Shiner, Mammoliti leasing bargains at 88 Erskine

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A story by City Hall  investigative reporter Zach Dubinsky  of the CBC says that Toronto council members David Shiner (Ward 24) and George Mammoliti (Ward 7) are both leasing two-bedroom apartments in a building owned by a subsidiary of Greenwin Property for much less than the market value. The story has good length of detail and is worth a read. The apartment building is located at 88 Erskine Ave. between Yonge St. and Mt. Pleasant Rd. in Ward 22. The subsidiary is Verdiroc Holdings. Below is an extract of Mr Shiner’s voting record in regard to Greenwin relevant to the time he has been in possession of the apartment in question. 

In 2005, a year after Shiner became Verdiroc’s tenant, the company sought approval from a city tribunal to nearly double the number of units in a condo it was planning at Sheppard and Bayview avenues. The panel eventually deferred the request in a move marked by procedural irregularities. Shiner, who supported Verdiroc’s application, then brought a motion to have all five members kicked off the panel. The motion was ultimately ruled out of order, but not before landing Shiner and a fellow councillor in the headlines for months. He also cast four votes, over two ensuing council meetings, that helped block city lawyers from trying to fight Verdiroc’s proposal at the Ontario Municipal Board. In 2007, he voted on how to disburse $1 million in city subsidies for low-income renters. City staff had recommended allocating the money to an entire neighbourhood, instead of solely to tenants of a Verdiroc-owned building. Councillors voted 7-1 in favour of the staff plan, with Shiner as the lone dissenter.  CBC

Thief on bicycle grabs purse at Broadway-Laird

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An unusual purse snatch has occurred at the corner Broadway Avenue and Laird Drive. A 32 year old woman was approached from behind by a man riding a bicycle. He grabbed the purse from her shoulder and fled  heading west on Broadway Avenue. The woman was uninjured in the attack. It is a disturbing incident especially because of the early evening time period. It was ten after seven on Sunday, September 29, 2013. Police are requesting the assistance of the public in identifying the following described person in connection with this offence. Description of Suspect: Male, white, 20-25 years, 140-150 pounds, medium build, thin eyes, dark brown hair.  Anyone on Broadway west of Laird who has video with a street view should tell police. 

Farmer fights Ottawa for his family’s heritage

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Maclean’s online tells a story of  Trenton area farmer Frank Meyers who has been fighting federal expropriation of his land for more than a decade. It has been in his family for centuries. Read it and see what you think. Maclean’s 

Camera snaps attack as golden eagle kills a deer

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Pictures from a remote camera in an isolated nature reserve in Russia have revealed an attack by a golden eagle on a young deer. In a sequence from the wild quite probably never before recorded, the bird is seen sinking its talons into the struggling sika deer. The camera is intended to monitor Siberian tigers. The three photos were released by the London Zoological Society. The society’s Linda Kerley said she first realized something was up when she approached the wildlife-monitoring device — also called a camera trap — and found a mangled deer carcass nearby. “Something felt wrong about it,” she said in a statement accompanying the photographs. “There were no large carnivore tracks in the snow, and it looked like the deer had been running and then just stopped and died. “It was only after we got back to camp that I checked the images from the camera and pieced everything together,” she said. “I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.” Golden eagles are large birds. Their wingspan tops more than 6 ½ feet and, while they typically eat small birds, mammals, or snakes, they’ve been known to target larger animals as well. The eagles are trained by Russian hunters who sometimes send them after prey in flocks The zoological society said the photos were shot in the Lazovsky State Nature Reserve in the Primorye region of Russia’s Far East on Dec. 8, 2011. The pictures were released only after the publication of a scholarly article by Kerley and co-author Jonathan Slaght of the Wildlife Conservation Society in the Ohio-based Journal of Raptor Research earlier this month.

Smoking zero-tolerance is an uncharted land

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The Toronto Board of Health is hoping to get smoking banned in patios, parks and a range of other public places. The matter will soon go to City Council. Make no mistake: smoking is a dangerous, dirty source of grief, including the cause of the occasional house fire. But as in other things of which we properly disapprove, there is with tobacco possible folly — the risk of turning weak-willed nicotine addicts into law breakers. If smoking remains legal but the act of lighting up becomes effectively illegal there is no knowing where the law of unintended consequences will take us.  It seems possible that smokers will be even more secretive and perhaps inspire forms of group behavior that border on the criminal. Again, reasonable rules against things we correctly dislike are welcome so long as a distorted zero-tolerance mentality does not take over. In recent decades Ontario has experienced righteous zero-tolerance against many social ills. In the case of making sure that children were not abused the system managed to convict and imprison people who were totally innocent. Yes, only a few actually over-reacted but there was great popular pressure to get convictions. Of course, the smoking context is different but we will do well to remember that it is called the rule of unexpected consequences for a reason. It might as easily be called the rule of unforeseeable consequences.   

