Toronto Today - August 2011 by Town Crier

oRONTO oday August 2011

THE MEDIUM AND THE MESSAGE

Brian Baker defends controversial Argo transit ads

GONE FLYING KITES

Enthusiasts appeal to city’s sense of culture to avoid ban in TO parks

around the corner Marshall McLuhan’s ideas of global village — at home and abroad

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Vice President of Finance

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Vice President of New Media

EDITORIAL Eric McMillan EDITOR-in-chief

Dan Hoddinott MANAGING EDITOR

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MARSHALL McLUHAN His vision captivated a global audience. But his own village?

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BUSINESS: Making a contribution

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HOME & GARDEN: The Thai that binds Trip to Thailand inspires home planting ideas

DESTINATIONS: Vive le bagpipe

Bagpipes, military bands and Old Québec

SPORTS: Spike in popularity

Volleyballers set sights on 2016 Olympics

Plus lots more... On the cover: Filling the sky with colour at a recent kite festival in Toronto. Photo courtesy Reijo Kemppainen

Delivery of the message requires various media

e didn’t start out with the intention of a Marshall McLuhan theme in this issue. Things just sort of unfolded that way. We did intend to acknowledge this the centenary of his birth — celebrated throughout the city this summer — but that his ideas are echoed in stories other than the one Shawn Star presents on page 9 is strictly coincidental. Or testament to the validity of his theories. Hm-m. The medium, goes perhaps McLuhan’s most famous assertion, is the message. I’m not sure I ever subscribed to that line of reasoning, though demonstrating that you subscribe to at least some of McLuhan’s ideas seems to be a rite of passage in the journalism world. It’s not unlike the dynamic that would-be thespians discover, sooner or later: having performed Shakespeare is the benchmark by which fellow (or rival) actors validate your arrival. Whether McLuhan was a true visionary, or merely an intellectual exhibitionist who lucked into media exposure, is a point you are perfectly entitled to debate with your friends on a Saturday night when there is nothing on TV, your Rogers on-demand is on the fritz (and the tech dude from India who lies through his teeth is of no help) and a romcom is all that’s playing at the regional multiplex. For talking points to get the conversation started, refer to Caitlin Orr’s cover story on the globally significant cultural meaning behind kite flying in Toronto parks and on nearby beaches. Brian Baker’s commentary on page 25 should not be overlooked. Were I to subscribe to any one McLuhan idea then it would be the one about all things global being all things village (in whatever order you wish to position “global” and “village”). It is particularly poignant now that Toronto Today has taken up residence with its own address on the Internet — that most global of village-centric media. That’s right. We have moved out of the corner we were given in the Town Crier’s room and into a place of our own. You can find us at mytorontotoday.ca. No longer the invisible sidekick of our older and more established sibling (who owned the posters on the wall and the stereo, who knew when you were messing with it,

Dan Hoddinott Managing Editor

who knew when you had been rifling through drawers in search of something “interesting” and who called the shots on what visitors were allowed in his room), we have been entertaining guests ever since we flung open the doors (and, at night, the window) to our own digs at the beginning of July. We value our newfound popularity very highly. This being a social butterfly business feels pretty good. The world is our oyster and the entire city of Toronto, today, feels like our playground, for we have not only emerged from anonymity but burst out of the artificial borders imposed by the nature of a physical publication and its distribution program. That is a globally recognized reality, manifested in real time, in this village we call Toronto. That many have come not only to look but to participate, is what makes the beauty of the medium really shine: emanating from the heart of Toronto, we can share the experience — and the message — with so many more people. And because this ethereal place is where so many people now congregate — individually, collectively, globally, locally — the sharing of content found in Toronto Today magazine beyond its physical borders is seamless and effortless. And sharing of the experience is truly interactive. It’s not difficult to imagine McLuhan being a regular visitor to mytorontotoday.ca. And perhaps weighing in on the global significance of some of the local stories we carry. TT AUGUST 2011 TORONTO TODAY

News&Opinion

caitlin orr/toronto today

GET SOME AIR: Gary Mark, of Toronto Kite Fliers, shows off one of his many kites during a test run at the St. Clair Reservoir in midtown Toronto.

Culture takes to the skies

By Caitlin Orr

ity councillor Chin Lee generally spends his days chasing after earthly things, like people, motions and meetings. But when he was eight, you could say he set his sights higher. Growing up in the Malaysian state of Penang, Lee would spend time with his neighbourhood friends in a big field, with no one and nothing around but grazing cows. The children played marbles, and they flew kites. Lee would run after kites that had gotten tangled up in trees, trying to get them back to earth with a long pole. “Once in a while I’d trip and then come home with scratches all over my knees and my ankles and my elbows, and my mom was so upset because, you know, I’d been chasing kites,” he says with a laugh. Nowadays, the only time the 58-year-old

TORONTO TODAY AUGUST 2011

takes that leap is when he visits the Gogi Kite Club, founded by jewellery shop owner Gogi Malik. “I take control of the string and I try to maneuver a kite like I used to when I was a kid,” Lee says. Even though local group Toronto Kite Fliers is the oldest kite club in Canada, getting airborne in Toronto hasn’t always been a breeze. Lately, it is kiting rules that Lee has been spending the most time maneuvering. He’s received complaints about birds and people being cut or trapped after getting caught in string that is coated with glass or chemicals, and left behind by careless kite fighters. A pursuit with devotees around the world, kite fighting is readily associated with Khaled Hosseini’s novel The Kite Runner, which was set in Afghanistan.

That gritty tale portrayed the mid-air battles as a physical ordeal. But it’s not always like that, says Gary Mark, the secretary of Toronto Kite Fliers. “Kite fighting is not necessarily the rough-andtumble that we think of in the movie The Kite Runner. There’s a lot of skill and finesse in terms of being able to maneuver a small kite, with just one string, through the sky.” The point is to cut your opponent’s string with your own so you can claim his or her kite, and the trick is to move your kite the quickest. Malik’s club flies every weekend, with two teams competing to see which kite runner can

Kite flyers hold onto their piece of the sky

win the most matches over the summer. At the end of the season, the winner is awarded a 22-karat gold kite pendant necklace, engraved with the winner’s name and the year. Toronto Kite Fliers and Gogi Kite Club use only biodegradable cotton strings when kite fighting, and make it a point to tidy the debris. “I’ve got nothing against them,” Lee says. “I mean, this is something that they enjoy doing and as long as they clean up after themselves we welcome that.” But because of another group of kite fliers, who Malik says continually left behind the stringy refuse from their kite battles, Lee decided the sport needed to be grounded. Last August, the aerial activity was completely banned in Milliken Park, in Lee’s Ward 41, with violations receiving a $100 fine. A similar ban had been imposed several years before in Bluffer’s Park. This May, the city’s Parks, Forestry and Recreation Committee recommended a new set of bylaws that not only prohibits using hazardous strings, but requires kite fighting groups to get permits to fly “in parks that have significant bird activity”. Fines for violations were upped to $300. The language was sufficiently vague that it could be interpreted to mean banning kite flying in all parks across the city, says Dave Meslin, spokesperson for the Toronto Kite Fliers and organizer of the annual Windfest kite festival at Woodbine Beach. Kite enthusiasts feared their hobby wouldn’t fly again. But unlike some debates about controversial issues at city hall, this time it’s been a team sport. For the past six months, the city has been meeting with councillor Lee, the Toronto Kite Fliers and the Gogi Kite Club to iron out new bylaws. Rather than kite flying having inherent risks, any kind of string or sport can be dangerous if used improperly, Meslin asserted in a deputation to the Parks and Environment Committee. “I could kill you all with dental floss if I wanted,” he quipped, to chuckles from the committee. As a result of Meslin’s deputation, the bylaw was amended to specify that only kite fighting — as opposed to all kite flying — would be restricted in parks with significant bird activity. The other recommendations were passed by city council in June, allowing relieved kite fliers to remain aloft. It may take until the fall for the legal changes to be processed so the city can start issuing permits, says Richard Ubbens, the city’s director of parks. Lovers of kite flying at Milliken Park have a longer wait, though. “At this point in time we do not foresee lifting the ban until we can see how all this works out,” Lee says. Malik is one previous park visitor who will have to move on to bluer skies. He started flying kites in his hometown of Lahore, Pakistan when he was only three or four. “Since then, my excitement, my interest, is day by day more and more,” he says. His city was home to a spring festival that Malik says was bigger than Eid, the largest religious holiday. Called Basant, it filled the sky with colourful kites. It was also much more dangerous than any threats from abrasive string. The crowds got so large, Malik says, that people flying kites on rooftops had fallen, prompting the government to ban the festival four years ago. Torontonians could count themselves lucky their Continued Page 8

