Radio Shack Corp. in the U.S. plans to close as many as 1,100 stores after a poor Christmas and a long cold winter. After that, it will still have some 4,000 storefronts across America. Radio Shack has long since ceased to exist in Canada although it once ruled the pre-digital electronics market of the 60s and 70s in this country. But the company split and the Canadian firm lost the right to the name. Now called Source Electronics, it is owned by Bell Canada. Radio Shack suffered a drop in sales over the holidays that left it with a $400 million loss last year. What does the future hold for the Source franchise in Canada? Every sign indicates that it is onward and upwards as far as Bell is concerned. As The South Bayview Bulldog reported recently the company is moving to larger premises in the Sunnybrook Plaza. It is an analyst’s exercise as to whether the Source would do better with more or fewer locations. What the Source has that Radio Shack does not is a flush corporate parent, less overhead and in all probability business locations that are on average superior to Radio Shack.
Ghostly figure atop the concrete chute was what motorists saw during the Tuesday night rush hour on Moore Ave. east of Mt. Pleasant Rd. Traffic was diverted from the short block between Mt. Pleasant and Kingsmere Rd. when an alert resident noticed water bubbling up. It is a fractured water main and work continues with a series of holes and fills.
The big job of wiring homes for Bell’s wireless TV service Fibe has landed at the corner of Bayview Ave. and Millwood Road. Pedestrians making their way around this blockage outside epi bread may or may not have asked what was going on. But the big billboard atop the Bonnie Byford Real Estate building was a tip off. “Fibe — TV You Can Move”. Unfortunately we can’t move the construction and workers today were moaning about how frozen solid everything seems to be.
Toronto Police Service are on the hunt for a man they say committed an indecent act in the children’s literature section of a book store at 2300 Yonge Street at Eglinton Ave. It happened at about 5.50 p.m. on Friday, February 28, 2014. The man left the scene prior to police arrival. He is described as white, 40-50, 6′, 150 lbs, with short grey hair. He was last seen wearing a dark long-sleeve shirt and black pants. He was carrying a black backpack. Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-5300, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), online at www.222tips.com, text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637), or Leave A Tip on Facebook. Download the free Crime Stoppers Mobile App on iTunes, Google Play or Blackberry App World.
TPS report: A 27 year old woman reports that on March 2, 2014 at approximately 1.45 a.m., she was in the area of Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue West when she was approached by a man wearing a disguise. He grabbed the victim’s purse and fled the scene westbound on Roehampton Avenue. No injuries were sustained by the victim. Police are requesting the assistance of the public in identifying the following described person in connection with this offence. Description of Suspect: Male, 5’8”, medium build.
12-year-old Madi Vanstone needs the new drug Kalydeco to live a normal life. The Beeton, Ontario girl suffers from a rare form of cystic fibrosis and only Kalydeco, a drug made by Vertex Pharmaceuticals of South Boston, Mass. treats the underlying cause. The problem with Kalydeco is that Vertex demands a price for it which many physicians in the U.S, say is unconscionable. Shortly after the drug was approved for use by the U.S. drug agency early in 2012, a group of 24 doctors who had worked on the project wrote to Vertex to complain. “We have invested our lives and careers toward the success of these inspiring therapeutic agents. We also write with feelings of dismay and disappointment that the triumph and honour that should be yours is diminished by the unconscionable price assigned to Kalydeco.” In Canada, the Ontario government estimates that a year’s treatment would cost $340,000. In the U.S., Vertex has set the price at $307,000 for a year’s treatment. In Germany, the price is said to be $450,000 per person per year. Alberta and Ontario have been among the Canadian negotiators with Vertex in efforts to negotiate a reasonable price. The medication’s effectiveness is apparently profound, the result of what is known as “rational drug design.” The process relies less