City staff proposes hiring traffic wardens to direct traffic (!)

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Mayor Tory held an alfresco news conference at University and Adelaide this lovely warm day to talk about what City staff has been cooking up. It includes traffic wardens to direct traffic at major intersections, the installation of photo radar to reduce speed violations and new school safety zones. CBC

Pelicans attack, we’re in the money and speaking of Megan

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Attack of the Pepperdine pelicans
Sorry, sorry
Megan wins world speaking championship

Here we go again with Faces in the News, including two chippy pelicans who broke up convocation at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California. Funny. Then, the British supermarket chain Sainsbury has bought Walmart’s British sub called Asda. It makes Sainsbury bigger than the traditional grocery leader Tesco. See why Sainsbury CEO Mike Coupe apologized for feeling good about this. Silly. And last, Toronto’s own Megan Campbell is profiled on her remarkable victory at the World Individual Debating and Public Speaking Championship in South Africa. She beat 100 other competitors. Hat’s off to you Megan.

Loading dock watcher says vanished boxes were garbage

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Was it you who took these boxes?

City News interviews a man who they found looking at the loading dock of a Richmond St. condo where a young couple lost $5,000 worth of personal belongings when they left their things unattended during a move. They say he looked like a man seen in security video. City asks the man if he was the one who took the boxed possessions.  He says he doesn;t speak English but is able to assert that in his view the boxes were garbage. All very interesting. Video story here.

Second son of Russian spies wins citizenship at least for now

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Alexander (left) and Timothy Vavilov/family photo

Timothy Vavilov, 23, a Toronto-born son of Russian spies, has won a court victory that effectively affirms his Canadian citizenship, four years after the government rebuffed an attempt to renew his passport. But he and his brother, Alexander, have another hurdle to leap in the form of a Supreme Court challenge by federal government. Ottawa wishes to expel the two. Timothy’s interim win at the Federal Court of Canada follows a similar decision in the case of his younger brother, Alexander, 27. They are the sons of the now exposed and deported sleeper spies who lived in Toronto awaiting orders from the Kremlin. Their aliases were Donald Heathfield and Tracey Ann Foley. Heathfield and Foley later admitted to being Andrey Bezrukov and Elena Vavilova. Feds in last-minute bid to deport brothers born to spies

Body found behind wall in Calgary shopping mall washroom

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Early speculation suggests that someone crawling through a vent or duct fell from above and got stuck behind a wall in a washroom in Calgary. It was fatal. The body was discovered Monday by a plumber fixing a toilet in a washroom of the Core Shopping Centre at Seventh Avenue and Third Street S.W., police said. But this explanation is not final. CBC

GOVERNMENT ELECTION RULES

The federal government intends to limit the length of election campaigns, restrict the amount of spending allowed in the period immediately preceding a campaign and introduce new rules to regulate third-party spending as part of a set of major reforms to Canada’s elections laws. Political parties also would face new privacy requirements regulating how they collect and use information from Canadians.

CROSS CANADA EDUCATION REPORT

Provincial education ministers have released a report on the performance of students in reading and mathematics between 2010 and 2016. The ministers form a body known as the Council of Ministers of Education. The report, which is called the Pan-Canadian Assessment, may be read here

MAN AWARDED $10,000

A Chinese restaurant has been fined $10,000 because it asked a black man and his three friends to pay for their meal in advance in 2014. The server at the Hong Shing restaurant at 195 Dundas West took the order from Emile Wickham and three friends and then came back and told them the policy of the restaurant was for customers to pre-pay. Wickham asked other customers if they had paid in advance and they all said they had not  The Human Rights Commission awarded the sum because of injury to Mr. Wickham’s feelings, self-respect and dignity.

Mastermind grows and so does word Toys in its new signs

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Mt. Pleasant store
Yonge and Shaftesbury
Toys in capitals

The ambitious expansion announced by Mastermind Toys has brought with it refined signage. Original stores, like the one on Mt. Pleasant (left) show the corporate name most prominently. New stores, like the one opened in November at Yonge St. and Shaftesbury Ave. (centre) reverse the capitalization and make a bigger noise about the word Toys. Mastermind has said it will grow to as many as 90 stores by 2020 with further expansion in Quebec after that.  Analysts suggest Mastermind has carved out a niche with stores closer to home offering personalized service in toys that are exclusive to the firm.

Highest price for gas in history paid in BC lower mainland

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Regular fuel at self-serve stations in Vancouver has hit 1.62 a litre, the highest price ever paid in North America for gasoline. The price was posted at stations across the lower mainland Sunday. “The 1.619 represents the single largest price point ever paid at any gas station, or any regional gas station across North America in the history of fuel,” said Dan McTeague of Gasbuddy.com. McTeague said with no end to the high prices in sight, a lot of people are changing their plans — and the impact will be felt all over the economy. “I would not be surprised to see this summer to be one in which people will withhold their discretionary spending. And that does have an effect on pretty much everything else.”

Man is dead in high-speed crash which demolishes Jaguar

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Into a tree on Spadina rd. in Rchmond Hill/Video capture off Twitter Jeremy Cohn @JeremyGlobalTV

A man is dead and another is in hospital in serious condition in the collision of a Jaguar vehicle into a tree on Spadina Rd in Richmond Hill Sunday afternoon. The dead man is said to be about 38 years old. The damage to the Jaguar is testament perhaps to the speed with which it struck the tree.

Many thousands attend #TorontoStrong vigil Sunday night

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Efforts to stay strong in the face of unspeakable death and injury brought many thousands of people to the Inter-Faith vigil at Mel Lastman Square Sunday night. Then, in Australia, the government has committed half a billion Oz dollars to rescue the Great Barrier Reef. The huge natural feature is beset by pollution and the parasite Crown of Thorns Starfish. Below that, the US secretary of State answers some hard questions about how much trust the world may place in the word of Kim Jong-un. Finally, the benefits of microchipping your pet as ChiChi is returned home after running loose for three years.






Judge calls Bell’s price diddling arbitrary and unacceptable

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The CBC reports Sunday night on a man who took Bell to court after it diddled a price-promise. The complaint has been heard from many Bell customers. David Ramsay says a Bell customer service rep told him on the phone that he could buy Bell Fibe TV and internet service for $112.90 a month for 24 months. He was told he’d get an email confirmation of this. But the email contained a proviso that Bell might increase that price, apparently at any time. In a judgment last month in Toronto small claims court, Deputy Judge William C. De Lucia said that Bell’s attempt to impose new terms after a verbal contract guaranteeing a monthly price for 24 months had been struck was “high-handed, arbitrary and unacceptable.”

TSE OPEN FOR BUSINESS MONDAY

The TMX group says the S&P/TSX will be open for business Monday morning after its systems failed Friday because of a “hardware failure in a central storage appliance.”

MAKING SIRI SAY BAD THINGS

Gizmodo reports that Siri will descend into vulgar language if you ask her the right question. It notes the off-colour slang option for mother as one of the more shocking examples. At the same time, Siri expects phone users to talk nicely to her. She will tongue lash brutes who say bad words. Siri, should we be committed for talking to a machine?

First responders receive applause at #TorontoStrong vigil

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Goodbye, good riddance to April and hello summery May

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No need to recall the wretched few weeks known as April 2018. Here it is the 29th day and the temperature is 7C at 6 p.m — but it feels like 2C. Sure. Try on some of the predictions above from the Weather Network.