The governments of Canada and Ontario are committed to supporting recreational infrastructure like the community pool and splash pad in Lakeshore, Ontario. This project will ensure that the town remains a vibrant, healthy, and inclusive community for g…

Kevin Hart was succinct and clear about Brock Lesnar’s UFC doping woes … fighters may get away with it for a while, but eventually they’re gonna get caught. Kev was leaving Mr. Chow Friday night and said he’s a fan of Brock’s but if it’s true…

Upcycled Junkyard BugRepurposed cupolaThe Palais de Poulets, also known as “Clucking Hen Palace,” was transformed from a decrepit shedThis Versailles-inspired Le Petit Trianon coop costs $100,000Chicken Coop ChapelMore over-the-top chicken coops here&n…

Ottawa – Please be advised that the Honourable Carolyn Bennett, Minister of Indigenous and Northern Affairs, will be available to the media on various occasions during her trip to the Northwest Territories from July 17-19.

VANCOUVER — Black Lives Matter Vancouver is asking police to voluntarily withdraw their float from the upcoming Pride Parade, as a “show of solidarity and understanding” that officer involvement in the march creates an unsafe atmosphere for some communities.

The open letter published by the activist group on Friday comes weeks after its Toronto counterparts halted the city’s parade until organizers signed off on a list of demands including banning police floats from future marches.

The Vancouver chapter said it stands with Black Lives Matter Toronto in its discontent with police marching in the parade.

While having police on the ground to perform a civil service is understandable, allowing officers to participate on a float is “insulting” to protesters who made Pride celebrations possible, it said.

“We acknowledge that in certain contexts police presence to perform a job of civil service may deter acts of homophobia and violence, especially at designated queer events such as Pride,” the letter said.

“However, we cannot divorce the policing institution from its historical and continued violence against Indigenous and (minority) communities, racial profiling, or inaction around our missing Indigenous women.”

Instead, the group proposes a public service float, including police officers, firefighters, paramedics and others, to replace the police-only float. The float would no longer represent an institution that has perpetuated “structural violence against Black and brown bodies in North America,” it said.

The Vancouver group said it will not take part in the Pride Parade on July 31, by participation or protest, as an act of solidarity with other Black Lives Matter chapters and because Pride no longer represents “community action, resistance and revolution.”

Instead, the chapter said it has accepted an invitation from the Dyke March to lead that parade as Grand Marshall.

Vancouver Police Sgt. Randy Fincham said the department was aware of the letter and would work with organizers, and all interest groups, to ensure that their concerns are addressed.

“We continue to work with all communities to build a more inclusive Vancouver, and protect the rights of all those who live, work and play in the city,” he said in an email.

No one from the Vancouver Pride Society was available for an interview on Friday evening, but the parade organizer issued a statement on Tuesday that said it was deeply committed to creating safer spaces for trans people, indigenous communities and people of colour.

The society said it would reach out to Black Lives Matter Vancouver after the events of the Toronto Pride Parade. At that time, Vancouver Pride Society said it hadn’t received any requests to exclude police and would continue working with officers to educate and include them in appropriate ways.

“We will continue to encourage and support meaningful dialogue between police and all parts of our community,” the society said.

Black Lives Matter Vancouver said in its open letter that the pride society had not directly contacted the group before issuing the statement, and urged it to turn its words into action.

In Toronto, parade organizers signed the protesters’ list of demands but later told media they only did so to get the event moving again, and that none would be implemented without consultation.

Well I suppose it was just a matter of time before even the Cons took a good look at the list of candidates for the leadership of the Harper Party.

Started to mumble and grumble.

Pray up a storm.

And give them the lowest grade possible.
Read more »

Swimsuit designer Bianca Elouise was hanging out at her version of the garment district … on the beach in Miami. Bianca and some buds enjoyed jet skiing and other water sports Friday … and everyone on the beach enjoyed checking out the sight…

Have you always wanted to play guitar but lack the coordination and skill? Irish farmer Tim Rowe has created the Chordelia, a device that attaches onto the neck of a guitar and plays whole chords at the push of a button.If you want to sing along you’ll…

DA Franklin of R World Productions wrote My Skin is a Target  to shed light on the feeling of being Black living in America.My Skin is a Target (BLM Poem) from R World Productions on Vimeo.Via Kuriositas

Kylie Jenner is a woman of no words, but with the help of 2 friends she can still speak to you. Kylie and her pals were leaving Hollywood Hookah Friday night and body parts were out in force. ‘Nuff said.

“Our tour begins here in this gallery where you see paintings of some of our guests as they appeared in their corruptible, mortal state. Your cadaverous pallor betrays an aura of foreboding, almost as though you sense a disquieting metamorphosis. Is this haunted room actually stretching? Or is it your imagination, hmmm? And consider this dismaying observation: This chamber has no windows and no doors, which offers you this chilling challenge: to find a way out!”

All you Haunted Mansion fans can imagine you are in the mansion every time you open  this Stretching Room Umbrella.

Buy it here.

Via Boing Boing

Taking over 500 hours to create, the Rolls Royce Picnic Hamper is forged from saddle leather, oiled teak and polished aluminium. It contains a treasure trove of artisan crockery, cutlery and glassware: Ajka Crystal wine glasses, stainless steel cutlery…

The 20 photographs of the week https://t.co/UB36VzmjNE pic.twitter.com/z0jvQppkPt — The Guardian (@guardian) July 16, 2016 Twitter Reacts to Terrible New Trump-Pence Campaign Logo, thedailybeast.com Jasper the cat is dead, long live Jasper the cat, ottawacitizen.com Welcome to the country: Refugees are helping a prairie town grow, theglobeandmail.com The Reluctant Memoirist, newrepublic.com Small-town Steinbach fills to […]

The post Weekend reading: July 16 edition appeared first on a peek inside the fishbowl.

A London-based circus clown named Stan Bult established the Clown Egg Register in the 1940s to allow professional clowns to copyright their makeup designs and protect their intellectual property rights.

The eggs were stored in Bult’s home until his death in 1966, after which they were moved to a London restaurant. Many of the fragile faces broke over the ensuing years. Twenty-four of Bult’s original clown eggs are on display at the Wookey Hole Clown Museum.

