Girl, 10, accosted near Thorncliffe-Overlea

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Toronto Police say a  10-year-old girl reports that on March 25, 2014 at approximately 1140 a.m. she was in the area of Thorncliffe Park Drive and Overlea Boulevard when she was approached by a man. He is said to have grabbed the girl’s hand and attempted to walk her towards another waiting suspect. The victim escaped the suspect’s grip and both suspects fled the scene in an unknown direction. No injuries were sustained by the victim. There is no description available. 

Good turnout for Glenvale parking meeting

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Ward 26 Councillor John Parker’s special meeting to address parking proposals for Glenvale Blvd. drew a crowd of more than 100 residents to Northlea United Church tonight (Thursday, March 27, 2014). Observers say the crowd was not happy about the suggested restrictions. As we posted two days ago, many feel they will be victimized by high-speed through-traffic motorists trying to avoid LRT congestion to the south. So before discussion even began at 6.30 p.m., the Councillor declared that he had heard from enough unhappy people that he was shelving the the ideas for now. But the meeting was already convened so discussion went on about parking and traffic. Toronto traffic engineer Jay Malone said that the “safest” solution would be for no parking at all on one side of Glenvale, although he was forced to admit that this might have the effect of speeding, which nobody wanted. Paddy Duncan of the Leaside Proper Owners Association called it “a lively evening with a lot of opinions expressed.”  Mr. Parker invited residents to contact his office and make proposals. Ms. Duncan pointed out to everyone that members of the LPOA, City staff and Metrolinx staff are meeting monthly to address concerns as the crop up.  LPOA

#ONpoli Names named in laptop wiping probe

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These are the names of those who maybe knew about or had something do with the wiping of hard drives of 24 computers in Dalton McGuinty’s office last year. 

Peter Wallace, Cabinet Secretary
Thom Stenson, Manager of the Information Technology Services for the cabinet office
David Nicholl, Chief Information Officer at Government of Ontario  
David Livingston, Chief of Staff to Premier McGuinty
Wendy Wai, Executive Assistant to Mr. Livingston
Laura Miller, Deputy Chief of Staff of Communications and Strategy and the Chief of Staff to the Minister of Intergovernmental affairs.
Peter Faist, boyfriend and life partner of Ms Miller. 

The first two, Wallace and Stenson, are top civil servants in the Cabinet Office. They were uncomfortable with urgent inquiries on the part of David Livingstone, the Premier’s top aide, to obtain permission for someone to have password authority on every machine in the office. Wallace and Stenson had never heard of such a thing but it appears that Mr. Livingstone got his way. The OPP say in their warrant that David Nicholl provided the password even though he reports to Mr. Wallace, who disagreed. Mr. Livingstone then gave this authority to his Executive Assistant, Wendy Wai, a woman who the OPP concluded knew very little about computers and who realistically, could never have erased the hard drives. She was, they decided, a kind of “trojan horse” or cover for the real expert. That person was found close by, police allege, but was not authorized to touch the computers. It was determined that Laura Miller (fifth on the list) had a boyfriend who was very capable in this area. His name was Peter Faist. Mr. Livingstone gave the job to him, the cops say 

#ONpoli tweets demand Premier Wynne resign

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An OPP search warrant makes allegations about an apparent cover-up at Queen’s Park in the form of the erasure of hard-drives in the office of Premier McGuinty. It happened in the days during which Premier Kathleen Wynne took office. Mr. McGuinty resigned last year in the face of mounting anger over the cost of the cancellation of a power plant project in the middle of construction. The Legislature heard the stunning news this morning and Opposition members were seemingly outraged. OPP are alleging that Mr. McGuinty’s last chief of staff authorized a deputy to get what the Star’s Rob Ferguson calls an “IT-savvy boyfriend unrestricted access to 24 employees’ computers in the premier’s office before and after Kathleen Wynne took power.” The impact of this revelation is being weighed moment by moment on the Twitter search #ONpoli (Ontario politics) with reporters wondering if it means an imminent election. Many of the tweets demand that the premier resign. A tweet by Christopher Gardner says the Premier has been seen climbing down a rope ladder and sprinting across the south lawn of the Legislature Building. Not to be taken seriously. But below, is Lorrie Goldstein’s tweet on this story. It begins “Kaboom!”  Toronto Star  Ottawa Citizen   #ONpoli

Smoke from west-end factory fire seen in Leaside

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Toronto Fire say they have controlled and isolated the huge 6 alarm fire in a mattress factory at 198 Fairbank Ave. near Castlefield Ave and Caledonia Rd. At its height, people on South Bayview Ave. could see the drifting smoke to the north. Fire Capt. Mike Strapko said 120 firefighters and 30 fire trucks were employed against the blaze. By early afternoon, with some walls having collapsed, fire officials made a decision to stay outside the factory.  They said it may be necessary to use heavy equipment to get at any remaining fire.  There are no reports of injuries. The area was evacuated and school children kept in class during the morning firefighting. This fire was reported around  8:30 a.m.

