Author | Lightnews

Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · 1h

At a press conference this afternoon, Attorney General Doug Downey said they want to move away from requiring "evergreen leases, that just go on with no end in sight":

Reporter: With respect to what we were told this morning about the government consulting on “alternative options” essentially that could allow landlords to end leases — I think this is a question best for the Attorney General? Just wondering what you are looking at there.

Attorney General Doug Downey: Well, we've heard from stakeholders that these evergreen leases, that just go on with no end in sight, may not be the appropriate — other jurisdictions, when we did a scan across the country, do different things. But we weren't confident that we had the answer, and we only want to move with confidence. So we're going to go back out and talk to landlords and tenants and organizations and see if there's a better way for the people of Ontario to unlock that housing that isn't happening now.

Reporter: But that's housing that people are in. They're tenants, right? It's hard to see a world in which, if you're giving landlords more power to end leases, that they're not gonna want to get in a tenant that will pay more. So is this not inevitably gonna end up with higher rents, more people getting kicked out of their rentals?

Downey: We're gonna consult widely on it. What we do know is there are a lot of landlords that are not putting their units on the market. We need to get those units. I'm convinced if we get the right balance, we'll unlock tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of new units, and those will be places that people that currently don't have a place to be will be able to rent.

Reporter: So, sorry, you're saying that if landlords, there are some landlords that if there are more flexible types of agreements that they would be willing to rent currently unrented spaces?

Downey: I’ve been told that repeatedly, for years, that some landlords are not entering the market because they don't have confidence in it.

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · 2h

Oh shoot, I hadn't even gotten to the part of this *same bill* that would ban cities from "reducing the number of motor vehicle lanes when installing new bicycle lanes." bsky.app/profile/camb...

Cambry Ardship @cambryardship.bsky.social · 3h

Some bad bike news stuff in that too (on page 18)

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · 3h

That was my initial reading, but I suspect it might be more creatively devious, in that they want landlords to have the option to offer fixed-term leases up front (which would pretty quickly become the standard for any new tenancy).

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · 4h

In particular, they want leases to no longer necessarily remain in effect indefinitely, so that landlords have more options for creating tenant turnover.

Current situation in left-hand column, proposal on the right:

Left column:

Under the RTA, all tenants have "security of tenure", which means
that tenants have a right to remain in their rental unit as long as they
follow the lease agreement and the RTA. Landlords cannot evict
tenants without a legally valid reason, and after a fixed-term lease
ends, the tenancy typically continues on a month-to-month basis.

Right column:

The government would consult on alternative options on lease agreement expiry that could allow landlords to control who occupies their units and for how long, allowing them to adjust tenancy arrangements based on market conditions, personal needs, or business strategies. This could add flexibility for some landlords in the approach to leases, potentially unlocking additional rental unit stock.

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · 4h

The Ford government has announced plans to shred a bunch of tenant protections: news.ontario.ca/assets/files... (pdf, see p. 13-15)

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · 2d

Like the end of Roger Ebert's review of Last Night:

Note: On a talk show in Toronto, I was asked to define the difference between American and Canadian films, and said I could not. Another guest was Wayne Clarkson, the former director of the Toronto Film Festival. He said he could, and cited this film. “Sandra Oh goes into a grocery story to find a bottle of wine for dinner,” he said.

“The store has been looted, but she finds two bottles still on the shelf. She takes them down, evaluates them, chooses one, and puts the other one politely back on the shelf. That’s how you know it’s a Canadian film.”

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · 21d

Wasn't his own daughter a member of the company as recently as last year? I guess he figures she's not coming back?

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · 23d

The lower third reads as though written by an innumerate Mario:

A photo of a TV showing CBC News Network. A reporter, perhaps in Washington somewhere, is looking seriously at the camera. The lower third reads:

U.S. president Trump: Administration will cut drug prices by a 100% or more

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · 29d

(It's arguably more cautious than the position taken by the government, which, for example, is now offering travel advice for "Israel and Palestine" instead of for "Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip" travel.gc.ca/destinations...)

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · Sep 23

I would describe the divergence from the previous guidance as: subtle.

Palestine, Palestinian — Acceptable in reference to the Palestinian Authority, as well as activities involving international organizations to which Palestine has been admitted. Otherwise, prefer specific reference to the West Bank and Gaza or the Palestinian territories.

