A Leaside Chit Chat post shows door-bell video of kids being a nuisance Saturday night. It appears from the time stamp on the video that the kids targeted the same home more than once. The owner of the home says the runaway youth are frightening his own children. Post is here
These events are Saturdsy night and Sunday morning. Be aware of congestion around Queen’s Park and U of T Sunday because of the run.
No winning ticket was sold for the $60 million jackpot in Friday night’s Lotto Max draw. There were however 12 (of 28) Maxmillions prizes of $1 million each won, with the prizes being shared among 14 ticket holders across the country. The jackpot for the next Lotto Max draw on Oct. 5 will remain at $60 million, but the number of Maxmillions prizes offered will grow to 40.
Premier Ford said Friday that the province really doesn’t know what to expect when marijuana becomes legal in a couple of weeks. Problems may well reveal themselves in ways no one suspected. The Premier sounded a little bitter as he told reporters that legal dope had been “dumped” on Ontario. He promised to tweak — or maybe re-write — the laws if he finds a threat to kids. Can you imagine them gobbling mary jane sandwiches at lunch? Next, the airlines seem equally unclear as to what legal marijuana will bring. Air Canada was trying to establish some rules Friday. Below that, the wild election campaign of Stephen Kslazek. He has 5,000 lawn signs and a blimp in the sky. Who’s paying, by the way? Finally, neighborhood cops. Hey, you can card The Bulldog at Starbucks.
The Bayview Leaside BIA Apple Fest is on Saturday and Sunday. Please come on by. Note the schedule above. Here are some of the participating stores.
The government is putting an end to the 21-year-old Drive Clean program. Premier Ford, Environment Minister Rod Phillips and Transportation Minister John Yakabuski said Friday morning that the provincial government will end the mandatory emissions test for passenger vehicles next April. Drive Clean was brought in by the Conservative government in 1999 to curb polluting vehicles, a major source of smog. But as cars got cleaner and cleaner, the then $35 test became an irritant for drivers especially after it was revealed by the auditor general of Ontario that the vast majority of vehicles pass and the worst polluting vehicles were exempt from testing.
US SAYS MUSK FIBS
Tesla without Elon Musk at the wheel? To many of the electric car maker’s customers and investors that would be unthinkable. But that’s what the US Securities and Exchange Commission wants. It has asked a federal court to oust Musk as Tesla’s chairman and CEO, alleging he committed securities fraud with false statements about plans to take the company private. The agency said in a complaint Thursday that Musk falsely claimed in an August 7 statement on Twitter that funding had been secured for Tesla Inc. to go private at $420 per share, a substantial premium over the stock price at the time.
SHOPIFY ME GREEN
Shopify Inc. will invest as much as half-a-billion dollars into its forthcoming Toronto office, in a large downtown development where it plans to house thousands of new employees, says the Globe and Mail. The Ottawa-based company’s neon-green shopping-bag beacon is expected to top the 38-storey skyscraper at the corner of Front Street West and Spadina Avenue when The Well complex, jointly owned by Allied Properties REIT and RioCan REIT, opens in 2022. Shopify’s investment and its anchor-tenant logo rights are part of a 15-year deal that Michael Scace, who brokered the transaction, said is one of the biggest-ever completed in the King West market on the edge of Toronto’s downtown core.
A break in an old watermain flooded parts of Mt. Pleasant Rd. and Eglinton Ave. and stopped the flow of water to some homes in the area Friday morning. Water service was resumed later in the day. The agency known as Eglinton 2020 tweeted that it was arranging to provide water for household that are effected. It said the break was caused by vibration. Josh Matlow tweeted that the break was unacceptable. He said he contacted Metrolinx and Toronto water. Resident Rowan Caister tweeted: “Well, someone hit the mother of all water mains. Mount Pleasant and Eglinton is flooded out.” Eglinton re-opens after watermain break due to LRT work
An investigation by Global News reporter Carolyn Jarvis has revealed that as many as 15 Ontario pharmacists have dealt illegally in various opioids over the past five years. Jarvis, a resident of Davisville Village, relates details to the CBC, which picked up the story. The impact of the drug dealing has been profound even though the number of rogue druggists is small compared to the 16,000 registered pharmacists here. Busy life of South Bayview’s Carolyn Jarvis of Global News
Children from Davisville Public School are beginning to settle in at their temporary home at Vaughan Road Academy while a new DPS is built on Millwood Rd. One of the bonuses for the elementary school kids is regular swimming classes at the former high school’s pool. No such amenity existed at Davisville. VRA is one of a number of buildings which the Toronto and District School Board has in transition as it juggles the ever-changing pattern of enrolment in midtown Toronto. Thursday evening Trustee Shelley Laskin and Davisville Principal Shona Farrelly met with a small group of parents at an open house at the new home for DPS students. VRA has been improved and adjusted to accommodate 5 to 12 year olds. A newly-paved and painted playground, removal of daunting steel turnstiles in the library, the lowering of coat hooks and water fountains and a new emergency exit for kindergarteners were part of changes needed. It is expected to take two years to build the new DPS with a targeted return to class there in the fall of 2020.
The Globe and Mail says Toronto Police will reduce the number of drug and gang teams from six each to four each. The cuts are called a “staffing realignment.” This appears to be a function of a simple reduction in staff. The issue of gun control is particular is much on the mind of the community in the face of daily killings and gun violence. The Globe quotes Meaghan Gray of the TPS the teams have been losing officers to retirements and resignations. She said the remaining team members are being reorganized “to effectively continue the work they have been doing.” The newspaper says Gray would not confirm the overall number of officers the teams have lost.She is quoted as saying it is “not in [the service’s] interest to have the public know how many officers are dedicated to that line of work.”
Canadian Press says that Tim Hortons will seek to shut down a knock-off restaurant in India that uses a name and branding which is an outrageous copy of the Canadian firm. Tim Hottens, located in Yamunanagar, India, is two letters away from the coffee chain in its name. Its logo and branding mimics the Canadian chain’s as well. The font and colour of the name in its logo is essentially identical. Tim Hottens also uses the phrases “always fresh” and “cafe & bake shop,” as well as the red-hued striped background in its logo. Tim Hottens did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Canadian Press.
