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ADRIAN CANN

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Thornhill native Adrian Cann probably couldn’t tell you much about what student life was like at Thornhill Secondary School. He wouldn’t be able to tell you about how bad the cafeteria food was or where the kids used to smoke in between classes.

He couldn’t reminisce about that one biology teacher who had invested all those hours outside of the classroom making sure he understood the fundamentals of genetics, unwilling to let him fail the upcoming exam.

He couldn’t tell you much because he was never a student there.And yet it was Thornhill Secondary,or more accurately the school’s unlined middle field out back bordering Dudley Avenue, that Cann called his classroom.

“That would be our daily ritual,” he says. “If we didn’t have a club game, we would go training there by ourselves. Put the mesh up, play. That’d be every day. Even in the wintertime, we would do that. We’d be shovelling snow, and we’d just be out there non-stop.”

Soccer has been the single focus of the 29-year-old’s life from nearly the very beginning. Since his first kicks at age three with his father and older brother Chris in local parks to his days playing on the Thornhill Thunder club team against kids two years older, to trips with the provincial team, soccer has been at the centre of Cann’s universe.

“I just remember attending St. Luke’s Elementary School, playing with the rest of my buddies in my class every recess period and waiting for school to end to play and train,” he says. “I would dart off home to get something quick [to eat] and change into my other clothes to play some ball in the back of the high school.”

Games also found a way into more unconventional venues. “We used to play in this small living room that my folks had,”he says with a laugh,recalling matches with his brother in their house on Elgin Street. “It would get kind of intense, you know. We’d throw some elbows and fights would break out.”

As a high school student at St.Robert Catholic High School, Cann was named the athlete of the year in 1998 and 1999,the same years he was selected to lead the Ontario all-star team as captain. He began to attract the attention of college recruiters from the United States, eventually earning a scholarship from the University of Louisville in Kentucky.During his time at the school, he did not disappoint.

In his sophomore and junior seasons Cann was named the team’s most valuable player and was named his conference’s co-defensive player of the year as a junior and senior.

He was also the only player in the school’s history to be a first team All-Conference USA selection for four straight years. His coach at Louisville during those years, Tony Colavecchia, once described Cann as “the most complete soccer player we have ever had at Louisville,” crediting him as the cornerstone of the team’s success.

Following graduation in 2004, Cann was selected 16th overall in major league soccer’s SuperDraft by the Colorado Rapids. His stay in Denver was short-lived, however, as he played only two matches before signing on late in the season with the Montreal Impact where he would also play the 2005 season. In 2006, Cann signed with the Vancouver Whitecaps where he helped the team to win their first United Soccer League First Division Championship and was named the team’s most outstanding defender in 2007.

Stints with teams in Denmark and England followed before Cann eventually signed with his hometown side,Toronto FC, in April of this year.

Stepping onto BMO Field and Toronto’s back line and donning his number 12 jersey for his club debut in front of family, friends and fans was a moving experience.

“It was tremendous pressure,”he says. “Not only do I gotta perform for myself and for the club, but I gotta represent the people that I grew up with, you know? But I took that in stride. It just kind of motivated me to perform.” Motivation, along with leadership, will be elements Cann hopes to bring to the side.

“I think my role on the team is to kind of delegate the players around me,” says the six-foot-three-inch, 180-pound defender. “Just to have a presence in the back line, whether that’s vocally, physically, helping the younger guys out.”

And while his position requires an assertive and aggressive figure on the field, Cann’s off-field personality is better described as relaxed and reserved, humble even.

That humility is apparent when Cann’s teammates, Maxim Usanov and Raivis Hscanovics, who both call the hotel that played host to our interview their temporary home, wander through the lobby and notice their shy teammate in the middle of an interview.

With BlackBerry in hand, Usanov, with a big grin on his face, sneaks up and starts recording our conversation, circling around Cann, creeping in for close-up shots, then pulling back for more panoramic views.

Cann, already embarrassed by the attention of the interview, turns bright red. Poor choice, then, to follow up with questions about his nicknames: “Smiley”and “Peaches.”For anyone who has talked with Cann for more than 30 seconds, the appropriateness of Smiley becomes immediately obvious. But Peaches?

“It was about the ability for me to grow my facial hair,”Cann explains.“It’s just peach fuzz. Everyone else kind of had facial hair.I’m still called Peaches on the street when I see some guys.”

But ask Cann whether he thinks major league soccer lacks the quality of play in other top leagues around the world, and the conversation quickly turns serious.

“I don’t think that’s true,” Cann says. “In any given day in football, any team can beat any team. Just give it a couple more years, and I think MLS — it might take a little longer — will be right up there with the top leagues in the world.”

Cann admits his intentions as a youngster were to play in the top European leagues, but North American soccer has come a long way since then, he says.

“There was nothing like [Toronto FC] when I was younger. It wasn’t an established, massive club. I can’t describe it, it’s incredible. Here you have 20-odd thousand fans coming to a game. Every single match is sold out, rain or shine. It inspires me.” As for what lies ahead, Cann is focused on helping Toronto reach the playoffs — something the team has been unable to do since joining the league in 2007 — and improving on their 12th overall place finish in last year’s standings.

“This is where I want to be,” he says. “I want to help my city out,you know,as much as possible.Win a championship here, make the playoffs and just represent my people well.”

 

ADAM LIND

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IT WAS THE spring of 2007, and Adam Lind, a skinny, straw-haired kid from Anderson, Indiana, found himself eating alone at a restaurant on Yonge Street.

The future star slugger of the Toronto Blue Jays had just been called up to the big club, and he was terrified. Not so much about his big league appearance — he was confident in his swing and had terrorized pitchers in Triple A — but about being in the big city.

Back home in Anderson, Lind knew wide-open spaces, warm summer nights at the ballpark and knowing just about every face in town. Suddenly, there was honking, flashing, people everywhere and not one face he knew.

“It was a whole new world, man. Nothing like I’d ever experienced before. Unlike Indiana or Alabama or any of the stops I’d had in the minor leagues,” says Lind.

One face, though, stood out. Richmond Hiller Lakeyshia Bertie was dining at the same restaurant that night and noticed the cute guy eating by himself. She had just moved downtown and knew the feeling of being alone in a new place.

