There are fears Sunday that the still-out-of-control forest fire called Parry Sound 33 may soon threaten King’s Highway 69, key transportation link connecting Sudbury to Toronto and southern Ontario. Sudbury Star
Tickets from Ontario, Quebec and somehwere in the west shared the $5 million jackpot in Saturday night’s Lotto 649 draw. Each winning ticket is worth $1,666,666. The draw’s guaranteed $1 million prize was claimed by a ticket holder in the Prairies.
At left is Alexander McQueen, the British designer and couturier, who took his life at the height of his career in 2010. He was 40. A new documentary attempts to find the man who sometimes hid — as above — behind a mask. At centre a photo of Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Newark who has resigned amid allegations of child abuse. In the stately protocol of the Vatican, McCarrick offered to quit and His Holiness accepted. Or something like that. Finally, a zoo in Cairo is being called out for the zebra that looks a lot like a donkey. That plus his stripes are badly smudged.
Canadian Press reports that the Ontario fire marshal’s office will conduct tests this fall to better understand how hand-held fuel containers could ignite and inadvertently become flame-throwers when used around products like ethanol-fuelled lamps and recreational fire pits. The analysis comes as the office said it has noted four incidents in the last six years where the phenomenon — known as flame jetting — has occurred, leaving people with horrific injuries and, in one case, killing a woman. Family of Peterborough woman sues ethanol lamp maker
Three communities in northeastern Ontario remain in a state of emergency due to the forest fire known as Parry Sound Fire 33, says the North Bay Nugget. Killarney, French River and Henvey Inlet First Nation are all on alert. On Saturday, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry Parry Sound district recommended that areas impose a mandatory evacuation of their residents with boat access only. They include all areas ranging from the western and northern borders of French River Provincial Park, east to Highway 69, and as far south as the south shore of the Key River; including all residents and members of the public on both the north and south shores of the French River, and the Pickerel River, as well as Hartley Bay. Another concern is heavy smoke which makes highway driving perilous.
Two winning tickets were sold for the $35 million jackpot in Friday night’s Lotto Max draw. One winning ticket was purchased in Ontario and the other in Quebec. Each is worth $17.6 million. The jackpot for the next Lotto Max draw on August 3 will be approximately $10 million.
A bitcoin extortion scam similar to that seen in Leaside last year has hit affluent men in Greenwich, Connecticut. In the Leaside case, extortionists threatened to reveal “secrets” about family members. In the US, the threat says wives will be told the horrible truth. In both cases a demand is made for a payoff in the untraceable cryptocurrency. And as in Leaside, the extortionists don’t really know anything. They trade on the fears of most people, men and woman, that something about them will be revealed. It’s a dirty trick. Then, beautiful shots of the so-called blood moon with the best explanation ever heard of just what that means. Below that, the mother of Mollie Tibbetts is hanging on to her hope. The Iowa girl disappeared earlier in the week on a regular jog through corn fields. Finally, wildfires are closing in on the Northern California town of Redding and residents are fleeing..
Adam Vaughan, the Liberal MP for Spadina-Fort York, has said the Ford government is “reckless, irresponsible” in its plan to reduce the size of City Council to 25 members. Vaughan said Ford is taking these actions because “he doesn’t like Toronto” and accused him of “breaking” the City. The story, published by the CBC, suggests a federal government attempt to somehow subvert the Ontario government. Vaughan said the City is too important for the federal government to “stand idly by and let this happen.” He spoke of bypassing Queen’s Park in dealing with the City. Still, as many people commenting on the story state, the federal government has no jurisdiction. CBC
Former City planner Jennifer Keesmaat has come out of the shadows to declare that she will run against John Tory for mayor this October. Keesmaat who has long been thought to have such ambitions, made her first political observation and it was a dandy.
Now I have had a chance to sleep on it. Secession. Why should a city of 2.8 million not have self governance?
— Jennifer Keesmaat (@jen_keesmaat) July 27, 2018
As the tweet shows, Keesmaat is pondering secession from the province. There is no legal basis on which such a thing can occur of course but the vision of Toronto as a sort of North American Singapore may appeal to some. Wait a second, they flog people there. Will New York City, Tokyo and Buonos Aires wish to secede also?
FRANTIC FRIDAY
So it has been a frantic Friday so far. In addition to the Ford City Council bombshell, the Ontario government has declared it will permit private sellers to retail marijuana (end of police raids one would think) and now the former planner declares for mayor.
Keesmaat to enter Toronto mayoral race, Brown running for mayor in Brampton
Premier Ford confirmed Friday morning that he would introduce legislation to reduce the number of Councillors in Toronto from 47 to 25 to match federal and provincial riding boundaries. In making this announcement, the Premier laid the blame for “crumbling infrastructure” .and gridlock instead of transit. “I consulted with thousands of people right across the city and every person I talked to said you have to reduce the size of government,” he said. “No one has ever said to me ‘Doug we need more politicians.’ In fact it is the opposite. People tell me that we have too many politicians making it hard to get things done and making it harder to get things built,” Ford said Friday. Mayor calls the changes disrespectful of the City. He said found out about the changes after reading a report in the Toronto Star Thursday. He conceded however that Ford mentioned it during a meeting they had recently. “I sort of dismissed it on the basis of saying well that is not something that could be done and the matter was dropped. I didn’t have the sense he was pursuing it,” Tory said. “This is not right, this is not fair, it is not respectful of the people and it is not a proper process to be followed when it comes to a major decision having to do with our democracy.”
The expected legislation to reduce the number of wards in Toronto from 47 to 25 has the potential to see popular incumbents running against each other in the October election. It is purely speculation but the enormous riding of Don Valley West would become a ward. It is the natural turf of popular politicians like Jaye Robinson and Jon Burnside. Might they battle it out? Well known Councillor Josh Matlow would, it seems, find himself running in St. Paul’s. But it would be a ward twice the size of the current Ward 22. Who might he face? The reported changes will leave voters in the north end of what was Toronto Centre (Moore Park and Rosedale) thrown into the federal riding of University-Rosedale rather than the newly planned Ward 34 including Greektown, Moore Park and Rosedale. All across the City, candidates will be remaking their strategies. Here are current federal ridings on which it is said the wards will be based.
Beaches-East York
Davenport
Don Valley East
Don Valley North
Don Valley West
Eglinton—Lawrence
Etobicoke Centre
Etobicoke—Lakeshore
Etobicoke North
Parkdale—High Park
Scarborough—Agincourt
Scarborough Centre
Scarborough—Guildwood
Scarborough North
Scarborough—Rouge Park
Scarborough Southwest
Spadina—Fort York
Toronto Centre
Toronto—Danforth
Toronto—St. Paul’s
University—Rosedale
Willowdale
York Centre
York—Simcoe
York South—Weston
