The South Bayview Bulldog

The federal government is said to be ready to endorse the status-quo state of mail delivery across the country. Briefly stated, it appears that those who now get mail delivered to their homes will continue to do so. Those who have already been converted to community mail boxes will have to accept that fate. No new boxes will be built, it is understood. Public Services Minister Carla Qualtrough was expected to roll out new plan at a Canada Post plant in Mississauga Wednesday.

The medical staff at a Kalamazoo hospital and friends across that City are rallying to the aid of a physician who came to the US as a child. He has now suddenly been taken into custody by immigration officials due to misdemeanors carried out when he was a teen. Then, Neil Diamond will retire, a decision forced upon him by his health. Below that, the flu season is hitting hard but while services are stretched there does not seem to be quite the state of panic felt in the US. And finally, Minnie Mouse, cartoonings answer to Eve, has been honoured in Hollywood.

Ontario transit agency Metrolinx says that GO Transit was the target of an attack by North Korean hackers for reasons unknown. No no personal information was compromised and systems that operate its trains and buses were not affected. North Korea appears to be on a campaign of testing whatever foreign system it can find. The attack has qualities related to the so-called WannaCry virus that has shutdown hospitals in the UK.  Spokeswoman Anne Marie Aikins said Tuesday that the cyber attack happened recently, but would not give a date or what specifically was targeted because of security concerns.

BELL HIT BY DATA THEFT

The RCMP has launched an investigation into a data breach at Bell Canada that appears to have compromised customer names and email addresses, but no credit card or banking information. Bell Canada spokesman Nathan Gibson told The Canadian Press that “fewer than 100,000 customers were affected.” Bell Canada has alerted customers who were affected, and also informed them that additional security, authentication and identification requirements have been implemented

Union ad in the Star

911

Mike McCormick, union president

The Toronto Police Association has published an ad that depicts Mayor Tory and Chief Saunders, as well as police board chair Andrew Pringle, laughing at delays which have apparently occurred in dealing with 911 calls. Behind the three public figures is the emergency number scrawled in blood. By any measure, the ad seems to take the union’s campaign against efforts to control the cost of policing to a new low. The ad was published by the Toronto Star Tuesday. It carries the wording: “These guys are putting your safety on hold.”  Speaking with reporters about the ad, Tory conceded that there have been some issues with callers to 911 being put on hold but he said that efforts are underway to address them.

“BEYOND COMPREHENSION” SAYS MAYOR

“The notion to me that the way you deal with this is to put an ad in the newspaper showing people laughing while blood is splattered behind them is beyond comprehension,” he said. “It is a throwback to the old days of the way police union bosses acted and I just don’t want to be part of it. I have my job to do and I will continue to do it the way that I do which I hope is responsibly and respectfully.” The specifics of any delays are not contained in reportage. Head of the TPA, Mike McCormick, says some people have been put on hold for minutes not seconds but the circumstances are not stated. 911 operators deal with many calls that do not require immediate responses.

Canada and the ten remaining members of the Trans-Pacific Partnership have vowed to sign on to a trade agreement without the US. The deal leaves Canadian unionists, farmers and businessmen widely divided on the meaning of such trade. The heads of unions and auto manufacturing condemned the idea and predicted Canadian-made cars would soon be full of foreign-made parts. Dairy farmers were equally upset. But Canadian Cattlemen and the Chamber of Commerce applauded the prospect. The TPP is made up of Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Maylasia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam .

WYNNE EXPRESSES CONCERN

Ontario’s premier says the revised Trans-Pacific Partnership must not come at the expense of key Ontario sectors, including the auto industry. Kathleen Wynne says while freer trade and diversification is a good thing, she has heard concerns from many in the automotive sector over the course of TPP negotiations. Wynne says she will continue to stand up for those Ontario jobs and for all of the province’s workers and businesses.

Archbishop Colin Johnson is seen with Ms. Elizabeth Hill at presentation of The Order of the Diocese of Toronto.

LOL in Leaside is March 2

Screenagers at NTCI Wednesday

St. Luke’s on Coxwell

Drop off skates and hockey gear at Davisville JPS

Leaside United Shrove Tuesday February 13

Archbishop Colin Johnson will visit St. Cuthbert’s Anglican Church Sunday for worship and a reception after the 10 a.m. service. Archbishop Johnson retires from long and distinguished service in December. To the right, Charlene Kalia has announced that Laughing Out Loud in Leaside (9) will take place Friday March 2 in the Lea Room at Leaside Arena. The beneficiary of this long-standing local event this year will be Moorelands Community Services on Merton St.  Lower left, the North Toronto Collegiate Institute’s Parents Council will screen the informative film Screenagers on Wednesday night (January 24) at 7.30 at 17 Broadway Ave.  Screenagers addresses the most pervasive parenting issue of our time head on — the social media capture of young minds with distractions that can hardly be imagined. The film empowers kids to best navigate the digital world and provides practical resources to help them do it. To the right two notices of the annual pancake dinners locally and a reminder again from Davisville Junior Public School about the chance to help kids skate by dropping off unused gear at the school office. Please do.

