In The News

The Chicago Tribune writes on the lessons big cities can learn from Luminato, Toronto's week-long festival of arts, culture and ideas. The festival, the largest multi-arts festival in North America, is lauded for its unique programming and its ability to promote Toronto culture on the international stage. 

"But while there is international work at Luminato, it is not an international festival but a celebration of an international city. A city whose hotel rooms it fills for a good chunk of June. That, perhaps, is a crucial distinction. Luminato doesn't just bring in work from outside; it also creates work from within and then shouts about it globally. Furthermore, as Price noted, festivals are a different beast. They help people follow the arts. "You can't just hit them with a wall of stuff," she said. "You have to provide context."

"Intriguingly, Price argued that free events are actually far more attractive to corporate sponsors like L'Oreal, one of Luminato's biggest supporters."

"If you are in a big, beautiful park getting an artist the caliber of k.d. lang for free," Price said, "you appreciate the sponsor. And you don't mind if you see a couple of banners."

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original source Chicago Tribune

Toronto scientists working with the University Health Network are the first in the world to isolate the stem cell for human blood. According to HealthZone.ca, the discovery will allow researchers to study blood cells far more closely, marking a huge breakthrough in the fight to treat blood-related diseases.

"Blood stem cells have been utilized more successfully than any other variety in the treatment of diseases."

"Donated stem cells from matched donors are most often used to replenish the blood-producing bone marrow that is destroyed by chemotherapy in the treatment of leukemia patients."

"But those patients, who have their own defective stem cells destroyed to stop their runaway blood production, are currently being transfused with many other marrow elements in addition to the life-saving stem cells, Dick says."

"We're transplanting a whole (mishmash) of cells and relying on the rare stem cells (in the mix) to actually do the job," Dick says.

"These non-stem cell components, he says, increase the risk of a rejection condition known as graft-versus-host disease, where immune cells lingering in the donated marrow begins to attack the recipient."

"By now going in and fishing out stem cells, we'll be able to transplant pure populations of cells for transplantation," Dick says."

"Even after all these years of study, we don't know what makes a stem cell tick . . . because we never had one in our hands," he says. "Now we have almost pure stem cells in a test tube, we can begin to look at their molecular workings."

"The problem with stem cells in therapeutic use is that there are so few of them and those that are there cannot be made to multiply readily in laboratories."

"By having actual specimens to study, Dick says, research can now focus on creating a recipe of growth factors and other bio-chemicals that will coax the cells to multiply, greatly expanding the supply for patients who need transplants."

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original source Health Zone

Toronto is the 12th most innovative city in the world (and the most innovative city in Canada), according to a list compiled by Melbourne-based city-ranking agency, 2thinknow. Over 1,540 cities were analyzed and compared based on factors of health, wealth, population, and geography.

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original source Innovative Cities

The much-anticipated International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) awards have come and gone from Toronto. Blog TO writes of the jam-packed weekend of parties, film premieres and concerts that brought so much glitz and glamour to the GTA.

"The International Indian Film Academy (IIFA) handed out trophies to its movie megastars on Saturday night, right here in Toronto. They're like a touring version of the Indian Oscars, but for the South Asian diaspora and Bollywood fans all over the world. And, they are a huge show."

"Each year, IIFA picks a new host city and puts on a weekend of "buzz" events (including film premieres, concerts, plus a lot of tie-in exhibits and screenings all over the GTA leading up to the big show). It's a pretty big deal for Toronto to host the 12th edition, after stops in hubs like Macau, London, Dubai, Bangkok and Johannesburg. It's also the first time the IIFA Awards have taken place in North America, which will no doubt raise the profile (and box office share) of Indian cinema in this market."

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original source Blog TO

Toronto is the most sustainable large city in Canada according to the 2011 survey by Corporate Knights Magazine. Canada's urban centers were ranked across 5 categories of sustainability including "ecological integrity" and "social well-being".

"We studied 28 indicators of sustainability in five categories�ecological integrity, economic security, infrastructure and built environment, governance and empowerment, and social well-being. Seventeen Canadian cities were surveyed, giving us a picture of the country's urban sustainability.Toronto, Vancouver, and Victoria won top honours in our Big, Medium, and Small city categories respectively."

