Month: November 2020

The Hudson’s Bay Company has struggled in recent years and the C-19 pandemic has led to a crisis of evictions and court orders for the landmark retailer. Eric Sorensen, Global News

City News has reported that an angry Adam Skelly, owner of Adamson BBQ, called a locksmith Thursday after learning that municipal officials had replaced the locks on his Etobicoke restaurant to prevent it from opening. It hardly seems likely that a locksmith will attempt to defy police but the strange drama continues to play out at the address on Queen Elizabeth Blvd.

Adam Skelly, the owner of Adamson BBQ, is facing summonses for failing to have a business license and fines and possible prison terms for opening against the law. The Municipal Licensing and Standards agency served two summonses for failing to have a business license. A conviction carries a maximum penalty of $50,000 for a corporation and $25,000 for an individual or officer/director. The City of Toronto also said Wednesday night that it has also taken action on five breaches of the Reopening Ontario Act and the Health Protection and Promotion Act by Toronto Public Health.

Prison term of not more than a year in Reopening Act

Under the Reopening Ontario Act, following a conviction, the Court may impose penalties in the form of a fine of not more than $100,000 and a term of imprisonment of not more than one year. An individual who is an officer or director of a corporation is subject to a fine of not more than $500,000 and for a term of imprisonment of not more than one year. A corporation is subject to a fine of not more than $10,000,000. News release

Locks changed early Thursday

The locks were changed overnight and police are on scene to prevent an Etobicoke barbecue restaurant that has openly defied COVID-19 restrictions from opening its dining room for a third straight day, a Toronto city official said Thursday. CBC

The Ontario government alleges that four of its employees, members of the same family, defrauded it of at least $11 million in C-19 relief money. The unproven civil claim accuses them of illegally issuing and banking cheques under the Support for Families Program. The program aimed to defray the cost of children learning at home. The husband and wife and two sons are all computer specialists.

Family opened 400 bank accounts

The suit alleges the family opened 400 bank accounts and deposited around 10,000 cheques made out to fictitious applicants. One of them, Sanjay Madan, was a senior bureaucrat who helped develop the application for applying and approving the benefit. A lawyer for the family says he can’t comment because the matter is before the courts. Canadian Press

Adamson BBQ owner Adam Skelly orders City News reporter Adrian Ghobrial off the property

Adam Skelly, the owner of Adamson BBQ, has loudly ordered City News off the property of his restaurant at 7 Queen Elizabeth Blvd in Etobicoke Wednesday. The scene outside the restaurant has the quality of a somewhat whacky carnival as seen in the video posted by City. Mr. Skelly’s opposition to the government’s C-19 lockdown order has seen him try to open again the day after he was closed by bylaw officers. The City reporter,  Adrian Ghobrial, had said that some of those wandering the site were anti-mask and anti-vaccine protesters. Moments before being thrown off the property, Ghobrial said he had witnessed “white nationalists” welcomed there.

The periodic Alert Ready national warning in English and French has rolled across the country with informative and frightening effect on hapless citizens everywhere. But it seems reasonable that a day may come when such an alert is helpful and we must all hope it doesn’t appear in the form of an asteroid the size of Oakville.

Megan Markle has written an article for the New York Times telling of a miscarriage this summer. Then, Scotland becomes the first country to make sanitary products free. Below that, Canadian spy wonks probe the money movements of an Iranian citizen living here. Finally, the gripping rescue of a woman from her sunken vehicle after she fell asleep and drove it into the Mahoning River in Alliance, Ohio.

Interest is high this Wednesday in a long, long exchange between members about Conspiracy Pizza in the wake of Tuesday’s closure of Adamson BBQ for violation of lockdown rules. The owners of Conspiracy, which shares space with Adamson on Wicksteed Ave., have been at pains to distance themselves from the rebellious position taken by Adamson on this matter. FB

Taken from Leaside backyard/Facebook

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Bump unexplained

A check of the Toronto Interactive C-19 map reveals that recent incidents of the infection show an increase from the last summary posted here on November 8. These numbers are seen when the Interactive Map is set to simple cases recorded within the past three weeks. There’s a notable bump of cases in Leaside Bennington, an event so far unexplained. There are also substantial increases in Flemingdon Park and Thorncliffe Park, The November 8 numbers are in brackets. Yonge Eglinton, 19 (5) Forest Hill South 12 (3) Mt. Pleasant East 8 (6) Rosedale Moore Park 18 (16) Leaside Bennington 40 (7) Mt. Pleasant West 22 (19) Flemingdon Park 112 (55) Thorncliffe Park 128 (97).

1,373 cases reported in Ontario Wednesday

The Ministry of Health reports 1,373 new cases of C-19 for the 24-hour period ending at midnight. Nearly 1,000 of them are in the GTA.  There are 445 new cases in Toronto, 415 in Peel and 136 in York Region.

CTV commentator Evan Soloman reviews a Trudeau news conference Tuesday in which the PM reminded Canadians that the wait for a virus vaccine, and for the new Eli Lilly therapy drug for C-19, is an issue that may be related to the nation’s lack of a full-up pharmaceutical industry. There was a time when Connaught Laboratories made vaccines at the U of T on Spadina Rd. But the firm was sold off by the government in 1984 to French purchasers. At the same time, Trudeau assured the country that large purchases of vaccines from several makers will be delivered. The Lilly drug is helpful in preventing people with mild to moderate COVID-19 from getting sicker.

Adam Skelly has been recorded grinning happily and nodding his head to the beat of rebel music as bylaw officers arrived Tuesday to shut down his lockdown rebellion at the Etobicoke Adamson BBQ at 7 Queen Elizabeth Blvd. His publicity show, announced on Instagram, occurred on a day when the Ontario virus count went a little haywire.