[VIDEO] "Toronto World Pride: A video look back at the 1989 Pride celebration"

Spacing Toronto's Shawn Micallef shared a remarkable artifact, a video 75 minutes long of Pride celebrations in 1989.

20/20: Setting Our Sights. Lesbian and Gay Pride Day, Toronto, 1989 from James Leahy on Vimeo.

As Toronto begins its rather massive World Pride celebrations this year, we’re pleased to present another film of a previous Toronto Pride celebration by James Leahy. Last year we posted his film of the 1988 Pride and today we have a much longer look at the 1989 Pride he has edited together. It begins with a tour of Church Street; twenty-five years later, a few things remain, but there’s much change. The famous Second Cup “Steps” are gone and old-Toronto commercial addresses have morphed into new lives, some with radical makeovers. It’s fun to try and spot what-was and what’s-now. There’s also footage from Cawthra Square Park and a temporary AIDS memorial that was set up before the permanent one we have now.

My compliments to Mr. Leahy for his fine work editing.

[PHOTO] "Daddy?"

I've seen this spraypainted on sidewalks all across Bloorcourt Village.

Does this denote any work or movement? Or is its absurdity enough?

[ISL] "China Builds Artificial Islands in South China Sea"

I'm not sure that the artificial islands being built by China in the South China Sea actually count, at least insofar as they can change maritime boundaries. As noted by BusinessWeek's Joel Quinto, these by themselves are enough to serve as bases.

Sand, cement, wood, and steel are China’s weapons of choice as it asserts its claim over the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan, and Brunei have sparred for decades over ownership of the 100 islands and reefs, which measure less than 1,300 acres in total but stretch across an area about the size of Iraq. In recent months, vessels belonging to the People’s Republic have been spotted ferrying construction materials to build new islands in the sea. Pasi Abdulpata, a Filipino fishing contractor who in October was plying the waters near Parola Island in the northern Spratlys, says he came across “this huge Chinese ship sucking sand and rocks from one end of the ocean and blasting it to the other using a tube.”

Artificial islands could help China anchor its claim to waters that host some of the world’s busiest shipping lanes. The South China Sea may hold as much as 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, according to a 2013 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. China has considered the Spratlys—which it calls Nansha—part of its territory since the 1940s and on occasion has used its military might to enforce its claim. In 1988 a Chinese naval attack at Johnson South Reef, in the northern portion of the archipelago, killed 64 Vietnamese border guards.

At a briefing last month, Voltaire Gazmin, the Philippine defense minister, said land reclamation work at Johnson South Reef started in February. There have been reports of Chinese activity at two other reefs in the Spratlys. “They are creating artificial islands that never existed since the creation of the world,” says Eugenio Bito-onon, mayor of a sparsely populated stretch of the archipelago called Kalayaan. “The construction is massive and nonstop,” he says, and could pave the way for China’s “total control of the South China Sea.”

Such alarm has been stoked by Chinese news reports, such as one in February on the online portal Qianzhan. com that said Beijing had drawn up a plan to build a military base at Fiery Cross Reef, about 90 miles west of Johnson South. Establishing islands equipped with airstrips would allow China to set up an air defense zone similar to the one it created in November over a group of islands in the East China Sea where it’s contesting sovereignty with Japan.

[LINK] "Argentina Once More on the Map, Invited by BRICS"

Fabiana Frayssinet's Inter Press Service article suggesting that Argentina might join the BRICS club of emerging economies caught my attention. I wonder if it will actually change much, mind, apart from being a signal of the country's reintegration with the global financial network. Noel?

As Argentina starts to mend fences with the international financial markets, the emerging powers that make up the BRICS bloc invited it to their next summit. This could be a step towards this country’s reinsertion in the global map, after its ostracism from the credit markets since the late 2001 debt default.

For now, there is no letter “A” in the BRICS acronym, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. But in Buenos Aires speculation is rife about whether it should be called BRICSA, ABRICS or BRICAS, if Argentina is admitted.

The invitation for President Cristina Fernández to participate in the group’s sixth summit, scheduled for Jul. 15 in the northeast Brazilian city of Fortaleza, is seen as another sign that Latin America’s third-largest economy may be incorporated, after India, Brazil and South Africa indicated their interest.

[. . .]

The formal invitation to Fernández was issued by Russia, which also thus confirmed its support.

