Great history/interview about the Cameron House and the guy who has painted the south facade murals over the years.
http://www.readingt.readingcities.com/index.php/toronto/angle_of_incident_33_john_abrams/
The Cameron, with its murals and ten giant ant sculptures outside facing Queen Street in the cool part of town is probably one of the most seen pieces of public art in the city. Was there government funding and art commissions and a curatorial committee for this? Actually, it's quite the opposite.
Perhaps as a reaction to the Canadian love for procedures and bureaucracy, Toronto has a lively counter-authoritarian, D.I.Y. arts crowd that just goes out and does it. Same thing with technology, where the government-and-business-funded ICT has spent years producing a one-page website with words like 'stakeholders' (twice!) while David Crow and the BarCamp people have just been going out and getting things done.