Month: June 2020

Alors que Dominic Cooper (“Captain America”) pourrait prêter ses traits à John Gotti Jr., dans le film que prépare Barry Levinson, Joe Pesci va poursuivre en justice les producteurs, qui lui auraient promis un autre rôle que le sien, et un salaire plus élevé.

Mise à jour (3/8/2011) : ce n’est finalement pas Dominic Cooper mais Ben Foster qui incarnera John Gotti Jr., fils du célèbre gangster qui aura les traits de John Travolta dans le film de Barry Levinson. Les deux hommes s’étaient déjà donnés la réplique dans The Punisher, en 2004, mais reste à espérer que cette deuxième collaboration soit plus concluante…

Après une mise en chantier un peu chaotique, avec notamment le remplaçement de Nick Cassavetes par Barry Levinson, Gotti : In the Shadow of My Father semblait être sur de bons rails, avec un casting impressionnant, au sein duquel on retrouve John Travolta, Al Pacino et Joe Pesci. Mais ce dernier pourrait donner un peu plus de fil à retordre aux producteurs, qu’il compte poursuivre en justice. A en croire l’acteur, ceux-ci lui auraient en effet promis le rôle du bras droit de Gotti, assorti d’un salaire de 3 millions de dollars. L’interprète oscarisé des Affranchis aurait alors pris pas loin de 15 kilos pour le personnage, avant de s’en voir offrir un autre, moins important, et 1 “petit” million de dollars en guise de paye, ce qui, tout de suite, lui convenait beaucoup moins. Il y a donc fort à parier que Joe Pesci ne sera pas de l’aventure Gotti lorsque le tournage débutera, au mois de janvier, à l’inverse de Dominic Cooper, qui pourrait prêter ses traits au fils du gangster. Après avoir été celui de Saddam Hussein dans The Devil’s Double, le comédien pourrait donc commencer à se spécialiser dans l’interprétation des enfants de personnages célèbres.

Maximilien Pierrette avec The International Business Times et Showbiz 411

Click Here: Cheap France Rugby Jersey

GATINEAU, Que. — The Tim Hortons mobile ordering app is being investigated by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and provincial agencies in Quebec, B.C. and Alberta.

The joint investigation was prompted by concerns raised in media reports about how the app may be collecting and using data about people’s movements as they go about their daily activities.

It will examine whether the fast food restaurant chain owned by Restaurant Brands International Inc. is in compliance with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, Canada’s federal private sector privacy law.

The privacy agencies will look at whether the organization is obtaining meaningful consent from app users to collect and use their location data, information that can reveal habits and activities of individuals, including places they regularly frequent.

Click Here: Fjallraven Kanken Art Spring Landscape Backpacks

The federal Privacy Commissioner’s office says it considers this to be an issue of great importance to Canadians given the very sensitive privacy issues it raises.

RELATED

• Is Giving Masks Away At Fast Food Drive-Thrus Actually Going To Work?
• Shawn Mendes, Camila Cabello Thank Canadian Hospital Workers With Tim Hortons
• Tim Hortons Pulls Back Roll Up The Rim Cups Amid Coronavirus

Tim Hortons said it is confident about resolving the matter and will fully co-operate with privacy regulatory authorities.

“Since Tim Hortons launched our mobile app, our guests always had the choice of whether they share location data with us, including ‘always’ sharing location data — an option offered by many companies on their own apps,” it wrote in an email.

The chain said it recently updated the app to limit collection of location data to only while guests have it open, even if the customers has selected ‘always’ in their device settings.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 29, 2020.

For the past few years, you could hear the crickets chirp in the housing market in York Region, north of Toronto. Prices had come down after the province introduced a foreign buyers’ tax, and this time last year, the area was a “buyer’s market,” with relatively few sales.

Today, amid a pandemic and a major economic slowdown, home sales there are almost back to pre-pandemic levels. And with fewer homes listed, the market has bounced back to “balanced” territory, real estate portal Zoocasa declared this week.

“There seems to be a resurgence in demand for York Region detached properties due to the pandemic,” said Claudio Castro, a Zoocasa agent who works in the area. “As more people recognize that they may not need to be in the office five days a week for the foreseeable future, many are revisiting detached properties in the region so they can have more space.” 

Watch: Make like a tree? The top 3 U.S. cities millennials are leaving. Story continues below.

 

In Durham Region, east of Toronto, sales were actually up 8 per cent compared to a year ago, while in Halton Region, west of the city, sales were up 22 per cent at the end of June, according to a Zoocasa analysis of data from the local real estate board.

Both Durham and Halton were “seller’s markets” in recent weeks, Zoocasa said, with sales rising faster than new listings. Meanwhile, in the City of Toronto sales were down 13 per cent in the same period, and Zoocasa called it a balanced market.

