Sophie Rizavas

A North York grandmother who works four jobs including as a hospital cleaning woman, has won the $50 million Lotto Max draw. Sophie Rizavas and her husband came to Canada from Greece in 1970 and have both worked here the entire time. She dropped into the corner store to check her numbers on Saturday and was unable to  believe the huge winning jackpot that spun out in front of her eyes. The man who helped process her winning ticket was crying and gave her a big hug, Rizavas said,  She and her husband, Tom, announced the win to the family at dinner on Mother’s Day. Ms. Rizavas says a family vacation is the first thing on their list. “We’ve never had a proper family vacation. We’ve tried over the years but someone always had to stay home to work.” She noted the coincidence of the date. “My husband and I came to Canada from Greece on May 10, 1970, and 44 years later, May 10, 2014, we find out that we are multimillionaires.”

A promotion for what must be the umpty-jillionth film appearance of Godzilla has a sliced up TTC car — one of the old Bombardier numbers — poking up out of the street (or seeming to) on Yonge St. near Elm St. The movie opens the middle of this month so there’s no time to lose. Run for your life! That’s the way it’s been with Godzilla, a product of the fertile minds of Japanese monster-makers in the post-war world of movie escapism. This TTC subway car comes with some nice accessories — like old mattresses and what not to keep the car in place No seriously, it was apparently torched into two pieces on an angle at some factory in Hamilton to create the effect of “the tube train from down there.” Lots of fun. Gareth Edwards, the director of Godzilla, and some of the cast will be appearing at the disaster scene Thursday night ahead of the movie’s premier at the Yonge-Dundas IMAX. Destruction enthusiasts will be allowed to pose with the wreckage until Sunday, when the whole thing will be dismantled. Warner Bros. is also producing a short film about the promotion.  Wikipedia notes on Godzilla are fun too. 

Broadview Hotel  now and 1945

The Broadview Hotel on Queen Street East at Broadview Ave has been bought for restoration by Streetcar Developments, a Toronto company  dedicated to this type of work. The imposing 1893 Romanesque-style building has been notable in recent decades only for its rundown condition and as the home of Jilly’s Strip Club. In a news release Tuesday (May 13, 2014) Streetcar says it will not be turning the Riverdale landmark into condominiums but will rather be “focusing all our efforts on making the building safe and restoring it to reflect its place in Toronto’s history.” The company’s CEO,  Les Mallins “We will first be focusing all our efforts on making the building safe and restoring it to reflect its place in Toronto’s history,” he added. Since at least 2004, rumours have circulated that the building will be bought and renovated to become a version of the Drake or the Gladstone, boutique hotel/bar/performance art venues on Queen St. W. So far, however, there are no signs of this actually happening. Still operating as a hotel, the lower floor is Jilly’s, “a rough and tumble strip club.” (Wikipedia). The operation was the scene of a barmaid stabbing in the early 1990s. 

Amanda Ferguson at the clean-up

Toronto Fire and Health Department workers dressed in white hazmat suits have spent the day clearing a nightmare combination of cats feces and combustible junk from a home on Beech Ave. in the Beach neighborhood this Monday. A court order was obtained by the city to enter and begin to make the home safe for human habitation.  The residence has been the target of years of complaints, according to neighbors, because of countless cats and their stench, garbage, newspapers, cardboard, wood, blankets and other discarded objects overflowing onto the front yard. The cleanup crew looked much like those who cleared a hoarders home in Manor Rd earlier this year. They said the amount of combustible materials lying around was well above standards set by the Ontario Fire Code. Reporter Amanda Ferguson of City-tv said this house has been the focus of other raids. In the fall, some 47 cats were taken from the property. Today, she said, was an attempt to make the place fit for humans to stay in. The National Post reported that cat feces was three inches thick in some places in the basement. The occupant of the home is present and entreating city officials to let her keep certain items which she hopes to sell. 

An Oshawa woman turned herself in to police following a hit and run accident on Dundas Street West in Kensington Market Saturday morning. Karen Fyfe, 31, responded to police appeals for the driver to give up. They have seized a 2005 silver Pontiac Grand Prix like the one shown. The victim, Jay McGinn, 28 (inset) is suffering life-threatening injuries. He was waiting to enter a taxi on the driver’s side as the previous fare was unloading at Dundas Street at Augusta Avenue at around 2:30 a.m. He was hit by a westbound vehicle that fled the scene. Friends said McGinn was out celebrating his girlfriend’s birthday when he was struck by the car. Nigel Dunn, who claims to have witnessed the incident early Saturday morning, said the victim was thrown about 40 feet in the air after he was struck by a female driver. “She noticed us and she continued onto the lights there. As she approached the lights, it turned into a red light. She stopped, waited for the light to turn green and then continued on,” he said. 

Mohammed Harkat

The question before the people of Canada is whether they want to permit people who may be bent on the destruction of our society to live here, even though authorities cannot prove intent by the strictest tests of our 1,000 year old book of British law. It’s a big volume full of magnificence and mistakes compiled and handed down by lawmakers ranging from the Barons of Magna Carta to Chief Justice Bora Laskin. Now citizens are again going to be exposed — if not exactly treated — to another rendering of this vexing challenge as the case of Mohammed Harkat goes back to the Supreme Court for a second time.  Harkat is an Algerian-born terrorist suspect who came here from Pakistan in 1995. He had no authority to do so but in those days it was easy to say you were a refugee from certain torture if you were sent back. Among other things, he delivered pizza. It’s honest work. But successive governments, both Liberal and Conservative, have insisted that Harkat came here as a sleeper agent of Al Qaeda. For all we know, that may be right — or wrong. How do you like your chances so far at protecting yourself and upholding our principles of justice at the same time? The security act, which pre-dates 9/11, has been re-written to try to plug some of the holes found by the Supreme Court the last time it pondered this matter.  But this weekend the court said it will hear again the contention of Harkat’s lawyers that he is not sufficiently protected from arbitrary Canadian determination to deport him.