Unlike the Bult-era eggs, which focused solely on faces, today’s eggs also incorporate elements of each performer’s costume. The clowns help the egg creation process by sending fabric swatches and photos of their made-up faces.

The stars of The Heidi and Frank Show on KLOS radio showed surprising sympathy for Playboy Playmate Dani Mathers — who has a regular gig on their show — but both acknowledge she royally screwed up by taking a pic of a nude woman in a gym show…

When Krystal Nausbaum moved out of her family home nearly two years ago to live with a friend from her high school, she knew it was a big step.

Both women have intellectual disabilities. Although it was her first time on her own, Nausbaum, 27, was comforted by the fact they’d be joined by a third housemate, Maggie Sulc, who’d act not as a caregiver but a mentor — a peer they could learn from and who would lead by example.

This type of living situation is now the subject of a research program, called Friendly Housemates, by Community Living Toronto and Centennial College, that matches people with intellectual disabilities and post-secondary students to live together for one year.

“Maggie helped me a lot with my social life and personal relationships,” said Nausbaum. “I learned way more, doing more household jobs.”

Nausbaum has Down syndrome, but felt in no way limited by it. Instead, she was excited to live “without mom around.”

“When you’re with peers and they mention something to you, you’re way more open to it than when your parents have been harping on you forever,” said Madeleine Greey, Nausbaum’s mother.

“There’s that sense of freedom, that sense that you are independent,” said Matt Poirier of Community Living Toronto, which supports the housing needs of people with intellectual disabilities. “They’re living with a peer, living with an equal. It’s very liberating. They don’t feel like they’re being told to do something. They want to do it.”

The project, funded by a grant from the federal Community and College Social Innovation Fund, allows for up to 10 matches over the next two years.

Lead researcher Marilyn Herie of Centennial said one assumption that’s been turned on its head is that “high functioning” individuals would be better suited for this program.

“Regardless of where a person’s function is at, if they have the necessary supports, they can completely integrate and be successful,” she said.

Student participants live rent-free through the project. Applications are reviewed based on a student’s resumes and references, a formal interview, academic standing and whether their interests align with a potential housemate.

Nausbaum said she learned valuable skills from her housemates, such as how to cook “more complicated” meals.

“Now I like quiche, potatoes and breakfasts wraps,” she said.

Myra Agasen, a Centennial student living with a 30-year-old man with autism, said the arrangement works, but that students must treat their housemate with a disability as equals.

“You just need to be yourself and get to know the person. Don’t look at them differently,” said Agasen, 36,

For Greey, the project fulfilled a vision she only ever imagined for her daughter.

“Ever since Krystal was little, I and my husband, her dad, always dreamed she would live life just like everybody else and that she would enjoy independence,” Greey said. “Krystal never ceases to amaze us.”

The derelict buildings of historic Camp 30, believed to be Canada’s only remaining prisoner of war camp from the Second World War, which were once feared unsalvageable, have emerged victorious against the test of time.

Earlier this month, the Town of Clarington announced it has approved a deal with developer Kaitlin Developments and Fandor Homes to acquire five hectares of the Camp 30 lands and some of the “historically significant” buildings on the property.

“This is a slice of history right in our backyard,” said Clarington Mayor Adrian Foster, in a press release. “Council would like to restore and rehabilitate the buildings which are historical landmarks in our community.”

Camp 30 was the only site used by the Allies to house captured, high-ranking Nazi officers. It is the only known intact camp for German prisoners of war left in the world.

Saving the property has long been a labour of love for local advocates and history buffs, who feared that after years of vandalism and neglect, the buildings were destined for the wrecking ball. Over time, windows have shattered, graffiti has covered the walls and the buildings, once considered architecturally unique, have started to crumble. Despite the site’s remarkable history, its future was always uncertain, said Corinna Traill, Clarington Ward 3 councillor.

“I grew up with Camp 30, knowing that we had this great historical site and basically seeing it go to ruin,” said Traill. “This is really a case that if the town hadn’t stepped in, this site would have been reduced to rubble.”

In the 1920s, 18 buildings were built on 40 hectares of rural land about 45 minutes east of Toronto, initially serving as a training school for “troubled” boys. But during the Second World War, the site was converted into a PoW camp to house high-ranking members of the Third Reich.

Among its most famous inhabitants were Otto Kretschmer, a skilled German U-boat commander, who was involved in a daring but ultimately unsuccessful escape attempt that was supposed to see him and three others tunnel their way to the east coast. The operation was foiled by guards and the carefully built tunnels were collapsed.

But the site’s layered history has been lost on many outside of Bowmanville.

Once the previous owners moved out in 2008, local residents and politicians started “to advocate for the site at every opportunity,” said Marilyn Morawetz, chair of the Jury Lands Foundation, a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to the conservation of historic lands and the creation of a long-term plan to preserve this property.

It was only in 2013, when the federal government designated Camp 30 a National Historic Site and it made it onto Heritage Canada’s Top 10 list of endangered sites, that it was nationally recognized. But until the property was in private hands, there was little the town or the foundation could do in terms of drumming up funds, said Devon Daniell, director of business development for developer Kaitlin Corporation.

When Katilin Corp. bought the land, they didn’t know its significance, he said. But over the last few years, they have been working with the town and foundation to find a way to preserve the buildings and the history, he said. That included talking to the developers of Toronto’s Distillery District in Toronto for inspiration and ideas.

The transfer of land is expected later this year. Before then, the developer will demolish the buildings that have not been identified for historic preservation. The town will be responsible for five of the original buildings, while the developer plans to convert one into a clubhouse to serve a future community.

The developer will also clean up the area, including removing the graffiti which is proving to be a difficult task, said Daniell.

“Despite our best efforts to preserve the site, you can’t stop these people who are motivated to damage it,” he said, adding that vandals have been relentless, spray painting over security cameras, knocking down fences and masonry walls with ATVs, he said.

Once the clean up takes place, the developer is to make a $500,000 donation to the town to assist with maintenance, he said.

The developer has plans for a housing development on some portions of the land. The five-hectare parcel is part of the developer’s mandatory parkland contribution to the town.

Town officials say while this deal is the first and most important step in securing this piece of Canadian history, the entire country should take ownership of the project.

“Redevelopment of these historical buildings cannot be on the backs of local taxpayers,” said Faye Langmaid, manager of special projects with the town. “This is a national project, with a national scope.”