on trial and error and focuses instead on known genetic factors which, if attacked directly, might lead to the kind of improvement which Kalydeco provides for patients taking it. Those who may be helped by it are few — perhaps no more than four percent of cystic fibrosis sufferers can benefit. Madi is apparently one of these, a carrier of the G551D gene mutation. She knows it works because friends, relatives and ordinary people raised enough money to get her started on it. The medication transformed the girl’s life. Today, Madi and her mother Beth were told by Premier Wynne and Health Minister Matthews the drug is not yet covered by OHIP because the price is still under negotiation. Some provinces have banded together to use their collective buying power to cut drug costs. Alberta, which is leading the talks on Kalydeco, has made three proposals to the drug maker Vertex, but it has rejected each one, the Premier said. It’s not responsible for Ontario to undermine other provinces, she added. “Of course we don’t put a price on a human being’s life,” she told the Legislature. But a former health minister called her response “complete garbage.” The governing Liberals could fund the drug tomorrow if they wanted to, said Progressive Conservative Jim Wilson. The Opposition is recalling the long and depressing history of misspent money in response to the Kalydeco issue. Photos: Madi speaking after meeting Premier, Vertex location in South Boston, Madi with PC MPP Jim Wilson (Simcoe-Grey)
There was a very moving story at Queen’s Park Monday morning where a 12-year-old Beeton, Ontario girl, Madi Vanstone, met Monday morning with Premier Wynne in her campaign to have OHIP cover the high cost of a drug she needs to treat Cystic Fibrosis. The drug is not covered at present. Madi was at a news conference with her mother and her MPP, Jim Wilson (PC Simcoe Grey) before she saw the Premier. The thing about the drug, Kalydeco, is that it really works. After fundraising by friends and citizens to buy the expensive treatment, Madi was actually no longer positive for the disease. She plays and does athletics like a normal kid. As her mother Beth said at the news conference, Kalydeco works at the cellular level, effectively erasing the Cystic Fibrosis. News reports say that the Premier told Madi she will “push” to see that the little girl gets this important medication.
Traffic is now said to getting through through both ways after this truck fire at about 7 a.m. Monday morning on the Gardiner Expressway. It happened at the Gardiner near Jameson Ave. and caused the closure of all roads, including Lakeshore Blvd. No injuries and no explosions, although there was an early fear that there was a propane canister in the truck that might go off. One motorist tweeted that he moved only two km in 90 minutes in his drive into Toronto from the west. This twitter thread is active with updates Jane Brown tweeted about 9.30 that all lanes are open.
John Parker (Ward 26) says online he was talking to the Aga Khan IV on Friday (February 28, 2014) during the religious leader’s visit to Canada last week. Mr. Parker’s ward contains the nearly completed Wynford Drive cultural centre and park devoted to the history of the Ismaili Shia denomination of Islam. It is expected to open this year. The Aga Khan asked Parker to make sure that local people understood that this park was also their park. It was a pleasant democratic sentiment coming from this supreme religious leader. The Aga Khan is considered the infallible leader of Ismaili Shias, a body of people estimated at as many as 15 million. This is a fraction of the world’s Muslims but it seems an important one in the light of the civilized leadership and good work of the current Aga Khan. The family claims a direct relationship to Mohamed. The holder of this position however is much more familiar to non-Muslims as a cultivated and wealthy man of many secular interests. He seems steeped in the finer qualities of Persian and Western culture. Whatever the truth, the Aga Khan’s great work as a proponent of pluralism has earned him honourary Canadian citizenship. As such he addressed the combined Houses of Parliament in Ottawa last week and made some entertaining remarks about Olympic hockey. His ascension to the position he has held since 1957 occurred when his grandfather, Aga Khan III, decided to pass over his own sons and appoint his grandson Karim Al-Hussaini then 20-year-old student at Harvard as his successor.