“I passed him a couple times and was like, ‘Hey, what’s his story?’” recalls Bertie. “So I went over and talked to him, and he said he was alone in the city and didn’t know Toronto.… It sucks to be in a new city and not know anyone, so I said we should stay in touch and I can show you around.”

That Sunday, Lind called and asked her out; this November, they’ll tie the knot at a ceremony in Toronto.

The marriage will mark the second major contract Lind will have signed this year. In April, Lind accepted a four-year, $18 million extension with the Jays, evidence of the team’s intentions of making the 26-year-old designated hitter a cornerstone of their rebuilding process, and Lind’s intentions of making Toronto, and Richmond Hill, home.

For a city searching for a champion — or even a contender — this was a major coup.

Last season was a breakout year for Lind, who won the Edgar Martinez Award, recognizing him as the best designated hitter in the game, and a Silver Slugger Award, denoting top performance in hitting, for his impressive statistics: a .305 batting average, 35 home runs and 114 runs batted in. Staggering totals for any player, but especially one as young as Lind.

But Lind is quick to deflect credit. “A lot of it was to do with Cito,” he says of the team’s general manager, Cito Gaston. “He’s always talking about having your plan. I found a plan that worked. I could control the strike zone a lot better, which pitches I swing at.”

If he was searching for proof that his “plan” was a good one, he needed to look no further than his performance last September at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox and some of the most ruthless fans in baseball, when Lind hoisted three home runs over the famous green outfield wall in one game. Suddenly baseball commentators from coast to coast were clamouring about the hottest new thing in baseball.

For any kid who grew up on the sandlot, this was the stuff of fantasy. But for Lind, it was just one more achievement.

“I remember when I got to the big leagues and I could say I played in Fenway Park. And then I hit a home run over the Green Monster.And then two years after that, I hit three home runs,” he says. In fact, Lind looks at his entire career in baseball in the same modest way: never get beyond yourself, simply focus on the task at hand.

“It was always just the next step,” says Lind. “If you do good, you move.… I had success at each level, and you just keep moving up the ladder.”

Had baseball not worked out, chances are Lind would be back in Indiana at this very moment, sitting atop a John Deere, baking in the summer heat and putting the finishing touches on the outfield.

“I enjoy the idea of taking your shirt off, being in the summer sun. I love the design and the smell of fresh cut grass, all that stuff,” he says. Back in Anderson, Lind’s dad, Al, was the town’s resident lawn care specialist, cutting the baseball and football fields, and most of the neighbourhood while he was at it. His dad’s love for cutting grass rubbed off on his son, who considered studying agronomy in college.

Toronto should be proud to have such a humble star to call its own, but that’s a distinction we’ll have to fight Lind’s hometown of Anderson for. To have one of its native sons achieve such success has given his native city of 60,000 something to rally around in the face of school closures and job losses.

“The auto industry was big in our town, and it started taking a hit here years before the recent economic collapse,” says George Bremer, a sports reporter for Anderson’s Herald Bulletin who has covered Lind’s rise since high school.“Adam provides a bit of good news for everyone. He’s an example that good things can and do come out of Anderson.”

When Lind’s feeling a bit homesick, a trip to Bertie’s parents’ place at Bayview and Major Mackenzie reminds him of Anderson.

“I enjoy it because we can get away from the big city, [and it] feels a bit like I’m back home. It’s a neighbourhood,” he says. “It’s nice to see a front yard, backyard, fence. We can let our dog out to run around a bit. But there’s a lot of people everywhere, even in Richmond Hill.”

There’s an added bonus in the clubhouse, too. His new connection to Toronto gives him a leg up on his teammates. “A lot of the guys on the team, they know the Rogers Centre and the three blocks around there. But you know, I can go to, well… Richmond Hill,” he says with a laugh.

Lind is thankful to his dad for helping him get to where he is now. “He was the perfect dad when it comes to playing with your son. Whenever I wanted to go outside and hit baseballs, he would throw to me.

There were some days he really didn’t want to: You know, he’s an old man taking naps, and I’d have to wake him up and he’d say, ‘Not now,’ but for the most part, whenever I wanted. Not a lot of kids’ dads would do that,” he says.

The Jays must be thankful to the senior Lind for the extra batting practice. They’re hopeful, too, that junior can continue to produce as he did last year. The Jays are off to a hot start, and currently sit third in the competitive American League East.

As for Lind, his start has been slower than last year, though he is on pace to reach significant totals: 23 home runs and 84 runs batted in. But the expectations go both ways, says Lind.

“Hopefully by the time my contract’s up, we’ll have done some damage, been to the post-season and hopefully won a World Series. These things are a process. Hopefully I’m not like that college senior when a new basketball coach comes in. You know, you do the hard work, and then all the glory comes when you’re gone. So I hope we get it done while I’m still here.”

If not, there are still at least two reasons to come back to Toronto. It’s his fiancée’s hometown, for one, and he says the Rogers Centre grounds crew have told him to give them a call after his playing days are over.

 

VINCENZO NATALI

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SEVERAL YEARS AGO, Stephen King famously crowned fellow writer and filmmaker Clive Barker “the future of horror.”

To fans of the macabre, it was the equivalent of the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval and being anointed by Oprah all rolled into one gruesome goody basket.

What, then, would King think of Vincenzo Natali, whose latest film, Splice, discerningly delivers the kind of gooseflesh that’s rare for a genre preoccupied with serial slashers and dyspeptic torture porn like the Saw series?

Without needing to consult any crystal balls, tarot cards or chicken bones, it’s easy to predict that King would find some new way to knight Natali. Splice, which stars Sarah Polley and Adrien Brody as madly in love mad scientists meddling in the deep end of the gene pool, is simply that good. A pat on the back from King would certainly do wonders for Natali’s ego (not to mention his career).

But if there’s anyone whose opinion gives the Toronto filmmaker the heebie-jeebies, it’s the Baron of Blood himself, David Cronenberg.

“I’m afraid for Cronenberg to see Splice. I’m scared to find out what he might think of it,” says Natali.

“I grew up on his movies — Scanners, Videodrome, The Fly. Anyone who sets out to make a smart horror movie has a lot to live up to.”

