Founder of Barrick Gold

Peter and Melanie Munk

Funded cardiac centre

Canadian businessman and philanthropist Peter Munk has died at age 90. Munk was a 20-year-old Hungarian immigrant when he arrived in Canada in 1947. He went on to create Barrick Gold, the world’s biggest gold-mining company, and to donate millions of dollars to worthy causes. “Munk passed away peacefully in Toronto today, surrounded by his family,” the mining company said in a release Wednesday. In his later years, his focus turned to philanthropy, donating $300 million to numerous causes, most notably in a $100 million gift to found the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre at the Toronto General Hospital in 1997. It was the largest single gift ever donated to a Canadian hospital. He also funded the Munk School of Global Affairs at the University of Toronto with $51 million over the years, something the school’s former director Steven Toope says was born of Munk’s belief that Canadians embodied values like openness and integrity, two things the world needed more  Peter Munk is survived by Melanie, his wife of forty-five years, by his five children, Anthony, Nina, Marc-David, Natalie, and Cheyne, and by his fourteen grandchildren.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un pledged his commitment to “denuclearization” and to meet U.S. officials, China said Wednesday. This after Kim’s meeting with President Xi Jinping. China has promised to uphold its friendship with the hermit nation, an odious leftover of one-man rule from the worst days of the Comintern. It appears that China has briefed the US on this meeting and that there may be plans for Kim to meet Donald Trump and others as early as May. Events have spun along quickly since the first inkling of Kim’s trip to Beijing leaked Monday. Now China is talking about it.

HISTORIC MOMENT

Media are putting quotes around the word denuclearization, perhaps because no one can be sure just what the Chinese and North Koreans have agreed to. The devil will be in the details. Look at the videos below, especially the one on the right. It is astonishing to hear Kim talk politely about peaceful change on the Korean Peninsula. Mere days ago he was blowing off about incinerating American cities. Truly a moment in time.

Gregg Lintern/City of Toronto

The City of Toronto has named Gregg Lintern as the new Chief Planner. Mr. Lintern has a long history with Toronto and was most recently the director of planning for Toronto and East York  Release

First foremost and always my journey has been about my @CityPlanTO team – the people who work hard every day to figure out solutions that make #Toronto better for everyone – today and for the future of this great city

— Gregg Lintern (@GreggLintern) March 28, 2018

A man has fallen to his death down a garbage chute at a building on Erskine Ave., an occurrence that stretches the imagination. It took place about 10 p.m. at the address. The man fell from the 9th floor and paramedics told Alanna Rizza of the Star that it was not clear whether the man was a building employee or a resident. They are investigating. A series of tweets Wednesday expressed surprise at how such a thing could happen.

How do you fall down a garbage chute…

— . (@lxelee) March 28, 2018

In street signs pilot in ten school zones (Twitter/@JohnTory)

Cyclists die-in at City Hall

Sardine subway riders

The Light From Within (Metrolinx)

Braised lamb (Today’s Menu)

Councillor Josh Colle (Ward 11) and Mayor Tory show off a newly-installed sign embedded right in the pavement. It is part of a pilot project in ten school zones to see if these in-your-face warnings make the roads safer. Let’s hope so. Upper right, cyclists conduct a die-in at City Hall related to the traffic deaths of bike riders. Below that, a small group of TTC riders demonstrated and then boarded the subway posing as sardines. You get the idea. They want funding from an era some 20 years ago restored to the TTC  by the provincial government. At lower left, a mural called The Light From Within by Rodney Latourelle will grace the lower-level LRT station at the Yonge-Eglinton hub when finished. To the right, yummy braised lamb shanks from Today’s Menu for Easter. Check it out.

Kim Jong-un and Xi Jinping

Not so intimate scene

China has confirmed that Kim Jong-un has met with Xi Jinping and released a picture of the two leaders for life. Both are under pressure from the US in different ways. The world has no way of knowing what they talked of and whether the Chinese put pressure on Kim behind closed doors. But the meeting would seem to forecast a new era in North Korean relations with the rest of the world. Some analysts said this was a bid by Kim for some sort of normalization. If so, those seeking the end of his mafia-like family-run state will see a glimmer of hope. They say the north as it now exists cannot survive openness.

Prayers before a crime

Tory Toronto?

She knows how you’ll vote

There’s concern in Pickering Tuesday night that there may be a serial arsonist at work after a second fire seemingly set outside a home in the middle of the night. City News has a report on a fire early today. Next, a man in Manhattan who is seen crossing himself and saying a little prayer before smashing the window of a clothing shop and stealing several garments. What was his prayer, we ask? Below that, Cynthia Mulligan conjures up a picture of Tory Toronto, even in Don Valley West. We will see. And finally, a slick package from NBC outlining (if that’s the word) how a Facebook like for Hello Kitty means you’re a Trump voter. It’s a mystery to the Bulldog but have a look.

Charlie Lagarde, 18 (centre) accepts first cheque of many more to come

Charlie Lagarde, 18, has won the grand prize in Quebec’s provincial lottery Gagnant à vie lottery. Loto-Quebec says Lagarde, who is from a Montreal suburb, was celebrating her 18th birthday with a bottle of champagne and a $4 scratch lottery ticket purchased at a convenience store earlier this month. After winning the jackpot, she took a few weeks to decide on whether to accept a lump sum $1 million payout or the $1,000 weekly lifetime annuity. Charlie claimed her prize Monday at Loto-Quebec’s head office in Montreal, joined by family and friends. She says she hopes to study photography and one day work for National Geographic.

Premier Wynne says the Liberals will introduce full-day daycare free for children aged 2-and-a-half until they are eligible for kindergarten should they form the government after the June election. The program would begin in 2020 and come at a cost of $930 million to taxpayers.

It is widely believed that Kim Jong-un is in Beijing Tuesday, called there by a Chinese government that wants to know what he is up to. At the very least, it is said, China wants in on the act if Donald Trump is really going to meet the little dictator from Pyongyang. In the US, the state department said it had no information but added tartly that it seems the free world is in a much better place with North Korea than it was a year ago. That’s because of the pressure being brought not just by the US and its allies, but China too, for Kim to renounce nuclear weapons.

As many as 50 businesses along King St. West are telling the City that its plan to speed streetcars along King St. while detouring cars off the street at every intersection is a failure.  “We just don’t understand why they think this is a win,” said Todd Sherman, who is the resident of Gabby’s Restaurant. But the companies are facing rose-coloured versions of the scheme from Joe Cressy (Ward 20)  This CBC story says more than 50 notable businesses, including Shoppers Drug Mart and Thompson Toronto, have joined the fight against no cars on King. The Ontario Restaurant Hotel & Motel Association (ORHMA) released a letter from the businesses “fact checking” the city’s data and requesting changes to the project. It says there has been a 21 per cent decrease in restaurant reservations. They are calling for eliminating daytime taxi restrictions, accessible parking and limiting all traffic restrictions between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m. CBC