Raise the flag and celebrate July 1 weekend with friends

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Team Cast My Line starring l-r Jennifer, Chelsea, Ashley, Sonia and Willy
Laura Onyshko with the Citizenship and Community Engagement Award
Canada Parade starts at Dieppe Park
Andy Elder with Ben and Jessica Mulroney
Mabel’s Fables

Upper left, these madcap ladies from team Cast Your Line are here to invite others to join in at Leaside Lawn Bowling Club on July 5, 12, 19, and 26 for this year’s Lawn Summer Nights charity and amateur bowling evening. There are three team places remaining to be filled. At right, MP Rob Oliphant presented Laura Onyshko with the Citizenship and Community Engagement Award at Leaside High School convocation. He also notes that Principal Jeanette Plonka will vacate her important post after some 14 years at LHS. Centre left, don’t forget to take in the East York Canada Day parade Sunday starting at Dieppe Park, 455 Cosburn. It heads off to Stan Wadlow Park where many will spend the day. Below that, Andy Elder posted this picture of friends (and guests) Ben and Jessica Mulroney at dinner in the Grilltime shop on Laird Drive. At right, favorite children’s book store Mabel’s Fables is inviting you to read wth your kids this summer.

Tariffs on ketchup, toilet paper but will it help Canada win?

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Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland will visit Hamilton on Friday to reveal the details of the federal government’s plan to support Canada’s tariff-targeted steel and aluminum industries. Freeland will also reveal the complete, updated list of US products and industries that Ottawa intends to target with its own barrage of retaliatory tariffs, which go into effect Sunday. For all Canadians the question looming over these new tariffs is less about whether we can hurt certain US businesses (we can) but rather can we somehow find our way out of punishing tariffs on steel and aluminum.

IS THIS ABOUT DAIRY FARMERS?

According to John Ivison, writing in the National Post, the prospect of a bilateral deal between the US and Mexico was “very close.” He quotes Ted McKinney, the US agriculture department’s undersecretary. But no such chance was at hand with Canada, as the two sides continued to disagree on dairy. Ivison has McKinney saying the US is not trying to “dictate” how Canada manages its dairy industry but wants to end the pricing system on ultra-filtered milk and other protein rich dairy ingredients used to make cheese and yogurt. These products were entering Canada duty free until Canadian dairy farmers and producers persuaded regulators to introduce a new “ingredients strategy” that cut U.S. farmers out of the market. The suggestion from McKinney, says Ivison, is that access for US producers is the hold-up. Prime Minister Trudeau has said Canada is prepared to show “flexibility” on dairy but remains opposed to the imposition of a sunset clause that would automatically terminate the agreement unless the parties agreed otherwise

Hero leaps onto tracks to save blind man stranded below

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Rescuer (centre) and blind man (on floor) pulled from tracks/Julie Caniglia
Julie Caniglia/City News capture
TTC reminds public that power to third rail can be shut off/City News capture

Toronto businesswoman Julia Caniglia, listed owner of the Rashers restaurant outlets, has told of a heroic rescue by an unidentified man at Broadview station Thursday. She recounts it on Facebook and reported it to City News. She recalls that as the train pulled into the station “I had the fright of my life. I heard a faint voice call out help, help me please. It wasn’t coming from anyone in the car and after hearing it again I stood up and looked out. (I saw) a man with a walking cane lying on the tracks. He is blind and had fallen and injured himself. Without hesitation the man you see in this picture in the animal shirt jumped onto the tracks to pull him out. Thankfully, two other men showed up to help as well and this story has a happy ending. Please pass this photo around, these men need to be recognized as good Samaritans. If they hadn’t reacted so quickly, the outcome would have been horrific.”

Ford sworn in Friday as hopeful electorate awaits change

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Premier Ford will be sworn in Friday and a new era of government will begin in Ontario. The PC party has been out of power for 15 years. To the right, major renovations begin this summer on historic Massey Hall. Below that, the slipshod approach to corruption in British Columbia is revealed in this CBC report. And finally, German soccer fans are stunned as their proud team is booted out of World Cup contention for the first time since 1938. Hmm.






Maryland shooter alleged abuser named Jarrod Ramos, 38

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Jarrod Ramos
Shooting scene

Five people are reported dead after a man with a rifle opened fire through glass partitions into the newsroom of the Annapolis, Maryland, Capital Gazette. The shooter was identified Thursday evening as Jarrod Ramos, 38. NBC News and CBS News were among the first to confirm his identity reportedly through the use of face-recognition technology. Ramos allegedly has a history of abusing and harassing women.

Sunnybrook HSC starts work on new roof top helicopter pad

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At present, helicopters land at a ground level pad some 500 metres from the emergency department. Patients must be moved by ambulance. The new roof-top heliport atop M Wing will permit patients to descend by elevator to waiting medical staff must faster. About 20 to 25 percent of some 1,200 trauma cases arrive by helicopter at SHSC every year. Patients can arrive directly from on-scene trauma or as transfers from over 80 referring hospitals across Ontario.

