Eugenie Bouchard: May she never meet Justin
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The ups and downs of 19-year-old talented kids have met on the fringes in the case of Justin Bieber and Montreal tennis prodigy Eugenie (Genie) Bouchard. Bieber faces charges of drag racing, drunk driving and a peaceable form of resisting arrest in Florida. Bouchard is a stunning young woman from Westmount who these days must have to beat off admirers with a stick. Her performance at the Austrlaian Open this week has marked her as “the future of women’s tennis” according to the commentators. In addition to reviewing her loss to the much more experienced Li Na, Bouchard may also be reconsidering her tentative suggestion that she would like to date Bieber. In fairness, it happened before Bieber’s drunk driving blunder and after Eugenie was ambushed by an Australian reporter (video). Her reply was a tentative. “Justin Beiber?” when asked who she would like to date. Bieber, the now soused and out-of-control kid from Stratford, Ontario tweeted a “good luck” to Bouchard. A mischievous scribbler on Twitter named Manure Gurl has tickled readers with this: “Speeding to meet Eugenie Bouchard? I guess the little turd from Stratford missed the Paul Walker lesson on drag racing.” Bravo Manure Gurl. May you wisely advise the highly in-demand Genie Bouchard. It’s a parent’s prayer.
Eugenie Bouchard’s run at Aussie Open ends
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It’s was a disappointing night but a big one nonetheless for Canada’s tennis sweetheart 19-year-old Eugenie Bouchard. Even as she lost to China’s Li Na commentators were calling the 19-year-old Bouchard “the future of women’s tennis.” The victory saw Li Na take sets 6-2 and 6-4. The drama featured the extraordinary skill and determination that brought Genie to the Australian Open. It is the first time a Canadian has battled to a centre court duel since Carling Bassett did so in 1984. But there is also an infatuation with Genie Bouchard on Twitter as Canadian young men expressed their appreciation of the athletic Montrealer. Twitter CBC
Subway news agent Gateway buys 34 more stores
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Gateway Newstands has purchased 34 more “urban retail” outlets across Canada from LS Travel Retail and will re-brand them all to its own Gateway identification. Many will know the concept as news agents seen in TTC stations, commercial buildings and at airports. Among the names of the stores purchased are Great Canadian News, Xpress, Relay, United Cigar Store and Maison de la Presse. The busy store located at Yonge and St. Clair is one of those purchased. Gateway operates 65 newstands and kiosks with the TTC. The deal brings the number of Gateway stores in North America to 554, with 422 in Canada, mostly in Ontario. The company’s US locations are concentrated in New York City and Chicago. Financial details of the transaction, which will close on or before May 14, 2014, were not disclosed. The Gateway concept will be to franchise the locations, a business which the company calls highly profitable. Riverdale, East York could face loss of fire trucks
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Early morning fire guts Tokyo Sushi on Bayview
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Fire has gutted Tokyo Sushi at 1614 Bayview Ave. The sad scene at the front of the restaurant tells the story. The blaze was reported to the Toronto Fire Department at 12.54 a.m. and it took firefighters about an hour to get things under control. TFD sources said they believe the cause was a short circuit. There is what appears to be serious damage in restaurant’s dining room but apparently the apartment upstairs wasn’t affected except for smoke. The landlord told The South Bayview Bulldog he felt the that entire first floor of the restaurant would have to be cleared to the walls. He said the fire spread quickly and was actually out by the time he got to the scene. It was called in by a neighbor above the next door Fukui Sushi restaurant. Traffic was stopped for a period.
Fire rips through 150 year old Yorkville building
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| 84 Yorkville |
A fire has ripped through a 150 year-old building at 84 Yorkville Ave. It has been declared a three-alarm emergency following a report by the security company that summoned firefighters about 8.30 a.m. There is much heroic coverage on CP24. There is a bizarre late in a tweet from TFD that police have arrested a man for attacking a firefighter..It is not known if there is any historic value to the old building, which would seem to have been damaged beyond repair. It will have been part of the original Yorkville Village before amalgamation and perhaps a haunt for the alternative lifestyle people who lived and patronized Yorkville during the 1960s.
