The Bulldog

Canada Coast Guard tows tanker away from shore

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The Coast Guard vessel Gordon Reid is towing disabled Russian container ship carrying hundreds of tons of fuel away from British Columbia’s northern coast on Saturday. The move significantly lessened the threat of the ship running aground, hitting the rocks and causing a spill. The Canadian Forces’ joint rescue coordination center said the Russian carrier Simushir lost power off Haida Gwaii, also known as the Queen Charlotte Islands, as it made its way from Everett in Washington state to Russia. The Reid is backed up by a flotilla of Canadian and U.S cutters if it needs help. 

Sunnybrook to be one of 10 Ebola referral centres

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Health Minister Eric Hoskins, an MD and the member for St. Paul’s, says the government has designated ten Ontario hospitals as referral hospitals for potential Ebola cases.  Dr, Hoskins appeared this morning (Friday, October 17, 2014) at Toronto Western Hospital to make the announcement. He also said he has established a Minister’s Advisory Table for Ebola Prevention. It is intended to bring together experts who can assess the best information for executive action to prevent an Ebola outbreak. Testing for Ebola will begin in Ontario labs on October 20, he said.  The ten hospitals are Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, Hamilton Health Sciences, Health Sciences North, Hospital for Sick Children, Kingston General Hospital, London Health Sciences Centre, The Ottawa Hospital, St. Michael’s Hospital, Sunnybrook Hospital, and Toronto Western Hospital.

Jaye Robinson tells of “escape” from flooding

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Floodwater has receded across Toronto the Yonge subway is back in operation. As reported below, flooding at Lawrence station caused considerable disruption and forced the TTC to cancel service overnight while they cleaned up the station. Ward 25 Jaye Robinson has told the CBC that at some point in yesterday evening’s rain she and family members had to escape from their car by struggling through windows. Presumably this means the car would not run in the depth of water but they could walk through it nonetheless. No one was in jeopardy of drowning. The forecast for merely a millimeter of rain today (Friday, October 17, 2014).  

Flooding stops TTC Yonge trains at Lawrence

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Ward 25 Councillor Jaye Robinson is shown (left) at Lawrence subway station on the Yonge St. line this evening where flooding stopped the trains and left thousands waiting for the ever-late shuttle buses. Service is down between Eglinton and York Mills. The TTC says it has stopped service for the night to permit clean up and hopes to have the line running by morning. There is also flooding at the St. Clair West station bus loading areas. The trains are apparently running. 

Downpour causes local flooding in Leaside

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It looks just impassable in this picture tweeted by Larrisa Haluszka-Smith on Rumsey Road looking south to Eglinton Ave. E. as tonight’s downpour passed through Toronto. Elsewhere the conversation between Ilana Korn and Molly Byrd dealt with flooding caused by leaf clogged drains at Airdrie Rd. and McRae Drive. Mail your flood news from anywhere in South Bayview to The Bulldog at news@bayview-news.com. Below, Sutherland Drive south of Broadway Ave. seems to be suffering from the same water flow as Rumsey Road. Thanks Peter Baugh.

Once radical CUPW fights for door-to-door mail

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Paul Cavalluzzo

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers will challenge the federal government in court over its decision to end home mail delivery. The union will call the cancellation a violation of human rights. It is not too much to say the challenge will grip the nation. People want their mail at the door. Among many things the challenge will put CUPW squarely on the side of the people for the first time in 50 years. The union was widely disliked for decades of radical leadership and frequent strikes. Before the Internet emerged in the 1990s and put pressure on jobs, the union seemed largely indifferent to whether the mail was delivered or not. What a difference a digital revolution has brought. The CUPW challenge will be led by Toronto lawyer Paul Cavalluzzo. He is expected to file the application with the federal court next week asking the court to stop Canada Post’s termination of home delivery. Mr. Cavelluzo said he will also consider an injunction to pause the transition from home delivery to community mailboxes until the court reviews the Canada Post decision. The application will argue that elimination of home delivery contravenes the section of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that gives people the right to equality without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability. It seems a trendy type of objection. Much more rooted in law perhaps is the case that Canada Post is not empowered to make this decision Stopping the mail can only be done by Parliament, it will be argued. And there is bound to be people who want to question the business sense of any of this. Why should Canada Post stop delivering the mail when others say they can make money at it. What about limited mail delivery? Even two or three days a week would get the bills delivered. One thing is certain. The interest in retaining mail service is among the most front-of-mind issues for Canadian families.

Alive! Ottawa women cheat deadly avalanche

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A brief message hammered out to Facebook has lifted a terrible weight of grief from the relatives of two Ottawa women after it was thought they had perished along with as many as 80 others in the deadly avalanche that struck the hiking trails of Nepal. Virginia Schwartz (left) and Jane Van Criekingen have said they are okay as they, like hundreds of other survivors, attempt to get out of the avalanche zone.  The message, written by Schwartz, read: “Thank you to everyone for all the kind words and prayers, we are safe. We are trekking out of the avalanche danger zone and heading back down along the circuit. We are now in Manang on the lower side of the pass and hope to be in Pokhara in 3-4 days.” Photo: Facebook  Citizen   The Hindu

Poll: East York, “old” Toronto love John Tory

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A new Toronto mayoral shows John Tory still in the lead for mayor but contains some area results which seem, by any statistical reality, to be anomalies.  For example, Tory is shown to be ahead by 39 percent in public suppoert overall but to be trailing Doug Ford in North York by an enormous 12 percent. The North York numbers show Ford at 44 percent, Tory at 32 percent.  The Star, which sponsored the poll, also notes that the North York numbers seem odd. The breakdown in Etobicoke-York is Tory 43 percent support while Mr. Ford has 38 percent. These results may not be impossible but they have made some journalists skeptical about their accuracy. Tory is said to be doing well in what is called old Toronto and East York (including South Bayview) beating Ford by a huge margin of 44 percent to 16 percent. It will be useful in the analysis of  “Ford Nation” when the election is over to see if the differences in North York prove ture. In Sarborough, where Mr. Ford might have been expected to have a clear lead, he is ahead by a single point in this poll, 39 percent to 38 percent. City-wide, the poll shows Tory at 39 percent with Ford and Chow at 33 and 23 percent respectively. The Forum Research poll is said to have been interactive which usually means it was done by robo-call.