The City has issued a cold weather alert as very low temperatures are forecast both in the daytime and at night over the weekend. Municipal warming centres are open at the following locations: 129 Peter St., 5800 Yonge St., Exhibition Place, Better Living Centre,195 Princes’ Blvd. and Scarborough Civic Centre, 150 Borough Dr.
Wednesday sees another of the periodic C-19 free tests at local sites. They start at 1 p.m. and run through to 7 p.m.
As everyone knows, the Communist bigwigs in Beijing have censored the Internet so that there’s no dangerous discussion about bad things like, oh you know, democracy and stuff like that. The politburo bosses got a rude surprise recently when the Clubhouse app briefly blew away those restrictions.
Infamous Edmonton bonspiel was a C-19 spreader among doctors
The physicians’ curling meet last March in Edmonton that resulted in 54 cases of Covid-19 is now the subject of a study by one of the doctors who caught the bug. His study shows that the virus was communicated not on the ice but at receptions and dinners after the curling. Not so surprising.
I am not a cat!
How embarrassing for Texas lawyer Rod Ponton when he appeared before a local judge on Zoom in the form of a kitten.
Last week’s national layoffs at Bell Media hit a scale seldom seen in the radio and television business. They seem to indicate a sense of crisis at Bell as the world increasingly turns away from broadcasting to streaming. The change has been underway for a while but few people would have predicted the end of the weather on CTV News. In Toronto, Tom Brown and Anwar Knight were both laid off. The dismissal of CFRB news director Kym Geddes seems like a prophetic statement. The bloodbath in radio has seen news departments replaced with the audio of CTV News. Here is a summary collected from many sources by media scribbler Steve Faguy.
Bell Media’s mass layoff campaign, which began Monday (Feb 1) in Montreal, continued Tuesday and Wednesday with layoffs at various Toronto operations, hitting Newstalk 1010 (CFRB), and cuts in other markets across the country.
Social media was active with people announcing they had suddenly become free agents, and others wondering who else was about to announce the bad news. Though more than a dozen came forward, that’s a mere fraction of the more than 210 who are to lose their jobs this week.
Like its sister station in Montreal (CJAD), Newstalk 1010 gutted its newsroom, as its newscast has been replaced by CTV News branding and reporters. It also cancelled its weekday evening program — The Night Side with Barb DiGiulio — and will run more repurposed programming in its place.
Its schedule shows it will rebroadcast CTV News Toronto daily at 6 p.m. and a rerun of the Evan Solomon Show at 10 p.m. weekdays. Jamil Jivani fills the 7-10 p.m. slot.
Weekend host and Toronto broadcasting legend Ted Woloshyn was also let go. Among those 1010 staff confirming their departures on social media were news director Kym Geddes, reporters Hayley Cooper, Lucas Meyer and anchor Claude Feig.
Bell won’t confirm which jobs or employees it is cutting, so we must rely on self-reporting to find out who has been told their services are no longer required.
Others across Bell Media to announce they had been laid off:
- Rick Henriques, communications coordinator
- Robin Johnston, director original production, factual and reality
- Dahlia Kurtz, weekend morning show host at CFRA 580 Ottawa
- Steve McCann, managing writer at Your Morning
- Ivy Mak and Glynn Perkins, CTV Toronto assignment editors
- Brent Wallace, TSN Ottawa reporter
- Playback reported Tom Hastings, director of original programming, drama, had been let go
- Toronto Mike reports weather anchors Tom Brown and Anwar Knight were cut
- A number of sales people and affiliate reps for Bell specialty services were also eliminated.
- Update since first posting: TSN anchors Dan O’Toole and Natasha Staniszewski have been let go.
- Update #2: The Windsor Star reports Steve Bell has been let go from CKLW Windsor after 40 years with the station
- Update #3: The Niagara Falls Review reports two producers with 610 CKTB along with veteran reporter
- Noelle Sinclair have lost their jobs.
- Update #4: BNN anchor Catherine Murray.
- Lynzee Barnett, host of London’s Pure Country
- Cash Connors, morning host at Kitchener-Waterloo’s Virgin Radio
Mary Wilson of The Supremes has died suddenly at her home in Henderson, Nevada, at the age of 76. She is survived by her daughter, son, several grandchildren, a sister and a brother.
Many people aren’t getting out as much as they used to but construction goes on across midtown with schools, businesses and condos rising to completion. Above, we see the new Davisville Public School. It seems well on schedule to open for classes this coming fall. Below, at the left and upper right are shots of the new Gyro Mazda showroom, service bays and office on the east side of Laird Drive. Lower right is the condominium and retail complex on Bayview Ave to be known as 730 Hillsdale.
Access to Leaside Centre from Industrial?
Also near completion it appears, is the building which will house Shoppers Drug Mart and PetSmart in the expanded Leaside Village (Longo’s) shopping centre. The new structure was built officially at 25 Industrial St. It raises the prospect that the whole of Leaside Centre will soon be accessible from that street as well as Laird and Esandar Drive
The Tampa Bay Buccaneers were decisive victors over the Kansas City Chiefs Sunday. The score was 31 to 9. The Puppy Bowl (number 17) was hard-fought but ended in an inconclusive dogfight.
Here are a few aftermath pictures from the flying garbage truck incident on Dixon Rd in Etobicoke Friday morning. Watch the video in an earlier post here.
Auston Matthews has extended his goal-scoring run to seven consecutive games as the Leafs defeated the Canucks 5-1 at Scotiabank Arena Saturday night. There were of course no patrons in the otherwise vacant hall and we note that many rinkside blue seats were covered with advertising. Talk about making the best of a bad situation.
Josh Matlow (Ward 12) will provide a Facebook broadcast of the Family Day storytime from Mabel’s Fables children’s bookstore at Mt. Pleasant Rd and Hillsdale Ave. The event is set for 3 p.m. Monday, February 15 on Mr. Matlow’s page. Several authors will tell stories and the recent mother-and-daughter pairing of Sharon and Randi Hampson will perform the favorite Skinnamarink (Dinky Dink). Should be fun.
Toronto Police have announced Saturday that there is no longer any concern that a young girl was being lured by a person who apparently spoke to her outside her home Wednesday near Neilson Road and Ellesmere Road. They say investigators reviewed video, interviewed witnesses and spoke to the person of interest. The investigation has been closed. Fears were raised Friday on an earlier report.
Faces, faces and we’ve found pictures of some appealing Canadians who are happily unmasked in this time of mandatory cover-ups. At left is the late Madame Bette-Joan Rac. The much-loved Edmonton piano and music teacher has made headlines for the treasures and vintage fashion found in her Edmonton home. Fascinating. At centre, let’s hope happy rollerblade kid Alexei Morita, 21, is careful as he blasts through vacant halls at the Eaton Centre. Finally, the exceptional woman at the right is Alex Bastiany MD. She is the first black woman to graduate in Canada as an interventional cardiologist. Listen to how gracefully she carries this distinction. Well done, doctor.
