Victims include a girl 8, teenagers

Hateful attack on the innocent

A former British spy and terrorism expert estimates there may be as many as 1,000 men in Britain capable of the same unspeakable behaviour as Salman Abedi, the 22-year-old death dreamer who blew himself up at the Manchester arena Monday and took 22 others with him. He injured as many as 60 and set equal parts of fear and anger in the hearts of decent people everywhere. The estimate is from Richard Barrett, as quoted from a BBC radio interview Tuesday. “We value our society, we talk about freedom of assembly, freedom of expression, and all this sort of thing, and we really do want to preserve those values against the attacks or terrorism, and if we’re following around 1,000 people or something I think we’re losing those values,” said Barrett. “I don’t think anyone’s expecting the security services or police to monitor the population here on the scale of perhaps what was done in East Germany.”  Barrett expressed his concern by the numbers, noting “returnees” from Iraq and Syria said to be 400 or so, plus the people who wanted to go to Iraq or Syria but were stopped. They could count up to 600, he said. “So already you’re up to 1,000 before you even start on the people who live here and maybe never expressed any or didn’t knowingly express any intention to go to Syria, so what do you do about that?”

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Toronto police have been invited to participate in uniform at the New York City Pride March in June. The invitation is said to be designed to make a point about the Toronto Pride ban on TPS uniforms in the local parade.  The Gay Officers Action League in New York requested permission for Toronto officers to join uniformed members of the NYPD Marching band and colour guard in the June 25th Pride March in New York City — the same day as the Toronto Pride Parade.

Two gay men, aged 20 and 23, have received 83 strokes of the cane each after being found guilty of breaking sharia rules in conservative Aceh province, the only part of Indonesia that implements Islamic law. The spectacle is reminiscent of public executions of previous centuries, events held to warn possible transgressors and as group entertainment. Many were recording the punishment with their phones. The video reveals something like a holiday occasion as the two are led onto a stage set up outside a mosque in front of a crowd of thousands, who jeered and booed. The pair bowed their heads as they were whipped by officials who wore dark robes and masks with eye slits, and used thin rattan canes. One of the men grimaced occasionally and the other showed little emotion. Before the caning, Abdul Gani Isa, a member of the Acehnese clerics’ council, told the crowd the caning was “a lesson for the public”. “Lessons carried out with our sharia law are conducted in a very thoughtful way, are educational and do not violate human rights,” he said.

Geoff Kettel reminds readers that the Homes and Haunts exhibit sponsored by the East York Foundation is in its final days at the Walter Stewart Library, 179 Memorial Park Ave. You can see it until May 31.  And on Thursday, Untitled Films will be on Canada’s favorite street for shooting commercials, this time for the Bank of Nova Scotia. That street would be Bessborough Drive in Leaside.

Here he comes

Snap

And there she goes

Officials at the Steveston dock in Richmond B.C. are flabbergasted by the appearance of dozens of tourists to the spot where a young girl was pulled into the water by sea-lion Saturday. Signs have been posted warning people to stay away from the water and not to feed the wildlife. Bob Baziuk. the general manager, says he is stunned by the performance of people. “Unbelievably, last night there were about 100 people down there, mostly tourists, maybe some of them locals, picking up their kids and holding them over the water looking for the infamous sea-lion,” he told CBC News on Monday. Video of the child being yanked by the shirt into the grimy water has been viewed more than 14 million times. Marine experts and port officials have sent out a slew of warnings, reminding the public to keep a safe distance from the animals.  Video — Girl dragged off wharf by sea-lion a scary moment in nature

David Bryant, centre, and friends prepare firerworks for use Monday

A crowd of possibly 600 people watched the private fireworks display put on by David Bryant and friends at Leaside High School field Monday. Families lined the hills to the south of the field and applauded the display enthusiastically. Before the sun set, children entertained themselves by rolling down the hill in their dozens. The display is put on by Mr. Bryant and friends at his initial personal expensive said to be in the order of $1,700. He does however have community supporters who contribute to the cost.

This looks like an engrossing show. It has a trace of the medieval Cirque de Soleil style.

With prom goers in Vancouver

A group photo has emerged of the prime minister with kids on the Vancouver waterfront on their way to the prom. The PM was jogging by and things just happened. The video at the left updates the horrifying attack on pedestrians in Times Square. A huge memorial to Alyssa Elsman, the girl who died, has formed at the spot. And the back story to the sea lion leap that took a young girl into the water in BC. is to the right.

Citidis Spirit train by Alstom

They will run in Ottawa

Urban Toronto has a lot of research in the linked post on the back-up French train maker Alstom, which has just been given a contract to make cars for Metrolinx. As reported at the time, these cars (designated the Citidis Spirit) may or may not run on the Eglinton Crosstown LRT depending on whether Bombardier can possibly fulfill its committment. (As the TTC chair has tartly remarked, “I’ll  believe it when I see it.”) In any case, the Alstom cars are longer than Bombardier cars and if they run on the Crosstown, there may have to be changes so they fit. Read the comments. Take a look  Urban Toronto

The heartbreaking case of a 90-year-old man from New Westminster who became a serial target of fraud perpetrators is told by the CBC. In all of Ron Jones dealings with scammers by mail and phone, there is a striking absence of any reference to those outside the scam who would have stopped it. Mr. Jones had a daughter nearby and access to the authorities. The final deceit involved the claim that there was an arrest warrant for Jones and that he should pay money to catch those who had previously duped him. It should cause anyone to call police when the idea of paying money to get rid of an arrest warrant are put together. In the end, banks and a lending firm forgave more than $100,000 in loans. CBC

The North Leaside Traffic Committee has recommended the one-year trial closing at Bayview Ave. of all three east-west streets north of Eglinton. These are Glenvale Blvd, Broadway Ave. and Craig Crescent. The NLTC has studied and rejected an alternative scheme for an elaborate one-way street system for North Leaside. The committee, which was created by Councillor Burnside in 2015, proposes to place so-called concrete Jersey Barriers at Bayview and the entrances to these three streets to stop traffic both ways. The scope of the committee’s recommendations is enormous. Members seem to concede there is little chance for them to foresee all the consequences of their recommendations nor the things which are likely to flow from the re-making of Eglinton Ave. after the LRT is built and running. Councillor Burnside has written a summary of the work and this analysis is worth reading. A visual spread-sheet of the two NLTC proposals is here.  Residents are asked to fill out a survey.The survey is for every voting-aged member of a household. The survey is designed that way to mimic as closely as possible the City polling process, if required in the future, should the community indicate an interest in moving forward on a particular proposal.

INTEREST TO ALL SOUTH BAYVIEW

The potential impact of any traffic-calming plan has relevance to the broader area. The impact for those west of Bayview on Broadway and other streets of the dead-ending at Bayview and Broadway is unclear. The Leaside planning process has thrown up guesses about the numbers of people who will occupy new high-rise development such as that to be built  at the Sunnybrook Plaza site. Some say there will be as many as 10,000 people added between Bayview and Brentcliffe alone. The future political impact of these residents seemed to weigh heavily on planning.