TPS Chief Mark Saunders dropped the puck Sunday for the ceremonial face off which saw the Canadian Tire Jumpstart team (in red) play the City TV Breakfast Television squad (in gold) at Angela James Arena in Flemington Park. Opening Day saw hundreds of children and parents along with civic leaders like Mayor Tory, Councillor Jon Burnside, Chief Saunders, Flemingdon alumnus and hockey veteran Angela James and 54 Division Superintendent Mark Barkley on hand. In remarks before the game Mr. Tory thanked Councillor Burnside for his early work in getting the ProActive Hockey League established. At that time Mr. Burnside was a police officer. He in turn thanked all those in the police department and the community for their help in taking him seriously. Sunday’s first game is one of many that will be played at the arena this season. The project is dependent almost solely on the work of members of the TPS, many who give their own time to coach and help organize the league. It is supported by the charity ProAction which is profiled in an earlier post this day. Superintendent Barkley told The South Bayview Bulldog that charitable efforts and the work of volunteers has equipped and trained six teams of young people ages eight to 11. About 150 kids are enlisted, he said.

 

Long-time Toronto residents sometimes wistfully recall the civil public behaviour that made it the envy of the continent. That would be then, not now, because the hunt is on to find the persons who were angry because a man asked them to  turn down their loud music on a bus. So angry they followed him off the TTC and viciously beat and robbed him. These are security camera images of two men suspected of the attack around 5:30 p.m. on November 26 on the Jane Street bus approaching Lawrence Avenue West. Both suspects are described as being between 18 and 25 years of age and standing about five-foot-seven. The first suspect is described as having a medium build. He was unshaven with blonde/brown hair. He wore a black Blue Jays baseball cap and a grey hooded sweatshirt. The second suspect has a thin build, short black hair, was clean-shaven and was last seen wearing a black Moose-Knuckle jacket with a fur hood. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-1200 or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).

Who knows what curious motive prompted the bizarre Sean Penn to get together with Rolling Stone magazine to interview the Mexican druglord El Chapo (Shorty) Guzman. Guzman is five foot, six inches tall. From all appearances Guzman is also short on a grasp of reality claiming he “never wanted to hurt anyone.” Cynics are saying Penn turned in Guzman though this would be an uncommonly sensible thing for the showboating Penn to do especially since the meeting is said to have taken place in October.  More likely, the authorities got wind of the caper on their own.

Angela James Arena in Flemngdon Park will be ringing to the sound of kids hockey Sunday (January 10, 2016) as the ProAction Hockey League (PAHL) gets underway for kids eight to 11 years. Chief Mark Saunders will be present for this important Cops for Kids event as will Angela James, who played senior hockey locally in the 1980s and 90s. Ms. James is now 51 but is still a revered figure in the community. It’s believed Mayor Tory will also make a visit. The PAHL season will begin with a puck-drop at 2.45 marking the start of the league’s 2016 season. PAHL is organized by officers from 54 Division, members of the community and sponsored by ProAction Cops & Kids and Canadian Tire Jumpstart. The puck drop and all league games are played at Angela James Arena at 165 Grenoble Drive.  ProAction is a charity that is not well enough known. It works in co-operation with the police. It was founded in 1991 by John L. Bitove Sr.  PAHL provides kids from priority neighborhoods like Flemingdon Park and Thorncliffe Park Drive with an opportunity to play hockey. Officers, volunteers, ProAction Cops & Kids and corporate sponsors, are able to provide the kids with equipment, teach them hockey skills as well as coach them during games. Many of the youth are new or first-generation Canadians who would never have the opportunity to play hockey if it wasn’t for the program. Very good work everyone.

The InPost invasion comes courtesy of a Polish business tycoon named Rafał Brzoska. (inset with profile below). The evidence of his grand plan in Canada can be seen outside Loblaws on Moore Ave. So Loblaws knows all about this project. So does Shell Canada and no doubt many other big corporations. There’s a locker in the Shell station in Summerhill on Yonge St. All across Toronto, and apparently Canada, a huge program of locker placement is proceeding quickly and smoothly. InPost parcel lockers are now, by the firm’s release, the biggest international network of parcel lockers providing “a fast and convenient method of shipping and collecting parcels around the clock, seven days a week, with no queues and at a convenient location.”

CORPORATE OWNER IS INTEGER.PL

On its website, the Polish firm says InPost has already introduced its parcel lockers in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Poland, Ireland, Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Russia, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Colombia, Canada, Australia and Saudi Arabia. It says it plan was to have over 5,000 of parcel lockers across Europe, both Americas and the Middle East by the end of 2015. It is planning to deploy a further 4,000 such lockers. According to the release, development of the InPost parcel lockers network is being conducted by the easyPack company, in collaboration with the PineBridge Investments Fund. This is a subsidiary of Integer.pl Group headquartered in Krakow, Poland’s second largest city. On the Internet, the president and apparent genius behind InPost is Rafał Brzoska.

COMPETES WITH “MONOPOLIST” POSTAL SERVICE

The company describes Brzoska this way: “He created a nationwide network of door drops and addressed marketing materials distribution, turning Integer into the leader on the distribution market in Poland. InPost, which has been operating for just a few years, already competes successfully with the Polish postal services monopolist, Poczta Polska. has continued its dynamic expansion of the InPost parcel lockers network by increasing its reach in key European e-commerce markets including, amongst others, the UK and Italy. The company has also intensified its activity on other continents.”

The news blog Yonge and Roxborough News has taken this picture of an InPost locker in the Shell station at Yonge and Rowanwood. It’s a service to receive and pick up online merchandise orders. One such locker has been installed beside the Loblaws at 301 Moore Ave. How it works 

 It must say something about the people of Truro, N.S. that they lined up 100 cars deep (at least) at a Tim Hortons drive-thru on Christmas morning to get coffee, hot chocolate and/or doughnuts. Someone observed “most of the town” was waiting in line. This was at the  place on Robie Street for those who know Truro.

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Appetite for food is endemic as is that other well-known hunger. So it is that a food protest by inmates at a Regina prison has seen not only a review of the edibles but the dismissal of a food worker for having sex with an inmate in a freezer. The food protest has ended with a tart remark from the Premier, Brad Wall, that the food looks okay to him and if one doesn’t like prison food the choice as to where one eats is only a matter of going straight. Mr. Wall did not comment on the freezer activity, although the food worker cannot come back to prison, probably not  even if  she is convicted of something, which she isn’t. Thank heavens it’s not illegal. There appears to be no protest about the quality of her overall work in the freezer.

ONTARIO PRISON WORKERS SETTLE

In other prison news, the union representing 6,000 Ontario correctional workers says it has reached a tentative agreement to settle all outstanding issues in contract talks with the province. The deal was reached around 5:30 a.m., Ontario Public Service Employees Union President Smokey Thomas told CP24 in a phone interview Saturday.