"Gathering data from world municipalities, which are only beginning to request figures from energy companies, turned out to be a big challenge, he says. There are so many factors involved that it would be hard for anyone to simply say, "Hey, my city is better.For example, Toronto was the only Canadian city included in Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Global Cities, and it performed well against its North American counterparts, but only average overall because its cold climate drives up the use of its major source of emissions�natural gas."

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original source Corporate Knights

"Dirty, Drunk, and Punk: The Twisted Crazy Story of the Bunchofuckingoofs", a new book that traces the history of Toronto's most notorious punk band, has hit book shelves to rave reviews. The book, researched and written by Torontonian Jennifer Morton looks at how the Bunchofuckingoofs grew into the stuff of legend after establishing Fort Goof, a series of club houses, speakeasys, music venues and squats that took over Kensginton market in the early 1980s.

"I grew up in the Goofs era, saw them several times at venues like Larry's Hideaway, went to a few late night booze-cans at Fort Goof, and had a good friend who dropped out and more or less moved in with them for a while, and Dirty, Drunk and Punk feels like a true and real account of the band and their weird, storied, anarchic, nihilistic history."

"The thing that made the Goofs such a force was their blend of out-of-control, violent insanity (they'd smash TVs on stage, open beer bottles with chainsaws, dive off Fort Goof into the mountain of empty beer cans in the back yard, get into chain-fights with Nazi skinhead raiders) and their strong ethic of mutual aid, compassion, and social justice. Crazy Steve Goof, the band's founder and non-leader, ran for city council twice, led a campaign to get hard drugs out of Kensington Market, and took in waifs and screwups by the hundreds."

"Dirty, Drunk and Punk's story is told on a backdrop of photos, gig sheets, fliers, news clippings and other detritus and ephemera, artfully collaged behind text that has the screw-you madness of punk band fliers. Morton interviews the Goofs, their friends, their enemies, the law, their hangers-on (even my friend who ended up living with the band), and develops a kind of collective memoir of the band and the era they represented� Dirty, Drunk and Punk is a fantastic trip through the story they made for themselves."

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original source Boingboing

The Hollywood Reporter writes on the resurgence of Toronto's film and TV production industry. While the industry slumped in 2008--due to the rise of the Canadian dollar and film tax credits in southern U.S. states--Toronto once again reigns as Hollywood's premier production destination. To celebrate Toronto's revived production industry a gathering has been scheduled for June 23 at the new Islington Ave William F. White Centre to be hosted by Hollywood director Norman Jewison and "Chicago" producer Don Carmody.

"Big stories and little stories; there's so much going on here right now," Jewison said as Toronto plays host to big-budget shoots like Columbia's remake of the 1990 Arnold Schwarzenegger action movie Total Recall and ABC/Global's Rookie Blue."

"Canada's biggest city successfully fended off challenges like the Canadian dollar's rise against the U.S. greenback, and stiff competition from film tax credits in southern U.S. states, to return as a production destination for Hollywood."

"Also attending the William F. White bash are local politicians like James Moore, the federal heritage minister, and Ontario cultural minister Michael Chan, whose generous film tax credits have been key to enticing Hollywood production back to Toronto after a 2008 slump.The new William F. White Centre on Islington Avenue is also part of a soundstage expansion westwards in Toronto away from the city's waterfront, where old studio space was shuttered during the economic recession."

"Our celebration responds directly to the renewed spirit and revitalization of Toronto's production industry," Paul Bronfman, chairman and CEO of Comweb Group and William F. White International, said ahead of the June 23 Toronto tribute."

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original source Hollywood Reporter

Toronto-based RBC Wealth Management tops the list of the world's "best full-service investment firms", according to the annual survey by J.D. Power & Associates. The list, based on on interviews with over 4,200 investors, ranks firms on seven different categories, including investment performance, account information, website, offerings and fees.

"RBC Wealth Management, the unit of Toronto-based Royal Bank of Canada that oversees almost $200 billion for more than 350,000 households, won the highest satisfaction ranking in a survey of full-service investment firms' customers.RBC earned a score of 814 on a 1,000-point scale this year compared with 793 in 2010, with strong marks for brokers' customer service and account information, said the survey of about 4,200 investors released Thursday. The average score was 772."

"Communicating well with customers, including explanations of investment performance and fees, are key contributors to customer satisfaction, said David Lo, director of investment services at J.D. Power, a marketing-information company."

