The blog Consumerist says two vestiges of the early Internet will soon be lost to history. Verizon is about to submerge Yahoo and AOL under one, new brand name: Oath. It says Business Insider first reported that the name changes will take place once Verizon finishes its billion-dollar acquisition of Yahoo’s core internet businesses and merges those assets with fellow dotcom bronze ager AOL, which Verizon acquired in 2015. Consumerist
A man in his 80s was pulled from a flaming home on Hatfield Crescent in northern Etobicoke Monday afternoon. He is in grave condition in hospital. The fire broke out at the modest bungalow near Islington Avenue and Highway 401 about 5 p.m.
NHL owners have decided to take their teams and go home. The league announced Monday that for the first time since 1994 it will not shut down for three weeks to permit players to head off to the Winter Olympics in 2018. The games are to be held in PeongChng, South Korea. Now will come the groaning about who will defend the preeminence of Canada against countries which rely less on the NHL for their national teams. CBC
MALALA
Malala Yousafzai will address Parliament on April 12 on the occasion of receiving her honorary citizenship of this country. Malala is the courageous Pakistani girl who was shot by the Taliban and went on to be named co-winner of the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her work to promote the rights of girls. The decision to bestow honorary Canadian citizenship was made in 2014 by the previous government. CBC
TRUMP SALARY
It isnt as if he needs it, but Donald Trump will go ahead with his previously announced decision to donate this presidential salary, about $400,000, to the National Parks Service. NBC
The Ontario Superior Court has approved random drug testing of drivers and motormen at the TTC. The decision was handed down by associate chief justice Frank Marrocco Monday. The proposal to do such testing was vigorously opposed by the Amalgamated Transit Union, which said it would cause irreparable psychological harm to employees. The TTC said it will begin the random tests within days. Judge Marrocco said he was persuaded the TTC has “demonstrated (a) workplace drug and alcohol problem at the TTC which is currently hard to detect and verify.” The transit union had called random testing to be “among the most intrusive forms of personal surveillance” and said it encroached on employee privacy.
The Leaside Community Blood Donor Clinic takes place on Wednesday, April 5 from 2 to 7 p.m. at Northlea Public School, 305 Rumsey Rd. This is the time to make your visit efficient by calling to book an appointment. 1-888-2 DONATE: 1-888-236-6283 or visit www.blood.ca.
Airline pilot Miroslav Gronych, the drunk captain of a Sunwing flight to Cancun, has been sentenced to eight months in jail in Calgary. He pleaded guilty last month to having care and control of an aircraft while he had a blood alcohol level that was three times the legal limit. Previous
OTHER STORIES:
NOW online has published a loving description of Davisville Junior Public School by Richard Longley in which he argues that it should be saved rather than demolished. Parents want it replaced with a modern school which would be safer, more comfortable, include a local community centre and easily accommodate more children. These are the reasons why the Toronto District School Board intends to tear down DPS. It is described by Mr. Longley as a striking example of mid-century modern style. The architect saw such buildings, says Longley, as “launch pads into a brave new world for children of the baby boom.” Well that was then. Today people like Davisville principal Shona Farrelly are more concerned that primary kids will launch themselves through the gaps between the open stairs Parents and educators in 2017 think of Davisville School as a woefully self-indulgent expression of the Hall-Dennis era. That’s the feel-good movement which created a generation of Ontario children who couldn’t spell. The embarrassingly named “playful windows” are tiny bits of fun which permit almost no ventilation. They’re simply stupid. Nothing personal to our playful architects.
People may wish to take what caution they can to protect known areas of flooding in the period from Tuesday to Friday. The forecast rainfall is published by the Weather Network
Ten tenants at the apartment building at 42 Glen Elm Avenue are facing eviction because they refuse to accept an offer to move their storage lockers to a nearby building (plus a $25 reduction in rent) so that the landlord can proceed with an expansion at the midtown building. It sits at the end of Glen Elm, east off Yonge Street near Alvin Ave north of St.Clair. The CBC story says many of the tenants accepted the landlord’s offer. But the ten are being summoned to the Landlord and Tenant court and may be evicted.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms in Alberta has warned the Nova Scotia Registrar of Motor Vehicles that it will face “legal steps” if it doesn’t reinstate Lorne Grabher’s personalized license plate by Thursday (April 6). Grabher, and his father before him, had the plate for decades before it was seen by a woman who made a complaint that it offended her. The Nova Scotia government agreed that the plate could be seen as a socially unacceptable slogan. In its letter, the Justice Centre said that decision was “an affront to the dignity of Canadians, and particularly those Canadians who are not of Anglo-Saxon descent.” Justice Centre president John Carpay said the decision represented “pandering to an unreasonable complaint.” He said the cancellation perpetuated misunderstanding, subverted the dignity and heritage of Lorne Grabher and many other Canadians and that it violated the freedom of expression protected by the Charter. Previous
Donald Trump has talked about “dealing with North Korea” if the Chinese are unable or unwilling to do so. This comes a few days before President Xi Jinping meets with Trump in Florida. It may be an empty threat but this CNN report says that if the US put sanctions on Chinese companies that do business with both the US and North Korea, the Chinese would feel it. To the right, the CBC has talked to the Filipino girlfriend of Robert Hall, one of two Canadians beheaded by ISIS last year in the remote jungle hideaway of this bloodthirsty gang. The Canadian government made a lot of noise at the time about hunting down the knife-wielding killers, but nothing much has been done it seems. Below that, Brexit is causing Spain to talk about reclaiming Gibraltar. That has some MPs recalling the Margaret Thatcher invasion of the Falkland Islands after Argentina grabbed them away in 1982. And Christians in Iraq have returned to a church where ISIS used the courtyard for a firing range. Worse than Islamophobia, it seems.
A man from the interior of British Columbia is selling a 5-acre property which is home to 340 vintage cars at Tappen on Shuswap Lake about 300 kilometres east of Vancouver. Michael Hall began collecting cars 40 years ago. He remarks wryly that for the $1.45 million dollar list price, a condo owner in Vancouver can sell his place and come to Tappen with money to spare, plus get a lifetime of work on old cars. The five-acre listing comes complete with a renovated home, property zoned for auto salvage, a 900-square-foot restoration shop, a 1,200-square-foot steel building and the 340 vintage cars ready to be restored. Hall has been getting about 15 inquiries a day.