“I think this shows that Argentina is fully inserted in international relations, not ‘isolated from the world’,” Nicolás Tereschuk, a political scientist at UBA, told IPS. “It simply doesn’t toe the line with the policies of the central countries at just any cost or in any circumstances, as it used to do at other times in its history.”

Argentina’s invitation from BRICS came almost simultaneously with the May 28 announcement of an agreement reached by the Fernández administration and the Paris Club, which this country owed 9.7 billion dollars since the default 13 years ago.

[URBAN NOTE] "Spacing to open retail store in the fall!"

Yay! Torontoist urbanist magazine will be opening up a brick and mortar store.

Spacing is pleased to officially announce that the magazine will be opening a brick-and-mortar retail outlet in downtown Toronto in the fall of 2014 — Toronto’s first city store — offering all kinds of items celebrating Toronto and Canadian cities.

Spacing‘s new home will be at 401 Richmond, the massive arts and culture cluster near Queen Street West and Spadina that is home to over 140 amazing organizations, galleries, and arts/media-focused businesses.

We believe our new home will let us offer our readers something hardly any other Canadian magazine can: a real retail experience. Our new space will be a storefront, created just for us, with direct access right off of Richmond Street West, between Spadina and Peter. And housed within our store will be the office of our magazine staff.

Since our inception, we’ve touted the benefits of experiencing public life and breaking down private-space barriers in the public realm. We’ve been feeling guilty for some time about how a magazine that promotes the merits of public space remains holed up behind two security doors. We’re excited by the idea that our readers will be able to walk right in and have a word (good or bad) with our staff. And we love the idea that people will be able to buy the unique merchandise we currently offer at our e-store, and so much more.

Not only will this new space be unique in Canada’s magazine world (only one other Canadian-owned magazine, Down Home in St. John’s, Nfld., has a brick-and-mortar retail space), but it will also fill a niche that is lacking in Toronto: a true city store. There are a handful of outlets that sell really cheap and boring t-shirts with “Toronto” or “Canada” or a beaver printed on them, but no retail store collects all of the amazing things produced by local artists and craftspeople that celebrate neighbourhoods and urbanity. The products we’ll offer will focus on Toronto, Canadian cities, and urbanism. We’ll offer apparel, stationery, prints, vintage transit stuff, books, and an assortment of urban ephemera that use the city as its muse. Oh, and buttons. Thousands and thousands of buttons.

[BRIEF NOTE] "PBO says Ottawa is shortchanging Ontario"

I noted back in 2008 that Ontario, its economy beset by slow growth and deindustrialization, was set to become a have-not province, a net receiver of funds from the federal government to . (This happened in 2009.) MacLean's now shares news that apparently Ontario might be short-changed.

This will not serve the Conservatives well come election time, I think.

The Parliamentary Budget Officer says changes to federal equalization payments makes Ontario the big loser among provinces, while Quebec, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick gain double-digit increases.

The report finds total equalization payments transfers from Ottawa to the provinces and territories rose about 3.5 per cent this fiscal year.

But the distribution is wildly different from province to province, with Ontario seeing a 37.3 per cent decline, or about $1.2 billion.

Meanwhile, Quebec will see transfers under the program increase 17.5 per cent, Nova Scotia, 11.5 per cent, and New Brunswick by 10.2 per cent.

The report notes that the federal government this year chose to stop a program ensuring no province receives less in a given fiscal year in combined transfers than it received in previous years.

The PBO says Ontario would have been the only province to qualify in 2014-15, hence has missed out on $640 million in revenues.

The Ontario Liberal government has been vocal in complaining that Ottawa is shortchanging the province, but the federal government has said it has been fair in calculating transfers.

During the election campaign that delivered Premier Kathleen Wynne a majority government last week, the provincial Liberals accused Ottawa of slashing Ontario’s latest share of equalization payments by $641 million.

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• Centauri Dreams hosts a speculative essay by one Adam Crowl imagining how life could endure for eons beyond the death of stars in an aging universe.


• The Cranky Sociologists's SocProf studies the interaction between national identity and team sports in an era of globalization and migration.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper analyzing the connection between a star's metallicity and the likelihood of it hosting giant planets.


• The Dragon's Tales links to a paper suggesting that increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by itself lengthens the growing season, irrespective of warming.