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original source Bloomberg

Toronto Star art critic Martin Knelman writes on the success of Luminato's fifth season and why the annual arts & culture festival  "enhances life in Toronto". Among other thing, Knelman attributes the festival's success to its smart programming, its numerous  free events, and its "unprecedented partnership with The New Yorker".

"Edition number five of Luminato is almost ready to slip into the past tense, with a potpourri of events on Saturday and a quiet footnote of a day on Sunday featuring what turns out to be the final North American performances, at least for now, of that startling two-part Arab epic, One Thousand and One Nights."

"Despite a few hitches and glitches, including soft ticket sales, this year's festival took several major steps forward � securing its position as a key event that enlivens the city every June while also grabbing needed attention from the world beyond the GTA."

"The festival's unprecedented partnership with The New Yorker � surely North America's most prestigious magazine � was one of this year's big success stories, including a memorable doubleheader last Sunday at the St. Lawrence Centre."

"Another plus: the presence in our town of producers, presenters, bookers and agents for the semi-annual "congress of the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) � which is bound to pay off in the long term with increased awareness of Toronto's performing arts talent, its glittering culture palaces and its annual arts festival."

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original source Toronto Star

Toronto will soon be home to one of the world's largest--if not the largest--international Indian cultural center. According to India's External Affairs Ministry, the center will showcase the country's rich cultural heritage and will host regular dance and music performances.

"[Toronto's centre] will rival, if not outshine, the Nehru Centre in London,'' said a top official of the Indian ministry of external affairs, who was in Toronto to participate in last week's Pravasi Bharatiya Divas � a gathering of people of Indian origin in North America and the Caribbean."

"The new cultural centre will be ready by next year to cater to the North America Indian diaspora,'' said Sangeeta Bahadur, deputy director at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, an autonomous wing of the ministry. It also runs cultural centres in Almaty (Kazakhstan), Berlin, Cairo, Colombo, Durban, Georgetown, Jakarta, Johannesburg, Moscow, Paramaribo (Suriname), Port Louis (Mauritius), Port of Spain and Tashkent (Uzbekistan), besides London ."

"We are looking for a suitable location in Toronto and once we find it, the centre will come up quickly,'' Ms. Bahadur said. "The proposed centre will showcase India's rich old heritage and traditions to the Indian diaspora and mainstream Canadians. It will regularly host Indian dance and music performances.''

"She said the centre is part of India's thrust to use culture as a tool of its foreign policy. "We want to use our rich cultural heritage to build bridges with the diaspora and Canada and the whole North American region. The Indian diaspora is our biggest asset and we want to use this asset to project India.''

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original source Globe & Mail

The Miami Herald encourages its readers to visit Toronto's Distillery District. The former industrial site turned car-free arts center is lauded for its historic architecture, appetizing restaurants, and its concentration of stunning galleries and sculptures.

"This is a safe, clean, comfortable city. Its eclectic streets and scenic avenues appeal to your inner walker, and few parts are better to explore on foot than the automobile-free, pedestrian-friendly Distillery District.Just off Lake Ontario, with the CN tower and a collage of skyscrapers hovering above, this former industrial area melds the corporate and cultural in a historic setting. Walking through the Mill Street entrance, you'll immediately get the picture, as did virtually everyone I encountered, by either posing for a camera, or employing one, sensing the significance of it all."

"By 2001, the distillery had become mainly rubble when Matthew Rosenblatt and Cityscape, collaborating with Dundee Real Estate Development, began to re-create the area into something that people, a local or a tourist, would return to, Rosenblatt says."

"Viewing business as art, and intent on establishing a neighborhood where you "get a sense of the city's culture," Rosenblatt and his cohorts have taken 44 buildings, the largest collection of Victorian industrial architecture in North America, and incorporated business, retail and artist spaces into a setting that exudes small-town charm. Walking these streets is akin to visiting an amusement park, and not having to pay for the rides, as the visual feast is entertainment enough."

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original source Miami Herald

Waterfront Toronto has announced plans to install an "ultra-broadband" network in Toronto's east waterfront neighbourhood. The network, which will serve the under-construction residences and commercial properties of East Bayfront and West Donlands, will be 500 times faster than a typical North American household link.

"One of Toronto's newest neighborhoods will start life with some of the fastest Internet connections in the world as developers tempt bandwidth-hungry residents and business into the one-time industrial wasteland."

