The South Bayview Bulldog

Melina Roberge and co-accused Isabelle Lagacé,

A terrible end to the carefree cocaine peddling lifestyle of Canadian citizen Melina Roberge has seen the woman sentenced to eight years in an Australian prison. She will be eligible for parole in 2022. The judge gave Roberge, 24, a lecture about her “vacuous” pursuit of online fame. Roberge had agreed to pose as a tourist on the cruise ship MS Sea Princess as part of a plot to smuggle 95kg (210lb) of cocaine into the land down under. The drugs had an estimated value of $16 million. Roberge’s cabin mate, 29-year-old Isabelle Lagacé, was jailed in November for seven-and-a-half years. Andre Tamine, 64, is still to face sentencing over his role in the operation. Authorities have described the drug seizure as the largest Australia has ever had on a commercial boat or plane.

Hazard: Yonge St/ Grenville St.. Ice falling from a building at the intersection. Yonge St is now closed in both directions from Grosvenor St to College St. Please avoid. #GO691458^adc

— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) April 18, 2018

Police issued this alert about 10.45 a,m. There’s no idication of how long the closure will last.

Spicy Chicken blast off

Ha ha

Pret A Manger rapped

Ready cooked when you call Grilltime

Food advertising took a wild turn in Hong Kong this month as KFC released ads for its Spicy Chicken that show the deep fried poultry as flaming fuel exhaust. Still looks good. The agency was Ogilvie Mather HK. At the right, popular London and New York sandwich shop Pret A Manger has been told by the British Advertising Standards Agency to stop calling its food natural. Down below, Andy Elder’s Grilltime here at home is offering dinner ready-cooked when you call ahead.

These interesting videos were released late Tuesday. The first concerns the outrageous collapse of neighboring residential lots on either side of a home replacement project in Etobicoke. Appalling really. Next to that is the gripping story of a lucky escape by all involved as flying ice off a tractor-trailer wipes out the windshield of a tour bus en route to the Niagara casino. If they have the same happy outcome at the table, these people will come home rich. Below that, the crap shoot called charter getaways to the south. Sunwing does have a way of dropping the ball on communication. Finally, a touching story of a fundraising effort to replace the hot dog stand of a vendor who works St. George St. at the U of T.

The forecast indicates better days ahead, and soon, as the City waits for the freakish ice and snow of mid-April to melt. The unheard of conditions created by potentially lethal falling ice from the CN Tower prompted police to enforce closures and traffic and pedestrian restrictions in the vicinity of Rogers Centre. Bremner Boulevard was closed Tuesday between Lower Simcoe Street and Rees Street as was the CN Tower, Steamwhistle Brewery (now reopened) Ripley’s Aquarium and the Rec room. Gates 1 to 6 at Rogers Centre were closed for Tuesday’s games.  Some of these restrictions were relaxed later Tuesday.

Immunotherapy is adding a powerful new punch in the drive to beat lung cancer. Most interesting. Then, one person has died in the explosion of a jet engine while in flight. The Southwest Boeing landed safely at Philadelphia in this hair-raising incident. Below that, the very well-intentioned but rather perplexing expectation contained within the current Blue Bin Blues. The advice is to do with less. Fine, but what about this habit we have called procreation? Finally, it’s certainly okay to snicker at Donald Trump for his pompous language. Nonetheless, it looks like he is presiding over the end of the Korean War. And that may very well bring about the end of North Korea. The Kim family will not be able to maintain its Mafia-style fiefdom in an economically integrated peninsula.

Louise

Kendrick Lamar

Jessica Brown Findlay

The Faces feature for Tuesday begins with Louise (left) a British prostitute featured in a BBC video. Are you 18 or over? Then, Kendrick Lamar (centre) should be smiling. He’s won a Pultizer Prize for his hip hop music. It may be an acquired taste. At the right, Jessica Brown Findlay (and others) discuss a forthcoming romantic film called The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society.

Tim Hortons will move its headquarters from Oakville to the Exchange Tower at 130 King St. W the company has announced. Tim’s has been in Oakville since it was founded 50 years ago. All 400 employees will move to Toronto but a training facility will remain in Oakville. Tim Hortons president Alex Macedo says the move will bring it closer to business partners, enable it to better use technology to serve customers and help it keep abreast of industry trends.

STARBUCKS TO HOLD RACE MEETING

Starbucks said Tuesday it will be closing all of its company-owned restaurants in the US during the afternoon of May 29 to conduct a racial-bias education program. This follows the clumsy and obscure action taken by employees at a Philadelphia store when they called 911 over two black men who wanted to use the washroom but who had not purchased anything.

FIRE CALL TO BAYVIEW AND FLEMING

There was a fire call to the corner of Bayview Ave. and Fleming Cres. Tuesday but the call was cleared immediately. There may have been pizza burning.

Collision: Transway/ Eglinton Ave E.. a truck has struck the LRT bridge. Some damage has been reported. Engineers attending to assess. No LRT service disruption at this time. #GO685787^adc

— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) April 17, 2018

Relocation of watermain and sewer faciliites is taking plce at the Kennedy Station site.

PetSmart Wednesday

Bike event

Soup, sandwiches and song

Dog park cleanup

Ben Lucier captures

Bayview Leaside Sweep

ABCRA

Upper left, the City has announced that its Chiptruck, the one that helps us track our loveable four-legged friends when they vanish, will be at the PetSmart store in Leaside Centre Wednesday. That’s at Eglinton and Laird. Then, get your old bikes over to the Davisville School playground on Saturday for the bike collection event. This is a very worthy project which brings joy to kids whose families cannot buy them a bike. Next, there’s soup, sandwiches and song next Sunday at Leaside United. At top right,  Jason Shelly and Sara Wickware are organizing dog owners to help clean up Sunnybrook Park Dog Park on Saturday. See Leaside Chit Chat for that notice. At centre, great video shot by East Yorker Ben Lucier of  his dog Sprocket escaping a large tree branch in the backyard. YouTube. At the bottom, a reminder of clean up events on Saturday. The  Bayview Leaside BIA will gather on the northwest corner of Bayview and Millwood at 9 a.m. ABCRA members can help smarten up Ramsden Park the same day. See all posters at the South Bayview Bulldog Bulletin Board.

Could sting

Ruptured roof

Junk, water and ice

Ice falling from the CN tower punched a hole in the roof of the Rogers Centre, broke windows on the RBC building and smashed a window of a bus being used by the Kansas City Royals. No one was hurt in all of this. Last night’s game was cancelled and a double-header Tuesday will make up the lost game.

New Bloor St. people-friendly space

The informative website Urban Toronto has published plans for a new people-friendly terrace and “plaza” to sit around the base of the contentious “Crystal” addition of the Royal Ontario Museum. The project is endowed by two families and will carry the names Helga and Mike Schmidt Performance Terrace and Reed Family Plaza. The details as offered by Urban Toronto are interesting but the comments at the bottom of the post reveal again how deeply offended many people are by the 2007 Bloor St. addition to the ROM.