LOCAL
Toronto’s Board of Health is being asked to consider supporting new restrictions on smoking in front of all public buildings, at beaches, sports fields, and public squares. The report also asks the board to endorse future efforts to restrict smoking in bar and restaurant patios. [Globe and Mail]
The wife of an Iranian-Canadian who was on death row in Iran says her husband has been released. Hamid Ghassemi-Shall has been in an Iranian prison since 2008, when he was charged with espionage. [CBC]
Toronto police are going after illegal after-hours bars in Chinatown with a new, little known tool. Instead of targetting them directly, this summer they’ve been approaching the landlords first with the Civil Remedies Act, which allows them to seize the property if the landlord knows something illegal is going on but doesn’t report it. [CBC]
NATIONAL
Blackberry has entered a tentative agreement to a consortium of investors led by Fairfax Financial Ltd., a move that would see the once mighty smartphone company taken private. The deal is far from finished, as either party can back out by the November 4 deadline. [National Post]
The arrest warrant is out for the co-owner of a Vancouver restaurant who allegedly installed a miniature hidden camera around the toilet of his co-ed washroom. The charge is unproven, but carries a prison sentence of up to 5-years. [National Post]
An Alberta man who became a YouTube sensation after drunkenly singing all of Bohemian Rhapsody from the back of a police car is running for the mayor of Edson, a town west of Edmonton. Robert Wilkinson was charged with impaired driving last November, fined $1,400, and prohibited from driving for one year. [National Post]
INTERNATIONAL
Stephen Fry will join 40 free speech groups and other high-profile authors and artists to demand an end to the mass surveilance revealed by the whistleblower Edward Snowden. They will urge European leaders to take a stand against industrial-scale spying done by British and US intelligence agencies. [Guardian]
An Egyptian court has banned the Muslim Brotherhood and confiscated its finances. This is a major escalation of a crackdown by the military-backed government, banning “any institution branching out of it or…receiving financial support for it.” [Globe and Mail]
The New York Times wrote a strongly-worded editorial denouncing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper for allegedly silencing publicly funded scientists to ensure oil sands productions proceeds smoothly. Scientists have been denied permission to speak to the media about studies about the Arctic ozone loss and prehistoric floods. [National Post]
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