“At home” on Mt Pleasant north of Moore

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This homeless man was “at home” on Mt Pleasant Rd just north of Moore Ave. on the Monday holiday. He was sleeping on public grass just outside the cemetery fence. His belongings were piled on a wheeled dolly of some type indicating he is normally on the move in the nice weather. The presence of homeless persons in or near a cemetery is not very common in South Bayview but not unknown by any means. The report of  the Shelter, Support and Housing Administration released in July indicated the total homeless was 5,219. The information released last week was an interim statement. A full report is expected in September. Many homeless people say they prefer to be outside during the good weather. But 93% told city workers that they would like to have a home. Lifestyle can subvert that desire it seems. One woman said her shelter home was too far away from downtown streets where she prefers to drink wine with her friends. One index to look for in the full report will be that of seniors, defined as those over 61. The current preliminary data indicates that seniors make up 10 percent of the total which means there might be something in excess of 500 such seniors. This is said to be a doubling (from about 250) since 2009.

Mom dons burka to return daughter from Egypt

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Mona and mother

Good holiday Monday, South Bayview. A story that is both harrowing and heart-warming is breaking this lovely mid-summer day. It tells of a British mother who ventured all the way to Egypt to seize and return her three year old daughter Mona. The child had been abducted and taken to Egypt by her arab father. The mother, Alex Abou-El-Ella, 29, of Slough, Berkshire, enlisted the aid of a Scottish woman, now known as Dony al-Nahi, who has made a career of helping mothers of children who have been similarly spirited back to Arabia by their fathers. Ms al-Nahi is an author and is known in the media as “Jane Bond” for her exploits. The perilous rescue effort saw Ms. Abou-El-Ella dressing in full Muslim garb. She ignored warnings from the U-K Foreign Office that her attempts might go very wrong. The child had already been gone two years. With the help of Jane Bond and her trusted Egyptian contacts the mother found and laid in wait at a nursery in Cairo where Mona was enrolled. Early one morning, Mona appeared with an aunt and a boy just before 9 a.m. The desperate mother acted, leaping out the car and holding the long black dress so she could move, Ms. Abou-El-Ella felt herself  walking faster and faster. “I saw Mona’s hand a few metres away from me,’ she said. ‘So I grabbed her, pulled her into my arms and the lady looked at my face but all she could see were my eyes.”  Embracing her child tightly, she turned and fled as the other woman began to scream. Stumbling in her burka, the mother had only seconds to bundle the astonished child into the back seat of her car. There was further panic when she found the door locked. Jane Bond clambered over the seat to let her in. The confused child cried and referred to her aunt as “mother”. But after a few minutes of explanation she asked Alex Abou-El-Ella: “Are you my mum?”  It was necessary to bribe officials at the airport but the mother and child are now back safe in the United Kingdom. As of this morning,  it is 12 days since the pair arrived in their hometown of Slough.  Mona has not seen her mother for two years so they have had much catching up to do. But as the picture shows, their natural relationship is healing well.   Mailonline

Montreal mom fined $219 over exact-change rule

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Pauline Tantost and Xavier
A Montreal area woman has been given a $219 fine because she was unable to pay the fare for herself and her 2-year-old son with exact change. Pauline Tantost, 24, had been at Montreal Children’s Hospital with the toddler, who was suffering an infection. It was 10 p.m. She offered the bus driver a $5 bill for the $3 fare but he refused it. Ms Tantost sat down on the bus but within a few minutes two inspectors from the transit company, Société de transport de Montreal (STM) boarded the bus and in what other passengers call a targeting of the young mother gave her a ticket for $219.  Montreal media were pointing out this weekend that more than a week after the incident the STM had not interviewed the bus driver involved in the matter. Now they have promised to look into the case.

Pictures from across our midtown home

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Random pictures from our resources: Upper left, it’s an awful way to treat a perfectly good Toyota. But this is what happens when big bruising trees come down on Roxborough St. W. Upper right, a happy quintet brings some life to the corner of Bay and Bloor Streets. Lower left, Calgary-based Husky Petroleum pumps similar to those just installed at the station on Laird Drive tout “Mother Nature’s Fuel”. Those Albertans are cheeky! And high above Eglinton Ave. four tethered fellows try to figure how to safely bring down those heavy metal panels at sign-changing time. Top pictures and more may be seen at our sister blog Yonge and Roxborough News.   

Man’s leg severed by shrapnel at demolition

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A 44-year-old man has had his leg severed by shrapnel flying more than 1,000 feet from an implosion site in Bakersfield, California Saturday morning. Some sources say the man may lose both legs. Four other spectators were also injured as a happy crowd gathered at 6 a.m. to watch the demolition of two towers of an old steam power plant belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric Company. Those injuries seem be relatively minor, such as cuts and scrapes to the legs. The demolition workers had established the perimeter using what seemed like accepted margins of safety but in fact the spectators, who were standing where they were permitted, were all in danger of injury. It was luck that there was not more shrapnel like the nasty piece of metal-like junk held in the picture at the right

LHS kids “to study” chips and gravy next month

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The New York Fries Poutinerie now being installed at the east end of the Sunnybrook Plaza is about 300 feet from the doors of Leaside High School across Eglinton Ave. E. Let there be chips, gravy and cheese curds for Grade 9, we say. It is their right. And Grades 10 and 11.  Oh all right, Grade 12 and (Principal) Jeannette Plonka too. And vice principals Andrea Parise and Paul Wragget.  Eat hearty, gang. NYF owners South Burger Co. are counting on you. 

