June 29 - July 12, 2011
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Bollywood stars dazzle Toronto
The blockbuster Bollywood action film Dabangg edged out tough competition from the social drama My Name is Khan Saturday night and emerged victorious at the International Indian Film Academy Awards in Toronto. The Salman Khan film nabbed six major prizes at the glittering IIFA gala at Toronto’s Rogers Centre, including the final, coveted best picture trophy. My Name is Khan was another major winner on Saturday, earning four trophies, including for its direction, story, lyrics and male lead — Indian film icon Shah Rukh Khan, who portrays a man with Asperger syndrome. Saturday’s colourful awards ceremony moved rapidly back and forth between Hindi and English, with co-hosts Boman Irani and Ritesh Deshmukh entertaining the crowd with comedy skits featuring filmmaker Johar and stars like Shilpa Shetty. Hollywood Oscar-winners Hilary Swank and Cuba Gooding Jr. were on hand as presenters, while
Canadian celebrities in attendance included actors Lisa Ray and Tom Green. Bipasha Basu, Priyanka Chopra and the Deols — actor brothers Bobby and Sunny as well as patriarch Dharmendra — were among those featured in the flashy, highenergy dance performances that peppered the show, which traditionally attracts more than 600 million viewers each year. The evening included special tributes to several Indian film elders, including actor Dharmendra Deol, actor Irfan Khan , playback singer Asha Bhosle, and actress Sharmila Tagore —who urged today’s filmmakers to slow down and return to films “with heart.” Fans greeted all the performers, presenters and winners warmly, but it was Shah Rukh Khan who drew many of the night’s loudest screams. Held for the first time ever in North America, the IIFA extravaganza was lured to Canada by the province of Ontario, which contributed more than $12 million to
fund the festivities. Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty made several highprofile appearances throughout the evening, showing up on the green carpet alongside Shah Rukh Khan, gleefully jumping into a pre-gala interview being conducted with Anupam Kher and receiving a rock-star-like welcome from the Rogers Centre crowd after being introduced by Anil Kapoor. McGuinty also presented the final award of the night: best film. Now in its 12th year, the annual IIFA celebration travels to a new location each year to showcase Indian cinema on the world stage and in an attempt to attract new audiences. Toronto is the first North American host for the awards, which have already visited cities such as London, Johannesburg, Amsterdam, Bangkok and Colombo, Sri Lanka. Saturday night’s award gala followed a series of “buzz events” hosted by four Ontario cities: Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga and Markham in the past month.
Postal service slowly gets back to business Patience is the operative word as Canada Post begins the process of getting mail service up and running again after the government passed back-towork legislation on the weekend to end nearly a month of labour woes. There’s a chance those cheques, as well as bills and flyers many Canadians would
rather do without, will start arriving in the mail as deliveries resumed after a month of postal woes. Backlogged mail is slowly making its way into homes and businesses. The bill imposing a labour contract on the Canadian Union of Postal Workers was passed by the Senate following a 58-hour
filibuster in the House led by the opposition New Democrats. The new law imposes a four-year contract on the workers, specifies pay increases and leaves other disputed issues to binding arbitration. It also provides union members with slightly lower wages than the last offer from the post office.
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