The South Bayview Bulldog

Ceremony at Badminton and Racquet Club

There was a small ceremony in the secluded courtyard of the Badminton and Racquet Club Wednesday beside the ruins of the burned out social and sports facility. It sits secretly; a few paces from the roaring corner of St.Clair Ave. and Yonge St. Members were there with officials from Toronto Fire and Toronto EMS to thank them for their heroic efforts on February 14, 2017. That’s the day a suspected kitchen fire burned the permanent building to wreckage. A badminton dome stands and has been operating pretty much continuously. “There was a period where we didn’t know that everybody got out OK. And Toronto Fire Services again went into the burning building… and they made sure that everybody did get out,” COO of the Badminton and Racquet Club Paul Cadieux said at the ceremony. No one was reported seriously injured during the conflagration. Some staff members were able to save artifacts before evacuating the building, such as a sign dating back to the opening of the club in 1924, as seen in the video capture from Global News above. “Everybody sort of grabbed whatever they could on the way out the door and when we knew it was bad, we pulled out what we could,” Cadieux said. The club hopes to rebuild. Venerable “B and R” hit by fire, Yonge and St Clair closed

Nice for dogs too

Flowers at Loblaws

High 7C forecast

Everyone is out

Creeds busy

Quick fix for sweetie

A sun-kissed South Bayview Valentine’s Day Wednesday will play an even warmer encore Thursday with a forecast high of 7C. Gotta love it.

Victim, 60, taken to hospital/City News capture

The accused in an apparently berserk stabbing attack with an ice pick on the subway Monday has been identified by police as Thomas Sommerville, 27, of Toronto. It all occurred as a train was arriving at College Station about 12.40 p.m. A man produced an ice pick and attacked another person who appears to have been a total stranger. The victim, 60, was taken to hospital with face wounds as witnesses struggled with the stabber until police could subdue him.

Carol Burtin Fripp /Photo Will Fripp

Carol Burtin Fripp has been named the 2018 recipient of the Agnes Macphail Award. The annual award is given to an East York resident who exemplifies the values championed by the progressive politician who was most notably Canada’s first woman MP.  Ms Burtin Fripp is the co-president of the Leaside Property Owners Association and has been active in issues related to the integrity of Leaside. The award was approved by the North York Community Council February 5 and will be presented on March 24, 2018, which is the anniversary of Agnes Macphail’s birth. It will be the 25th occasion on which the award has been made. Here are previous winners. Asterisk indicates deceased.

Thrilling championship curling from Canada’s Kaitlyn Lawes and John Morris. Enjoy.

Area churches and those all across the country have marked Shrove Tuesday. Here are scenes from Leaside United Church where Councillor Burnside and Mayor Tory were present. The event raised money for LUC’s ongoing support of El Hogar, the Honduran home and educational centre for needy children. Pancake dinners were held at St.Cuthbert’s Anglican Church, Northlea United Church and many others.

The parade of car-sharing companies seeking free street parking from City Council may well include General Motors. They’re touting a new app called Maven that lets millennials (and anybody else we suppose) start a share car from a phone. What a Golden Age we live in. City Council is rightly nervous about issuing “permits” because, after all, tax-paying people who actually own cars might like to park there and the moral high-ground of car-sharing may turn out to be populated with mere money-grubbing

REMINGTON BROKE

Reuters says that Remington Arms, the foremost gunmaker in the world, has reached a deal to reduce its $950 million debt load, seeking to write off about $700 million. The company will continue to operate as usual as the case proceeds in Delaware federal court, Remington executives are quoted as saying. Here is how this happened. The firearm industry was riding high during the run-up to the 2016 election. Hillary Clinton was favored to win, and an array of gun rights advocates warned of a looming Second Amendment crackdown. One Las Vegas gun store advertised a “pre-Hillary” sale. “Don’t wait!” it cautioned. “Prices will skyrocket after Crooked Hillary gets in.” But with its great friend Donald Trump having won the election, Remington finds that people are yawning at the idea of buying a new weapon.

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Digging up drain at 53 Mallory

Toronto police have said Tuesday that no human remains were found buried in the back yard of 53 Mallory Crescent, the property where landscaper Bruce McArthur worked and stored landscaping equipment. This finding was separate from the discovery of remains of at least six people in planters on the property. It appears that there is still work left for the forensic anthropology teams. Detective Hank Idsinga of the homicide squad told CBC police “will have a second run at some of the properties” when the ground thaws.The report below contains news from late Tuesday as police decided to dig up the drain at the home.

Breaking in

Gerry today

Jerry Howarth will retire from his play-by-play duties calling Blue Jays games immediately, he has announced. Howarth, who joined original Blue Jays announcer Tom Cheek in 1981, says his health, stamina and continuing voice issues dictated the move. “Who knew that I would spend more than half my life in Toronto with my wife, Mary, and our two sons, Ben and Joe, doing what I love to do most, reaching out to friends and fans alike across our great country to talk baseball?” he told Canadian Press. Howarth has broadcast an estimated 7,500 professional baseball games in his career. A native of York, Pa., who was raised in San Francisco, Howarth began his broadcast career in 1974 with the Tacoma Twins of the Pacific Coast League. Howarth called Toronto’s back-to-back World Series victories in 1992 and 1993 with Cheek, who died in 2005 from brain cancer. The radio audience for Blue Jays games has shrunk over the years with the elimination of television blackouts, but there may still be a need for such a service among commuters. Still, it may also be possible to simply simulcast TV broadcasts to radio. Time will tell.

Congratulations on a wonderful career, Jerry!

We wish you the best in retirement. #ThankYouJerry pic.twitter.com/bHI6dpUKgH

— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) February 13, 2018

GO CANADA!!! Get all the Olympic news on CBC olympics.cbc.ca