The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has officially started, as some of the movie world's biggest stars descend upon the city's red carpets amid some strained relationships between Canada and the United States. Obviously, on the opening night of the festival, Trump was at the center of the conversation, specifically for his renaming of Lake Ontario to Lake America.
At Thursday night’s world premiere of Sian Heder’s Being Heumann, TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey, programmer Anita Lee and Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow each took pointed aim at U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial attempt to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America.” Bailey drew the first laugh during his opening-night remarks at Roy Thomson Hall, referring to the body of water bordering Toronto by its longstanding Canadian name. The comment was met with sustained applause and laughter from the festival crowd.
Introducing Being Heumann, which was filmed in Toronto and tells the story of disability-rights activist Judy Heumann, Chow praised the film’s message about collective action and persistence.
“It shows us that when people come together and stay tenacious, they can move mountains — even against the might of the U.S. government,” she said, declaring that Toronto’s waterfront “will always be Lake Ontario.”
Trump’s renaming effort is part of a broader series of moves affecting how U.S. government agencies refer to geographic landmarks. While some major technology platforms have adopted “Lake America” for U.S. users, Canadians continue to see “Lake Ontario.”
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