Toronto Zoo’s Elephant Move is Hanging in Mid-air
The Toronto Zoo’s elephants may not be on the move after all. Members of the elephant sanctuary in California and Toronto Council, the body that okayed the move, will meet with the CEO of the Toronto Zoo on Thursday to examine the medical records of the elephants in either hands.
Animal activist and Happy Gilmore star Bob Barker offered to fund the $880, 000 plane ride flight for the elephants to the Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) facility in California, but is publically reconsidering his move this week as a result of persistent rumours, on both sides, about the insufficient care of these pachyderms.
Throughout the negotiating process, PAWS has allegedly refused to provide medical informaton for their facility, but Councillor Michelle Berardinetti, who spearheaded the Operation Dumbo Drop, told 680 News that the zoo has indeed received the required documentation from the sanctuary. Hopefully, this will help silence the rumours percolating online and in person about the standards of care at either facility, and the city’s three elephants will find a permanent home.
Conrad Black is Allowed Back in Canada
Image: Flickr
Media baron and convicted felon, Conrad Black, will be allowed back in Canada once released from U.S. prison on Friday. However, Black may have to wait years to regain his Canadian citizenship, which he legally renounced years ago.
Black, who was convicted of fraud and obstruction of justice in 2007, has spent more than three years in low-security, U.S. prisons. A past recipient of the Order of Canada, the highest civilian honour, immigration officials have guaranteed Black a one-year, temporary permit, allowing him back into Canuck borders.
The permit is only good until 2013, but in order to obtain it, Black would have needed to have been deemed a low-risk reoffender, and a non-threat to Canadians.
Genies and the Geminis Will Be Broadcast Together
The two Canadian awards shows that honour film and television, the Genies and the Geminis, will be combined into one superbroadcast (of Canuck proportions, of course) starting next year, in an announcement made late on Tuesday.
The Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television has decided to combine the two telecasts and awards organizations in an effort to boost interest from both the industry and the public. The Genie Awards struck controversy earlier this year, not for their content, but for co-host, and Canadian comedy legend, Andrea Martin’s last-minute (literally) withdrawl from her co-hosting gig due to “rescheduled work commitments.” Ouch. Well, what better way is there to increase the visibility of the award show(s) than to combine them together in a Golden Globes-esque fashion?
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Joanna Adams writes for Toronto Standard. Follow her on Twitter at†@nowstarringTO.
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