[PHOTO] Lighthouse amid the buildings at harbour's end, North Rustico

[PHOTO] Polkaroo and friends

[BLOG] Some Wednesday links

• BCer in Toronto's Jeff Jedras comments on Justin Trudeau's boycotting of Sun News after that organization's Ezra Levant insulted his parents.


• blogTO comments on last night's wild mayoral debate. I will note that on Twitter the whole thing seemed like a mess.


• Crooked Timber considers the endurance of myths like that surrounding the murder of Kitty Genovese.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper on stellar winds suggesting that habitable planets in orbit of orange dwarfs may be best of all, and links to another casting doubt on the existence of Gliese 667Cd.


• The Dragon's Tales notes that F-22as were used in combat for the first time against the Islamic State.


• Joe. My. God. observes that one participant in a publicized gay-bashing in Philadelphia was the daughter of a local police chief.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money mocks Bill O'Reilly's suggestion to raise a mercenary army to fight against the Islamic State.


• pollotenchegg notes that the Ukrainian region of Donetsk was in a demographic free-fall even before the recent war.


• Peter Rukavina notes how, in a low-key way, women got the vote on Prince Edward Island in 1922.


• Tall Penguin celebrates her birthday.


• Torontoist raves about the new Fort York visitor centre.


• Towleroad features a Chinese gay man speaking out against gay conversion therapy.<.li>
  
• Understanding Society's Daniel Little examines a mass survey of Chinese on what they think an ideal world should be like.


• Window on Eurasia notes Russian ignorance of Kazakh history and is skeptical of the idea of increasing religious content in public schools.

[LINK] "India triumphs in maiden Mars mission, sets record in space race"

Reuters shares the good news that India's Mars Orbital Mission has successfully arrived in Mars orbit.

India's first mission to Mars entered orbit on Wednesday, making it the first Asian nation to reach the Red Planet, all for less than the budget of the Hollywood space blockbuster "Gravity".

The Mars Orbiter Mission, or MOM, cost $74 million, a fraction of the $671 million the U.S. space agency NASA spent on its newly arrived MAVEN Mars mission.

"History has been created today," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, bursting into applause along with hundreds of scientists at the Bangalore command centre of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

"We have dared to reach out into the unknown and have achieved the near-impossible."

India joins the United States, Russia and Europe in successfully sending probes to orbit or land on Mars.

In 2011 a Chinese spacecraft destined for Mars failed to leave Earth's orbit after a botched Russian launch.

ISRO successfully ignited the main engine and eight small thrusters, which fired for 24 minutes, trimming the speed of the craft so it could be captured by Mars's gravity and slide into orbit.

[URBAN NOTE] "Doug Ford and John Tory trade barbs at raucous Toronto mayoral debate"

CBC reports on last night's mayoral debate. I will say that, following the debate on Twitter last night, the whole thing seemed more than a bit ridiculous.

Toronto’s political crazy train kept on rolling during Doug Ford’s first mayoral debate Tuesday night as candidates traded barbs in front of a rowdy, and at times abusive, audience.

The debate, billed as the public’s first real look at Doug Ford the mayoral candidate, revolved heavily around candidates’ controversial and vastly different plans for new public transit infrastructure. Both Ford and Olivia Chow presented billboard diagrams to illustrate their respective visions.

The two-hour faceoff was punctuated by several heated exchanges between Ford and front-runner candidate John Tory, who Ford criticized as an “elitist” career politician without any real experience at Toronto City Hall.

“I’ll tell you something, John, you’re a slick-talking politician,” Ford said after Tory answered a question on his plan for reducing poverty throughout the city. “You’re from a whole different world.”

The comment garnered a loud cheer from the largely pro-Ford audience at York Memorial Collegiate Institute, located on the border of Wards 11 and 12 near Eglinton Avenue and Black Creek Drive, an area of the city considered a political stronghold of the Ford family. Before the debate began, many audience members chanted “We want Doug!”

Ford continually pivoted to Tory’s inexperience in Toronto municipal politics throughout the night.

“No mayor has ever been elected without first sitting on council," Ford claimed (in fact, a handful have). "I know you’re used to having everything handed to you on a silver platter.… It’s always been handed to John Tory."

[URBAN NOTE] "A Brief History of the Legendary El Mocambo"

Torontoist's Jamie Bradburn provides a potted history of Toronto rock club El Mocambo, facing closure.

