The South Bayview Bulldog

Prime Minister Trudeau has left China without securing the start of free trade talks with the world’s second-largest economy and he concedes that this may be because he wants the Chinese to adopt a “progressive” agenda that includes the environment, labour, gender and governance issues. Mr. Trudeau said the two countries need to address how Canada deals with China’s state-owned enterprises. Separately, he also said he is committed to standing up for Canadian values in a “respectful way,” including protecting the interests of Canadians behind bars.“Canadians should be under no illusions that a free trade deal with China will be easy.”

“CANADA CAN’T GET ANYTHING DONE”

WenranJiang, director of the Canada-China Energy and Environment Forum, said the delay in starting the talks “will only further convince the Chinese side that Canada can’t get anything done We can’t build a pipeline to the west coast when every reason is there to get it done.” He offered a bitter view of Canadian diplomacy saying this was “a country of complacency, without pressure to compete with others; we tend to think we have all the high moral grounds on gender, environment, labour while others are inferior to us.”

EXCHANGE ON FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION

Don Valley West MP Rob Oliphant was chairing the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration Thursday when Conservative MP Michelle Rempel questioned the MInister Ahmed D. Hussen, the member of York South-Weston. Rempel and Hussen engaged in long exchange in which Rempel clearly felt she was not getting a committment from the minister to ensure that a condemnation of female genital mutilation would be included in the forthcoming Canada Citizenship Guide. Facebook

The Toronto Star says that Councillor Josh Matlow has provided its reporters with a text from outgoing TTC CEO Andy Byford which contradicts Mr. Byford’s later contention that a briefing note on the Scarborough subway was prepared solely by TTC staff. The Star story says: “Byford has told council and the city’s auditor general that the memo was not prepared at the request of either Mayor John Tory or TTC Chair Josh Colle, and that it was instead initiated by transit agency staff to prepare TTC executives for questions on an important debate. An auditor general’s report on the briefing note released in October reached the same conclusion.” That briefing note is said to have cast significant doubt that a return (from the Scarborough subway) to an alternative light rail transit (LRT) plan was possible and relied on incorrect assumptions to conclude the cost of the LRT had also risen to nearly match that of a subway. Call it a “smoking subway” development.

Creeds coming soon (Instagram @creedscoffeebar)

Brie salad at Avenue Bistro (Instagram @avenuebistroto)

Quinn Johnston will be a Gael

1269 Danforth Rd.

The Four Men at MRUC Friday

This is Leaside Guys Night Out

The papered windows of 1595 Bayview Ave. are a good thing. Creeds Coffee Bar (and dry cleaning) will move into the former Second Cup in January. Gotta love it. To the right, this pleasant-looking Brie Salad may be had at Avenue Bistro across the street at 1568 Bayview. Below that, the Queen’s University Gaels are bragging about the commitment of Leaside Junior Wildcats forward Quinn Johnston to join them in 2018-19. Go Quinn. Still further down, the little strip mall at 1269 Danforth Rd. may now be called Power Plant Plaza after City Council voted to purchase the place to give the Scarborough Subway a jolt or two someday. As promised, Ward 22’s Josh Matlow tried to stop the whole thing but the one-stop wonder rolls on, a monument to misguided democracy. Lower left, The Four Men will serenade friends who attend Friday night at Manor Road United Church. Looks like a classy affair. And tonight (Thursday) is the 14th Annual Leaside Guys Night Out in aid of needy kids. Check the poster and drop in.

Palleta Internatioal meat packing Burlington

Beside the QEW

Damage Thursday morning

A large fire has destroyed the Palleta International meat packaging plant on Palleta Court in Burlington right beside the QEW Wednesday. The plant made sausage and other processed meat products from turkey, chicken and pork. The cause of the fire has not been stated but there was maintenance of some type going on at the plant when the fire struck about 4 p.m. The fire was a spectacle and a distraction for drivers in the afternoon rush. No one was injured in the conflagration which required help from nearby fire services in Oakville and Hamilton.

