Waffle restaurant to open at Mt. Pleasant and Millwood

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Principal reflects on 30 years of Children’s Garden School

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Marie Bates with children at the Principal’s Club

If you are a Lawrence Park resident, with children or thinking about having children, chances are you have familiarized yourself with school options in the area. My name is Marie Bates and I am proud to count myself, and my school, Children’s Garden School on Eglinton, as part of the North Toronto educational community for 30 years.

As Principal of CGS and mother of three children, I have been dedicated to being an educator for as long as I can remember. In fact, as a child, well before I was a mother or a Principal, I was offering classes for neighbourhood children on my front porch! Being both an educator and a mother has given me my life’s purpose and profession, all rolled into one. Learning about children, supporting children and teaching children have given my days shape and continue to inform everything I have come to know about what it means to be human. An average primary school day is a microcosm of the life challenges we all face, adult or child, and I have always felt that being a teacher, and working directly with children on a day-to-day basis, provides a profound opportunity for learning of all kinds.

I have gleaned many things about how to be an effective teacher and Principal over the years. Building a strong curriculum, providing a comfortable environment and creating meaningful events for families to take part in, all make for a strong school. But I can honestly say, after all these years, that I have come to place the value of a caring staff above all other considerations. By ‘caring’ I don’t just mean being warm and welcoming to children, although this is obviously essential. The idea of caring must go much deeper. Teachers must combine their professional knowledge of child development with empathy and apply what they know and feel to any and every child that walks through their doors. Empathy for children, and by extension their parents, can never be underestimated. When a child and family are truly supported, through whatever challenges they are facing, wonderful things can happen. It’s been said that when children and families are successful, society is successful. I believe this to be absolutely true and keenly feel the responsibility of assembling a staff that can support parents and children in the most positive ways possible.

I have seen so many families through the doors at CGS and witnessed the development of many children. It has been the privilege of a lifetime to contribute to their lives. In my 30th anniversary year at CGS, I want to take this opportunity to thank the community for supporting the school. I also want to thank my exceptional staff for helping me to build a progressive, responsive school. I look forward to many more years in the community.

Marie Bates
Principal
Children’s Garden School

South Bayview youth competes on Chopped Canada Teen

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Chris Lexovksy
Teen Edition
Cast

Chris Lexovsky’s mom, Kimberley is very proud of her son. The South Bayview family is waiting eagerly for Chris to compete on the Food Network’s Chopped Canada Teen edition this coming season.  His episode will be aired on February 11, 2017 at 9pm ET.  She has told The Bulldog that it will be a very cool experience for a boy of his age!  We agree.  Corus Entertainment describes the show this way: “Twenty of Canada’s best teen cooks battle it out in the Chopped Canada kitchen for a chance to win $10,000. Just like their adult counterparts, four young cooks face the clock – and each other – before a rotating panel of expert judges in each episode. Competitors between the ages of 14-17 from across Canada put their skill and ingenuity to the test in an attempt to turn baskets of mystery ingredients into an extraordinary three-course meal within a limited amount of time. Course by course, the judges decide which teen cooks will be “chopped” from the competition until only one remains. The last competitor standing will collect the cash and win the title of Chopped Canada Teen champion.  Chopped Canada Teen airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT, beginning January 14.”

 

IKEA will pay U.S. families $50 mln for dresser deaths

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Six months after IKEA and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the recall of more than 29 million topple-prone Malm dressers now linked to four deaths, the furniture maker has agreed to pay $50 million to three of the affected families. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that IKEA reached the settlement in three wrongful death lawsuits after two days of mediation with the families. The lawsuits — the first of which was supposed to go to court next year — accused the company of continuing to sell the dressers despite being aware they posed a tip-over danger. For its part, IKEA contended that the parents of the children — a two-year-old boy from Washington, 22-month-old from Minnesota, and a two-year-old boy from Pennsylvania — were negligent in their deaths for failing to anchor the dressers to the wall — Consumerist 

Young suspect leaves picture on taxi camera for police

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On Sunday three young men robbed and beat up a cabbie in the middle of the night near Russell Street and Robert Street area. One of them left a pretty good picture of himself on the cab’s camera. Call police if you know him.

Teen dies when forced into shed because of menstruation

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Reuters reports Thursday that a 15-old girl in western Nepal has suffocated to death after being forced to stay in a poorly ventilated shed because she was menstruating in an age-old Hindu practice banned over a decade ago. Similar cases have occurred in recent months. Roshani Tiruwa apparently died when she lit a fire to keep warm. The practice of isolating menstruating teens is mixed up with deep superstitions that violating the practice will cause crops to fail. It is reported that as few as one in ten woman in India use or have access to modern hygiene products commonplace elsewhere in world.

At a year old, Toronto cubs will make move to lionhood

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Four male lions born at the Toronto Zoo will  be transferred to a large lion community at the Parc Safari in Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec, where they will be able to act like grown-up guys with their pride of followers. That’s lion life. Above we see them in January of 2016 with Dad Fintan. CBC

Here are a couple of things you don’t see very often

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What?
Stop it!
Run!
Yeoww!

A man in Leeds, England. leaps in surprise as his e-cigarette explodes as he stands with his wife in a Boots pharmacy. Left, the e-cigarette ignites and then (centre and right) turns into something of a Roman candle. He suffered minor injuries. The explosion was caused when the c-cigarette battery came in contact with metal. Be warned.

JUST LIKE AN ORDINARY CARDINAL

Pope Francis is fond of venturing out into the streets of Rome just as if he were still an ordinary Cardinal. This time he was looking for some orthopedic shoes. He found them along with large numbers of his flock who sent the news of the shopping pontiff winging onto social media.

Pope finds just what he’s looking for

 

High speed Internet a basic telecom service says CRTC

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The CRTC will build a fund to expand high-speed Internet service to remote parts of the country it announced today. The move is being heralded like a declaration of human rights in some quarters — and perhaps that is how the telecom regulator wants it to be seen.  But you may be sure that it will still be business as usual for most people who want this level of service in their homes — i.e. it will cost something.

No injuries in apartment fire at Bayview and Davisville

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Firefighters turned out in force to extinguish a blaze at the Cardiff co-operative apartments building at 1460 Bayview Ave. on the southwest corner with Davisville Ave. Wednesday afternoon. There was concern that the single unit fire might spread to the rest of the building and a second alarm was rung. But in the end, the fire damage was confined to a second floor unit (smoke damage may be another thing). A resident on the first floor told The Bulldog that no one had been hurt. She did not know the cause but speculated that it was something like a pan or pot left on a stove. This is among the most common causes of house fires.

Arson cops ask who’s setting fire to homes in Armour Hts?

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Near Brookdale and Ledbury
Also a call to Joicey and Esgore
Police fire ask for security video

Fire officials and police are surely curious about just why two men were busy setting fire to a home in Armour Heights in November. Here we see them at shortly past midnight on November 24 at a home in the Brookdale Avenue and Ledbury Street area. Then on Sunday, November 27, 2016, at 10:40 p.m. emergency personnel responded to reports of a fire at a home near Joicey Boulevard and Esgore Drive. Toronto Fire Services investigation has determined this fire to be an arson. Investigators believe the two incidents are connected. Authorities are asking anyone with exterior cameras in this area to check for video.

Look what pandas do when they’re given a snowman

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The Toronto Zoo has released this charnming bit of video showing Da Mao with his “enrichmenment snowman”  More like wrecking-crew exercises.