francis crescia/toronto today

CATCHING THE WIND: Gogi Malik, Raheal Zaman, Somar Zaman and Khurram Malik of Gogi Kite Club.

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City mouse enjoys being a country mouse, too Patrick Gossage

t’s summer and even Mayor Rob Ford is mellowing with startling new acceptance of the bicycle as a valid means of urban transport. Boring the tunnel for an Eglinton “subway”,

even though it will be light rail vehicles that will travel on it, reminds us of what a full Transit City could have been while we await Ford’s private-sector solution to his Sheppard subway fantasy. Ford’s hated “lefties” on council are acting with more restraint, while provincial politicians will be out at barbeques all summer proposing either that Ontario has never had it so good (Liberals) or so bad (Conservatives and NDP). All in all, it’s a summer to forget politics and enjoy the city’s amazing offer of food, entertainment and laid-back fun, especially now that the

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transit-accessible waterfront actually offers a sun-and-sand experience for hot city dwellers. In my mother’s pre air-conditioning Toronto, country and lakeside experiences were equally accessible. She and her friends would ride up Bayview to Sunnybrook, north of Eglinton, where there were acres of wild parkland for picnics. And the Yonge Street tramway went all the way up to the south shore of Lake Simcoe, where modest cottages and public beaches lined the shore. Later, after the war, many town mice became weekend and summer country mice, buying up cheap farmland and old farmhouses north of the city, especially in the rolling hills of King Township. Wilcox Lake, off Yonge Street in Richmond Hill, was a favorite swimming place, as was Lake Skugog to the east. All in all, while the rich were building palaces in Muskoka and Georgian Bay, nature and fresh air were close by for sweltering Torontonians in the summer. Even the banks of the Humber River were lined with small cabins until they were swept away by Hurricane Hazel in 1954. Its devastation along the Humber watershed led to the formation of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, which operates many attractive, well-kept, trail-lined natural parks on watersheds north of the city that I have been going to since I was a teenager. Conservation areas like Boyd in Vaughan, Cold Creek in King and Hart Lake in Brampton attract thousands every summer who want to escape the concrete towers of the city. Although my Toronto roots go back to my grandfather, who operated a drug store for the rich families in mansions on Jarvis Street, we moved to King and have become country mice to the core. Like tens of thousands of others with space and fresh air north of Toronto, I commute via GO Transit to work downtown. I am met with pity by midtown dwellers, many of whom spend just as much time on transit or driving downtown as I do on my clean, fast GO train. My two-acre property on the East Branch of the Humber in King is five minutes from the King Go station and it’s a 45-minute trip to Union Station. So don’t pity this country mouse! This summer, don’t neglect to savour the absolutely stunning countryside which is still amazingly close to the city. In the 1930s and ’40s, escaping heat and pollution drove city folk to seek out the cool and peace of the country. Today it’s a choice: another concert or drinks on a crowded patio, or a short drive to peace, a trail walk or a dip in a lake — or just a picnic with the family or friends in a conservation area. Hug a tree; get back to nature. I am in it all the time and I can assure you it is good for the soul. And if you are really stressed by the pace of city life, you have the option of becoming a country mouse and a city mouse like me. TT

Don’t pity this country mouse

Beat the gridlock, win the election

By TRISTAN CARTER

olitical hopefuls in central Toronto are expecting some delays as they hit the campaign trail. With the Oct. 6 provincial election fast approaching, would-be politicians and Liberal government incumbents are weighing in on the issues that will shape this election. One such issue is gridlock. Even the Eglinton Light Rapid Transit plan, considered the promise of gridlock relief by most, triggers debate. “Gridlock is a big issue in midtown and the importance of the Eglinton LRT underground going forward and getting built is critical to take some pressure off the roads,” says Rocco Rossi, the Conservative candidate looking to oust Liberal Mike Colle in Eglinton-Lawrence. “Quite frankly, it can’t be built soon enough.” Eric Hoskins, the Liberal incumbent in St. Paul’s trying to fend off Conservative challenger Christine McGirr, agrees the project is on the minds of his constituents. “What I hear when I’m going door to door is the importance of public transit,” he said in a phone interview. “And so it gives me the opportunity to talk about the Ontario government’s investment of more than $8 billion in the Eglinton cross-town Light Rapid Transit.” Although the construction is sure to inconvenience more than a few residents, Hoskins said he sees it as a chance to spruce up the street. “The LRT is going to be underground, but there are going to be stations along the line and there’s going to be opportunities for a lot of beautification and revitalization of the streetscape along Eglinton,”

tristan carter/toronto today

BUMPER TO BUMPER: Total gridlock on Eglinton Avenue is typical during morning and afternoon rush hours.

he said. However, Toronto Centre’s Cathy Crowe, one of the few NDP candidates named as of press time, stated that the contribution would be less and number of stations fewer than originally planned. “Last year the (Premier Dalton) McGuinty government cut the Transit City plan by $4 billion,” said Crowe, who will face off against Liberal incumbent Glen Murray and Conservative candidate Martin Abell. “Although some of the Eglinton line still exists, it is shorter and has less stops.” Transportation Minister Kathleen Wynne says that is not true. “There has never been a cut to that amount of money,” said Wynne, who is defending her Don Valley West seat against Conservative candidate Andrea MandelCampbell and Louis Fliss of the Green Party. “It’s always been 8.4 billion.” The current light rail plan calls for 25 kilometres of track running from Black Creek Drive underground along Eglinton Avenue to Kennedy Road. From there it is to travel above ground along the path of the current Scarborough Rapid Transit line to Scarborough Town Centre. The entire line has a proposed 26 stops. Wynne insists that was always the case. “That number of stops is the number of stops that we’ve always worked with on this line,” she said. She is also adamant that the Eglinton LRT is a priority of her government, and acknowledges its importance to people in the area. “People in the area have wanted this line built for 15 years.”

