The South Bayview Bulldog

The popularity of the venerable Leaside United Church Awesome Sale was evident again Friday as crowds wound from the Field Ave. door along McRae Dr. and up to Millwood Rd. Here they are filing in at 3 p.m. The sale re-opens Saturday at 9 a.m.

Jon Burnside (Councillor, Ward 26) will hold his compost day event Sunday May 14th in the parking lot of the Leaside Memorial Gardens Arena between 9 a.m. and noon. A reminder to bring your own container and shovel.

Compost Day 2015

Steven Del Duca at Laird LRT station site Friday

MINISTER AT LAIRD AND EGLINTON

The cabinet has decided to kiss off Bombardier, the no-can-do Quebec manufacturer and buy new LRT trains from the French firm, Alstom. The deal requires Alstom to build a manufacturing plant in the GTA. At a news conference Friday morning at Laird Drive and Eglinton Ave. the transportation minister announced the purchase of 61 vehicles. The deal is worth about $528 million and was issued on a sole sourced basis. Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency for the GTA, is permitted to issue sole source contracts under certain emergency conditions, Steven Del Duca said. They will be used to service LRT systems being built outside Toronto but if necessary, they will run on the Eglinton Crosstown route.

DISPUTE RESOLUTION

With confidence in the capacity of Bombardier to build trains on time (or at all) down to zero, the move is not surprising. Bombardier is under contract to produce cars for the $5.3-billion LRT project but the order has been delayed. Del Duca said the ongoing dispute resolution process with Bombardier could take up to a year, which would risk delaying the Crosstown opening. He said that if the dispute process finds Bombardier breached its contract, the purchase will be cancelled. If the dispute finds no breach, the cars will be delivered, although it seems foolish to predict when. On a different contract, the Quebec firm has said it will deliver much-delayed streetcars to the TTC by a new deadline of 2019 but chair Josh Colle has said he will believe it when he sees it.

Canadian home prices rose in April, data showed on Friday, lifted once again by hefty price gains in the hot Toronto market, which some fear is becoming overheated. The Teranet-National Bank Composite House Price Index, which measures changes for repeat sales of single-family homes, showed prices rose 1.2 per cent last month, making for the fifteenth consecutive month national prices have increased. BNN

Come visit the Toronto-Davisville branch & Play the Match & Win game until May 14th + free flowers for mom! https://t.co/4TQE0KL7XB pic.twitter.com/VWZUoF0KLW

— Meridian CU (@MeridianCU) May 11, 2017

Today! 3-7pm Awesome Sale Leaside!! 9-noon tomorrow. (Pls respect our neighbours if bringing a car don't block walkways & pathways 🙏🏼) pic.twitter.com/yDBRM97qMU

— Leaside United Church (@LeasideUnited) May 12, 2017

Afridi welcomed by Mayor/CBC

City of Toronto

Cricket star Shahid Afridi was welcomed to Toronto by Mayor John Tory and Councillor Neethan Shan Thursday prior to his appearance next Tuesday at the Go Green Cricket and Sports Field on Overlea Blvd. “This is my fourth trip to Toronto. Such a beautiful country, such a beautiful city,” Alfrid said. Afridi is known as Boom Boom for his aggressive batting style. He became at 16 the youngest player to score 100 runs or more in a one-day international match. Go Green Cricket to have visit from Boom Boom Afridi

Reader Monica Franklin writes with a reminder about the annual Banff Rd Street Sale. There are as many as 15 homes participating this year and it goes Saturday May 13 from 9 a.m to 2 p.m. Rain date is Sunday.

Meat Loaf then and now

Andrew Polec and Christina Bennington star as teen lovers Strat and Raven

As tickets go on sale for the Toronto performances of Bat Out of Hell The Musical, it has been announced that Meat Loaf will stage a free concert on Yonge Street on Monday, May 15 to promote the Toronto premiere in October. Tickets go on sale Wednesday, May 24. The work is based on the album of the same name released on October, 1977. Yonge will be closed to traffic between Dundas and Shuter streets for the concert which will run from 7 to 7:30 p.m. Mayor Tory will be begin the show with a parade of Harley Davidson motorcycles along Yonge. Cast members Christina Bennington and Andrew Polec will perform four songs from the musical at Monday’s street event and Meat Loaf will talk about the making of the album and the show.

A Winnipeg firefighter has been convicted of stealing from a dead senior while he was on duty. Darren Fedyck, who faced a trial earlier this year, was found guilty Wednesday of stealing nearly $1,000 and two necklaces from a woman who had died in her north-end apartment.

The Children’s Aid Society (CAS) will require its drivers to ask for kids by their first and last name from now on after one driver took the wrong boy from from school for several hours. It’s a problem as old as time to neighbouring families with children of the same name. Usually the become Jack A and Jack B.  This case happened on May 2 when  a volunteer driver arrived at the office of Walter Perry Public School in Scarborough where the place was in being manned by students. He asked for the six-year-old he was looking for by first name only. The Toronto District School Board called it “a horrible case of mistaken identity.”