Volunteers will clear leaves from the Crothers Woods Trail at a maintenance event this Saturday (November 17) from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Those interested should meet at the Thomas Hauser Memorial Trailhead, 11 Redway Rd., at the south end of the Loblaw parking lot. Tools will be provided and no expertise is necessary. The organizers say that clearing the leaves will maintain the forest setting and reduce erosion and protect the trail and surrounding forest. Any cancellation will be posted on Twitter and Facebook. To volunteer or RSVP mail to greentoronto@toronto.ca.

Pole sliced into the bus/Ashraf Dabie/The Dialog

As many as 24 people were taken to hospital when a bus hit a utility pole at Bathurst St. and Davenport Rd. about 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon. It appears most of the injuries were minor. The online publication The Dialog said Peter Yelovich, a member of the Canadian Forces was in the area at the time of the incident and saw leaking fuel. He rushed to evacuate the passengers in case it ignited.

Bathurst and Davenport/Killa Kuz!@carmellosolorio

Two teen girls have gone to the home of 14-year-old Brett Corbett in Halifax and tearfully apologized for being part of a humiliating case of bullying. Corbett, who suffers from cerebral palsy, was forced to lay down in a stream of rainwater in front of some 20 classmates as they shouted at him and gave him orders. One of the girls is seen stepping on Corbett to cross the water. The boy’s mother, Terri McEachern, said three students in all walked on her son. The community has been shocked by the incident. Horrifying as it is, such cruelty is nonetheless a known part of much juvenile behaviour. Ms. McEachern said she has been amazed at Brett’s forgiveness. He didn’t tell her the truth about what happened to him at first because he said he didn’t want the other kids to get in trouble, she said.

IT’S OKAY I WAS ALREADY WET

When she asked him whether he had been walked on after she watched the videos, he told her, “It’s OK, I was already wet.” “It’s just breaking my heart. This is his mindset,” she said. “Children with disabilities have the most amazing gifts in the world. They don’t see bad in anyone. They see so much good in everybody.” She did not know what really happened to Corbett until family friend Brandon Jolie saw one of the videos circulating on Snapchat and Instagram. Jolie took his own video of the video and shared it with McEachern’s older son – and on Facebook. Since the video went viral, some of the students seen have apologized. The father of one apologized on his son’s behalf at a public meeting and read from a letter in which the boy described his actions as “the worst decision of my life,” CTV News reported.

YOU ARE WAY STRONGER THAN ME FOR BEING SO FORGIVING

Two girls and their parents came to Corbett’s house to apologize to him and his mother. They each read aloud from their letters. The parents all cried. The girls cried. So did Corbett. “I shouldn’t have told you to go [into the water]. I should have helped you up instead of breaking you down,” one girl began. “You are way stronger than me for being so forgiving so fast,” she continued, “and I’m really sorry for what I have done. I know better. This is not who I am as a person. I truly care. I made a really bad choice and I will live with that for the rest of my life. I want with all my heart to make this better, and I can promise I will never let this happen to anyone again.”

Brad Ross is leaving the TTC to become the chief communications officer for the City of Toronto starting Jan. 7, 2019. His last day at the TTC is Dec. 14. “The chief communications officer is responsible for communicating the overall strategic direction for the City of Toronto, as well as making sure the public clearly understands council’s priorities and how to access city programs and services,” City manager Chris Murray said in a release. “Brad brings a wealth of experience to lead our professional communications staff in the development of internal and external communications strategies, public education campaigns, digital outreach and more.”

Walkerton at height of water contamination crisis

Commissioner Saxe

E. coli was in runoff of fecal material

A warning from the Ontario Environment Commissioner that there is just too much sewage getting into waterways and lakes is likely to send a chill into all those who remember the outbreak of E coli poisoning at Walkerton 18 years ago. Six people died and more than 2,000 were sickened in that municipal calamity Tuesday the Commissioner, Dianne Saxe, issued her annual report which seems to recall the same sort of sloppiness and ignorance that haunted Walkerton. It says that between April 2017 and March this year, raw sewage overflowed into southern Ontario waterways 1,327 times from nearly 60 outdated municipal sewer systems that combine sewage and storm water. Ms. Saxe urged the province to require every municipality with combined sewers to take action to eliminate overflows using measures like additional storm water fees and building additional infrastructure. Saxe says the province’s waterways are also being affected by run-off laden with fertilizer and road salt. It was runoff of fertilizer and fecal material from livestock that caused the Walkerton poisonings.

