Gord Downie, the lead singer for the Canadian band Tragically Hip has been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. The band posted a notice on its website about Downie’s illness and said it will launch a summer more tour with their lead singer in place.  Downie received the diagnosis in December and has since then “endured a lot of difficult times, and he has been fighting hard,” while he deals with the diagnosis in private, along with his family. The 1980s group, formed among high school students in Kingston, has endured in varying popularity among fans since then. Over 30 years of The Tragically Hip playing together for tours and shows, it has released more than 15 albums and had  many hits. A news conference at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centres Tuesday heard that Downie is facing one of the most aggressive forms of brain cancer but has been cleared to perform. Dr. James Perry, head of neurology at Sunnybrook said Downie has been diagnosed with glioblastoma, which is the most common and most aggressive cancerous primary brain tumour. He also said the brain cancer is incurable. Glioblastoma affects about two to three people per 100,000 in Canada, the United States and Europe, according to information supplied by Sunnybrook Heath Sciences Centre, which is treating the musician. Perry said it is the most common cause of cancer deaths in Canadians between 40 and 60 years old. Dr. Perry speaks at length in the CBC video below. Twitter

The second Canadian who is presumed dead in the EgyptAir Airbus crash is Medhat Tanious of Toronto. It is not clear about family here or how often Mr. Tanious is here. He travels on an Egyptian passport. Tanious’ niece, who lives in Australia, confirmed her uncle was among the passengers aboard  jet. The other Canadian was Marwa Hamdy, a native of Saskatoon who moved to Cairo about 10 years ago after marrying an Egyptian. She was an IBM project manager and mother of three.

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The South Bayview Bulldog has recorded more than 50,000 page views and more than 40,000 unique users in April, 2016. It is the seventh straight month that the Bulldog has seen more than 40,000 unique users. The numbers are calculated independently by StatCounter, the recognized London-based web statistics firm. The Bulldog’s growth in readers has been dramatic since its inception in 2009. In 2012, the Bulldog was redesigned to accept local advertising. Page views have grown more than 21 fold from about 20,000 in 2012 to nearly 420,000 in 2015. The unique local news service is on target to once again see a record year of readers in 2016. Against this, the unmatched value in advertising on the Bulldog has remained the same. Most Bulldog advertisers show their message and website link to thousands each month for less than 85 cents a day with a six month prepaid ad. There’s no better way to catch the attention of local readers or build front-of-mind awareness. Take a look 

The widely believed intent of the government to somehow, someday get homes in Ontario off natural gas and onto electric heating has shocked many people — notwithstanding reassurances that it isn’t true, exactly. The decision to declare natural gas a hated “fossil” fuel has stunned people who believe it to be a relatively clean way to heat homes and water. Until very recently, this was official policy. Now natural gas is apparently seen as a blight in the Environment Ministry. Below are some figures of the cost of conversion to electricity supplied by gas suppliers at current rates.

Comparison Shopping:

• Annual Cost of running an electric furnace: $2,722 based on 19,171 kWh at $0.420 per kWh
• Annual cost of running a gas furnace: $668 based on 1,971 M3 at $0.2181

Difference: $2,054 a year

• Annual cost of running an electric water heater: $838
• Annual cost of running a natural gas water heater: $194

Difference: $644

Combined savings of gas over electric: $2,698

(Source: Ontario Natural Gas Alliance)

Gassed Up:

• Percentage of Ontario households with forced-air furnaces: 76%
• Percentage of Ontario households where natural gas is principal energy source: 62%
• Percentage of total Ontario household energy use coming from natural gas: 58%

Fire of undetermined origin has destroyed the office of a small construction company located on Canvarco Rd. The blaze occurred Sunday afternoon and gutted the premises, one of a number of businesses located in an industrial yard largely hidden from the street on the west side of Carnvarco. Bystanders said the fire had “destroyed the lives of two people”. Monday morning, a number of persons waited in the yard with the police for the arrival of the fire marshal. The fire and smoke were visible across much of Leaside and pictures appeared on Facebook in a number of places. The one above was credited to Hailey Eisen and appeared in Leaside Community.

Both Summerhill Market and Rowe Farms stores will be open Monday, May 23, 2016. Unlike previous holidays, the Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens is closed. All other supermarkets in South Bayview are closed Monday.

It has been (gasp) 30 years since the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off was released and yesterday in Chicago (where it was set) there was a celebration. Bueller trivia continues to abound. People are naming their children Ferris and Bueller’s parents in the movie got married in real life, then were reportedly divorced but now are back together. Other bit-part actors trade on the movie’s fun cult nature too.

A girl of 12 has been seriously injured when hit by a car at  Danforth and Pharmacy Aves. as she dashed across Danforth against a red light. It happened Sunday about 6.15 p.m. She was unconscious on the scene. The driver, a man, remained at the scene. Photo by James Segundo Twitter 

 

The prime minister is in Tokyo Monday morning set to hold a visit with Japanese leaders before attending the Group of Seven summit later this week. Trudeau will meet Tuesday with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the emperor and empress of Japan as well as carmakers. Then its the G7 summit on Thursday and Friday in the Japanese city of Ise-Shima.

 

The snug little plaza at Yonge St and Roxborough West has a Starbucks, Pizza Pizza, Smoke Shop and a Rogers store. They shoehorn eight cars in there which means drivers should go slowly, forward and backwards. A young lady was uninjured when the car she was driving took off over that mean-looking yellow concrete curb. It would take a bit of pressure on the gas to jump that baby. Just saying. This was Sunday morning.

 

 

The beautiful spring weather Sunday and Saturday saw crowds on Bayview Ave and especially at the Davenport Nurseries at the corner of Davisville.

A man described as an “agitated smoker” tried to open the rear door of a Lufthansa jetliner at 38,000 feet shortly after it took off from Munich. The man was held by staff while the plane landed at Hamburg and he was removed. A doctor said he believed there were mental problems. The plan was headed to Vancouver and took off later.