In an attempt to maximize patio season this fall and provide further assistance for struggling restaurants, the City of Toronto has announced plans that will allow portable heaters, such as fire-fuelled appliances (e.g., propane heaters) on outdoor patios, including CaféTO sidewalks and curb lane closures.
Previously, numerous documents and applications were required for heaters on patios to be approved, but new guidelines for safe use of these appliances have been developed by Toronto Fire Services. For example, guidelines state that operators must only use heaters that meet federal and provincial safety requirements, installing and storing units per the manufacturer’s instructions, and removing heaters from the curb lane when the café is not in use.
“We are doing everything we can to support our local restaurant industry,” said Toronto Mayor John Tory in a statement. “I heard this request from the restaurant industry and took action to help allow portable heaters to safely keep CaféTO installations and patios warm, even in late October and November, to help extend the season. I want to thank city staff for working to find a way to make this possible to help restaurants as much as we can right now.”
In compliance with CaféTO safety and accessibility guidelines, tents and structures are still not permitted in curb lane closures.
CaféTO was created back in June to help the restaurant and bar industries restart from the effects of COVID-19 by providing additional outdoor space for physical distancing, leading to revenue generation throughout the summer months. The program made it easier for approved restaurants and bar operators to either expand existing or install new, patio spaces outside their businesses.
The program supports more than 760 restaurants across Toronto with increased dining capacity, including over 400 curb lane closures and sidewalk cafés, occupying more than 9,000 metres of the public right-of-way, as well as 44 parklets.
Pending weather, CaféTO will end in late fall, so the portable heaters are meant to make outdoor dining more appealing to patrons while encouraging physical distancing to help stop the spread of COVID-19.
Canada’s most famous horse race is ready to run this week, in a new format. Queen’s Plate @ Home kicks off at noon on Sept. 12 with the running of the Queen’s Plate with a $1 million purse. The race will be broadcast live on TSN and CTV, as there will be no spectators at this year’s event. There will also be a new digital experience on Woodbine Entertainment’s Instagram channel @WoodbineTB showcasing some of the event’s longstanding traditions including fashion, gourmet food, music, wagering and Thoroughbred racing. The Queen’s Plate @ Home will be hosted on Instagram by The Social’sMelissa Grelo.
We spoke with one of the country’s best jockeys Emma-Jayne Wilson, who won the race back in 2007, about the Queen’s Plate and how she overcame hurdles to make it to the top of her field.
The Queen’s Plate is being held this month, with the race being live-streamed as well as some other events. What is the significance of this race?
This is Canada’s horse race. This is the oldest and longest continuously run thoroughbred horse race in North America. So it is steeped in tradition and history. It means everything to everyone who’s been involved in horse racing in Canada in any way, shape or form. So the fact that we’re able to run it, we’re pretty happy to have that considering the way 2020 has gone.
You must be getting excited for race day?
I am excited. I don’t think it’s going to be what we are used to, but the Queen’s plate, it is about the horses, and it is about the racing, but there’s a lot of tradition and hoopla that goes along with it. I hope everyone gets dressed up at home because that’s part of it — getting dressed up to go to the races. So I would love to see people with their top hats and tails and in their fascinators in their own kitchen with their own television on, enjoying the Plate as you would if you were in the grandstand.
Are there any favourites this year?
When we talk about the Queen’s Plate as a whole, Clayton is a local horse that won the Plate Trial [Stakes] this year.… And there is another horse by the name of Halo. On top of that, you have the fillies. The winner of the Oaks [Stakes], Carolyn’s Voyage, will be a key contender in this year’s Plate as well.
How did you get into jockeying?
I started at a riding camp. It was at the YMCA riding camp for a week once, when I was a kid, but I’ve always loved horses. After that, I fell in love. I fell in love with animals. I fell in love with riding. And I did some more riding camps the next year, and then my parents got me into horseback riding lessons. So I did my weekly lesson. And in a way I guess it was kind of history from there. I would do everything I could to get to the barn. I knew I always wanted to be a jockey.
What do you love about it?
