Today on NOW and NEXT:

Former TTC Chair, Toronto City Councillor and current SVP at EY in Toronto Josh Colle joins the show to talk about the need for quick fixes and quick wins for Mayor Olivia Chow. In the short term, the mayor needs to be seen to be making the city "better" for average Torontonians. At the same time, she has to forege her image as the city's champion.

Start by telling Queen's Park and Ottawa, the city will no longer pay for services the province and the feds should be covering. Toronto's going to save money by cutting the maintenance and plowing budget for the Don Valley Parkway and the Gardiner Expressway. The city's closing refugee shelters to save and stop adding space to the current shelter system. That would account for hundreds of millions of dollars.

Chow should also be calling out the 23 of Toronto's 25 federal MPs who are all sitting in the Liberal benches. And ALL 25 ran as Liberals in the last federal election!

And, by the way, the mayor should be holding Jagmeet Singh to account for his failure to bring political pressure to bear on the Trudeau minority to pay its share of the bills owing.

Today on NOW and NEXT:

Veteran journalist/columnist, host of The Daily Edition on Sirius XM radio and co-founder of The Line, Matt Gurney joins the show to give us a start-ups perspective on the mess that is Bill C-18, the Online News Act.

That's the mess of regulation passed by Canada's federal government requiring Google and Meta to pay for news links posted on their platforms.

Matt says the legislation will do little or nothing to support start-up news organizations like The Line. In fact, Bill C-18 means organiztions like The Line will lose the opportunity to promote its work and content if news disappears from Facebook and Google.

Check out Matt's latest column re: C-18 on The Line. https://open.substack.com/pub/theline/p/matt-gurney-australia-but-in-a-bad?utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

Today on NOW and NEXT:

Olivia Chow is officially Toronto’s 66th mayor. Now what? Where to begin?

The biggest challenge for the new mayor is political capital. Does she have what it will take to unite city council behind her agenda. Does she have what it will take to convince the province to strike a new deal with Toronto to ensure the city’s long term financial stability. And does she have what it will take to persuade the Trudeau government and its Toronto caucus of MPs to cut a cheque for refugee services rendered by the city?

My guess is, we’ll have a pretty good sense before the end of the calendar year whether Chow is a success or a one term mayor.

From the BBC this morning. They’re calling it the CERBERUS HEAT WAVE - named after the three headed monster in Dante’s Inferno! Temperatures spiking well above 40C across most of southern Europe and NW Africa. High’s in Italy today could surpass 48C!
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66183069

Today in the Globe and Mail, the Editorial Board makes a compelling argument for nuclear power to be part of a green future. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-nuclear-power-is-a-key-part-of-a-green-future/

A follow up on CBC reporting we told you about earlier this week https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/michael-rice-auditor-general-greenbelt-1.6904603 A second developer is asking the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to block a summons from Auditor General Bonnie Lysyk. This in connection with the AG's review of the process and timing around the Ford government's decision to lift building and development restrictions on some of the Greenbelt lands.

The Toronto Star continues its digging and reporting on the Ford government’s decision to reinstate the King’s Counsel designation for lawyers in Ontario. Today, the Star is reporting, none of the former Liberal or NDP AG’s was offered the KC designation. https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2023/07/13/no-thanks-ford-government-only-offered-kings-counsel-title-to-tory-ex-attorneys-general.html?rf

AND...
It’s FEED DROP Thursday on NOW and NEXT.
Today we feature another episode of the first show we produced for SSN - The NEXT NORMAL. This episode aired Aug 31, 2021 and we explore the changing nature of the American social contract; the decisions we entrust to our leaders. What does it mean to lead post-pandemic?

Today on NOW and NEXT

Did Australia's legislation aimed at saving that country's media and journalism from a slow painful demise really work? Did the "pay for links" law really force Google and Facebook to bend the knee?

NEWS FLASH!! No. No it didn't.

Yet, Canada's legacy media, (including the CBC), and the federal government see Bill C-18 as the only path to survival for the journalism ecosystem in this country. The federal law not only misunderstands the state of media in Canada, it thinks the CRTC, the broadcast and telecom regulator, should now decided which organizations meet its definition of journalism.

C-18 is a mess. It's going more to hurt and already damaged sector than to help it.

Scott White, CEO and Editor in Chief of The Conversation Canada and the former Editor in Chief at Canadian Press joins us to discuss the real challenges facing Canadian journalism. He says the heart of any short term fix or long term solution has to be a renewed and reinvigorated trust in media and journalism. He points to the latest Reuters Institute research that suggests trust in Canadian media has dropped from 55% in 2016 to 40% in 2023.
https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/digital-news-report/2023/canada

It's fair to say, the lack of transparency and misguided thinking behind C-18 does nothing to boost that trust, let alone boost the bottom line for the news organizations that need it most.

