The South Bayview Bulldog

Quite possibly the cutest fugitives ever. We let these #pups off with a warning…and a belly rub! pic.twitter.com/l26fFeEAgq

— York Regional Police (@YRP) August 4, 2017

This fine-looking group of ladies is exemplary of the new Tuesday night activity at Bessborough EMS once September arrives. They represent @beachesgirlslax (lacrosse to you). Website

Istvan Vago and the bill

Here to help

93-year-old Istvan Vago, visiting his son in Richmond Hill from Hungary, was required to pay a $920 ambulance bill even though he insisted he didn’t need help from paramedics. The CBC tells the tale and says it raises questions about a patient’s right to decline treatment. Of course it does and much more as well. Mr. Vago’s plight is a result of a keyed-up, zero-tolerance society that intends to take care of everyone no matter what (that’s nice). And by the way, it will punish paramedics, doctors or anyone else who doesn’t extend every effort to help a sick man. Of course, there’s no free money to pay for society’s instant care system so bills of $920 are common. The CBC says Vago was shopping in a Richmond Hill dollar store with his son on Wednesday when he began clutching his stomach and sank to his knees. According to the family, Vago simply needed to use the washroom. But well-intentioned people, including a witness who was a nurse, insisted on calling an ambulance despite the family’s assurances that Vago would be fine. Incidentally, the College of Nurses is certainly ready to criticise a member who doesn’t respond when a perceived emergency occurs. The nurse will never get into trouble with the college for doing what she did, as reported by Vago. “She said it’s up to her, and that she knew what she was doing.”

Michelle Carter, now 20, has been found guilty and sentenced to 15 months in jail for the involuntary manslaughter death of her boyfriend Conrad Roy III. Court heard voluminous evidence of how Ms. Carter, 17 at the time, texted and encouraged Roy to kill himself, including stern instructions for him to get back in his vehicle in a closed place after the boy had backed out.

DEVICE INTENDED FOR BOMBER’S UNSUSPECTING BROTHER

Australian police have thwarted a terror plot to blow up a plane by placing the device in a brother’s luggage. Hey bro, love ya.

TEEN SUICIDES SOARING

The US Centre for Disease Control has produced frightening statistics on the rise of teen suicides, especially among girls. Shockingly, the increases coincide with the Netlifx drama glorifying such death. Does anyone care?

MIHEVC FAVOURS MOVE TO DECRIMINALIZE HEROIN

Councillor Joe Mihevc (Ward 21) is telling City News that he supports a board of health motion which advocates considering the decriminalization of drugs such as heroin.

Farrow Partners from Globe and Mail

Writer Dave LeBlanc can hardly contain himself at the prospect of building apartments/condos on top of the Bloor viaduct. Some might feel better if he toned down his enthusiasm for Kool-Aid.  We don’t need a Jim Jones school of architecture. Was it Kool-Aid that inspired Davisville Public School? It seems to have been built with no particular concern for function. Maybe condos on the viaduct make more sense than playful windows on Millwood Road. Ask the fire service about both. Sorry to be so stuffy. Kool-Aid drinkers need something to scoff at, unless they meet a worse fate. Globe and Mail

Heavy equipment being used to empty scorched cargo from tractor trailer involved in double fatal crash on EB 401 in Port Hope. pic.twitter.com/nDvG4OXthw

— Kevin Misener (@Kevin_Misener) August 4, 2017

Does it sound heartbreakingly familiar? Once again people are dead — two in fact — as trucks rear end and catch fire in slowing traffic caused by construction. It is surely one of the most lethal combinations on Ontario roads. This time it occurred Thursday night on Highway 401 near Port Hope.

The bed race shenanigans are here in preliminary form as the Toronto Professional Fire Fighters Association and Toronto Police Service’s 54 Division face off Friday (today) in a head-to-head pre-event race at Michael Garron Hospital Foundation 825 Coxwell starting at 11 a.m. This is an interest builder for the big event which occurs during Taste of the Danforth. The race aids the Micheal Garron Hospital Foundation. 

An apartment management firm, CAPREIT Limited Partnership, has had to back off on an arbitrary decision to charge tenants for the use of their window air conditioners. The company that manages an East York apartment building told tenants with the units to pay $150 (apparently an annual fee) or remove them. Some tenants did so. Others paid the money which will be refunded says CAPREIT.  A East York tenant’s complaint to the CBC was raised with the  Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations. The charge does not appear to be legal. “There will be no change to the status of tenant-owned air conditioning units at this time,” said a letter sent to tenants on Thursday from the management company, CAPREIT Limited Partnership.

