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Nice knowin’ ya, Chris – sort of

We’re sad to see that Tory MP Chris Stockwell has to quit in disgrace for his wild spending ways. It’s hard to believe that ol’ Chris, who made his political reputation on his penny-pinching ways, was actually whiling away his time in the capitals of the world at taxpayers’ expense. We shudder to think what the rest of the Tory cabinet’s been doing.

“Our problem is not finding criminals. Our problem is that it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. There are not enough police available to arrest them all.”

Pierre Klein, president of Cabbagetown South residents association in a press release bemoaning the “lawlessness” on Cabbagetown streets. Message to Klein: what ever happened to community solutions?

Oh, the Drudgery

U.S.-based online muckraker Matt Drudge takes no prisoners when it comes to salacious tidbits floating around the corridors of power in Washington. Remember Monica? But it seems citizen Matt is a tad sensitive about his own sexuality, judging by a correction he got the Star to print last week stating that he’s not gay. Seems the Pentagon knew what it was doing when it chose uptight Matt to start a whisper campaign about queer ABC-TV news guy Jeffrey Kofman after he filed a story about declining morale among the troops in Iraq. Tsk, tsk.

Star’s messy business

What’s this? Family-run Torstar has signed a letter of intent to buy OMG, the company that owns all those unsightly garbage bins and boasts some “curious” connections (all unsubstantiated, of course) to figures who’ve had brushes with the law. This can’t be helping the Star’s public image. But, then, there’s a newspaper war going on and those unsightly ad spaces will surely come in handy.

Swoosh in the park

Pity the poor residents around Trinity-Bellwoods Park who had to endure supersonic rap all day at a Nike-sponsored basketball tournament and concert a couple of weekends back. Nike scored the space free of charge from the city, thanks to a SARS-inspired policy that temporarily lifts charges for corporate use of public spaces. “We don’t want any corporate organization in the park,” says Rino Zan, who collected 180 names on a petition. But area councillor Joe Pantalone says Toronto “is financially on its knees.” And affording big corporations free public space to flog their products is the way to get us out of this mess?

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