[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Kanagaratnam, Bloordale, Bloor and Dundas, Etobicoke, Bloor West

• Fatima Syed and Wendy Gillis tell the story of Kirushnakumar Kanagaratnam, a Sri Lankan Tamil whose failed application for refugee status in Canada after travelling on the MV Sun Sea led directly to his death at the hands of McArthur. The Toronto Star has it.
• The developer hoping to transform the southwest corner of Bloor and Dufferin has opted to redesign the development following community criticism. CBC reports.
• The sheer scale of the planned development on the southeast corner of Bloor Street West and Dundas Street West is such that a new neighbourhood would come into being. Wow. The Toronto Star has it.
• The plan for SmartTrack would leave the residents of an Etobicoke development next to a GO rail yard subject to terrible levels of noise and air pollution. The Toronto Star reports.
• Is Bloor Street West going to become the next Yonge Street, an uninterrupted string of high-density development? Not without differences, at least. The Toronto Star looks at the issue.

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[NEWS] Seven LGBTQ links: Love Simon, Toronto, recipes, Italy, former Soviet Union, Obama

• NOW Toronto gives a glowing review to Love, Simon, one that praises the film for its quality and for its importance.
• CBC reports on how Toronto police seem to have badly mishandled Abdulbasir Faizi.
• The inquiry into the alleged McArthur murders most definitely should be independent of police chief Saunders. NOW Toronto reportsA.
• This story of how a recipe for pickled cucumbers survived the AIDS epidemic of the 1980s is powerful. Taste Cooking has it.
• The way in which LGBTQ rights became a hot political issue in the recent Italian elections is not good. Open Democracy reports.
• The politicization of homophobia across the former Soviet Union is horrible. Open Democracy reports.
• Why do so many people on the American right insist that Obama is gay? VICE reports.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: pandas, rail, transit funding, real estate, police

• CBC, among others, bids goodbye to the pandas of the Toronto Zoo, here.
• blogTO notes the extended hours of operation of the Union-Pearson Express and of the GO Transit rail network.
• Steve Munro is not impressed by the extra funding given to Toronto transit for a few reasons.
• May Warren notes that four thousand people applied for a lottery for 59 affordable units in Regent Park, over at the Toronto Star.
• The Toronto Star notes that John Tory has called for a limited external review of police in the context of the Church-Wellesley disappearances.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Metrolinx, police and Pride, Freeman Formalwear,, BMO, Bentway

• Steve Munro reports on the latest report about upcoming Metrolinx stations.
• Understandably, the Church and Wellesley serial killer investigation is making the efforts of Toronto police to march in Pride problematic. (As it should.) The Globe and Mail reports.
• blogTO notes that the old Freeman Formalwear building on 556 Yonge, just below Wellesley, has been demolished following a fire.
• The Bank of Montreal is going to transform a huge chunk of the old Sears store in the Eaton Centre, southwest of Yonge and Dundas, into an urban campus employing thousands. The Toronto Star reports.
• The Bentway, underneath the Gardiner, is set to become a public art space. The Globe and Mail reports.

[NEWS] Six LGBTQ links: violence, The 519, William Whitehead, art, pink triangle, Janelle Monáe

• I have been sitting on, thinking of, this R.M. Vaughan essay in The Globe and Mail reflecting on the high levels of violence queer men have to deal with for some time. All I can say, really, is that in the years I’ve lived in Toronto, I’ve felt what I’ve come to realize is a sense of safety that I never had living on PEI. The essay is here.
• The Globe and Mail reports on how the 519 Community Centre, in Church and Wellesley, is facing criticism that it has lost touch with its roots in the LGBTQ communities, especially marginalized ones.
• William Whitehead, a writer of documentaries for CBC perhaps most famous as the partner of the late Canlit giant Timothy Findley, died this past week. The Globe and Mail eulogizes.
• CBC reports on a new exhibition of queer art in Thunder Bay.
• The Forward reports on how, in the middle of the AIDS epidemic, artist Avram Finkelstein repurposed the pink triangle of the Nazis into an iconic badge for our era.
• As Janelle Monáe continues moving on out (she seems to have a nice girlfriend), Vulture looks at the interesting trope of bisexual lighting.

[NEWS] Four LGBTQ links: Project Houston, marginalization, coming out, sex panics

• Fatima Syed and Victoria Gibson ask what happened to Project Houston, the Toronto police enquiry that ended before the disappearace of more victims of the Church and Wellesley serial killer, over at the Toronto Star.
• Arshy Mann at Daily Xtra argues that all the mechanisms that marginalize people, not just police neglect, have to be taken into account.
• Vice interviews out 20-somethings on the subject of what they think about coming out. Is it still something that has to be done?
• AV Flox at Medium notes how Internet sex panics already tend to focus their hurt on LGBTQ communities.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: TTC and safety, Downtown Relief Line, crime, G20

• Ben Spurr argues that building the Downtown Relief Line is not only a matter of improving public transit, but rather of public safety as crowding increases, over at the Toronto Star.
• A man, Toronto Police announced today, has been arrested in the case of the murder of Tess Richey in Church and Wellesley late last year. The Toronto Star has it.
• CBC reports on yesterday’s vigil at the Metropolitan Community Church for the victims of the Church and Wellesley serial killer.
• Trevor Dunn of CBC reports on the civil lawsuit lodged by Luke Stewart against the Toronto Police Services Board for the behaviour of Toronto police in 2010 during the G20 summit.
• Nicole Thompson’s Canadian Press article noting how the repeated recent failures of the TTC undermine the credibility of Toronto as a burgeoning international centre is true. The National Post a href=”http://nationalpost.com/pmn/news-pmn/canada-news-pmn/issues-with-toronto-subway-raise-questions-about-citys-position-as-major-hub”>has it.