Month: May 2015

A 23-year-old woman who did not know she was pregnant (it is said) has given birth on an Air Canada flight from Calgfary to Tokyo. The woman, Ada Guan, was shocked to find what was happening to her. “We just thought she had a bad stomach ache, or cramps or ulcer or something,” said Wes Branch, her boyfriend and now father of a healthy baby girl. He is from Victoria, B.C. “Her belly wasn’t even big. She just thought she was gaining a little bit of a weight. She didn’t think anything out of it.”

They were picking up the pieces from a collision between this Toyota SUV and a pickup truck at Overlea Blvd and Thorncliffe Park Drive. Photo by Rudy Limeback, Leaside and area explorer.

Ottawa Citizen 

Girls are said to love them but a new swimming device that secures the legs inside a mermaid tail is being carefully watched by safety officials. The toy allows young girls to swim like mermaids and is a growing trend — and safety concern — at pools in Calgary and Edmonton. “My kids’ faces just lit up and they’re like, ‘Holy cow, there’s a real live mermaid in the pool!’ So we picked them up and ordered them and it’s great,” the CBC quotes Calgary mother Sharla Stoffman, who purchased “mermaid fins” online for both her daughters. Stoffman’s eight-year-old Charlott describes the feeling of swimming in the sparkly costume as “free,” while her older sister says it’s just like being a fish. But Calgary lifeguards are making swimmers take the following test before they can wear their toys in a public pool. They must swim 25 metres continuously, tread water for two minutes and swim with confidence while wearing the mermaid fin.

Former Mayor Rob Ford will undergo an expected 10 hours of surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital today (Monday, May 11, 2015) to remove a tumour discovered in his abdomen during last year’s municipal election campaign. This picture was tweeted by Mr. Ford’s staff. “Ready to roll,” the picture said.. Ford checked into the hospital around 6 a.m. ET. In the hours leading up to his surgery, Ford read the day’s news and spent time speaking with his wife, Renata. Four surgeons will be involved in Ford’s operation. The surgery is the latest cancer treatment for the former Toronto mayor and the one he has been hoping for. Ford had said if chemotherapy and radiation failed to shrink the tumours to an operable size, his chance at survival was low.  An aide to the former mayor, Dan Jacobs said doctors will make two main incisions, both about 30 centimetres in size, to remove a five-centimetre tumour from Ford’s abdomen.

Tom Podolec tweeted these shots of the aftermath of a chase in the Lakeshore area following a holdup at the PharmaSave at Lake Shore Rd and Royal York Rd. The thieves rolled this vehicle nearby and police rounded up suspects. There were minor injuries.

Even as the City hears of the passing of Barbara Turnbull, the massive admiration for her unconquerable spirit lives with the anger of what happened to her that quiet evening  in September in 1983.  A happy 18-year-old making pocket money at a convenience store was gunned down at the end of a late-night shift. The website of her own foundation recalls how the unspeakable violence affected the entire country. It would come to be considered by police as the “The Barbara Turnbull Era.”  It signaled a time of random madness that still condemns us  It is a miracle that Barbara survived, much less succeeded to a productive life as a writer, friend and role model to so many.  Her foundation recalls: “While in the hospital, Barbara’s first battle was to live. She had to learn to breathe again, without the aid of a respirator. And when reality set in, she had to adjust to life paralyzed from the neck down. Ultimately Barbara lived her life as a high-level quadriplegic. The tragedy of the event spread quickly throughout the news media. Due to the tremendous newspaper and television coverage, the public responded with an unprecedented outpouring of support. Barbara received tens of thousands of letters from around the world and thousands in unsolicited donations. Over the next few years the public eye remained on Barbara. It followed her through the four-month trial of her assailants, in a case that eventually went to the Supreme Court of Canada. Barbara attended Arizona State University, graduating in 1990 with a BA in Journalism, with honours and as Valedictorian. Afterwards, Barbara joined the staff of the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper. She was hired as a general assignment reporter — a job she enjoyed to her final days in the Star’s Life department.” The Star broke the story of Barbara Turnbull’s death Sunday night saying she had died at age 50 from complications related to pneumonia. Twitter