Well, let me tell you this way. We have a lot of rules right now at the racetrack. There’s a lot of protocols about social distancing, as everywhere. It was just the other day I broke the rules, and I snuck into a barn and into the stall of a horse that I had just won on about three days before. And I snuggled, I hugged him, I played with him. I was in the stall for probably about half an hour, you know, with the straw and the quiet time. And it’s these animals that are the athletes. It is horse racing for a reason. I’m just a partner with them. And to spend that time in the stall with him … the passion that I have for this game is the animals, the athletes. I mean, they are characters and they try to learn, and so to spend that time in that stall with him, albeit against rules — I was checking over my shoulder every second — it made me feel really good because I really did miss that.
Have you faced any roadblocks as a woman in a horse racing world dominated by men?
I think there were challenges. When I started, I wasn’t the first jock that was a woman to be at Woodbine. A very successful jock before me was Chantal Sutherland. So there was a lot of ice that was essentially broken in that sense with her.… There were always still challenges that I felt like it was about my frame of mind was going to dictate how people saw me. I didn’t see myself as a female rider. I just saw myself as just another jockey who wanted to be judged on her merit and her skills. And I knew what I had to work on to be the best jockey I could be. I wanted to be as strong as any one of the guys, as a rider coming down the lane in the last quarter mile. I wanted to go toe to toe with these guys and be considered as strong, and that was something that I focused on.
What have been some of your proudest moments?
I’ve had some really great moments from, you know, historical moments: like on [colt] Mike Fox in the 2007 Queen’s Plate is obviously one of them [becoming the first woman to win the event], but I think just the consistency over the last 16 years. I’ve had my ups and downs with injuries over the last couple of years, but I still maintained a level of consistency as one of the top jocks here year in, year out. I’m proud of that. And I’m pretty happy to have called Woodbine my home.
It’s an exciting week for Toronto vegetarians and flexitarians as the cult favourite Impossible Burger makes its long-awaited Canadian debut. The flagship product from California-based company Impossible Foods is hitting the menus of 13 Canadian restaurants this week, marking its first availability outside of the U.S. and Asia.
The Impossible Burger rose to fame in 2016, when it debuted on the menu of chef David Chang’s acclaimed New York restaurant Momofuku Nishi. It was later named the best plant-based burger by the New York Times and is now sold in about 30,000 restaurants and 10,000 grocery stores across the U.S.
The secret to the meat-like taste is a protein called soy leghemoglobin, which is said to replicate the heme molecule responsible for the distinctive, savoury flavour of real meat.
To celebrate the Impossible Burger’s launch in Canada, numerous notable Canadian chefs have added Impossible Burger-based dishes to their restaurant menus starting this week.
At Bymark, diners can try chef Mark McEwan’s take on the Impossible Burger, the Bymark Street Burger, which sees the plant-based patty topped with beet chutney, pickled red onion, garlic aioli, aged white cheddar, and triple crunch mustard. Diners will also be able to order the restaurant’s signature Bymark Burger with an Impossible Burger patty.
Chef Matty Matheson’s wildly popular pizza joint Maker Pizza will be serving a pie topped with ground Impossible Burger, while chef Ivana Raca is combining it with plant-based mozzarella to create a vegan agnolotti for Ufficio.
Some Toronto restaurants, including Favorites Thai BBQ, Soos, and the Federal, are offering a goodie bag of Impossible merchandise (while supplies last) to diners who order an Impossible Burger dish.
The burger is also launching at restaurants in Vancouver, Calgary, Ottawa, and Montreal this week, including Montreal’s iconic Joe Beef restaurant. The burger is set to roll out in additional Canadian restaurants in the coming weeks and in grocery stores later this year.
Karen Stintz is a former city councillor, elected in 2003, and was a chair of the TTC. She lives in Ward 8.
At first I wasn’t sure what it would be like to dine in the street, but, as it happens, enjoying a meal on a restaurant patio that extends onto the sidewalks or into the street is quite pleasant.
Outdoor patios are a common feature in many European cities throughout the year but, until recently, not as widespread in Canadian cities. In an attempt to help restaurants stay viable in an era of reduced capacity and limits on indoor dining, many cities relaxed the patio rules and included the ability to set up tables and chairs in the streets. In Toronto, the city bureaucracy moved quickly to loosen the rules, and restaurants have embraced the opportunity. New patios are popping up on sidewalks and streets throughout the city and midtown is no exception.