One hundred and sixty-four years ago, William Henson Holland left his family behind in Maryland and risked his life to travel the Underground Railroad to Canada. His brother Thomas John wasn’t far behind.

The brothers, escaped slaves from a plantation in Maryland, were meant to blaze a path to freedom for their family to follow. But instead, their departure caused a cross-border rift that took 130 years to heal.

This weekend, eight generations since the Holland brothers headed north, family from both sides of the border will come together in Toronto.

It was Sandra Smith’s mother who helped reconnect the two halves of the family when she was invited to a small gathering in Maryland by a cousin in San Francisco in 1948.

“I just thought that my mother was going to visit a few family members. But when she came back, she was so proud,” Smith said. “She was so proud to see this large group of American cousins that live close to each other in the Silver Springs area.”

After that first connection, Smith said family members on both sides of the border started researching their family history more actively.

Digging through archives, a cousin south of the border found copies of their ancestors’ bills of sale and other documents that he sent north to Smith.

“I remember opening that package and seeing these documents and finding the names of my forebears and it just, it just gave me chills,” she said.

“It made me proud to know that we had a history that was documented and that we’ve come this far and survived, and that my great-grandfather was brave enough to make that journey to Canada and never see his family again,” she said.

Smith’s family tree starts with Jack and Polly Howard, workers in bondage on a plantation in Maryland in the early 1800s. They had eight children: Leatha, Enoch George, Eliza, Greenberry, Maria, Brice, Martha and Suzanna.

Leatha married William Augustus Holland. Their sons, William Henson and Thomas John eventually made the arduous journey north to freedom. Risking capture and possible death, the two boys relied on the charity of abolitionists along the route to evade bounty hunters.

Thomas John eventually settled in Hamilton and William Henson in Amherstburg, near Windsor. The plan was to set down roots and prepare for the rest of the family to follow, but the American civil war ended and slavery was abolished before the others could make the journey.

After her mother made the first connection with family in the U.S., Smith said, things started to pick up pace quickly. The first cross-border reunion happened in Windsor in the late 1980s.

“It was a teeny, tiny reunion. There was not much planned or anything. We just sort of went to a picnic area and sat around and met each other for the first time,” Smith said.

Since then the biennial gatherings have ballooned. Smith is this year’s planner-in-chief, helping to co-ordinate the logistics.

“See that pile of papers over there?” she asked, pointing to a two-foot-high stack on a side table in her living room. “Those are just the registrations.” She’s expecting nearly 200 guests for the three-day gathering at Toronto’s Don Valley Hotel.

“It’s been an amazing journey,” said Rev. Thomas Pumphrey, with a slight chuckle in his smooth Maryland accent.

“To see someone you have never met before and realize how closely they resemble maybe a father or mother or even yourself,” he said. “It’s an amazing piece (of history.)”

Pumphrey is one of the American cousins. At 71, he’s been going to the reunions since they started. At one in Maryland, he helped arrange a tour of the old plantation grounds.

As the afternoon wore on, the tour group began to get a little turned around on the expansive estate, Pumphrey said.

“As we were coming back out, one of the Canadian cousins asked ‘How do you get out of here?’ So I said ‘I don’t know. You guys are the ones who escaped to Canada. You should know the answer to that,’” he said, laughing.

Pumphrey and Smith’s family is part of Toronto’s rich history of freedom-seeking slaves helping to build the city that exists today.

In 1826 twelve fugitive slaves, lead by Elder Washington Christian, founded the First Baptist Church after being barred from joining existing churches in the city. Today it’s the city’s oldest black institution.

“You can imagine the racial tension at that time,” said Rev. Wendell Gibbs, who leads the congregation now.

He sees a direct connection between his church’s history and the struggles today facing not just black people, but anyone from a marginalized group.

“Whether it’s Black Lives Matter or First Nations people, or LGBTQ people, every community has its own struggles,” Gibbs said.

All these communities have faced historic oppression, Gibbs said, in the form of residential schools or growing up under anti-gay laws or the colonial slave trade.

“It’s all tied together. The connection is the emotional pain we still suffer,” he said. “You still have to go all the way back and tie it to those original pains,” he said.

For Sandra Smith and her cousin Yahya (Juan) Gairey, Gibbs’s message is part of the reason the family takes its reunions and its history so seriously.

“My daughter’s part of Black Lives Matter,” Gairey said. “Sandra’s mother tried to start the Martin Luther King Day here in Toronto. Our family has always been at the forefront of speaking for things that affect our people, having a voice and being heard,” he said.

“I think it’s really important that the younger generations hear about the struggles of the older generations,” Smith said, “because it’s so easy to forget.”

In a landmark court ruling, a Brampton man has successfully challenged federally regulated companies’ ability to fire non-unionized employees without cause — affirming the right of half a million Canadian workers to protection against unjust dismissal.

After a six-and-a-half-year legal battle, the Supreme Court of Canada backed Joseph Wilson, 45, who claimed he was unfairly terminated by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) for exposing “improper” procurement practices at the Crown corporation, according to court documents. While the company offered him a six-month severance package for his 2009 dismissal, it maintained that it did not need to give a justification for firing him.

But the ruling affirms that employees — unionized or not — can be terminated only for just cause under the Canada Labour Code.

In an interview with the Star, Wilson described his victory, which will impact 500,000 workers in sectors such as banking, telecommunications and airlines, as a “David vs. Goliath scenario.”

“I hope this gives (my former colleagues) some justice as well because some people didn’t have the opportunity or the ability to fight,” he said.

In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for AECL said the company “seeks to manage its human resources in compliance with Canadian labour laws and is pleased the Supreme Court of Canada has clarified the law in this area.

“We will review the recent Supreme Court decision and ensure that our human resource policies and practices are aligned.”

Toronto employment lawyer James LeNoury, who represented Wilson, said the decision also affirmed that non-unionized workers have similar remedies for unjust dismissal as their unionized counterparts, such as reinstatement with back pay.

Although the Supreme Court ruling applies only to federally regulated employees, LeNoury said it could have an impact on Ontario’s current review of its own employment and labour laws. As reported by the Star, non-unionized workers have no protection against unjust dismissal under the province’s outdated Employment Standards Act.

