Interesting CBC report on studies at the U of T and in British Columbia which show that gender is the single-most important factor when it comes to safe cycling.

Friends and admirers of Kenneth W. Reucassel wait to pay respects

Ken Reucassel

Friends, mourners and admirers of Kenneth W. Reucassel stood in line outside the Humphrey Funeral Home Wednesday to pay respects to the Lawrence Park man. Mr. Reucassel died November 5, 2015 at home at the age of 51 after a protracted illness. At the second of two visitations this day  mourners stood on Bayview Ave. and around the corner onto St. Cuthberts Road to await a chance to enter.  Mr. Reucassel was President and CEO of the International Group and a member of the Boards of the Beaumaris Yacht Club, Caledon Ski Club and Timothy Eaton Memorial Church. (November 11, 2015).  Obituary

An honour guard RCAF personnel and RCMP officers lead the Remembrance Day party into the cenotaph Wednesday morning at Sunnybrook Hospital.  Below, school children lay wreaths at the services remember Canada’s fallen warriors. More pictures here (Sue Byford)

The social media firm Tsu (pronounced Sue) does a calculation on what it earns from its members content and pays them back a portion of that revenue. Facebook doesn’t like that it seems and has deleted posts which link back to Tsu. Associated Press 

The New York State attorney general has ordered the two biggest daily fantasy sports companies, DraftKings and FanDuel, to stop accepting bets from New York residents. It says the games represent illegal gambling under state law. It is a body blow to the games, which insist they are based on skill. But the amounts of money are enormous and the attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, says the vast majority of those playing lose. Sounds a bit like Lotto 649 and in that sense cynics may see this as government gambling protecting its turf against private gambling. In any case, it is a major blow to a multibillion-dollar industry that introduced sports betting to legions of young sports fans and has formed partnerships with many of the nation’s professional sports teams

This was the scene before dawn at Sunnybrook Hospital on Bayview Ave. as volunteers and relatives placed flags to greet waking veterans on this Remembrance Day.  The weather is wet but there is warmth and kindness for men and women who sacrificed their lives for Canada. About 30,000 flags will be placed on the hospital’s lawn in preparation for an official ceremony.

The new prime minister and his wife Sophie appeared at the We Day rally in the Canadian Tire Centre in Kanata. They both spoke at length with Ms. Trudeau-Gregoire referring to the PM as “my hubby”.  The home of the Senators, with a capacity of 20,000, held 16,000 kids and teachers for this event. Quite a lot of Trudeaumania going on here.

City Council has approved the name change of Markham Ave. to Stickney Way. Leaside Chit Chat 

The strange, penny ante behaviour of someone trying create mischief at City Hall has been caught on video. The capture above show the man. He has struck twice according to police. On October 25 a man tied two capped syringes to the front doors of City Hall using blue rubber ribbons. This incident was captured on security cameras and posted by police on YouTube. On November 1 someone looking like the same man did it again. The syringes are capped and thus unable to puncture anything. The suspect is described as white, with dark hair in a “puffy” ponytail. He was wearing black pants with either a red stripe or red writing down the side of each leg. Police said he was also carrying a dark backpack. It’s unlikely this guy is the sharpest knife in the drawer.

The Fight for $15 movement in the U.S. is on the streets of many major cities today (Tuesday, November 10, 2015) demanding the new minimum wage for all 12 million fast food workers in the country. At present, their median wage if 9.20 an hour. Ontario’s minimum wage (in Canadian dollars) has just risen $11.25 an hours, second highest the country. Part of the strategy of the rallies is to influence the 2016 presidential election, which is one year away.  Most minimum wage employees do not vote.

Five Grade Nine students at Northern Secondary School have won gold medals as the winning team in the midget girls category at the Ontario Federation of School Athletic Associations Cross Country Race. The three kilometre event was run Saturday in muddy farm fields at Duntroon, a crossroads on the route to Collingwood. It was particularly perilous, the Northern runners report, on downhill portions of the course. Footing was chancy and some of the competitors were not wearing spiked shoes. They arrived at the finish line smothered in mud. It had, said Northern’s Alex Weir, a few runners ready to just go home. But the NSS team had come to run. You don’t give up when you have been practicing a sport since elementary school. Coach Michael Chapman explained that the final triumph was electronically calculated by digital chips embedded in the bibs worn by each runner. Great work ladies. Photo left to right (rear) Eve Boyer, Parker Hopkins, Alex Weir (front) Ireland Robertson, Zoe Lexovsky. The South Bayview Bulldog