The Liberals estimate that the Eglinton LRT project will cost $8.2 billion and Wynne said the additional $200 million could be used for a Sheppard subway line if it is not used. Wynne says boring machines used to drill the underground tunnels have already been ordered and should break ground at the end of this summer. TT

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CULTURAL LINES: The simple design of Gary Mark’s kite belies the diversity of silkscreen and sewn patterns used in different countries.w Cont. from Page 5

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kite flying privileges have not taken such a tumble. And the city’s diversity means its residents have access to the global spectrum of kiting traditions. Mark, of Toronto Kite Fliers, says if you took people from different countries and asked each of them to draw what a kite looks like, most people would think they would etch the standard diamond-shaped kite, but in fact the fluttering fliers come in all shapes and sizes. In the Caribbean, he says, hexagonal kites are most popular, while in China you can find complex dragon and disc kites. “The artistry of what (the Japanese) paint on kites is just amazing,” he says. Even in times of tragedy, kite flying is a universal connecting thread. “After the devastating earthquake in Haiti, the children there were without many things and were able to create kites from found items, using reeds and plastic bags,” Mark says. “And they made kites to fly and that was their entertainment in the times of despair.” For Toronto’s part, Ubbens says the city is happy to see its parks being used more for kites. “(Kite flying) is almost like a dance in the sky,” he says, later adding, “The more diverse the uses, the more the parks start to reflect the age and cultural diversity that we have in Toronto.” His own family tends to take a kite almost everywhere it goes, he says. The city’s aim with the new bylaws, he points out, is not to crack down on kite fliers, but to create a process that will ensure aficionados understand their responsibilities. “The whole intention is just to be organized about it,” he said. And everyone seems to agree that, this time, the city’s goal is taking off. “We ended up with a policy that allows everyone to do what they want to do while protecting safety,” says Meslin. Kite fliers are free to take up a piece of Lee’s advice. “If people enjoy flying kites, go fly a kite, and enjoy it.” TT

Did global message resonate at home?

By Shawn Star

t’s been 100 years since the birth of Marshall McLuhan, some 60 years since his academia began catching on and about 30 since the founder of the phrase “global village” died. But according to one McLuhan expert, most of us are still living in a world that existed about 200 years ago. Mark Federman is the former chief strategist for the McLuhan Program, an educational curriculum at University of Toronto that focuses on McLuhan’s works in the study of media theory. Federman also holds a PhD in adult education and counselling psychology, and spends much of his time lecturing on McLuhan’s analytics around the world. July 21 marked 100 years since the birth of McLuhan, who was head of University of Toronto’s Centre for Culture and Technology until a year before he died in 1980. A look back at not only how he has influenced the world, but how,

shawn star/toronto today

McLUHAN’S MAIN MAN: A former chief strategist of the McLuhan Program, Mark Federman now lectures on McLuhan and consults with businesses on implementing McLuhan analytics.

and even if he has influenced Toronto — beyond living in Wychwood Park and having a school on Avenue Road named after him — is in order. But therein lies the problem. It is not possible simply to look at what McLuhan said, look at the world today and draw a conclusion, Federman says. Rather, it must first be understood how McLuhan thought. “McLuhan is hellishly difficult to understand because you can’t understand McLuhan in the conventional, academic way,” he said over the phone just days before the centenary. “You cannot take his stuff and say ‘McLuhan said that and it looks like this.’ You can’t do that.” But Federman says a lot of people do, and it’s an inapplicable way of trying to decipher what

McLuhan was saying “It’s not what McLuhan said or wrote that’s important for us today,” he said. “It’s the way he figured it out. “We need to see a future that is already here, if we only know how to look at it right, and if we can do that we have a chance at navigating our world out of the chaos that it seems to have become. It is only chaotic because we are still living in the last cultural epoch.” The cultural epoch Federman is referring to is one that he says began with the demonstration of the printing press in 1844. Prior to that, he claims there had only been two other cultural epochs in 3,000 years: one was the changeover of society Continued Page 17

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Ask the experts

NEXT GENERATION VISION: Software development visionary Bill Tatham, in the York Mills Road and Yonge Street offices of NexJ Systems Inc. His eye is now on being part of healthcare solutions.

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A societal contribution

If you would like to take advantage of their years of experience, send your questions to “Ask the Experts” and they will be happy to reply to you in this space. By E-mail: adsales@towncrieronline.ca, by Fax: 416488-3671 or write: Ask the Experts, c/o Town Crier, 101 Wingold Ave., Toronto, ON, M6B 1P8. Marc Linett, a partner in the personal injury law firm of Linett & Timmis, has been practicing accident and insurance litigation in Toronto for over 36 years. His firm has established a solid reputation representing thousands of injured victims and their families throughout Ontario.

Marc Linett

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: My 8 year old child was injured in her gymnastics class at school. She fell off the pommel horse in the middle of an exercise and fractured her arm in two places. The gym teacher did not have any spotters in place. Is it possible to sue the school for my daughter’s injuries? : The school may be responsible for your child’s damages if the physical education instructor was negligent in his or her supervision of class activities. As your child is a minor, an action could be brought by you on her behalf. You may also be entitled to damages personally under the Family Law Act if you have provided nursing or other services to your daughter or have experienced a loss of her companionship. You should obtain the names of any witnesses to the incident, including staff and students, and should ensure that a proper report has been made to the school board. You should consult a lawyer promptly if you intend to pursue a claim on your daughter's behalf.

Marc Linett, a partner in the personal injury law firm of Linett & 10 TORONTO AUGUST Timmis, has beenTODAY practicing accident2011 and insurance litigation in Toronto for over 36 years. His firm has established a solid reputation representing thousands of injured victims and their families throughout Ontario.

By Caitlin Orr

n 1990, Bill Tatham was working out of his basement. Today, he’s sitting in a gleaming glass-walled office, wearing a navy suit and crisp baby blue dress shirt with sparkling robin’s egg cufflinks. But home is still only five minutes, instead of a staircase, away. The 51-year-old turned his first startup, Janna Systems Inc., into a global leading customer relationship management software company in a decade. The company was named after his wife of 28 years – he jokes that her middle name is not Systems – with whom he has two sons and a daughter. Janna was sold to its largest competitor, Siebel Systems Inc., for $1.76 billion in November 2000, just in time to avoid being crushed by the bursting of the dot-com bubble. “WeAve were able to command an outrageous premium in that marketplace at the time, because of our 101 Wingold success and Toronto, Ontario (Siebel’s) desire to eliminate us,” Tatham says. Born and raised in Woodstock, Ont. Tatham studied economic systems and management science at Ph: 416-488-4779 the University of Waterloo before coming to Toronto to work, first as a co-op student and eventually Fx: 416-488-3671 as a senior manager at Accenture. At first, Janna was selling its software a few copies at a time to retail stores, but it wasn’t making much of a profit. “We believed in the fundamental need to manage relationships with customers if you’re to be good at business,” he said in a recent interview. “Just, the business model didn’t work.”

