By John Lorinc
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Why We Can’t Go: A Report on Toronto’s Public Washrooms, pt. 1
Because this is Toronto, and because it’s important for officialdom to do certain things backwards, we’re going to spend this week — the days...
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LORINC: Highway 413 and Doug Ford’s tactical whataboutism
Going in to this election, did anyone really expect that it would come to focus so intensively on that great big ribbon of blacktop planned and now known...
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LORINC: The back-channel lobbying of residents’ associations
Should residents’ associations be required to register as lobbyists? This loaded question, as it turns out, was canvassed, sort of, by council about...
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LORINC: Doug Ford’s electrification plan is actually a gas-powered climate nightmare
It being election season (and Earth Day), the Ontario government news releases are arriving a dime a dozen right now, and many seem to feature the...
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LORINC: The horrible lies of Pierre Poilievre’s real estate lessons
Why do we have a housing crisis? Let me count the ways: Low interest rates, restrictive zoning, permissive zoning, contractor shortages, building material...
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LORINC: Unspooling the rhetoric about ‘red tape’ and urban planning
There are few things more certain about political rhetoric than the appearance of conservative shibboleths about “red tape” come election...
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LORINC: Holding an easily re-electable Mayor John Tory accountable
Elections matter, as the old rule of thumb goes, but maybe some matter less than others? It certainly seems, at this point, that Toronto’s 2022...
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LORINC: NIMBYs vs Garden Suites, Season 2
Here’s an odd little mystery about a freshly filed appeal by a residents association coalition of council’s new “garden suites”...
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LORINC: Trying to police the way cops use AI-based investigation tools
Late last month, the Toronto Police Services Board released a new policy meant to guide the agency’s future procurement and use of artificial...
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LORINC: In praise of low-tech crowd control to thwart the trucker convoy
Like many angry and aghast Canadians, I felt deep satisfaction this past weekend watching the images of ordinary Ottawa residents blocking the route of a...
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LORINC: Debunking the misinformation about garden suites
While most people were riveted last weekend by the wretched spectacle of extremist-palooza in Ottawa, the busy beavers of the tiny world of ratepayer...
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LORINC: The paradox of the City’s new sidewalk snow removal program
A question for the immediate aftermath of the heaviest snowstorm in ten years: Following years of resident complaints and half-hearted lobbying from...