The South Bayview Bulldog

The US is about to present a NAFTA proposal on the content of cars which an unnamed analyst is quoted as calling “comical” and so complicated that he can’t believe the Americans are serious about it. A Canadian Press report datelined the Pentagon says that the proposal would require all cars sold without tariffs to include 85 per cent North American content, 50 per cent U.S. content and provide a detailed listing of parts that didn’t exist in 1994 when NAFTA was introduced. The rocky NAFTA talks have raised many suspicions that the US is trying to make Canada and Mexico walk away from negotiations. Both said Thursday that they will not do that.

Researchers at the University of New Brunswick have concluded that treed and grassy neighbourhoods are good for your health. They suggest that this green grass effect is what makes people who live there healthy. Residents of Toronto’s leafy Midtown were no doubt part of this survey of 1.3 million non-immigrant adults living in the 30 biggest cities across the country. But wait. It seems that a closely-reasoned view of green, affluent neighbourhoods might well conclude that lawns and tree-lined streets while nice (and healthy) are more likely to be incidental to the money people have to spend on where they live. People in these neighbourhoods have more “green” to  buy countless healthy things ranging from medical advice and modern drugs to fitness assistance. See what you think. 

The three people shown above are sought by police for an alleged attempt to set fire to two men who they apparently did not know during an argument at the Agincourt Mall, 3850 Sheppard Ave. E. The victims, both 18, were “confronted” by these persons — a woman and two men. During the argument one man got a can of gasoline from his car. He doused the teens with gas and tried to light them on fire This attempt failed. If you know them, call police.

Toronto Sun

Toronto Star

Toronto Star

TTC brass has said they find the newly announced shortfall in the delivery of streetcars by Bombardier in 2017 to be “completely unacceptable.” The company says it will deliver 65 vehicles by the end of the year, a shortfall of five from the 70 trams it had said it would produce. In making its bad news report, Bombardier recited how it had expanded the production line in Thunder Bay, hired more employees, invested in developing its manufacturing sites and called upon the expertise of its global workforce. All to nought, it seems. It still couldn’t get the job done. TTC chairman Josh Colle and CEO Andy Byford called the delivery shortfall “extremely disappointing and frustrating.” They said there should be 146 new streetcars in service, instead of just 45. “This is completely unacceptable,” they said in a news release. “The TTC is having to continue to use buses on streetcar routes to meet ridership demand.”

Dear God. A petition against the eating of seal meat has now been added to the 2017 register of “colonial” abuses committed by Canadians against the Indigenous. The petition was authored by someone named Jennifer Matos and directed at the new Indigenous restaurant Ku-kum at 581 Mt. Pleasant Rd. The owner and chef Joseph Shawana has told the CBC that seal meat will stay on the menu at his midtown Toronto restaurant despite the petition. But this could not remain simply about food or even whether we may eat what we want. A recent treatise on Care2 petitions will drag any who care go there through the horrors of the last three centuries and how colonial beasts relied on Indigenous folk for food. Good to know. And best wishes to Mr. Shawana.

Sherbourne and Gerrard Sts. about 7 p.m. Wednesday

Crews continue repair work after a double-decker bus collided with a car, mounted the curb and struck a pole, bringing some hydro wires down. 680 NEWS reporter Carl Hantske was at the scene Thursday morning.

A suspect police have identified as Robert Cropearedwolf, 38, is wanted for break and enter. Toronto Police Service

Seeing stars

So distinguished. This man has tattoos of a star (or stars) on each elbow as police ask the public to help find him for break and enter offenses in the Duncan St. and King St. West area. He has taken cash, electronics and jewelry. Robert Robin Cropearedwolf, 38, of Toronto, is wanted for these incidents. He is described as 5’6″, 145 lbs., with long black hair that is often braided. And oh yes, star tattoos on both elbows.

A Canadian man, his US wife and three children are said to free after five years in captivity at the hands of the Taliban. Associated Press says the US secured the release of Joshua Boyle and Caitlan Coleman. They were abducted five years ago while travelling in Afghanistan and have been held by what is said to the Haqqani network. Coleman was pregnant when she was captured. The couple had three children while in captivity. AP says family’s current location is unclear and officials declined to say when the family planned to return to North America. The U.S. has criticized Pakistan for failing to aggressively go after the Haqqanis. A  US national security official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing operation, commended Pakistan for their assistance.

MARRIED TO OMAR KHADR’S SISTER

Joshua Boyle is described by Wikipedia as the second of five children of Patrick and Linda Boyle. He attended a Mennonite school and was involved with his mother’s “Anglican church and his father’s Catholic faith.” He graduated with a B.A. from the University of Waterloo in 2005.^[ He is known by his friends as a pacifist.  Boyle expressed interest in doing humanitarian work in places known to be dangerous. Boyle had a long-standing interest in Islamic terrorism, stating in 2009 that “anything related to terrorism on Wikipedia, I wrote, pretty much.” He took an interest in the Gitmo detainee, Omar Khadr and married Omar’s sister Zaynab Khadr in 2009 becoming her third husband

Joshua Boyle and family

Not so optimistic

Keep the ring?

Prime Minister Trudeau says he’s ready for the end of NAFTA if no satisfactory deal can be achieved with the US. As reported by Associated Press Mr.Trudeau “remained bullish” but was “ready for anything.” Entirely by chance, former Prime Minister Harper was at a panel discussion in  Washington at the  same hour as  Trudeau met Trump Wednesday. Harper was not optimistic about a satisfactory agreement in light of deep damage done to the US economy by free trade generally. But he said he did not know what might happen. Others at the panel were also unable to offer a prediction.

Annual Apple Day this weekend

Isabella Franco

Draw first, then write

Geoff Taber

Smarttrack

Saturday is Scouts Aapple Day across the area and on Bayview Ave. Please be sure to donate. Top right, Isabella Franco of the East York Skating Club will compete in the Pre-Juv Ladies Freeskate at Barrie Oktoberfest this weekend. Good luck Isabella. Centre left, the kid’s drawing is from a tweet by Rolph Road School Room 23 @MsPlumbsClass where teacher writes that her wards are: “Learning the strategies of good writers. Good writers draw first, then write. I can’t wait to read these stories.” Us too Ms Plumb. Thanks for the insight. Lower right, a scholarship has been established in honour of the late Geoff Taber at the U of T’s Faculty of Law and Rotman School of Management. Mr. Taber, a Riverdale lawyer, died with his family in a fire that tore through their cottage near Peterborough on Christmas Eve 2016. And finally, the poster proclaims Mayor Tory was busy Tuesaday in East York polishing up the image of his Smarttrack project. Smarttrack.to

Scarborough native Mike Myers

Hardly a star

Speaking Shrek

Mike Myers for mayor? Frankly, it’s a reminder that headlines ending in a question mark are usually answered “no.” But as one-day wonder news stories go, the long-shot chat campaign to enlist Scarborough-born comedian Mike Myers as a candidate for mayor is as good as any. It is found in the pages of Inside Toronto this week. The chances of this candidacy are not helped by the radio silence from Myers himself to all entreaties to speak up. Robert McDermott, the leading proponent of this effort, says there is genuine support seen in the group’s door-knocking sessions.  They call themselves, rather dramatically, the Separatist Free Scarborough Movement. Not quite as explosive as Catalonia leaving Spain. It’s no secret that there was enormous resistance to amalgamation in 1998. De-amalgamation would be seen favorably in many places, including East York. But the big job will be to convince Kathleen Wynne, or someone like her. In Canada, Cities, even the enormous ones like Toronto, do what the provincial governments tell them to do. Remember tolls on the parkway?
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