[PHOTO] Entering Dufferin station, morning

[BLOG] Some Tuesday links

• blogTO shares some photos of Toronto in colour from the 1950s.


• Centauri Dreams talks about SETI in the light of the Anthropocene era.


• Dangerous Minds notes that there is now a hipster nativity scene available for purchase.


• The Dragon's Gaze links to a paper suggesting that tidal heating could explain the difference between super-Earths and mini-Neptunes.


• Joe. My. God. notes that protecting Trump in New York City costs that municipality a million dollars a day, and notes a parade of Spanish fascists in support of Trump.


• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes that politics is identity politics.
  
• The LRB Blog notes the end of Sarkozy's campaign and revisits Goldwater.


• The Russian Demographics Blog reports on the latest about the population of Ukraine.


• Towleroad notes the hateful mail received by an out mayor in Massachusetts.


• The Volokh Conspiracy looks at Trump's apparently anti-constitutional entanglement of business and politics.


• Window on Eurasia reports on how Russia's promotion of the Russian language in neighbouring countries is backfiring, and looks at the hard nationalist line of Patriarch Kirill against Ukrainian autocephaly and multiculturalism in Russia.

[LINK] "Wind Mobile launches LTE service and rebrands as Freedom Mobile"

CBC explains why, among other things, the WIND app on my phone changed names the last time I updated. If this leads to better service, I'll be happy.

Wind Mobile is rebranding itself as Freedom Mobile and adding to its old 3G network with an LTE network that should be available in every market where it operates by August.

The company, which was acquired last year by Calgary-based Shaw Communications, has grown to roughly one million customers since its launch under foreign ownership in late 2008.

The company offers discounted mobile service in major urban centres, but on an inferior spectrum band that has been plagued by slow or dropped signals.

The new LTE service, to be first rolled out in Toronto and Vancouver on Nov. 27 and then everywhere else the company operates by the fall of 2017, could change all that.

Customers' bills could be changing too. Wind plans range between $25 and $50 a month for all-inclusive texting, talk and data plans that offer far more downloading capability than the big three — but on a network that makes it hard to ever take advantage of those numbers due to spotty service.

[LINK] "New Mi'kmaq name for Bonshaw Provincial Park trail"

CBC News' Julie Clow reports on the selection of a Mi'kmaq-language name for a major park on the Island.

The main trail at Bonshaw Provincial Park has a new name.

The Ji'ka'we'katik Trail will be the main connection to the four-season trail system that covers 25 kilometres in the park. The name means "the place where bass are plentiful" and is the traditional Mi'kmaq name for the West River.

Paula Biggar, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure joined Chief Brian Francis of Abegweit First Nation and Chief Matilda Ramjattan of Lennox Island First Nation to officially name the trail.

"The expanded park and trail system at Bonshaw will allow Islanders to spend time experience and enjoying our province's natural heritage," Biggar said in a release.

An accessible, natural play playground is being developed at the park. It and the expanded park trail system are scheduled to open in 2017.

"We are delighted to have this main trail named to honour the Mi'kmaq heritage of the island," said Francis. "All of Prince Edward Island is traditional Mi'kmaq territory and the Indigenous Mi'kmaq have been here for 10,000 years."

[ISL] "Vandals damage Irish monument on Charlottetown waterfront"

CBC News' Nancy Russell reports on the senseless damage caused to a monument to Irish immigrants in Charlottetown. Alas, I've never been there to see it. Hopefully next time I'm on the Island it'll be in fine shape again.

A monument on the Charlottetown waterfront honouring P.E.I.'s Irish settlers needs substantial repairs after vandals appear to have driven over the stonework.

"It's a bad damage that has been done and it has to be repaired somehow," said Michael Hennessey, secretary of the Celtic Heritage Association which helped to raise $230,000 to build the Irish Settlers Memorial.

"I'd like to see it repaired and put back in the condition that it was in originally."

The monument overlooks the Charlottetown Harbour, just off the boardwalk, behind the Culinary Institute of Canada.

The centrepiece of the memorial is a 3.7-metre-tall cross modeled on the Cross of Moone in Ireland. There is a stone bench, as well as 32 flagstones arranged in a circle, from each of the counties where the 10,000 P.E.I. settlers came from in the 18th and 19th century.

[ISL] "Rachel McAdams voicing Anne of Green Gables audiobook"

CBC Books reports that Canadian actor Rachel McAdams will be voicing a new audiobook version of Anne of Green Gables.

Actress Rachel McAdams is the narrator of a new audiobook of Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. The book will be released on audible.com on Nov. 22, 2016.