Natali comes by his strong affinity for Cronenberg naturally. The 41- year-old was born in Detroit but grew up in Toronto, not far from the elder filmmaker’s familiar haunts. And he cut his teeth at North York’s Canadian Film Centre (CFC), the mecca of film education founded by Norman Jewison and where Cronenberg is on the board of directors.

Surprisingly, Natali says working on a moderately budgeted feature film like Splice echoes his days as a student filmmaker. “Making student short films isn’t much different than a big feature — they’re both surprisingly difficult,” says Natali.

“It always feels like I’m going to die. I’m sure even Spielberg and Scorsese suffer at times to get their movies made, though.”

Located on the Windfields Estate on Bayview Avenue, the CFC provided Natali’s “lucky break.”

“I wouldn’t have the career I have without that amazing institution,” he says. “Well, I have to confess, I spent the most terrifying night of my life in one of the CFC cottages. Don’t ask what I was doing there. It was like living through a B-grade horror film.

If anyone asks whether Windfields is haunted, the answer is yes!” A haunted film school? Sounds like the perfect inspiration for a future king of horror.

As Natali talks, he’s occasionally distracted. He’s on the phone en route to the airport. He’s flying somewhere — Boston maybe? Chicago? He can’t keep track — for a series of advanced screenings ahead of Splice’s June release. “The last few months have been insane,” he says. “After an incredibly long and difficult pregnancy, I’m excited to show off my baby to the world.”

You can forgive Natali his frequent childbirth references. After all, Splice is a Frankenstein tale about the spawning of a new organism that combines human DNA with, well, something else. The result is Dren (that’s “nerd” spelled backwards), a mostly human mutation with a bald head, wide anime eyes, reptilian legs and a Bjork-like sex appeal. “Dren is certainly a fascinating creature, very childlike but also very womanly,” he says. “She’s also definitely a monster.”

Natali came up with the idea for Splice 15 years ago after seeing photos of the Vacanti mouse, an experimental lab mouse that grew a humanlike ear on its back. “It was such a shocking image, it instantly galvanized my desire to write a story that in some way drew from that,” says Natali.

While he worked on other projects, he kept coming back to Splice. At first, he was drawn merely to the Grand Guignol aspect of the story. Then, he started exploring the moral and ethical ramifications of genetic manipulation.

“The film started out as straight horror and science fiction, and now real science has almost eclipsed everything in the movie,” says Natali. “By the time we were filming, experimenting with actual humananimal hybrids became legal in the U.K.”

Like Dren, Splice’s cinematic DNA can be traced to several sources. There are bits of Steven Spielberg’s early fascination with dysfunctional families and supernatural settings, a strand or two of David Lynch’s obsession with the bizarre and Stanley Kubrick’s detached unblinking gaze.

There’s even a nod to James Whales’s classic Bride of Frankenstein with Boris Karloff — Polley’s and Brody’s characters, Elsa and Clive, are named after Bride stars Elsa Lanchester and Colin Clive.

But it’s the melding of hard science, body horror and romance in Cronenberg’s The Fly that is Splice’s most obvious ancestor. The result is both fantastic and fantastique, which is the imposing of science fiction and horror elements into an otherwise realistic environment.

In fact, the story only came together through the relationship between Polley and Brody’s scientists as well as their quasi-parental relationship with Dren. “It’s inherently a creature film spliced onto a relationship story with that relationship story at the centre,” says Natali.

“It was important that we see Elsa discover her latent mothering instincts, and that, as the creature becomes a difficult child, she becomes a poor mother, which mirrors her own childhood in many ways, and then we see how the creature becomes attached to Clive and vice versa.”

Splice also owes a debt to Cronenberg in the way it fuses horror and sex, something that would likely give the elder filmmaker fits of giggles.

“It’s an emotionally driven horror film,” says Natali. “If you took out the emotional and sexual component of the story, it’s not something that I would be very interested in at all.”

It’s also not something Hollywood is usually very interested in. Natali admits that he never could have gotten Splice made in La-La Land. “It’s a miracle that it got made, but it has an inherent life force and willed itself into existence,” he says.

Ironically, Splice is now being distributed by a big Hollywood studio, Warner Bros., who jumped on board after über-producer Joel Silver (The Matrix, Sherlock Holmes) saw the movie at the Sundance Film Festival in January. “It was next to impossible to get people to loosen their purse strings to make this movie,” says Natali, who rustled up funding through a Canadian-French coproduction deal and shot the film on the cheap in Hamilton and Toronto.

“So it’s amazing to see it get a large theatrical release.”

Natali moved to Los Angeles following the success of his first feature, the ferociously inventive cult classic Cube. But as Natali talks about growing up in downtown Toronto, it’s easy to tell he hasn’t been swallowed up by the Hollywood lifestyle.

“Just because I live in L.A. doesn’t mean I live the L.A. life,” he says with a chuckle. “No one’s rolling out any red carpets for me.” At least not yet. Expect that to change once Splice hits theatres.

 

MIDTOWN’S BELINDA STRONACH

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WHEN IT COMES to saving the world, caped crusaders and supermen are in short supply. Not that we’re without our heroes.

They just happen to look more like rock stars and movie actors than those of the tights-andflight variety. There’s Bono and Bob Geldof, of course, and George Clooney and Brangelina. A little closer to home we have the dynamic duo of Belinda Stronach and Rick Mercer.

Stretching the analogy a bit further, Stronach is definitely from the Bruce Wayne/Batman mould: a wealthy heiress and tabloid socialite with a strong desire to right a few wrongs. Fittingly, that would make Mercer, of This Hour Has 22 Minutes fame, her comic sidekick.

Four years ago, Stronach and Mercer joined forces with UNICEF Canada to create Spread the Net, a grassroots campaign to purchase and distribute anti-malaria bed nets for the children of Liberia and Rwanda. So far, they’ve raised $5 million, enough for the 500,000 nets they set as their initial goal.

Spread the Net is just one of the many endeavours that Stronach has been involved with since she slipped quietly from public life, as a member of Parliament, to the private sector.