“I hope that they’re looking at ways, speedy ways for people to get their complaints resolved as opposed to going through the court procedure which can be lengthy. I say that looking at Wilson who has been tied up in the adjudication process,” LeNoury said.

Hassan Yussuff, president of the Canadian Labour Congress which intervened to argue in support of Wilson, called the decision “a vindication for (Wilson) for his courage and conviction to speak out in a whistleblowing exercise.

“Today the court ruled he is entitled to the same protections as other workers who are protected under the code,” he said.

“I hope as Ontario is reviewing its employment legislation that they will reflect on the Supreme Court decision today.”

A short song from one of Woody’s radio broadcasts.:

Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story is a 1957 civil rights comic book begun just five months after Rosa Parks’ historic bus ride. The comic tells the epic tale of the Montgomery, AL bus boycott throughout the South.

A section called The Montgomery Method ( above) instructs readers on the nonviolent resistance techniques employed by civil rights workers in Alabama, with a primer on Gandhi and his influence on King.

More: Open Culture

Via

NICE, FRANCE—Daesh on Saturday claimed responsibility for an attack that killed 84 in this coastal French city, the organization’s news agency said Saturday, as French prosecutors took four more people into custody in connection with the attack.

It remained unclear whether Daesh, also known as ISIS or ISIL, had directed the attack, whether they were taking responsibility for an attack that they may have inspired, or whether they were simply seeking publicity from an attack entirely disconnected from them. The Daesh-connected Amaq news agency cited an “insider source” saying that Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, 31, “was a soldier of the Islamic State.”

“He executed the operation in response to calls to target citizens of coalition nations that fight the Islamic State,” the news agency wrote.

But the oblique claim of responsibility left open the question of whether Bouhlel had acted alone or had any prior communication with the group, which has also claimed ties to the attacks that struck Paris twice last year and Brussels in March. French authorities have been scrambling to determine whether Bouhlel acted alone or had a support network in Nice, where he appears to have been living for at least six years.

Investigators on Saturday detained three additional people in connection with the attack, including one person who is believed to have spoken to Bouhlel by phone minutes before he started his deadly journey down Nice’s Promenade des Anglais, local media reported, adding that an additional man was detained late Friday. Paris prosecutor François Molins said that police had detained Bouhlel’s ex-wife and were questioning her.

Nice, meanwhile, was trying to return to normal Saturday by reopening the seaside Promenade des Anglais to traffic 36 hours after Bouhlel turned it into a killing field. Beaches were also set to reopen, even as flowers and tributes piled up at a makeshift memorial near the spot where the deadly truck came to a halt. French President François Hollande convened an emergency meeting of his top security advisers to discuss the investigation.

The scale of the carnage wrought by a Bouhlel came into grim focus Friday, with 10 children among the dead and 202 people injured. Among the wounded, 50 were “between life and death,” according to French President François Hollande.

The attack with a 19-ton rented Renault truck — the third mass-casualty assault to hit to France in 18 months — shocked the nation and sparked questions about whether authorities had done enough to safeguard a country that is an obvious target of terrorist groups. Many witnesses said Friday that the packed corniche had been only lightly guarded by police during fireworks on the gently warm night. Bouhlel, a truck driver, was easily able to drive around police fences blocking Nice’s famous Promenade des Anglais before jamming on the accelerator and zigzagging his way through the crowds in a method that seemed calculated to generate maximum bloodshed.

The identities of the victims testified to France’s diverse society and to the international appeal of the tony French Riviera. A vacationing father and his 11-year-old son from Lakeway, Texas. A headscarf-wearing Muslim woman who came to celebrate Bastille Day with her nieces and nephews. A French high school teacher, his wife, daughter and grandson. Others from Russia, Switzerland, Germany, Australia.

There were so many victims early Friday that survivors grabbed tablecloths from seaside cafes to cover the bodies strewn across the asphalt. The dead were marked by rectangular orange and white traffic-control barriers that stood like rows of tombstones.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls on Friday drew a strong link to terrorism, despite the fact that no militant group had claimed responsibility for the attack and Bouhlel had no known ties to such organizations.

“The threat of terrorism, as we have now been saying for a long time, is weighing heavily on France, and it will continue to do so for a long time yet,” Valls said after an emergency meeting in Paris. “We are facing a war waged on us by terrorism.”

French citizens are clearly reaching their limit. Valls and Hollande — whose popularity is scraping record lows — were booed when they visited the seaside scene of the attack Friday, in an apparent sign of anger over security lapses.

France was shaken by a terrorist attack in January 2015, when militant Islamist attackers took aim at the Charlie Hebdo newspaper and a kosher grocery store in Paris. Attackers struck again in November in a popular nightclub district of the capital, setting off bombs and raking the area with gunfire.

This time, the French population had just relaxed after living for weeks on heightened alert during European soccer championships that concluded Sunday. Hours before the violence in Nice, Hollande had announced that he planned to allow a state of emergency to expire at the end of the month. On Friday, Hollande said it would be extended for three months instead, and he said he would boost France’s role in Daesh strongholds of Syria and Iraq.

The attack was a “barbaric act,” Hollande said after meeting with top officials in Nice. “An individual who took a truck and murdered people with it.”

Belgium, Germany and Italy stepped up security along their borders on Friday, in a measure of fears that the violence in France could spill into neighbouring countries. Belgium — which was struck by a bomb attack at the Brussels airport and a subway station in March — is particularly nervous ahead of its own national day Thursday.

As investigators struggled to understand whether Bouhlel had acted alone, they offered a first account of his path toward the murderous drive that concluded in a hail of bullets from police officers who forced the truck to a stop outside the grand Palais de la Mediterranee, a hotel.

Bouhlel was a Tunisian citizen who had lived in Nice since at least 2010, when he first ran afoul of authorities by engaging in petty theft, according to Molins, the prosecutor. Most recently, he had been given a suspended six-month prison sentence related to a January assault, Molins said. In that case, Bouhlel’s former attorney told the local Nice-Matin newspaper, a motorist complained the truck driver was blocking the road during a delivery. Bouhlel took a swing at the motorist with a wooden beam, causing a deep wound, according to the lawyer’s account. Bouhlel is divorced and has three children, neighbours said. The prosecutor said the suspect’s ex-wife was taken in for questioning.

