Avery Haines

Vanishng breed

Hidden disabilty buttons

Avery Haines will cross a media canyon as big as any when she ankles into CTV soon. The City News (Rogers) veteran will plunge into “long-form” work at CTV (Bell). Upper right, they’re complaining on Leaside Community Facebook about the vanishing species seen here. That would be the Yield sign at Millwood Rd. and Laird Drive. We see the last known example around here which is at McRae and Laird. Was this rip rip rip necessary? Down below, buttons created by Kate Welsh, a Toronto woman. They are intended to remind or perhaps embarrass TTC passengers into giving seats to those with hidden disabilities. Don’t be surprised if those offering a seat want to know the medical history.

Police say a hit and run vehicle failed seriously injured a cyclist and damaged a Beck taxi Saturday morning at King Street and Spadina Avenue.  The cyclist was taken to hospital with serious injuries. Police are looking for a white casrgo van.

Breaking: Cyclist Struck King/Spadina. VictIm being treated and assessed currently. King/Spadina closed. CityNews @680NEWStraffic pic.twitter.com/CDmMkExskS

— Ken Townsend (@KenTownsend) October 14, 2017

Charming report by NBC on this peaceful event.

Axe me anything

Scouts Apple Day

Ukulele magic

Monster Dash coming

The fearsome gent upper left is inviting you to attend the annual Men with Axes event at 6.30 p.m. Saturday at Amsterdam Brewery on Esandar Drive  It is to help Bessborough Elementary and Middle School purchase sports and musical instruments, library books and technology upgrades. In addition, the funds raised are used to ensure that all students have access to every school event regardless of their financial situation. Have look at this cutting edge (tee hee) event. Upper right, don’t forget it is Scouts Apple Day. These guys are asking your help outside COBs. Centre right, ukuleles for the Leaside United Church kids band. Gimme and Ukulele and You!  Below, some painted saintly loons are a reminder that the 2017 Monster Dash is set for Sunday October 30, 2016 starting at 4.30. This  year the dash is in support of the Science Centre’s Community Access Programs, including the Adopt-a-Class program which helps deliver unforgettable science learning and experiences to schools in underserved neighbourhoods in Toronto. Check start times and running options. Back to ukuleles below. Lucky LUC kids.

A report of a man trapped in a trench at the LRT construction site along Eglinton near Hanna Rd. has been resolved, police say. Injuries if any are not serious. As many as 11 TFS vehiclea attended the site which accordng to local witnesses was near Hanna Rd. TTC service has returned to normal.

ALL CLEAR: The delay at Bayview and Eglinton has cleared. 34 Eglinton East and 54 Lawrence East have returned to regular routing. #TTC

— TTC Service Alerts (@TTCnotices) October 14, 2017

Joshua Boyle, the Canadian man who took his wife to Afghanistan for purposes not very clear, was captured by the Taliban and then had three children in captivity one of whom died, was lamenting things at Pearson airport Friday night for reporters. He seemed concerned that his children are able to have a better childhood here. CBC

The Boyles before misguided trip to Afghanistan

Finance Minister Bill Morneau

Town of Oppede where Mas des Morneau owns minister’s villa

The Opposition is suggesting that a two-year delay by Finance Minister Bill Morneau to report a company which owns a villa in France is an offense punishable by the Commons Ethics Commissioner. The CBC is saying that Mr. Morneau, a resident of Bennington Heights, revealed the firm called Mas des Morneau after it began to ask questions as to why it did not appear in the minister’s revealed holdings. Tax experts say there can be some advantages to holding real estate in France through a company such as Mas des Morneau, including avoiding inheritance tax. It is a legal and commonly used method but while Morneau has owned the company for a decade and was named finance minister two years ago, the company was only added to Morneau’s ethics filings on September 22. The villa is at the Town of Oppede about 60 km inland from Marseilles. CBC

The US is about to present a NAFTA proposal on the content of cars which an unnamed analyst is quoted as calling “comical” and so complicated that he can’t believe the Americans are serious about it. A Canadian Press report datelined the Pentagon says that the proposal would require all cars sold without tariffs to include 85 per cent North American content, 50 per cent U.S. content and provide a detailed listing of parts that didn’t exist in 1994 when NAFTA was introduced. The rocky NAFTA talks have raised many suspicions that the US is trying to make Canada and Mexico walk away from negotiations. Both said Thursday that they will not do that.

Researchers at the University of New Brunswick have concluded that treed and grassy neighbourhoods are good for your health. They suggest that this green grass effect is what makes people who live there healthy. Residents of Toronto’s leafy Midtown were no doubt part of this survey of 1.3 million non-immigrant adults living in the 30 biggest cities across the country. But wait. It seems that a closely-reasoned view of green, affluent neighbourhoods might well conclude that lawns and tree-lined streets while nice (and healthy) are more likely to be incidental to the money people have to spend on where they live. People in these neighbourhoods have more “green” to  buy countless healthy things ranging from medical advice and modern drugs to fitness assistance. See what you think. 

The three people shown above are sought by police for an alleged attempt to set fire to two men who they apparently did not know during an argument at the Agincourt Mall, 3850 Sheppard Ave. E. The victims, both 18, were “confronted” by these persons — a woman and two men. During the argument one man got a can of gasoline from his car. He doused the teens with gas and tried to light them on fire This attempt failed. If you know them, call police.

Toronto Sun

Toronto Star

Toronto Star

TTC brass has said they find the newly announced shortfall in the delivery of streetcars by Bombardier in 2017 to be “completely unacceptable.” The company says it will deliver 65 vehicles by the end of the year, a shortfall of five from the 70 trams it had said it would produce. In making its bad news report, Bombardier recited how it had expanded the production line in Thunder Bay, hired more employees, invested in developing its manufacturing sites and called upon the expertise of its global workforce. All to nought, it seems. It still couldn’t get the job done. TTC chairman Josh Colle and CEO Andy Byford called the delivery shortfall “extremely disappointing and frustrating.” They said there should be 146 new streetcars in service, instead of just 45. “This is completely unacceptable,” they said in a news release. “The TTC is having to continue to use buses on streetcar routes to meet ridership demand.”

Dear God. A petition against the eating of seal meat has now been added to the 2017 register of “colonial” abuses committed by Canadians against the Indigenous. The petition was authored by someone named Jennifer Matos and directed at the new Indigenous restaurant Ku-kum at 581 Mt. Pleasant Rd. The owner and chef Joseph Shawana has told the CBC that seal meat will stay on the menu at his midtown Toronto restaurant despite the petition. But this could not remain simply about food or even whether we may eat what we want. A recent treatise on Care2 petitions will drag any who care go there through the horrors of the last three centuries and how colonial beasts relied on Indigenous folk for food. Good to know. And best wishes to Mr. Shawana.