The South Bayview Bulldog

OPP identify the two men who drowned at Wasaga Beach Saturday as Dilvinder Lakhanpal. 27, of Caledon and Nimit Sharma, 26. of Collingwood. They were in an inflatable boat near the mouth of the Nottawasaga River when the vessel flipped over in rough water. It’s not known if they could swim. Witnesses have told of wave action that rose “higher than two metres” — highly dangerous for light boats.

Josh Matlow (Ward 22) writes in his current newsletter that Deer Park will soon receive branded street signs identifying the neighbourhood. He says the Yonge and St. Clair community has “a long and storied history” noting the Indigenous name of the Ojibway as “mashquoteh” meaning meadow or woodland where the deer come to feed. In 1837 Agnes Heath, widow of Col. Charles Heath, relocated from India to Canada with her children and purchased 40 acres northwest of Yonge Street and St. Clair Avenue West (then known as the Third Concession Road) and named it Deer Park. The area was annexed to the City of Toronto in 1908 and was established as one of Toronto’s finest residential districts by the 1930s. Matlow recalls that Glenn Gould, Group of Seven founding member J. E. H. MacDonald, writer Farley Mowat, and former Prime Minister John Turner have all called Deer Park home.

They say that if the Japanese continue to ignore sex (the real kind) and fail to make babies, the place is going to run out of people. Next, Greta van Susteren, the woman who got started by covering the O.J. Simpson trial, has been fired from MSNBC because she wasn’t sufficiently anti-Trump. Then, the news from Bogotá, capital of Colombia, is that this densely-packed City has merely four square metres of green space for each of its ten million inhabitants. Gimme Toronto. Speaking of which, the Beach Jazz Festival is underway and City News visited.

Metropolitan Community Church

Tributes

Mourners

700 estimated on hand

Pam McConnell

Friends and admirers of Pam McConnell crowded Metropolitan Community Church at 115 Simpson Ave in Riverdale Sunday to honour the late Councillor and Deputy Mayor. An estimated 700 people were present, including the mayor and many members of Council. Pam McConnell, long-time champion of Ward 28,  died Friday from an undisclosed lung disease at the age of 71. Metropolitan Community is the church of the Reverend Brent Hawkes who told the mourners that McConnell was in good hands in a better place. Mayor Tory said that McConnell’s work in council will have a lasting impact on the City of Toronto. “What she did for me and for the City of Toronto in terms of getting us started on a meaningful poverty reduction program, that will make a difference in the lives of thousands of people in terms of their housing, a fair transit program, student nutrition programs,” said Tory. Rev. Hawkes said the best thing we can do to honour McConnell is to implement her poverty reduction strategy. “Pam, I miss your face and I know you’re in great hands,” said Hawkes, who led the memorial service. “Look around you at the city you help build. And you built it with your love.”

The spectre of bank branch closures is a reality in rural Saskatchewan this summer with three banks — TD, CIBC and Royal — shutting down 17 branches so  far. They intend to close more. The banks’ reasons and the desperation felt by those who are older is well known. The Royal just closed in the town of Wadena and the closest chartered bank is 50 miles away. There is a credit union however.

CIBC MOVES TO 1820 BAYVIEW

It’s all a question of how much business is at stake. CIBC has maintained a branch for north Leaside and Davisville even as its lease at Sunnybrook Plaza expired and it moved out. The replacement branch is at 1820 Bayview north of Roehampton. It opens Monday. CBC

Mary Fragedakis (Ward 29) joined friends and workers at the unveiling of the Children’s Community Garden Mural at the East York Community Centre Saturday. It has a wonderful 3-D look. Drop by and see it at 1081½ Pape Ave.

Accident scene Saturday night CP24/Twitter

Closed at Pottery Road

A woman motorcyclist is dead after her machine was in collision with a car, according to TPS Operations. The accident occurred on the Bayview Avenue extension near the Brick Works at around 8:15 p.m. The rider was admitted to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre without vital signs and was pronounced dead a short time later. One other person was treated by paramedics for a minor injury from an airbag. At 10 p.m. southbound Bayview was closed at Pottery Road and the northbound at the Don Valley Parkway.

Alix Sagriff

Found dead in hotel room

At St Theresa’s Catholic Secondary School

Mystery continues to surround the death of 18-year-old Alix Sagriff of Belleville who died Thursday while on a graduation trip to Cuba with classmates. Neither authorities nor her family seem to have much information. A family statement says that the first concern is bringing Alix home. She was found dead in her hotel room in Varadero while on a trip organized by S-Trip, a student trip company. She had just graduated from St. Theresa Catholic Secondary School in Belleville and was to attend Loyalist College in the same City this fall.

Two young men have drowned in Georgian Bay after their inflatable boat overturned at Wasaga Beach Saturday. The victims were in their mid 20s and came from Collingwood and Caledon, police said. Witnesses saw them floundering and crying out for help before they disappeared in choppy waters. Their bodies were found about 2 p.m., an hour after the accident.

RABIES BAIT DROP SET FOR MID-JULY

Thousands of green-coloured capsules containing rabies vaccine will be dropped by air in the western half of Toronto starting in July as a preventive move against outbreaks among raccoons, skunks, foxes and bats. The program will cost about $4 million. There have been no confirmed cases of what is known as fox strain or raccoon strain rabies in Toronto wildlife since December 2015.

MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT

A motorcyclist, 19, is in hospital with serious injuries from a wipe-out at Kipling Avenue and The Westway Saturday about 7 p.m. As many as four vehicles were involved in various ways in the loss of control by the young man aboard the bike. Police are looking at speed as a cause.

Try Tulowitzki went 2-for-4 with a three-run homer Saturday against the Astros at Rogers Place. The final score was Jays 7 and Astros 2. Tulowitzki connected on his seventh homer — a three run beauty — to provide the Blue Jays with some insurance runs in the winning effort.

Here is a graphic report on what the black-shirted anarchists are doing and saying in Hamburg. They are here to protest Trump. Does that mean they would have stayed home if he hadn’t been here? Doubtful. As NBC says, they came looking for a fight.