[NEWS] Twelve LGBTQ links (#lgbtq, #queer)

• Daily Xtra looks at 50 years of fighting for LGBTQ rights in Canada, here.
• Them links to a variety of classic documentaries about LGBTQ life before Stonewall, here.
• Atlas Obscura explains why lesbians and potluck dinners are so closely associated with each other, here.
• Them looks at the controversies surrounding the construction of monuments to LGBTQ heroes of the past, here.
• VICE explains how venerable magazine Out was nearly ended by poor management, here.
• Wired looks at queer history in TV movies, here.
• Connor Garel at NOW Toronto writes, inspired by Paris Is Burning and the drag scene, about the importance of maintaining queer spaces, here.
• Enzo DiMatteo writes at NOW Toronto about the long history of homophobia of Doug Ford, here.
• Claire Provost writes at Open Democracy about the frighteningly well-coordinated global campaign by groups on the right against LGBTQ superheroes, here.
• Michael Waters at Daily Xtra explains the key role of young users of social media in keeping even obscure corners of LGBTQ history alive, here.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: buses, 592 Sherbourne, Parkdale, planning, Doug Ford

• Transit Toronto reports on the first electric bus in the TTC, now running the 35 Jane route.
• Toronto Life takes a look at the history of 592 Sherbourne Street, now the restaurant Maison Selby.
• NOW Toronto interviews people in Parkdale protesting against the cuts of Doug Ford.
• John Lorinc at Spacing looks at the many problems with the Doug Ford alteration of city and provincial planning.
• blogTO observes that this year’s iteration of Ford Fest is going, inevitably, to be very political.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: TTC fare, Bathurst Street, express buses, murder, #FordNation

• The TTC would like to increase fares by 10 cents a ride in the coming year, to help finance basic repairs and services. CityNews reports.
• Facing public furor, Metrolinx has decided not to try to close off Bathurst Street at Eglinton for seven months to try to speed Eglinton Crosstown construction. Global News reports.
• Steve Munro is critical of the TTC’s new express buses running on many major arteries, seeing them as mainly cosmetic in effect.
• Wendy Gillis at the Toronto Star writes about the reactions, one year later, to the murders committed by the Church and Wellesley killer.
• Richard Florida at CityLab summarizes the factors leading to the success of populist Ford Nation, first in Toronto and then in Ontario.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: Doug Ford, Ontario Place, rent control, 650 Parliament, cannabis

• This Toronto Life profile examines how Doug Ford managed to get elected premier of Ontario.
• blogTO looks at how the province of Ontario has just taken over Ontario Place, preparing to redevelop this waterfront site in what we fear will be a bad direction.
• blogTO notes how the scrapping of rent control for new units risks making housing still more unaffordable in Toronto.
• Refugees from the 650 Parliament Street disasters are now being billed for their hotel stays, Global News reports.
• NOW Toronto has this first-person essay from Pete Young talking how his cannabis business took him to the Toronto Stock Exchange.

[URBAN NOTE] Five Toronto links: John Tory, planetarium, condos, Liberty Village, Edward VIII

• Toronto has been unified around John Tory, May Warren argues at the Toronto Star, largely because of Doug Ford.
• Urban Toronto notes an exciting University of Toronto proposal for a new planetarium downtown. I would definitely go for that!
• Urban Toronto notes</u. that excavation has begun for Panda Condominiums, at the former site of the World’s Biggest Book Store.
• blgoTO notes a Liberty Village intersection with massive new projects on every corner.
• Jamie Bradburn looks at the scant traces of King Edward VIII in Toronto, at Yonge and Eglinton and at Exhibition Place.

[NEWS] Five Canadian politics links: Ontario, western Canada, the North

• iPolitics notes that Ontario may come out ahead with a federal carbon tax, here.
• Last month’s essay of Stephen Maher at MacLean’s suggesting the Doug Ford government’s approach to energy and the carbon tax will cost Ontario more than it might save looks positively prescient.
• I agree entirely with the argument of Karl Nerenberg at Rabble.ca that CBC should cover the municipal elections in Ontario: Local democracy matters, too.
• Global News reports that a recent Ipsos poll suggests western Canadians tend to identify more closely with their province than with their wider country. (Is this not the case generally in Canada, I wonder?)
• The Canadian program aiming to make food affordable in the north is, as minister Dominic Leblanc admits, in desperate need of reform. CBC reports.

[NEWS] Nine links about marijuana legalization in Canada (#marijuana, #cannabis, #legalization)

• Peter Armstrong at CBC reports on the patchwork of laws and different kinds of retail outlets governing marijuana across Canada starting tomorrow.
• The different structures in stores and prices for marijuana in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia may drive substantial, even politically contentious, cross-border shopping. Global News reports.
• Stu Neatby at the Charlottetown Guardian takes a look, complete with photos, at the Charlottetown retail outlet of P.E.I. Cannabis.
• Fraser Snowdon at Global News takes a look at Smiths Falls, where cannabis is set to replace chocolate as the main driver of the eastern Ontario town’s economy.
• Illegal dispensaries in Ontario that do not close by the end of today, Tuesday the 17th, may never be able to operate legally. (Or will they?) The National Post reports.
• Martin Regg Cohn at the Toronto Star writes about the practical legal void relating to regulation of cannabis sales in Ontario under Doug Ford.
• Michelle Da Silva at NOW Toronto writes about all of the events scheduled to take place in Toronto tomorrow in celebration of the legalization of marijuana.
• Roberta K. Timothy at The Conversation writes about how problematic it is that legalization of marijuana is not accompanied by an amnesty for past convictions, and how the anti-black and anti-indigenous racism that drove criminalization needs to be acknowledged.
• Tyler Cowen at Marginal Revolution notes the impending legalization of marijuana in Canada, starting a fairly interesting discussion in the comments.