Temperatures will creep above 0º Celsius Friday but beginning Saturday Toronto will face a week of chilling days. Some will find it good news that the City will largely dodge 50 cm snowfall squalls in some areas. Weather Network
Toronto City Council has voted 21 to five in favour of a plan to transform Yonge St from College to Queen Sts. into something quite different. Singe lane traffic, or maybe one-way sections, wider sidewalks, benches, trees and of course lots of bicycles. It’s called the YongeTOmorrow plan. It gained momentum when the City found it needed to dig up most of the street to replace a 19th Century water and drainage system. “Thank you to the residents, (business) owners, thought leaders, cultural mavens who spoke in support of this big urban transformation,” tweeted Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam.
The nature of how men cross social lines in their attraction to women will again be investigated. It appears that former head of the Defense Forces Jonathan Vance was exchanging notes with a woman member of the forces. Then, Canada will donate $100,000 to repair the 19th Century church in St. Catharines that formed a meeting place for black people at the northern end of the Underground Railway. One member at the church was activist Harriet Tubman. Below that, Canada will seek to bolster its vaccine supply from COVAX, an international fund known to some as a medical foodbank. Lastly, there’s a raging trade in fake C-19 vaccine in China. The government is trying to get a handle on it.
TTC’s Line 1 subway will be closed between Finch and St. Clair stations at Eglinton Ave on Saturday and Sunday as crews perform TTC platform relocation works and associated track level works related to the construction of the Eglinton LRT. The LRT runs underneath the present Yonge subway. Current traffic configuration and pedestrian routes are expected to remain in place and Berwick Avenue will also remain open while this work takes place.
It can find and pick up objects, tidy up the living room, open doors, operate switches and valves, tend the garden, and of course, it can dance. With the new arm extension, three Spots can get together for a bit of jump rope. Boston Dynamics sells its lifelike robots to warehouses, police, utilities, laboratories and factories to perform tasks better and more safely than humans can. In the summer of 2020, Spot was available for pre-order for a mere US$74,500.00. This Bulldog may feel a bit uneasy at the sight of one of these strolling down Bayview with Rover!
Education Minister Stephen Lecce announced today that students in Toronto, Peel and York regions will return to in-person classes on February 16th while the rest of the Province will head back to class on February 8th.
The Ministry of Health is recording only 745 new C-19 cases Tuesday because of the ongoing data migration of City of Toronto data to a different system. In recent days, Toronto Public Health (TPH) has been migrating all of its data to the provincial data system. The process is now said to be complete. “Most notably, TPH’s case count is negative following the identification of duplicate cases as well as data corrections to some fields, resulting in an underestimation of today’s cases,” a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, Alexandra Hilkene, said on Tuesday. Presumably, a reliable number will be issued Wednesday but even the partial number suggests the province’s reduction of daily cases is continuing.
Novavax will produce vaccine in Canada but not soon
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says a deal has been struck with Novavax to produce its COVID-19 vaccine in Canada, but the pharmaceutical company won’t be ready to roll out doses for several months. The federal government has signed a “memorandum of understanding” with Novavax to pursue options to produce its COVID-19 vaccine at a new Montreal facility that is under construction. The plant won’t be finished until July, meaning production is many months away.
Arija Jansons, 30, (right) remains in hospital after a fire broke out at 95 Gainsborough Rd. Her son, Kai, 6, (left) and her mother, Jana, and two close friends, Amanda Freimanis and Matthew Zdybal, were the four who died in the blaze. Two fundraisers have been started in aid of Ms Jansons and a third for all the victims. Jenny Yuen, Toronto Sun
The government has verbal assurances only that the European Union (where all the German cars come from) won’t use its new power to stop all vaccine shipments to Canada. Nonetheless, the fed remains optimistic that we will indeed get shipments as scheduled after early production issues are resolved. As the same time, efforts are being made to persuade big vaccine makers to set up shop in a planned government factory here. CTV
Bell closes newsroom, fires reporters at venerable CJAD
Bell Media has laid off all of the reporters at Montreal’s CJAD on Monday, two union sources told the Montreal Gazette. Bell Media would only confirm it has made “a limited number of staff reductions, many of them changes in on-air broadcast roles due to programming decisions” at CJAD. Radio and television reporters across the country at Bell Media are uneasy as the big multi-business firm faces a changing information world. Montreal Gazette
Council to vote Tuesday on narrowing Yonge St
Toronto City Council will decide on Tuesday whether to keep Yonge St. between College and Queen the way it is or rebuild it to make way for — guess what — condominiums. The vote itself revolves around a new watermain construction project between College/ Carleton St. and Queen St. and a far more important accompanying endeavor that will see the number of traffic lanes reduced from four to two in order to expand sidewalk space. They’ll be no need for cars of course because at Yonge and Queen you’re about as far downtown as you can get. Toronto Sun
Mandatory testing for travellers arriving at Toronto Pearson carries a $750 fine for refusing this new requirement. Then, Vancouver police raid a huge illegal nightclub roaring away atop a downtown penthouse, Telus Garden. Below that, Facebook says it’s ready to be regulated. Lastly, a sweet Welsh girl, Lilly Walker, 4, has found a perfect imprint of a dinosaur foot and her name will now go down in history as perhaps the world’s youngest palaeontologist.
Steam engine repair building on Laird Drive is now Longo’s
Looking east on Eglinton Ave toward newly built Leaside High School
The new logo for the Leaside Heritage Preservation Society has been designed by Cathy Lam Freer of the Freer Group Ltd. She is a Leaside resident. Her design, seen above, was among 29 ideas submitted. Leaside Heritage Facebook
The Leaside Residents Association had a good turnout Wednesday for its virtual town hall held in conjunction with the LRA’s Annual General Meeting. The LRA is the former Leaside Property Owners Association. Co-president Carol Burtin Fripp said the Zoom Webinar attracted an estimated 150 people to the online forum. About 50 of these texted in questions, enough that many could not be dealt with during the allotted time. They’ll be answered by email. The transition to virtual large meetings requires specialized skills. On this occasion, John Hiddema, from the Executive of the South Eglinton Ratepayers and Residents (SERRA) took charge. LRA past president Brian Athey was the moderator.
Laird Drive a concern
Ms Burtin Fripp said that development was a major concern. Controller Jaye Robinson said Laird Drive gives her the most concern, given the applications for mid-rise buildings (approved and/or pending). Trustee Rachel Chernos Lin discussed the challenges the TDSB is facing and MP Rob Oliphant provided a description of the range of federal policies and services impacting Toronto and Leaside. Leaside Residents Association
