Police are warning residents near Joel Weeks Parkette, 10 Thompson St., northwest Queen East and Broadview Ave., that several dogs have apparently been poisoned in the green space west of Leslieville. As a result of an investigation, police are concerned that an undetermined poison may have been left within the park area and that it has the potential to harm children and small animals. The delivery method for the harmful substance is unknown at this time. They ask for the public’s assistance in identifying any person or persons responsible for the possible dispersal of this harmful substance.

No winning ticket was sold for the $5 million jackpot in Saturday night’s Lotto 649 draw. However, the guaranteed $1 million prize went to a ticket holder in British Columbia. The jackpot for the next Lotto 649 draw on Aug. 28 will be approximately $7 million.

Oscar

Heartwarming posts Saturday tell of a community effort to identify Oscar and get him home to his family. Oscar was found at the Esso station at Village Station Rd. and Millwood Rd. He apparently galloped from Crothers Woods near the Redway Rd. Loblaws. An identifying tipoff was the two dots that sit midway along Oscar’s brown and white coat. Then, of course, a check of the chip made it official. He is a handsome guy with a distinguished colour-coordinated nose. FB

Last Northern White Rhinos

Electric power from urine?

Bicycle lane pop on Danforth/CityNews

Scientists have harvested the eggs of the world’s two remaining Northern White Rhino females so that they may be fertilized by the frozen sperm of the now-extinct males of the species. Then, those Australians are at it again with a scheme to recharge your cell phone with your urine. No really, this is science. Below that, Hong Kong democracy demonstrators link arms to demand the freedom that China promised Taiwan — two systems, one country. None deserve freedom more than these brave people. Lastly, you be the judge of this vision of Danforth Ave. as offered by pop-up cycle folks this weekend.

North American stock markets plummeted Friday after President Trump angrily told businesses to “immediately start looking for an alternative to China,” although it’s unclear what authority he has to make this happen. China ratcheted up the trade war this week by announcing tariff hikes on US$75 billion of American goods including some agricultural products, crude oil and small aircraft in retaliation to US tariffs. China will also boost import duties on U.S.-made autos and auto parts. The Toronto index fell 215, the Dow dropped 624 and the NASDAQ 239.

No winning ticket was sold for the $30 million jackpot in Friday night’s Lotto Max draw. That means the jackpot for the next draw on Aug. 27 will grow to approximately $40 million

New Davisville School scheduled to open in Fall of 2021/Bulldog

The foundation of the new Davisville Public School and Spectrum School is nearing completion on Davisville Ave. near Yonge St. At the top is a shot looking west. The photo below looks toward Millwood from Yonge. New Davisville school to open in 2021 not 2020 as intended

Looking north to Millwood Rd/Bulldog

Once again this summer residents of north Leaside are commenting in concern, sympathy and confusion over the appearance and reality of a ragged, homeless man seen almost daily in the neighborhood. The long thread of well over 100 comments was deleted after a day. It was started by a man who reasonably does not like the way the man stares at his wife. Others use the term “completely harmless” and so it may be but the perplexing question of appearance and reality remains. Poignent meeting with ragged man who refused all offerings

A woman has died a horrifying death trapped in a car pinned beneath a burning tractor-trailer on the QEW near Oakville. The woman, 34, was found after flames were extinguished. Several others were injured in the multi-vehicle collision in the Toronto-bound lanes. Eleven lanes of the Toronto-bound QEW were closed at Trafalgar Road.

The Leaside Property Owners Association has taken up the cause of neighbours on McRae Drive opposite Trace Manes Park who are opposing a box style replacement home at 158 McRae. A petition has been started. In an appeal to residents Friday Geoff Kettel and Carol Burton Fripp, co-presidents, say the out-of-character box will spoil the look of the street and dwarf its neighbors. In recent years large box homes have made inroads into streets in South Leaside, Bennington Heights and elsewhere.

LPOA mail Friday

“Do you ever marvel at the view across McRae Drive from the playground at Trace Manes Park – soon to be revitalized as the Georgia Walsh playground – to the row of houses making up the block from Crandall to Field? These seven houses in Revival style are all the same, yet all different. This iconic Leaside streetscape is threatened by the proposed teardown of just one of the houses – 158 McRae Drive – and its replacement with a large modern box with flat roof. The new home, if approved by the Committee of Adjustment next Thursday, will be wider, higher and deeper than any of the other homes on the block. It will dwarf the adjacent homes and simply not “fit”, as seen in the drawing attached to the application. The application for this new house and the variances to the zoning by-law that it requires will be heard at the North York Committee of Adjustment on Thursday August 29th at 9.30am. If like the Leaside Property Owners Assn you are concerned about this please contact the LPOA at info@lpoa.ca.”

In what seems like an unheard-of decision, the RCMP have told CBC reporter David Common of “imminent” plans to arrest Canadian perpetrators in the infamous CRA tax scam racket. The enormous fraud, which has cost gullible taxpayers millions of dollars, is operated out of boiler rooms in India. Many of those have been busted already but the scheme apparently requires Canadian accomplices to help launder the money. Thursday’s unusual release to Mr. Common raises suspicion that the Mounties are trying to spook suspects here.

Canadian Press says that the editor of the East-York based Your Ward News has been sentenced to a year in jail for publishing hate. James Sears seems likely to serve about six months of that sentence before release. Sears, 55, had argued that his lawyer had purposely thrown the case but the judge disagreed. The paper’s publisher, LeRoy St. Germaine, will be sentenced next week.