Peel Regional Police are trying to sort out how and why a young man was found shot to death in a car in Mississauga on Tuesday morning. It occurred at Highway 410, north of Courtneypark Drive, shortly before 1 a.m. Carl Hanstke of 680 News.

• More than 60 car break-ins, thefts reported around Vaughan Rd. and St. Clair Ave.

The first day of operation of a new website for PC Financial MasterCard has produced chaos at the firm’s South Asian call centre. “This is the first day for the new website and we’re getting a lot of calls from people who can’t sign in,” said an operator identified as Matthew. An unknown number of Canadians woke up to find that they could not sign in to their credit card accounts Tuesday In one case, after long waits and attempts at new passwords, a customer was asked to try again later when the system “was not so busy.” By 11 a.m., it appeared the new sign-in process was working.

Stan Lee, who created or co-created Black Panther, Spider-Man, the X-Men, the Mighty Thor, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Daredevil and Ant-Man, among other characters, died early Monday morning at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles at age 95. Lee had a taste similar to that of Alfred Hitchcock for inserting himself into productions in cameo roles. Check the video on the right. Much fun.

Andy Gort

Josh Matlow

Jaye Robinson

Andy Gort, president of the South Eglinton Ratepayer and Residents Association, has mailed a post-election letter congratulating Josh Matlow and Jaye Robinson on their victories in Wards 12 and 15. He notes the end of the four Committees which previously dealt with local matters. They were Etobicoke and York, North York, Scarborough and Toronto and East York.

After much drama and concerns whether the City Clerk would be ready to organize an election on October 22, the election did finally take place without incident.

Congratulations to Josh Matlow for being re-elected as councillor in Ward 12, Toronto-St. Paul’s, and Jaye Robinson as councillor in Ward 15, Don Valley West. We also thank incumbent councillors Jon Burnside and Joe Mihevc for their past services and for running excellent campaigns.

SERRA’s boundaries have not changed. The new 25 ward structure for City Council has resulted in our having Josh Matlow (Ward 12) represent the SERRA area west of Mt. Pleasant, and Jaye Robinson (Ward 15) represent the SERRA area east of Mt. Pleasant. We are looking forward to working with both councillors.

We also congratulate Shelley Laskin for her re-election as school trustee in Ward 8, Eglinton-Lawrence and St Paul’s (SERRA area west of Mt. Pleasant Rd) and newly elected school trustee Rachel Chernos Lin in Ward 11, Don Valley West (SERRA area east of Mt Pleasant Rd).

During the election we met with each of the four incumbent councillor candidates to introduce SERRA board members and to review with them our priorities for our midtown area: overdevelopment, the lack of school and transit capacity, deficiencies in park and open space, neighbourhood traffic congestion, construction safety and noise issues and the need to protect our Davisville Village heritage.

All candidates were quite aware of the stress midtown is under and showed a keen interest in helping to bring improvements to our area.

The revised city ward boundaries will only take effect in early December, when the new City Council meets for the first time. We are expecting a major rethink of how council will conduct business, since there won’t be sufficient council members to staff the various sub-councils. These sub-councils have tended to be quite efficient at conducting business (development applications, parking and traffic regulations, construction and demolition matters, etc.). Another issue will be how councillors will manage constituent issues with each of the revised wards now representing 100,000-plus people.

With all the issues facing our city and our busy neighbourhood, we look forward to working with our newly elected officials.

Andy Gort,
President, SERRA

Stories about Santa

Rosemary Barton

Albert Jackson

The Santa Claus parade is Sunday and so it is that City News interviewed both Santa and Mrs. Claus in preparation. Seems the missus has a habit of  telling tales on hubby. Will this marriage last? Then, Rosemary Barton has rightly weathered petitions and her forgettable colleagues following the creation of the feckless four-headed CBC National. Make her the anchor. Finally, Albert Jackson has been honoured in Windsor as Canada’s first black mailman. It is said in this story that he prospered sufficiently to own property as he went about the Queen’s business.

Three planes flew overhead three times while the distant ring of church bells sounded somewhere in my neighbourhood #RememberanceDay #Leaside pic.twitter.com/427VD1vCFg

— Deb Lace-Kelly (@DebLaceKelly) November 11, 2018

There was a flying salute to Canada’s war dead Sunday at 11 a.m. as three Harvard trainer aircraft flew above Leaside and then on up and over crowds gathered at the Sunnybrook Cenotaph. The Harvards, a common sight everywhere in Canada during WWII as they trained RCAF pilots, are known by their squarish look, slow speed and distinctive drone.