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So they changed it. Janna started focusing on vertical markets like financial services. â&#x20AC;&#x153;If I know the joke, when the famous bank robber Willie Sutton was asked, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Why do you rob banks?â&#x20AC;&#x2122; his answer was: â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Because thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s where they keep the money,â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? Tatham says with a grin. An early sign that Janna was growing was that he soon needed more office space. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Actually, one of the first things that happened was I had to move houses to get a bigger basement,â&#x20AC;? he jokes. Looking back, he remembers working from home being stressful. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d go upstairs thinking work was over, only to hear the phone ringing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Going through your mind is, â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Do I run back down and answer that phone, or am I actually done for the day?â&#x20AC;&#x2122;â&#x20AC;? he relates. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The entrepreneurial answer is, thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the sound of commerce calling.â&#x20AC;? At the time Siebel acquired it, Jannaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s customers included prominent firms like Allstate Insurance, Bank One, First Union Securities, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch. After Jannaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sale, Tathamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s team worked in venture capital with the moniker XJ Partners Inc. while under a three-year non-compete clause. When the time came, Tatham didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t waste a moment growing the next Janna â&#x20AC;&#x201D; NexJ Systems Inc., which expanded to focus on healthcare and insurance as well as financial services. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Monday after our non-compete expired we started incubating this company,â&#x20AC;? he says, later adding, â&#x20AC;&#x153;We wanted to stop being ex- and move on to next.â&#x20AC;? NexJ is the same basic business, Tatham says, but uses modern technology that runs in any Web browser. Tatham doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t see himself as either a businessman or a software developer, rather a hybrid of the two. When asked about himself, he talks about the company. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Where weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re No. 1 is in the application of technology to business,â&#x20AC;? he says. Tatham says now that heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s established himself he feels a social conscientiousness calling, not just the telephone. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m in the fortunate position of having been lucky in the marketplace previously and I think with that kind of success comes a responsibility to give back to the ecosystems that allowed you to emerge,â&#x20AC;? he says. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important for him to support the University of Waterlooâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s co-op program, he says, since it helped him fund his education and figure out what he wanted to do. On a societal level, he says heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to see a health records system that empowers patients to be responsible for their own wellness â&#x20AC;&#x201D; far from the current one, which he figures is itself ailing. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s electronic health records systems are abysmal,â&#x20AC;? he insists. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The only people in the developed world behind Canada are those countries newly emerged from behind the Iron Curtain.â&#x20AC;? To educate himself about how the healthcare system works and what improvements could be made, Tatham serves as chair of a technology innovation project at North York General Hospital, co-founded and chairs a non-profit advocacy group for health care reform, and is a member of Open Health Tools, a global group developing open source health software. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ultimately we want to make a societal contribution based on the application of our actual business efforts,â&#x20AC;? Tatham says. â&#x20AC;&#x153;We want to not just help bankers serve customers more effectively, but we want to leverage bankers and insurance companies paying us to build great software, and then reapply that software to solve societal issues in health.â&#x20AC;? TT

Technology to aid in health care

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Dining

Service, meh... We could have used the hug Liz Campbell

he dominant impression on a summer Friday evening at Cantine is one of noise. Not just from the Avenue Road traffic outside the open frontage, but also from the customers, who all seem to know one another. This is a neighbourhood eatery. The tables and bar area are filled with diners, but in the area near the entrance, they sit on comfy armchairs rather than dining chairs — sort of like Starbucks meets Italian bistro. Dinner starts with a plate of gorgeous warm bread, butter and a dish of garlic-marinated olives. My guest asks for Williams Organic Cider from the menu, but it’s no longer available. Nor is Creemore, it turns out. He settles for Heineken. My by-theglass Pinot Grigio comes in a small carafe so I can help myself ($9.50). It’s light and refreshing. My guest’s appetizer is crab cakes with chipotle rouille. Two small but perfect patties are accompanied by a small salad of baby greens, tomatoes, carrots, peppers, etc. ($10.95). The crab cakes are lightly fried and brimming with crabmeat, which my guest calls “nicely crabby, not greasy.” My choice is a terrine of beets and roasted pears with goat cheese ($9.95) that hardly merits the term “terrine”. Beet slices have simply been piled on the roasted pears and topped with goat cheese. However, the combination, which comes with a light spinach salad, is delicious. Who knew beets and roasted pears could be so good together? There’s something crisp on top of the cheese but the waiter moves so fast in this busy spot, it’s impossible to ask. Spaghettini with calamari and olives comes in a light wine sauce with just a hint of tomato and enough capers to start a plantation ($16.95). “Too many!” exclaims my guest. But there’s never “too many” when it comes to calamari. This has a generous portion and lots of olives, too. In fact, the chef seems to be profligate with all the ingredients, as I think it could use a touch less basil. 12 TORONTO TODAY AUGUST 2011

I choose the daily special, mahi mahi, which comes highly recommended by the waiter. Two large pieces of fish are piled on wedges of red-skinned potatoes and surrounded by a medley of vegetables. The sauce is a Mediterranean blend of olives, capers and tomatoes ($21.95) — sound familiar? The fish is succulent. “Good suggestion,” I tell the waiter, who smiles, hands us dessert menus and disappears for good, empty plates in hand. It takes 10 minutes before someone else wanders by and asks whether we’d like dessert. After this large meal, we decide to share a sweet. I ask which are homemade and he assures us the key lime pie is made on the premises. It comes with a large scoop of mango sorbet and a small mound of sliced fresh strawberries and blueberries ($7.95).

Food almost salvaged the experience

There are too many conflicting flavours on this plate. The pie is tart and tangy, but the mango sorbet is lost in this flavour onslaught, as are the strawberries and blueberries. My guest’s coffee ($2.25) is all but forgotten until we’ve finished and are about to ask for the bill. It’s very hot, signifying being freshly made, but comes without an apology for the delay. The service here is perfunctory at best, though it’s apparent that there are regulars who get hugs and greetings from the owner. But then this is Joey Bersani, who also owns Flo’s Diner (a Yorkville breakfast hotspot) and Byzantium (a gay village fave for at least a dozen years). The food almost makes up for the lack of attention. Cantine, 138 Avenue Rd., 416-923-4822. www. cantine.ca. It’s wheelchair accessible though washrooms are not. TT

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Home&Garden

lorraine flanigan/toronto today

MARVELLOUS MARIGOLDS: Marigolds are sold as temple offerings on the streets of Bangkok (above). Used in Thai cooking, lemongrass (pictured at market, below) can be grown in Toronto during the hot summer months.

Thai trip a bounty of fresh ideas Lorraine Flanigan

ne of the many reasons I love to visit gardens on my various travels — whether in the neighbourhood, a day’s drive away or on the other side of the world — is that I always come away with fresh ideas for my own garden. That’s exactly what happened after visiting Thailand a few months ago. With temperatures often rising to 30°C and higher, and with humidity that would make summer in Toronto seem as dry as a desert, Thailand is made for plants. And whether strolling the steamy streets of Bangkok, browsing the shops in an air-conditioned mega-mall or walking into the atrium of a hotel lobby in Pettaya, I found walls planted with greenery, trees laden with tropical fruits, exotic flowering trees and vines so colourful

14 TORONTO TODAY AUGUST 2011

they would make a bougainvillea blush. Back home, adding a touch of Thailand to my garden was easier than I thought. Many of the brightly coloured foliage plants that grow naturally in tropical climes are available in North America as plants for containers. For example, in one Thai garden, I saw coppery-leafed Acalyphas growing as a mini-hedge, where it edged a border with its fiery foliage. Here in my Toronto garden, I grow this plant in pots where it looks great combined with red, orange and yellow flowering annuals. I have to admit that marigolds are not my favourite annual flower. But in a country where stalls piled high with hundreds of strands of marigolds line the streets leading to every temple, I began to see these ubiquitous flowers in a different light. Threaded together and combined with jasmine flowers and orchids, marigolds are used Continued Page 16

Adding a touch of Thailand was easy

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Coppery-leafed tropical plants such as the Acaphyla make ideal container plants. Cont. from Page 14

