The Northlea United Church Fall Market will take place Saturday, October 26 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be artiswts, artisans and craft folk and a kids table too. The church is located at 125 Brentcliffe Road.
Rogers outage a reminder of digital frailties
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Rogers Communications has its service back on line after a six-hour or so outage Thursday evening. The company has said it will “proactively credit” all of its postpaid customers one day of service for the failure, something that was much on the mind of every Rogers customer last night. The company has not explained what happened. At the height of the outage cell phone users were being advised by straight-faced news anchors to “use a land line instead.” To which the stranded wireless victims might have muttered: “Easy for you to say.” The most common analysis of the wireless phenomenon in recent years is always that customers are cancelling their land lines at a frenetic rate. And that would be fine if the rather over-confident brave new world of wireless was as reliable as its providers advertise. The state of the digital revolution, it appears, is still somewhat fragile. Many will recall the failures that coincided with the downward spiral of the BlackBerry empire.
“New LCBO” just a move across the parking lot
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It was quite exciting to see the headline in the online publication Yonge Street: “Leaside to get new LCBO store at Laird and Eglinton.” Sadly the excited story about 10,000 square feet of new space is just a bit a bit incomplete. The “new” store is a replacement for the LCBO on the opposite side of the SmartCentre. Too bad about that. Leaside would surely love to have another LCBO, or two. Purely for medicinal purposes.
Alice Munro wins Nobel Prize for Literature
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Victoria’s Alice Munro has greeted the honour of her Nobel Prize for Literature with grace, saying she never ever thought she might win. The 82-year-old “maser of the short story” is the 110th Nobel laureate in literature and only the 13th woman to receive the distinction. BBC
Malala takes fight for education to night-time talk
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Malala Yousafzai interview from Jon Stewart program Tuesday. Very moving.
Erskine Ave. man finds new friends not friendly
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Toronto Police Service report: A 23 year old male reports that on October 4, 2013 at approximately 2100 hours, he was in his apartment in the area of Yonge Street and Erskine Avenue. He was in the company of a male and a female suspect whom he had just met. The male suspect produced a baseball bat and made a demand for the victim’s valuables while the female suspect obtained a knife from the kitchen area. The victim surrendered his watch and iPhone, and the two suspects fled the scene in an unknown direction. No injuries were sustained by the victim. Police are requesting the assistance of the public in identifying the following described persons in connection with this offence. Description of Suspect #1: Male, black, 25 to 30 years, 5’7” to 5’8”, 130 to 141 pounds, thin build, black hair in shoulder-length dreadlocks. Suspect #2: Female, white, 25 to 30 years, 5’11”, 119 pounds, thin build.
Failure of government weighs heavily on us all
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The full failure of the Ontario government — the government at large — is writ large in the wake of the $1 billion gas plant cancellation fiasco. The Liberal story is the same except for the staggering amount of money squandered. A billion dollars. The Premier has apologized — again — and tried to spin the gas-electric plant cancellation as bipartisan in origin. The party line follows the fretful refrain that the plants were too dangerous to be located in Mississauga and Oakville. But the Liberals know very well – as does the opposition — that the plants were properly located because that is where the power is needed. And they know that sooner or later other plants are going to have to be relatively close to hospitals and schools, just as nuclear plants are already located. To suggest otherwise is a lie that was peddled again today by Dalton McGuinty from Elliot Lake. This pretense defines the cowardice of the government — all government. Today Tim Hudak was fairly exploding with talk of jail time for the Premier and other Liberal ministers. Ms Horwath, leader of the NDP, somehow seems able to live with her conscience as she pretends that she isn’t the single obstacle to an immediate general election. It’s quite shameful and just as deceitful as anything being said by the Premier. Tonight there is a reception for delegates from countries which will attend the Pan American Games in 2016. The Conservatives have boycotted the party. Health Minister Deb Matthews is doing her best to create favorable attention with an announcement that Ontario will require all restaurants with more than 20 outlets to put the calorie count on menus. Will it get this fat, money-gulping government off our shoulders?Canada refutes spying charges by Brazil, others