As fireworks lit up the sky Thursday in celebration of Bastille Day, Bouhlel drove the rented truck toward its fatal destination, Molins said. In the cab he carried an automatic pistol, two fake assault rifles, a non-working hand grenade and a phony pistol. He swerved around a police barrier blocking the Promenade des Anglais just next to a children’s hospital, then sped through the crowds, leaving carnage in his path. Nearly two kilometres later, three police officers traded fire with him, Molins said. Authorities think the truck kept going 275 metres after he had been shot. Police found him dead in the passenger seat.

Witnesses described confusion and chaos Thursday night as hundreds of panicked bystanders ran to try to escape the deadly truck.

After the fireworks, Adrien Dobrescu, 54, who was visiting from Romania, heard more sharp bangs. “Someone was screaming, and I saw gunfire,” he said. He ran with a crowd as fast as he could off the promenade. “I had waited two, four minutes, I would be dead, too.”

Survivors were left to deal with the wounded and dead.

“There were so many injured, and dead bodies,” said Fiona Le Goff, 27, a concierge at an apartment building facing the Promenade des Anglais. “The worst was a woman whose body was just stuck to the street.”

Later, she surveyed the area as forensic teams moved in. “There were people just covered with white cloths,” she said. “It was horrible.”

After the bodies of victims had been hauled away Friday, the macabre truck remained for hours. More than 25 bullet holes riddled its front, and its doors stood open while investigators searched it. Nearby, mourners piled flowers and remembrances at the base of a palm tree, some of them crying while they sang “La Marseillaise,” France’s anthem.

The Washington Post’s Rick Noack and Annabell Van den Burghe in Nice; Souad Mekhennet in Frankfurt, Germany; Brian Murphy and William Branigin in Washington; Carol Morello in Moscow; and Griff Witte in London contributed to this report.

Drew Barrymore is officially calling it quits on her marriage to Will Kopelman … filing for divorce after 4 years of marriage. Drew filed Friday in Manhattan according to the NY Daily News.   The divorce is uncontested, meaning it should…

Well he may look like the man from Glad. But Mike Pence, Donald Trump’s choice for vice president, is actually the man from God.

He defines himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.” 

And he’s really bad news for women and gay people.

Read more »

Von Miller has every right to ride with the money team now that he signed a $115 million contract with the Broncos … and he did just that Friday night … at a strip club. Von, Floyd Mayweather and crew hit up Crazy Girls in Hollywood and rol…

Business student Karan Kundra doesn’t own a car, and doesn’t expect to buy one anytime soon. He has, however, purchased a condo at Vaughan Metropolitan Centre, the terminus for the Spadina subway extension scheduled to open late next year.

Kundra won’t take possession of his one-bedroom-plus-den in the Cosmos tower until 2019. But whether he goes on to grad school at York University, where he is studying at the Schulich School of Business, or he gets a job downtown, his subway ride is only metres from his front door.

The Cosmos development is part of a residential building boom tied to Toronto’s new transit lines. These are the kinds of homes that planners and developers say will blur the line between urban and suburban living.

Public transit access boosts property values, and is increasingly a must-have for GTA homebuyers.

Kundra’s condo will be located deep in the suburbs, near Jane St. and Highway 7. But it will live like a city apartment, he said.

“I’ll have everything at arms’ length so I wouldn’t need to be purchasing a car. Cars are the biggest money pit,” said the Brampton student.

The location is also close to theatres, shopping and even golf courses, said Kundra, 19, who says the golf simulator in Cosmos is one of its best amenities.

Could he afford a bigger place further from the subway line? Maybe. But when it comes to space, Kundra says less is more.

“A lot of people my age think they should be living within their means. Having a huge house is not something that most people are interested in, just because there’s no time to maintain it. Cutting the lawn and those kinds of things add on to the amount of tasks you have to be able to do within a day. Being able to live in a condo where everything is accessible is something a lot of people are attracted to,” he said.

Cosmos “is probably the fastest-selling, highest-volume project we’ve done,” said Liberty Development’s Marco Filice.

His company bought the site about five years ago in anticipation of the subway. It’s an exciting time in the GTA, with increased possibilities of people living near their workplaces, he said.

“These opportunities didn’t exist 10 years ago,” said Filice. “People are more aware of the benefits of having the choice between transit and relying on the automobile. Our product provides behaviour modification for automobile dependents.

“The younger generation is not so enthused with the automobile,” said Jordan Teperman of Haven Developments, which is building a boutique condo called SIX25BV near Bayview Village, with easy access to the Sheppard subway.

“People want to be where transit is. They want to hop on a line and get anywhere. Every site we’re developing, you could get on a train at Union Station and get” there, said Teperman, who believes residents will accept less space in return for that convenience.

An enthusiastic booster of provincial transportation agency Metrolinx, he says Toronto’s been crying out for more transit for a generation.

“When we strategize where we want to buy products, this is a key consideration,” he said.

Transit proximity “is the single most important characteristic of development today,” said Peter Freed of Freed Development, which is building the 150 and 155 Redpath condos with Capital Developments at Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave., where the Crosstown LRT will intersect with the subway.

In addition to the Redpath buildings, Freed and Capital are behind the Art Shoppe Lofts and Condos and the Sherwood town homes near Yonge and Eglinton. The area is evolving dramatically thanks in large part to the new transit, said Freed.

He figures the pedestrian flow will double in the next decade, as transit attracts stores and restaurants bolstered by new residential and commercial development.

The Crosstown will also turn the area east of the Don Valley Parkway on Eglinton into a “major mid-town hub,” said Michoel Klugmann, vice-president of Lindvest. It bought the site for its Sonic tower at Eglinton and Don Mills Rd. from another developer in 2014.

“People talk about transit. They talk, talk, talk, but you can feel it. The stations are coming, people are watching the progress and they see it moving east on Eglinton,” he said. Condo buyers “expect real estate prices to rise and they want to be the first in,” said Klugmann.

Sonic, which will be near the Science Centre, Wynford and Agha Khan Crosstown stations, includes a public walkway that will allow neighbours as well as residents to access the transit. The landscaping also features a walkway with outdoor exercise equipment and a children’s play area.

“People say they want to live downtown but they want something a little quieter,” he said.