Stronach makes her hero headquarters — her Wayne Manor and Batcave — in a condo several stories above hip and trendy Yorkville. From there, she can keep her eye on the city, especially the goings-on at Queen’s Park to the south. You see, Stronach’s efforts to make the world a better place extend far beyond the battle against malaria.

The Belinda Stronach Foundation is the driving force behind the first-ever G(irls) 20 Summit in Toronto, which will take place over four days this month (June). Modeled after the G20 gathering of world leaders, the G(irls) 20 Summit will bring together one girl from each of the 20 countries involved to discuss how girls and women can help solve some of the world’s greatest challenges.

“There are 3.3 billion girls and women in this world. The potential for each to contribute to their communities and their countries, and indeed our planet,is great,”says Stronach.“Sadly for so many, the challenges they face in realizing that potential are much, much greater. So our goal is to give the world’s girls a platform to change minds,change lives and — quite literally — change the world by showing the importance of supporting girls and women everywhere.

Stronach points to research that shows that girls and women have the potential to play an important role in building local economies.

For every dollar a woman earns, she invests 80 cents in her family and her community, compared to just 30 cents by men. An extra year of education increases a girl’s income by 10 to 20 percent. While in Kenya, for example, if girls were educated to the secondary school level it would translate into $3 billion being poured into the economy, Stronach says.

“I feel very fortunate to be working side by side with a variety of national and international partners to help empower girls and women, create opportunities for Aboriginal youth, eradicate malaria and help in rebuilding the lives of those in Haiti.

The resolve of those we work with to empower is amazing, and whether it is here in Canada or abroad, their stories, challenges and hope for a healthy and safe life are inspirational.”

It wasn’t too long ago that Stronach was grabbing headlines for the scandal and controversy that had seeped into her personal and professional lives. The former MP was splashed across the papers when her relationship with now Defence Minister Peter MacKay fizzled after she famously crossed the floor from the Conservatives to join the Liberals. Later, the wife of former Maple Leaf Tie Domi accused her husband of having an affair with Stronach.

But Stronach managed the gossip swirling around Canadian water coolers with grace and dignity. “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. There is some proof to that,” she says with a laugh. “You have to really evaluate what is important to you and be able to look in the mirror at the end of the day. I’m comfortable with my decisions, with my principles, and I can’t worry about the judgments others make,” she says.

Indeed, at 43, Stronach possesses the wealth and connections to do just about anything she likes. But it’s her decision to put her privilege to good use, to quietly and consistently help others in need — from a hospital in Toronto to a small village in Africa to a school in Haiti — that is earning her some welldeserved attention.

“I feel very fortunate in that, when you have the resources and the means and the platform to effect change, I think you have a responsibility to do that,” she says. It’s why she established the Belinda Stronach Foundation.

In conversation, Belinda Stronach is straightforward and optimistic. She says that she’s been lucky in life and does what she can to help others who aren’t so fortunate. One of the focuses of her foundation is to help underprivileged girls in developing countries get an education.

Stronach’s foundation and former U.S. President Bill Clinton’s Clinton Global Initiative united to form a $1 million partnership to help NGOs and the private sector co-ordinate efforts to get issues faced by women and girls on the agenda at this year’s G8 and G20 summits in Huntsville and Toronto. Earlier this year, she launched the One Laptop Per Child program to provide a computer to every Aboriginal child in Canada between ages six and 12, so they can go online and connect with the world. She’s already raised more than $2 million from private companies toward that goal.

Stronach’s philanthropic efforts also have a very strong personal meaning. A breast cancer survivor,she hosted Live to Tell, an intimate concert with singer and breast cancer survivor Sheryl Crow last year.The show raised $375,000 toward a new breast cancer centre at Sunnybrook Hospital. She’s since added almost $2 million to the coffers of the Belinda Stronach Chair in Breast Cancer Reconstructive Surgery at Toronto General Hospital.

“I think I’m a very positive person.On one hand, I think I can be a very shy person, which is interesting, but on the other hand, if it’s a good cause, you find the energy and the strength to put to it,” she says. With her second chance, she continues to follow her dream of helping those in need. She also encourages young people who have their own ambitions to follow their passion and stick with it. “Don’t be afraid to dream big because if you can’t dream big you won’t get there,” she says. “You don’t have to wait for everything to be perfectly in line. I’ve met many great entrepreneurs.… They had a dream, they had a passion. They didn’t have all the answers, but they figured it out as they went along.”

— With files from Mary Gazze

 

SARAH GADON

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HEY, BAYVIEW TEENS: someone’s watching you. No, don’t worry, she’s not out to steal your iPhone: Sarah Gadon’s more interested in lifting your slang and mannerisms.

“I love watching the neighbourhood high school kids walk to school,”says the 23-year-old actor, who lives just on the edge of Bayview. “You get to see their body language and how they talk to their friends and all the goofing off that happens.”

Though Gadon is a few years removed from high school herself, the petite blonde actor is still most often cast as a teenager. “I find it really beneficial as an actor to live around here,” she says, “especially playing a teenager.You can lift so much from the current youth culture.”

Gadon grew up in the neighbourhood — in fact, she still lives in her parents’house while she attends the University of Toronto part-time and travels frequently for work.

Her list of alma maters is typical of someone who began a film career at a young age: Gadon attended Claude Watson School for the Arts until Grade 8 and then spent a year at the area’s Cardinal Carter. “I loved going to arts schools,” says Gadon. “It’s such a positive environment. But you really have to be there and be rooted in the community in order to get the most out of it.”

By Grade 9, Gadon was already taking a lot of time out of school to work on film and television sets, so after a year at Cardinal Carter, she decided to switch to Vaughan Road Academy’s INTERACT program, a flexible program for professional kids.

Gadon has always seized the opportunities that come with being an actor in Toronto. “If you look at my resumé, it’s half Canadian television shows mixed with a few Canadian indie films and then really recognizable U.S. projects, and it’s a great blend working here, because you get both.”

Gadon has been working in film since she was 11, and her resumé runs the gamut from typical Toronto child-actor fare, like Are You Afraid of the Dark?, to appearances on made-for-TV-movies like Mom’s on Strike and features films including 2007’s Charlie Bartlett. She’s also voiced characters on cartoon series such as Ruby Gloom and Total Drama Island. More recently, Gadon has had recurring roles on Toronto-centric shows Being Erica and The Border.