In addition to the new rules, the city is helping to offset the costs of setting up the patios by paying for the cost of barriers and planters. Restaurants that are within an established business improvement area (BIA) have the flowers paid for and maintained by the BIA.
In midtown, Sip Wine Bar on Yonge Street had struggled for years to get a patio licence because the space is on the side street, not Yonge. Since it was on the side street, the city required that a majority of residents on the street had to agree before any permit could be issued — not an easy task. So Sip had been denied the permit — until this year. The patio is wonderful and will likely become a permanent fixture for the area.
In another case, there was a bus stop directly in front of a restaurant, which made a patio impossible. The city reviewed the location of the bus stop and determined that it should be moved — not just to facilitate a patio, but because it wasn’t in an optimal location.
The patios near Yonge and Eglinton have double concrete barriers as a precaution amidst all the construction, and the city waived a previous rule that prohibited a server from walking across a public right-of-way to serve alcohol.
Luckily, we have had an incredible summer from a weather perspective, with only a few rainy days that rendered dining on the patio unappealing. Since indoor capacity limits will likely be in place for some time, patios will become increasingly important for restaurants. Currently, patio licences are set to expire in November. As we move into winter, hopefully the city will consider extending those licences.
Year-round outdoor patios are not new to Toronto, but those patios are typically on rooftops with overhead protection. The challenge for the city and restaurateurs will be to design all-weather patios that can withstand the cold and dreary winter days and nights. At present, the city is taking a hard line against propane heaters for outdoor patios on the public right-of-way because the risks are deemed to be too great. Without any type of heater, outdoor dining in the winter would be rather unpleasant.
Hopefully the same spirit of flexibility and ingenuity that existed over the past few months can be found over the next few months because patios are becoming increasingly important for restaurant owners as well as the first choice seating option for customers.
COVID-19 has shuttered festivals and rolled up red carpets the world over. TIFF, which runs Sept. 10 to 19, is no different. They’ve felt the pandemic pinch, slimming down the feature films selection to 50, all of which will be shown in a mix of online, drive-in and outdoor screenings with some indoor options. But it’s the makeup of the movies that is really exciting.
As part of TIFF’s five-year commitment to increasing participation, skills and opportunities for women, this year’s program consists of 46 per cent women directors, up from 36 per cent last year. We’ll see films that span the globe and more movies looking for distribution.
Here’s a look inside 10 movies worth seeking out:
1. In these uncertain times TIFF kicks off with a joyful film about protesting injustice, optimism and the celebration of life. Spike Lee’s movie of David Byrne’s Broadway concert, American Utopia, features the former Talking Head and 11 international musicians performing songs from Byrne’s 2018 album of the same name as well as familiar hits like “Burning Down the House” and a powerful cover of Janelle Monae’s protest song about police brutality “Hell You Talmbout.”
2. The film 76 Days is the first feature documentary on the COVID-19 pandemic to play at a film festival. TIFF artistic director Cameron Bailey calls the look at the struggles of the patients and front line medical professionals of Wuhan, China, in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak, “Urgent, powerful filmmaking. You feel like you are there in those rooms as coronavirus is breaking out and nobody knows what’s going on.”
3. TIFF’s Discovery section features Iranian filmmaker Farnoosh Samadi’s 180° Rule, the story of a school teacher whose plans to travel to northern Iran to attend a wedding ceremony are derailed by her husband’s objections. The movie, which takes its name from the onscreen spatial relationship between two characters on film, is Samadi’s feature film debut after making a number of internationally acclaimed short films, including Disappearance and More than Two Hours.
Idris Elba in ‘Concrete Cowboy’
4. Nomadland, the third feature from internationally acclaimed director Chloé Zhao, sees Oscar winner Frances McDormand play Fern, a woman who adopts a nomadic lifestyle after the economic collapse of her small Nevada company town. As in her other films, Zhao casts non-actors in prominent roles. This film features real-life, modern-day nomads Linda May, Swankie and Bob Wells, who Zhao says are “deeply giving and inspiring,” as Fern’s mentors on her journey through the American West.
