Good morning Bayview, got a stone in your shoe?

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Good day South Bayview. We’re here to fix things up. Time for us to repair the junky “terrazzo” we installed last summer. Funny how that turned into gravel. Some people said it was just a bad batch. No kidding. Now you can get a pebble in your shoe when you go to COBs or wherever. What do all all those timber poles on the west side have to do with terrazzo. Nothing. They are part of Hydro One’s ongoing replacement of falling down wires. Honestly, there isn’t anything we would not do for you, South Bayview. 

Ford, Stintz open playgrounds in Woburn Park

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Those odd colleagues at City Hall Mayor Rob Ford and Ward 16 Councillor Karen Stintz will oversee the opening of two new Woburn Park playgrounds today. The event will include a ribbon-and-cake-cutting ceremony. this afternoon  (Monday, July 21, 2014) from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Woburn Park is at  575 Cranbrooke Ave. and Barse Street.  

6 Astor Ave is under the wrecker’s hammer

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The little two-story home at 6 Astor Ave. is under the wrecker’s hammer. It dates from the original construction of south Leaside in the 1930s and sits very close to the corner. The already re-built home of some years at 4 Astor sits seemingly half on Astor and half on Southvale Drive and Moore Ave. where the street changes names. 6 Astor was listed for $899,000 and sold on January 1, 2014 for $1,185,000. 

Can the Senate be constitutionally defanged?

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Andrew Coyne on how to “defang” the Senate. 

Funeral for Georgia Grace Walsh (2007-2014)

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Georgia Grace Walsh (2007-2014) will be memorialized Monday, July 21, 2014 in a funeral service at St. Paul’s Anglican Church, 227 Bloor St. E., at 2 p.m. The church is expected to be full for this service. Georgia died Wednesday when she was hit by a minivan at the corner of McRae Drive and Millwood Road.  Her death has touched a City. In lieu of flowers, mourners are asked to consider making a donation to the Hospital for Sick Children. Georgia’s father, John Walsh, is the president of the Conservative Party of Canada. Inset is a family photo of Mr.and Mrs. Walsh, Georgia and the prime minister.  St. Paul’s

Therapeutic weed clinic at Yonge and Eglinton

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The new medicinal marijuana clinic has opened at One Eglinton Ave. E., right on the corner of Yonge. It’s in Suite 401 above the 7 Eleven and CIBC, the first local cannis treatment clinic in the neighborhood. It’s name, as previously reported, is Cannabinoid Medical Clinic or CMClinic for short. Sun News has a good profile of what happens inside the CMClinic now that new legislation permits doctors to refer patients to therapeutic weed dispensers like this one. By the way, no marijuana is stored on the site. Sun News

Boy, 8, hit by car on Thorncliffe Park Drive

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A boy has been hit by a car on Thorncliffe Park Drive. The 8-year-old has been taken to the Hospital for Sick Children where it is said he is in stable condition.  

Lawyer baffled by “bribery” in Duffy charges

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The CBC story about the 31 charges which the RCMP have laid against Mike Duffy contains surprising information about the most contentious charge — bribery of a judicial officer. The apparent allegation is that there was a corrupt element to Duffy’s acceptance of $90,000 from PMO chief of staff Nigel Wright to pay off expenses he owed to the government. Many have wondered how this represented bribery and the CBC story quotes Daniel Brown, Toronto region director of the the Criminal Lawyers’ Association on the subject. Brown says it isn’t clear to him on the evidence how the cops got to where they did. “It seems as though his intent of receiving the payment was to pay back the government and so it wasn’t clear to me what his corrupt intent would be,” Brown told the CBC. So why was the charge laid? Here Brown offers a view which must rattle the judicial process. It is essentially that the RCMP, possibly, are so gun shy they might lay a charge just in case there is evidence they haven’t found.  “They want to ensure that everything appears to be above board. They don’t want to be criticized later on for not having laid charges where evidence may have existed,” Mr. Brown said.

How can we deal with our grief and anger?

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How can we deal with our grief and anger? How? Today there are pink ribbons on trees, poles and fence posts on many streets in South Leaside. These are little wisps of cloth, some with fancy bows, an expression of support for the family of Georgia Walsh but also an act of simple survival by ordinary people against crushing grief and helplessness. All over this little town within a City, decent people are seeking ways to somehow gain control of a heartless world. They were coming and going from the sweet memorial for Georgia by the hedge of Leaside United Church today at the last place she stood full of life and fun. The little boy seen here was with his dad as he photographed the statement hung there by Georgia’s parents. “Thank you for this extraordinary outpouring of love for our beloved daughter Georgia.”  It told all who came there that the cards will be kept and cherished, the animals will be given to the Hospital for Sick Children to comfort other children and the flowers “will continue to fill our community with your endless love.”  On the sidewalk on both sides of the street are large boxes of coloured chalk, a communal tool for the expression of messages. Georgia’s mother and father scratched their own: THANK YOU  xo Georgia’s Mum and Dad   
National Post 

Summer Sale underway today on South Bayview

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They’re having fun on South Bayview this noon and although there is a sprinkle predicted, the crowds are out to sample what’s to be had at the Summer Sidewalk Sale. You can too. De la mer, the premier seafood store next to Starbucks, is cooking up some of its great salmon burgers. Many other merchants have goods out too. Up at Dolly Jewellers a tent covers a variety of things that catch the attention. Those oversize wall clocks are displayed as well. They have an antique look but modern quartz works. Dolly has a monthly draw for just such a clock during July. No sale is required to enter. Next door at Puregrass Med Spa the irrepressible Cheryl Ingram, spark plug of the summer sale, is out in front with friends to preview her many services. Photos: top, making salmon burgers at de la mer; Dolly Jewellers

Why we are saddled with streetcars in Toronto

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The National Post series Streetcarnage addresses publically for the first time in a long time the odd attachment the City of Toronto has for what was once known as the “street railway.”   Streetcars are long gone from Canadian cities although Hamilton retains a charming bit of nostalgia in the 19th century name of its transit system — the Hamilton Street Railway or HSR. How did Toronto become the eternal home of these enormous, unpredictable and road-hogging vehicles? The event is traceable to the efforts in 1972 of what the Post calls “a core of leftist public transit activists through a group called Streetcars for Toronto.”  Its backers included public transit advocate Steve Munro and William Kilbourn, a Rosedale historian says Terrance Corcoran in the linked article. As is frequently the case at City Hall, no one was looking when this happened, much as no one was looking when the 21st Century streetcar cataclysm known as the St. Clair Ave. W. right-of-way occurred.  In this instance, advocates of the streetcar like former TTC Chief Adam Giambone rammed through a monstrous obstruction to traffic and business Nothing mattered but the care and feeding of the trolley.  Terrance Corcoran

Woman on nearly 100 counts of passport fraud

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A 50-year-old Toronto woman has been charged with almost 100 counts of producing and selling fraudulent Canadian passports. The Mounties charged Rozeline Zeitoune, a former passport processing officer with Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) this week It’s a case that more than a little alarming considering the high value of Canadians passports to terrorists who wish to do real harm to others.  CBC