Gadon also recently worked with Daniel Craig on Jim Sheridan’s forthcoming thriller Dream House, which should come out sometime next year. “It was really intimidating working with [Sheridan] at first, because he had this method where he pushed you to alienate yourself from the material and then speak it in your own words, and he was very intense,” she says. “But what was great was seeing him do that to me, and then seeing him do that to Daniel Craig.I was like, yes!”

Though Gadon may look like your conventional blonde starlet, it’s the independent and cult projects that really ignite her passion. Right now, she can be seen on both the big and small screens in projects that have become instant cult favourites.

On the big screen, Gadon appears in Leslie, My Name is Evil,a campy,raucous, and thoroughly bizarre romantic comedy inspired by the trial of “Manson Girl” Leslie van Houten. The film, which is directed by Monkey Warfare director Reginald Harkema, premiered at TIFF last fall,but is only now starting to play in theatres. (Torontonians can catch it downtown at the Yonge and Dundas AMC.)

On the small screen, Happy Town marks Gadon’s first gig as a series regular, and it’s been “a real trip,” she says. She’s the only native Torontonian in the cast,so she loved being able to show her out-oftowner co-stars around town.

“It’s really great to rediscover the city with people who aren’t from it,”she says.

The show, an American crime drama series that premiered at the end of April on A-Channel in Canada, was shot in and around Toronto, the bucolic vistas of Oakville and Port Hope standing in for small-town Minnesota. Unfortunately, the show had a bit of a rough premiere, though it has developed a cult following of David Lynch fans who see comparisons to the surreal filmmaker’s iconic series Twin Peaks.

Both examine the dark underbelly of a seemingly idyllic small town, and both have a supernatural edge to them as well.The series has been temporarily suspended,but ABC has said it will air the remaining episodes this month.

Happy Town marks Gadon’s first gig as a series regular, and it’s been “a real trip,” she says. “It has a very cult-series vibe,” says Gadon, who plays Georgia Bravin, a neglected teenage girl from the wrong side of the tracks who babysits for the series’ central family. “When I watch the show,it doesn’t feel mainstream at all,and there are a lot of obscure cinematic and pop culture references.”

The obscure cinematic references are something she especially appreciates, as she is majoring in cinema studies at U of T. “It’s great because it’s a very analytical program,” she says. “Not very practical, but I get a lot of the practical side of things working on sets, so it’s a nice balance.”

Not one to pass up any opportunity that comes her way, Gadon even asked the producers of Happy Town if they’d mind if she shadowed them during preproduction.

“I wanted to be more emotionally invested in the project,” she says. “As television actors, you often just arrive at a point in the process, and it’s harder to be aware of the bigger picture.”

They said yes,and she got herself a free crash course in producing a television series. “I learned a lot about budgets and crew and unions and everything that needs to happen on a film set,” she says. “It’s almost like you need an MBA to be a producer,there’s so much technical stuff to learn!”

She’s just as enthusiastic speaking about the “less practical” side. Gadon’s eyes light up when asked about her favourite filmmakers, and she launches into an enthusiastic rave about Agnès Varda and French New Wave Cinema.

Now that Happy Town’s wrapped, Gadon is off to Germany to shoot A Dangerous Method, a David Cronenberg film about Carl Jung,Sigmund Freud and the birth of psychoanalysis.

“It’s been a really exciting process leading up to that,”she says,“because I’ve been going to London for costume fittings,and all our costume fittings are at Cosprop, which is like this mecca of period drama costumes for pretty much all film and theatre in Europe. It’s just amazing in there.”

But as exciting as the prospect of travelling is, Gadon is always happy to return home to Toronto. “Living here feels like a really great retreat,” she says. “You have everything that’s great about Toronto at your fingertips, but there’s something that’s way more relaxed about living here. And there’s a lot of nature around here, too.”

Gadon still doesn’t know where her career might take her, but she knows that Toronto will always be home. “Everyone needs a home base,” she says. “This is mine.”

 

Tackling Toronto’s best key lime pies

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THE KEY INGREDIENT
BAKE DESSERT CO., 2700 DUFFERIN ST.

The Argos’ season starts up this month, but with his playing days over, Michael “Pinball” Clemons, CFL Hall of Famer and former Argos standout, has more time to reflect on the finer things in life, pie among them.

“When it comes to key lime pie, I’m more of a traditional guy. You don’t have to work hard for it,” says Clemons. “Growing up in Florida, we were used to fruit — the oranges, the limes — right off the tree.” The dessert works for its simplicity and authenticity: a crumble crust, a light tartness and not overwhelmed by whipped cream or extraneous toppings. Touchdown!

Price: $30 for full pie, Bake Dessert Co. (also available at 7 Numbers, 516 Eglinton Ave. W.)

Click here to watch Pinball picks T.O.'s best key lime pie

FIRST RUNNER-UP

 
Joe’s Stone Crab, 11 Washington Ave., Miami Beach

“Sweet and tart, that’s good, and not too creamy,” says Clemons. He applauds the crumble crust and simple filling, which makes the offering from the venerable Joe’s Stone Crab (available in Toronto at House of Chan, 876 Eglinton Ave. W.) a near winner. Price: $62

TEXTURED TREAT


Wanda’s Pie in the Sky 287 Augusta Ave.

“For a pie that is as tall as me, this is the one,” says Clemons with a smile. The texture is smooth but with tiny bits inside, “like OJ with pulp.” The moist pie crust gives it a delicious base, but it’s not enough to unseat the frontrunners. Price: $19.75

CHOCOLATE CHAMP


Phipps Desserts 1875 Leslie St., Unit 21

The chocolate crust is good, but maybe best left to a proper chocolate cake, as it overwhelms the key lime flavour here. The electric green colour is a cool touch, but a bit too far removed from the traditional key lime pie Clemons is used to. Price: $41.95

LEMON OR LIME?


La Rocca 10 Via Renzo Dr.

