanes on one-way streets are indeed legal in the big smoke. Ride on!
Print journalism
The country’s largest-circulation daily, the Toronto Star, announces plans to lay off 55 people in its editorial department and contract out copy editing and production services. The paper says these changes will save $6 million. It’s the third year running that the paper has laid off employees citing falling ad revenue.
Political second thoughts
Two of the mayor’s trained seals, er, staunchest allies, Councillors Michael Thompson and Pete Milczyn, now say it was wrong to kill the vehicle registration tax. Unfortunately, their about-face two years too late says more about their lack of political integrity than it does about the mayor’s, who has none.
Retweeting the Pope
Joe Ratzinger officially jumps a sinking ship, aka the Catholic Church, but the world seems more consumed with the fact that he follows eight people on Twitter than with the scandal he’s leaving behind. Ratzo, we hardly knew ya.
