In his words, the event is to “…debate Lawrence Krauss on God, Donald Trump, America and more!”

Lawrence Krauss is a Toronto native, a theoretical physicist and cosmologist with a history that includes teaching at Arizona State University, Yale University, and Case Western Reserve University. He is an advocate for public understanding of science, public policy based on sound empirical data, scientific skepticism, and science education.

After the announcement on Twitter by D’Souza, Kraus quote tweeted a response of what he interpreted the event to be about.

“Just to make it clear. This will not be a debate, but a dialogue.. hopefully civilized discussion on the issues mentioned below and more.. about much of which we may disagree. But the format will not involve a rhetorical debate.”

Just to make it clear. This will not be a debate, but a dialogue.. hopefully a civilized discussion on the issues mentioned below and more.. about much of which we may disagree. But the format will not involve a rhetorical debate. https://t.co/AWZnYEUrUy

— Lawrence M. Krauss (@LKrauss1) January 3, 2020

D’Souza has faced a ton of criticism over the years for his crimes, conspiracies and inciteful speech. His follies are too many to fully cover but here are just a few.

He was called a “conservative troll” and a ‘conspiracy-minded felon” by Dylan Matthews for VOX in an article that explains the man’s history.

In an article for The Atlantic entitled “Dinesh D’Souza and the Decline of Conservatism”, David Frum, who has known Dinesh D’Souza for decades, said he is “…always enjoying the part of the polemicist and the provocateur…” In that article, Frum mentions the success Dinesh has received from his films and books, all of which have shocking distortions of reality and history in relation to the Tulsa Riot of 1921, the democratic and republican parties and slavery/racism, and the cultural left being responsible for 9/11.

Trump Jr. hosted a screening of D’Souza’s film Death of a Nation and later summarized the film like this.

“You see the Nazi platform in the early 1930s and what was actually put out there … and you look at it compared to, like, the DNC platform of today, and you’re saying, man, those things are awfully similar, to a point where it’s actually scary.”

Dinesh D’Souza plead guilty to a reduced single count of fraud in 2014 for crimes involved with  making $20,000 in illegal contributions in the names of others when he donated to the New York Senate campaign of Wendy Long. He was sentenced to five years’ probation, eight months in a halfway house and was ordered to pay a $30,000 fine. In 2018, President Donald Trump granted D’Souza a pardon.

D’Souza perceived the prosecution as a politically motivated witch hunt which he talks about in his video called “Hillary’s America”, a film in which he also tries to align the current Democratic party with the Ku Klux Klan and slaveowners.

He constantly makes remarks aiming to provoke reactions from people, often with racist undertones. Many at Obama.

YOU CAN TAKE THE BOY OUT OF THE GHETTO…Watch this vulgar man show his stuff, while America cowers in embarrassment pic.twitter.com/C9yLG4QoOK

— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) February 18, 2015

“Wondering why I pardoned all those drug offenders, are you?” pic.twitter.com/2jozA7Jnbn

— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) December 7, 2017

When in mail bombs were sent out to various targets in the US in 2018, he pushed the narrative that it was all a hoax.

Fake sexual assault victims. Fake refugees. Now fake mail bombs. We are all learning how the media left are masters of distortion, deflection & deception

— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) October 25, 2018

Dinesh D’Souza spread and continues to spread the unproven claim that U.S. politician Ilhan Omar married her brother to get a greencard.

I’m trying to keep the @IlhanMN story straight. She marrried her brother to evade immigration laws? Then she divorced him and illicitly filed joint tax returns with another guy years before they were married? I was prosecuted for doing far less; why hasn’t she been indicted yet?

— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) June 23, 2019

On The Ingraham Angle with Fox News Host Laura Ingraham, D’Souza said that an unbiased observer would believe that Ilhan Omar seems to support the perpetrators of 9/11 more than the victims.

Dinesh D’Souza: A “reasonable person … would not be able to tell if [Rep. Ilhan Omar] was on the side of the victims of 9/11 or the perpetrators” pic.twitter.com/CN5vf3kjGe

— Madeline Peltz (@peltzmadeline) April 17, 2019

He minimized the impact of Rosa Parks.

OVERRATED DEMOCRATS DEPT: So Rosa Parks wouldn’t sit in the back of the bus–that’s all she did, so what’s the big fuss?

— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) January 14, 2017

When student activists who survived the Parkland, Florida school shooting had a gun reform bill they had fought for get voted down, D’Souza mocked their disappointment on Twitter. He later apologized.

Worst news since their parents told them to get summer jobs https://t.co/Vg3mXYvb4c

— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) February 20, 2018

Despite his transgressions and his past felony conviction, Dinesh D’Souza is meant to appear at The Danforth Music hall for a conversation with Lawrence Krauss.

