Will City find the courage to regularize holiday openings?

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It appears that City Council will again discuss the bylaws which require grocery stores and other businesses to close on a statutory holiday. The CBC says that City staff has recommended yet again that the patchwork quilt of practices be regularized by permitting all stores to open. In the past, Council has not had the courage to do this. At present, large shopping centres such at the  Eaton Centre are permitted to open under the guise that they are tourist areas. Many say this is a legal ruse and a simple sop to huge property owners like Cadillac Fairview. Nonetheless, it has been practiced for decades. At the same time, smaller businesses are left to wonder if they will be charged if they open. In the past few years, however, it has become fairly apparent that, without saying so, the City is not prepared to see businesses charged for opening on statutory holidays. Some legal opinion holds that this is because such a charge might lead to a constitutional challenge. The mishmash of bylaws might be found to be unfair — which they are — resulting in wholesale of invalidation of bylaws.

Bozak pots winner at 1.37 of OT as Leafs take 2-1 series lead

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The Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Washington Capitals 4-3 in overtime of Game 3 to take a 2-1 series lead. Tyler Bozak scored 1:37 into overtime for the win.

Matheroo sisters said to be posting pictures large in Toronto

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City News
City News

Avery Haines of City News is saying that the Matharoo sisters. Jyoti and Kiran, are back in Toronto and that they somehow departed Nigeria without their passports. This may be, but the last word previously heard in December on the status of the two graduates of Don Bosco High School was from Brad Hunter in the Toronto Sun. He said they had signed “criminal undertakings” confessing to blackmailing and cyberbullying more than 200 men. One of the victims was the influential billionaire Femi Otedola. Hunter said the women had agreed to leave Nigeria and never return. Their departure seems quite sensitive with some Nigerian journalists. But there’s no evidence that the men who were humiliated by dalliances, if any, with Jyoti and Kiran are demanding a public airing of the matter in court. According to Haines, the Canadian government is doing a high-minded privacy routine around just what, if anything, it did to expedite passages of the femmes Matharoo. City News shows a social media account of the Dreamy Beauty Bar, 717 Queen Street East where it says they have been visiting. Their apology

Flawed industry model bounces boy from family’s flight

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Flawed industry model
Flights must fill every seat
Cole Doyle unseated

Air Canada has apologized to a Prince Edward Island family after the airline bumped their 10-year-old son from a flight. That decision sent the family on a convoluted odyssey from Charlottetown to Moncton to Halifax to try to get seats for all of them. They finally got away the next day after a hotel stay in Halifax. It was March Break but Brett Doyle had booked the tickets in August. From his story, it seems clear Mr. Doyle and his family were given the same off-hand treatment which is common among airlines in 2017. And well before, in fact. But realists understand the airline industry’s business model is deeply flawed and there seems no easy way of fixing it. Open competition requires airlines to maximize the value of every expensive take off to the bottom line. It’s why planes are overbooked. More airlines offering deals may permit more people to fly but it also guarantees that some will be bounced. In this case, the airline has given the Doyles  an apology, a $2,500 voucher, which expires in one year, and says it may cover family expenses.

Soccer, cricket under the lights at Go Green Cricket Field

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More

US releases picture of mock bomb and yep, it’s plenty scary

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Mock IED carried by Galaska
Mock alarm clock

US authorities have now released a photo (left) of the phony bomb (also mock IED) that 58-year-old Joseph Galaska was carrying to Chicago when he ran afoul of US customs at Pearson airport and landed in jail for carrying a mock bomb. Beside it, to the right, is a photo of a mock bomb alarm clock made in the US which has gotten travellers in trouble as well. Why not. They both look scary as can be.

Whimsical Babsocks fun open daily at 553 Mt. Pleasant Rd.

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Thomas McCole and Jake Mednick
Blue
White
Stern man will smile if you stretch socks
Special benefit for CAMH
DJ Darryl Henry of CHFI
Prime Minister: Please put these on
Canadian promotion

Hockey-playing buddies Thomas McCole and Jake Mednick were like most fans when they heard that the Leafs had hired straight-shooting Mike Babcock to guide the team during its re-build. But unlike most fans, these two area men also were hit by a brilliant stroke of whimsical genius — call it Babsocks. Yes, hockey socks comically inspired by the new coach. They started to work designing the socks and sourcing a maker. They didn’t even bother to ask Babcock if they could use his likeness. (He thinks it’s hilarious.)  In a year, McCole and Mednick have gone from zero to a hundred on the novelty sock scale.  There has been the St. Patrick’s Day Babsock, the Team Canada (Molson) Babsock and the Purple Babsocks in a special benefit for the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). But the main show is the Leafs sock, blue and white (home or away) sold for $20 a pair (two for $35) with ten per cent going to benefit CAMH. Now Babsocks is open at 553 Mt. Pleasant beside the Regent Theatre near Belsize Drive. Don’t get caught without yours at Game Three.

Meghan clears decks, fuels talk of marriage announcement

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Seems to be for keeps
Goodbye to her blog
This is said to the prince arriving at Meghan’s place in Toronto in recent days

Meghan Markle has resigned from a lucrative contract she held with the Canadian fashion retailer Reitman’s and taken down her commercial blog, which was followed by thousands. The decisions are being taken as evidence that her romance with Prince Harry is moving forward to an announcement of marriage. ET

Keep an eye out for doggie clipped by car near Withrow Park

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Judy Benson-Jones posted to the Sunnybrook Dog Park Facebook account Monday morning about her lost pal who has panicked and run away after being clipped by a car near Withrow Park down between Logan and Carlaw Aves. Keep an eye out for him.

Eastbound ramp off Gardiner now closed until early 2018

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Eastbound exit at York, Bay and Yonge closed
Good morning
We ddidn’t know we loved this so much

That’s it. The off-ramp from the eastbound Gardiner Expressway to York, Bay and Yonge Streets is closed for demolition. Goodbye. At 5 a.m. Monday, the ramp was blocked off with plans for a replacement possibly a year away, maybe sooner with good luck. Those who drive to downtown daily will know their options — Jameson Avenue, Spadina Avenue and Jarvis Street. But the Spadina off-ramp is also closed temporarily as of Sunday.

Leaside Smokedown Thurs., June 1 at Amsterdam Brewery

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Leaside Smokekdown 2017
Community Soul Project
Grill Bill of Grilltime
At Amsterdam on Esandar Drvive
In aid of Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital

Save Thursday June 1 for the entertaining 2017 edition of Leaside Smokedown at Amsterdam Brewery 45 Esandar Drive in aid of Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital. Smoked meat full dinner provided by Andy Elder’s (Grill Bill) Grilltime Gourmet Meat Shop at 62 Laird Drive. Music by the Community Soul Project. Tickets $75 with tax receipt for $40

Ohio man broadcasts fatal shooting of man via Facebook

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Cleveland police are searching for a man who they say broadcast a killing on Facebook Live on Sunday. The person is Steve Stephens, a member of “the assertive community treatment team” at Beech Brook, a mental health organization in northeast Ohio. He is said to have driven up to an elderly man and shot him while broadcasting his moves and intent to kill as he went along. Stephens is described as 6-foot-1, 244 pounds and bald with a full beard. He is wearing a dark blue and gray- or black-striped polo shirt and believed to be driving a white- or cream-colored vehicle, according to police.