5. Anne with an E and Mohawk Girls producer Tracey Deer’s debut feature as a director is based on a script that won the 2019 TIFF-CBC Films screenwriting prize. Deer co-wrote Beans with Meredith Vuchnich to tell the story of a 12-year-old Mohawk girl’s coming of age during the violent 78-day standoff between two Mohawk communities and government forces during the Oka Crisis in 1990. Events in the film are, in part, based on Deer’s experiences. “Once the Oka Crisis hit,” she told CBC, “the reality [hit] that my difference made life dangerous outside of the safety of my home and my community.”
6. Idris Elba returns to TIFF with Concrete Cowboy, inspired by the urban cowboy subculture of north Philadelphia. Director Ricky Staub came up with the idea after seeing a man riding a horse down a Philadelphia street. That led him to research the Fletcher Street Urban Riding Club, a century-old African American horsemanship institution whose website says they “provide a positive environment and some facet of stability for those kids that have none.” That led Staub to a book by Greg Neri and the story of a 15-year-old boy from Detroit who learns about urban cowboys after being sent to live with his estranged father.
7. Halle Berry stars in and makes her directorial debut with the gritty Bruised, a story of disgrace, family drama and, ultimately, redemption. The Academy Award winner is Jackie Justice, a former MMA fighter now in the battle of her life for custody of her six-year-old son. Berry says she was attracted to the story because of the character’s ability to adapt, be fearless and take risks. “I feel like I’ve been able to do that throughout my career,” she says.
Halle Berry in ‘Bruised’
8. Regina King follows up her Oscar win for If Beale Street Could Talk with her directorial debut, One Night in Miami. Based on Kemp Powers’s 2013 play of the same name, it’s set on Feb. 25, 1964, after Cassius Clay (who hadn’t yet changed his name to Muhammad Ali) defeated heavyweight boxing champ Sonny Liston. An overnight conversation in a motel that night between Clay and Malcolm X, Sam Cooke and football star Jim Brown helped them shape a new era of civil rights. The film stars Kingsley Ben-Adir, Leslie Odom Jr., Eli Goree and Aldis Hodge. King says, “I can’t wait for you all to see the brilliance these brothers bring to their portrayals of Malcolm X, Sam Cooke, Cassius Clay and Jim Brown.”
9. Cameron Bailey calls director Emma Seligman’s film Shiva Baby, a “sharp acerbic comedy.” The feature, which began life as a short film made during Seligman’s last year of college, reveals a young Jewish woman’s secrets during a frenetic shiva. Seligman says she hopes young women feel seen in their insecurities and find some humour and relief in the story. “For many young women,” she said at SXSW, “trying to be nice girls with secure careers ahead of them while also trying to be independent young women with liberated sexualities can be insanity-inducing.”
10. Brokeback Mountain screenwriters Diana Ossana and Larry McMurtry wrote the screenplay for Good Joe Bell. The true-life family drama stars Mark Wahlberg as a father who attempts to walk across America to raise awareness about bullying after his son, a victim of homophobia takes his own life. To look the part of a man who walked over 1,000 miles, Wahlberg went on a bone broth diet and “didn’t touch a weight, didn’t work out, nothing.”
Abundance of wild blueberries are the hallmark of a summer well-lived. A far cry from previous years, the pandemic may have dimmed your blueberry picking plans this summer but let it not keep you from filling your baskets with these delicious little gems while you can.
Here’s a list of places in and around the GTA that are still stocking this antioxidant-rich super fruit.
Harvest Wagon
Located near Summer Hill station, this gourmet food store stocks a great selection of fresh fruits and vegetables. Their prices may be on the steeper end, but the quality of produce is tough to beat. A small box of wild blueberries (around half a pint) is priced at $6.99 while you can get a full pint for $13.99. Known for their fresh seasonal selection, the owners of Harvest Wagon visit the Ontario Food Terminal at 3 a.m. every morning and personally hand pick products for the store. Although they obtain produce from all over the world, they proudly support and purchase Ontario’s home-grown makes when available.