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OAKVILLE

liberally as religious offerings in Thailand. They are so in demand that these flowers are grown as an agricultural crop in many parts of the country and transported to the flower markets in every major city and town. I may not have acres to devote to marigolds in my small city garden, but I’ve combined a few of these golden beauties in a pot, along with an ornamental sage called “Black and Blue” (Salvia guaranitica Black and Blue). The orange marigold flowers make a perfect complement to the deep blue petals of the sage. Lemongrass is a plant that permeates Thai cuisine, from Tom Yum soup to teas blended with pandanus leaves. And while lemongrass grows year-round in Thailand, in our colder climate we can still grow a pot or two during the hot summer months to harvest for stir-fries, curries and fish dishes. And, by plucking out the leaves frequently, I discovered that the plant will grow into a dense clump. But the flower that is most often associated with Thailand is the orchid. Intricately woven into floral arrangements, casually placed by the sink in a powder room or grown in vast outdoor collections, orchids are the quintessential Thai flower. And while I’d love to be able to grow these exotic tropical plants, without a greenhouse to provide them with exactly the right conditions, I have to draw the line here. But I will content myself with the occasional houseplant orchid, and bring a bit of Thailand indoors for the winter. Surrounded by photos of Thai gardens, Lorraine Flanigan writes from her garden in the South Eglinton neighbourhood of Toronto. TT

Cont. from Page 9

being predominantly oral in its communication to gaining a written alphabet; the second with the invention of the printing press, allowing for movable type. The reason they are cultural epochs, Federman says, is their profound effect on how people communicated. “Every time we change the dominant way in which we communicate with one another in society, we turn the entire society upside down, inside out — and all of its institutions change fundamentally and forever,” he said, citing education and governance as examples of the affected institutions. These cultural epochs take about 300 years to transition completely into the new epoch, Federman says. That leaves us right smack in the middle of a transition period, where we are still seeing evolving technologies like TV and the Internet. And Federman says that by using McLuhan analytics, it leaves us unaware of the full impact of these technologies. “What McLuhan taught us was that the effects precede causes,” Federman said. “We will notice the effect of our new technologies and won’t know how to understand them or make sense of them, and therefore we’ll mostly ignore them until long after they’ve already done their thing and moved on.” Sounds a bit confusing, but that’s normal. Federman says he has educated professors who had been teaching about McLuhan for more than 20 years on McLuhan, only to realize they had completely misunderstood him for years. Again, it comes down to how McLuhan is interpreted. “The best way to understand McLuhan is to use McLuhan’s techniques on himself, on his work and break down his work using his tools and then understand what’s actually going on,” he said. Now that there’s an understanding of how to understand McLuhan, do we know how great his influence was? Federman says yes — but it’s almost negligible. He says that, aside from fans of McLuhan and a handful of media students, there is virtually no direct influence. But that doesn’t mean he had no impact. Federman says emergent events are prime examples of McLuhan’s thinking at work. “Whether it’s Tahrir Square or Old Spice Guy — it’s the same phenomenon,” he said. “It’s enabled by environments of complex influences and in that environment, somewhere, is Marshall McLuhan and his ideas that influenced people that influenced people that created what we have today.” Of course, what we have today is different from what McLuhan saw in his time, but Federman says his thinking remains the same. Where McLuhan saw TV playing a tremendous global role in the 1960s during the Vietnam War, we now see today most recently through YouTube, Facebook and Twitter in the Arab uprisings. “What he saw was the ability for the world to enter our living rooms,” Federman said. “So he saw this idea that he expressed as the ‘global village’ — in other words the whole world is crammed into something the size of Leaside.” What McLuhan spoke about 50 years ago is what we are seeing today, according to Federman. He described it as the ability to see a future that has already happened. This means it is entirely fair to say McLuhan has had a global impact. But again, did McLuhan impact Toronto in any way? “In McLuhan thinking, there’s no distinction between global and local,” Federman says. “We are all one tweet away from anybody else in the world.” Federman used John F. Kennedy’s infamous

photo courtesy mcluhan 100

MASSAGING THE MEDIA: Marshall McLuhan at the Centre for Culture and Technology. It was founded in 1963 by U of T as an incentive to keep McLuhan, who was being offered positions at other universities.

grammatical gaffe of “Ich bin ein Berliner” as an example of something that is technically true in the global village. We are all Berliners. Likewise, we are all Torontonians. And in that respect, Federman agreed it is fair to say that McLuhan has had an impact on Toronto. He also cited McLuhan analytics as a major stepping stone in the transition between cultural epochs, saying the previous epoch is outdated and that McLuhan is the new era of thinking. And that difference in thinking presents a difference in whether it looks like McLuhan has had an impact. “If you look at it in the old way, then (McLuhan’s impact) looks minimal,” he said. “If you see it from the new ground, then it’s obvious.” Federman said the potential for the world in the new cultural epoch, employing McLuhan’s thinking, is limitless. He went so far as to say McLuhan analytics has the potential to change and transform the world entirely — sort of like what he said happens during the transition to the next cultural epoch. “Imagine if I could wave a magic McLuhan wand and all of our politicians, CEOs, educators, workers, activists and everybody could see the world using these tools,” Federman said. “We would see our way to ending the major intractable problems with which we’re faced... “We would see the dynamics that everybody else is missing because we are trained in a very old way of thinking.” While Federman says much of the world is still thinking in the manner of a few centuries ago, there is one century we should be focusing on instead. “If we can take any learning from his 100th anniversary it is precisely that,” he said. “We need to think as Marshall McLuhan did.” TT AUGUST 2011 TORONTO TODAY 17

Destinations

Military bands in Old QuĂŠbec

By Liz Campbell

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18 TORONTO TODAY AUGUST 2011

oel Coward is reputed to have said, â&#x20AC;&#x153;A gentleman is someone who knows how to play the bagpipes â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t!â&#x20AC;? Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not like Noel Coward. I love the sound of bagpipes, whether itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a lone piper standing on a hillside, or massed pipes and drums on the march. So when an opportunity arose to visit QuĂŠbec City and listen to military pipe bands in action, I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t resist. Set against the historic backdrop of Old QuĂŠbecâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s battlements, more than 800 musicians marching to the beat of the drums, the skirl of pipes and the blast of horns, is a truly impressive sight. I confess that I knew nothing about military bands apart from a vague awareness that there were such things. The Quebec City International Festival of Military Bands, held each August, wants to promote awareness and appreciation of Canadaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s military bands and of their traditions. The festival celebrates their music and their history. Each year the festival invites bands from other countries to participate alongside dozens of Canadian bands. We saw bands from Belgium, the Czech Republic and Germany, complete with elaborate military regalia. From our vantage point beside the handsome stone walls of the Chateau Frontenac, we watched as line upon line of richly garbed soldiers â&#x20AC;&#x201D; impressively lock-stepped â&#x20AC;&#x201D; marched past. Everyone joins the tail of the parade as the final marchers pass, children skipping along to the music. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s all terrific fun. The excitement culminates in the annual Tattoo, with all the traditional elements. Two competing teams each take apart, transport and reassemble an enormous cannon. Drill teams march with military precision and present an impressive rifle drill. But it is the culmination of the Tattoo that stirs the musical soul. Led off by a lone piper, more and more â&#x20AC;&#x201D; and more â&#x20AC;&#x201D; pipes and drums marched into the Coliseum until the entire contingent of

800 musicians filled the arena. As I watched, my pulse was racing in time to the beat. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s a moving spectacle. Between festival events, take time to explore QuĂŠbec with its remarkable history of two cultures, both of whom wanted control of this citadel entry to the St. Lawrence River. The Americans tried to conquer the city and failed. The English, under General Wolfe, managed to wrest it from Montcalm, the French general, but at enormous cost: both generals perished. You might find it interesting to know that General Wolfe learned warfare at the Battle of Culloden, the decisive blow that ended Bonnie Prince Charlieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hopes in Scotland. So the skirl of the pipes moving along the streets that Wolfe once conquered is all the more poignant. One reason the city was so hard to vanquish is that it is built on a promontory, which means that there are lots of hills and stairs to climb. But French Canadians turned this liability into a virtue, creating outdoor terraces on which to sit and enjoy the view and, of course, eat. This is, after all, the city of QuĂŠbec, which boasts some of the most superb restaurants and cafĂŠs in the country. A must-visit is Old QuĂŠbec, which has been named a UNESCO World Heritage site. Home to historic landmarks, remarkably accessible streets with wonderful little galleries and boutiques, and magnificent old stone buildings and churches, QuĂŠbec has seen more than 400 years of history.

