Update @AirCanada #AC623 landing gear went off runway into grass after landing. Mud all over the plane. Busses on scene for pax. #Toronto pic.twitter.com/auCvZ6xXLy
— Tom Podolec Aviation (@TomPodolec) February 25, 2017
Air Canada #623 from Halifax blew a tire on landing at Toronto Friday. There was a scary moment or two as the plane slid off the runway. No one was hurt.
No train service on Line 1 from St George & Downsview. Extra service added to all east and westbound surface routes. #TTC pic.twitter.com/AJ8cweNDcU
— TTC Service Alerts (@TTCnotices) February 25, 2017
It was a sold-out event again Friday night at Charlene Kalia’s benefit Laugh Out Loud in Leaside. The William Lea Room was full as friends turned out to support the Maddie Project, a charity helping teens struggling with depression.
The glow in the west-end Toronto sky last night and early Saturday was caused by yellow grow-lights installed over the grass at BMO Field at Exhibition Place. They are on a lot but the misty skies seemed to accentuate the effect. Now you know.
A large sinkhole has shut down South Kingsway between Bloor St. West and The Queensway. The road opened up at South Kingsway and Morningside Avenue, a street with the same name as a thoroughfare on the other side of the City. The sinkhole may be caused by a water main break.
Donald Trump blocked CNN and the New York Times from attending a White House “gaggle” Friday. A gaggle is a variation on a scrum, reporters gathered in a gang to hear from a politician or someone else who has something to say. He shouldn’t have done it. This is not because democracy will live or die because of it. But kicking out reporters you don’t like is petty and, in the end, self-defeating. It does not, as some claim, stop anyone from questioning Trump’s message.
The picture of a parking enforcement car dumped on Belsize Drive in brazen disregard of the no parking sign says it all. Forget whether you think the City is running a cynical cash grab with its parking program. Opinion may differ on that. But there is no question that the person who parked this car is breaking the law, doing it purposefully and with the complicity of fellow police personnel who choose to let him/her do it. These are simple facts. It is behaviour for which anyone else would be ticketed, perhaps even towed. It would not do to say that you had just stopped for a minute or two (you know, to issue a few parking tickets for the kids). No, you would get the ticket and pay it because after all, you would not have a leg to stand on in court. The police and their political masters on City Council should have no surprise about the reasonable resentment and in some cases distrust of the police that flows from practices like this.
The traffic lights at Mt. Pleasant Rd. and Soudan Ave were flashing red Friday afternoon. The rules of the road require drivers to treat the intersection as a four-way stop when this happens. But multi-lane streets don’t lend themselves to this polite protocol. Pedestrians have no idea what to do.
Surprised naturalists who were using a drone to record the action at the Siberian Tiger Park in China’s Heilongjiang province have had their flying camera snatched out of the sky and destroyed by the curious animals. One tiger showed remarkable energy in leaping up to bat the drone to the ground. The tigers tried to eat it. Then it caught fire. Altogether quite a disappointment for the big cats and the drone owner. In 2016, the World Wildlife Fund announced that for the first time in a century the population of tigers in the wild rose, getting a 20 percent boost in numbers since 2010.
The highly-secret reasons for the removal of Vice Admiral Mark Norman from his position of vice-chief of the defense staff will be challenged in court by none other than Marie Henein, the ace lawyer who guided broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi to a complete acquittal last year. Henein is saying today that her client is a victim of “bureaucratic crossfire” and stresses the need for a rapid resolution to the charges. She notes his 30 years of honourable service to the country. At the time of the vice admiral’s suspension, the CBC wrote a story which hinted broadly the government was alleging that he had somehow helped a firm competing for a shipbuilding contract. Canada is in the midst of deciding what type of new frigates it needs.
Urban Toronto reports on a huge proposal at 319-323 Jarvis Street that has been submitted to the City’s planning department. It asks for bylaw amendment to allow a 50-storey mixed-use condominium with retail at grade, three levels of underground parking and 506 residential units. Designed by Page+Steele/IBI Group, the project would replace the existing Comfort Inn, as well as the commercial low-rise building immediately to the north. The mixed-use component of the project includes a 226 m² retail space at ground level.
