Fiona Crean, the City Ombud, has produced a report saying that the City’s security staff acted more like personal security for the mayor during the tenure of Rob Ford. She says the City’s management was slow to react as Ford evidently directed guards to protect him from the media when he was drunk. Sure. It was crummy and a disgrace to the City. But Ford is gone and make no mistake, he was the problem. Few security guards would dare tell the elected mayor of Toronto to take his problems elsewhere. What’s the point of this report? Inside Baseball meet Inside City Hall.
UN chief Moon trumps tubby tyrant on Putin guest list
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Who’s invited and who’s not. The tubby tyrant of Pyongyang is not — invited to Moscow that is, for the commemoration of the victory of Soviet forces over Germany. But Ban Ki Moon, the South Korean patrician who is also the head of the United Nations is invited. Really not a surprise especially since Moon no doubt told Putin that he would be staying in Manhattan if that worm Kim Jung-un was invited
TTC stick-up “hobby” is going to come to a bad end
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Someone has a hobby that is going to come to a bad end. He’s robbing TTC collector booths and has hit four times in the past few weeks. A TTC collector working at Donlands subway station was robbed at gunpoint early Tuesday. Robberies have occurred at Chester, Danforth and Rosedale stations as well.
“Weekend visitors” turn Calgary home into a sewer
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This story is so terrible and yet so compelling. There is an online space rental service called Airbnb. A Calgary couple rented their home to four people who “were just in town for the weekend.” Just like visitors. Not really. The home has been reduced to a sewer of filth and destruction. Watch this CBC report.
Life in the Big City: Teen shot and Chief beset on carding
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Town houses on Empringham
On a day when the new Police Chief, Mark Saunders, met with members of the African Canadian Summit there was a sniper-type shooting in the Malvern neighborhood of Scarborough. Call it life in the Big City. A boy, 15, who is being stone cold silent with the cops about who shot him was hit in a leg. Police are looking for suspects in the drive-by gun play. It happened near some town houses on Empringham Drive. The shooters didn’t even bother to get out their black car. It is assumed they know the injured youth. Back at the African Summit, Chief Saunders was assailed for saying that the elimination of the practice of carding is not the answer to safer streets and in fact, said the chief, it would lead to more crime. These remarks set fire to a tinderbox of anger about racism and human rights at the Summit. As is frequently the case, there was no reportage today about whether carding as it practiced by the Toronto Police actually works, although the chief seems to think that it does.
Spring Into Action Walk and Run is Saturday, May 2
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The 10th Annual Spring Into Action Walk and Run for diabetes will jump off from Sunnybrook Park Saturday, May, 2, 2015. There are several events — a 2k run for kids and 5 and 10k for grownups. It is a thoroughgoing workout. Registration is at 9 a.m. and Yoga between 9 and 10 a.m. The walks and runs begin at 9.50 a.m. There is a post-run BBQ beginning at 11 a.m. There are kids activities, stretch station, Spring Sunrise Yoga Wake-up, energizing warm-up, vendor marketplace, gift bags, Car Displays, BBQ, Popcorn Machine, Food & Refreshments, Vendor Market, Medals, Trophy, Photo Booth, Rest Area, Live Music, Entertainment, Henna, Face Painting, Kids Zone and Bouncy Castle. Also, Menchie Mascot, Fresh Juices, O Canada, Group Portrait Start Line. This year again organizers will be using Chip-Time technology. This technology records accurate race time.
Para Pan Am Games uniforms from The Bay revealed
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Tinto Bar Tapas on Bayview open at 3 p.m. Thurs to Sun.
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Otta Zapotocky, genial host of Tinto Bar de Tapas at 1581 Bayview Ave., says you can now catch the sun while savouring Tinto Tapas wine and goodies. The patio and restaurant will be open at 3 p.m. all through the summer from Thursday to Sunday.
Wynne cabinet to study what Ontario Pension will cost
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The Ontario Finance Ministry will conduct a cost-benefit analysis of the province’s proposed supplemental defined benefit plan as part of a bill approved Wednesday (April 29, 2015) by the Ontario Legislature. The bill forms the administrative foundation of the Ontario Retirement Pension Plan, which is expected to begin in January 2017. ORPP would be a supplement to the C$238.8 billion ($194.9 billion) Canada Pension Plan, Ottawa. The cost-benefit analysis must be submitted to the provincial Legislature by December 31, 2015 according to the bill. The analysis will presumably inform the government and the public on just how much a plan will cost. The idea of an Ontario Pension is popular with some wage earners but feared by business as another slush fund for spending. The story is in Pensions and Investments, a publication of the U.S-based specialty publisher Crain.
Bennington Rolph Road soccer looking to Fall 2015 season
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Bennington Rolph Road Soccer Association is accepting registrations for September 2015. While the Fall may seem a long way off, the league needs the lead time to ensure it orders adequate uniforms and rent sufficient field space. BRRSA is a community-based volunteer-run soccer house league for girls and boys aged five to 13 years, a great league for those who aren’t available for summer soccer! The season runs for six weeks in the fall, starting the first week of school. A tournament is held for all but the youngest age group at the end of the regular season. Games are played on the school fields at Rolph Road and Bennington Heights. The league is run completely by volunteers and is not-for-profit. The deadline for registrations is June 19th. Visit the league’s website for more info and to register: www.benningtonrolphsoccer.ca
Stay tuned for just where spacecraft M-27M will land
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Orioles vs Sox in empty stadium as sirens wail in distance
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It was a perfect day for a baseball game today but there was nobody in the stands in Baltimore today when the Orioles played the Chicago White Sox. Why? The police effort required to secure fans in the stadium would have placed too great a stress on hard-pressed officers dealing with the downtown rioting. They say the atmosphere was eerie as the lonely crack of the bat contrasted silence in the park and emergency sirens in the distance. New York Times.