The South Bayview Bulldog

Hockey stick chair

Great on porch or the dock

Hero images

A nice win for some youngster

Care for a taste?

Goodies

Among the many items up for silent auction this weekend at the Leaside Select Invitational Tournament are two very cool hockey-stick deck chairs. An array of desirable items can been seen in the William Lea Room at Leaside Memorial Community Gardens on Millwood. This year is the 28th version of the huge hockey event. It is being played out by 120 teams from as far away as Waterloo in nine arenas, including Leaside. More than 2,000 kids will play. This year’s chairpersons are Anthony Hammill, Brad Cressman and Jennifer O’Donnell. Games at the Leaside rinks continue through Saturday and Sunday with an estimated conclusion of play by 8 p.m.

Living rent-free in capital

It takes a lot of nerve to claim that diplomatic immunity lets you live rent-free in a pleasant luxury flat overlooking Ottawa’s Glebe neighbourhood. And Friday the Ontario Superior Court told US embassy employee Betsy Zouroudis to pay up or get out. She had rented the top floor of a townhouse in the Glebe last year. But then she refused to pay and in a letter from her lawyer argued she had “diplomatic immunity” from the landlord and tenant board. Justice Rohan Bansie delivered the bad news. He told Zouroudis that paying rent is a commercial activity not covered by diplomatic immunity. Zouroudis’ lawyer had argued the only way to make her subject to the rent payments was for the US to waive her diplomatic status.

Mona Piper

Friends and admirers of Mona May Piper may pay respects on Friday, February 9 at the Humphrey Funeral Home at Bayview Ave. and St. Cuthbert’s Road. Receiving will be from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 6 to 9 p.m. A memorial service will take place on Saturday, February 10 at 11 a.m. in St. Cuthbert’s Anglican Church at 1399 Bayview Ave. A private family burial will take place at a later time. Mona Piper died Wednesday, January 31 at the Sunnybrook Palliative Care Centre in her 89th year She touched the lives of thousands of children and parents in her conscientious and generous way as a school crossing guard at Maurice Cody Public School. Among the many tributes to Mona Piper received at the South Bayview Bulldog since her death notice is one from Morgan McDonell. She wrote: “When I was little I’d been gifted a My Little Pony that meant the world to me. It was unfortunately stolen one day at school which devastated me. Mrs Piper had asked why I was so upset as I was bawling my eyes out the whole way home. A few days later, when walking through her cross walk, she handed me a simple brown paper lunch bag and said “make sure your mom says it’s ok first”. She had bought me a new My Little Pony to replace my stolen toy.” Ms. McDonell says this story remains a vivid memory with her at the age of 40.

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Eight people including six children have been hurt, some critically, in the head-on collision of a bus and an SUV on Highway 26 and Nottawasaga Sideroad 27/28 near Stayner Friday afternoon. All the injured were passengers in the SUV, which bore Texas license plates. The children ranged n age from four to 15. At least two ORNGE helicopters took patients to the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. In total, there were said to be 50 people on the bus, including 47 students. There were only minor injuries among them. They were taken to Clearview Township Transportation Community Centre on this frigid February day. CBC News quotes ​Glenn Attridge, president of Attridge Transportation as saying the St. Thomas More students were a day trip to Blue Mountain and were heading back to Hamilton when he said the van crossed the median and hit the bus. Clearview Fire said on Twitter that all the individuals on the bus left the community centre and headed back to Hamilton shortly after 5 p.m.

Thank you, on behalf of the St. Thomas More Catholic S. S. community, to all of your staff for taking extraordinary care of our students and staff, who were involved in the collision. We will keep the injured in our prayers. Thanks to the @OPP_News, as well. @HWCDSB

— St. Thomas More CSS (@stmcss) February 2, 2018

The TSX Composite is plunging downward again Friday after a week of large and consistent losses related largely to falling commodity prices. The TSX has staggered badly out of the gate in 2018, falling nearly 1.6 percent to post the fourth-worst performance to start the year among 93 global exchanges. The Canadian benchmark index is slotted between Oman’s exchange and London’s FTSE 100. In the US, there is similar aversion among investors to improving employment and industrial strength. The Dow average was down more than 250 points by midday Friday.

Expanding young minds

Town Hall

Lid-surfing

Today’s Menu Super Bowl Special

Davisville Park improvements

Carrie Laureola’s excellent school of Bamboo Bay is inviting parents to expand young minds with a Valentine’s card-making day at her Leaside classrooms. They run Saturday, February 3 and Saturday, February 10. To the right, Jon Burnside (Ward 26) is reminding residents of his town hall set for Monday, February 5 at the Lea Room. Centre right, the little-known but minor vice of lid-surfing has caused Starbucks to place lids for Short cups away from those of the more often-used Tall, Grande and Vente containers. There was too much waste caused by lid-surfing customers throwing away the Short lid when they picked it up in error. Only The Bulldog knows these important facts. Then lower left, check out the $88 Super Bowl Family Special at Today’s Menu at Millwood and Rumsey Rds. or call  416-698-8667. Good deal. And finally, off in the future (February 20) is Councillor Josh Matlow’s meeting to discuss further improvements to June Rowlands (Davisville) Park. Be there.

