TORONTO – Renzo Piano’s scarab-shaped music halls in Rome recently hosted the photocall for Director Alessandro Tonda’s new film Il Nibbio. The film stars Claudio Santamaria as the heroic secret service agent who died while saving journalist Giuliana Sgrena – kidnapped in 2005 by Iraqi terrorists in Baghdad. Rounding out the principal cast are Sonia Bergamesco (as Giuliana Sgrena) and Anna Ferzetti (as Rosa Calipari), who were also on site for the event at the Parco della Musica.
TORONTO – A number of goods have been exempted from the federal sales tax from December 14 to February 15, promoted by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. An initiative that, now, could have consequences on prices and inflation. According to some economists interviewed by Reuters, in fact, that the annual rate of purchases will rise to 2.2% (in February, the figure for which will be released tomorrow by Statistics Canada), compared to 1.9 percent in January. →
We publish an article by Paul Deegan, President and Chief Executive Officer of News Media Canada (the pic above is by Andrys Stienstra from Pixabay).
TORONTO – For many Canadian community news publishers, Canada Post is really the only game in town when it comes to distributing their newspapers to readers. This is especially true in more rural and remote communities. A year ago, Canada Post decided that community newspapers with commercial inserts – like Canadian Tire or grocery store flyers – were no longer exempt from Canada Post’s Consumers’ Choice program, which allows Canadians to opt out of receiving ‘junk mail’.
TORONTO – Toronto filmgoers were treated to a Marco Bellocchio retrospective at TIFF Lightbox recently, an event that celebrated the Italian filmmaking legend’s decades-long career – which started in the 1960s. Present for the opening screening, the political thriller Fists in the Pocket, was his son [and actor] Pier Giorgio who subbed in as the guest of honour. Pier Giorgio described his father’s relentless drive to tell stories, despite being well into his 80s. And on that night audiences were tipped off about Marco’s latest TV Series, for which he was preparing to shoot.
TORONTO – Another poll confirms a new trend seen in recent weeks: the Liberals are closing in on the Conservatives and are now one step away from overtaking them. The poll, conducted by Nanos by telephone on March 7 on a random sample of 1,052 Canadian adults and released today, finds that the Conservatives are at 35.7%, while the Liberals have risen to 34.7% support while the NDP is stuck at 14.9%; the BQ is at 7.9%, the Greens at 3.8% and the People’s Party at 2.1%. →
