Toronto

In a summer in which naming rights have been hotly contested in the nation's capital, it's no surprise to learn that the Ottawa Senators have gotten in on the act. While the Ottawa Fury, Ottawa RedBlacks and whatever the hell that Ottawa Tomahawks basketball team became revealed their brands for their forthcoming seasons in the NASL and CFL, the Senators have announced that they have reached a new corporate agreement to rename their arena. Although the Senators had signed a 15-year agreement with Scotiabank for the naming rights to the arena, today the organization announced that those rights had been sold to Canadian Tire. There have been conflicting reports that: 1) the Senators had a window of opportunity to find another deal; and 2) that Scotiabank simply chose not to renew their deal; but how or why it happened is immaterial. Regardless of what anyone thinks, as of July 1st, Scotiabank Place will join illustrious namesakes like the Palladium and the Corel Centre in the Ottawa Senators' arena name graveyard and will henceforth be referred to as the Canadian Tire Centre. It will take some time getting used to -- probably less time than it will take some to crack Canadian Tire money jokes -- but it's just an arena name that should never receive the same kind of treatment from those insufferable sports fans who still waste energy ripping the RedBlacks name. All that really matters is what this is going to do for the Ottawa Senators. The monetary value of the contract was not disclosed but the term of the agreement will last for eight seasons; prior to its expiry date in 2021, Canadian Tire will have the right to renew the agreement for a decade. Looking at the contracts historically, one has to imagine that the Senators will benefit financially more than they have in the past. In 1996, Corel agreed to pay $26-million for the naming rights for 20 years. The deal only lasted ten years before Scotiabank scooped up the rights for a 15-year deal worth an alleged $20 million. To put these figures into perspective, CBC ran an article that indicated Bell Canada will pay as much as $64 million over 20 years for the naming rights of the Montreal Canadiens home rink. Air Canada will reportedly spend $30 million for the rights to name the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Raptors for 20 years. GM's deal in Vancouver is worth about $20 million over 20 years. Looking at the figures that Ottawa has received in the past, the difference between the Corel, Scotiabank and the Canadian Tire deals isn't going to be that significant. So for those fans, if there are any, who think this new deal is going to favorably increase the team's budget for players, you're probably going to be disappointed. The biggest changes created by this deal will be the ones outlined within the team's official press release. Major Partnership Components: - Naming rights to Canadian Tire Centre, including building, digital, scoreboard and in-ice signage - Support for community-based programs including: Future Sens Program, I Love to Skate Program, Canadian Forces Appreciation Night, Jumpstart Game Nights and the Bell Capital Cup - An enhanced partnership between Canadian Tire Jumpstart Charities and the Sens Foundation that will provide families in financial need with support in getting their children enrolled in organized sport and recreation - The installation of Capital Tickets kiosks at select Canadian Tire, Sport Chek, Sports Experts and Mark’s stores in the region to provide easy access to all of Senators Sports & Entertainment’s events taking place at Canadian Tire Centre - Canadian Tire becomes the title sponsor of Senators Sportsnet broadcasts, with reach into Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada - Naming rights fo

U.K.-based singer-songwriter Laura Mvula will tour the U.S. this September. Mvula's debut Sing to the Moon is out now. Get to know an up and coming artist and go see her. Tour Dates: 9/4 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg 9/5 New York, NY Le Poisson Rouge 9/7 Toronto, ON Mod Club 9/9

Amanda Bynes is set to receive a helping hand from hip-hop veteran Wyclef Jean as she prepares to launch herself as a rap star.

Some sculptures by China's most famous artist and activist have found their way to City Hall. WHERE: Nathan Phillips Square WHEN: Earlier today WHAT: These 12 bronze animal-head sculptures, each representing a different sign of the Chinese zodiac, were unveiled by the Art Gallery of Ontario this afternoon at a ceremony with Mayor Rob Ford in attendance. They’re the work of Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei, who attained something close to secular sainthood in 2011 after being held prisoner by the Chinese government for a few months. (He’s said to be under constant surveillance to this day.) This group of sculptures, known collectively as “Circle of Animals/Zodiac Heads,” won’t be the last Toronto sees of Ai’s output, because the AGO will be opening a full Ai Weiwei exhibition on August 17. The animal heads, meanwhile, will remain until September 22.

Holy Yeezus, Kanye’s new album has a lot of tongues waggin’ and fingers tappin’ today.

They mirror each other in games and style and certainly with the regard to which they are held: So why is it Jonathan Toews is an almost consensus choice as one the truly great players in hockey and Patrice Bergeron doesn't receive similar acclaim?