"Modeled on similar undertakings in Seoul, Tokyo, Stockholm, London and Paris, the new area on the shores of Lake Ontario will offer Internet connections that are 500 times faster than a typical North American household link, meaning it will take seconds to download or edit a movie."

"If we want to remain a leading global city, investments ... in ultra-broadband are required as part of the city's infrastructure foundation just like other central infrastructure such as electricity and water," said Evan Kelly, a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers."

"Developers say the new Internet connections will offer speeds of up to 10 gigabits a second for businesses or 100 megabits for residential use, a crucial draw for the residential and commercial space planned for the mostly disused industrial land to the east of downtown Toronto."

"Having this sort of capacity available to residents will allow for a whole new world of applications we haven't even conceived of yet," said Dan Armstrong, chief executive of Beanfield Metroconnect, the telecommunications company that won the Internet tender."

"The revitalization of the Toronto waterfront is expected to cost C$35 billion ($36 billion) in mostly private funds over 25 years."

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original source Reuters

The Toronto Star features Toronto-based Vintage One Wines, a year-old Dundas West winery that creates custom, private order vintages. The work of Argentina-born siblings Alejandra and Jeronimo de Miguel, Vintage One is unique micro-brewery in that it invites its customers to be as little or as much involved as they like in the wine-making process.

"The slim, black entrance on Dundas St. W., just west of Islington Ave., gives no clue as to what you will find inside Vintage One Wines. A steady stream of black-clad city folk pours down a flight of stairs into an anteroom swollen with the strains of Argentine tango guitar. Its grip seduces them into the large caves beyond, filled with rows of gleaming stainless tanks and a half a football field of wooden barrels. This is a real, working urban winery."

"The pair import frozen grapes from their homeland and a half-dozen more countries, and work with customers here on Dundas St. to create custom, private-order vintages. You can buy into a share of a barrel as an individual, or go in with a group or a club. You can be involved from concept through bottling, from aging and blending down to bottle design. Corporations use the place for retreats and team-building exercises; restaurants arrange their own private-label supplies."

"The siblings are riding a great trend wave: Toronto is in love with malbec � just try to find a menu without the varietal. According to the Consulate General of Argentina, Ontarians downed 8.1 million litres of Argentine wine in 2010, about 5 million litres of that malbec."

"And they have hit another trend, says loyal customer Don Tapscott, best-selling Toronto author of marketing and information technology books. "Their business model is about creating experiences, highly customized experiences, as opposed to selling product."

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original source Toronto Star

Edgewalk, the CN Tower's newest extreme attraction, hasn't even opened yet and is already selling out in Toronto and garnering attention internationally. USA Today writes on the attraction that, for $175, lets thrill-seekers walk the outside circumference of the CN Tower's main pod, 168ft above the ground.

"Starting this week, you can buy tickets for "EdgeWalk at the CN Tower" in Toronto. Billed as the first attraction of its kind in North America and the highest full circle hands-free walk, EdgeWalk takes place atop the tower, which is one of the taller ones in the world. That's 116 stories up with no guardrails, gulp."

"Participants are, of course, tethered while they walk and gawk at the city below. The experience opens Aug. 1 in celebration of the CN Tower's 35th anniversary. A reservationist told me it will stop for the year in late fall, when the weather gets dicier."

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original source USA Today

As reported by the CBC, Toronto's York University has placed second in the international University Rover Challenge. The Challenge, held annually by the International Mars Society, asks participants to build the best robotic rover for a Mars-like landscape. This is the second year in a row that York has placed in the top three in the prestigious competition.

"The University Rover Challenge, put on annually by the international Mars Society, was won by the Bialystok University of Technology in Poland, who beat out seven other teams from Canada and the United States."

"York University repeated a second-place showing from last year. Team members said in an email to CBC on Sunday that they were happy with their rover, called EVE, and its performance in the rugged sandstone desert near Hanksville, Utah."

"Although we were well prepared before the competition, the desert environment and harsh operating conditions required many last-minute repairs and alterations," the message said. "This is true for all the teams, but as always our success came from our ability to fix the rover in situ and get back to the task, while other teams were left stranded."

"York's rover cost about $13,000 to build, slightly below the $15,000 maximum allowed. The cost was sponsored by York University, Ontario Centres of Excellence and MDA, a B.C.-based defence contractor."

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original story CBC News