Dave Young Fruit Market
A local favourite for years, the Dave Young Fruit Market is a fruit and vegetable stand near Eglinton Avenue and Avenue Road, that is notorious for its hot-off-the-press greens. A pint of wild blueberries here would cost you a good $9. Their supplies are currently ample, but it might be a good idea to stock up before they are gone.
Pusateri’s
Known for their diverse collection of gourmet, artisanal and imported products, Pusateri’s is also presently retailing wild blueberries. Half a pint will cost you $9.99 while the home-brand blueberries are priced at $7.99 a box. You can also get organic blueberries brought in all the way from British Colombia for a sharp $11.99 a pint.
Mama Earth Organics
If you’re not comfortable vendor-hopping in the middle of a pandemic, Mama Earth Organics is perfect. It is a subscription-based service that delivers to your doorstep, and they are selling half a pound of wild blueberries at $7.95. The blueberries are 100 per cent organic and locally sourced from James Bay Wild Fruit.
It’s hard to believe, but even in a global pandemic that has wreaked havoc on the hospitality industry, brave restaurateurs are still realizing their dreams and opening new restaurants all over the GTA. In no particular order, here are five of the most anticipated new additions to Toronto’s dining scene.
The Sky Flower is a pop-up restaurant born to safely serve food in a pandemic. The rooftop patio is open-air and socially distanced, while still providing the intimate feel of an exclusive boutique-style eatery.
Executive chef and MasterChef Canada season one winner Eric Chong has full reign over the menu, and he delivers with delicious “Asian-inspired flavours of Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai in the form of convenient barbecue comfort foods.” The Sky Flower is open for dine-in or takeout.
Gui Gui Korean BBQ in North York is not your typical Korean barbecue joint.
Forget figuring out whose meat is on the grill. Just take a skewer, load it up with curried pork, teriyaki chicken, or any one of the six seafood options Gui Gui Korean BBQ has listed on their menu, and throw it on!
Place the skewers on a 360-degree rotation machine. There, your meats are sure to be cooked evenly on all sides.
And the best part is you remain in complete control at every step in the process. Want your beef extra rare? Pull that skewer off early. Are you paranoid and cook everything to a char? Then sip on that Soju a little longer and leave it be. Either way, you can’t go wrong with Gui Gui.
You’ve heard of chicken and waffles, but how about shrimp and waffles?
The Waffle House is aiming to make this unique pairing commonplace. If you roll up on the Etobicoke location, expect a basket piled high with powdered sugar-covered waffles, a bountiful portion of chicken, and yes, some breaded shrimp.
On happy hour Fridays, a live DJ will supply the soundtrack for munching on The Waffle House’s combo specials.
If shrimp and waffles isn’t your speed, fear not. The Waffle House also has more mainstream waffle varieties, with their strawberry shortcake ice cream waffle and Oreo cookie waffle ice cream bowl being two of their greatest hits.
The team behind Ardo is back, this time with a more sentimental twist.
From a menu that features the quintessential tastes of Italy to a kitchen that evokes images of the Bel Paese, Dova is fully tailored to chef Roberto Marotta. A native of Milazzo in Sicily, Marotta is exploring Sicilian and Mediterranean flavours through modern techniques and seasonal ingredients.
After you’re done at DOVA, there’s even more to see and eat in Cabbagetown.
Rick Matthews, the Cabbagetown BIA executive director, and coordinator Shivon Yim have partnered with CaféTO on an art and food-based walking tour through the neighbourhood.
“At seven of our local restaurants, we have designed wooden patios, featuring the work of seven emerging artists,” says Yim. They’ve even set up a site to map out the art installations for visitors.
Good news for those who mourned the cancellation of Summerlicious, Toronto’s beloved bi-annual prix fixe food festival, because there’s a new “licious”-inspired food event coming to the city this week.
Kicking off on Sept. 11 and running for four weeks, AsialiciousTO will see Asian restaurants across Toronto offering special prix fixe menus priced at either $10, $20, or $30.
Organized by the Federation of Asian-Canadians Toronto (FACT) and the Chinese Chamber of Commerce (E.T.) Inc., with support from the City of Toronto and Scarborough North Councillor Cynthia Lai, AsialiciousTO aims to celebrate the city’s diverse Asian food scene as well as to support Toronto’s restaurant community in recovering from the economic impacts of the pandemic.