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · Sep 23

In light of Canada's recognition, The Canadian Press has revised its guidance on the use of "Palestine":

Palestine—Canada has joined more than 145 other countries that recognize Palestine as a state. However it is not a fully independent, unified state. At the United Nations, Palestine is a “non-member observer state," giving it the right to participate in debates but not to vote. Palestine and the Palestinian state are acceptable for use in the context of the discussion around international recognition, as well as activities involving international organizations to which Palestine has been admitted, such as the Olympics. Otherwise, refer specifically to the West Bank and Gaza, or the Palestinian territories to include both.

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · Sep 15

Wait, is this the first PTA film since There Will Be Blood to *not* get a 70mm engagement within the borders of the City of Toronto?

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · Sep 15

Correction: Marshall has in fact held tenure at U of T since July 2013.

(h/t to @fleischmarket.bsky.social for bringing to my attention the fact that associate professors are generally tenured.)

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · Sep 12

Look, it was a wild thing for a (non-tenured) professor to tweet, regardless of the context. But context does matter!

Like, this headline is almost certainly just wrong:

An excerpt from today's Toronto Sun front page. One headline reads: "PLUS: Prof who said ‘shooting is too good’ for Kirk put on leave by U of T – WARMINGTON, PAGE 4"

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · Sep 12

There's been a predictably vicious right-wing backlash to a U of T professor's tweet about Charlie Kirk — except evidence suggests she wasn't talking about Kirk at all: pressprogress.ca/university-o...

University of Toronto building shut down, police investigating threat, amid backlash to professor’s X post

While Ruth Marshall's comments were widely characterized as having concerned Charlie Kirk, evidence suggests a different context

pressprogress.ca

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Reposted by Jonathan Goldsbie

Pat Mullen @patmullen.bsky.social · Sep 10

During the post-screening Q&A at The Road Between Us, the crowd drowned out moderator Lisa Laflamme with boos when she mentioned 64,000 Palestinian deaths. Avrich says it's not a political film, but that response says all you need. #tiff50

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Reposted by Jonathan Goldsbie

Eric Wickham @ericwickham.ca · Sep 10

I don't know exactly what is happening here, and maybe the site is experiencing a really unfortunate error, but this subheading could use some revision.

NBC NEWS - 20 minutes ago — Kirk, the right-wing activist and founder of Turning Point USA, was giving a presentation at Utah Valley University. Something went wrong!

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · Sep 10

The hearing on the injunction request is set for courtroom 7-5 at 330 University Avenue at 10:00 tomorrow morning, and I suspect it will be more compelling than anything playing at the festival in the same time slot.

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Reposted by Jonathan Goldsbie

Vulture @vulture.com · Sep 10

Linda Schuyler, the co-creator of ‘Degrassi,’ is suing to stop the TIFF world premiere of the documentary ‘Degrassi: Whatever It Takes.’ She has denied allegations in the film about child actors not being paid fairly.

Degrassi’s Co-Creator Doesn’t Want Us to See the Degrassi Documentary

Linda Schuyler, the co-creator of ‘Degrassi,’ is suing to stop the TIFF world premiere of the documentary ‘Degrassi: Whatever It Takes.’ She has denied allegations in the film about child actors not being paid fairly.

www.vulture.com

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Reposted by Jonathan Goldsbie

Julian Carrington @jvcarrington.bsky.social · Sep 10

I have to say, I was not expecting a relatively candid admission that the film “just didn’t make the cut” in the first instance and that
Avrich was able to demand a second look, explicitly resulting in the CEO overriding the programming staff.

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · Sep 10

I'm guessing that "I think there’s real merit in the story being seen" is how TIFF rationalizes many of its more dubious film selections. (It's notable that blurbs for films in the Galas lineup never include a programmer's name.)

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · Sep 10

Cameron Bailey is finally asked whether the Barry Avrich doc got into the festival on its merits or because of Avrich's connections, and his answer amounts to "Ehhh…" www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/ti...

TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey says reversals around Oct. 7 documentary ‘caused a lot of pain’

Barry Avrich’s film The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue will premiere Wednesday at the Toronto festival

www.theglobeandmail.com

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · Sep 10

Who's the "journalist" Bailey alludes to whom the filmmakers have invited to moderate the Q&A? (And since when do filmmakers get to pick who moderates the Q&A?)

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · Sep 8

(Confoundingly, Shore isn't mentioned in the movie, either.)

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Jonathan Goldsbie @goldsbie.bsky.social · Sep 7

Counterintuitively, the report was actually Ottawa-centric.

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