A 3 a.m. rampage through Bennington Heights has left nine cars destroyed by fire and one home on Burhman Rd badly damaged. The reckless person or persons responsible for this outrage set fire to a car in the garage of the Burhham home where a boy, said to be two years old, was sleeping. He escaped, as did everyone else in the vicinity. Cam Wooley said on CP24 that the cars were unlocked, permitting the culprit to set fire to the inside. A woman on Burnham said she and her husband heard a thump about 3 a.m. and then saw bright lights outside their home. The Audi parked out front was in flames. Councillor John Parker (Ward 26) said the crimes appear to have begun near Bayview and Moore Aves where the windows of the Hasty Market were broken. There seems to be a chance that video in the store may have captured images of perpetrator, one or more. Photos: from top, burned cars on Brendan Rd., Burnham Rd., Councillor Parker speaks to reporters. burned home on Burnham. CP24 Later post
U18 Lightning champs a credit to their league
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| John Child |
The victory late in April of the Leaside Lightning Girls U18 volleyball team in the provincial championship has thrown a new focus on the Leaside Volleyball League operated by John Child. A three-time Olympian and Bronze Medalist in Beach Volleyball, Child decided to pursue his love of the game in a lifetime of training girls and boys to play the sport. The girls of the Ontario champions LVL Red Team (above) are at the pinnacle of their young time as high school volleyballers in a program that has brought them along from age eight. It’s purpose is to help get boys and girls interested in volleyball at a young age. Like all house leagues the players come from all over but Child says most come from Leaside or nearby. Practices and instruction take place in the early evening. There are seven girls teams housed at the York School on Yonge St. The boys practice at St. Micheal’s College School and at Blantyre Public School in Scarborough, Each session consists of 45 minutes of warm up and skill development, followed by 45 minutes of structured game play. John has coached for many years at various levels from aspiring Olympians to young beginners, including being the head coach of the Havergal College Volleyball program and their five teams. This year, he is coach of the U16 Leaside Thunder boys team. The U18 girls are in national championship play in Calgary this week and there is high hope they can extend their Ontario championship to a cross country supremacy. Stay tuned. Their coaches are Melvin Lowe and Gaby Jobst, seen with the team above after their victory in the provincial tournament in Waterloo on April 27, 2014. Previous post Leaside Volleyball League
Target stores are Zellers with lipstick say critics
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It is an easy criticism for a Canadian retail consultant to make and it is probably unfair. Nonetheless, the remarkable gap in execution between the renovation costs (huge) and the need to fill the shelves is amazing. The Target staff they are getting better and it wold be foolish to count them out. Chatham News
One in 10 in U.S. think aliens abducted Flt. 370
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John Tory’s jobs plan sees med school at York U
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Toronto mayoral candidate John Tory unveiled his job-creation plan Thursday, vowing to create “economic corridors” in Etobicoke, Scarborough and North York – including a pledge to bring a medical school to York University. Globe and Mail
Randy Carlyle renewed, three assistants fired
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The Toronto Maple Leafs have signed head coach Randy Carlyle to a two-year contract extension on Wednesday but assistant coaches Dave Farrish, Scott Gordon and Greg Cronin will not be returning next season. TSN
Here are some things not to worry about today
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Stephen LeDrew was saying on CP24 today that “we’ve got to get over Rob Ford.” “Yes,” said LeDrew’s on-and off foil for Ford silly-talk Ed Keenan. “We’ve got to figure out some way to do that.” Actually guys, a lot of people are there already. Honestly, it is number one on The Bulldog’s short (and long) list of things not to worry about. The Bulldog has also stopped worrying about bloated whale carcasses. Maybe we’ll pop in and see the ROM skeleton exhibit once it’s up and running but, you know, another day. The whales may explode, they may be seized by armed residents of Trout River or possibly parked underground at City Hall. We’re not worrying. Finally, we’re not going to worry about what’s online. The Ottawa shoosh-now lady says the government is gathering information about us online. Really. Should we expect a knock at the door? Eighty years ago, the feds were mining personal data from the phone book, city directory and our neighbors.