There is a theme recurring in the well-known and busy hashtag Twitter thread known as #TOpoli. Among the gnashing of teeth over the idea that anyone should care about Rob Ford in Hollywood there is a kind of premonition (or hope) that Toronto’s chief magistrate will do what he almost always does — get into huge trouble after nightfall. Former Globe reporter Steve Ladurantaye asks “Ford in Hollywood — what could go wrong?” Alex tweets “I’ve a creeping feeling that Ford’s being set up for the kind of humiliation that only he’s dumb enough to fall for, at our expense.” Tomorrow morning will reveal whether our fears or desires have been met. In the meantime, John Tory is tweeting at #TOpoli that you look at his campaign video. It’s here on the left on the Bulldog too.
Charlene Kalia has confirmed what many guests to the 5th Annual Laugh Out Loud in Leaside event are saying. The community fundraiser and entertainment was held Friday night in the William Lea Room at the arena and it was an all-star success. It was sold out to some 200 friends and local residents. The proceeds exceeded $25,000 and will go to the New Circles charitable group. This year LOL had both Leasiders but also many guests from other neighbourhoods too. Lexus on the Park was the major sponsor and the night was funny with Yuk Yuk comedians. The food parade began with Neal Brothers Foods providing a room full of delicious chips for enjoying and taking home. Andy Elder from Grilltime and Christine Manning from Manning Cannings (love that name) teamed up for an epic slider that was a huge crowd pleaser although John Parker (Ward 26) tweeted that they were “cute little hamburgers”. Delemar provided the oyster bar and a sampling of their candied and jerk salmon. Tori and Cates Cupcakes on Bayview Ave. provided delicious and moist cupcakes for all the guests and not one was left over. Hanna Neal was the wine sponsor, Amsterdam the beer sponsor and Pepsi the beverage sponsor. Special guests were Peter Neal, Nick and Anne Marie Kypreos and MC was Canadian Tire Guy Paul Constable. Indisicion band played to a crowd that pushed tables aside to dance.
A resident of Upper Canada Drive, Ron Rimer, took the inset pictures recently and sent them to Jack Lakey, columnist for the Toronto Star. Mr. Rimer was astounded at the “mess-acre” as he called it of garbage bins on his street after the regular pickup. Upper Canada is near Bayview Ave. running east off from near Yonge Street. Mr. Rimer said he found the bins in the middle of the street. Mr. Lakey’smakes the point in his Fixer column that this is an area served by CUPE sanitation workers employed by the City. He contrasts the chaos here with the neat and tidy wake (typically) of the privatized workers from the Green For Life (GFL) company which collects the refuse west of Yonge Street. Lakey says what many know: sloppy work by unionized employees is not helpful to their job security. Many people in South Bayview can certainly testify to the way garbage bins get thrown into the middle of driveways. In fairness, of course, no one saw exactly what happened to the bins on Upper Canada. But what is clear is that the management of GFL sends its employees to school about this matter. They expect, and they usually get, a neat arrangement of bins placed back where they came from. It doesn’t seem too difficult. The possibility of private garbage collection east of Yonge Street will be a campaign issue this year. It will be an important question for all candidates as to how they will proceed if elected.
Radio Shack Corp. in the U.S. plans to close as many as 1,100 stores after a poor Christmas and a long cold winter. After that, it will still have some 4,000 storefronts across America. Radio Shack has long since ceased to exist in Canada although it once ruled the pre-digital electronics market of the 60s and 70s in this country. But the company split and the Canadian firm lost the right to the name. Now called Source Electronics, it is owned by Bell Canada. Radio Shack suffered a drop in sales over the holidays that left it with a $400 million loss last year. What does the future hold for the Source franchise in Canada? Every sign indicates that it is onward and upwards as far as Bell is concerned. As The South Bayview Bulldog reported recently the company is moving to larger premises in the Sunnybrook Plaza. It is an analyst’s exercise as to whether the Source would do better with more or fewer locations. What the Source has that Radio Shack does not is a flush corporate parent, less overhead and in all probability business locations that are on average superior to Radio Shack. 