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Edward Snowden and the Guardian newspaper notwithstanding, the head of Canada’s electronic eavesdropping agency has vigorously defended the way the agency operates. John Forster, head of the Communications Security Establishment Canada told an Ottawa conference that everything the agency does is reviewed by an independent commissioner. He said he and his office have full access to every record, every system and every staff member to ensure that we follow Canadian laws and respect Canadians’ privacy, CTV
Rogers wireless service is out Wednesday evening
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Rogers wireless service is out across the countty, news organizations are reporting. The outage began in Quebec and Ontario, but later in the evening the company acknowledged the problem was national. According to the website CanadianOutages.com there are thousands of complaints pouring in about Rogers’ lack of service. Toronto Sun Canadian Outages
Bayview area councillors favour LRT over subway
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City Council voted to re-confirm support for a full-fledged, federal-moneyed, heavy-duty subway to Scarborough yesterday (Tuesday, October 8, 2013) but there was very little support for that concept from South Bayview-area councillors. The split was 24 in favour of the subway, 20 opposed with no abstentions or absentees, and we may be sure the “no” votes preferred the LRT concept. The project in question is the extension of the Danforth line to Sheppard Avenue, not the current Eglinton Crosstown LRT already under construction. The yays and nays are below. From nearby wards, only TTC Chair Karen Stintz (Ward 16) was in favour of the subway. Those South Bayview area members opposed were Mary Fragedakis (Ward 29) Josh Matlow (Ward 22) John Parker (Ward 26) Jaye Robinson (Ward 25) and Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27). It is a question of at least two parts. The public support for subways often rises in the desire to clear the roads of buses (and streetcars). Once the transit service is buried in a tunnel, a lot of people find they don’t care whether it’s a subway or LRT. Since the LRT is cheaper, it’s easy to see how that option gathers support. Still, the subway proponents, citing perhaps durability and load capacity, prevailed at the yesterday’s vote.
Yes: 24 Ana Bailão, Michelle Berardinetti, Raymond Cho, Josh Colle, Gary Crawford, Vincent Crisanti, Glenn De Baeremaeker, Mike Del Grande, Frank Di Giorgio, Doug Ford, Rob Ford, Mark Grimes, Norman Kelly, Chin Lee, Giorgio Mammoliti, Peter Milczyn, Ron Moeser, Frances Nunziata (Chair), Cesar Palacio, James Pasternak, Anthony Perruzza, David Shiner, Karen Stintz, Michael Thompson
No: 20 Paul Ainslie, Maria Augimeri, Shelley Carroll, Janet Davis, Sarah Doucette, John Filion, Paula Fletcher, Mary Fragedakis, Mike Layton, Gloria Lindsay Luby, Josh Matlow, Pam McConnell, Mary-Margaret McMahon, Joe Mihevc, Denzil Minnan-Wong, John Parker, Gord Perks, Jaye Robinson, Adam Vaughan, Kristyn Wong-Tam
Green, green fields of Eglinton Avenue, year 2022
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A planning sketch from the City of Toronto showing Eglinton Ave. in the year 2022 or beyond may well make you shake your head and mutter, “Yeah sure.” Or maybe, “How lovely.” Now don’t get your bike chains in a knot, but this concept will put an effective end to stores on the street. Dream all you like about parking lots. Does that matter? Previous post
Teachers struck by car at Avenue-Glengrove
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The accident at Avenue Rd. to Glengrove Ave. resulted in serious injuries to two teachers at Allenby Junior Public School at the beginning of the evening rush hour. The two were struck by a southbound vehicle which then collided with a northbound pickup truck. The teachers are 66-years-old and 46-years-old. They remain in hospital. A school social worker will be at the school today (Wednesday, October 9, 2013) to help students, parents and school cope with the news. The woman driver of the vehicle was also sent to hospital. There is no information as to charges if any. Previous post