QuĂŠbec has 400 years of history

If you go: For information on the Military Band Festival, visit http:// fimmq.com/site/home.html; for information on the city of QuĂŠbec, visit quebeccitytourism.ca. TT

Automotive LITTLE IS MUCH: Certainly not a mini minivan, the “pretty cool” Mazda5’s fuel economy and price make it a great choice for young families, reviewer says.

Now driving shall not be in van

By Mathieu Yuill

ome people call it the mini minivan. But to label it such is an injustice, because the Mazda5 isn’t often found loaded up with a full team of pintsize hockey players and you don’t find a plethora of them at the Starbucks parking lot while soccer moms are inside getting their double tall skinny latte. If minivans are the motor vehicle icon of suburbia, the Mazda5 should be the family car of choice for city dwellers. There is a lot going for it, especially for young families. Mazda put a lot of thought into exterior styling in particular, so making the move from a sporty two-door coupe into a car better suited for baby seats isn’t as shocking. Starting at $21,795, some of the standard equipment has whiffs of “pretty cool” all over it. The 16-inch wheels are second only to Kia’s youthful and edgy design, the interior centre stack and dashboard mimics that of the sporty RX-8 and Mazda6, and the speedy lines molded into the exterior side panels keep it closer to Mini than van on the youthful scale. The base model is equipped with keyless entry, side airbags, ABS brakes, electronic brakeforce distribution, steering wheel-mounted audio controls, power mirrors and more. The GT model, priced at $24,395, adds 17-inch wheels, easy-close sliding doors, heated side mirrors, AC with automatic climate control, Bluetooth, cruise control, a centre row fold-out cargo bin and other goodies. Both models are equipped with a manual transmission. Adding a five-speed automatic with sport mode is an additional $1,200, and a luxury package with leather seating and a power moon roof is $1,790. The 5’s 2.5L 4-cylinder inline engine, with 157 hp and 163 lb-ft torque, won’t impress your friends with V-6s that have more power, but it does

Fuel use is something to celebrate

the job in the city and on the highway. In addition, the 9.5/6.8 L/100 kms city/highway consumption is something to celebrate with gas prices seemingly always on the rise. But most importantly, with Honda ending production of the Element this year, the Mazda5 is the single best vehicle for families of four. From baby car seats through booster seats, no vehicle is easier to get your children into and out of. With the rear seats folded down you can pack a whole weekend’s worth of family stuff and still be comfortable all around. Fuel economy and low entry price makes it a perfect choice for young families and it works just as well as bigger, more expensive vehicles. TT AUGUST 2011 TORONTO TODAY 19

ThingsToDo

Mark Your Calendar Sat., Aug. 6 and Sun., Aug. 7 Toronto Cat Rescue adopt-a-thon at Galleria Pet Valu at 1245 Dupont Street (Dupont & Dufferin). Adoption fee is $175, which includes first set of vaccinations, spay/neuter, and six weeks of free pet insurance. Info at (416) 538-8592. Sun., Aug. 7 Ontario Iris Society Iris Rhizome auction and sale, upstairs at the Toronto Botanical Garden, 777 Lawrence Ave. East. An auction of newer iris introductions followed by a sale of iris rhizomes supplied from members’ gardens. Free. Info at tlaurin@rogers.com. Until Sat., Aug. 13 Intermediate Latin Dance or Line Dancing class. $80 for six classes. Central Eglinton Community Centre. 160 Eglinton Ave. East. Information, (416) 392-0511 ext 0. Painting Techniques. Learn the fundamentals of painting with watercolours, acrylics and/or oils, and how to mix colours, value and composition, techniques and styles of painting still life and other subjects. July 21–Aug. 11. Eight hours of instruction. Materials kit available. $45 for four classes. Central Eglinton Community Centre. 160 Eglinton Ave. East. Information, (416) 392-0511 ext 0. Sat., Aug. 13 Linda’s Walk 2011, helping homeless women rebuild their lives, 5 km fundraising walk to support St. Clare Inn. Registration 8 a.m., walk 9 a.m., barbecue 11:30 a.m. Registration fee. St. Clare Inn, 1300 Leslie St. Information at (416) 690-0330. Sun., Aug. 14 Growing Baby Prenatal Class. Spots still available for childbirth preparation class. Fee charged. The Russell Hill Chiropractic Clinic, 565 Eglinton Ave. West. (416) 686-9832. Mon., Aug. 15 – Fri., Aug. 26 Summer Music Theatre Camp. Join Scherzo to discover your inner actor, singer or dancer. Learn music theatre through an exploration of all the arts. 40 Underhill Dr. For information or to register, (416) 402-7677 info@scherzoschool. com.

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416-656-2706 20 TORONTO TODAY AUGUST 2011

DARE TO HANG AROUND: Summer fun will reach new heights with a jaunt outside the CN Tower.

Raise your thrill level

By sue wakefield

ugust is a great month to be a sports lover in the Greater Toronto Area. The Argonauts, the Blue Jays and Toronto FC are all playing hard in their respective homes. For those interested in sporty adventures beyond big stadium seating, however, we have some great suggestions. You can get up close to hockey history or play race car driver for a day. If a walk is more your pace, you might want to take an extreme one in an unexpected place, or play it safe with a leisurely and delicious stroll though a historic neighbourhood. School will not be out much longer, so now’s the time to grab the kids and get out and play.

Face off with hockey history Whether or not your kids are hockey fans, chances are they will get excited about the new Golden Goal display at the Hockey Hall of Fame. Relive the exciting moment when Sidney Crosby scored that overtime goal to bring home Olympic gold for Canada. Get up close to his stick and gloves, the winning puck and net, and the recently acquired gold medal podium. While you are there, you might want to explore the newly expanded World of Hockey Zone, which features the top 100 moments in international hockey. There is also a tribute to women’s hockey, and to Canada’s silver medal win when women’s hockey made its debut at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Oh, and remember that loonie that was secretly hidden by Canadian icemakers under the Olympic rink in Salt Lake City? You can touch it for good luck before you leave. Hockey Hall of Fame. 30 Yonge St., 416-3607765, www.hhof.com. Satisfy your need for speed Kids just love doing grown-up things and the opportunity to drive a car — make that a racing car — is sure to get them excited. Vaughan’s NASCAR Speedpark offers five different tracks for speedsters of all sizes and abilities. For the youngest drivers over 36 inches, the Junior Speedway will let them take a ride in the driver’s seat on an amusement park-style ride. Younger kids need be only 40 inches to drive on a starter track, or ride beside mom or dad on the larger Family 500 track. Teenagers will love the faster track options, which include an indoor course for rainy days and a highly polished track that provides unexpected twists and turns. When the races are over the fun continues with a soft-play indoor playground for youngsters or teens, “The Rock” climbing wall and a 1,500-square-foot laser tag arena. If all that isn’t enough, you can enjoy a different kind of sport with some shopping at the