“It may be too early to say with certainty, but based on what our agents are experiencing and what the market data shows us thus far, the uptick in interest in outlying regions like York, for example … could be attributed at least in part to the pandemic,” a Zoocasa spokesperson told HuffPost Canada.

“That being said, the pandemic and the economic and health-care conditions that it has created are unprecedented, so it remains to be seen what kind of broader, long term impact it will have on housing demand across the GTA.”

RELATED

• Home Sales, Construction Headed For Period Of 'Severe Declines': CMHC
• COVID-19's Economic Divide: House Prices Jump As Rental Market Tanks
• CMHC’s New Rules Cut Maximum Home Purchase Price Up To 12%: Experts
• Google's Sidewalk Labs Pulls Out Of Toronto Smart City Project

One thing is certain: Toronto is not alone. A similar trend is playing out in major cities around the world, where certain people ― particularly high income earners and youth ― have headed out of the city and into the suburbs or further afield as the pandemic spread through major metro areas.

House prices in metropolitan New York are down 1 per cent in the past year, while in nearby New Jersey, they are up 2 per cent, according to data from Zillow, which rates New Jersey’s market as “very hot” and New York’s as “cool.”

For New York, this isn’t actually new. In fact, data shows that the U.S.’s three largest metro areas have all been losing population in recent years, in the case of New York and L.A. due to high living costs, and in Chicago’s case due to a weak economy.

Population boom turns to bust

But for Toronto, the shift could be more disruptive. Last year the area became the fastest-growing metro in North America, beating out previous champion Dallas, according to recent data from Ryerson University’s Centre for Urban Research.

But right now, population growth has likely ground to a halt with borders shut to most immigrants and international students. 

“Without immigration, the Greater Toronto Area’s population would be declining,” CUR researchers Diana Petramala and Hannah Chan Smyth wrote in a recent report. In an earlier report, issued in March, Petramala showed that Toronto is the largest net loser of people to out-migration, with the regions around Toronto ― including Simcoe, Halton and Durham ― among the largest beneficiaries.

The lack of new residents means that condos in the City of Toronto will be the property type that will suffer most in this year’s slowdown, the researchers predicted. Though they expect home prices to remain stable in Greater Toronto over the next year, the City of Toronto will likely under-perform the rest of the area, they predicted. 

And because low-income Canadians were much more likely to lose their jobs in this crisis, condos will under-perform detached homes, Petramala and Chan Smyth wrote.

What next?

The questions on observers’ minds include: Is this a temporary or a permanent shift? Will city dwellers return to town once the pandemic is behind us?

Richard Florida of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management believes the answer is yes. In an analysis for Bloomberg CityLab, Florida argued the trend is less pronounced than real estate agents and media reports make it out to be.

He cited data showing only 1.6 per cent of New Yorkers had their mail forwarded outside of the city during the height of the pandemic, and concluded that “most who are likely to stay away from the city are families with children who would have left the city anyway in the coming year or two.”

Florida expects the pandemic to do little to change major cities’ cultural and economic dominance in our world.

“New York and London will still be its leading financial centers; the San Francisco Bay Area its hub of high technology; and Los Angeles its center for entertainment and film. Shanghai, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Paris, Toronto, and Sydney will all continue to be great global cities,” he argued.

Click Here: Cheap France Rugby Jersey

Steven Soderbergh devrait participer au tournage de “Hunger Games”, mis en scène par Gary Ross, en tant que réalisateur de la seconde équipe.

Etonnante nouvelle que celle-ci ! Steven Soderbergh devrait participer au tournage d’Hunger Games, mis en scène par Gary Ross, en tant que réalisateur de la seconde équipe. Emmené par Jennifer Lawrence, Liam Hemsworth et Josh Hutcherson, Hunger Games se déroule dans un proche futur où les États-Unis sont devenus un gouvernement fédéral dystopique dans lequel chaque district doit envoyer un garçon et une fille combattre lors d’un événement annuel télévisé dont la seule issue est : tuer ou être tué. L’annonce de la participation de  Steven Soderbergh a été faite sur Twitter par des membres de l’équipe de tournage, qui semblaient eux-mêmes étonnés : « Soderbergh in the house this weekend !!! » ou encore “Punaise !! (ndlr : vous l’aurez compris le terme employé n’était pas rééllement celui-ci…) On vient d’apprendre que Steven Soderbergh allait venir diriger la 2nde équipe d’Hunger Games !!! » Il est vrai qu’il est surprenant que le metteur en scène de Sexe, mensonges et vidéo, Ocean’s Eleven ou encore Erin Brockovich, seule contre tous accepte de participer à ce projet en tant que simple réalisateur de 2nde équipe. Le site Indiewire précise que Gary Ross et Steven Soderbergh sont amis depuis plusieurs années, à l’époque où Soderbergh a produit Pleasantville, mis en scène par Gary Ross. La participation du réalisateur du Che au projet serait donc un geste tout bonnement amical. Hunger Games sortira sur nos écrans au mois de mars 2012.