Wagner and Wood in 1970

Wood in Miracle on 34th Street

CBS 48 Hours says a sheriff’s officer has called actor Robert Wagner, 87, a “person of interest” in the “suspicious” 1981 drowning death of his then-wife, actress Natalie Wood. It is very unclear just what this might mean coming so long after the death and many investigations into what happened. Wood was a star from childhood. She appeared in “West Side Story,” “Miracle on 34th Street” and “Rebel Without a Cause.” She was traveling on her family’s yacht, Splendour, with Wagner, the ship’s captain Dennis Davern and her friend, actor Christopher Walken. Wagner and Wood are said to have argued and Wood took off in a dinghy. The authorities say they have re-investigated the case over the last six years and now think of Wagner’s as a person of interest.

City Council has approved a bid to bring the 2026 World Cup to locations in North America, including Toronto. Expensive, but not the same open-ended sewer for money as the Olympics. Speaking of money, it seems the criminals’ choice, Bitcoin, is fully deployed in bringing death-dealing Fentanyl into Canada. When will we learn? Below that, women in Iran are demonstrating against the Hijab. One excuse offered by the government is that excitable Iranian men go nuts when they see a woman without the head covering. Hey, we don’t make this up. Finally, Lord Bates seems to be taking things a bit too far as he announces that he is quitting because he was late.

Writer Sandie Benetah at CP24 says she has been told that Caroline Mulroney’s nomination papers to run for leader of the PC Party are “going out this evening.” As this not unexpected news hits, Christine Elliott, widow of the late Jim Flaherty, has tweeted her intention to run for leader as well. Elliott had been an MPP for the Whitby area from 2006 to 2015. Mulroney is said by Benetah to have “significant support” from caucus and candidates who think she is the only one who can beat Kathleen Wynne. Mulroney must get 100 signatures to be a nominated candidate for the leadership. She is already the nominated PC candidate by acclamation for the riding of York-Simcoe.

I'm in! #pcpo #onpoli

— Christine Elliott (@celliottability) February 1, 2018

1899 seat of government

Stairway to anywhere?

Toronto City Council voted 35-3 Thursday to study a scheme to turn Old City Hall into a municipal museum. The decision has prompted Ward 3 Councillor Stephen Holiday to say any such undertaking will leave the 1899 seat of government building “bleeding money.” Elsewhere, the idea has gone down very well. And at the bottom of some stories are apparent facts that seem critical to the process. Just 25 percent of the old hall’s 406,000 square feet will be a museum, says the CBC. At least 50 percent will be rentable. Possible tenants are not named. Is there a business which will generate real foot traffic up those daunting stairs on Queen Street? There’s 18 months to mid-2019 allowed to figure it out. In another matter, City Council has approved a 10-per-cent cap on property tax increases for businesses, following an outcry from shop owners on Yonge Street and elsewhere that were slapped with skyrocketing tax hikes based on soaring assessment values. Small mercies.

Should Old City Hall be used for a museum devoted to Toronto's history? Councillor @JoshMatlow thinks so, making an impassioned speech Thursday to city council, which backed a study looking into the idea. pic.twitter.com/ydeuByio3u

— Toronto Star (@TorontoStar) February 1, 2018

COUNCILLOR’S TWIN RECORDED

Lastly, John Lancaster of the CBC says the brother of Ward 5 Councillor Justin Di Ciano is heard on a recording offering to reimburse donors $300 in cash if they donated the maximum amount ($750) allowed to his candidate. The secret audio recording now in possession of provincial anti-corruption police. Toronto had a contribution rebate program for the 2014 election, whereby someone who gave the maximum $750 to a council candidate would get $450 back from the City. The donor would only be out of pocket for the remaining $300.

Select Invitational play/archives

Mayor Tory/archives

505 Balliol/Josh Matlow

Best street ever

Stanley Grizzle and family

Authors at Sleuth February 1

Leaside arena and area hockey palaces will ring today with the sound of boys, girls, moms, dads and others as the 2018 Leaside Select Invitational Tournament gets underway. Dignitaries like Mayor Tory (seen at upper right in 2015) are expected to catch a chance to celebrate this enormous event. Below that, at the right, Josh Matlow (Ward 22) has tweeted news that this little 1889 structure at 505 Balliol St. is about to be demolished. He will move a motion at Council to protect it under the Ontario Heritage Act. Then, The South Bayview Bulldog proudly says (yet again) that this vital, low-rise treasure of a street with sidewalks as wide and friendly as a walk on the beach should defend itself against the destruction of those precious qualities. A lament by Shawn Micallef in the Star about how low-rise sentiment is holding Toronto back from its destiny as a big concrete canyon is too dreary to read, but you can if you must. Lower left, Stanley E. Grizzle and his family are seen in a nice photo at the East York Historical Society meeting which celebrated black history month. Mr. Grizzle’s dad was a WWII veteran and judge of the Canadian Citizenship Court. And finally, a reminder of Thursday’s (today’s) appearance by mystery writers R.J. Harlick and Ken Ogilvie at Sleuth of Baker Street, 907 Millwood Rd. starting at 6 p.m.