Nida Shahid, 31, and her husband rent an apartment near the Sonic, driving down the nearby DVP to their downtown jobs. But she is anxious to give up the traffic and take the Crosstown to work.

“I hate to be in traffic on the DVP. At the moment I can’t help it because the bus route is really crazy. Coming in late to work is not something I like, but sometimes I can’t help it,” she said.

Plus they know the area. They have friends there. “We were just waiting for this,” said Shahid of the 785-square-foot, two-bedroom unit they bought.

Her rental has a pool and a gym, but Shahid is already planning how she will use the amenities in the new building. “I’m very social. They’re going to have a rooftop terrace with a barbecue. I’m so excited about that,” said Shahid.

The couple have no children, but that could change. “That’s why we bought a two-bedroom,” she said.

It used to be that condos were for people who couldn’t afford to buy a house. That’s no longer the case, said Terry Lustig, development manager at Malibu Investments, which is building the Southside Residences at Gramercy Park near the Wilson subway station.

“More and more people are choosing the condo lifestyle even for families,” she said. “The more we improve the transit system, the more we will see people figuring out that getting to a transit-oriented location is the way to go.”

Home buyers are going to opt for convenience over space as the city and traffic grow.

“It’s really hard to find a house that has a subway in its back yard,” she said.

For Teperman, it’s only a matter of time before every transit station in the city becomes a hub of activity. He recently went to a trendy restaurant with his wife, who pointed out a TTC station nearby and wondered aloud why the corner hadn’t been developed.

“Two and a half weeks later, we put an offer on the site. I don’t want to tell you where but it’s a great area and it’s just going to bet better.”

Five transit-oriented condo developments

150 and 155 Redpath by Freed and Capital Developments includes 543 units in 38 storeys and 438 units in 34 storeys respectively. Slated for tentative occupancy in fall 2017 and 2018, units cost between $215,900 to more than $1 million. Apartments in the two towers range in size from studios to three bedrooms and a den, from 330 to 1,403 square feet. Tentative occupancy of 155 is fall 2017, with the second phase to open the following year. The buildings are located on Redpath Ave. east of Yonge St., west of Mount Pleasant about five blocks from where the Yonge subway will intersect with the Eglinton Crosstown LRT when it opens in about six years.

SIX25BV by Haven Developments is built on the Sheppard subway between Bayview and Bessarion subway stations. The eight-storey, 146-unit building is scheduled for occupancy in fall 2019. Condos range from one bedroom to two bedrooms plus den between 450 and 1,350 square feet, selling for the mid-$200,000s. The building is about a three-minute walk to the Bayview Village Shopping Centre and a three- to five-minute walk to the subway.

Cosmos Condos by Liberty Development Corp. include 396 units on 35 storeys. Priced from the mid $200,000s to the $600,000s, the condos range from one to three bedrooms with a den, from 500 to 1,298 square feet. Located on Highway 7 West, the building is about 350 metres from the Vaughan Metropolitan Centre station, the terminus for the TTC’s Spadina subway extension. The first phase, one of two planned towers, is slated for tentative occupancy in 2019 and the subway is expected to open earlier, in late 2017.

Southside Residences at Gramercy Park is the second phase of Gramercy Park. The new buildings are tentatively scheduled for occupancy in summer 2019 at Wilson Ave. and Tippet Rd. Developed by Malibu Investments, the space will include 500 units in two buildings 15 and 17 storeys. Units range from 388 to 1,048 square feet in studio to three-bedroom layouts. The condos that cost $190,000 and up, and are a two-minute walk from the Wilson subway station, which offers access to downtown Toronto without a transfer and will run north to York University and Vaughan Metropolitan Centre.

SonicCondos by Lindvest at Eglinton Ave. East and Don Mills Rd. will be within easy access of three stations on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT when the line opens in about 2022. The 320 condos in a 28-storey building are supposed to be complete in January 2019. Apartments range from 339 sq. ft. to 941 sq. ft. ranging from studios to three bedrooms. They are priced from the $200,000s. The development is being billed as “an emerging neighbourhood.” Lindvest’s Michoel Klugmann says the intersection is destined to become a major east-end hub.

For decades, American political conventions have been little more than shiny television infomercials.

The presidential nominee predetermined, the party buries the divisions of the primary season, pats itself on the back and rallies around the new leader in a rose-coloured-glasses view of its political future.

Not this time.

Yes, Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee at the national Republican convention beginning Monday in Cleveland, but beyond that little is certain.

Here is a spectator’s guide to the week’s activities:

Schedule

Monday: 1 p.m. start. Some delegate voting; evening to reportedly focus on the deadly attack on the U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya.

Tuesday: 5:30 p.m. Expected to focus on the economy; official presidential nomination expected.

Wednesday: 7 p.m. Highlight is typically a speech by the vice-presidential nominee.

Thursday: 7:30 p.m. The presidential nominee usually closes the convention.

Who is missing?

The Bushes: Former Republican presidents George Sr. and George W. will not darken America’s North Coast this week. Nor indeed will also-ran brother Jeb, whose body still bears fresh tread marks of the Trump Primary Steamroller.

The formerlys: Trump will get the Republican baton, but it will not be passed by either of the men who held it most recently. Mitt Romney, who lost the 2012 election to Barack Obama (despite Trump’s endorsement), has publicly repudiated Trump. Likewise, Sen. John McCain, who lost to Obama in 2008, says he will avoid Cleveland to focus on campaigning to save his own seat in Arizona.

The host: The RNC involves a special kind of awkward for John Kasich, whose duties as Ohio governor include helping oversee security for Trump’s coming-out party. After dropping out of the presidential race in May, Kasich now indicates he’ll be active on the periphery in Cleveland — not there, as such (and definitely not there for Trump), but not far away either. The broad impression is that of a politico looking to inject a sliver of life into a possible do-over presidential run in 2020.

Speeches

Speaker Paul Ryan, who disagrees with Trump on just about every major issue, will speak for 10 minutes on the un-Trump-like House Republican agenda he’s trying to keep from the dustbin.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who called Trump a narcissistic pathological liar in the last rant of his campaign, will try to position himself for the 2020 nomination race.

Expect a quiet speech from neurosurgeon Ben Carson, a loud speech from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iraq veteran, will get a prime-time platform.

