Jean Chretien Beer? How Canadian.
Image: dominicphilibert.blogspot.comFormer Prime Minister Jean Chretien’s infamous “Shawinigan Handshake” has been forever immortalized in Canadian culture, on the side of a beer bottle. The famed moment took place back in 1996, during a protest in Hull, Que., when Chretien firmly placed his hands around a protester’s neck and mouth.
Relive the greatness here:
A small microbrewery of Shawinigan, Que., Chretien’s hometown and former political riding, bottled the beer at the request of the former leader. How cheeky, indeed. Yet, protester Bill Clennett, who was on the receiving end of the notorious chokehold, is not laughing. Clennett still stands his ground in anti-poverty demonstrations across the country.
Sentiments aside, I imagine plenty of Montreal student protesters are heading to Shawinigan to pour themselves a nice bottle of Chretien, served with a double dose of hipster-based irony.
Great News for Toronto Condos! The Market is Still Thriving, With Best-in-North-America Growth
Strike while the market’s hot! Toronto’s condominium construction is showing no signs of slowing down.
Figures for March 2012 show 148 high-rises and condos are under construction in the city, up 29 per cent from the same time last year. This data, compiled by Hamburg-based Emporis, puts Toronto above any other city in North America for real estate market growth and development, begging the question; how much condo is too much condo?
With numbers in place for another record-breaking year, and more Torontonians going high-rise, this condo bubble is staying out of trouble, for now.
Mel Gibson Fights with Director, Supposedly Hates Jews… Again
I wonder what The Beaver has to say about this.
Oy, Mel Gibson. The Wrap released a letter from screenwriter-director Joe Eszterhas, accusing Gibson of sabotaging a film about the Maccabees, Chanukah’s heroes, for anti-Semitic reasons.
Warner Bros. Studios cancelled production on The Maccabees on Wednesday, which Gibson was, ironically, attached to direct, due to Eszterhas’ supposedly poor screenplay. Eszterhas fired back with a nine-page letter to Gibson, which explicitly says he “hates Jews.”
The letter cited multiple instances where Gibson used terms like “oven-dodgers,” “hebes,” and “Jew-boys,” to describe the Jewish people, in addition to the multitude of death threats launched at ex-girlfriend Oksana Gregorieva, while on-set. Yikes. Eszterhas also alleged that Gibson said, “most ‘gatekeepers’ of American companies were ‘Hebes’ who ‘controlled their bosses.'”
The Maccabees was slated to be Gibson’s big comeback movie following a series of scandals since his 2006 arrest for public intoxication. His last film, Get the Gringo, went direct-to-DVD.
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Joanna Adams writes for Toronto Standard. Follow her on Twitter at†@nowstarringTO.
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