adjacent Vaughan Mills Mall. 1 Bass Pro Mills Dr., Vaughan. 905-669-7370, www.NASCARSpeedPark.com. Foodie footwork It is not technically a sport but who can resist a walk that involves delicious food sampling along the way? You can Join Culinary Adventures for a walking tour of east Toronto’s Leslieville and learn about its history as a small village dating back to the 1850s. Shopkeepers along Queen Street East will welcome you in to taste both savory and sweet delicacies. Guided by a chef, this tour promises to take you behind the scenes on one of the city’s best-kept secrets, and give the inside scoop on celebrity chefs. The tastings include Ontario wines, oysters, olive oils, cheese and desserts, just to name a few. Whether you are new to the city or a lifelong Torontonian, you will learn something new. Tours run, rain or shine, every Saturday in August from 10:45 a.m. to 3 p.m. 709 Queen St. East, at Broadview. info@culinaryadventureco.com, www.culinaryadventureco.com. Go on an urban adventure Think the glass floor at the CN Tower is scary? Well you haven’t seen anything yet! Toronto’s newest, and arguably most extreme, attraction is now open for bookings for those looking for the thrill of a lifetime. The most daring among us can take a walk around the circumference of the CN Tower from the outside. Participants wear a special walk suit and running shoes as they make their 30-minute trek around the tower — 1,168 feet above the ground! The $175 fee includes a keepsake video, photos, a certificate of achievement and a Total Tower Experience ticket. Walkers must be 13 or over. Those 13–17 must be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. Weight, height and physical restrictions are in place. 301 Front St. West. 416-601-3833, edgewalkinfo@cntower.ca, www.edgewalkcntower.ca. TT

CoolStuff

Cool ways to entertain in style

By Liz Campbell

hey say Canadians have warm hearts because we have so much cold weather. Or perhaps it’s just that we are a friendly people. Whichever it is, there’s no doubt we love to get together, and that entails food. Here are four hot products to make entertaining cool: What to serve? Master Chefs for Home Chefs is a cookbook that helps in more ways than one. Three years ago we saw the launch of this unique cookbook that raises funds for School Meals for the UN World Food Program, the food arm of the United Nations. Through this program WFP enables children to attend school, where they get at least one nutritious meal each day. Just one cookbook generates enough funds to feed 40 meals to a child in Malawi. More than 52 international and local master chefs — including Canadian chefs like Michael Smith, Anna Olson, Robert Clark and Bob Blumer, and international chefs like Gordon Ramsay — each donated a recipe for the fourth edition. Published in several languages, it is sold around the world. The goal is to sell enough to purchase at least 10 million school meals. Master Chefs for Home Chefs 4 sells for $15, of which $10 goes to WFP.

notch on the opposite end that securely holds any size wine glass. The hand-crafted Puzzle Platters are made entirely from eco-friendly bamboo so they are lightweight (6 oz.) yet sturdy. Coated with a foodsafe, maintenance-free finish. A set of two: $14.99. Now here’s the ultimate barbecue: the La Caja China (literally Chinese box) is a roasting box that allows you to roast whole pigs, pork shoulder, lamb, goat, etc. It roasts the meat in half the time while keeping it moist on the inside and crispy on the outside. Coals are heaped on the grill above the meat, which sits underneath in the aluminum interior. The intense heat crisps the skin (for terrific pork crackling). Endorsed by celebrity chefs like Bobby Flay and Martha Stewart, it’s said to make the best barbecue. $399. TT

Robert and Ruth Goldman got fed up when the food they chopped and diced on their chopping board couldn’t be smoothly transferred to the pot without some of it falling off the sides. So they designed a flexible Chop Keeper tray. The tray has raised sides to contain the mess, and it flexes to form a guide funnel which eases food into a bowl or pot. Juice or marinade runoff stays within the confines of the tray and can be poured onto a plate or platter. In sets of three, in two different colour schemes — copper, stainless or midnight or red, green and yellow — they’re great for colour coding (save one for meat to prevent cross-contamination). Dishwasher safe, safety certified and free of BPAs, they are also knife friendly and won’t dull expensive cutting tools. Set of three: $10.99. The Puzzle Platter, from Totally Bamboo, is an elegant portable party platter designed in the shape of a giant puzzle piece. The surface size (10.5 x 6.5, 3/8 inches thick) provides party guests plenty of space for hors d’oeuvres, and allows them to handle a drink glass and have a free hand as well. It has an elongated handle on one end and an open

AUGUST 2011 TORONTO TODAY 21

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Sports

Aiming for the Games

Brian Baker

Context is the message francis crescia/toronto today

URGE OVERKILL: With Toronto fast becoming the centre of national volleyball development, World under-19 contenders Danny Demyanenko, left, and Andrew Kocur, are eager to expand their talents at the net, and hopefully represent Canada at the Rio Summer Olympics in 2016.

By Brian Baker

he lake waving to you from your south side, the fine granules of Ashbridge’s sand squeezing through your toes and, before you for one brief moment, a Wilson ready to be overkilled into your opponent’s territory. For the past year, the Ontario Volleyball Association has basked in the free access to one of Canada’s finest beaches for its sport. And it’s the nation’s net gain, says OVA technical director Jason Trepanier, as he thinks about what uninterrupted access to the Beach means to Canada’s chances of medaling at the London Olympics in 2012. The OVA has partnered with Volleyball Canada and Canadian Sports Centre Ontario to create a world-class training program for beach volleyball. “That’s one of the great things for us, is we’re partnering with the national team and bringing them here,” Trepanier says. “All our players are exposed to the national team players.” During the last games in Beijing, Canada’s beach volleyball did not have a structured program in place. “All the Beach teams were their own islands,” he says. “They were all separate, with their own coaches, and trained in their own cities.” Now, Toronto has become the epicentre of volleyball activity. “I think we’ve done a better job of bringing in all of the top athletes,” Trepanier says. “Having them compete and work with each other has benefited all of them.” Some of those who have reaped the rewards for the first time in Canadian history are under-19 World Championship bronze medalists Aaron Nusbaum and Grant O’Gorman. With them in Umag, Croatia were the then-16-year-old tandem of Andrew Kocur and Danny Demyanenko. The two finished fifth, a great result considering they were a year younger than their opponents. Already hard at training, the two, officially turned 17 in July, took time out at a busy schedule at the University of Toronto. “We have access to such an amazing beach and an amazing venue to practise in on a regular basis, whereas other provinces will maybe not have this privilege,” Demyanenko says. “It gives us that advantage over some countries and other provinces.” The two St. Michael’s College School students joined

