Toronto Raptors are NBA champions after a hard-fought Game 6 loaded with turnovers in the lead but ending 114-110. TSN summary

Ha ha

Larry O’Brien NBA championship trophy

Hamilton Police say a young man, 21, crashed into a utility pole at a rural intersection northwest of the City near the hamlet of Lynden (pop 500). He escaped injury in the 3.30 a.m. single-car crash but died instantly when he unknowingly touched or stepped on a high-voltage wire that had come down in the crash. This occurred at the remote intersection of Woodhill Road and Concession 4 West in Flamborough Township, part of Hamilton. The victim has been identified as a resident of Lynden. No cause is given for the accident.

Archive picture of scene of the accident at Woodhill Rd. and Concession 4 of Flamborough Township

A committee of MPs who probed bus-passenger safety in Canada has decided not to call for seatbelts to be installed on school buses, urging further study instead. The committee heard evidence about the cost of seat belt retrofitting (between $8,000 and $20,000 a bus) the cost of time making sure belts are fastened in a group of children and the liability of drivers if a child is somehow unbuckled, even of his own doing, while the bus is rolling. But on the topic of whether belts will actually save lives, the MPs choked. They said vaguely that seat belts are “not the only solution to ensuring safety.” The CBC story here does not name what, if anything, the MPs had in mind.

Emily Seal

Emily Seal, a Grade 12 student at Northern Secondary School, has been awarded the 2019 Ian Shaw Memorial Scholarship by the Leaside Wildcats. The $500 prize, to be used against the cost of advanced education, was given in acknowledgment of Emily’s maturity, commitment, and dedication to the sport and community. Emily played for the Wildcats in Grade 12 while also refereeing and supporting her school as an executive member of the Girls’ Athletic Association and as a member of the Student Council. “Emily has always represented the Leaside organization well, with her enthusiasm for the game and her respect for other players, coaches and officials,” said Emily’s coach, Matthew Brandt.

Fingers crossed and all that. Mayor Tory has released this photoshopped image of him mimicking Drake’s iconic 2016 Views album cover with the mayor himself on top of the CN Tower in his Raptors jacket. A map of Game 6 road closures is available at http://bit.ly/MLSEPlayoffs2019. MLSE says it will make a determination at 5 p.m. this afternoon whether or not to move Jurassic Park indoors to Scotiabank Arena due to weather conditions.

Mayor ever-optimistic (Twitter / @JohnTory)

The mayor also revealed he will need Achilles tendon surgery for an injury suffered about six weeks ago. The temptation to discuss this in context with basketball prevailed. “I just found out yesterday that I am going to have to have surgery on it so I was thinking that I am going to have to go down and talk to KD and see if I can get the same surgeon and just do a two for one deal. I figure any doctor that fixed his Achilles tendon would be the right doctor to go to and that is no offense to our doctors here,” Tory said.

Someone’s entire life

Who is this sweet little pudding?

We just know that this lost bank card and phone will soon be back in the hands of its owner with the help of good neighbours in Leslieville. The post went up late Thursday morning. What a sweet pudding is pictured among the life essentials in this phone. Postscript: For sure, the owner caught wind of the Good Samaritan fury on Facebook and is on her way to pick up the card and phone. Hooray!

250,000 expected

Taste of Little Italy

The annual Taste of Little Italy street festival begins Friday and runs to late Sunday this weekend. It is expected to draw as many as 250,000 people to College Street. College will be closed from Shaw Street to Bathurst St at 6 p.m. and will reopen on Monday at 3 a.m. Also, Palmerston Ave, Clinton St, Montrose Ave just North of College will also be closed. TTC will not be operating within these boundaries during the road closure times specified. Drivers are advised to plan alternate routes.

Authors of a study at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa say that 2009 was a turning point for increased self-harm among teens in Ontario. Since then, says Dr. William Gardner, the incidence of cuts and ingestion of drugs has increased 78 percent against previous years. The statistics represent visits to emergency departments. In a Canadian Press story Thursday, Dr. Gardner pondered the impact of such things as the cell phone, which arrived in 2007, and social media cyber-bullying. “Engagement with social media could lead to increased rates of self-harm, at least for vulnerable adolescents,” Gardner said. “This could happen in several ways: by normalizing self-harm, by triggering it, by getting teens to emulate self-harming peers, or by exposing youths to cyber-bullying.” However, he said, social media may also benefit some struggling teens by providing them with a way to “escape social isolation or find encouragement to seek treatment.” It could also be that efforts to destigmatize mental illness in the period studied have encouraged teens and their families to seek help when they need it, Gardner said. “We have to say that if kids who are in trouble are more likely to come to seek care, that’s good. It’s sad that there’s all those kids (who are struggling) but better to know about it than not,” he said.

Derby rolls into Leaside this Saturday

The Toronto Roller Derby has found a new home at Leaside Memorial Community Arena and will kick off the season with a three-match round-robin tournament this Saturday, June 15 at 3 p.m. The TRD lost its long-standing home affectionately known as The Bunker last year. That was the auditorium at Downsview Park, for many years the scene of roller dramatics. It has now been leased out as a studio for film and move production. At the time, league president Mina Smart called it a significant setback. The six TRD teams will stage another tourney at the Millwood Rd. arena July 15.

Traffic back to normal after early afternoon collision/680News

Traffic is back to normal at Overlea Blvd and Don Mills Rd. after an early afternoon collision that flipped one vehicle. All parties were said to be conscious and it appears injuries were sustainable.

WITNESS HAS HARROWING ACCOUNT

Pallavi Thampi tweeted a harrowing eyewitness account. “I’m so shaken,” she says of her experience as she stood at the intersection. “A woman was making a left turn, waiting for oncoming traffic to clear as she should. The car behind her honks, and she panics and attempts to make the turn. She is slammed by an oncoming car, traveling over 80 km per hour. I’m on the street corner. The car flips in the air, lands on the driver’s side, wheels spinning. I call 911.”

Midland, Wasaga Beach, Stratford. The pickings are good it seems for cyber racketeers who paralyze municipal computers and demand tens of thousands of dollars to turn them free again. Whether there’s a fool-proof fix remains murky but if there is it takes awareness, time and money.