Lucky break for all in Sunnybook Plaza crash

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There was a certain fretfulness among shoppers at Sunnybrook Plaza Saturday morning as they talked about the accident yesterday afternoon that sent a car through the glass front of the Rexall Pharma Plus pharmacy. “This has happened before,” said one woman outside the drugstore with her husband. “Ï wonder what they can do to make it safer?” And that was the sentiment of a number of people in the more than 60 year old strip mall. The plaza is said to be the earliest of such commercial centres in Toronto. It is owned by RioCan, the giant real estate investment trust (REIT). They have a record of responsibility and concern for their properties. In yesterday’s incident, a woman was at the wheel of a Toyota which was apparently in the permit parking spot shown in the photo, inset. For whatever reason, the car shot forward and knocked down a number of people. Only two were taken to hospital and then released. Toronto EMS say their injuries are minor.  All in all a lucky break for those concerned.  Yesterday’s post.

Star second quarter profits plummet 44 percent

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Torstar Corp. reported a sharp decline in profit in the second quarter as its media division continued to struggle with plunging print advertising revenues and even its book publishing business hit an unexpected lull. Torstar, which publishes the Toronto Star and the fre papers Metro and the Grid. It also owns Metrospan, the chain of  suburuban and city weeklies such as the Mirror. It also owns the Hamilton Specator and a number of other southern Ontario papers. Net income for the quarter was $18-million or $0.23 per share, down 44% from $0.41 per share in the same period last year. Its romance novel publishing division Harlequin posted a surprising drop, said David Holland, president and chief executive of the Toronto-based company. “We had anticipated lower earnings at Harlequin but not to this extent,” Mr. Holland said during a conference call with analysts. “Lower volumes, including a deterioration in overseas volumes, which we were concerned about in the last quarter, were responsible for the shortfall to expectations.”  It is unclear how the Kindle and Kobo phenomenon have impacted Harlequin. 

$30.1 million Lotto Max ticket in Toronto

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The OLG says a winning ticket was sold in Toronto for the $30.3-million Lotto Max jackpot drawn last night. There was also a winning Encore ticket worth $1 million purchased in Brampton. 

Only one of these election winners won a majority

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Only one of the five winners of Thursday night’s byelections won a true majority. It was Percy Hatfield the union stalwart who seized the riding of Windsor-Tecumseh for the NDP. Hatfield racked up 15,693 votes or 61.1% of the vote. The six other candidates combined didn’t match half his mandate. But elsewhere the election night winners prevailed by gaining a plurality of the ballots cast and automatically invoking the “first past the post” rule of Canadian elections. When people talk of a democratic deficit it’s usually some twaddle about why an obscure interest group can’t get elected.  The real democratic deficit occurs it would seem when a multiplicity of candidates makes it impossible for a voter to act strategically to express his/her will. That’s where the so-called ranked ballots concept applies. It permits voters to pick a first choice and second choice. If the first choice of voters doesn’t produce a majority winner, there is an instant runoff to choose one. Of course there is no way of knowing where second place votes will go and such runoffs will frequently strengthen the position of the plurality winner. The current byelection that jumps out in this context is Scarborough-Guildwood where Ms. Hunter finished 1246 votes ahead of the PC candidate Ken Kirupa. But Kirupa and the third-place NDP candidate Adam Giambone had an aggregate of more than 14,600 votes compared to Ms. Hunter’s 8852. Similarly in Ottawa South, the PC and NDP candidates out-polled the Liberal John Fraser by 3726 votes. All of this is fun to contemplate as the government finds comfort in its two retained seats.  The link takes you to a post about the prospect of ranked ballots being in place for the 2018 Toronto general election   Previous posts

Car into pharmacy window at Sunnybrook Plaza

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A woman was behind the wheel when a Toyota car jumped the sidewalk at the Sunnybrook Plaza Friday afternoon and smashed into the glass doors of the Rexall Pharma Plus drugstore. Fire and police on the scene said that although there were injuries no one was seriously hurt. An early-tweeted picture (left) from an unknown person shows a woman laying on the pavement with concerned individuals over her. It was said among bystanders that perhaps two people had been  taken to Sunnybrook Hospital. Picture centre, the dented vehicle. Right, the car more less where it landed as it crashed into the pharmacy. 

“I get it,” Premier Wynne tells Ontario voters

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Wynne and Hunter — “Ï get it”
Both Premier Wynne and her Scarborough Guildwood star-in-the-making Mitzie Hunter were expressing a lot of regret as they spoke on the byelection outcomes Thursday. Wynne acknowledged that people are right to be angry about the gas plant scandal and the punishing cost of the Liberal political expediency.  People were angry and they had a right to be, she suggested. “I entirely get that,” she declared.  The Premier called the outcomes a “verdict on the recent past”.  She said  “I have heard it and I accept it. The next election will be about the future. That’s what we’re working toward.”  Wynne condemned the political management of the controversial cancellation of two gas plants as “heavy handed” and “secretive.” “Correcting the mistake that was made in the first place cost more money than it should have, and as a member of the government that made those decisions, I could not be more sorry about that, and I mean that,” she said. “I absolutely mean that.”  Ms. Hunter, who held the east Toronto riding for the Liberals apparently on the strength of her personality, said she understood that the loss of three of the five seats represented a message from voters that they were not happy with the performance of the government. “They deserve better,” she said.