• Eastern Approaches looks at the scandal in Poland following the sharing of Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski's impolitic words about NATO and the American alliance.


• The Financial Times's The World blog wonders what the jeering of a female politician by her male peers means about gender equity in Japan.


• Language Hat looks at the languages used in soccer.


• Personal Approaches' Jim Belshaw deplores the imprisonment of Australian journalist Peter Greste in Egypt.


• At the Planetary Science Blog, Bill Dunford celebrates the many achievements of the Cassini probe at Saturn.


• Van Waffle of the Speed River Journal writes about the return of bullfrogs to his local lake this year, in the context of issues for amphibians generally.


• Torontoist features trans male Alex Abramovich's writings about the personal and broader importance of pride.

[URBAN NOTE] "Proclaiming Our Pride"

The subtitle of Jamie Bradburn's Torontoist article is "Why Toronto didn't officially proclaim Lesbian and Gay Pride Day until 1991." Responsibility for that, it seems, can be squarely assigned to then-mayor (and now senator) Art Eggleton.

When Mayor Rob Ford refused to participate in Pride-related events in 2011, it was, as Globe and Mail columnist Marcus Gee put it, “an embarrassment for a city that proclaims its diversity to the world.” Ford also reopened old wounds, recalling predecessor Art Eggleton’s refusal to lend support. But Art Eggleton had taken things one step further than Ford—during his tenure from 1980 to 1991, he had refused to proclaim Lesbian and Gay Pride Day, even though his office marked Harold Ballard Day and Walk-a-Dog-a-thon Day.

Eggleton’s reaction to the gay community in the aftermath of the 1981 bathhouse raids foreshadowed his handling of Pride. Eggleton told a provincial committee that the Ontario Human Rights Code should be amended to prevent discrimination based on sexual preference. Questioned further, Eggleton explained, though, that he believed that homosexuals “shouldn’t be allowed to thrust or force their sexual orientation or sexual inclination on other people” and that promoting their lifestyle should be grounds for dismissal. When a report on relations between the police and the gay community appeared later that month, Eggleton feared recommendations such easing arrests for sex in public places would “suggest special status for the gay community.”

Few were shocked when, starting in 1985, Eggleton refused requests from Pride organizers to proclaim Lesbian and Gay Pride Day. He reaffirmed his beliefs when city council’s executive committee recommended a proclamation in early 1989. “It is what I consider a personal matter,” he told the Star. “It is not appropriate for the naming of a day.”

On April Fools’ Day, the Star gave Eggleton a dart for his proclamation refusals, noting his comfort with recent declarations of days honouring notable contributors to Toronto’s cultural fabric like American comedian Red Skelton and the Muppet Babies[.]

[. . .]

Eggleton responded via a letter to the editor. He blamed Muppet Babies Day on an unnamed former Metro Toronto chairman, while Skelton was cited as an entertainer beloved by Torontonians. He defended his record of promoting anti-discriminatory human rights legislation, but reiterated his “private matter” excuse.

[URBAN NOTE] "TTC's special pass, rainbow bus help celebrate WorldPride, June 28, 29"

Transit Toronto's Robert Mackenzie notes a new TTC special event pass just for Pride celebrations.

The TTC is getting into the spirit of WorldPride 2014 by developing special weekend passes for groups of passengers to use this Saturday, June 28 and Sunday, June 29.

And, it’s painted one of its buses the colours of the rainbow to mark the occasion. The bus is in regular service along the 94 Wellesley route throughout the week, but the TTC will put it into special service during Pride events this Thursday, June 26 and Sunday, June 29.

To make travel easier this weekend, the TTC has produced a special WorldPride-branded TTC event Family / Group Weekend Pass. For just $22, the pass provides unlimited travel on the TTC this weekend for a group of as many as six people — no more than two adults per group. (The group may also include four children younger than 19.) You can buy the pass at any TTC collector booth or store or other business that the TTC has authorized to sell tickets, passes and other fare media. You can view a list of authorized vendors here.

This Thursday, June 26, the TTC’s WorldPride Rainbow Bus will shuttle brides, grooms and their guests between Bathurst Station and Casa Loma, where more than 110 couples will exchange vows in a ceremony that will break the North American record for the largest group same-sex wedding. The shuttle will operate between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., and remain at Casa Loma until 4 p.m. for the first part of the celebration.