Pan Am executives are singed by Toronto Sun

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That fire-breathing Sue Ann Levy at the Toronto Sun has set fire to the pleasant and respectable image of the Pan Am Games scheduled for 2015 with revelations of careless spending. She names CEO Ian Troup, salary $477,000 a year (inset) as having thrown an $8561 reception in Mexico for 150 people in the fall of 2011. Some of the other expense account items seem petty given the salaries being paid. Somebody collected for a 91-cent parking ticket. It may or may not be as bad as it seems but the Sun News campaign against the Pan Am Games cuts sharper when it asks — nightly it seems — how many people go near these events. And can the City economy possibly generate the business that might offset the billions of public funds spent on them. Today the Premier and Mayor Ford were separately saying they expected better cost control from the organizers. We will see. Sue Ann Levy 

New signage ordered for Bonnie Byford RE

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Yes, it’s time for a new sign. That’s seems to be the sense of Richard Byford’s assessment of the old one at the store at 1536 Bayview Ave. So a new one is coming. It will be among the last of the renovations required after the fire that destroyed Leaside Cleaners at 1540 Bayview in the fall of 2011. Bonnie Byford Real Estate had to do extensive renovating to eradicate smoke damage. Since the fire there have been changes adjoining the former cleaning premises. Sport Clips, the specialty hair cutting business has gone into the former money exchange at 1538 and Smokin’ Cigar has taken over at 1540.  Old reliable,  The Flower Nook is still at 1542 but it had to move out for a while to repair smoke and collateral fire damage. As you may recall, that fire was caused by a lightning strike to a transformer mounted on a utility pole right outside the cleaning store.  

Raps hire rapper Drake to help re-brand, re-wrap

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Must keep positive about basketball in Toronto. Let’s see, a rapper (Drake) will become the emissary for a team named after a type of dinosaur. To paraphrase an old joke, maybe raptors can’t jump. They are looking to re-brand the team too. We’re hoping that brontosaurus won’t find its way onto the new jerseys. CTV 

Charlie the Sheltie found caught in cemetery fence

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Some good news comes with word that Charlie the ginger-coloured Sheltie has been found safe but rather hungry in Mount Pleasant Cemetery. That’s some distance from his Sutherland Drive home  — maybe as much as four or five miles. Charlie was caught in wire fence that was associated with a retaining wall near a creek that runs through the southwest corner of the cemetery. There is no way of knowing exactly how long he was caught.  We hope to have more on this story.  

Girl, 15, robbed of cell, wallet at Bayview-Eglinton

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Toronto Police Service report: A 15 year old female reports that on September 28, 2013 at approximately 2300 hours, she was in the area of Bayview Avenue and Eglinton Avenue East, when she was approached by three male suspects. The suspects made a demand for the victim’s property and removed her cellular phone and wallet. The suspects then fled the scene in an unknown direction. The victim did not sustain any injuries. 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, 16-17 years, 6’1”-6’3”, medium build. Suspect #2: Male, black, 16-17 years, 5’10”-6’1”, thin build. Suspect #3: Male, black 16-17 years, 5’11”-6’0”, medium build.

Teen victim of terror attack now in Sunnybrook

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Dheeman Abdi

Two Canadian teens injured in the barbaric attack on a Nairobi shopping mall have returned to Toronto with their father. The elder, Fardosa Abdi, 17, has undergone surgery at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre for a seriously injured leg. She and her sister, Dheeman, 16, were hit by both gunfire and grenade shrapnel during the attack. Dheeman was interviewed earlier  in Nairobi where she spoke to the CBC in chilling detail about what happened.  Her right hand has been injured by grenade shrapnel. One finger is broken and another “had a lot of meat torn off”” she said by the same grenade that grievously injured her sister. Dheeman also calmly noted that she had been shot through the thigh. Of the attackers she said dispassionately, “They aren’t normal.”  Saturday officials were talking about seeking assistance from a special funding arrangement of the foreign affairs department for Canadians in distress. The Toronto Star names Mohamed Dubet, a friend of the family, who said he saw Fardosa Sunday night after she got out of surgery. He said her leg was “shattered.” Kenya has arrested 12 people since the attack but three have been freed, Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku said during a press conference. He declined to say if any of those arrested had been in the mall during the attack. Investigators have also identified a car used by the gunmen, from the Somalia-based Islamist group al-Shabaab, and found in it “an assortment of illegal weapons,” said Lenku. Pictures (top) Dheeman and Fardosa together and (bottom) Dheeman as she was interviewed by the CBC in Kenya. 

Farm market added at Manor Rd. United Fall Fair

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Sarah wood has kindly reminded us that the Manor Road United Church will have its 30th Annual Community Fall Fair on Saturday, October 26, 2013. They’re promising a browser’s/shopper’s delight with all kinds of items for sale: Jewellery, China, Silver, Crystal, Artwork, Cheese Table, Linens, Book/CD/DVD Table, Plants, Crafts, Children’s and Adult Clothing, Holiday items, Bake Shoppe, Frozen Pies, Fair Trade Coffee, Household items, and a Silent Auction. New this year will be a Farmer’s Market. There will be activities for children and a Homemade Lunch in the Church Cafe. Admission is free. The event runs from 10 am until 2 pm.