The City of Toronto and the Kiwanis Club of Casa Loma are at odds over the management and future of the Casa Loma attraction and its costs. A conflict of interest involving the board's chair, shortcomings on fundraising, and a failure to implement strategic vision have the mayor calling for complete replacement of the existing controlling board. Years of perpetual construction/restoration aren't seeming to be doing the castle much good either.

The Toronto Humane Society's River Street shelter is set to reopen on June 28th following renovations and staff retraining, and a vow to uphold higher standards of care. After the animal welfare scandal that included arrests and raids on the facility (and the discovery of a mummified cat), the THS's greatest challenge will be to regain faith in donors and volunteers.

The Entertainment District BIA is not backing down on G20 weekend. Rather than doing what most businesses and organizations are doing (closing for the weekend to avoid the potential chaos), clubs and restos in the city's most chaos-accustomed area are doing their best to lure paying customers in. Many restaurants are offering "summit deals" and offering special discounts when you shop and eat in the area.

The G8 and G20 are putting Toronto on the map and the meetings haven't even happened yet. Bringing the world's leader to Toronto is good for tourism and culture. People in the Black Bloc (profiled by the National Post) are making great Toronto tourism and hiphop music videos (see them below).

(I sure hope the $billion security force we've funded has fastened down all those loose sidewalk tiles.)

In happier (non-G20) news, free swan rides are now available on Lake Ontario, at Cherry Beach. The only stipulation is that you have to be a cute baby swan and patiently await your turn:

And the Toronto Star continues to demonstrate that it's giving us much more than news and is more than willing to take deep plunges into tabloid territory. Yesterday it was a piece that connected a Toronto-area model's relationship with England goalkeeper Robert Green's flub in their match against the USA. In today's edition, Rob Ford is compared to Sarah Palin.

Lead photo: York University Expressway by dave_in_t_o, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Free-riding baby swan photo by ~EvidencE~.