The trip will call into question whether or not a convicted felon should be admitted into Canada after receiving a pardon by the President of the United States.

If so, what are the limits in allowing convicted felons who have been granted a presidential pardon?

Would we also allow disgraced Navy Seal Eddie Gallagher who was described as “toxic” and who was “OK with killing anything that moved”. Gallagher is often referred to as a war criminal and was also pardoned by Trump.

Dinesh D’Souza is most certainly not a war criminal, but he is dangerous. Should he be allowed to normalize his behaviour and conspiracies with the validation that comes with having a large event at The Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, Canada, opposite a man of science?

Maybe people need to see him try to hold his theories to the fire.

The post Danforth Music Hall to Host Trump Pardoned Felon Dinesh D’Souza appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

Sugar Beach sounds so delightful! How did the show get to be named after one of our city’s hidden gems?

Josie Dye: We broadcast from the Corus building at Corus Quay and our studios face Sugar Beach. Whenever we have a band perform,  we call it a Sugar Beach Session!  The Edge has an amazing view and everyone should spend an afternoon at our beach!!

You’re no newbie to radio so what are you looking forward to the most on this new show of yours?

JD: I am really excited about all of the one-on-one interviews and all of the concerts I will get to broadcast from. That’s half the fun – I love concerts! The other half is being able to actually talk on air. Often we only get 30 seconds to talk over a song intro. But now, with my new gig, I will be able to actually have an opinion, which is great!

You’ve interviewed many musicians and you’re known to be pretty at ease with them… any interviews really made you say “wow, I got to interview that person?”

JD: Gord Downie was by far my favourite, he is a great man and I am a huge fan. He hung out for over an hour and we sang together at the end of the show! I don’t think the record company was impressed but he was smiling so it was worth it! Gord would definitely be up there. Eddie Vedder was also a pretty cool interview, he was on his bike at the venue and he was riding around talking to fans.  He is a super nice guy and loves what he does!

If you could interview (living or in another life) anyone who would that be and what would you really want to ask them?

JD: I kind of like conspiracy theories so I would really love to interview the head of the CIA or Obama and give them truth serum.  (Sorry, I’m currently watching Homeland) Ok realistically,  I wish I could have interviewed Prince – what a talent! Every time I saw him live I couldn’t sleep for three days. I would just listen back to his music and relive his live show. Such a sad story.

Wait. You’ve interviewed Oprah, right? An interviewer asking an interviewer …what was that like?

JD: She was amazing.   She knows what you need in an interview and she gives you 100%.   There was another broadcaster there who was asking some horrible questions and Oprah just ended that other interview in seconds.   It was fun to watch someone so powerful and in control.  I was nervous but we hit it off and she answered all my questions and then asked me all about Corus!   Very cool.

What are your favourite music festivals in Toronto and why?

JD: I recently went to Bestival at Woodbine Park and it was awesome. Probably because it’s down the street from my home – hahaha.   I also love  anything at the Molson Amphitheatre, it’s such an amazing venue, outside and on the water. We really don’t talk about it enough. I’d take Amphitheatre  shows over small venues any day. I also love WayHome…this year’s lineup is killer! Osheaga who? Hahaha this year we may give Osheaga a run for its money!

Any other events we may find you at, when you’re not working?

JD: I’m a huge sports fan and I love food. So…anything Raptors and Jays or Taste of Toronto; Taco Fest is always fun too! With two kids I spend a ton of time at parks and hanging at the cottage!

Your go-to Karaoke song?

I Will Survive…but isn’t it everyone’s?   Karaoke has to be cheesy or it’s never fun. Weird Al works as well 🙂

Some of your favourite music venues in the city?

JD: Opera House: it’s close and old. I love the sound and it has great bars nearby.

Molson Amphitheatre: Big shows at the Amp feel like small shows outside on the water. It’s perfect. Lawn seats or 100 level, it doesn’t matter.

Danforth Music Hall: I personally love the non-seated venue. Thinking about seeing Arcade Fire at Danforth many years ago still makes me giddy!

Describe yourself in three words.

JD: Passionate, driven, weird

Follow Josie Dye on Twitter.

The post Chillin’ on Sugar Beach with 102.1 the Edge’s Josie Dye appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

So far, it’s been just another average day in Canadian comedy. I woke up at the crack of 6am (slightly hungover) with my cats walking all over my face. So I live Tweeted it. I pseudo-cleaned up and then I spent the afternoon plugging upcoming shows on the air at a radio station that broadcasts live from the middle of a go-kart track. Yes, I’m not kidding – that’s a thing. The station manager, a 20 year old kid who may or may not have done background in the Twilight movies, kept asking me not to heckle the patrons over the air. (Obviously, I couldn’t resist)

Then I shot back across town to do standup at a coffee shop. I have arrived! I closed off the night joining a packed house at the Danforth Music Hall. Just to watch 5 guys I grew up watching on TV. Not a bad way to finish off a full day in the land of punchlines.