“When I think of key lime pie, I don’t think of lemon meringue,” which is what this fluffy confection reminds Clemons of. Plus, with its whipped cream topping, Clemons says it’s more of a candy than a pie. Price: $24.78

Click here to watch Pinball picks T.O.'s best key lime pie

ED ROBERTSON

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ADMIT IT: YOU loved the Barenaked Ladies from the start. You were defenseless against their infectious tongue-in-cheek pop jams, their goofy lyrics, and you even kind of dug their more serious songs.

But as much as you loved their tunes about million-dollar paydays and Brian Wilson’s head, what really hooked you was the friendship of frontmen Steven Page and Ed Robertson.

So when Page left the band last year in the wake of his cocaine bust, it hurt a little bit more than you thought it would.

You worried that Robertson,the new-old face of the band, might not be up to the task of carrying the mantle of one of the country’s great musical acts without his counterpart one witty rejoinder away.

It was a thought Rosedale’s Robertson had, too. “I certainly worried about that, but the moment we started playing, all those worries were gone,”says Robertson over the phone from Columbus,Ohio, a stop on their multi-city U.S.summer tour promoting All in Good Time, the band’s first album post-Page.

“I realized, [our fans] don’t care about our sh**, our inner emotional socio-political battles. They just want a good rock show. And we know how to do that.We’ve been doing it for 20 years.”

Twenty-two years, in fact. Hard to believe, since the origin of the band was more coincidence than long-term calculation.

The year was 1988 and a teenaged Robertson found himself without a backup band a few days before a charity concert for the Second Harvest Food Bank at Nathan Phillips Square.So he called on a friend from school with whom he shared an obsession with Rush and Peter Gabriel,a slightly wacky boyish humour and a serious musical intellect. As for the band name, it was one they had joked about before.

“We thought it would be our one and only gig.And here I am, 21 f**king years later, still in a band called Barenaked Ladies,”says Robertson with a laugh.

Robertson and Page hit it off, and before long were joined by local musicians Jim and Andy Creeggan and Tyler Stewart.In 1992,they released their first full album, Gordon, to wide acclaim and instant recognition for the hits that ultimately put them on the map, “If I Had $1000000,”“Brian Wilson” and “Be My Yoko Ono.”

Since then, the band has toured the globe, sold upwards of 14 million albums and gone platinum many times over.That laundry list of accomplishments made Robertson feel OK about considering leaving the band after the split with Page.

Plus, he had a number of other irons in the fire,including his experiences with his TV series, Ed’s Up, which followed Robertson as he flew his float plane to a series of odd and entertaining job postings around the country. So calling it quits with the band was an option.

“I certainly thought about it,” says Robertson. “[But] not for very long. The bottom line is: I love to do this. I love to get up onstage and perform these songs.

I love the new songs and I love the old songs.We’re definitely in a new chapter, but we’re bringing the whole book with us. Everything has been re-energized.”

Returning to the studio proved good medicine for Robertson.Over 10 months starting in 2008, he had endured the turmoil of Page’s drug bust, lost his mother to cancer and crashed his plane in northern Ontario (all four passengers, including his wife, walked away unhurt).

Investigators were unable to determine a cause — they faulted neither mechanical issues nor pilot error — but said Robertson and his passengers were lucky to be alive.

And so when Robertson and the remaining members of the band (Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn and Tyler Stewart) returned to the studio in May 2009, Robertson brought with him the weight of those events. But that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.

“I think there’s a theme of rebirth on the record,”he says.“I think historically I would kind of veil the emotions and make them a little more literary and a little more distant from myself, and I think this record was a lot more cathartic in the writing, and it was a really great process for me.”

One song on the new record that has received much attention is “I Run Away,” written partly about the strained relationship between Page and Robertson and the efforts to salvage the relationship. “I tried to be your brother / You cried and ran for cover / I made a mess, who doesn’t? / I did my best but it wasn’t enough,”sings Robertson.

Writing songs without (and, in at least one case, about) Page allowed Robertson to dig deeper than in albums past.“It was great for me as a writer to explore ideas on my own,ideas that in the past I would have stopped so as not to finish without Steve. And with this writing process, I felt freed up to go to a lot of places on my own and at a time when I really needed to do that emotionally.”

Accompanying the band’s transformation was a change of location for Robertson and his family of five from the Beach to Rosedale.

Robertson had heard all the horror stories about the stuffy midtown district where residents trimmed their lawns with scissors and scowled at anyone not driving a Bentley or a Rolls.

But upon arrival, Robertson, who made the move to be more central, says he encountered a completely different scene — a laid-back neighbourhood full of kids playing in the street, welcoming neighbours, easy access to trails and parks and plenty to do nearby.

“After the third couple we met said, ‘Rosedale’s totally not what we expected,’ I said, ‘Well, either we’ve all had misconceptions about Rosedale, or we’ve become the people we hated,’” says Robertson. (For the record, he hopes it’s the former.)

Of all stuff to do in the neighbourhood, none beats the lunchtime barbecue at Summerhill Market, the smell of which wafts into his backyard just before noon. Robertson admits to eating there three times over five days during a recent break between tour legs. He says he bumped into Roberta Bondar, Canada’s first female astronaut, there as well.“She was eating a hot dog. She claims she doesn’t usually eat hot dogs. But that’s exactly what someone who eats hot dogs would say,” jokes Robertson.

As for the new-look band, Robertson is feeling every bit as comfortable and engaged as he does in his new neighbourhood.

And while Robertson insists the split with Page was completely amicable, you can scrap your plans for a reunion any time soon. Were Page to walk into their dressing room and ask to play a set with his old bandmates, Robertson says his immediate reaction would be to scream, “Security!” Is he serious? Like all things BNL, it’s sometimes hard to separate the silly from the sincere. But given the band’s success with their current tour and given Page’s recent solo release, Robertson suggests there’s little reason to worry about such hypotheticals: “He wouldn’t, and we wouldn’t,” he says.

“We’re on a very different trajectory than he is, and we’ve worked really hard on it. We’re very proud of where it is and what we’re doing with it.”

 

Puttin’ the hammer down

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The last time this pampered princess picked up a tool was, well, never. The last time this pampered princess even looked at a car tire was, well, never. But suddenly I find myself armed, not just with any tool, but a massive SLEDGEHAMMER, hitting two car tires with all my might. It feels, oddly, great.