Laneway suites approved by City for Toronto and East York

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Toronto and East York (in pink)

Bylaw amendments that will permit the construction of laneway suites in residential neighbourhoods in Toronto and East York have been approved by City Council. Such neighbourhoods as Davisville Village, Deer Park, Moore Park and the many residential areas east of Broadview Ave. across the Don are included. Some areas don’t have many lanes, however.  T and EY contains the Wards of 14, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32. Support was substantial, with Council voting 30-5 vote on Thursday morning. Apparently the changes do not effect Leaside, which is represented at North York Community Council. Conditions for applications by homeowners to build are said to be strict. Entrances to suites must be no more than 45 metres away from a public street for access by the fire service and others. That rule, in theory, will prevent laneway suites from being built on some properties that are located on dead-end laneways.

SET BACKS, PARKING

Suites themselves must be no more than two storeys or six-metres-tall and can contain only a single unit. Suites must be separated from the rear of existing homes by a distance of 5 to 7.5 metres, depending on their height. They must be set back from the rear property line by at least 1.5 metres with dimensions that do not exceed eight metres in width and 10-metres in length. Between 100 and 300 laneway suites are expected to be constructed each year now that they are permitted, according to staff. As to parking, there appears to be an optimistic view that a supposed decline in the ownership of cars will make this potential issue irrelevant. Time will tell.

Loss to Belgium puts England against Colombia in last 16

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England will face Colombia in the World Cup last 16 after a 1-0 loss to Belgium meant they finished second in Group G. Adnan Januzaj scored the winner with a brilliantly curled effort in the second half, with both sides fielding much-changed XIs from their previous games — BBC

BBC’s MATCH FACTS

  • England are unbeaten in their previous two matches against Belgium at the World Cup.
  • They drew 4-4 in 1954 and won 1-0 in the second round in 1990 courtesy of a volley from David Platt in extra time.
  • They are unbeaten in the last 11 meetings with Belgium, most recently winning a friendly in June 2012.

The most impactful news during this World Cup, may just be the C02 shortage burdening pubs in Europe. Oh my.

Flyby over Leaside Pub Saturday to mark first air mail flight

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The 100th anniversary of Canada’s first air mail flight was Sunday and local enthusiasts have planned a flyby over the Leaside Pub at McRae Drive and Laird Drive for Saturday (June 30) at about 3 p.m. It is part of a celebration called Wings Over Leaside which includes a display of old photos at the pub. The Leaside Aerodrome was key to air mail in those days. The exhibit at the pub is up and the orgnaizers say there is a rumour that a propeller from an actual Curtiss JN-4 Canuck from Camp Leaside might make an appearance on June 30. Sounds like fun. Air Mail. We forget how important it was. Below is mid-century air mail pop culture.




Risky passage on Avenue Rd. sidewalks south of St. Clair

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Speeding car leaped narrow sidewalk at Balmoral Ave. in November, 2016/Bulldog
Outside Brown School 2015/Jack Lakey, Star
Avenue Rd. south from St. Clair in 1937 when it was a pleasant, treed street

The narrowness of sidewalks on both sides of Avenue Rd. south of St. Clair Ave. is a longstanding issue. Residents groups and City staff struggle with the reality that there is no simple solution. Widening of the street nearly 70 years ago turned it into a speedway. Photos show (left) a frightening 2016 crash of a car onto the east sidewalk at Balmoral Ave, (centre) safety fences outside Brown Public School, 454 Avenue Rd. and (right) traffic looking south on Avenue at St. Clair in 1937. We don’t have much to say about streetcars that is very nice but there’s no doubt they slow down traffic. City News takes up the issue (below) as ratepayers complain.

What a change as Facebook vows Canadian fact checking

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Facebook Canada will launch a third-party fact-checking program to root out fake news and provide users with more context on articles they read on the platform. The program is a collaboration with newswire service Agence France-Presse, which will have fact-checkers in Canada to review stories from local news outlets and rate their accuracy. Hope they look at Facebook ads too. But what a difference two years makes as we flash back to a Bulldog post from November 2016 (below)  The apparent death notice (with bloody blotches yet) was one of several ads/news insertions on Facebook that had people inquiring why FB was announcing the deaths of perfectly healthy people. Facebook ads (booga booga) are mighty strange, weird

Meridian, De la Mer will support Monday July 2 fireworks

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Dave Bryant and family
Meridian Credit Union staff on Mt. Pleasant
De la mer, 1543 Bayview Ave.

David Bryant has posted news of his intention to again produce a fireworks show on the Canada Day weekend. This year it will be held on Monday, July 2 beginning at approximately 9.30 p.m. Last year’s show drew a large crowd. As in the past, Mr. Bryant is asking those who are able to make a donation to the cost. The show produced for the 2018 Victoria Day weekend had a bill of nearly $3,500. Bryant says donations can be made to bryantdavid@live.ca  or in person to a donations jug at the setup table on the track by the field on the day. Bryant reports that both Meridian CU at Mt. Pleasant Rd. and Soudan Ave and Dave Owen and Blake Edwards of the seafood shop Del La Mer (1543 Bayview) will support the program. Shirley Breen is manager of  Meridian. Below is the finale to the Victoria Day weekend show at LHS field.