The South Bayview Bulldog

Smoke rolls out of 615 College/Voxomia Reddit

A stubborn fire has driven out occupants of an older three-storey commercial and residential building at 615 College St. early Friday. Four alarms were rung. The Fire Marshal will investigate. No one was hurt.

Ukraine says it sank the Russian battleship Moscova with a missile attack but the Kremlin is saying the ship was lost to an explosion of munitions on board the vessel. Either way, the sinking comes as yet another unexpected blow to Russian morale in a war Vladimir Putin thought he would win in a waltz.

What? Another billionaire act of whimsy from Mr. Electric Car and as heard on CNN above he doesn’t believe Twitter is “free” enough, whatever that means.

A harrowing attempt at vehicle theft has been captured on surveillance video in Brampton. The brazen daylight crime took place with an infant child in the SUV. The dad drove off the thief as he held a second child in his arms. Peel Police say that just before 12:30 p.m. on Sunday, the man loaded his 10-month-old baby into the SUV parked in his driveway, and went back into his home to fetch his second child. Watch it unfold above.

Calum and granddad Yousef

Baseball and Princess Cassandra

Will Popfly prevail?

A Leaside boy, Calum Paulsen, 12, has written a 148-page mystery paperback that seems likely to appeal to many kids his age. And here’s a lovely family twist. The book is illustrated by Calum’s granddad Yousef Tadros, a commercial architect. Here’s how Calum summarizes the plot.

When superstar MLB player and five star amateur detective Neil “Popfly” Gibson becomes tangled in a mysterious case targeting baseball players, he must figure out what the attacks have to do with an ancient Greek princess named Cassandra. Neil races against the clock, determined not to let another MLB player get hurt. But can he solve the mystery in time, or will he wind up just another victim?

Such fun and reason for plenty of family pride. Calum and Yousef hope to publish another book soon. Here’s the Amazon page where The Princess Cassandra Mystery can be purchased for $10.16

Toronto will see a few warm days this week beginning Wednesday with a predicted high of 18º Celsius. Heading into the weekend it will be wet with a predicted 10 mm of rain on Friday and another 5 mm on Saturday. Weather Network

SEDRA, the South Eglinton Davisville Residents Association, has emailed members about what is known Expanding Housing Option in Neighbourhoods. It is said to propose as many as five housing units per lot. It seems fair to call the notion radical. City Council, as presently formed, has many ideas to increase density (or add homes) to the City of Toronto. Like the Garden Suites concept, now a legal option available to any homeowner, it seems to challenge fundamentally the present makeup of single-family neighbourhoods (ie one lot, one house, one family). This historic concept is apparently considered not viable and perhaps old-fashioned. You may well have your own view. And SEDRA is asking homeowners to attend a Webex meeting scheduled for Wednesday at which this will be discussed.

Need to modify Garden Suite legislation

And the Leaside Residents Association is asking members to send mail to Councillor Robinson about the need to modify the Garden Suites legislation as it presently exists. Below is a video of “investors” talking last year about how Garden Suites as an investment will soon “sweep across Ontario”. One might say that if it doesn’t scare you, nothing will.

NATO will deploy a permanent full-scale military force on its border with Russia to defend its territory against a future Russian invasion, the alliance’s chief has told The Telegraph newspaper. The smallest, most vulnerable and likely targets of any future invasion by Russia would be the Baltic states of Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg says NATO is undergoing fundamental change that will reflect the consequences of Vladimir Putin’s actions. “What we see now is a new reality, a new normal for European security,” he said. “Therefore, we have now asked our military commanders to provide options for what we call a reset, a longer-term adaptation of NATO.”

Finland, Sweden expected to join NATO

In the upside-down world of Russian politics, the outright invasion of Ukraine is no reason for anyone else to be nervous. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that NATO is “a tool of confrontation”. This comes as US defence officials said Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine has been a “massive strategic blunder” which is likely to bring NATO enlargement. Nordic brothers Finland and Sweden have tried to stay neutral but the attack on Ukraine has shifted public opinion in both countries towards membership in NATO. US officials say that could come as early as June.

Police say this man approached and embraced girl in Bloor/Royal York station

Police say an older man, apparently well-groomed and dressed, spontaneously approached a girl of 14 in the Bloor subway station at Royal York Road on April 5. He embraced her and spoke to her as he moved her in his direction. She asked him to stop and another person in the station intervened. The man then left. The police release implies that the man was entirely unknown to the girl. He is described as white, medium build, clean-shaven, with short white hair, wearing a black baseball cap with a design/sticker on top of the brim, black pants, a black hoodie, a black puffer vest, black Puma shoes with white Puma stripe logo, carrying a blue duffle/messenger bag with black strap. Call 22 Division (416) 808-2200 with information.

Shopify, the Canadian web-design wonder firm, has announced that its stock will split 10 for one. Shopify has become legendary in a period of about seven years since it went public in 2015. It leaped to $1690 and made many investors millionaires. Since then it has fallen back. Here’s the MarketWatch post early Monday.

Shares of Shopify Inc. SHOP, -6.33% rallied 1.8% in premarket trading Monday, after the Canada-based e-commerce software company said it was planning for a 10-for-1 split of its common stock, in an effort to make its shares “more accessible to all investors.” That would be the first stock split since the company went public in May 2015. The stock closed Friday at $603.18, but has plunged 64.3% from its Nov. 19, 2021 record close of $1,690.60. Separately, the company also announced a proposal to preserve the voting power of its Founder and Chief Executive Tobi Lütke, by issuing a new class of share to Lütke. The new “Founder” shares will provide Lütke with a variable number of votes that when combined with shares already owned by him, his family and his affiliates, will represent 40% of the voting power. The proposal and the split are pending shareholder approval at the annual meeting on June 7. Shopify’s stock has tumbled 56.2% year to date through Friday, while the S&P 500 SPX, -0.27% has lost 5.8%.