The El Mocambo has had more lives than most cats. Just when it appears the venerable music venue at 464 Spadina Avenue will close its doors forever—when the crowds line up for a “final show” and the obituaries are published—the music rolls on. Now, yet another change in ownership threatens to bring the final curtain down on the El Mo.

The building was put up for sale in March for $3.95 million, and last week co-owner Sam Grosso announced that it’s been conditionally sold, with the venue set to close in November. Regardless of what the next owners decide to do with the site, Grosso hopes its iconic neon palm tree will survive. “I would love to have that sign stay on the building or moved somewhere else in the city,” he told the Toronto Star. Grosso has also considered donating it to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Music historian Nicholas Jennings, meanwhile, wants to see the sign preserved as “a connection to its earlier eras.”

The palm tree reflects the El Mo’s early days as one of Toronto’s first cocktail bars. The venue’s history can be traced back to the Liquor License Act of 1946, which loosened the province’s alcohol regulations, allowing hard liquor to be sold by the glass for the first time since 1917. It also laid out new classifications for licensed establishments, which outraged temperance activists. Especially upsetting was a provision that exempted five cities (Hamilton, London, Ottawa, Toronto, and Windsor) from holding municipal referendums to approve venues such as dining lounges and cocktail bars. Premier George Drew defended the exemptions, arguing that they would help the tourist trade by not forcing visitors to sneak nips in their cars or hotel bathrooms. (This didn’t satisfy the likes of the Star, which called the new rules “thoroughly evil.”)

The new rules were appealing to John and Frieda Lang, who bought the property at 464 Spadina during the Second World War. They envisioned a Spanish-themed club, inspired by their visits to American cocktail bars and trips to South America. The building, whose past tenants included a dry goods store, a barbershop, and restaurants, was transformed with the creation of a dining area on the first floor and a dance hall on the second. Ads placed in the March 23, 1948 editions of Toronto’s daily newspapers promised the El Mocambo’s opening gala, taking place that evening, would include “the finest of food served in pleasant surroundings.” Subsequent ads touted steaks made from Royal Winter Fair award-winning beef, and plenty of “night time gaiety.”

[URBAN NOTE] "Massive craft store moving into downtown Chapters"

blogTO's Natalie Manzocco confirms some unlikely news: the former Chapters at Richmond and John will see its space taken over by a craft store.

When the Chapters flagship at Richmond and John closed down in April, questions immediately began about what would take over that enormous, three-floor slab of prime downtown real estate. Rumours persisted that the space was being eyed by Michael's, a North American chain of craft supply and framing stores, for a downtown location. Looks like it's official; signs are now up in the window of 142 John St. announcing the craft shop's impending arrival.

It's not a terribly sexy retail addition to the strip - a shop stocked with embroidery hoops and silk flowers lacks the cachet of, say, a Uniqlo, or a Uniqlo. But the selection and convenience of a big-box shop will likely be welcome to many downtown crafters: Though Toronto has plenty of specialty shops for art supplies, beads, and fabric, and OCAD's population is already well-served by DeSerres and Aboveground Art Supplies, Michael's promises to be a true one-stop shop, with a focus that ranges from baking to scrapbooking to knitting to woodworking.

[LINK] "Justin Trudeau boycotts Sun Media over Ezra Levant rant"

CBC reports on Justin Trudeau's decision to boycott Sun Media after one of its television commentators, Ezra Levant, called his parents sluts.

This raises interesting issues about journalism, and the tensions involved. What is too rude? I do wonder why on Earth Levant thought he could say this kind of thing.

In the piece, host and opinion columnist Levant shares his view of a photo taken and tweeted by Trudeau's official photographer of the Liberal leader kissing a bride on the cheek on her wedding day.

Trudeau's team capitalized on the moment "to make him look virile and sexy," the oft-brash Levant said in the clip.

'The idea of the nobleman of the estate riding through like in Medieval times to deflower whatever maidens he wanted — that's still there in Trudeau.'- Ezra Levant, The Source with Ezra Levant host

In the nearly five-minute rant, Levant said Trudeau invaded an intimate moment on a day when a bride is only to be kissed by her husband and father.

"The idea of the nobleman of the estate riding through like in Medieval times to deflower whatever maidens he wanted — that's still there in Trudeau," he said. "Obviously Trudeau didn't have sex with her. But he pushed himself into the picture in an intimate way."