As part of the event, over 100 restaurants across the city will offer special set menus, highlighting both traditional and contemporary takes on various Asian-influenced cuisines.
Full menus for AsialiciousTO have yet to be released, but cuisine options will range from Chinese and Filipino to Pakistani and Sri Lankan.
Diners can also expect Hakata-style ramen from Japanese franchise Ikkousha, fried chicken from Taiwanese import Hot Star, and bubble tea from popular chain CoCo.
Prix fixe menus will be available for both dine-in and takeout. Asialicious begins this Friday and will run until October 11th.
A private school education can be many things, but cheap is not one of them. Expenses such as tuition, books, uniforms and trips can often result in a total yearly cost of upwards of $20,000. This cost will be even greater if the school is a boarding school as opposed to a day school.
With these costs in mind, a private education that runs continuously from kindergarten to Grade 12 may be out of reach for all but the most wealthy families, meaning those with more limited resources looking to receive the benefits of a private education must select the best time to enter the private education system.
Parents interested in a private education for religious or philosophical reasons have traditionally put an emphasis on a private education in the early years, when social skills and moral outlooks are developing, while those drawn to the private sector for academic success or university preparation have chosen later years to enter the private system.
Private institutions are well represented in the upper echelon of the Fraser Institute’s influential annual school rankings, but Janette Pelletier of the University of Toronto’s Institute of Child Study, says the best predictor of success is how well schools get parents on board with educating their kids, and that many public schools that do an excellent job at that result in academic success.
This means that students enrolled in higher performing public schools may have less to gain from switching to the private system.
Yet Deani Van Pelt, former director of the Fraser Institute’s Barbara Mitchell Centre for Improvement in Education, says that the majority of parents report being satisfied with their choice ofprivate school, and that graduates of private schools had “higher educational attainment, higher civic engagement and higher cultural engagement in adult life” than their public school counterparts.
Admissions offices highlight Grade 7 as a good entry point to the private system, as it is an age when many kids change schools, meaning a kid making the switch to a private school won’t be the only new kid in class.
Jennifer White, former VP of marketing at Blyth Academy, says the most popular point for students to join Blyth is Grade 11.
“We get a lot of students who have had a bad run in Grade 10, and their parents are keen to get them to the level needed for university,” says White.
However, the current circumstances of the world have meant parents weighing a new factor, beyond academic success or philosophy, when deciding if and when private school is for them — safety.
The Toronto District School Board has said that a survey of elementary school parents has found that 29 per cent of them don’t intend to send their child back for in-person instruction in the fall. This means that in the age of COVID, parents of kids below the popular entry points of Grade 7 and 11 are weighing their options in order to keep their kids safe.
This has given rise to a new form of private education, the learning pod, where small groups of like-minded parents group together and hire a private teacher to teach their kids, often at a private residence.
Learning Pods Canada, a Facebook group with over 9,000 members, is a place where parents and teachers can network in order to create pods for their children or join an existing pod. Posts by parents in the group cite large class sizes, lack of extracurricular programs and worries about their kids’ anxiety amidst the safety protocols as reasons to join a learning pod.
Hiring a private teacher for such a small group will undoubtedly not be cheap, as some posts mention pods priced at $1,700 a month per child, but for those worried about safety, they may no longer have the luxury to time their entry into private education.
Now, more than ever before, there is both a desire and an imperative for Indigenous stories. Toronto-based filmmaker Michelle Latimer is bringing two such projects to the Toronto International Film Festival this month in the CBC-TV series Trickster, based on the trilogy, by novelist Eden Robinson, and the film The Inconvenient Indian, by Thomas King.
With Trickster, Latimer read the book while at her parents’ home in Thunder Bay, Ont. where she grew up. She knew right away that she needed to option the book for TV and film and work on it.
“The characters really resonated for me, particularly Maggie and Jared and that mother-son relationship. It was the irreverent humour and the gritty reality of it,” she says. “Secondly, it was an Indigenous community that felt truthful to my own experience. And so that is why I felt like I would like to make this into a series.”
