Toronto Fire officials are warning homeowners about dry peat moss and other such material in planters as they investigate this startling fire on a deck at Dundas St W. and Montrose Ave. They’re not saying the fire was spontaneous but dry material may have helped it to get going.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHz6UAfjcL6/

Kenneth Wong and Sailesh Nankani are the two top students in the Toronto and District School Board system. Remarkably, they are pals who go to the same school, East York Collegiate Institute at 650 Cosburn Ave. Wong achieved 99.8 per cent and Nankani a 99.7 per cent average. They are the best of the 27,448 Grade 12 graduates of the TDSB, Canada’s largest school board. Ken Wong was born in Canada of Chinese parents while Sailesh Nankani has been in the country only three years with his parents, immigrants from Pakistan. Both young men have a very competitive turn of mind which seems to reject any result that isn’t perfect. Good work gentlemen.

 

Congrats to our top scholars Kenneth Wong and Sailesh Nankani and best of luck to you both in your future studies! pic.twitter.com/MVEK4YEcj2

— Toronto District School Board (@tdsb) July 14, 2016

A reception for friends and admirers of Ellen Hall will take place next Wednesday, July 27, 2016, at Humphrey Funeral Home at 1403 Bayview Ave. Ellen Hall was a longtime and active member of St. Cuthbert’s Anglican Church. She died suddenly at the age of 88 on July 2, 2016 at Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay near the Kawartha cottage that she loved.  Predeceased by her beloved husband of 48 years, Jack. Cherished mother of Mary Ellen (Bob Gribble), Wendy, Douglas (Barb), and John. Special Grandma of Ashleigh and Matthew Heller. Grandma Ellen to Abby and Sarah Gribble. Mother-in-law of the late Doug Heller. A funeral service will be held at St. Cuthbert’s 1399 Bayview Avenue at 11 a.m. on Thursday, July 28th. In lieu of flowers, donations to St. Cuthbert’s Church or the Arthritis Society of Canada would be appreciated.

We may never know what two homeless men were fighting about at the corner of Front Street East and Jarvis Street last night but when it was over one was dead in hospital. The deceased man is Paul Crombie, 50, while the accused (manslaughter) is Levon Jolen Gammon, 43.

A camera in Brooklyn Heights New York was recording when a young man chose a 65-year-old man who ambush with a sucker punch.

Financial accountability officer Stephen LeClair has pretty much shredded the rosy picture presented yesterday by Premier Wynne and Finance MInister Sousa by declaring that Ontario’s debt will grow to $350 billion in the next four years. At $300 billion, Ontario already shoulders the largest non-sovereign debt in the world, bigger than California, a jurisdiction with maybe 40 million people compared to Ontario’s 14 million souls. The FAO says the net debt will keep growing largely because of the Liberal government’s $160-billion, 12-year plan to invest in infrastructure and public transit projects. And, considering that it requires nearly $12 billion a year just to carry the debt, his predictions are not surprising. The debt is no zero-interest car loan. The government’s happy report Monday featured the growth of the Ontario economy and prediction that the deficit will be zero on 2017.  But LeClair say Ontario plans to go right back to deficit spending in 2018 and 2019. We’re going backwards in effect.

 

Toronto Pearson Airport security has been re-arranged to place Canadian security (with baggage x-ray and shoe inspection) now taking place ahead of the often perfunctory discussion with U.S. immigration personnel. The revamped Security in Advance  or SIA protocol is already in place elsewhere and was urgently put forward by the Americans in talks with the federal authorities. To a layman it is not necessarily clear how this arrangement makes travel safer but seem to amount to the same thing at the very least. Security officials say it is more likely to avoid people sneaking through to the departure lounge. The switch is also said to open up travel to American destinations where local airports don’t have a customs set-up.

Sgt. Kerry Schmidt of the OPP snapped some shots of a transport truck that spilled what looks like mayonnaise onto the northbound DVP ramp to 401 West Tuesday morning. Yeccch. And why is it trucks can’t stay upright? No one was hurt and lunch was delayed.

Please don’t drop #PokemonGo lures inside or outside @SickKidsNews. Read our message: pic.twitter.com/lNqCFBQBjB

— The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) (@SickKidsNews) July 18, 2016

Fears are growing that a power-hungry president Erdogan is taking advantage of public opinion against the recent coup attempt to cleanse the country of liberal-thinking officials in all capacities. The Turkish government Tuesday issued short notices that it had fired nearly 24,000 teachers and another 1,577 university deans. This concern arises in a fear for democracy in the once-secular land and a concern that many of those being purged make Turkey stronger against external attack. It seems obvious that none of these people knew anything about a coup. Would you have the courage to speak up for them in this atmosphere?

The new Canada Child Benefit payments begin this month. The government has posted a calculator online to let you estimate what you might get if you have small kids at home. Just make sure you have your 2015 or 2014 tax return handy because you need to enter your net income information, plus information from lines 117 and 125.

The LCBO is tweeting Tuesday that it will open an “Australian boutique store” in the SmartCentre liquor playground on Wicksteed Ave. next Friday, July 22, 2016. No worries mate.