A boxer-mix pet dog has been put down in Windsor after it attacked a child who tried to get between it and another canine as they fought. The six-year-old, Karma Jarrett, told her story to the Windsor Star. Police were alerted to the incident on Jan. 11 and an investigation determined that a family dog attacked a member of the extended family in the owner’s home. They say the family chose to euthanize the pet, meaning there’s no danger to the public. Boxers are not a banned breed. The terrible wounds that mark the girl’s cheek are cautionary evidence to parents with pets, especially multiple pets.

Karma Jariett, 6, talks about being mauled by a dog in West Windsor, Thursday, January 11, 2018. pic.twitter.com/NKEVolD3V0

— The Windsor Star (@TheWindsorStar) January 12, 2018

STABBING:
Holly St and Eglinton Ave E
-1 male victim with non life threatening injuries
-EMS on scene to transport male to hospital
-unknown male suspect fled the scene#GO138673
^ka

— Toronto Police Operations (@TPSOperations) January 23, 2018

Good-sized meeting at Greenwood College School

Discussion of possible solutions

Councillor speaks to CTV. City News was also present.

A gathering of more than 150 people met at Greenwood College School Monday night to discuss how the 91-year-old Regent Theatre may be saved as part of the cultural heritage of Midtown Toronto. The theatre, at 511 Mt. Pleasant Rd. started life in 1927 as the Belsize Theatre. There have been two name changes, Crest in 1954 and Regent in 1988,  It appears the original name was taken from the Belsize Park district of London. Monday’s meeting was convened by Ward 22 Councillor Josh Matlow who spoke of his affection for the Regent and of having escorted his mother there before her recent death. The building is for sale by the family that has owned it for many years at a proposed price of $9 million. The family is apparently prepared to hear from the community but remains free to sell the property at any time. The challenge to this salvation is in the enormous value of the theatre’s on-the-street real estate. Mr. Matlow joked that any angel donor in the crowd with this amount of cash was welcome to leave it behind. Donors are not unknown, as described by Lorie Martin, Senior Cultural Affairs Officer of the City of Toronto

ARTSCAPE AND REVUE CINEMA

She has overseen projects such as the west-end car barns, a project that was expanded into the Artscape Wychwood Barns through a $500,000 donation. The car barns however were, and are, publicly-owned. Another speaker was Mark Elwood, a director with the Revue Film Society. This is a group that ten years ago saved and developed the 106-year-old Revue Theatre on Roncesvalles Ave. into a functioning and modestly profitable film venue and community hub. The Revue is the oldest movie theatre in Canada.

The City News Athlete of the Week is a happy kid from Newmarket who any parent would love to have as a daughter. This profile of Vanessa Yazhemsky is done by Stella Acquisto. Then, if you like your news on the Rusky side, the CBC says tune in to RT. It sits right there in the TV news bundle on Rogers or Bell. Wow, did they outright lies? Below that, it’s 20 years since the electrifying hanky-panky of that old smoothie Bill Clinton burst onto the world. And finally, the Pope says he didn’t mean it. The Pontiff got into a lot of Dutch defending an apparent clerical deviant during a visit to Chile last week.

The victim of a snowmobile accident Saturday on Sturgeon Lake near Bobcaygen has ben identified as Toronto Fire Service Captain Earl Strong. Strong, 48, died when he was on an evening run with a fellow snowmobiler and both machines went through the ice.  A notice on the Toronto Professional Firefighters’ Association Sunday identified Strong as an acting captain at Station 211-B in Scarborough’s Armdale neighbourhood. Many friends and colleagues wrote on social media Monday to remember him as a man who brought happiness to others.

Here’s to the man that brought so many people happiness throughout their lives. Whenever Earl was around I always had a smile on my face. And here’s to the family that’s stronger than any other, Blake STONG Brock STRONG and Brody STRONG. I love you guys and I’m here for you guys.

— Brody (@Brodymunro12) January 22, 2018

The Toronto Police Service has announced a partnership with the Chang School of Continuing Education at Ryerson University. In a statement Monday the TPS said this arrangement will augment the work of the standalone Toronto Police College and “provide a suite of courses for Service members on topics ranging from diversity and bias avoidance through project management and programs to support the Service’s new competency model.” It will provide access for Service members to the information resources of Ryerson University, and result in research opportunities for the university and the Service. It will provide credit toward university certificates, diplomas and/or degrees for courses offered by either organization