I’m at Powerclub, a recently opened boutique gym in Forest Hill’s Upper Village, founded by Rachelle Bronfman, which specializes in “elite personal training.”

Married to one of the sons of the late Edward Bronfman (the wealthy philanthropic family best known for Seagrams), Rachelle Bronfman has been active in philanthropy for as long as she can remember.

Starting the club, she explains, is just another way to express her philanthropic nature.

How so? I wonder, but I wait until later to ask.

Before I arrive, I’m told to park at the side of the building, on Eglington Avenue, and enter through the “private VIP entrance,” the only way to get into the club.

Honestly, I’m walking through the back of an alley, but I’m all for calling it a VIP entrance. It has a better ring. Bronfman herself pays for parking spaces attached to her club, for her clients, which is a thoughtful touch.

Inside, however, the club has a different vibe than most fitness clubs.

First, the club only focuses on mixed martial arts (MMA) especially krav maga (Israeli self-defence), sambo (Russian marital arts) and Brazilian jujitsu. Trainers are Israeli experts in hand-to-hand combat. (And they’re all good looking!)

The club is not just for men. It has the feel of a boutique. At what other club, I wonder, will I ever see an Orthodox Jewish woman (who has eight children) practise krav maga next to a six-foot-two Toronto police officer? Um, nowhere!

Everyone, from all walks of life, seems to be getting into the MMA scene, especially a scene that is this upscale.

Immediately after walking in, I’m handed a blueberry protein shake and taken on a tour by Bronfman, an extremely fit and outgoing woman.

There’s a rooftop patio, with lounge chairs and trees, where clients can sit and soak up the sun after a hard workout (Or, in my case, before the workout.) There’s a fireplace on the main floor, a juice and coffee bar and a room on the lower level dedicated to stretching after a workout.

The stretching room features four massage tables and feels more like a spa. Today I’m getting a lesson in krav maga from Erez Cohen.

He’s a 29- year-old Israeli and a five-time national judo champion, member of the Olympic team for Israel and, ahem, was named Mr. Israel in 2003.

Also, he served in the Israeli army in an elite anti-terror unit for four years. Cohen is so soft spoken and gentle I often have to ask him to repeat himself. It’s hard to believe that he can kill you. (But he is supereasy on the eyes. )

News of the Powerclub has spread, and they have already collected quite the clientele. Actor Joe Dinicol, who stared alongside Paul Gross in Passchendale, is a client. The owner of Maple Pictures, who released Precious, is a client. Actress Ashley Leggat, known for her role in Life with Derek and Marcia in Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen, practise here, as do numerous NHL players.

And, now, at least for today, so do I. Before we start, I ask Cohen, “Will I hurt you?”

“Yes,” he answers.

“Will you hurt me?” I ask.

“Maybe,” he says.

Wonderful, I think.

We start by using a fake gun, and I learn what to do if it’s pointed at me. He pulls out a fake knife and grabs me and holds it to my neck. I crack a joke that this is good for me to know if someone pulls out a knife and wants my iPod.

Apparently, krav maga is no laughing matter.

“If someone pulls a knife on you like that, they don’t want your iPod. They want to kill you,” says Cohen.

Wonderful, I think. We practise a few times, and I get the hang of it quite quickly. “That’s the great thing about krav maga: After only a couple sessions, you learn,” says Cohen. “And you learn fast.”

Then he asks me a question I never thought I’d ever be asked. “Have you ever worked out with a Sledgehammer?”

“Um,no, Ezra. I have not,”I respond.

Next thing I know, he’s explaining how to pound two tires with the sledgehammer. Like I said, it feels great. And, apparently, it’s great for the stomach muscles. (Which turns out to be true.The rest of the day, my sides are killing me!)

After we train, I ask Bronfman how opening a gym is a philanthropic pursuit. She explains that she sends her trainers to schools across Toronto, everywhere from Forest Hill Collegiate to schools in the Jane-Finch area. “We are very anti-bully. So we teach them good self-defence and selfcontrol,” she explains.

In fact, a number of teenagers go to Powerclub, which has surprised even Bronfman.

“They come at first and they’re not confident. And then you see them become confident. Not only that, they want to become good at it. They’re really dedicated to it. And it’s great to see teenagers trying hard at something they’re interested in.”

She also organizes fitness adventure getaways in Israel (Israel Defense Style!) with shooting excursions, briefings with IDF special intelligence and Shabbat dinners with a hundred IDF soldiers.

There is no monthly fee to join the club.Trainers cost $110 an hour.

What I love, too, is that everyone is friendly. I speak with the Orthodox woman who gives me her husband’s name (a dentist).When I compliment Bronfman on her Swarovski watch, she asks me if I want one. It’s the type of place where you know people can get things done for you. Plus, where else can you just hit a sledgehammer for fun?

 

OMB school case a serious instance of déjà vu

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More than 12 years ago, residents of Merton Street took Sunnybrook School to the Ontario Municipal Board (OMB). Now they’re at it again.

Currently, residents are protesting a rezoning application approval that allows Sunnybrook School to build a two-storey addition on a next-door residential lot acquired by the school.

“I would say our concerns are very similar,” said local resident Geoffrey Jones, representing the Merton Street Residents Association at the OMB. “It’s the same issues that we had in 1998.”

Originally, local residents brought the school to the OMB in protest of a two-storey addition.

The final report revealed that parents who were picking up and dropping off their children at the school congested the street that was also used by locals. The residents feared the addition would mean more students, which means more traffic congestion.

The OMB eventually ruled that Sunnybrook School cap school enrollment at 150 students and that the school could only build a minor addition with an understanding that no further outward expansion would be made in the future.

Irene Davy, principal for Sunnybrook School, said that a neighbour recently had approached the school about the school purchasing the adjacent lot. Davy said the bigger lot allows for a reasonable expansion that would include increasing the loading zone pickup and drop-off area.

The expansion would not include building any new classrooms, but would include an office for the vice-principal and a better French room, drama space, locker room and playground.

“The expansion is to improve the facilities for the same number of students we currently have,” said Davy. “We’re really making the most of a tiny space right now.”