The show will premiere on CBC-TV this fall, but it will get a special screening of the first 90 minutes of the story at TIFF this month.
The series is billed as Indigenous gothic, which Latimer describes as magical realism rooted in traditional story and mythology of the trickster character. Trickster tells the story of Indigenous teen Jared who takes to cooking up drugs on the side to support his separated parents, but before long Jared starts seeing things — talking ravens, doppelgängers, skin monsters — and his life gets turned upside down.
Trickster stars Joel Oulette, a relative newcomer. Considering the dramatic nature of the show, it was a gamble to cast him, Latimer says, but one that paid off.
“You know, he was like an athlete. He was a quick study and he was focused and he was dedicated and he brought it every single day,” Latimer says. “And so, it was a bit of a gamble, but it was also, like, I feel like it was an educated gamble because I was pretty sure he could do it.”
Originally, Latimer was interested in turning the first book of Robinson’s trilogy into a film, but a television series offered more opportunities to explore the entire arc of the trilogy.
“The beauty of series television is that you can serialize things and make character arcs and emotional journeys, like, much longer and stand and because it’s a trilogy with a third book coming out this spring,” she explains. “I just love the longevity and the journey of that. And I am really fortunate to be able to do this especially on a national network where we haven’t really seen an Indigenous author’s work adopted by an Indigenous team with a mostly Indigenous cast. It just felt like we were making history.”
Latimer was born and raised in Thunder Bay, and studied theatre at the University of Montreal before heading to the Toronto area to act in stage productions as well as TV shows, such as Paradise Falls. Although she was discouraged by the business and contemplated a major change in career direction to medical school, she received some timely words of encouragement, while doing interviews for a documentary on Doctors Without Borders, and she pushed on into more important works, including a 2017 documentary film on the Standing Rock Indigenous protests in North Dakota called Rise.
Currently, Latimer keeps her production office in Toronto’s Parkdale neighbourhood, which has been quite busy as of late given she has, not one, but two projects at TIFF this year.
Latimer is also the creative force behind the film The Inconvenient Indian, based on a bestselling book by popular Ontario Indigenous writer Thomas King.
“It looks at the history of the colonization of Native People In North America, and it’s essentially a film that looks at how stories are told and what’s the truth behind our history,” Latimer says. “And what’s our role and how do we move into the future? It really looks at representation and the relationship Indigenous People have had to the media but also how stories in history are told and recorded in North America.”
The Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 10 to 19. For more information on Latimer’s projects and other films at the festival, go to www.tiff.net.
Trickster premieres October 7 at 9 p.m. on CBC and the free CBC Gem streaming service.
Long-time indie music hotspot and legendary nachos purveyor, Sneaky Dee’s, is the next small business to face property development closure. The city recently received a development proposal for 419 College St. (the location of Sneaky Dee’s) that will include a 13-storey mixed-use condo building.
The proposal includes 169 condo units that will span 13,009 square metres occupying most of the block. The proposal would change the block exchanging existing businesses for other commercial spaces approved by the developer.
A petition to stop the development plans is circulating and has received nearly 3,000 signatures in a day.
When news broke, social media was flooded with protests and memories from Torontonians including numerous musicians who cut their proverbial teeth at the venue such as Damian Abraham of the band F’d Up and Lowest of the Low who shot band photos at their old haunt on two occasions.
Sneaky Dee’s is a second home to me. I’ve been banned from there twice (for fighting and for a @FUCKEDUP set), had two meals named after the band, had @JaredLeto offer @laurentrouble and I nachos, saw Youth Youth Youth and too many other memories. Greek salad and fries 4 ever.
Another beloved Toronto landmark may be knocked down in order to make space for the most precious of commodities—condominiums.
The band’s first press photo in 1991 was taken at @thesneakydees, and was re-created in 2017 for @nowtoronto.
(Thanks, @sstanleymusic for the old pic.) pic.twitter.com/FBni0uVR5s
Toronto city councillor Mike Layton helped spur a conversation about the recent development on Twitter.
“While I haven’t seen any details of the proposal, we know it includes most of the block of buildings,” Layton said in a tweet.