Growing up in Northern Ontario, any Canadian heroes you had were almost guaranteed to be hockey players. Baseball players were an acceptable substitute in the summer months. But Canadian kids in the 90s (much like now) didn’t go see Canadian movies in the theatres. We didn’t watch a lot of Canadian shows on TV, and the ones we did tune in to, didn’t have a ton of household names. Although, Faye Dunaway did turn up on Road to Avonlea that one time.

Me, I had no hockey heroes. Truth be told I didn’t much give a puck about the game at all. I know, I know… it sounds so “un-Canadian”. Even Strombo is drinking the Stanley Cup koolaid now. Growing up, I had Canadian comedy. I had the THE KIDS IN THE HALL.

There’s a collected sense of nostalgia buzzing through the room. A lot of fans my age, and older. I was a kid when I used to watch the Kids. I was around 12 or 13 in their last season, and a young teenager when Brain Candy came out. I followed Mark McKinney over to SNL, as I entered high school. And I watched him work with Guy Maddin as I made my awkward, sexless transition into film school. The KIDS’ bizarro short films and sketches like “Sausages” and “Dr. Seuss” served me well in this era. And now, here I am. I’m a comic and writer/producer myself, largely because of them. I’m 31 now. And these guys are all in their early-to-mid-50s.

Of course, they don’t shy away from that. As Kevin McDonald dances around the stage in an impromptu (well, rehearsed impromptu) musical number. His hair a little thinner, his slight middle-aged-guy pot belly protruding from his signature skinny-kid frame, he makes a self deprecating jab at the crowd – “how many of you are here because you’re dating a 41 year old who got stoned and used to watch us too much in college?? Because this song will explain who we are!” ‘THANK YOU!’ shouts out one such girlfriend (a few years younger than me, she probably just missed the kids)

To me, it would be a sweeping understatement to say that the KIDS simply had an influence on my generation of Canadian comics. They cleared the road… They paved the road! They kicked the fucking door down! Not to mention the fact that I was/am/always will be a fan at heart. When they first fired up their old TV title song (‘Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet’) and that twangy, fuzzed-out Grunge tone washed and crackled out through the static fuzz of the Danforth’s old amplifiers. I got goosebumps. I almost got a little choked up. What? I did! Oh you GO TO HELL! (As Scott Thompson might shout, immersed in character)

A lot of cult classic characters return, and without elaborating too much and spoiling the rest of the road show (it’s a full-blown tour making its way across Canada) nostalgia hungry fans won’t be disappointed. Some old favourites are there, and Buddy Cole is still a rock star. Actually, despite a tenured TV career on both sides of the border, a long presence in L.A and a bout with Cancer in recent years, Scott Thompson seems to be ageless.

When I spoke to him another recently, in the studio of Canada’s new comedy podcast network (TALKHOLE. Like radio, but awesome… sorry! I had to plug it) he said, “I’m in my 50s now. I’ve survived. I don’t care what anyone thinks, I’m just doing what I’m doing” – it shows. With Thompson and the whole crew.

Fans will love the return of one character in particular, and they way they’ve “tied it all together” (to use the parlance of a favourite Lebowskiism, totally unrelated to the topic at hand)  And more than a few cult classic sketches are recreated on stage. And at the Toronto shows, the Danforth erupted into a frenzy when an eternally towel-clad Paul Bellini made his way out to the stage with his signature rose. Yup, after almost 30 years these guys are still so SO fucking weird.

And to answer my Dad’s question (who used to watch it with me on many a late weeknight) Yes, they do still ply pretty convincing middle aged women. Although my old man’s sensibilities for that old comedic trope were more routed in Dame Edna, and recently “Mrs. Brown’s Boys” (I know, I can’t understand it either)

There’s a lot of new material happening here too too, stuff that proves the writing is still 100% there. It’s like they just picked up where they left off, a well-oiled Canadian comedy machine after all these years. They get topical, and the subject of their own age since we last saw them (together) on-screen is directly addressed a few times. After all these years, they’re still just… well, THE KIDS.

The post The Kids are Back in Town! appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

The Arkells have released their brand new album High Noon, which is their best to date. I must say, I’m very impressed by the new batch of songs and it’s been on repeat ever since the moment I heard the opening track. Eleven catchy tunes that will get anyone moving with two bonus acoustic versions. The record has cinematic moments inspired by the 1952 film “High Noon” starring Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly. “The expression “High Noon” has a confrontational feel to it, a great moment of reckoning,” lead singer Max Kerman says. “This record has a lot of moments that are trying to get to the heart of the matter. With a grand moment of reckoning you hope to come to the other side with some clarity of what you’re trying to figure out in the first place.” With two Juno awards under their belt the energetic five-piece including frontman Max Kerman, guitarist Mike DeAngelis, bassist Nick Dika, keyboardist Anthony Carone and drummer Tim Oxford are in full force and embarking on a Europe, US and Canada tour in support of their new album. I had the chance to chat with Arkells lead singer Max Kerman about the new album and all the things the band loves about Toronto.

