A new graphic novel about being a client of the world's oldest profession, supported by a $16,000 grant from the Canada Council for the Arts, will be published next month.

Yet, those who take issue with a government agency helping to pay for "Paying For It" needn't argue with the author.

Chester Brown will appear on a second consecutive federal election ballot as a Toronto candidate for the Libertarian party, which would rather all Canadian artists fend for themselves.

Nonetheless, the acclaim for Brown's "Louis Riel: A Comic Strip Biography," published in 2003, helped make the case for the kind of creativity that arguably wouldn't reach a wider audience without the Canada Council.

When the cartoonist appeared on the ballot in the Trinity-Spadina riding held by the NDP's Olivia Chow in the 2008 federal election, he acknowledged the hypocrisy.

Still, the bid made Brown the best-known fringe candidate in Canada with autobiographical illustrated accounts of his campaign experience

Read More »from Federal election candidate publishes comic book memoir about prostitutes

Toronto used to hold two world records: one for the tallest free-standing structure and another for the world's longest road, Yonge Street.

The CN Tower is no longer the tallest structure, but it has retained the title of tallest tower.

As for the longest road, all that changed in 1999 when the Guinness Book of Records dropped Yonge Street from its list.

Despite that decision, the record-holding myth continues. If you search 'world's longest street' on the Internet most results show 'Yonge Street'.

No one disputes the start of the street at Queen's Quay in downtown Toronto on the waterfront. There's lettering in the sidewalk stating, "This is the start of Yonge Street." It couldn't be clearer.

It's the end of the street which stirs debate. The claim is the street stretches 1, 896 kilometres from Toronto to Rainy River, near the Minnesota and Ontario border. (A tourism website for the area is among the sites that continue to claim the world's longest street title.)

But by the time

Read More »from The ‘myth’ of Yonge Street being the world’s longest road lives on

The U.S. could be set to open its first oilsands project after an Alberta-based company qualified for a permit to dig on 25 hectares (62-acres) in Utah.

Earth Energy Resources Inc. is hoping  to dig in the uncharted U.S. to find oil, much to the chagrin of President Barack Obama, who recently condemned Alberta's "tar sands" for being potentially "destructive."

Along with mountaintop removal mining, oilsands projects are considered by many to be one of the most environmentally destructive practices on the planet.

Fuels produced from such projects carry an emissions footprint three times as high as gasoline produced from standard oil wells. It takes more energy to withdraw usable oil from the sands.

Furthermore, the mining process requires boundless amounts of water while damaging very large landscapes, leaving behind colossal lakes of dirt and waste.

Earth Energy claims its mining process will not harm the environment, thanks to the use of a "citrus-based solvent," according to a

Read More »from Canadian company could open first U.S. oilsands project in Utah

Jane Jacobs, the late author of "The Death and Life of Great American Cities," will be honoured Friday with a plaque dedication outside her childhood home in the northeastern Pennsylvania town of Dunmore, where she was born in 1916.

When it came down to putting what she preached into everyday practice, though, Jacobs eventually dedicated herself to Canada.

Jane's Walk, an annual series of guided strolls through Toronto neighbourhoods named after Jacobs, will commemorate its fifth year in Toronto on May 7 and 8.

The event was timed to coincide with May 4 birthday of the urban planning icon and activist, who moved north from New York City in 1968 to protect two teenage sons from being drafted to fight in the Vietnam War she and her husband opposed.

Jacobs settled in the Annex neighbourhood, near the University of Toronto, until her death in 2006.

Now, at least 44 Canadian cities hope to host volunteer-led opportunities to ponder the relationship between public spaces and people, along

Read More »from Jane’s Walk to celebrate the death, life and history of great Canadian cities

If you believe you work harder than many of your international counterparts, you would be mostly right, unless your counterparts live in Mexico.

Canadians work the fourth-longest hours out of the 29 countries surveyed, according to a study released by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

OECD's "Society at a Glance" shows when unpaid and paid work is combined, Mexicans top the list by devoting 10 hours a day to work. Belgians work the least, at only seven hours a day. Canadians work about eight hours and 20 minutes per day, which is about 20 minutes above the OECD average.

When dividing paid and unpaid work, the study shows Canadians work the fifth-most paid hours per day at just over five. People in Japan work the most paid hours per day at about six.

Most unpaid includes household chores such as cooking, cleaning, caretaking and shopping. Mexicans do the most unpaid work as well at more than three hours per day. Koreans do the least, working only one

Read More »from Canada near top of OECD list for hardest-working nations

Slasher flicks aren't getting much respect from Canadian theatre chain Magic Lantern Cinemas, based on its decision not to screen three movies in Saskatoon, based on titles and posters alone.

"Dead Hooker in a Trunk," a satirical low-budget grindhouse film directed by identical Vancouver twins Jen and Sylvia Soska, had its April 22 screening, sponsored by the Dark Bridges Film Festival, cancelled by the Roxy Theatre.

An anonymous complaint cited the recent spate of missing aboriginal prostitutes in Western Canada.

The filmmakers pointed out in a Facebook note the message behind their bloody movie was misinterpreted, as the dead hooker in the title is actually treated with respect, contrary to stereotype.

Concern was also raised over the other half of that evening's double feature, "The Taint."

Posters for the American film about tainted water that turns men into misogynist monsters, were also ripped down at the Roxy.

"Simply focusing on the fact that the poster contains the words 'Kill

Read More »from Horror movie ‘Dead Hooker in a Trunk’ forced off a screen in Saskatoon

Welcome to Morning Brew, our daily roundup of early-bird news:

• Eight out of ten registrants to Canada's National Do Not Call List have reported fewer unwanted telemarketing calls, according to a survey commissioned by the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association, since polls are exempt from the list. (Marketwire)

• Calgary's emergency call centre has launched a public awareness campaign due to the fact that its 911 line has received as many as 300 daily accidental dials, mostly from cellphones, a problem which was estimated to cost $1 million a year. (Calgary Herald)

• Jason Eisener, the director of the made-in-Halifax grindhouse movie "Hobo With a Shotgun," has the most popular Canadian movie this spring, but has posted a personal plea to those pirating his efforts online: "Please don't steal my movie." (The Coast)

Read More »from MORNING BREW: Do Not Call List success measured; 911 is not a joke in Calgary

Sam the Record Man once boasted locations across Canada, all of which basked in the neon glory of its flagship store at 347 Yonge St., where one three-storey-high flashing record later became two.

Now, as the sign sits in an unidentified warehouse in the Toronto area, nostalgia for what the discs represented is actually on the rise.

Record Store Day, the fourth annual promotional event slated for Saturday at independent retailers across the continent, has helped stoke a vinyl revival through the sale of limited-edition pressings.

Concern over the fate of the landmark Sam's sign was raised when the downtown Toronto location, the first and last one owned by Sam Sniderman, closed in 2007. The space was subsequently sold to neighbouring Ryerson University.

A public outcry to "Save the Sam's Sign!!!," per the name of a Facebook group, gained momentum after it was discovered "outdoor neon records" were among the assets slated for auction.

But heritage preservationists got Toronto City

Read More »from Destiny is still uncertain for Toronto’s Sam the Record Man’s neon sign