The South Bayview Bulldog

The Aga Khan has told a combined session of Parliament that he wants Canada to join him in making the world a more tolerant, peaceful place. “Canada is a leader in the community of nations,” the 77-year-old leader of the world 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims told assembled members. The Aga Khan is widely appreciated in the West for his moderation and interest in pluralism. Here in Toronto, the large Muslim  community has participated in the completion of the 18-acre Cultural Centre and Museum located on Wynford Drive.  Important South Bayview leaders like Mohamed Dhanani, Executive Officer at Aga Khan’s Council for Canada in Toronto will be celebrating the current visit. Mr. Dhanani is from Leaside and was twice a popular candidate for City Council in Ward 26. The Aga Khan is an honorary citizen of Canada and he began his message to Parliament today by congratulating the country on its outstanding Olympic hockey teams. He went on to reflect that as he had once played hockey he regretted that he was not eligible for Team Canada. He said he was sure that he and another prominent honorary citizen, the Dali Lama, would have made excellent defensemen. The Harvard-educated religious leader spoke elegantly in both official languages. He said his foundation would help Canada celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2017. His speech follows a private meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper following a morning arrival on Parliament Hill. Harper introduced him as a tireless humanitarian, lauding him for development partnerships in Africa, Asia and in Afghanistan.”

OPP report a staggering series of rear-end collisions on Highway 400 this morning between Highway 9 on the north and the Innisfil Beach side road on the south. As reportage continues, it is confirmed that only three people have been injured. They have been taken to hospital for treatment of minor injuries. The dozens of other drivers and passengers involved in this wreck are being loaded into City of Barrie buses to keep them warm. They will be taken to accommodation in the reception area of a local  race track where there is also space to bring the vehicles. Police must separate and make of a record of  the cars and trucks of all sizes and provide the owners with information about their condition and location. This process will be facilitated by a numbering system which matches up drivers with the vehicles. The accident was caused by a large snow squall that swept across the area in the mid-morning hours and caused white-outs and slippery roads.  It is a known and frequent hazard of driving on main highways in Ontario in winter. White-outs are a profound hazard — periods of blindness in which drivers have no orientation as to where other vehicles may be located or their speed. It is nothing short of miraculous that so few people were hurt in this accident.   

Jaye Robinson (Ward 25) presided over an informative town hall meeting to discuss “transit and transportation” tonight (Tuesday, February 25, 2014).  Her three-person panel was Andy Byford, Chief General Manager of the TTC, Bruce McCuag, CEO of Metrolinx and Stephen Buckley, Toronto GM of Transportation People being people, it was probably predictable that when question and answer time came, most questioners had concerns based on their personal problems with TTC service or policy. Thus most of the work went to TTC boss Byford.  One man asked about unmanned trains, said to have operated without a problem for decades in Paris.  The answer was unmanned trains are coming but you can’t launch them without a “train screen”. That’s the glass wall seen in modern subways in Europe and the Orient that keeps people from falling onto the tracks and permits the train to stop automatically where the screen opens in co-ordination with the train doors.  What about that “19th century technology” known as the streetcar? Byford could happily say that the decision to keep streetcars (and buy yet more) pre-dated his arrival at the TTC. What good was it to denounce the inevitable. The issue might be resolved Byford said diplomatically when the recently purchased trams wear out in a couple of decades. Another man suggested the need for the much discussed Downtown Relief Line to take pressure off the Yonge subway would be eliminated if only the TTC ran all trains the same way at rush hour. Truly outside the  box. Everything goes south in the morning and north in the evening.  But here again, Byford had heard the idea before.  Problem was, he lamented, the signal system was not reversible. End of story. The meeting was held in the chapel of the Lawrence Park Community Church, 2180 Bayview Ave., a venue which is said to have meeting rooms available to a variety of uses.