Today on NOW and NEXT:

We're joined by veteran award winning broadcast journalists Barb DiGiulio and Kym Geddes to talk about the news of the day:

Ontario developer asks court to prevent, delay interview with auditor general in Greenbelt audit.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/silvio-de-gasperis-auditor-general-greenbelt-1.6902145

Marco Mendicino, Canada’s Public Safety Minister continues to take heat and grief over Paul Bernardo's transfer from maximum to medium security.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/deputy-minister-had-no-reason-to-think-mendicino-unaware-of-bernardo-move-department-1.6473970

Sweden’s NATO membership took a big step forward on Monday.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-stoltenberg-says-turkey-agrees-to-send-swedens-nato-accession-protocol/

Self-checkout theft causing problems for retailers — and shoppers who despise receipt checks.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/self-checkout-theft-receipt-retailers-1.6899677

Threads has more than 100 million users since its launch. But, it’s a work in progress.
https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-66155433

AND at 47:07 Barb wants to know more about Dave's Now and Next FRIDAY THREAD and why he's not on the radio any more.

Today on NOW and NEXT:

The Weather Network reports: Canada’s Far North just saw its hottest temperature ever recorded
theweathernetwork.com/en/video/fVCijuox?playlist=oLRZ3mum

Shootings may be down in Toronto, year over year, but they're happening in neighbourhoods we typically think of as safe areas of town.
https://data.torontopolice.on.ca/pages/shootings

The latest crossfire murder of 44 year old Karolina Huebner-Makurat is reminiscent of the Boxing Day murder of Jane Creba in 2005. Creba's death caused an outcry that led to action. Where is it today?

From the ECONOMIST - Does the US need more unemployment to stabilize the economy? https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2023/07/09/does-america-need-more-unemployment

And Threads is the new shiny thing in social media…the new Meta platform…called the TWITTER Killer launched four days ago…and team Zuckerberg is already boasting tens of millions of users.

Ritesh Kotak, Lawyer and Cyber Security Strategist joins us with his analysis.

Today on NOW and NEXT:

We don't normally post on Fridays but, as of today, we ARE!

It will be our FRIDAY THREAD. (The first one is here: https://www.threads.net/t/CuZR2Ong9_l/?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ%3D%3D)

It's a short video to wrap the week and we'll post them in my Threads feed and on the Story Studio Network YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/@storystudionetwork/featured) The audio will land here.

Today on NOW and NEXT:

We continue to hit record high average temps globally this week. The warm Antarctic winter is a major contributor.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-the-earths-average-temperature-remained-at-a-record-high-wednesday/

The Economist has a fascinating in-depth story on the tech advancements in warfare. It doesn't make it any less bloody. There's been more Russian casualties since the war started 18 months ago in Ukraine than the Soviets suffered during the decade long war in Afghanistan.
https://www.economist.com/special-report/2023/07/03/the-war-in-ukraine-shows-how-technology-is-changing-the-battlefield

Retired Canadian Major General David Fraser says 2023 will be the bloodiest year yet in Ukraine.
https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/1-click-2-cyber-chaos/id1624498560?i=1000615989070

Rogers and Bell aren't all that thrilled with Larry Tannebaum's plan to sell off a portion of his shares in MLSE.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-rogers-block-mlse-sale-canadian-pension-fund/

We're all cheering for Sports Talk Radio legend Bob McCown to make a full recovery after he suffered two strokes a week or so ago.
https://torontosun.com/sports/sports-talk-legend-bob-mccown-says-hes-on-mend-after-two-strokes

And it FEED DROP Thursday on NOW and NEXT, so, we continue highlighting the first show we produced in Story Studio Network…the NEXT NORMAL…all about taking advantage of the opportunity to build back better in a post COVID WORLD. Today, the roundtable embrace the opportunities presented by Artificial Intelligence.

Today on NOW and NEXT:

News and views with Dave Trafford.

July 3rd was the hottest day on the planet since satellite records have been kept in 1979.

• https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-66104822

The TTC is the least reliable transit service in the GTA says the Toronto Region Board of Trade.

• https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/toronto/article-toronto-had-least-reliable-transit-service-in-region-in-2022-report/

MLSE fights City Hall over its property tax bill

• https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-property-tax-owing-mlse-1.6896953

Hockey Canada has a new president and CEO.

• https://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/article-hockey-canada-announces-katherine-henderson-as-new-president-and-ceo/

Queen's Park restores the King's Council (formerly the Queen's Coucil) for lawyers. Most of the new KCs are Tories including Carolyn Mulroney, (who's never practiced law in Ontario).

• https://www.thestar.com/politics/provincial/2023/07/04/her-fake-honour-caroline-mulroney-was-called-to-ontario-bar-three-days-before-getting-kings-counsel-title.html

Netherlands: Phone ban announced to stop school disruptions! (Why you need to read beyond the headline!)

• https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-66107027

AND Toronto Lawyer Courtney Betty, CEO of Bettys Law offers his analysis on two controversial rulings by the Supreme Court of the United States.

Today on NOW and NEXT:

We're trying something in response to all of the caterwauling over Bill C-18 and chorus of concerns over how we'll ever find Canadian news.

Do the way I've done it. Go to the source and pay for it when required. No Google search was done in the production of this episode!

Today's stories came from:

Environment Canada

CBC.ca

The Globe and Mail (paid subscription)

The BBC

The Toronto Star (paid subscription)

And The Queen's Park Observer (paid subscription)