Tuesday, August 31, 2004

The melting pot: The Toronto Star rounds up last weekend's Canadian National Expo, which drew more than 26,000 fans of sci-fi, anime, horror and, apparently, illegal swords and nunchakus:

"The expo, the biggest event of its kind in Canada, has grown from its beginnings as a modest comic book fair 10 years ago to a lively mass of humanity — with the occasional vampire, storm trooper and animated character thrown in. And while there appeared to be no disharmony between different adherents and species (apart perhaps from the police carting away a display of replica swords, crossbows and throwing stars and arresting six people the first night of the fair) the black-clad seemed to stay with the black-clad, the comic-book enthusiasts with the comic-book enthusiasts."

In a separate article, the newspaper follows up on the seizure of illegal weapons from a booth operated by SwordStaff.com:

"Police displayed some of the haul — including metal throwing stars, wooden nunchakus, push daggers and brass knuckles — and cash seized at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where the booth had been jammed with buyers. Some $5,000 in weaponry had already been sold in the few hours before police swooped in, Inspector Rick Stubbings said."