forces in grade 7 and haven’t looked back since. With the national team now training in their backyards the excitement is volleying higher. “There are a lot more programs that are developing for younger athletes,” Kocur says, adding Team Ontario introduced new age groups in under-16, 17 and 18. Team Canada has also expanded their age limitations, allowing players even of Demyanenko’s and Kocur’s ages to join. “It’s helping us develop not only for the Worlds but for the Olympics as well,” he says. Their first Worlds appearance, the fifth place finish, provides added confidence considering the depth of competition at that level. “It was obviously very hard because every team was just as good as us,” he said. “On any given day, any team could have beaten any team.” When they return in 2012, they vow, they will be ready. “We’re definitely going to go back hungry for next year because that was one of our first international experiences,” Demyanenko says. “We know what we should expect, and we’re going to be training our butts off to be in contention for that gold next year.” Not bad for a former swimmer (Demyanenko), and hockey player (Kocur). It’s also a testament to how fast the sport is evolving in Hogtown. Trepanier is ecstatic, and optimistic about bringing home gold at both London and Rio in 2016. “I think if we are going to get a medalist, the probability that they are from Toronto, and train at Ashbridge’s Bay is pretty high,” he says. “In the last 20 years we have become a lot more systematic — professional — in the services we’ve been able to provide. “It’s very typical for the top B.C. volleyball players to come here now just because it’s difficult for them to get the service anywhere else.” For Kocur, it’s the start of a young Canadian program starting to hold its own in the world. “Volleyball, I think, is the second largest sport in the world, but Canada, I wouldn’t consider it to be there yet,” he says. “With the OVA promoting it a lot and opening it up with all these new venues and opportunities for kids, it’ll be there.” TT

here’s a culture in football that not everyone gets, Councillor Mike Layton included. It’s a primordial, break-everybone-in-your-body sport. O-linemen retire with hands looking like forks of chain lightning, and that’s after four seasons, on average. Those injuries are badges of honour. You waged your trench wars. You gritted your teeth while suffering through turf toe. You got the breeze squeezed out of you like an accordion at a hoedown. If you wanted something light and airy, you should have taken up croquet. Or perhaps soccer. In Toronto, on the savage steel beast we call the TTC, a promo poster depicting Argos defensive end Ricky Foley — in charge of sacking opponents’ QBs — shows him standing imposingly, tattooed arms folded behind him, chin tilted upward and wearing a look of disdain. In the background: “Home is where the heart is. It’s also where we hurt people”. This incited the public to attack mode, accusing the Argos, one of the most community-involved teams via their Huddle Up program, of advocating domestic abuse. The Double Blue pulled the ads so as not to mar their hard work. Now with Marshall McLuhan’s 100th birthday passing us by, it would be right to invoke the basics of his media expertise while refreshing some of the fundamentals. One football player. Home opener tickets for sale. The game is against Winnipeg. There was no woman in the ad — clearly the audience was the football crowd. Now you really have to be stretching to take the words “home” and “hurt” out of their football context. Regardless, in a recent interview Layton asked me to say the words out loud, with my eyes closed. Continued Page 26 AUGUST JUNE 2011 TORONTO TODAY 25

Cont. from Page 25

“I know it’s a weird exercise, but go ahead and do it,” he insisted. “Taking out the context of football, because not everyone is a football fan.” There are two problems with that: Print ads are intended to be seen, and when we close our eyes we don’t know who the company is. Let’s stretch this out. If we said the same home-hurt phrase and then opened our eyes to see a Greenpeace ad with a caribou on it, the context is different. Canadian hydro projects have flooded out lands, drowning the ungulates on their pilgrimage up north. That’s “home”, that’s “hurt”. Another example could be associated with the United Way advertising how people who are homeless hurt because they are sans domicile. I know I’m stretching, but no more than the offended TTC patrons or Mike Layton did. Referring back to the culture of football, like every group, there arise stereotypes. These days football players haven’t been the most astute role models. Michael Vick, Ben Roethlisberger, Brett Favre, Pacman Jones, Plaxico Burress and the 2005 Minnesota Vikings boat cruise come to mind. What I’m getting at is incidents involving athletes, even from Tiger Woods or Kobe Bryant, have skewed society’s perception of athletes. So anything tough, male-oriented and jock gets people’s hackles up. Ergo, the castration clippers come out. I’m not insensitive to domestic abuse. My approach to the nothings that call themselves men and beat their wives is that of L.A. Confidential’s Wendell “Bud” White. Russell Crowe’s character in the film had a penchant to offer quid pro quo measures on the men imposing their rule of thumb. What baffles me, though, out of a metropolitan area of over five million people, factoring in more from the 905, it takes a minimum of five people to get an ad reviewed on the TTC — a transit system that sees hundreds of thousands pour through the turnstiles a day. That’s more than the Argos see for games, unfortunately. Karen Stintz, TTC chair and head of the review committee, admits to me she had no problems with the Argos strategy. “It’s clearly a sports ad and that’s the game,” she said, adding that she believes Layton was playing spoil sport. “I think it was not an appropriate comment given that was what the ad was trying to promote.” Though this is far from related, Layton’s December comments about Joey Votto being honoured raised some concern with me. Frustrated at how council referred to the MacLean’s apology motion for their “Too Asian?” article as a waste of time, he compared congratulations of Votto as being in the same argo. Now with Layton complaining a blue streak, it’s becoming a habit at how quickly he’s willing to throw athletes under the subway car. TT

Societal perception of athletes is skewed

26 TORONTO TODAY AUGUST 2011

Hot in here, or is it just midtown? 1 1

By Shawn Star 6

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1. Hot crime 6. Russian ruler (alt. spelling) 10. Samoan currency 14. One of three measurements 15. Caribbean food 16. Bad sign 17. Three signs of summer west of Bathurst between St. Clair and Dupont? 19. Fast food option 20. Giants legend 21. Moses’ brother 22. Three signs of summer northeast of Bathurst and St. Clair? 29. “The root ___ evil” 30. Consumed 31. Runner-up prizes in chemistry? 34. ___ Science, longtime Toronto astronomy shop near Yorkdale Mall 36. Attention-getting sound 37. Burn soother 38. Three signs of summer southeast of Yonge and York Mills? 41. Failed 19th century

ACROSS

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21 27

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rebellion against the Qing dynasty 42. Portuguese king 43. Mar 44. Component that allows text messaging 45. Interim Liberal leader Bob 46. Dialect of the Murut people 47. Three signs of summer southwest of St. Clair and Mount Pleasant? 51. Once more 54. Municipality in A Coruna, Spain 55. Opposite of e’er 56. Three signs of summer north of Bloor between Bathurst and Avenue? 63. Weight scale used in science 64. It can foil a foil 65. Like Cinderella’s godmother 66. To press clothes 67. Attack 68. Common gemstone

DOWN 1. “Look how cute it is!” 2. Jamie Foxx title char-

acter 3. Grammatical device used to denote an original spelling or phrasing 4. ___ Kosh B’gosh 5. Infinite degree 6. Vowel-less instrument 7. Word for “truth” from Middle English 8. Former track star Boldon 9. Be freed from 10. Add up 11. Latin love 12. Building block toys 13. In a bit 18. One of the three things represented in this puzzles five longest answers 21. Bar quaff 22. Mountain winds 23. Instruction from a mob boss 24. Infections, sometimes 25. Singer John 26. Trudge through 27. In ice cream form it’s heavenly 28. Part of a TV salesman’s pitch 31. One of Greece’s smallest villages 32. 10 to the 100th degree

(not to be confused with the search engine) 33. Former Toronto mayor John 35. Subsequence widely used in statistical natural language processing 36. Golden ratio 37. Hebrew title for an unmarried girl 39. Look like 40. Pledge 45. Vie for office 47. Police warning 48. Checmical compound seldom used for anesthesia anymore 49. Sew again 50. Gardening tool 51. Prefix for against 52. Like a team jersey, say 53. Nestle chocolate product 56. Common lolcat mistake 57. Barometric pressure abbr. 58. Not ’fore 59. Sodium oxide 60. What opponents do at the heels of their rivals 61. Pitching stat 62. Alphabet suffix?

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