to move up and down
Skaters enjoy the mild weather at Toronto’s Nathan Phillips Square, Sunday evening, November 27, 2011 as the city continues to experience temperatures above seasonal averages. (Photo: Aaron Lynett/National Post)
Live coverage: Speakers honour Layton at Toronto City Hall
It was a sombre homecoming filled with tears and light applause as Jack Layton arrived home to Toronto for the last time Thursday night.
An estimated crowd of 300 lined up for hours behind metal barricades outside Toronto City Hall to catch a glimpse of Layton’s casket arriving back in his hometown of more than 40 years.
The crowd — which was full of grandparents, children, and families — watched as uniformed pallbearers with the Toronto Police Service carried the flag-draped casket into the front doors of City Hall, where Layton worked as a popular councillor for many years before being elected as an MP.
Friends? Jack Layton had a few
Life for hundreds came to a standstill Tuesday afternoon in sunny Nathan Phillips Square as passers-by stopped at the perimeter of a growing sea of chalk graffiti messages written in honour of Jack Layton, the former NDP leader who died Monday.
A bucket bore a sign “Chalk 4 Jack,” and people added their own messages: “Jack Layton was the reason I started voting,” and “Live by Jack’s example. Don’t agonize — organize.”
The graffiti has spread up the ramp to City Hall’s green roof (Layton would have approved) and now fills perhaps 100 of the square’s two by two-metre concrete paving tiles. Only the journalists walk on the chalk; at 1:30 p.m. about 100 people stood, some eating hot dogs or drinking Pepsi, some on bikes, many with cameras, one with a parasol against the hot sun, reading the hundreds of sendoff notes. Others took up the orange, blue, yellow and green chalk and added their own wishes. (About 50 people were lined up inside City Hall to sign a condolence book, but the graffiti seemed to fit more with the public and effervescent nature of the late leader).
(Photo: Tyler Anderson/National Post)
Photos of the Day
World War Two Veteran Victor Billett stands at attention during the 67th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy commemoration at Nathan Phillips Square, June 06, 2011 in Toronto. (Brett Gundlock/National Post)