The importance of frequent, reliable bus service

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Patty Winsa’s opus in the Toronto Star today (Thursday, March 27, 2014) is a refreshing reminder of the importance of buses to our transit system. Gordon Perks (Ward  14) suggests that politicians like to dream about and spend on big, rail based projects because it seems so important. So good to talk about at election time. Toronto Star   

#TOpoli: Things that went right at CityNews

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There’s some back-biting tonight on Twitter of CityNews for what may have been a too complicated mayoral debate. It was nice that people could participate but the process was complicated and the free-for-alls (or whatever they were called) were like fights at a wedding. Gord Martineau was wincing. But there were lots of important insights for ordinary voters. Things that went right for the public.  Viewer results broadcast during the program showed that earlier polls putting Rob Ford and Olivia Chow out front were not flukes. It will break the heart of those who despise Ford’s sordid personal behaviour but he came across as the guy in command in this encounter. That seemed to happen mainly because he cranked out specifics (accurate or not). John Tory unmasked Olivia Chow as a hostage of the mighty municipal union CUPE. She would leave garbage collection east of Yonge Street just as it is, she had to admit, so that private and unionized service can “compete.”  To which most people would say “Show me the money.” It was a clever way for Tory to raise a subject on which he has been silent so far. The former talk-show and media executive dropped an all too typical clanger in the post-debate scrum when he said: “I’m not going to repeat the gory details” of Rob Ford’s  behaviour. It prompted commentator John Stall to conclude that true to his reputation, John Tory is “too nice” to be in politics.   

Hot water but no heat at 2779 Yonge Street

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The saga of the hot water and heat at the apartment building at 2779 Yonge St. has moved a distance toward resolution with the restoration of hot water.  But the units — and their tenants — still have no heat. The landlord, Bianca Pollock, explained to a meeting of the Landlord and Tenant Board on Tuesday, March 25, 2014, that she is still waiting for delivery of a new hot water boiler. The board has ordered her to pay for alternative accommodation for 15 tenants until the apartment has both hot water and heat. They have been without either since February 11, 2014. That followed a fire call to the apartment on a report of carbon monoxide in the air.  All posts

Karyn Gordon at Leaside High School Council

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Karyn Gordon, the well known motivational speaker and parenting authority, will speak at the School Council meeting of Leaside High School on Monday, April 7, 2014. Doors are said to open at 6.30 for the 7 p.m. address. Refreshments will be offered. Ms. Gordon’s topic is “Raising Healthy Kids and Teens in an Age of Overindulgence.” 

#TOpoli Trouble with “leadership” as an issue

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CityNews will air a debate among mayoral candidates tonight (Wednesday, March 26, 2014) beginning at 5 p.m. The station notes this is the first time all five main contenders will spar on live television. They are Tory, Stintz, Ford, Chow and Soknaki. This selection is necessary because there are said to be 40 or so candidates registered for mayor so far. It may rankle Sarah Thomson, now a candidate. She recently said she was running fifth in support. Who knows. The producers have set subjects. They are transit, finances and leadership. The trouble with leadership as an issue is that it is vague. It is usually unrelated to policy or platform and is typically used by candidates to make it seem as if they are decisive even though they may never have stated an opinion.  Composite courtesy CityNews 

Satellite finds further 122 objects of debris

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A further 122 objects potentially from the missing Malaysian plane have been identified by satellite, the country’s acting transport minister has said. The images, taken on 23 March, showed objects up to 23m (75ft) in length, Hishammuddin Hussein said. All aircraft taking part in Wednesday’s search have now left the area without identifying debris from the plane. Flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing disappeared on 8 March with 239 people on board. The objects were found in satellite images from a 400 sq km area around 2,557km (1588 miles) from Perth in Western Australia, Mr Hishammuddin said. Based on new calculations, Malaysian PM says “beyond reasonable doubt” that plane crashed in southern Indian Ocean with no survivors  The images were supplied by French-based Airbus Defence and Space and were given to the Malaysian Remote Sensing Agency on 25 March, Mr Hishammuddin said. The images were passed on to the Australian Rescue and Co-ordination Centre in Perth on Tuesday, he added. The latest images are the fourth known collection of satellite pictures showing possible debris in the southern Indian Ocean. No pieces have yet been recovered in the search area, which has now been split into an east and west section. The BBC map shows the location of debris spotted on satellite images between 16 and 24 March.  

Island airport jets to see showdown April 1, 2014

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Executive Committee voted 11-1 Tuesday to move ahead with negotiations on the necessary agreements to fly jet airliners out of Billy Bishop Airport on Toronto Island. Today’s vote moves the debate to City Council, which will meet April 1, 2014, where the same issue will be decided by the 44 members of council plus the mayor. A so-called tripartite agreement with Transport Canada, the Toronto Port Authority and the City of Toronto would have to be re-written to permit jets to land. That’s something which is specifically forbidden at present. The motion passed with the votes divided as follows: Yes: 11 Gary Crawford, Vincent Crisanti, Frank Di Giorgio, Rob Ford, Norman Kelly (Chair), Peter Leon, Giorgio Mammoliti, Cesar Palacio, Anthony Perruzza, David Shiner, Michael Thompson.  No: 1 Peter Milczyn.   Absent: 1 Denzil Minnan-Wong   CP24