Eva 68 and Linda 51

Mac’s Milk gasoline

A mere 18 metres from disaster

Adonis wanted for HIV status

Peter and Knowlton

Manbridge goes Letterman

Sisters Eva, 68 and Linda, 51, met again at Toronto Airport as Eva arrived with other relatives from the Czech Republic. The story is told by City News here. Then, even as the corner store and gas bar mammoth Couche Tard continues its misbegotten plan to change the name of Mac’s operations in Toronto to Circle K, Mac’s thrives in the Ontario hinterland. Seen right at top, Mac’s gas is sold in three octane levels along with Mac’s milk in Elmvale north of Barrie. Middle left, investigators in San Francisco say the Air Canada jet that nearly landed on a busy taxiway was a mere 18 metres off the ground before it went around. What’s worrisome is that digital avionics baloney doesn’t seem be to be able to tell the pilots to stop it.

MORE FOLLIES

Then, middle right, RCMP have issued a national warning about the handsome gent named Brian Carlisle, 47, who they say is HIV positive and is not telling women he consorts with about this life-threatening fact. Cops admit this is a violation of Carlisle’s rights but say the public good must precede that. And finally a last look at replacing a CBC anchor then and now. Two white guys, Peter Mansbridge and the late Knowlton Nash more less agreed on the job then. Now not so much as four people, Adrienne Arsenault and Ian Hanomansing in Toronto, Rosemary Barton based in Ottawa and relative newcomer Andrew Chang hosting from Vancouver take a team stab at the anchor duties.  “When I retired from the CBC, they needed four people to replace me.”  Honest, Peter didn’t say that. But he could have. Then, Wendy must be stinging. Often old people are treated that way. Oh yes, it looks as if Peter is growing a David Letterman-like beard.

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The fire deaths of the four members of the Geoff Taber family in their cottage at Stoney Lake north of Peterborough early Christmas Eve morning may have been made more likely because smoke detectors were installed too low on the ground floor. The cottage had a high vaulted ceiling and open staircase which might tend to send smoke and flames up before it set off wall alarms on the first floor. It is a theory put forward by the Fire Marshall in the absence of any breakthrough on the cause of the inferno that took the lives of Taber, his wife Jacqueline Gardner and their sons Scott and Andrew. The fire appears to have originated in the living room but there is no cause determined. It can only be imagined the panic that overtook the family in the terrible circumstances as parents may well have done selfless things to save their sons. CBC

Taber family Georff, Jacqueline, Andrew and Scott

The new flagship OVO Store, the 2nd OVO location in Toronto, will be in Yorkdale Shopping Centre and it’s scheduled to open on Saturday, August 5 at 9:30 a.m. Drake has a busy weekend ahead as he will also be hosting the OVO Fest at the Budweiser Stage on Monday night.

With the sad announcement that House Of Lords will be closing its doors permanently this October, it makes one wonder about the future of retail on our beloved Bayview Avenue. House Of Lords hair salon is a Toronto landmark, sitting at the corner of Yonge and Isabella for the last 51 years. Owner, Paul Burford, declared on Facebook that he was closing his hair studio due to increasing property taxes. (See his tax bill, posted below)

A CBC article published in June 2017, documented stories of other business owners who are facing property tax increases of as much as 100%.  “Sanjoy Kundu, the owner of costume shop Theatrics Plus, is also thinking about calling it quits after nearly 50 years on the block.”  “Anderson owns Morningstar Trading, a furniture store between Isabella Street and Gloucester Street. He says he used to pay $5,600 a month for taxes, maintenance and insurance as a tenant in the building, but that’s expected to go up to as much as $9,000 a month.” The Downtown Yonge BIA says the soaring tax bills could result in more vacant storefronts.

Retail tenants are usually responsible for paying rent, utilities, insurance PLUS the property tax on their portion of the building. So, if the taxes are increasing as much as 100%, year over year, then how can small business owners be expected to survive?  High commercial rents stripping Queen Street West of its ‘heart,’ merchants warn, published by the CBC in May 2017, outlines the plight of Queen Street West merchants, blaming high rents and high property taxes for increased vacancies.

Every retail strip in the City has been affected. “Neighbourhoods from Ossington to the Danforth are struggling too, said John Kiru, the executive director of the Toronto Association of Business Improvement Areas. He said 2017 is shaping up to be among the worst for shuttered storefronts.”  The Yonge Street Small Business Association met Wednesday night to voice their concerns about property tax increases.  What will the solution be?  Is it property taxes, ambitious landlords or companies like Amazon creating the retail crisis on our streets?

On a happy note, we’ve heard that the vacant space at 1588 Bayview, formerly home to the Elegant Garage Sale, has been leased. Keep checking back with The Bulldog for more details!