The South Bayview Bulldog

Stock markets plunged Thursday as sheer panic stalked many parts of the world in the face of a spreading COVID-19 epidemic. The Toronto TSE sank more than 500, the Dow Jones more than 800 in mid-morning trading. Within the past 24 hours, seven countries — Brazil, Georgia, Greece, Macedonia, Norway, Pakistan and Romania — have reported cases for the first time, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters at a daily briefing. For the past two days, Tedros said, the number of new cases reported in the rest of the world has exceeded the number of new cases reported in China.

The Toronto District School Board will stagger the hours of some schools next fall in order to permit school buses to service more than one school. The scheme is estimated to save the TDSB $2.5 million. Some 131 of the board’s 473 elementary schools will be involved.

A nasty Internet bully who has targeted realtor Patrick Rocca in the past is again demanding an enormous sum of money to stop a campaign of online harassment. It was two years ago that the same person demanded cash from Rocca and another Leaside man. He failed and went away for a while but now says he wants the equivalent of $500,000 in Canadian money paid in bitcoin. The “pay or die” campaign has a deadline of February 29. Previous deadlines were ignored so new ones were set. The desperate demands seem ridiculous because Rocca has no intention of paying anything. “I’ll never pay this individual a penny and I’m more driven than ever to identify the individual responsible. I won’t let things go away as I did two years ago,” said the real estate agent.

Consultant working with police to find extortionist

The harassment has taken the form of abusive email and fictionalized Instagram pages containing wild libels against Rocca and his son. The baseless posts have been quickly deleted by Instagram’s owner, Facebook. Police and a digital consultant who are helping Rocca think that the perpetrator may not realize the kind of trouble he will face when he’s arrested. He’s playing a dangerous game. “Ultimately, every move that someone makes on the internet leaves a trail of digital bread crumbs that we’ll be able to follow back to the person responsible,” says the consultant. “There have already been a few reckless missteps which have us pointed in a promising direction. We’re committed to working closely with law enforcement to do whatever we can to assist them in their investigation and do our part to identify the harasser.”

Peter Nygard has resigned from the head of his fashion firm in the face of accusations of rape. The FBI is after him. Then, a Toronto company is marketing a kit which will retrofit any newer vehicle so that it can drive itself. Below that, an ancient secret tunnel in the Mother of Parliaments. They say it dates from the 17th Century. Lastly, a grieving family appears on the Shark Tank to promote their late father’s invention — a cutting board with a container that catches the food.

The City of Toronto and its outside workers who collect garbage have agreed to push the deadline for a strike back to 12.01 a.m. Saturday. The previous deadline with 12.01 a,m. Thursday. The City requested a no-board report from the Ministry of Labour earlier this month effectively setting the scene for a strike. The union, CUPE 416, has accused the municipality of plotting to privatize collection on the east side of Yonge St. si8mnilar to the status west of Yonge. Strike deadline Thursday as City stays firm on jobs-for-life

Lawrence Park residents John Beaton and wife Kate Wheeler pose on beach in Bahama with daughters Alex and Sophie with friend Connor Harrigan

This local gallery begins with the Beatons of Lawrence Park on the beach in Exuma. That’s John with wife Kate Wheeler, daughters Alex and Sophie and friend Connor Harrigan. Those Iguana are frightening. What She Said.

The Path by Stephen Gillbury currently gracing window of State of the Art Gallery at 1541 Bayview Ave.

This compelling work by Stephen Gillbury is currently gracing the window at State of the Art Gallery, 1541 Bayview Ave. It’s always fun talking art with owner Micheal Leonard

Parkview-O’Connor Neighhourhood Community Officers Constables Alex Dreglia, Winston Tippett, Dave Besco and Chris Black

Be on the lookout for and please say hello to Alex, Winston, Dave and/or Chris on the streets of the Parkview-O’Connor neighborhood in 55 Division. The new Neighourhood Community Officers were recently appointed and their story is told by Ron Fanfair at the TPS website.

Boxes for trees on Millwood east of Bayview Ave.

Fences are now down in front of Millwood Shoe Repairs and Pat’s Barber Shop

Lastly, the fences are down on the north side of Millwood Rd. east of Bayview Ave. as work has been completed on the large tree boxes in front of Millwood Shoe Repair and Pat’s Barber Shop. O Happy Day.

Paula Davies

Ray White

Judges of the Agnes Macphail Award for 2020 have been unable to decide between two eminent candidates and so will honour both persons with the community prize. They are Paula Davies, co-founder of the Todmorden Mills Wildflower Preserve and Ray White, president of the East York Foundation. They will receive their awards at this year’s presentation ceremony at East York Civic Centre at 850 Coxwell Ave. on Sunday, March 29. The rare practice of honoring more than one candidate occurred in 1998 when husband and wife Elisabeth and Robert Lister received the prize.

A woman recently returned from Iran has been diagnosed at Sunnybrook HSC as the fifth presumptive positive coronavirus case. The patient, who is 60, has been sent home to remain in self-quarantine for two weeks. Toronto’s only other active COVID-19 case is a woman in her 20s, who is also in self-isolation at home and recovering well. Canada has confirmed 12 cases of the illness overall, which has sickened more than 80,000 people and caused more than 2,700 deaths across the world.

Many banks and investment companies are trying to reassure panicky investors in the wake of sharp market declines related to the spread of COVID-19 this week. The coronavirus was first identified in early January in China but after reports that the contagious virus had spread to Europe stocks began to slip. This past weekend dozens of cases appeared in Italy and Iran dashing hopes that the outbreak would be contained to Asia. Stocks were down again Tuesday dropping nearly 900 points on the Dow and 385 in Toronto. Johns Hopkins world summary of COVID-19 cases

The snowballing blockade of railways and paralysis of transportation has seen eastbound GO trains stalled east of the Guildwood station Tuesday afternoon. Social media posts and video, as seen below, indicate that trains are moving at 6 p.m.

Police stand by as GO train travels through rail crossing near Guildwood Station in Scarborough https://t.co/mSxb4e0co0 pic.twitter.com/gR9u308hO4

— CityNews Toronto (@CityNewsTO) February 25, 2020

One of the country’s top central bankers says the Bank of Canada is going to start the work to build its own digital currency as a backstop should the day arise where cryptocurrency dethrone cash as king. In a speech Tuesday in Montreal, deputy governor Timothy Lane says there isn’t a compelling case to issue a central bank-backed digital currency right now. But the timeline to create one is long enough that the Bank of Canada is beginning work in the event cash is no longer used for most transactions.

Bank has an eye on Facebook’s currency

Mr. Lane said the bank could issue its own cryptocurrency if private digital currencies like Facebook’s proposed Libra become widely used in Canada and erode the central bank’s ability to manage monetary policy. There are still several steps to go through before the Bank of Canada can issue a digital offering, including settling on the technology to use and getting the legal authority from Parliament to do so.