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani is also reportedly on the agenda, as is former college football star Tim Tebow, Ultimate Fighting president Dana White and pro golfer Natalie Gulbis.

Protest watch

Barely anyone bothered to protest Mitt Romney’s coronation in Tampa four years ago. Trump being Trump, activists are now planning a show of force. Dozens of groups have been granted permits to march downtown streets, set up tables in two designated parks or speak from an official “speakers’ platform.”

There is real potential for conflict. Trump supporters including Bikers for Trump say they will also be present, and unsanctioned agitators like the anarchist Black Bloc may show up too. Officials have set strict protest rules — all marches must follow a set route, last less than an hour and be finished before nightfall — but they’re preparing to be ignored.

Anti-poverty, anti-war, feminist and racial justice groups have all scheduled demonstrations. The 40-organization Coalition to Stop Trump will hold a large march on the first day.

Pivot vs. pirouette

Pity the Pivot Watchers, that shrinking portion of the GOP faithful that remains certain Donald Trump any minute now will drink the conventional-campaign Kool-Aid and, well, behave.

Fact is, Trump’s been playing footsie with the pivot since March, when he memorably stifled his improvisational self and read from a TelePrompTer for the first time in a speech to the pro-Israel AIPAC conference. The result of his team-vetted address: multiple standing ovations.

So yes, Trump can pivot. But perhaps not for long. Once in motion, Trump has yet to demonstrate the ability to stop himself from completing the full-circle pirouette back to unscripted, unpresidential outrage.

Key players behind the scenes

Trump’s campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was originally hired as a delegate-wrangling convention guru. Though the contested convention didn’t end up being contested, he’s still the guy who’ll have to keep his erratic candidate on the rails for a few especially big days.

Jared Kushner, Ivanka’s husband and a real estate scion himself, has become perhaps Trump’s most trusted adviser, with a hand in everything from speech writing to social media.

Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican party, will do his best to ensure a divided party leaves Cleveland feeling a little more united.

Ghosts of conventions past

You have to go all the way back to the ’30s — the 1830s — to find the roots of the American political convention. That’s when the little-known Anti-Mason Party invented the format with a first-ever convention in Baltimore dedicated to opposing the secretive clout Freemasonry wielded over politics and business.

Other parties quickly seized upon the idea and for the next 140 years, conventions percolated with nation-shaping, winner-take-all intrigue.

That all fell away in the 1970s, as the modern-day state-by-state primary system took hold as a way for candidates to secure the party’s nomination ahead of the big quadrennial gathering — leaving the conventions themselves as de facto coronations, full of speeches, bereft of important decisions (i.e. the 2012 RNC in Tampa, all but forgotten but for the spectacle of Clint Eastwood in conversation with an empty chair).

Star power

Republican conventions are reliably less glamorous than Democratic conventions, and Trumpapalooza will be no exception. The master showman, seeking to make the convention less “boring,” said star quarterback Tom Brady might show up, but he won’t, and said he might invite tennis champ Serena Williams, who is obviously not coming.

Star-spotting delegates will have to settle for a motley crew of sports figures, most famously former Indiana basketball coach Bobby Knight.

And they can ditch the boring politics stuff for concerts by Journey, Rascal Flatts and Martina McBride, which are not officially part of the convention.

Security

American political history is littered with memorable and messy conventions. There was that time in 1860 when the Democrats came up empty in Charleston, S.C., amid bitter divisions over slavery, with southern delegates walking away unable to agree on a nominee. Civil war was just around the corner.

And that time in 1940 when Franklin D. Roosevelt’s loyalists engineered an unprecedented third term for the president, who would soon take the United States into an already raging world war against Hitler’s Germany.

In Cleveland, the worries about the potential for fresh hell are extending to events outside the convention hall, awakening memories of Chicago, circa 1968, where the traumatic spectacle of anti-Vietnam war protesters in full battle with police played out on TVs across the nation.

Security planning has been underway for months and so too has planning by a wide range of pro- and anti-Trump groups. A U.S. District Court judge threw a wrench into those plans in June, shrinking the security bubble by half to open more space for demonstrators.

The new spasm of national fury over last week’s killings by and of U.S. police officers and the fact that Ohio is an open-carry state makes the coming days in Cleveland potentially more armed and dangerous than previously imagined.

Dissent watch

This won’t be the contested convention the party’s Trump opponents wanted. But there might still be contention.

A contingent of anti-Trump delegates, many of them Ted Cruz supporters, may well express their dissent by refusing to vote for his vice-presidential pick.

And at least one delegate, Arizona’s Lori Hack, has said she plans to refuse to fulfil her obligation to abide by the result of her state primary and vote for Trump for president.

Look for the #NeverTrump crew to attempt to express its dismay in some visible way.

The sideshow

“The party of the year,” the host committee said, and that’s true if you’re a conservative somebody: Republicans with connections or corporations will get to attend some of the dozens of lavish private bashes, most of them hosted by companies and industry groups trying to lobby them. Even the national school board lobby is getting into the act, according to USA Today, with a “dessert reception” at a “chocolate and martini bar.”

There will be at least a bit of Cleveland fun for regular people. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame is offering free admission. And good news for despondent anti-Trumpers: the state legislature has extended last call from 2:30 a.m. to 4 a.m.

They said it

“I would rather attend the public hanging of a good friend.”

— Will Ritter, a Republican digital strategist who worked on the three previous conventions but is skipping this one

“People in this state have a right to open carry (guns). There’s a 2nd amendment to the Constitution, we understand that and our officers are prepared. They’re used to seeing that in downtown Cleveland for different events.”

— Cleveland Police Chief Calvin Williams

“We’re anticipating a victory dance, but it sounds like there’s a lot of agitators and a lot of troublemakers coming to town.”

— Chris Cox of the group Bikers for Trump

“I think he (Trump) is going to be a great president. I think he is someone who has connected with everyday Americans like no one since Ronald Reagan.”

— Indiana Gov. Mike Pence

“Trump is a sick sociopath. He has no conscience. No feelings of guilt, remorse, empathy or embarrassment … He has severe personality disorders and is not fit to be president.”

— Gordon Humphrey former New Hampshire senator and convention delegate

All caught up? Print out a bingo card and play along during the convention.

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Before Chatham police sat Jessica Chater down for a breathalyzer last year, they forced her to remove her bra.

