The South Bayview Bulldog

Kraft Heinz will close its plant in St. Marys by 2017 as part of a wider contraction.  Kraft recently merged with Heinz. About 200 will lose their jobs at St. Marys, a town of about 6,500 south of Stratford.

The former Postal Station R at 2 Laird has now been demolished. The work began a few days ago. It will be the site of the much disputed Upper House condominium. The red brick post office building (inset) served for 50 years as Postal Station R. The developer purchased it for $3,050,000 in 2011. The land was purchased by the federal government in 1959 for $115,000.

It had to happen. The apparent non-stop frenzy of condo development in Toronto continues to inspire names the builders hope will engender a pride and affection among prospective buyers. So it is that the new condominium at 1401 O’Connor Drive will be named The Lanes, Residences at O’Connor Bowl. It seems at least as sensible a name in this upright working class neighborhood as The Art Shoppe Condos and Lofts, a Yonge Street address where it will cost a bit more than “the 200’s” advertised by The Lanes. Beloved O’Connor Bowl to close for good this week

The first definitive government statement based on the accumulating evidence comes from the U.S.

Torstar today announced it will cut its dividend in half after revenue fell and losses mounted in the third quarter on weaker print advertising. The publisher of the Toronto Star and other daily and community papers in Ontario reported a loss of $164.3 million for the quarter or $2.05 per share.

University Rosedale MP Chrystia Freeland has been appointed Minister of International Trade in the new Trudeau cabinet. St. Paul’s member Carolyn Bennett was appointed Minister of Northern and Indiginous Affairs. She was not expected to be in cabinet. Toronto-Centre MP Bill Morneau is the new Finance MInister.

NO BILL BLAIR, ADAM VAUGHAN

Surprising in their absence from cabinet are Bill Blair and Adam Vaughan. The anti-police tweets were giddy with pleasure at Blair’s deletion, comparing him to Julian Fantino. It is a shot that would hurt a sensitive man. Trudeau has an excess of riches which may account for the absence of Mr. Vaughan. But then, Blair and Vaughan or both men as well. Don’t forget the cabinet had to be exactly 15 women and 15 women.

OLD FACES TOO

Veteran MPs like Stephane Dion, Ralph Goodale, Marc Garneau, Scott Brison, Dominic LeBlanc, Kirsty Duncan, Lawrence MacAulay and John McCallum are all in the new cabinet.

Justin Trudeau is officially sworn in as prime minister today and Canada gets a look at his cabinet. Always a spectacle, this important rite in our democracy will be no different.  As a way of doing things differently, not just from the Conservatives but from every government before in modern times, the PM-to-be and his appointees will arrive at Rideau Hall in a bus.  The team is expected to  debark at the gates to the estate around 9:45 a.m. where a crowd is expected to meet them.  Trudeau and his ministers in waiting will then make their way up the tree-lined path to the Governor General’s official residence, where the swearing-in will occur. Just who is in the cabinet will be revealed by who is on the bus. It will a bit like watching for your relatives at the airport.

TALKING TOUGH TO PUTIN

The National Post talks today about what it says will be a big test for Mr. Trudeau — the Putin Test. It is a subject that was on the minds of many sobersided voters. How would a young, inexperienced — not to say superficial — prime minister deal with the slippery boss of Russia? The Post notes that Trudeau has accused Putin of “being dangerous” in eastern Europe, “irresponsible and harmful” in the Middle East, and “unduly provocative” in the Arctic. He has also called Putin a “bully,” and said: “If I have the opportunity in the coming months to meet with Vladimir Putin, I will tell him all this directly to his face because we need to ensure that Canada continues to stand strongly for peace and justice in the world.”

In Edmonton, Alexis (Lexi) Shymanski is seen (right) as she solemnly ponders the medal for bravery she has just received from the Royal Canadian Humane Association. It’s a lot for a girl to take in. But this girl has more than it takes to keep her head. On June 8 she clambered up a rugged 12-metre embankment in the Rocky Mountain foothills in her bare feet to flag down help from a passing motorist. Her mom had fallen asleep at the wheel and was unconscious in their SUV along with her baby brother Peter, ten weeks. We see Lexi  with her mother Angela in hospital (left).  Angela was in serious condition. She suffered a broken back and extensive internal injuries. Alexis woke to her baby brother crying and tried to wake her mother. She undid her car seat’s five-point harness, which she had done only twice, pushed the airbag away, kicked the jammed door open and climbed out of the badly damaged vehicle. As luck would have it, she was able to flag down a passing car with a family from Alaska who weren’t able to get through to 911. Another passing car, with Lise Lord and Richard Nowicki inside, turned around and went back to help. They were able to contact 911. Nowicki, a retired paramedic, and the unidentified Alaskan dad got the baby out of the car. Nowicki stayed with Angela Shymanski, recognizing she had a back injury.

Police Chief Mark Saunders has told a meeting of Leaside residents that it is necessary to transform policing of traffic in Toronto by the widespread use of modern technology. The chief noted that he has 360 fewer officers now because of budget cuts, creating the lowest TPS complement in recent years  What the chief called “the leveraging technology” of automatic cameras has been his priority since he became head of the service earlier this year. He also spoke of how changes in public attitude toward technology have changed the opportunity for leverage. “I can tell you that 15 years ago there was no public appetite for that. If I spoke to you about utilizing technology for traffic enforcement you would have shooed me out the door.” Frankly, said the chief, people are behaving a lot worse on the roads in 2015 than when he first became a policeman. “Distracted driving is killing more people than impaired driving right now. That’s a cultural change that’s going to take some time to resolve.

LOBBYING GOVERNMENTS

Chief Saunders said the Toronto Police Service has approached governments at all levels to talk about the importance of technology. What’s good said Saunders is that new cameras are cheap (maybe $1,000 each). They are indiscriminate, he said. They measure behaviour.  In countries where such cameras are used “drivers behave” he declared. “It’s not optional. You get the ticket and it reduces fatalities by 20 percent.”  In answer to questions, Chief Saunders said new and compact camera equipment will replace a few bulky and obsolete units now being used. At present, the cameras are obvious and the effect is to improve local behaviour temporarily at a few locations.

NUMBER ONE IN SAFETY

The chief was asked about the behaviour of pedestrians. He said that headphones and distracted walking were a concern but in terms of people injured compared to previous decades “there’s not much of a difference.” The chief made a plea for families to talk about good practice in both driving and walking. He emphasized the need for pedestrians to look before plunging into the road on a green light. He spoke of how safe Toronto is in relative terms. “We’re at 2.8 million right now in a very small geographic space. We get along really well. When you compare our City to all the other cities in North America were are still ranked the safest by far,” said Chief Saunders.

MOTION BEFORE CITY COUNCIL 

The meeting was organized by Councillor Jon Burnside and held at the Lea Room at Leaside Arena Tuesday, November 3, 2015. He has a motion before City Council calling for technology based traffic enforcement much like the ideas expressed by the Chief. Mr. Burnside reviewed community concerns and said he wanted residents to hear from the police about their challenges in meeting public expectations. Some residents in attendance were Carol Burtin Fripp, Patrick Rocca and Geoff Kettel.