 

Click Here: Cheap FIJI Rugby Jersey

Laëtitia Forhan avec Indiewire

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada has cleared the way for Uber drivers to take the next step in their fight to be recognized as employees.

In a ruling Friday, the high court upheld an Ontario Court of Appeal decision that opened the door to a possible class-action suit aimed at securing a minimum wage, vacation pay and other benefits for drivers.

The man behind the planned class action, David Heller, is a Toronto driver for UberEats, a service that delivers food from restaurants to customers at home.

He argues that Uber drivers are employees, which entitles them to protections under Ontario’s Employment Standards Act.

Uber, a global company that operates in more than 600 cities, has been present in Ontario for eight years.

To become an Uber driver, Heller had to accept the terms of the firm’s standard services agreement.

Ontario’s highest court said a clause in the agreement that requires all disputes to go through arbitration in the Netherlands was an unfair bargain and amounted to contracting out of an employment standard.

Heller earns about $400 to $600 a week before paying taxes and expenses, using his own vehicle and working 40 to 50 hours a week, amounting to revenue between approximately $21,000 and $31,000 annually.

He says this works out to $10 to $12 an hour, while the minimum wage in Ontario is $14 an hour.

The mediation and arbitration process entails up-front administrative and filing fees of US$14,500, plus legal fees and other costs.

In its decision, the Supreme Court said the arbitration agreement is invalid, noting someone in Heller’s position could not be expected to appreciate the financial and legal implications of the arbitration clause.

“We agree with the Court of Appeal. This is an arbitration agreement that makes it impossible for one party to arbitrate,” said seven of the nine high court justices.

“There was clearly inequality of bargaining power between Uber and Mr. Heller. The arbitration agreement was part of a standard form contract. Mr. Heller was powerless to negotiate any of its terms. His only contractual option was to accept or reject it,” wrote Rosalie Abella and Malcolm Rowe on behalf of the seven judges.

“There was a significant gulf in sophistication between Mr. Heller, a food deliveryman in Toronto, and Uber, a large multinational corporation. The arbitration agreement, moreover, contains no information about the costs of mediation and arbitration in the Netherlands.”

MORE IN BUSINESS

• Loblaw, Metro To Stop Extra Pay For Front-Line Pandemic Workers
• Uber Riders In Canada Will Need Face Masks, Company Announces
• Canada Beats U.S. For 1st Time On Ranking Of Most Competitive Economies

Justice Russell Brown, who also sided with Heller, went even further, saying the arbitration agreement with Uber effectively bars him from accessing a legally determined dispute resolution, imposing undue hardship on Heller and undermining the rule of law.

Lawyers for Heller welcomed the Supreme Court decision, saying the next step is to seek certification of the class action in Ontario.

In a statement, Uber said it would review the ruling more closely in coming days.

“We can, however, share our plans to amend our contracts to align with the court’s principles. Going forward, dispute resolution will be more accessible to drivers, bringing Uber Canada closer in line with other jurisdictions.”

More and more people are working in precarious, gig-style positions and it is increasingly obvious they lack some basic protections, said Iglika Ivanova, a senior economist and public interest researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

“Globally we are in a phase where we are seeing that there is a need to modernize our workplace protection with the emergence of this gig economy,” she said.

“Nobody’s really yet developed the right way to do it so we’re all experimenting and trying to figure out what’s going to happen.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 26, 2020.

With files from Tara Deschamps and Paola Loriggio in Toronto

 

Click Here: Cheap FIJI Rugby Jersey

Lewis Hamilton says Formula 1 is on the verge of experiencing the “most difficult season” in its history due to the constraints imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Formula 1’s disrupted 2020 campaign will finally kick off next week in Austria after a four-month forced hiatus and the cancellation of the first ten rounds of the F1 world championship.

Mercedes hoping to have ‘a chunk’ of updates for W11 in Austria

Teams are gearing up for a busy summer in Europe with eight confirmed events, but also for a series of race weekends that will take place under a COVID-19 regime that will include stringent safety and hygiene protocols in the paddock and in each team’s garage.

“We are preparing in the best way we can for what is going to be the most difficult season that F1 has experienced with the difficult times that we are facing and the changes we have to make to operate,” Hamilton said in a short video released by Mercedes on social media.

“I wanted to thank you all for all the positive messages, they’ve really helped over the last couple of months for the team and I.”