800 taken off GO train at Dixie after collision
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Nearly 800 riders were safely removed from a GO train on the main line from Toronto to Oakville Tuesday night after the multi-car commuter unit struck a tractor trailer on a crossing just east of Dixie station. The tractor had apparently stalled on the crossing shortly before the train came along. To those who ride the GO it may seem like engineers on these double decker babies leave Union Station each day with instructions to find a truck and hit it. It just seems that way. Freelance photographer Dan Sutton got himself into the heart of the train and truck collision to get a very good picture. Pictures by Dan Sutton
Checking the Kelvingrove apartment renovation
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| Kelvingrove Apartments |
Half a year has passed since the eviction of some 90 tenants at the heritage rental apartments on Bayview Ave. in Leaside. The modest structures known as the Kelvingrove and Glen-Leven apartments are now vacant, except for certain newer units more recently built over the garages on the spacious property. What’s being done to these small housekeeping apartments which were so prized and loved by those who were thrown out? The answer is not very much. Looking through windows and door glass of the apartments reveals quite limited types of work. Typically, the openings between the tiny kitchens and the sitting area of the apartments have been widened, as seen in the inset pictures. Workmen say that “everything” is going to be done over but by most ways of assessing this, the improvements would appear to be superficial. We see things like kitchen and bathroom fixtures. That will certainly make things nicer in the units but it does not appear that they are going to be merged to make larger and more richly-rentable places.
Owned by Manitoba Pension Fund
The ultimate owner of the Kelvingrove and Glen-Leven Apartments is the Civil Service Superannuation Board of Manitoba.(CSSBM). It is a pension fund for Manitoba teachers and others. A number of holding companies exist to cloud the ownership and the most commonly named of these is ADMNS Kelvingrove. Decisions about the future of the apartments, including the evictions, are made by the nine-member investment committee of the CSSBM. The Internet information provided by the NDP government reveals the committee is chaired by Peter G. Munro and includes the Manitoba Deputy Minister of Finance, John Clarkson. The Kelvingrove, Glen-Leven and related properties were the subject of a bitter battle between the owner and the Leaside Property Owners Association in the years following 2010. The LOPA said the buildings were historic and part of the community’s heritage. It won that battle. While it saved the buildings, it could not save the homes of the Leasiders who lived there. The simple red brick buildings between 1351 and 1365 Bayview on the east side were built by Howard Talbot, who served as Mayor of Leaside from 1938 to 1947.
Conrad Black owes taxes on $5.1 million
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Conrad Black owes the Canadian government taxes on $5.1 million of income and taxable benefits from 2002, according to a ruling by the Tax Court of Canada CBC
Blasted again, Ford admits drinking “a little bit”
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A new video of Mayor Ford recorded at a restaurant on Rexdale Blvd last night (Monday, January 20, 2014) has been posted to YouTube. Make what you will of it, assuming that you still care about Rob Ford in the slightest. You can hear him slur the police chief. There are vulgarisms and the use of Jamaican patois, according to some. Ford says “No, no, no but I’m a straight-up guy” when someone with him says he should be prime minister. His brother Doug Ford insisted the video was not shot yesterday because the mayor had not had a drink since November. However, about 4.30 p.m. at City Hall, Mayor Ford admitted that he was at the restaurant, that he was indeed drinking “a little bit” and saying it was on his own time. At City Hall this video has been like a blood transfusion to a CP24 suffering the news anaemia of a day which it is too cold for anything but traffic accidents. A number of councillors said they did not wish to be “distracted” again by the mayor’s behaviour but they were available to talk about the issue again for quite a long time and thereby propelled the story. One distressed member lamented to reporters that council was going to be distracted “this winter” Some may say the dramatic distraction is more like politicking. Stephen LeDrew comments that this video has potential to destroy Mr. Ford’s comeback attempt. The previously hapless mayor was beginning to look respectable again after his energetic performance during the ice storm. Now he just looks hapless.
Reader has no confidence in LRT information
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Reader gjp19 has commented on the LRT construction post –Ed: Having attended plenty of LRT meetings in recent months, my main question to the representatives from Metrolinx was what measures would be put in place to lessen the traffic chaos to residents near the construction as well as to drivers. I was told many times all that information would be shared in late Winter/Spring as construction would most likely not start until the Fall of 2014. I am so glad that the representatives at the meetings were up to date on one of the largest construction projects in Toronto. But hey, I did in fact receive an email telling me when construction would start a week before it looks to commence. No wonder Torontonians have zero faith in that we can manage projects on a large scale (Pan Am, Olympic bid, the Gardiner Expressway, etc) – gjp19