The South Bayview Bulldog

Mel Lastman campaigns for Case Ootes

Toronto Volleyball U18 Heat

Mark the date

Hydro says thanks

Leaside High School sewing club

East York loyalist Justin Van Dette has tweeted a touching reminiscence of the late Mel Lastman. It shows a very young Van Dette (upper left) with Mr. Lastman at a campaign event for former City Councillor and Lastman ally Case Ootes. At the upper right, we see the smiling faces of the Leaside Volleyball U18 Heat team as they celebrate grabbing bronze in their category at the Provincial Cup held at Markham Sportsdome. Nice going ladies. Below that, a reminder that tenants start moving into The Stack at Bayview and Hillsdale Aves in 2022. No word on stores names yet. Lower left is a thank you from Toronto Hydro for consumer patience and employee long hours during the recent wind blackouts. And finally at the bottom right is the Leaside High School Sewing Club. Love you sewing people one and all.

20 Overlea Blvd

Metrolinx, the provincial transit agency has reached a $50-million deal to help fund a new religious and community centre in Thorncliffe Park where it’s also planning to build a rail yard. The agreement intends to make major upgrades to the Islamic Society of Toronto’s facility at 20 Overlea Blvd.

Deal promises child care space at $10 a day

Federal taxes will pay bulk of child care costs (Photo Ketut Subiyanto / Pexels)

New Brunswick is the latest province to sign a child care deal with Ottawa to create 5,700 new spaces. They say the average cost to parents of such a plan will be $10 per day by 2026. Ontario is said to be working on a similar scheme with Ottawa. Under the New Brunswick deal, the federal government is providing $491 million while the province is spending $53 million.

Legal meth, heroin? Could be, says Mr Trudeau

Some will see such a prospect as a slippery slope to an addiction hell but some countries have done it. Portugal legalized all drugs in 2000. Users may inject and swallow anything in their own homes.

Leslieville visitor

On Winnifred Ave

Members of the Leslieville Facebook page are both upset and sad about a man who is a regular visitor to porches on streets on either side of Queen St E these days. FB

Entrepreneur and, in his day, an unbeatable candidate for mayor, Mel Lastman has died at age 88.

Sunnybrook Park Sunday/Al Kivi

This car was parked in Sunnybrook Park during Saturday’s windstorm. Apparently, there were no injuries when this huge tree tumbled onto the vehicle.

Sunnybrook Park Sunday morning/Al Kivi

Crushed by large tree/Al Kivi

Tree down on Astor Ave/Bulldog

There are lingering local blackouts across Toronto Sunday afternoon but most of the outages in Leaside and Davisville Village were repaired by noon. The Toronto Hydro Outage Map showed a small outage in the Eglinton Ave and Sutherland Drive area and small outages in the Jones and Greenwood Coxwell neighbourhoods. One source of power loss was a fallen tree on Astor Ave south of Sutherland (above). Southvale Drive between Rolph and Hanna Rds was closed well into Sunday apparently because of fallen or hanging wires.

Southvale closed between Hanna and Rolph/Bulldog

Out at Scarborough Town Centre the parking lot saw winds that were quite able to flip this Triton snowmobile trailer. Stephanie Emma shot the video.

Scarborough Town Centre/Stephanie Emma

High winds have created a spotted Hydro outage map across Toronto where, by late afternoon, as many as 143,000 homes were without power. Crews are labouring into the evening to restore power in both north and south Leaside and Davisville Village. The video above by Johnny Stumbles shows traffic lights giving off a shower of sparks as the wind sets them twirling. This post from Airdrie and Rumsey tells of a “bang” before the power went out. As late as 10 p.m., there were tapes across Southvale Drive. There was no sign of lines down or hydro personnel although a fire truck blocked Southvale at Rolph Rd.

At Yonge and Roselawn

Mass vaccination held earlier in 2021

The City is urging parents to make an appointment for the one-day-only superhero-themed vaccination event at Scotiabank Arena. It’s Sunday, December 12. There will be activities, entertainment, ticket and toy giveaways and special Toronto mascot and PAW Patrol visitors. A release Saturday tells how to book an appointment for five to 11-year-olds.

Ayesha Verrall

Eva Quildon

Sienna Miller

These determined and interesting women are making news Friday. On the left is Ayesha Verrell, the New Zealand Associate Minister of Health. She’s announced that Kiwiland will enact a law that will prevent young people from ever buying cigarettes in their lifetime. It’s one of the world’s toughest crackdowns on the tobacco industry. Then, meet Eva Quildon, 82, a faithful TigerCat fan and a regular attendant at Grey Cup Games. She says she hasn’t missed one in 20 years. Sunday the TiCats face the Winnipeg Blue Bombers for the cup at Tim Horton Stadium in Hamilton. Finally, actor Sierra Miller has won a large but secret damages award from the Murdoch Sun newspaper in the UK. She insists they committed a crime to learn that she was pregnant. The Murdoch chain is having trouble living down widespread belief that it has tapped phones to get a story.

Safe at any speed?

The appearance in recent weeks of pink, robotic food delivery vehicles on Toronto sidewalks has caused the City to ponder banning such machines. Councillors will vote next week on this question. The food-delivery robots are owned by Tiny Mile. It’s unclear whether Tiny Mile is just a delivery service or has something to do with the manufacture of the robots. In any case, sidewalks are there for pedestrians. Anyone on foot is vulnerable to the approach of such machines as well as bicycles and scooters from behind.

A man has been found dead in an apartment tower in Midtown’s construction-frazzled zone near Redpath and Eglinton Aves. Police were called to the building about 2 p.m. and tussled with another occupant, a man, who they said seemed to be “in crisis”.