NEW YORK — Starbucks has a new way to wake up its customers: showing the calories in its drinks. The Seattle-based coffee chain says it will start posting calorie counts on menu boards across the U.S. next week, ahead of a new government regulation that would require it to do so. Calorie counts on menus are already required in some parts of the U.S., including New York City. But starting June 25, Starbucks Corp. says customers at its more than 11,000 U.S. locations will be able to see that there are 300 calories in a small caramel Frappuccino and 230 calories in a small Iced Caffe Mocha. Pastry cases will also show calorie information, in case customers want to save some calories and opt for a Morning Bun (350 calories) instead of a blueberry scone (460 calories). The move by Starbucks comes as the Food and Drug Administration irons out the details of a regulation that would require companies with more than 20 locations to post calorie information on their menus. Other chains including McDonald’s Corp. have also moved ahead with posting the information, saying they’re providing it to be more transparent rather than because they’re being forced to. In its announcement, Starbucks highlighted the various steps it has taken over the years to give customers choices, such as adding sugar-free syrup in 1997 and making 2% milk the standard for core beverages in North America in 2007. The company notes that it already provides nutrition information on its website, through its iPhone app and with printed brochures in cafés. It also says there are numerous ways people can reduce the calories in their drinks, such as by asking for non-fat milk, sugar-free syrup or no whipped cream. A representative for the company did not know what percentage of customers ask to have their drinks customized. It’s not clear how posted calorie counts affect what people choose to order. But in announcing its plans to post calorie information nationwide last year, the head of McDonald’s USA at the time said that providing the information doesn’t really change the company’s overall menu mix. While a few national chains already put calorie information on their menus, a “large majority” are waiting for the FDA to issue its final guidelines, according to Sue Hensley, a spokeswoman for the U.S. National Restaurant Association. The group expects the regulation to take effect by sometime next year. RelatedSafety of caffeine levels in large Starbucks coffee called into question by research surveyNutrition Bites: Jennifer Sygo on why overturning Bloomberg’s soft drink ban is a bad dietary callNutrition labels on booze on the way in U.S., but Canadian consumers still left in the dark

OTTAWA—Leaked documents suggest Canada helped the United States and Britain spy on participants at the London G20 summit four years ago.Britain’s Guardian newspaper says spies monitored the computers and intercepted the phone calls of foreign politicians and officials at two G20 meetings in London in 2009.The paper says the effort included penetration of delegates’ BlackBerry smartphones to monitor their email messages and calls.The Guardian published PowerPoint slides describing the operation, including one featuring the emblem of the Communications Security Establishment, Canada’s electronic eavesdropping agency.It appears alongside the logos of key allies — the U.S. National Security agency and Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters — along with an icon labelled Joint Apps.The documents were leaked to the Guardian by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

*The Oscar-winning filmmaker behind an upcoming Showtime documentary about Venus and Serena Williams has responded to a lawsuit filed on Friday by the United States Tennis Association, which claims the film uses footage that infringed the organization’s copyrights. The USTA told the U.S. District Court in New York that the film “Venus And Serena” also includes scenes that are “not in the best interests of the sport.” Alex Gibney, the film’s executive producer, says the USTA is trying to “censor this film about America’s most inspiring female athletes.” His colleagues “were entirely within their legal rights to use a small amount of widely seen footage” citing the ”fair use” doctrine, which enables filmmakers and others to use copyrighted material without permission when it serves the public interest. The concept, Gibney continued, “is vital to filmmakers trying to tell truthful stories and embodies the essence of the First Amendment of the U.S. constitution. Indeed, without the fair use doctrine, copyright itself would be unconstitutional. By its actions, the USTA is assaulting the very principle of free speech.” Showtime has exclusive U.S. rights to air the documentary beginning July 1, but execs may have second thoughts following the suit, according to Deadline.com. Venus And Serena debuted at the Toronto Film Festival in October and has been available on VOD and iTunes. The USTA wants to bar further sales and showings, and collect damages. The suit says the producers didn’t follow through on efforts to license U.S. Open footage, which would give the organization discretion to over the amount and nature of the content that could be used. As a result, the USTA believed “that the project had been abandoned or would be completed without inclusion of any U.S. Open footage,” the suit says.

Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it’s forced to give the government.The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic.Google, one of nine companies named in NSA documents as providing information to the top-secret PRISM program, has demanded that U.S. officials give it more leeway to describe the company’s relationship with the government. Google and the other companies involved have sought to reassure users that their privacy is being protected from unwarranted intrusions.MORE FROM THESTAR.COMOnline snooping revealed by Edward Snowden foiled 50 terror plots, says U.S. intelligence chiefEdward Snowden, Barack Obama offer duelling rhetoric on online surveillance scandalU.S. online snooping: What Canadians need to knowIn the petition, Google is seeking permission to publish the total numbers of requests the court makes of the company and the numbers of user accounts they affect. The company long has made regular reports with regard to other data demands from the U.S. government and from other governments worldwide.“Greater transparency is needed, so today we have petitioned the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to allow us to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately,” the company said in a statement.That information would not necessarily shed much light on PRISM, whose existence was first reported by The Washington Post and Britain’s Guardian newspaper. But initiating a high-profile legal showdown may help Google’s efforts to portray itself as aggressively resisting government surveillance.All of the technology companies involved in PRISM, including Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google and Yahoo, have struggled to respond to the revelations about NSA surveillance. Most have issued carefully word denials, saying that they do not permit wholesale data collection while acknowledging that they comply with legal government information requests. (Washington Post Co. chief executive Donald E. Graham is on Facebook’s board.)FISA court data requests typically are known only to small numbers of a company’s employees. Discussing the requests openly, either within or beyond the walls of an involved company, can violate federal law.The technology companies linked to PRISM publicly urged U.S. officials last week to ease official secrecy about information requests. Facebook on Friday night issued its first-ever account of how many data requests the company gets from government entities — state, local and federal — in the United States. That number included FISA requests but the information was categorized too broadly to offer a precise view of these especially secretive data transfers.The FISA court, composed of 11 federal judges appointed by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., rarely rejects government requests for information and rarely make its opinions public. The court approved each of the 1,789 government requests it received in 2012, except for one that was withdrawn.In 2008, the court rejected a challenge from a technology company that argued that a government request for information on foreign users was too broad to be constitutional. The court redacted the name of the company and other details when it published the ruling.Revelations this month about PRISM have sparked fierce debate about the appropriate balance between national security with privacy rights, with U.S. officials in recent days mounting vigorous defense of data collection efforts.NSA director Gen. Keith Alexander told the House Intelligence Commit