It is a $400-million suit embracing every taxi operator in Ontario according to the Toronto law firm Sutt Stroberg LLP. It’s not quite clear where the lawyers want to go with their claim that Uber is creating “a marketplace for illegal transportation in Toronto” but it is intriguing. Reuters
Campaign to name Leaside street after Dave Stickney
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Sandra Creighton writing on the Leaside Chit Chat Facebook page is asking friends to help her honour the late Dave Stickney by re-naming Markham Avenue to Stickney Way. Markham Ave. is a short street running from Airdrie Road to Laird Drive. Sandra writes: “Please help us to rename Markham Ave to Stickney Way in honour of Dave Stickney. A group of Dave Stickney’s friends have formed a committee to find ways to honour and remember Sticks who gave so much of himself to the Leaside Community, Leaside High School, Leaside United Church and girls softball (to name a few).” Sandra says Markham is a good candidate for this because it has no addresses on it, so no homes or businesses will be impacted. She intends to canvas the homes Thursday night (July 23, 2015) surrounding Markham Ave. to inform them of this initiative and obtain signatures. A petition is available to sign at Grill Time on Laird for the community to sign if you agree. You can also visit this link to sign online: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/393/820/106/rename-markham-ave-in-leaside-to-stickney-way/
Beloved African elephant, Iringa, has died in California
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The Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) announced yesterday that they made the decision to humanely euthanize Iringa. The wildlife sanctuary in San Andreas, California stated that she had a long history of degenerative joint and foot disease, which is the leading reasons for euthanizing elephants in captivity. PAWS President Ed Stewart would like us to know that “PAWS sends its most heartfelt condolences to the Toronto Zoo staff, the people of Toronto, and to all those who loved Iringa. Along with them, PAWS will miss this very special and dear elephant”. Iringa was born in Mozambique, Africa, in 1969 and lived at the Toronto Zoo from 1974 to 2013. Toronto’s Iringa, Toka and Thika arrived at PAWS in October 2013 following the zoo’s decision to end its elephant program. (Photo: PAWS Press Release)
Stranded orca kept alive for 6 hours in BC
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Can Starbuck’s “news” app beat the Bulldog’s news digest?
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Starbucks is touting the addition of the New York Times to its app but what about South Bayview news? Well, we’re going to tell you. The local news in digest form is posted on the Starbuck’s Bulletin board at Bayview and Belsize. Through the kind auspices of the manager and staff, coffee fans can now get a quick, regularly updated digest of news from the South Bayview Bulldog. We thought you’d like to know. Love the espresso.
Worried mom gets help with parking meter from strangers
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This is a very moving story of a mother who took her son to the emergency department at Barrie’s Royal Victoria Hospital and as she waited to see a doctor realized time was ticking by for her car. She posted a message with a local mother’s group on Facebook asking if she would be towed. In short order, many people offered, and did, top up the meter. Bless them all. Hamilton Spectator
Loblaws to close 52 unprofitable stores across Canada
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Loblaws has issued a statement Thursday morning (July 23, 3015) saying it will close 52 unprofitable stores in Canada over the next year. Loblaws has more than 2,000 stores and its locations include Loblaws, Provigo and Extra Foods. It also owns Shoppers Drug Mart. It did not say where the closures might occur but there are unlikely to be many in the Toronto area. In South Bayview, the Redway Rd. store has always seemed under-patronized and it is well off the main street. This is not an asset. Still, it is full of goods and Loblaws has seemed committed to it. Loblaws said the closures will cut its annual sales by roughly $300 million a year, but will result in an improvement of $35 million to $40 million in its operating profits. As reported by Canadian Press, the statement said the closures are expected to cost the company a total of approximately $120 million. Of this amount, a charge of $45 million was taken in the second quarter ended June 20, including $30 million for severance and lease termination costs.
CONSOLIDATED SALES
The release shows the grocery retailer’s consolidated sales rose 2.2 per cent to $10.54 billion from the same quarter last year. The firm said it made a second-quarter profit of $185 million, or 45 cents per share, compared with a loss of $456 million or $1.13 a share a year ago. On an adjusted basis, it said it earned $350 million or 85 cents per share in the quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $297 million or 74 cents per share a year ago. “Looking ahead, the grocery industry remains highly competitive and health-care reform continues to put pressure on our pharmacy business,” company president and executive chairman Galen G. Weston said in the statement.
