The South Bayview Bulldog

The issue of refugees coming into Canada at unauthorized border crossings in Quebec and heading straight to Toronto has been given an “international obligations” spin by Justin Trudeau after his meeting with Premier Ford Thursday. How Ford will like being portrayed as being not quite up to speed about such matters may, or may not, surface in public.

OPP have charged a woman, 20, after a child was rescued from a locked vehicle at Temiskaming Shores, about 150 km northeast of Sudbury. When officers arrived, they were told the child had been in the vehicle for approximately 20 minutes. They broke a window and rescued the child from what they described as “extreme heat.” The child is recovering. The charge in such cases is failing to provide the necessaries of life.

Salt mine workers at the huge underground operation at Goderich are in their third month on strike. This week they formed a blockade to try to prevent the employer, Compass Minerals, from bringing in replacement workers from New Brunswick. The salt mine lies as far below the water as the CN Tower rises over Toronto and is the biggest such mine in the world. The union, Unifor, says the issue is a demand by the owners for concessions including mandatory overtime, reducing benefits, and weakening the contracting-out provisions in the collective agreement. Fascinating video

• Boeing buys 80 percent of Embraer
• Man sues Apple because the A- Watch isn’t ‘brilliantly scratch resistant’ as promised
• Race finds its way into WestJet luggage policy to West Indies
• While protesters dangle, Trans Mountain work starts again

Beginning Monday, July 9 through to October Jarvis St. between Dundas St. East and Queen St. E. will be reduced to one lane of northbound and southbound vehicular traffic for road and sewer work. Some watermains are more than 100 years old.  A fast alternate is Bayview south to River Street south. The city says most of the work on this project will take place Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. with some work on weekends and overnight as required.

ROAD CLOSURES THIS WEEKEND

• The Taste of Lawrence festival is Friday through Monday closing Lawrence between Warden and Birchmount. It runs from Friday to Monday.
• Salsa on St. Clair will close St. Clair Ave between Winona Dr and Christie St. both Saturday and Sunday
• Danceforth will close Danforth between Woodbine and West Lynn avenues on Friday. from 8 a.m. to midnight on Saturday.

CIBC economist Mendes

Make them cheaply in Oakville and sell them for US dollars in Ohio

The worst-case scenario painted by CIBC economist Royce Mendes about a US tariff on Canadian-built cars is terrifying but entirely unsurprising. Any Canadian who can count — let’s see, 350 million of them, 35 million of us — will know that US automakers are here to build cars cheaply and ship them 100 miles to Americans. Mendes guesses Wednesday that rigorous tariffs might reduce the present annual production of cars at places like Oakville and Windsor from two million to possibly half that. It would be a crushing blow to the national economy and the lives of millions of Canadians. For all Mendes knows, Donald Trump may be inclined, if he can get away with it, to be even more vicious than that. He may not do it but no one should harbour any doubt that it is all possible. Mendes is quoted as saying: “It wasn’t that long ago when it was commonplace to question whether President Trump could make good on his promises. But, so far, he’s generally found ways to stay true to his word, and that’s exactly what’s so concerning about auto tariffs.”

Eglinton Ave. east of Mt. Pleasant Rd. re-opened late Wednesday afternoon after a watermain break flooded the street and closed it to traffic for several hours. It appears the rupture was related to radical LRT construction on the south side of Eglinton between Mt. Pleasant and Taunton Rd.

Egllinton East flooded near Mt. Pleasant/Mark Douglas@Douglas680NEWS

A boy of 16 is on the run Wednesday after he accidentally fired a gun through the bedroom wall of a sibling. The slug landed in the mattress in the room next door where the sibling slept.

An incident in which a black youth apparently challenged a white TTC fare inspector and was shoved to the ground has been investigated and will be investigated again. It seems a sad example of the white-hot tension the City endures between some young men and uniformed persons who have the most perfunctory of jobs (fare inspector)  The account of this trifling incident is here and you may watch the flash-point in video here.  It is classic male/male chemistry which starts with “staring” or “smirking” turning into an explosion.

FORCED OFF PLANE BY SMOKING BRAKES

Passengers on an Air Canada flight from Toronto to North Bay were forced to get off before take off as the plane began to issue smoke from one of its brakes. Here

TTC DRIVERLESS SHUTTLE BY 2020?

A driverless shuttle now in use in the US could serve to move people from local stops to rapid transit lines.  According to a report that will go before the public works committee next week, the City is planning to experiment with autonomous vehicle technology by launching a pilot project for the operation of a driverless shuttle sometime in 2020.

Mcity driverless shuttle makes a stop on the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich. Such shuttles are made by French autonomous vehicle company Navya

Roger Petersen, City News reporter, will become co-host of Breakfast Television it is announced Wednesday. This coy picture was released. Story

Southlawn Dr. fire/Taylor ‏@taylorwitruk

Fire of so-far unknown origin has destroyed two homes under construction on Southlawn Drive near Kennedy Road and Finch Avenue in Scarborough. No one was hurt.

STREETCARS NEED STRUCTURAL REPAIRS

Some 67 Bombardier streetcars newly-delivered to the TTC will have to be returned to the factory to repair structural flaws relating to poor welding the transit agency confirms. Mayor John Tory says the TTC is working to make sure that there will be little to no impact on service following news that most of the new streetcars delivered by Bombardier will need to be sent back to Quebec for repairs. Trusty buses will be used to replace streetcars wherever there are too few trams to do the job.

SOMEWHAT COOLER THEN HOT AGAIN NEXT WEEK

Temperatures in Toronto will be cooler this weekend but are predicted to be back on the 30 degree Celsius range by next week. The current heat wave will end Thursday night.

Police are returning to Mallory Crescent Wednesday because of new information related to the charges against alleged serial killer Bruce McArthur. A notice on the TPS website Wednesday says that on “July 4, 2018 the Toronto Police Service in partnership with the Centre of Forensic Sciences, will continue with a search of a property on Mallory Crescent. The property has been identified as a place where Bruce McArthur is alleged to have done landscaping work. The property has previously been searched, planters seized and areas of the backyard excavated. It is within the seized planters that investigators are alleging to have found the remains of seven men.” It was less than a month ago that police returned the home to the owners after extensive searching done in May and June.