The South Bayview Bulldog

Police cars block Avenue Rd at Bloor St

Toronto Police have again blocked road access to Queen’s Park in response to social media messages that some truckers occupying Ottawa will travel to Toronto. One of those convoy organizers is a man named Chris Barber, according to CTV reporter Glen McGregor. McGregor says the convoy bosses often post inaccurate information. Other tweets (below) say Barber called this threat “a game”.

Trees come down at Small’s Creek near Woodbine and Gerrard/Ellen Douglas

Residents of the Upper Beaches are distressed by the arrival of tree-cutting crews that have begun removing the tree cover in Small’s Creek in the Williamson Park Ravine to make way for the Ontario Line LRT. FB

• Metrolinx cuts down trees in ‘ecologically significant’ ravine despite outcry

Small’s Creek runs through Williamson Park Ravine

New retail building at Leaside Village

First Capital REIT, owners of Leaside Village shopping centre on Laird Drive have announced that two of the tenants in a new retail building will be Mary Brown’s Chicken and Pita Land Mideast Urban Kitchen. Leaside Village is known locally as Longo’s Plaza.  Instagram

A large middle-of-the-night power outage across central Midtown Toronto left an unspecified number of Toronto Hydro customers in the dark Tuesday. The blackout hit at 12:19 am on Tuesday and was related to “an underground cable fault”. The outage stretched from Spadina Rd and to Mt. Pleasant Rd and from Eglinton Ave to Bloor St. At noon, Toronto Hydro said it had completed troubleshooting and was “taking steps to bring power back. We’re aiming to have power restored early this afternoon”.

Outage update: We’ve been able to successfully restore power to the majority of customers. Crews continue to work as quickly and safely as possible to bring power back for the remaining customers.

— Toronto Hydro (@TorontoHydro) February 8, 2022

Goodbye to license stickers?

CTV says Monday night that it has learned that the PC government at Queen’s Park is pondering the end of license stickers as the 2022 provincial election approaches. It will cost the government money but presumably, there will also be a saving. CTV says a refund scheme is being considered for those who have recently renewed stickers.  The news raises the question of just what purpose the stickers were serving except as a source of income. Nor does the CTV story mention just how visual dating will be done without stickers. In the 1970s, yearly plates all carried the year of issue but longer do so.

Canada’s women’s hockey team has defeated Russia 6-1 Monday at the Beijing Olympics. The Canuck ladies seem unstoppable but they must still defeat the US women who are also flying high. That game is Tuesday.

Canada wins gold medal in men’s snowboard

Max Parrot of Bromont, Quebec, claimed Olympic gold for Team Canada in the men’s snowboard slopestyle, after winning silver in the same event in 2018.

Women’s singles battle underway

Alumni of Leaside High School are remembering music teacher Albert Green on the news that he died January 30 at the age of 89. A service will be held at the Salvation Army Yorkminster Citadel, 1 Lord Seaton Rd on Saturday, February 12 at 11 a.m. Obituary

Pierre Poilievre, the CPC member for Carleton in the Ottawa area, has announced he wishes to be the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. Poiliervre has been urged to run previously but has declined. He was born in 1979 in Calgary and adopted at birth by two schoolteachers. His mother was English-speaking and his father was French-speaking. He grew up and went to university in Calgary. Poilievre’s biological maternal grandfather, whom he first met as an adult, was Irish Canadian.

Court reporter Michele Mandel writes in fascinating detail about two 2019 jewellery store robberies in the GTA. Both the violent robberies were preceded by distraction shootings a few blocks away from the primary scenes. Stolen tow trucks were used to smash the front of the jewellery stores as seen in video above.

Friday’s $30 million Lotto Max jackpot was won by a ticket holder somewhere in Ontario. The jackpot for the next draw on Feb. 8 will be an estimated $10 million