Linemen hold meeting in the sky over Bayview
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It looks a bit like a convention up there. This was the scene Thursday morning at Bayview Ave. and Manor Road. Ontario Hydro linemen had some tricky wiring to do as they routed potentially lethal voltage away from their work area. These men and many others are re-installing lines onto new tall hydro poles on streets west of Bayview Ave. Previous post.
Loblaws buys mid eastern food chain Ariz Foods
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Loblaws has acquired the Middle Eastern grocer Ariz Fine Foods. Loblaws says it has identified the demographic as important to its growth. It likened the acquisition to the 2009 purchase of the Chinese food chain T and T. Ariz Fine Foods has 1,050 stores. Some products from Ariz will begin to appear in Loblaws. In other business news, Canadian Tire Corp. has agreed to sell 20% of its banking business to Bank of Nova Scotia for 500 million Canadian dollars ($459 million). As part of the agreement, Scotiabank, Canada’s third-largest lender, will provide the retailer’s financial-services business with credit-card receivable financing of up to 2.25 billion Canadian dollars. The deal also gives the retailer the option to sell another 29% stake in the business to Scotiabank within 10 years.
Park-by-phone is about the re-up, portable time
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Those who suffer under the predatory parking practices of the City of Toronto are rightly suspicious that Council might really be ready to adopt a less abusive system. Toronto shovels in an enormous load of cash each year with “gotcha” parking practices that have been put in place over the years. Nearly a generation has passed since the ticket-spitting park-o-meters were installed. That piece of equipment eliminated the reasonable value offered by unelapsed time. Drivers could find (or leave behind) unelapsed time on a vacant meter. In many cities they called the new paper tickets “municipal double dipping”. More than that, the system which is still in effect today levies a punishing penalty on those who want to add to (or re-up) their time. One must buy a new ticket and forfeit the money already paid. It is surely among the most unfair collection processes known to the democratic process. Now the deputy mayor, Mr. Kelly, says a pay-by-cell-phone program will go into effect this summer at 130 parking lots. It will be in place at 18,000 Green P street spots by 2015. What this means as a total of Toronto’s parking space or if the program will extend to South Bayview or Mt. Pleasant is uncertain. But it should. And the key to a fair and civilized system will be a motorist’s freedom to re-up time when he or she wishes without penalty. And portability. Drivers must have the right to take time paid with them within reasonable circumstances. The new ParkChicago plan permits this. There will be no convenience or service provided if the park-by-phone system is as abusive as the present one.
Author, activist, naturalist Farley Mowat dead
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Mr. Mowat died at his home in Port Hope, Ontario a few days short of his 93 birthday. He wrote as many as 40 works, one, “Lost in the Barrens,” published in 1956, won the Governor General’s Award, while “The Boat Who Wouldn’t Float” won the Leacock Medal for Humour in 1970. His work was translated into 52 languages and sold more than 17 million copies worldwide. CTV
Cedar poles replace rotting concrete in Ward 22
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The march of the new cedar hydro poles in streets of Ward 22 west of Bayview goes on apace. These scenes are from Gresham Road just off Belsize Drive. The work is necessary to replace the aging concrete poles, some of which have been in place for half a century, according to Hydro workers. Five decades of road salt has had quite impact on some of these poles at the base. Workers said it has made some of the old standards quite wobbly. As we reported in recent weeks, the new poles carry the 4000-volt feeder services with the local wires underneath. That’s one reason for the 50 foot height of the poles. The poles come from what is said to be a vast supply of cedar trees grown for the purpose in forests in British Columbia. Many come from to Northeast of the Okanagan Valley an area famous for its abundant tall, straight cedar pole trees as long as 105 feet. For 13 years, selective logging has been used to harvest poles here. Some 3,500 to 5,000 poles per year are taken from this region. After treating, many are used by Ontario Hydro and Ontario Municipal Electrical Utilities. Photos: March of the new cedar giants on Gresham Road west of Bayview Ave. Below, a shot of a cedar forest.