Before its College Street location, Sneaky Dee’s was situated on Bloor Street but has been at its current location since 1990. The bar is locally famous for its nachos and for kickstarting some Canadian indie bands, including Arcade Fire and Feist.
Mayor John Tory recently told CBC News that the city has not yet reviewed the proposal submitted late on Sept. 4, before the long weekend. The area that Sneaky Dee’s is part of may also be designated a historic site in the coming weeks.
“There are many considerations, but first will be that the area has been under review as part of a Kensington Market Heritage Conservation District coming to council in fall,” Layton said in a tweet.
Toronto residents have seen several businesses close during the COVID-19 pandemic, with many others facing eviction. Sneaky Dee’s joins the ranks of other beloved music venues including the Orbit Room across the city facing extinction due to rent hikes and property proposals.
Cat and Nat tackle motherhood with wit and wisdom. Find them at catandnat.ca or @catandnat.
Recently, two of our kids went outside the house to backyard camps. Before they left, I had to have a reminder lesson with them about life. The thing is, we’ve been stuck inside the house, and they’ve been stuck with us, and we have language that we use — and it’s rubbed off.
So before they left the house I had to say, “Remember, no swearing and no sex talk. You cannot call Nat ‘Newt the Skin Flute.’ You can’t tell people what a skin flute is. You can’t tell people about sex or anything naughty. You can’t report about the movie you watched on the weekend that had strippers and drunk people in it. You cannot say ‘Goddammit’ when you drop something and you cannot say ‘F#$% you!’ ”
After playing Fortnight for 400,000 hours, I had to tell my kids that you can’t call your teacher or your friends, a noob or a bot — don’t call them that.
Now that they are going to be venturing out of the house again, they need to start speaking normal English, proper, appropriate English.
You know, when the teacher gives you a pop up quiz, you can’t say, “What the hell?” or “What the F#$%!”
So here I am, I’m walking out the front door after we just had this whole talk and the five-year-old goes, “Mom, Max just said f#$% you!”
We’re outside on the front lawn — neighbours!
And he goes, “I did not say f#$% you!”
And I’m like “NO!!! No other child is saying f#$% you!”
So here’s the plan, we need to pick 10 days when we’re together and we need to not swear. We need to put our kids through rehabilitation.
At school, you get sent to the principal’s office for swearing!
This fall, the challenge for teachers will be huge. I’m glad I’m not them! I appreciate them. I think they need to be a little lenient because the kids have been stuck with us, and we’ve been losing our minds.
Do you know what they say during hard times? I believe it’s like “give yourself grace.” Give yourself some time to understand that it’s okay if your child is five or four and swears at you or people.
We need a little bit of grace. The teachers have to have grace. They probably swear now. Maybe it’s a new part of the vocabulary. We’ll have a quiz on how to spell all of the bad words.
I have to re-teach my kids that you can’t yell and scream. You can’t do that high pitched scream when you’re frustrated in the classroom. It barely works in my house but it doesn’t work in the classroom.
You can’t punch people out when you don’t like what they’re doing.
I worry that they’re not going to remember how to be human at all.
To the teachers out there who get our children, if they throw some goddamnits and f#$% you’s, it’s not at you….it’s under their breath. And we’re working on it.
And if you drop a couple of f-bombs, I totally excuse you as well.
I also had to tell my kids that pretending to do shots isn’t appropriate. They’ll find some beakers in science class and go “Look at this, I can shoot it.”
They don’t actually take shots, but they watch me. They pretend. They pretend to pop champagne.
They take their clothes off all the time. They’re going to have to wear clothes at school. When they’re hot, they have to keep their pants on, and their tops!
And they need to stop humping like the TikTok dances. Air humping is a big problem in our house. We’re going to have to put a brace on their hips to keep them straight. No pretend doggy-style. You can’t do that either!
They’re going to get kicked out of school. We are so screwed.
We’re giving ourselves grace. The teachers are giving the kids grace. The kids are giving the teachers grace. It’s a beautiful word.
And the middle finger is not a form of communication. We’re going to have to tape their fingers down, along with a brace for the humping. Really, we should just put a muzzle on them for a little while. But first priority, we should really stop swearing for a little while. We’ll work on that.
