Huron OPP say Alexandra (Aly) Deacon, 9, from Cambridge has been found safe.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BWVsTXQDZhi/

Andrew and Matthew Patel with neighbour Marjorie Noakes in 2014

Andrew and Matthew Patel, profiled in the South Bayview Bulldog in 2014, are still working to see their pet hobby of backyard egg production become legal at least in some parts of Toronto. The CBC says Monday that Councillors supporting such small operations were ready to present a motion at City Hall last week before business was adjourned because of the death of Pam McConnell. The idea is to legalize the now forbidden chicken coop in certain areas of spacious backyards. The matter may now be delayed until fall with a possible trial period set for the spring of 2018. “This is not a new issue, it doesn’t take five years, we’re not reinventing the wheel. Other big cities have done this,” Andrew is quoted as saying. He and Matthew have been raising chickens during their summer breaks from university since 2012. Leaside twins win first prize for well-groomed chicken project 

Ontario’s bid to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour — a move that is feared by businesses but has the support of some prominent economists — will be subject to a series of public meetings beginning Monday. It is the “instant-money” nature of the increase that has business owners alarmed. The wage will leap $3.40 in 18 months. Canadian Press 

Robert Mugabe

Good grief

I want to go home

Knocked senseless by flight attendant

Cardinal in trouble

Upper left, the president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, is 93 now. He has been president of that impoverished little state since the 1960s when he was hailed as part of the winds of change. He plans to run again in one of those elections that just seem to go his way. To the right, a couple of shots of an exasperated Angela Merkel during a conversation with Vladimir Putin. We have no idea what (or who) they were talking about. Any guesses? Lower left, Joseph Hudak was flying in first class from Seattle to Beijing on a Delta jet last week when he tried to open a door in mid-flight. He injured a flight attendant before she was able to subdue him with the help of passengers and a bottle of wine over the head. And Cardinal George Pell, Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic, has returned to that country after being charged with multiple sex offences from the distant past when he was Australia’s most powerful Catholic. The 76-year-old landed at Sydney Airport after a long trip from Rome where the Pope says he will await the outcome at trial before commenting.

OPP identify the two men who drowned at Wasaga Beach Saturday as Dilvinder Lakhanpal. 27, of Caledon and Nimit Sharma, 26. of Collingwood. They were in an inflatable boat near the mouth of the Nottawasaga River when the vessel flipped over in rough water. It’s not known if they could swim. Witnesses have told of wave action that rose “higher than two metres” — highly dangerous for light boats.

Josh Matlow (Ward 22) writes in his current newsletter that Deer Park will soon receive branded street signs identifying the neighbourhood. He says the Yonge and St. Clair community has “a long and storied history” noting the Indigenous name of the Ojibway as “mashquoteh” meaning meadow or woodland where the deer come to feed. In 1837 Agnes Heath, widow of Col. Charles Heath, relocated from India to Canada with her children and purchased 40 acres northwest of Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue West (then known as the Third Concession Road) and named it Deer Park. The area was annexed to the City of Toronto in 1908 and was established as one of Toronto’s finest residential districts by the 1930s. Matlow recalls that Glenn Gould, Group of Seven founding member J. E. H. MacDonald, writer Farley Mowat, and former Prime Minister John Turner have all called Deer Park home.

They say that if the Japanese continue to ignore sex (the real kind) and fail to make babies, the place is going to run out of people. Next, Greta van Susteren, the woman who got started by covering the O.J. Simpson trial, has been fired from MSNBC because she wasn’t sufficiently anti-Trump. Then, the news from Bogotá, capital of Colombia, is that this densely-packed City has merely four square metres of green space for each of its ten million inhabitants. Gimme Toronto. Speaking of which, the Beach Jazz Festival is underway and City News visited.

Metropolitan Community Church

Tributes

Mourners

700 estimated on hand

Pam McConnell

Friends and admirers of Pam McConnell crowded Metropolitan Community Church at 115 Simpson Ave in Riverdale Sunday to honour the late Councillor and Deputy Mayor. An estimated 700 people were present, including the mayor and many members of Council. Pam McConnell, long-time champion of Ward 28,  died Friday from an undisclosed lung disease at the age of 71. Metropolitan Community is the church of the Reverend Brent Hawkes who told the mourners that McConnell was in good hands in a better place. Mayor Tory said that McConnell’s work in council will have a lasting impact on the City of Toronto. “What she did for me and for the City of Toronto in terms of getting us started on a meaningful poverty reduction program, that will make a difference in the lives of thousands of people in terms of their housing, a fair transit program, student nutrition programs,” said Tory. Rev. Hawkes said the best thing we can do to honour McConnell is to implement her poverty reduction strategy. “Pam, I miss your face and I know you’re in great hands,” said Hawkes, who led the memorial service. “Look around you at the city you help build. And you built it with your love.”

The spectre of bank branch closures is a reality in rural Saskatchewan this summer with three banks — TD, CIBC and Royal — shutting down 17 branches so  far. They intend to close more. The banks’ reasons and the desperation felt by those who are older is well known. The Royal just closed in the town of Wadena and the closest chartered bank is 50 miles away. There is a credit union however.

CIBC MOVES TO 1820 BAYVIEW

It’s all a question of how much business is at stake. CIBC has maintained a branch for north Leaside and Davisville even as its lease at Sunnybrook Plaza expired and it moved out. The replacement branch is at 1820 Bayview north of Roehampton. It opens Monday. CBC

Mary Fragedakis (Ward 29) joined friends and workers at the unveiling of the Children’s Community Garden Mural at the East York Community Centre Saturday. It has a wonderful 3-D look. Drop by and see it at 1081½ Pape Ave.