The South Bayview Bulldog

Loblaw Companies Ltd. says it will merge Shoppers Optimum points and PC Plus points under the name PC Optimum starting in February. The food and pharmacy giant says consumers can collect points as usual until February 1, 2018 when Optimum and PC Plus points will be moved to the new program at equal value. If a collector has $100 worth of Optimum points, they will receive $100 worth of PC Optimum points, for example. Loblaw says the new program will have an easy to remember redemption system — with 10,000 points valued at $10, 20,000 points at $20 and so on to a maximum single transaction redemption of $500. There are said to be 19 million Loblaw and Shoppers cardholders in total.

City Council has voted 36 to 6 Tuesday to make the bike lanes on Bloor St. West from Shaw St. to Avenue Rd. permanent. The decision could be seen coming by almost anyone when the idea was proposed as a pilot more than a year ago. It may well make cycling safer on Bloor (we hope so) although the unasked question which looms over any such accomplishment is by how much. The number of bicycle-car collisions is said to be about the same, but no number is given. Where the cyclists go when Bloor turns into the Bloor-Yorkville BIA east of Avenue Rd. is unaddressed, as is their safety. In a similar way, statistics repeated in the media more or less justifying today’s decision seemed oddly vague related to real numbers. “Near misses” were down in percentage terms not actual incidents, nor was there a defintion of the term. This line taken from the CP24 story quoting City statistics seems typically unhelpful in knowing pubic sentiment.

In an online survey of approximately 14,000 people, 92 per cent of respondents who say they bike along Bloor Street were in favour of the lanes. Of the respondents who said they drive and don’t cycle, 57 per cent are not in favour of bike lanes on Bloor.

Police are now saying that Robert Robin Cropearedwolf, 38, of Toronto, escaped with more than $2 million in jewellery during several break-ins in the Duncan and King St. West area in October. He also took cash and electronics. He is described as 5’6″, 145 lbs., with long black hair that is often braided. He has star tattoos on both elbows. Pictures of the stolen items have been released.

Former Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Roy Halladay, 40, is dead after his light plane crashed into shallow waters off the coast of Florida on Tuesday. The crash occurred in the Gulf of Mexico about 10 miles west of St. Petersburg at around noon. According to the Pasco Sheriff’s Office, there were no mayday calls sent out prior to the crash.

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.