The South Bayview Bulldog

The emerging sidewalk at Randolph Rd. and Kenrae Rd. looks like it was cooked for dinner. The new arrangement will be nice for the homeowners there with a large triangle of grass (we’re guessing) and a further boulevard on the roadway. To the right, don’t forget to visit that jolly church fair known as Holly Berry down at Rosedale United November 18. Go for the excellent lunch but get there early if you’re hankering for one of those unique egg salad sandwiches. They always sell out. Below that, we have the sad departure of Unique Jewellery from Bayview Ave. Rent issues. Centre left, this now empty premises will soon be home to a coffee shop and restaurant on Leaside’s south-east side. The highly regarded b Espresso will offer an alternative to Starbucks at Laird Drive opposite the Telus building. Below that, a reminder of the approach of Remembrance Day. And then finally a handsome gang of kids from Scarborough’s Mary Shadd Public School at Burrows Hall Community Centre helping to kick off Crime Prevention Week. Mary Shadd was a 19th abolitionist who is claimed by both Canada and the US.

That creepy collapse of the Internet in homes and businesses across Southern Ontario Monday is being blamed by CNN on a “configuration issue from Level 3, a telecommunications and internet service provider owned by CenturyLink.” That sounds like a mistake of sort but CenturyLink says it isn’t going to explain it further.  The interconnectedness of our little world was never more apparent shortly after noon when unknown numbers of Internet connections across the US and Ontario from Windsor to Ottawa just shut down. CNN says Level 3’s infrastructure delivers content for other internet services. What we know is that both Bell and Rogers customers were effectively shut down by the configuration issue. In the US, Internet service providers like Spectrum, Verizon, and AT&T showed a spike in connectivity issues, too, though they were not as widespread.

CBC writer Mike Crawley at Queen’s Park is saying many or perhaps most of the home health care workers now employed in the private sector will soon be expected to join a union which is friendly to the Ontario Liberal Party. This will occur as the government proceeds with a plan to convert large parts of the private-sector home health care industry into a government bureaucracy this Spring. Crawley himself discovered this initiative and revealed it in an exclusive story Monday. To him, it seems the Wynne Liberals are proceeding by stealth, having said nothing about their plan. The union is the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare.  How Ontario’s home care plan would help a union that backs the Liberals

It was high entertainment Monday night as the Leafs prevailed even after blowing a 3-1 lead against the Las Vegas Golden Knights. They then went on to win 4-3 on a Mitch Marner shoot-out goal. But fans fret about why the game was still a tie after three periods plus overtime.

Murray Koffler, the founder of Shoppers Drug Mart, has died at the age of 93. Koffler’s death was announced by Loblaw Companies Ltd. which is now the owner of Shoppers. Mr. Koffler was a pharmacist who broke out on his own at a time of diminishing independent drugstores when he founded Shoppers in 1962. The chain was taken over in 1978 by Imasco Ltd. and later acquired by Loblaw in 2014 for $12.4 billion. In the wake of his enormous success with the drugstore chain, Koffler dedicated much of his life to philanthropy. He witnessed his wife Marvelle’s battle with breast cancer and especially her treatment at New York’s Evelyn Lauder Breast Centre. The couple decided Canada needed a similar centre, so they founded the Marvelle Koffler Breast Centre in Toronto in the mid 1990s. Koffler’s philanthropy was instrumental in the creation of the University of Toronto’s Koffler Institute of Pharmacy, as well as the school’s Koffler Student Centre Koffler is survived by his wife and children.

Robin Dickie has posted graphic pictures on Leaside Community after a son’s bike was stolen from the racks at Bessborough School Monday. Robin says “On the off-chance that anybody sees it, pictures attached. His brother’s bike stolen from Leaside High last month.” Many outraged people are commenting on this tonight. Cabrina Skillen notes that the bike racks are on the sidewalk not inside the school fence. She says she will bring that up at school council. No doubt the racks are where they are so kids won’t ride bikes through the playground. But that was before bike theft became big business.

Bayview Pixie Debra Kuchme gets it right when she says you can’t see a sidewalk cyclist coming up behind you. Bike riders who think they can accurately guess where a pedestrian is going to be as they ride up from the rear are dreaming. Such is the gist of the City News report on sidewalk cycling on Bayview Ave. and elsewhere. Jon Burnside (Ward 26) advises riders who don’t feel safe on the road to take a side street or get off their bikes. Toronto has yet to address this delicate bicycle issue with signs that remind riders they are breaking the law on the sidewalk. But then, it doesn’t post no U Turn signs either.

When Stephen Dixon and his partner Wayne McLellan decided to open Boo Boo and Lefty Fine Living Inc. on Yonge St in 2009 they owned pet dogs named Boo Boo and Lefty. That gives the story away except that eight years later the elegant furniture and home furnishing concept would find its way to South Bayview Ave. In the interim, Lefty has passed but Boo Boo, a Shih Tzu, lives on with the two men. Area retailers hoping for an elegant addition to the street could hardly have imagined a better arrival than Boo Boo and Lefty. It opened last week with a dazzling selection of furniture, fixtures and attractive accessories which might fit any budget.

Former first lady Michelle Obama will be giving her first speaking engagement in Canada, aimed at pushing education and equality for girls and women. The event is set for November 28, in Toronto. “She’s going to be speaking about a number of things, but the economics of equality is really why she’s here. So, talking about how we can change the world through the advancement of women and girls,” said Rhiannon Traill, CEO Economic Club of Canada. The event, co-hosted by the Economic Club of Canada and Plan International Canada, was announced on CTV’s Your Morning Monday. Traill says 3,000 tickets will be sold for the event, but each buyer will purchase two tickets, with one being donated to a young person between the ages of 14 and 24.

FORMER PRESIDENTS AND WIVES SPEAK

It is a specialized industry but a profitable one even so for former presidents and their wives to spend much of their time after they leave office on public speaking tours. As is known, former president Clinton has spoken in Toronto many times and his capacity to earn large sums for these appearances is legendary. It is not even slightly likely that the Economic Club of Canada will release the amount paid to Michelle Obama, but it seems certain the popular Ms. Obama will receive a large pay cheque. Tickets for the Toronto event, being held at the Mattamy Centre, will go on sale to American Express cardholders on Wednesday at 10 a.m. and to the general public on Friday at 10 a.m.

Ontario Community Colleges labouring under a strike by OPSEU-organized faculty say they will take their offer directly to the teachers who have been without salaries since October 18.  The bargaining team chair Sonia Del Missier said the latest offer “addressed all faculty priorities” and accused the Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) of ‘stonewalling’ the bargaining process. “We need to end this strike and get students back in the classroom. We have asked the Labour Board to schedule a vote and let our faculty decide,” Del Missier said in the release. The sides returned to the bargaining table on Thursday but soon broke up because, says the employer’s side, the union is unresponsive to its offer. The union has been seeking greater fulltime employment, more job security and a stronger say in academic decision making. The colleges say they have responded.

A widespread slow down of the Internet across North America heavily impacted Bell Canada, Rogers and other services for about two hours Monday. It began during the noon hour and cleared about 2:30. The slowdown, seen visually by the red zones on the map above, reportedly took down the Comcast Xfinity Service in the US although it is not known how the failure originated or spread to Canada. Bell reports many complaints in Toronto, Ottawa, North York, Burlington, Uxbridge, Bradford, Hamilton, Markham and Hamilton. More Level 3 configuration issue