Astonishing 11-year-old genius prefers to be “just a kid”
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You’re likely to enjoy this well-produced story about Jaxon Cota, an unassuming kid with an IQ of 148 from McKinney Texas. He is staggeringly smart but he just wants to be a kid. His parents agree. Nice.
Cabbie returns Cuban athlete’s cash-laden wallet left in car
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Cuban athlete Dailenys Pacheco, a participant in the jumping events at the Pan Am Games, is seen with Toronto cabbie John Strickland after he returned Ms. Pacheco’s wallet which had been left in his taxi. The woman had picked up the cab outside the Gerrard Square Walmart and proceeded to her Pan Am Games home in the Athletes Village at the foot of Bayview Ave. As told by Toronto police, Ms. Pacheco paid her fare, gathered up her belongings and went on her way. But she had overlooked her wallet. It was loaded with her identification and a “significant sum of cash”. The upset Ms. Pacheco approached nearby police at the village but just as the story was being relayed from Spanish to English, Mr. Strickland arrived back at the village having discovered the wallet in his car. He is an independent cab driver who has been working in Toronto for more than 35 years. To quote Detective Sergeant Ian McArthur, one of the investigating officers, “Mr. Strickland deserves a gold medal for his honesty. He is a true ambassador of our city”.
Here come tolls for single-driver cars to use HOV lanes
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Premier Wynne has announced that HOV lanes will soon become toll lanes. Driver-only cars will be able to skirt the HOV requirement for multiple passengers by paying. This concept will be called HOT. That cute name is said to stand for “high-occupancy lane tolls” although it might seem a misnomer. Never mind. In this era of provincial debt that is scaring the pants of mere mortal credit rating wonks, the Cabinet is forging ahead with new and unique methods of “revenue.” The news conference at which this arose did not generate questions about the government’s pledge to remove the HOV lanes slapped onto the Gardiner and Don Valley Parkway for the Pan Am Games. Does that still apply? The closest the Premier got to straight talk was this quote from the Star: “Whether the configurations that have been put in place on provincial roads for the Pan Am Games are exactly what will transpire when we put in place the HOT lanes, that’s not our plan at this moment,” she told reporters after the meeting with Mayor John Tory.
PLEASE DON’T SCREW US AROUND
The Star noted that Mayor Tory had to listen quietly to this bolt from the blue. He later said. “If there’s any frustration that I’ve heard, it’s that the HOV lanes during Pan Am have been underutilized … the lesson for us all now is to take lessons,” the Star quotes his worship. Translation? In Bulldog parlance that’s “please don’t screw us around like this Premier.” BNN
Captain Canada & his teammates will jump on Thursday
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Starting Gate Communications has shared a fantastic photo album of Canada’s show jumpers competing at the TORONTO 2015 Pan American Games yesterday. All team members (Canada’s Yann Candele of Caledon, ON, Tiffany Foster of North Vancouver, BC, Eric Lamaze of Schomberg, ON, and Ian Millar of Perth, ON) jumped clear in the 1st qualifying round. The team and individual equestrian show jumping competitions continue on Thursday at the OLG Caledon Pan Am Equestrian Park.
Obituary of Ann Anderson appearing in the Star Wednesday
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Ann Anderson (born Korol)
ANN ANDERSON (nee KOROL) Artist, teacher, Apollonian seeker of the true path, Ann’s glowing life was cruelly cut short on Wednesday, July 15, 2015 in Toronto. Her absence is felt every day, in a hundred ways, by those she has left behind: husband Don, son Timothy and daughter Elizabeth. They and other members of her extended family will remember this unique being who for a time visited their lives; whose daily awareness of the divine found expression in the seclusion of her beloved garden; whose generosity of spirit did not dilute her insistence on excellence in the classroom; whose swooping, impressionistic painting style co-existed with a meticulous talent for Eastern icon painting, symbolic of the powerful Ukrainian heartbeat in her artistic soul. Funeral Mass on Thursday, July 23rd at 11 a.m. at Blessed Sacrament Church, 24 Cheritan Ave., Toronto. Interment Mount Hope Cemetery.