However, the expansion would also mean the conversion of a residential lot to more of a commercial or institutional use, said Eric Gillespie, the lawyer representing the street’s residents.

“There are examples within a couple of blocks of this location where seven to nine houses have been converted,” said Gillespie, referring to other school expansions, such as one on Balliol Street. “That’s one of the key questions … whether this fundamentally will change the character of the neighbourhood.”

Jones said there is still a problem with traffic congestion due to the school, and Gillespie confirmed that local residents are worried it will only become worse.

The official OMB appeal is booked for July 5, but Gillespie said all parties are hoping for a private resolution before then.

Thornhill driving range battle tees off at OMB

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A Thornhill Residents’ group intent on stopping a proposed golf centre development recently brought the fight before the Ontario Municipal Board.

“Literally, it’s a pile of mud,” said Joel Starkman, president of the Leslie Street Thornhill Ratepayers Association of a four-metre-high berm proposed to separate the facility from residential properties. “It’s like looking at a construction site. You tell me if you want that in your backyard.”

Submitted by Within Range Golf Centres Inc., the proposal seeks to build an outdoor driving range with chipping and putting areas, a clubhouse with patio and a miniature golf course on leased land at 8111 Leslie St.

The property, currently a vacant hydro corridor, is owned by the Ontario Realty Corporation and backs onto residential properties on Summerdale Drive. Starkman said there are four main concerns for residents with the proposal: increased noise, traffic volumes, facility lighting and the berm.

He estimated that overall legal costs for his group’s opposition to the plan would total approximately $35,000 to $40,000, with the money coming from association member donations. Fundraising drives are also planned, Starkman said.

Scott Rukiak, owner of Within Range, said that there had been a lot of misinformation with regard to the development and that efforts had been made to accommodate questions and concerns from the community.

“When they first formed their ratepayers group, we asked to go to a meeting with them and sit down and explain everything to them,” Rudiak said. “And they sent us off an e-mail that said, ‘We don’t want you to attend.’

I can’t really address their issues if they won’t sit down with us.” Rudiak said traffic increases in the area from the centre would be negligible as would light increases, as all installed lighting would face away from residential properties. He added that the berm already exists on the property, standing two metres tall. “We’re not the evil developers,” Rudiak said. “We’re a small company. The design of the whole project was with the neighbours in mind.”

Godfrey’s group spends $1.1 B to buy Canwest

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After leading the winning $1.1 billion group bid to acquire the Canwest newspaper chain, North Yorker Paul Godfrey is poised to take the helm as president and CEO of the new company that will emerge.

The former Toronto Sun publisher spent eight years heading up the Toronto Blue Jays before returning to the media game last year as president of the National Post. For Godfrey, the decision to seize this latest opportunity was easy — Canwest is the biggest English-language daily chain in the country.

“I think that newspapers have got a very positive future, and I felt I’d like to be a part of it,” he said. Godfrey pointed to coming up with a “digital-first” strategy as the biggest challenge that lies ahead.

John Douglas, a Canwest spokesperson, said the group offer, which was nearly $200 million more than some suggested its assets would net, will leave the storied newspaper chain intact. “I think that what we see in this bid is a very solid outcome, headed by somebody who has great credentials and a proven history,” said Douglas. The deal is expected to close by mid-July.

Tackle teen question period with confidence

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“Mom, which jeans should I wear, the black ones or the blue ones?”
“How about the blue ones?”
“No, I look horrible in them. They’re ugly.”
“Okay, so wear the black ones.”
“They’re out of style. You never help me with anything. I hate you.”

Is there a parent of a teenager who has not heard those words? When teens ask us what to do about pretty much anything (starting with fashion choices and escalating to what they should do with their lives), pretty well the worst thing we can do is to give advice.

That’s because our answers — whatever they are — are anathema to teens. And that’s because their developmental stage requires them to be figuring out how to come up with their own answers — which explains why no answer we give can ever be right, simply because it’s not theirs.

Teens desperately need to hear our stories of growing up. Not the ones that begin: “When I was your age, I walked 12 miles through the snow to school (and back) every day, I wasn’t soft like you, I never complained.” (Or the modern version of that.) When we tell our kids how we toughed out/survived/aced challenges, we issue an implied judgment, that they’re soft or lazy or not as strong as we were at their age.

Because teens are so horrendously worried about their place in the world and figuring out who they are, they tend to be insecure about everything. And an insecure person is quick to feel judged by the most benign statements.

The other response that makes them see red and shut down is a lecture. “Susie, you look great no matter what you wear. I just wish you could know how gorgeous you are” comes out sounding like a lecture; and teens can’t hear lectures. It makes them snarly.

So when your teen asks you to make a decision for them, resist, resist, resist. Instead, when you’re faced with the blue versus black jeans question, tell a story about how hard a time you had making those decisions when you were young. As in: “When I was your age, I could never figure out what to wear. I had a really hard time choosing my clothes for school every day. It was awful.” It still will not be what they want (because nothing could be) but it’s what they need. What they want is to not have anxiety, and nobody can chase that away.

Another thing to say is: “I was worried about making friends and not being cool.” That too will not get a positive reaction — today — from your teen, but it will be helpful. Your teen will maintain the usual sullen silence but inside be thinking: “My parents worried about being cool? Maybe it’s normal.”

Over time these little revelations of yours will help soothe some of the anxieties. Start telling your teen stories about your childhood. Not those stories. Obviously you’ll not choose to share the times you were a total rule-breaking rebel, but everything else is probably helpful to your teen. As parents, we tend to shy away from sharing stories of our adolescence, perhaps out of a (misguided) desire to protect our kids. We don’t want to scare them.

But it’s paradoxical: By not telling them about the hard times in our own young lives, we foster an image of ourselves as super-heroes (which, oddly enough, they think we are anyway, despite their complaints about our innumerable parental inadequacies). By our silence on the subject of our weaknesses, we let them think we were invulnerable at their age.

It’s helpful to let them see that we were teens like them — with great uncertainties. They then think to themselves: “My parents lived through this, so I might.” It’s incredibly calming for teens to discover that not everybody has it all together. Knowing that helps them tolerate how hard it is to not have the answers.

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