Wildfires are causing fear and chaos in Los Angeles as homeowners are being forced to evacuate from Bel-Air to escape the blaze above the 405 Freeway. Then, Donald Trump has gone where no US president dared by saying he will move the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It is an old issue and one commentator told CNN that Trump should have bargained for more if he was determined to do this. Below that, the remarkable skills of eight-year-old Savino Quatela of Woodbridge have been chronicled by the CBC. And finally, in New York this week, they put the final bridge on top of the jaw-dropping piece of architectural art known as the Vessel. It is the focus of the enormous Hudson Yards redevelopment in Manhattan. Most interesting.

The Auditor General has found thar privately operated power plant companies are charging all sorts of expenses to the government (that’s you) and that one, Goreway Power Station in Brampton, loaded $100 million in “inappropriate” charges onto taxpayers. This is part of the what the AG, Bonnie Lysek, found that might well make the hair of any kitchen-table accountant stand on end.

• Power company ‘gamed’ $100M from Ontario’s electricity system, investigation reveals
• Ontario auditor general finds wasted spending in health care, education and empty buildings

One of the entirely unofficial but widely anticipated rites of Christmas on Bayview Ave is the appearance of children from Maurice Cody Junior Public School at the local Starbucks to sing carols and seasonal songs. The tradition continues beginning Wednesday, December 13 when a number of classes will visit the coffee shop and entertain whoever happens to be there at the time. This will of course include many parents. Very nice.

Rendering vs. reality. pic.twitter.com/pEEqnc9g5s

— Jonathan Goldsbie (@goldsbie) December 5, 2017

It’s a reminder perhaps of how chancy it for us to try to hang onto the past that the newly-installed Sam the Record Man sign is but a shadow of the 1960 glory of Yonge Street and the vinyl records sold there. In fact, the sign is a ghostly imitation of the original because the background is missing. The video tweeted by Jonathon Goldsbie records this shortfall. Below is the real thing.

Google says it will pull its YouTube video service from Amazon’s Fire TV and Echo Show devices in a nasty fight between the big boys of consumer tech that leaves consumers in the crossfire. The decision to block YouTube is in retaliation for Amazon’s refusal to sell some Google products that compete with Amazon gadgets. That includes Google’s Chromecast streaming device, an alternative to Fire TV, and an internet-connected speaker called Home, which is trying to catch up to Amazon’s market-leading Echo. Amazon’s high-end Echo Show has a screen that can display video. The power being thrown around by these two giants is the type of conduct that has some talking about the need to break them up by way of anti-trust action.

Please take a look at the posters here for events and opportunities in our neighbourhood in coming days.

Councillor Josh Matlow (Ward 22) will try to stop the purchase of a small strip mall plaza on Danforth Rd. which the TTC thinks would be just perfect as the home of a power station on the $3.35 billion one-stop subway to Scarborough.  Mr. Matlow is a determined foe of this project (and he is right).  But political expediency has gathered great strength to waste money in the name of subway equitability. “I am going to be asking about whether or not it is premature, to once again be spending money on a project that has not been approved by council”, Matlow said December 5 as quoted by the Scarborough Mirror.

Reporter Natalie Wong of Bloomberg News says Wednesday in the Toronto Star that Rogers Communications is considering selling assets such as the Toronto Blue Jays or its interest in cable company Cogeco Inc. to free up capital for other investments. Wong quotes chief financial officer Tony Staffieri. The Toronto-based telecommunications giant wants to get more value for the assets, though no deal is imminent

ROGERS CENTRE NAMING RIGHTS?

Late in October former player and sportswriter Bob Elliott said the company was considering selling the naming rights to the Rogers Centre (formerly the SkyDome). That possibility has met silence from Rogers The late Ted Rogers would not have liked his name coming down from that landmark. But Rogers president Joe Natale cannot be indifferent to the $800 million the Bank of Nova Scotia has paid for the right to put its big red logo up on what is now the Air Canada Centre.. .