Robert Prichard, the chairman of Metrolinx, has told CP24 that he is concerned about the delivery schedule of a “test car” for the Eglinton Crosstown LRT. Prichard says Metrolinx should have had possession of the car from Bombardier by now so that it was available to test on the under-construction rail line being dug along Toronto’s longest street. The Metrolinx chairman told Stephen LeDrew that the LRT cars are based on the same frame as the undelivered Toronto streetcars ordered by the TTC. The $770 million LRT order must arrive and be tested by the 2020 opening.

ONTARIO, OTTAWA MUST GET ANSWERS

It is a deeply disturbing revelation. The City is suffering a convulsion caused by LRT construction while the supplier of the vehicle required to run it seems to be lost in space.  No explanation worthy of the name has been given for the delay. Does anyone really know what has gone wrong?  Is there personal dereliction at work here? Are the employees incompetent?  It does not seem too much to ask that both the Ontario and Federal Governments obtain some explanation and provide it to the public.

 

It may not catch on along Bessborough Drive or at Granite Place but at least two Toronto women are in the business of serving meals to total strangers in their home. They advertise a menu, take a reservation, greet and serve the unknown guests, take payment in kind (beer, wine or whatever) and hopefully say goodnight without incident. What the police (on safety) or City Hall (on legality) might say about this is unknown. The CBC’s Sophia Hama tells of how Nadya Khoja and Sarah Lee do this out of their Toronto condo in what is known as the “sharing economy.”

Consumerist website says that YouTube is about to introduce six-second ads in an attempt to hold short-attention span cell phone viewers and to beat out Facebook, which has surpassed YouTube for video viewing online. Who knew?  A lot of those well-watched videos on Facebook started out on YouTube. At a mere six seconds, even the most impatient viewer is inclined to wait through these coyly-named “bumper ads”. YouTube will still keep the longer ads as well. Examples that YouTube showed in its announcement of the 6-second spots were short sections of existing full-length ads.

The new Star Trek television show that’s being produced for the CBS streaming service All Access will be filmed in Toronto according to Trek News. CBS is said to have studio space booked for the summer.  All five previous live-action Star Trek series have shot in Los Angeles. Canadian government tax incentives are traditionally a reason for filming in Canada, as opposed to Los Angeles. The new series will launch in early 2017 with a broadcast TV special on CBS. The first episode and all subsequent episodes will be exclusively shown in the U.S. on All Access.

The new compost (wet food) garbage bins are seen in this video for the first time, so far as we know. The bins require a human-handed 90-degree twist to lock and unlock them. You can do it and so can the sanitation workers. But the raccoons can’t. They don’t have thumbs. Good thing. Let’s hope it actually works.

Leaside native Adam Skelly has opened a lunch restaurant and smoke meat retail business in a refurbished industrial shop at 176 Wicksteed Ave. It’s called Adamson Barbecue. Adamson is a combination of his own name and that of his business partner and friend Alison Hunt. Skelly, a 28-year-old alumnus of Leaside High School, has been cooking and selling meats and sandwiches since 2013 out of his Stock Stack BBQ Food Truck. Now he’s fixed up a space owned by his dad which used to house a welding business to serve food Monday to Friday.  He’s open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. OSO (or sold out) as the sign on his front door says. Adam says he has always had a fascination with the barbecue meat business and proudly shows a Texas flag on the wall of Adamson’s, a symbol of Texas Barbecue, his specialty. The flag was flown over the Texas state house and is signed for authenticity. Following the smoked meat aroma at 176 Wicksteed will lead one to Adam’s prize, a 1967 commercial smoker. The big machine is seldom idle and it was flavouring up a load of brisket and pork when the Bulldog visited. The big smoker is fed by logs of choice oak and sugar maple wood. Take a look at Adamson offerings at the website. The place is on the north side of Wicksteed just west of the railway crossing and across the street from My Self Storage.  (647) 559-2080.

The prime minister has spoken again about the beheading death of Canadian citizen John Ridsdel in the Philippines at the hands of Islamist terrorists who pledge allegiance to ISIS, Al-Qaeda and similar barbaric bodies. Mr. Trudeau made the point that the government does not pay ransom because it supports the continued operations of such terrorists and endangers the lives of Canadians abroad.

WHAT TO DO

The PM didn’t have  much to say on this but the circumstances of such killings and the broader state of the world as well casts a sharp light on a new government eager to return Canada to the long-gone days of peacekeeping. The notion of peacekeeping seems hopelessly naive in a world filled with homicidal extremists bent on establishing a blood-soaked global regime. No one knows what to do about ISIS and the others except to kill them. It is a heavy burden for any leader but lighter perhaps than seeing innocent Canadians slaughtered this way.

The Toronto Card Show will set up at the Amsterdam Brewing Co. on Esandar Drive this Sunday. It will feature an always popular element when NHL greats attend to sign pretty much whatever fans have to place in front of them. The former hockey stars present on May 1, 2016 will be Johnny Bower and Bobby Baun. They will be signing between 12 noon and 2 p.m. Show hours are 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Below we see a happy fan with Bower and Mike Palmeteer at a card show appearance last year. Expect lineups. Johnny Bower archives 

Mike Crawley of the CBC is reporting Tuesday mornng that the Ontario government has subsized wealthy buiyers of wildy expensive Porsche and BMW electric cars (made in Germany) in the name of a savng the planet. Read it and weep. CBC

Cineplex Entertainment has cancelled an Indian Tamil film playing at theatres across Toronto after apparently coordinated attacks with a noxious substance at three of the theatres Friday night. The substance is said to be similar to pepper spray and was released at three separate movie theatres at the same time Friday. This occurred around 7.20 p.m. in Brampton, Mississauga and Scarborough during peak evening viewing. There was also a spray attack at the Scarborough Town Centre theatres on Saturday, April 16, 2016. The film, Theri, was released last month. An Internet synopsis says Theri is “an action film that has a message for society. The film tries to stress the importance of raising our children well and making them responsible citizens of the country. And safety of women is stressed. It is loaded with emotions and action sequences to satisfy all sorts of viewers.” The troubled history of  Tamil peoples in Toronto is said to be largely healed but in recent years violent strains of Tamil Tiger activity rocked the city and saw widespread blackmailing of Tamil families and businesses to support the now ended civil war in Sri Lanka. Trailer shown below is very entertaining even for non-speakers of the language.

 

The CBC has reported on an extraordinary act of kindness by a faith group, Rhema Christian Ministries. Each year the organizers arrange for women who live in downtown shelters in Toronto to visit Azan’s Hair Salon and Spa on Davenport Rd. Today, for the sixth year, 30 women were pampered and coiffed at the Yorkville spa for free. Manicures, haircuts, and massages were dispensed to the hard-luck ladies after months or in some cases years inside Toronto’s shelter system. The CBC quotes the organizer of Project Beautiful, Judth Meikle, as saying: “We just kind of empower them. We let them know they really are beautiful. And that in spite of the situation and circumstances they have been through, there are a group of people that will love them unconditionally.”