McAdams can currently be seen in theatres opposite Benedict Cumberbatch in the Marvel blockbuster Doctor Strange. Her recent role in the Oscar-winning film Spotlight earned her an Academy Award nomination for best supporting actress.

In a behind-the-scenes feature produced by Audible (above), McAdams confessed that Anne of Green Gables was "one of my most beloved books growing up."

"I wanted to be Anne as a little girl and I think a lot of girls do. She's a very strong female character, but not kind of in a typical way," said McAdams.

"It's one of the most exciting things I've ever been asked to do in my whole career."

[ISL] "The Summerside Lobster Festival is facing murky waters"

The Guardian's Nancy MacPhee reports on the troubles facing the Summerside Lobster Festival. As someone who has enjoyed it the last two times I've been on the Island, I hope it finds a way forward.

It’s an event the City of Summerside took over three years ago, saving it from extinction, but is now looking at possibly turning back over to the community.

The future of the Lobster Festival was debated for almost 40 minutes at Monday’s council meeting, with no clear direction at the end of the discussion about what a future festival might look like and who should be running it.

Bob Ashley, the city’s chief administrative officer, with community services director JP Desrosiers at his side, questioned council on what they see as the festival’s future.

“The impression I get is you all see this as a significant event,” Ashley said at the onset of the debate, adding that it is part of “the DNA” of the city. “How are we going to do it and how much is it going to cost?”

Currently, the Lobster Festival is without an executive director, with the departure of Don Quarles, who was in the position full-time.

The 2016 festival was over budget by $21,000, leaving planning for 2017 in a deficit, with no guarantees of government backing and continued sponsorship support.

“Frankly, there is no seed money to continue to grow the festival,” said Desrosiers.

[ISL] The Guardian's Dave Stewart on Island bread from the Middle East

The Guardian's Dave Stewart notes the impact of Middle Eastern immigration, from Lebanon and Syria, on the bread scene of Charlottetown.

A Syrian immigrant walks into Royal Pita Bakery in Charlottetown, takes a breath and said the scent of fresh bread reminds him of home.

A couple from Lebanon opened the province’s first pita bakery earlier this year, and it appears to be a hit with locals and immigrants.

“It feels like home,’’ said Ismail Alahmad, who spoke to The Guardian through an interpreter after he had purchased 20 bags of pita bread.

“It just smells like home back in Syria. It’s been 40 years that I’ve been eating this same bread so when I (moved to Charlottetown) it was like Yesssss!,’’ he added, pumping his fist into the air.

The bakery is owned and operated by Toufic Houchane and his wife, Maud.

“Nobody had the guts to do that,’’ Toufic Houchane said when asked why he and his wife opened the bakery. “We were looking as a family, using our past experience with bread and the Middle Eastern authentic bread. It’s a must that we should have a pita bakery on the Island and why not. Make it affordable to everybody.’’

Houchane said pita bread sold in traditional supermarkets on the Island is shipped frozen. Their bread is made in store by machines he had shipped from Lebanon.

[LINK] On Syrian refugee resettlement in suburban Canada

The National Post's Peter Kuitenbrouwer reports on the success and challenges of Syrian refugee resettlement.

Paramount Fine Foods sits in a big box plaza along a windswept street on the northwest fringe of Toronto. The new restaurant boasts a waterfall at its entrance. Children doff their shoes to play in an indoor climbing gym, while their parents enjoy Middle Eastern food — hummus and moutabbal (eggplant dip) decorated with pomegranate seeds; shawarma and tabouleh.

In the kitchen Ehssan Harba hefts a wooden paddle to pull manakeesh, a kind of pizza, and pitas puffed up like balloons from the wood-burning brick oven. Harba is 28, but with his thin frame and the haunted look in his dark eyes, looks closer to 40. And while he wins praise from his bosses, Harba, a refugee who arrived in Canada in July, can’t let go of Syria. When he sits down to talk about his life he starts to cry.

“I hope for all the universe for the Canadian government to help me to get my three brothers and my sister out of Syria, because I am still thinking about them,” he says.

Patrons of Paramount would never know it, but four of the kitchen staff are refugees from Syria. They found work here after Mohamad Fakih, founder of the Paramount chain, visited a Syrian refugee camp in his native Lebanon and vowed to hire 100 refugees.

It’s a big promise but small compared to the flood of refugee job-seekers. Canada expects to welcome 44,000 Syrian refugees by year-end, four times the total refugees in 2014. Ottawa pays the equivalent of welfare for each refugee for one year; then refugees without work land on provincial welfare rolls. For most jobs, refugees must learn English or French; refugee advocates across Canada report long waiting lists for language classes.