He questions Trudeau's value of marriage, saying the Liberal leader must believe he's starring in Wedding Crashers​. But "even they had enough class to give the bride herself a pass," he said.

Levant draws a comparison in Trudeau's behaviour to that of his parents, former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau and Margaret Trudeau, who were "promiscuous and publicized how many conquests they had."

Of the former prime minister, Levant says, "He banged anyone. He was a slut." And Margaret "wasn't much different."

The sentiments are also expressed in an opinion column for Sun Media published Saturday.

[BRIEF NOTE] On the purpose of international law and institutions in protecting borders

Window on Eurasia's Paul Goble has summarized an anonymous writer's Russian-language essay suggesting that Russia should beware that, in its Far East, it should not find itself outplayed by a more powerful China in just the same way that Russia itself has outplayed Ukraine in its east.

In the influential Moscow portal “Voyennoye obozreniye,” a writer who identifies himself only as a “couch general” says that despite cooperation between Moscow and Beijing, it is critical for Russians to ask how they can avoid “losing” the eastern portions of their country to China as Ukraine is losing its east (topwar.ru/58525-kak-ne-poteryat-sibir-i-dalniy-vostok.html).

The author says that he is not talking about “the military annexation of the Far East and Siberia by China.” Russia is a nuclear power and the Chinese are “too intelligent” to engage in open aggression against it. But what is happens, he argues, is the gradual and quiet “colonization” of parts of Russia by the Chinese.

“The Chinese are coming to Russia and remaining here, they receive Russian passports, and they bring their relatives. Many Chinese marry Russians. And this is a fact,” he says. Russian women do so because “Chinese men do not drink, they work hard, and they bring their money home.”

Given the declining number of ethnic Russians east of the Urals and the increasing population of China, “in the not distant future, Chinese will become the ethnic majority in these territories,” he writes. And while they will have “Russian passports and their children will speak Russian perfectly … they will be Chinese.”

“Ethnic Chinese will be elected to local parliaments and as mayors. They will open Chinese schools in parallel with Russian ones. And after a certain time, it is likely that they will raise the issue of the recognition of Chinese as a second state or at least a regional language” in Siberia and the Far East.

Chinese immigration to Siberia, as I've noted in the past at Demography Matters, is a non-issue. Generally aspirational Chinese migrants hope to move to places more promising than the Russian Far East. Russian immigration to China is at least as noteworthy a factor. If China ever threatens Russian control over its Asian periphery, I don't think it will be via Chinese settlement in the area.

The only thing I'd like to note is that a properly-functioning international system, capable of protecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of weaker countries, would protect Russia and other countries from like threats. Russia for the past year in Ukraine has been doing its best not only to undermine that system, but to alienate the various other states that might have been sympathetic to Russia. This, I would suggest, is one of Russia's several own goals.

[LINK] "Hamilton family sought CSIS, RCMP help to block son’s entry to Syria"

The Toronto Star's Bill Dunphy reports on the case of a former Hamilton man, a Somali-Canadian 20 years old, who has been reported to have been killed fighting for ISIS.

A desperate Hamilton family called in CSIS and the RCMP two months ago in a frantic bid to prevent their eldest son from crossing into Syria and taking up arms in that country's civil war.

They failed, and earlier this week, CSIS visited them to tell them unofficially their son, Mohamud Mohamed Mohamud, had likely died in fighting there. According to some media reports, he died following a fight between Kurdish forces and Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham fighters.

If true, he could be the first Canadian killed in the anti-ISIS military campaign.

Hamilton lawyer Hussein Hamdani said Wednesday he was approached by Mohamud's family in July as soon as they realized their missing son was using his phone in Turkey.

“This was not right. He shouldn't have been there. We need to tell the RCMP and CSIS right away,” Hamdani summarized their thinking. “So they contacted me.” Both agencies met with the family, he said, and tried to find ways to thwart Mohamud's entry into Syria.

“But by then, his handlers had him. Once he lands — they have their own underground railway — it's almost impossible to stop him. Unfortunately, he did cross over, and once he did, he texted his mother to say he was in Syria with his brothers.”

Hamdani said the family continued to assist security officials, even working with the RCMP to try to break into Mohamud's email account.

Mohamud was a “very intelligent young man” who'd been attending York University and was on track for a career in medicine, Hamdani said. Just how he became criminally radicalized is not clear.