Congrats on your new album “High Noon.” What inspired the songs?

You always want to write about things that move you and inspire you. There’s a healthy dose of love songs and relationship songs. But there are also songs that touch on personal politics. There’s a song called Cynical Bastards on the record that’s about Hamilton, the city where I live. It’s about the city changing in a positive way. So it’s a salute to the people there that are doing great things for the city. The thing I get most insecure about is repeating myself (Max). That’s why our records all sound pretty different. The other main thing we kept in mind while writing this record was to never repeat ourselves.

Is that why you chose producer Tony Hoffer (Beck, The Kooks, M83) for the new album? Were you a fan of his track record? 

Ya, we definitely wanted somebody who was outside our immediate circle who would have a different perspective. It’s easy to get carried away in your own little world when you’re writing the songs. When you’re recording as a five-piece band there’s a lot of things to remember and to take into account and to delegate between the parts and responsibilities within each song. He’s worked with a lot of bands before so we were confident he would be able to get the most of everybody. We had a wish list of some producers and he was at the top of it. He’s played and recorded with Beck and he did records with The Kooks and The Thrills. We didn’t want to go with just a folk guy or a rock guy or an electronic guy. Our band has a lot of different influences so we wanted someone who has experience with a lot of different genres and bands.

Do you have a personal favourite track from High Noon?

The song that feels like the best step for us, uncharted territory, is Never Thought That This Would Happen. It’s a little more mid temp and groovy and still moves really well. We worked with a string quartet who layed down a lot of orchestration on that song. It feels like a different sound which and I’m really happy with how that song turned out.

Why did you choose Fake Money as the opening track?

When you are choosing the first song on a record, whether you like it or not, it really sets the tone of what the band is about. We spent so much of our time as on the road as a rock n’ roll band not a studio band. It reminds people of what the band is: a rough around the edges rock n’ roll band and from you kind go a number of different place. Starting the record off with our roots was something important for this one.

Is 11:11 the love song on the record?

We’ve definitely had songs about love. This one is a little more hopeful. Some other songs on other records like On Paper, I’m not the Sun and Abigail that were about relationships. This one is a proper love song, which was nothing but good vibes.

You’ve written a lot of upbeat anthems. Do you find it’s easier to write a happy or sad song?

It’s hard to pull off a happy song. You end up sounding kind of lame or cheesy. Pharrell pulled it off with the song Happy. Most songwriters or storytellers get inspired to put their pen on a pad and paper when something’s going wrong. That’s what fuels their creativity. And when things are good you don’t really dive into that world. With 11:11 we tried to illuminate the points of meeting somebody new that is really exciting. I’m proud of the song for that because it illuminates the specific moments that are relatable and special.

If you had to collaborate with one Toronto band, who would it be and why?

Drake. We’re the same age and he grew up not far from me. He’s a pretty good singer so I wouldn’t mind harmonizing with him.

You have a summer jam you’ve been listening to?

New York Kiss by Spoon and Head Under Water by Jenny Lewis

Top 3 artists that have inspired you in your life?

The Beatles, The Band and Joel Plaskett

Favourite place to eat in Toronto? Nu Bügel

Favourite thing about the city? The diveristy.

Favourite hang out in T.O? My parent’s place near Kensington Market

Rapid Fire:

Sneaky Dees nachos, Hey Meatball spaghetti or a superfood salad from Fresh? They’re all winners!

Queen or College St? College Street

Trinity Bellwoods or Highpark? Trinity Bellwoods

Early bird or night owl? Night owl

Road or studio? Road

What do you think of physical vs digital album sales? Do you have a preference? Any thoughts for the future?

I don’t really care about the future of how people get their music. I just hope people are interested in seeing it live. As long as people are supporting musicians one way or another, then that’s all I care about.

What is one thing people of each member that people don’t know about you that they wouldn’t expect?

Tim is a health nut.

Anthony has a hot Italian temper and is driving red in rush hour.

Nick is the most loyal, modest person ever.

Mike is an amazing eye for creative content who does our website, album design, merch, photos.

Max secretly wishes he was Larry David.

What’s next for the Arkells?

Flying to Germany for a few weeks, and then touring in the states. It’s all go-go-go!

Arkells perform in Toronto on November 28^th at the Danforth Music Hall. Win tickets via Indie 88 here.

Check out their website.

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