The South Bayview Bulldog

Imagine being able to buy your iPhone apps directly from designers, bypassing Apple and its fees. That’s the proposition being heard by the US Supreme Court this week. The case is called Apple vs Pepper, a newly- revived action started by disgruntled iPhone owner Robert Pepper. The nine justices began hearing arguments Monday that Apple is monopolizing the market for iPhone apps and causing consumers to pay more than they should.

POSTAL STRIKE OVER

Mail service will resume all across the country at noon Tuesday after the Senate passed legislation ordering an end to five weeks of rotating strikes by postal workers. Royal assent was granted late Monday shortly after senators approved Bill C-89 by a vote of 53-25. Four senators abstained.

• Doug Ford says nothing Ontario can do to change GM’s plan to close Oshawa plant
• GM killing off Chevy Volt, Cruze, Impala and Buick LaCrosse cars
• Alberta declares beer trade fight with Ontario over access to liquor stores

General Motors has poured out its PR heart Monday about the need to re-make the company into a lean, green electric car maker. Maybe. But as it closes the door on its 110-ten year auto-making business in Oshawa the international car maker is also facing intense pressure from the US government’s America First program. Tariffs on metals and the urgency to bring business home are most certainly a factor in the GM move even as it also closes plants in the US. GM names the Lordstown, Ohio, factory that makes the Chevrolet Cruze compact and the Detroit-Hamtramck plant, where the Chevrolet Volt, Buick LaCrosse and Cadillac CT6 are produced. Oshawa now makes the Impala, a model which some suspect is headed for extinction. The company will halt operations at transmission plants in the Baltimore area and in Warren, Michigan. Some of the affected plants could resume production, depending on the outcome of contract negotiations with the United Auto Workers union next year

In 1942 the Oshawa plant produced reconnaissance cars and army trucks

1934 McLaughlin Buick

Since 1918

Last year of the McLaughlin badge as car production stopped because of WWII

Stamp honoured Colonel Sam McLaughlin

“This industry is changing very rapidly, when you look at all of the transformative technologies, be it propulsion, autonomous driving… These are things we’re doing to strengthen the core business,” GM chief executive and chairwoman Mary Barra told reporters Monday. “We think it’s appropriate to do it at a time, and get in front of it, while the company is strong and while the economy is strong.” GM also said it will reduce salaried and salaried contract staff by 15 per cent, which includes 25 per cent fewer executives. The Oshawa Assembly Plant employs 2,522 workers with Unifor Local 222, according to GM’s website. Production began on Nov. 7, 1953, and in the 1980s the plant employed roughly 23,000 people.

Bantams take Pittsburgh

862 Millwood for sale

Cody Winter Fair

Lou-Lou’s Flower Truck

Briton House Fair

Alan Redway evening Tuesday

A South Bayview summary for Monday starts with the Leaside Bantam BB ladies looking like champs after an undefeated weekend at the Pittsburgh Elite Thanksgiving Girls U14 Tier 2 Tournament. Love it. Big sisters, the Junior Wildcats, nipped Aurora Panthers 2-1 Sunday in Aurora as Leaside battles through a serious rebuilding season. Upper right is the Core Pilates building at 862 Millwood Rd. It is listed for $2,200,000 with many refinements from a recent renovation. Below that, a reminder of the Cody Winter Fair set to go Saturday at the school. Always fun. At lower left the couple who sell their flowers at the curbside from a 1966 Chevrolet long-bed. They are seen in a Y&R blog photo outside the Starbucks at Yonge and Roxborough. Catch up with Lou-Lou’s Flowers here. Lastly, a reminder of the Briton House Fair on Saturday and the appearance of former East York Mayor Alan Redway on Tuesday evening at Walter Stewart Library on Memorial Ave. in East York.

CTV News says it has been told by many sources that General Motors is planning to close all operations in Oshawa eliminating thousands of high-paying jobs. There are some 2,500 union positions and about 300 salaried employees in the Oshawa area. GM employs many more in Ingersoll, Markham and St. Catharines. It’s unclear if those positions are affected. GM once employed 40,000 workers at Oshawa in a history going back a century to the time of the Canadian-made McLaughlin motor car. GM bought out McLaughlin owners in 1918. The end of the auto industry in Oshawa may be seen as an ultimate consequence of globalization. Canada and its consumers were once an important market for US automakers. It paid them to build cars here. But the industrialization of more populous countries combined with the decline of US manufacturing has apparently driven GM to leave Oshawa. .

The Beaches Santa Claus Parade wound from Victoria Park Ave. over to its destination at Main St. and Swanwick Ave. Sunday afternoon. The Toronto Sun video summary above is a lot of fun. One toddler avows she has been bad because she wouldn’t sleep. She’s forgiven. Mayor Tory joined in, limping along in an air cast boot for an unspecified injury to his right foot or ankle. There is a 24 minute video posted below by Act Naturally.

Santa greets east enders

Bands

Kids dressed like presents

Mayor in air cast boot

Dancers

The release of the 2018 map showing homicides in the City is no cause of celebration, to be sure. There have been 91 such violent deaths with just a month left to the end of the year.  The City News story breaks it out, including irregular occurrences like the Yonge St. and Danforth Ave. episodes. But when the map is enlarged to focus on South Bayview, there is not a single such death to be seen in Davisville, Leaside, Lawrence Park, Rosedale, Moore Park or Deer Park. Homicide Map of Toronto

Watch for a possible agreement between the UK and the EU Sunday over Brexit. The breakthrough (if it is) was a deal Saturday between the London and Madrid over Gibralter, where as we know, everyone wants to remain part of the UK. Then there is talk of a US-Mexico deal wto keep tbe migrant caravan in Mexico. Maybe.

No winning ticket was sold for the $16 million jackpot in Saturday night’s Lotto 649 draw. However, the guaranteed $1 million prize was claimed by a ticket holder in British Columbia. The jackpot for the next Lotto 649 draw on Nov. 28 will be approximately $20 million.

1927 Chevrolet/Ken Merryman, Jerry Eliason and Cris Kohl

Manasoo had iron in its stern/Ken Merryman, Jerry Eliason and Cris Kohl

Newly-released video of the discovery of a Georgian Bay steamship has been given a soundtrack recorded by the last survivor of the 1928 sinking. The voice of Dr. Art Middlebro of Owen Sound is heard in a 1982 interview. The late Dr. Middlebro was one of only five crew who survived the sinking, which occurred just off Griffith Island on the shore of the Bruce Peninsula. The wreck of the Manasoo was found in June some 90 years after it foundered in terrible weather. The shipwreck hunters were researcher Cris Kohl and a crew of US hunters, experienced Great Lakes underwater sleuths. They found the Manasoo 60 metres underwater just off of the island. The spectacular footage of the wreck of the Manasoo was shot by Ken Merryman. The wreck contains a 1927 Chevrolet coupe and other fascinating artifacts of the time. The discoverers say that the frigid waters of Georgian Bay dramatically decreased decomposition and helped to preserve the Manasoo and its contents in “excellent condition” after it sank on September 15, 1928. CTV

Anthony Reagan has published a film with interviews from the Leaside Sports Hall of Fame induction night of women hockey players from 1974. It is both touching and funny. “We didn’t know what we were doing” “What’s off side?” “We did it to see if we could do it.” Much credit belongs to these 70s girls who thereby advanced the skills, knowledge and social lives of Canadian women everywhere. Thanks ladies.