The South Bayview Bulldog

It is a memorable moment in the public discourse of our country. Stephen Harper and Justin Trudeau are seeking to find the essence of personal freedom on separate sides of an argument about the black face covering worn by some Muslim women. It’s called the niqab and is quite legal in Canada, unlike France where that cradle of European liberalism banned the garment some years ago. Here it’s just fine to shop, use your credit card or even drive a car, visibility notwithstanding, while wearing the niqab. There are constraints on the niqab however in swearing an oath or testifying in court. The issue became political fodder when a woman insisted on wearing her niqab to take the oath of citizenship. The government said no. Today Mr. Harper said that was offensive. He called the niqab the product of a culture that is “anti-women.”  In a speech Monday, Mr. Trudeau said Canadians, presumably including Harper, are free to believe the niqab is “a symbol of oppression.” But using the state’s power to compel Muslim women to give it up indulges “the very same repressive impulse.” And then the critical search for the essence of freedom  “It is a cruel joke to claim you are liberating people from oppression by dictating in law what they can and cannot wear.” said  the Liberal leader. So, does freedom lie with those who say the niqab a medieval constraint on women or in the embrace of the niqab as any woman’s choice (for herself and her daughter) in any circumstance no matter how formal in Canadian life.

This is all about technology that will probably be required at Billy Bishop (Toronto Island) after it grows to the size of Ottawa International Airport. That’s the reasonable estimate of the relatively early growth at the island if jets arrive. The island is a classic case of an airport where the runway leaves pilots with no crash room and there are dozens of them in the U.S. The so-called EMAS (Engineered Material Arresting System) consists of large blocks of material at the end of the runway which break up when a jet smashes into them. The friction will stop a loaded 767 abruptly but safely. The issue at the island is that once jets are installed, it will impossible to prevent every regional airline on the continent from demanding a piece of the runways. It will be crowded.

A 16-year-old girl is in critical condition at Sunnybrook Hospital after a skiing accident at Blue Mountain Resort near Collingwood. The girl was part of an organized skiing program at the resort and is said to have hit a tree about 1.30 p.m. today. She was wearing a helmet. She was taken to a local hospital but then quickly transferred by helicopter to the Sunnybrook trauma centre.

The body of Sgt. Andrew Joseph Doiron is safely home and is travelling the Highway of Heroes from Forces Base Trenton to the coroner’s office at 25 Morton Shulman Ave. in the Keele Street and Highway 401 area around 6.15 Monday evening. It is expected that many hundreds of Canadians will wish to watch the hearse pass on its way to Toronto. There was a repatriation ceremony at the airbase with Gov. Gen. David Johnston and Defence Minister Jason the airbase present.

You might want to come to the topic of the City Budget in a few hours, or maybe a couple of days. There is a picnic of chest thumping motions from the councillors. Rob Ford has 30 of them, including a cut to the tax rate of 3.2 percent down to 1.99 percent, eliminating more than $19 million in Pan Am celebratory events, cutting the mayors budget to$2 million. Fun. If you want blow by blow go to #TOpoli on Twitter where many reporters like Don Peat are busy with updates and smart remarks (not Don of course).

Many have watched with interest as the work continued at this Cape Code-style home at the corner of Parkhurst Blvd and Hanna Road. It has been quite a show as the little yellow brick home began to spread in directions. Looks good to us.

The question in the headline is reverberating along South Bayview Ave. as word comes that Shoppers will locate an outlet in the new Whole Foods Market complex at 1860 Bayview. Many swear it means that Shoppers Drug Mart in the old Bayview Playhouse at 1601 Bayview will close. Parking is said to be an issue. The best response from two sources at the two-level South Bayview store is that yes they’ve heard the story and nobody seems sure what will happen. It does not seem too unreasonable in terms of distance for Shoppers to keep two locations. Rexall Pharma has a store at Moore Ave and in the Sunnybrook Plaza. They both seem very busy. But there is much behind-the-scenes business not visible to outside observers. The playhouse building is a special case as leasing goes. It takes a public-spirited retailer like Shoppers, and before them Brunos, to shoulder the size of this space. The complaint heard most often against it is parking. But there is parking. The grocery stores that leased this space got into trouble because groceries are heavy. No one wanted to cart them a block. When Shoppers opened there in the Spring of 2011 (before Loblaws) they were still keen on the two-storey concept for their stores. But they went a step too far in manipulating the clientele by putting the dispensary on the second floor. People resented it. The perfume promenade inside the front door (like Bloomingdale’s in New York) was one thing, but it was quite another to send old people up to the cheap seats for their medicine. Anyway, the story is  out there for Shoppers to deny. Right now, there are people in South Bayview who think that Shoppers will forsake our pleasant high street for a home at Bayview and Broadway,

Northbound lane cleared (12:30pm); reveals costly consequences of following too closely!  Ouch.

Traffic alert: Fender bender blocking NB Bayview north of Millwood.
12:14 PM – 10 Mar 2015

The much hoped-for end to the strike of professors and others at York University has not occurred. One unit of contract faculty has voted to accept the offer of the university and two units representing graduates and teaching assistants have voted to reject it. This outcome has produced total confusion. There is no informed view on just what it means and who, if anyone, will be at work Tuesday. Clearly, many will not be at work and that means students remain up in the air on the outlook for their school year. Other unexpected details, the teachers who voted to accept the offer will have to decide whether they should now cross the picket line of their colleagues tomorrow. It is not a pretty nor particularly rational picture.

“I’ve been waiting to do this since I was five years old,” says Timothy D. Cook

Timothy D. Cook was as excited as a five-year-old when he introduced the new Apple wrist watch, phone. sketch pad and whatever else in San Francisco Monday. He said he had been waiting to place a call from wrist watch since he was that tender age. Of course, now’s he’s 54. Oddly, he seemed to have no awareness of the kind of problems this device will now cause for the world as young motorists (and some not so young) use their fun phones as they try to navigate traffic. And why should he, some may say. Is it his fault that the iPhone contributes to hundreds of thousands of accidents and many deaths every year across Canada? Perhaps not. But you can prepare yourself for the necessary over haul of traffic legislation and difficult enforcement to deal with the  Apple wrist phone. As it stands, it is illegal for a driver to have a cell phone in his hand in Ontario while operating the car. But, hey now, we wear the Apple watch right on our body as a fashion statement. Let see how society deals with that.

BMO Financial Group and the National Basketball Association (NBA) today announced a multiyear partnership that will make BMO the Official Bank of NBA Canada. We guess this can’t be bad but is it good? Would it make you change banks? The agreement is the league’s first partnership with a Canadian bank and will also make BMO an official partner of the Jr. NBA program in Canada.