City in Brief
by Cynthia Dupuis
→ What the fukyu doing?
A Montreal sushi restaurant has been getting a lot of attention this past week after business owners of the Côte-des-Neiges neighborhood filed complaints. The Superior Court of Quebec ruled that the sushi bar named Fukyu had to change its name because it was considered “inappropriate” in the “Montreal context.” The restaurant’s name stands for a kata, a choreographed patterns of movements in Japanese martial arts. Before the opening next week, the owners changed the name to Kabuki, a form of Japanese theatre.
→ Laurence goes Hollywood
Quebec filmmaker Xavier Dolan’s latest film Laurence Anyways won the award for best Canadian film at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday. The award also comes with a $30,000 cash prize. The last two Quebec films to win this award at TIFF – Philippe Falardeau’s Monsieur Lazhar in 2010 and Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies in 2011 – went on to be nominated at the Oscars in the best foreign language film category. Dolan’s film tells the story of a transgendered male who has a relationship after getting a sex change.
→ Luka’s return don’t come cheap
The return of Luka Rocco Magnotta to Canada from Germany cost the Canadian taxpayers $375,000. The Canadian Press obtained federal documents that detail the cost of Magnotta’s return to the country includes the flight aboard a government plane, catering services and hotel stay for the authorities that accompanied him. The flight from an Albert military base was by far the largest expense, taking 23.9 hours and costing an estimated $15,505 per hour. The hotel stay for one night for the eight crewmembers in Berlin cost $1,300.
→ Maybe a black eye will help that poker face
Later this week, poker champion Jonathan Duhamel’s ex-girlfriend Bianca Rojas-Latraverse is expected to plead guilty at the Longueuil courthouse to charges of armed robbery, breaking and entering, forced confinement, assault and conspiracy in connection with the home invasion. Duhamel was beaten and robbed at his Boucherville condo on Dec. 21, 2011. Two men posing as delivery men made off with $40,000 Canadian, $74, 000 in euros, a Rolex watch and an expensive bracelet.
Nation in Brief
by Cynthia Dupuis
→ Different parties, different watering holes
The Parliament reopened yesterday in Ottawa, reviving the Capital’s bar scene with the return of its most reliable customers: the parliamentarians. Gary Thompson, co-owner of the Métropolitain Brasserie – the hotspot for Conservative MPs – explains, “The federal government’s the biggest employer in the city.” While the Conservative MPs drink on Sussex Dr., the Liberal MPs can be found at D’Arcy McGee’s on Sparks St. There are conveniently at least 40 bars, pubs, taverns and clubs within walking distance of Parliament Hill. For their owners, this is the kind of crowds they want.
→ Pricey prisoners
Postmedia News obtained more than 1,000 pages of documents detailing the personal items purchased by Canadian inmates residing in maximum-security institutions across the country. Ranging from Twilight books to Jennifer Love Hewitt’s self-help book The Day I Shot Cupid or even Dove for Men and Axe brand body wash, the purchases are paid by the inmates’ money in their personal accounts. It is however corrections workers that make many shopping trips on behalf of the inmates, something that Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is trying to streamline and standardize in order to save taxpayers $1.048-million a year.
→One is not the loneliest number
Statistics Canada is expected to release its 2011 census results Wednesday. Demographers across the country will watch with interest if a worldwide phenomenon has continued to spread in Canada: the one-person household. Never at any point in history have more people lived alone than they are today. In its 2006 census, Statistics Canada one-person households accounted for 27 per cent of the surveyed households, the fastest growing type of household since 2001. Experts point to the aging population, the delaying of marriage, divorce or simply the desire to live alone as the driving forces behind this constant increase.
→ A penny for your albums?
Dave Gunning, a musician from Nova Scotia, was told two weeks ago that he would have to pay a fee for copyright infringement to the Royal Canadian Mint. The artist’s new album No More Pennies is a tribute to the penny and it namely depicts the penny as a sun fading on the horizon on its cover. At first, the mint decided to cancel the fees on the first 2,000 records sold, but insisted for a charge of 60 cents for the last 2,000 records produced, which will amount to a total of $1,200. On Thursday, the mint has finally agreed to allow the artist to use the image of the penny on subsequent reprints at no cost.
World in Brief
by A.J. Cordeiro
→ We’re in the money
Ben Bernanke, head of the U.S. Federal Reserve, announced new, strong measures to help bolster the U.S. economy. Known as Quantitative Easing 3 in financial circles, the measures will include buying mortgage-backed securities and a bond-buying program. The announcement led to widespread rising of stocks, currencies and commodities, across numerous sectors and markets. However, Bernanke faced heavy criticism for it’s timing with the U.S. elections, and for the failure of previous economic assistance efforts.
→ No school blues
More than 25,000 teachers have gone on strike in the Windy City. Contract negotiations with the city’s mayor Rahm Emanuel broke off, resulting in more than 300,000 students having no school. One of the key demands in contention has been the city’s demand to judge training performance by teachers by student achievement, as opposed to tenure. A tentative agreement was reached, but fell through, leading the city’s mayor to seek legal action to force teacher’s back to work.
→Happy birthday Occupy
A little more than a year ago, the 99% movement, also known as Occupy Wall Street, began their protest of financial and social inequality. Beginning in Zuccotti Park in New York City, the movement spread around the world, including Montreal’s own iteration in Victoria Square, where at its peak had more than 168 tents. On the one-year anniversary, more than 100 protesters were arrested by NYPD, following a protest in Manhattan’s Wall Street borough. However, the numbers were significantly lower than the previous year’s event.
→Cinema Ninjas
Fed up of that person that keeps checking their phone or talking through a movie? Well at Prince Charles Cinema in London, England, they have the solution. Volunteers wear, dark black clothing, and wait in the far corners of the theatre. When a disturbance occurs, they jump and warn the offender. The ninjas are awarded with free tickets to the cinema. While extremely effective in their duties, the ninjas can be easily defeated by turning off your phone.