Seem odd?

Other police departments in the province said the action is virtually “unheard of” without a specific reason, like self-harm.

The Chatham-Kent deputy chief, however, said his officers “always” order a bra removed when an accused is placed in cells, despite an Ontario Superior Court decision from 2013 rejecting bra seizure as a blanket policy.

“They were monsters and the whole thing is a nightmare,” Chater, 34, told the Star Friday.

This week Justice Lucy Glenn dismissed the impaired-driving charge against Chater on the basis of several Charter violations. The arresting officer failed to ensure the accused understood her rights after rattling them off as a “puzzling piece of legal jargon,” said the Ontario Court of Justice judge.

Chater had been taken into the station after a breath test during a traffic stop along the town’s main artery on the night of March 7, 2015.

A female sergeant ordered her to remove her bra and then put her top back on, said her lawyer Brian Ducharme. Chater was placed briefly in cells then turned her over to a male police officer for breath testing “without her intimate apparel,” Ducharme said.

Chatham-Kent deputy chief Jeff Littlewood said his officers routinely order women who are detained in a cell, even temporarily, to take off their bras.

“The bra is always removed if she is being lodged,” Littlewood told the Chatham Daily News, noting it could in theory be used for self-strangulation.

However, Scott Rome, head of the Ontario Provincial Police breath program, said bra removal is far from routine.

“I can’t think of anything that would (prompt it) . . . unless there were a risk to the officer’s safety or something like that.”

Criminal lawyer Leora Shemesh called the practice “invasive” and a violation of Charter protections against unreasonable search and seizure.

“I don’t understand it. It’s the dumbest thing ever,” she said. “At what point are we drawing the line? Tights are more dangerous as ligatures than a bra. Are we going to have everyone naked in a cell?”

Shemesh successfully appealed a similar case several years ago where police forced a woman charged with drunk driving to remove her bra before a breathalyzer.

Until three years ago, it was an “unwritten policy” in at least one York Regional Police district to order underwire bras removed to prevent self-harm, harm to an officer or scratching the cells, noted Ontario Superior Court judge Michelle Fuerst.

Strip searches — which bra removal amounts to — can be carried out by police on a case-by-case basis, Fuerst wrote. A “policy” applied “without exception,” however, equates to “routine strip searches of female detainees, in contravention of Section 8 of the Charter,” she stated in a 2013 decision.

Since then, York police have imposed “strict guidelines” about bra removal. Officers now must receive authorization from a supervisor before ordering removal of any clothing, said spokesperson Const. Andy Pattenden.

Accessories like belts or ties are often confiscated in detention for safety reasons, but “unless she’s got suicidal tendencies, we wouldn’t take off a bra,” said Toronto police spokesperson Const. Jenifferjit Sidhu.

Staff Sgt. Ian Borden at the OPP policy unit said bra removal is “not just something blanket; that’s a case-by-case sort of thing. You don’t automatically strip search everybody who goes into your cells.”

Women in minimum- or medium-security prisons are permitted no fewer than 10 underwire bars, a Corrections Canada spokesperson said.

The provincial transit agency is taking the rare step of initiating legal proceedings against the city, over a council vote that would allow townhomes to be built next to a south Etobicoke rail yard.

In a dispute that has implications for the mayor’s signature SmartTrack project, the Star has learned that Metrolinx delivered a notice of appeal to the city clerk Tuesday. It alerted the city that the agency is challenging council’s June 9 decision on the Mimico-Judson lands to the Ontario Municipal Board.

The notice asserts that council’s decision to redesignate a strip of land north of GO Transit’s Willowbrook rail yard as “mixed use” was made contrary to provincial and city planning policies, occurred without any public consultation, and “does not represent good land use planning.”

In voting 21 to 15 for the redesignation, a majority of councillors ignored the advice of city staff who had recommended retaining the property north of the rail yard as employment lands, which permit industrial, commercial and institutional use.

Metrolinx officials had also warned that allowing homes next to Willowbrook would limit the agency’s ability to expand activity at the rail yard to accommodate its regional express rail (RER) project.

Although Mayor John Tory’s SmartTrack plan is a part of RER, Tory voted in favour of the mixed-use designation.

Asked about the OMB appeal Friday, the mayor’s spokeswoman said in a written statement that “SmartTrack is moving forward, thanks in part to our strong working relationship with Metrolinx and the provincial government . . . These appeals are not unusual, and we will continue to work with Metrolinx as the OMB process unfolds.”

Councillor Gord Perks said that the mayor and his allies “made a terrible, terrible mistake. And now we’re going to have to waste public money fighting each other about it.”

Because city staff are already on record as opposing council’s decision, the city would have to hire outside planners to support its case at the OMB, which would increase legal costs, Perks said. He added that it’s possible Metrolinx could subpoena the city’s own planners to make the agency’s case.

“This is one of the dumbest planning decisions I’ve seen in my career,” he said.

In a Marchreport to the planning and growth management committee,staff said keeping the Judson lands’ employment designation was important to “protect and support existing operations and future expansion opportunities” at the rail yard.

But at a May meeting of the planning committee, Etobicoke-Lakeshore Councillor Justin Di Ciano moved a motion — which was approved the next month by council — to designate the lands for mixed use.

As first reported by CBC, a company named Dunpar Developments has applied to build 72 townhomes and lowrise commercial buildings at the site, which is not in Di Ciano’s ward.

Metrolinx’s notice of appeal charges that “no public consultation had taken place prior to this change” at committee, and because Di Ciano moved his motion from the floor it didn’t appear on a public agenda beforehand.

Di Ciano has ties to the developer through his twin brother, Julien Di Ciano, who lists Dunpar as a former employer.

In response to the questions about his motion and the OMB appeal, Councillor Di Ciano said Friday these are complex planning issues and he didn’t have time to adequately reply by the Star’s deadline. He previously told council that he has sought “expert legal advice” on this issue and that advice was “crystal clear” that he was not in a conflict of interest.

Councillor Mark Grimes, who is the local councillor for the area, told the Star that his constituents are bothered by a concrete plant that currently occupies the employment lands near the rail yard, and redesignating the area would allow for more suitable redevelopment.

“The community wants them out of there, this is light at the end of the tunnel. In my mind this is how we’re going to get them out of there,” he said.

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