Mayhem galore as captured by @LateNightCam guy

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There’s been accidents and associated mayhem galore overnight around the GTA. It is both pedestrian (a woman knocked down but okay in North York) and dramatic (a York Region municipal bus and a motor coach with 7 people treated, below).  As well, a car hit a shop on the Queensway severing a gas line, a head-on collision at Finch and Midland and two people trapped in a car at Weston and Old Weston Rds. but also okay. Much of it is captured by Tony Smyth and tweeted to his account @LateNightCam

Whoa! Cop finds kid with (toy) gun in trunk of mom’s car

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In Lewiston, Idaho officer Thomas Woods got a bit of a surprise when a young man came bounding out of the trunk of his mom’s car intent on escaping. Left to right from the top we see Woods touch the lid. The man inside, Jesse Harnell, tries to bound out but Woods slams the lid back down. Trouble is Harnell, 20, has his leg in the way. It causes Woods to stumble and Harnell is out of the trunk. After a struggle he was put in cuffs by backup police. Woods had stopped the car because he knew it was driven by Harnell’s mother. When he heard a noise in the trunk, he asked her if her son was in there.  Angelia Barnett-Harrell, 47, immediately responded, “It’s a toy gun, don’t shoot him.” Police confirm it was a realistic looking toy gun. See video

Problems seen for Premier in Toronto road tolls bid

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Mike Crawley of the CBC thinks there may be a nasty backlash from 905 voters if the Ontario Liberals permit Toronto to impose tolls to drive the DVP and Gardiner.

WHO? Women on short list for currency underwhelm

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The committee to find a female face for the Canadian five dollar bill has reported. It names Viola Desmond, who fought racial discrimination in Nova Scotia, Pauline Johnson, a poet who was the daughter of a Mohawk chief and an English woman, and Elsie MacGill, the first woman in Canada to receive a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree in aeronautical engineering. Also on the list is track and field athlete Bobbie Rosenfeld, who won a silver and gold medal at the 1928 Olympics and went on to become a sports columnist, and Idola Saint-Jean, a feminist and pioneer in the fight for suffrage in Quebec. All fine women no doubt but there are some who have impacted life more, like Lucy Maude Montgomery, whose literary work has entertained millions and incidentally made Canada a real place in distant lands. Or Agnes Macphail.  Canadian Press

Photos of quad truck believed to be hit-and-run vehicle

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Police have released images of a quad-style pickup truck apparently the vehicle involved in a hit and run at the intersection of Sheppard Ave and Aragon Ave/Bayview Mills Blvd on November 14. A pedestrian, 76, suffered fatal injuries and the driver fled. The images released appear to civilian observation (not police) to show a Toyota Tundra double cab.

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Greyhound wins Best in Show at U.S. National Dog Show

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One of the most enjoyable events at U.S. Thanksgiving is the National Dog Show in Philadelphia. This year a sleek greyhound won Best in Show. Much more from NBC on this show 


$2 expressway toll would run commuters $1,000 plus a year

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The toll road snowball is hurtling through City Hall Thursday morning with reports that Mayor Tory is in fact committed and all it requires is a perfunctory vote on council and the stroke of a pen by Transportation Minister Del Duca. The mayor opposed such a scheme during the election campaign. The excitement as reported on CP24 seems heady. There is talk about a $2 toll as just the thing to fix Toronto’s finances. So far no one has pondered that this price for a one way trip would cost drivers more than $1,000 a year to get to and back from work

SOUTH BAYVIEW SPILL?

It is by no means clear whether a toll on the Don Valley Parkway would cause much, if any traffic, to divert onto City streets. But at more than $1,000 a year to use the expressways for work, it is possible. And as residents of South Bayview know very well, the local roads are jammed on weekends when the parkway is closed. Those who care about the number of cars merely passing through — and especially on Bayview Ave. — may wish to ask whether a study is needed to examine this possibility. It is an interesting irony that many of these streets are in the Premier’s riding of Don Valley West.

BLAME GAME

Jennifer Pagliaro of the Star writes that City Planner Jennifer Keesmaat and James Pasternak (Ward 10) are among many people pummeling those who live outside Toronto for not paying their “fair share” of road costs. Keesmaat says 40 percent of drivers on the DVP are from outside town. That means 60 percent live here. In the same report James Campbell (Ward 4) says TTC riders pay 70 percent of the cost of the service. But he knows that drivers pay enormously more money in taxes than the price of a Metropass. Blame is the name of the game. Jennifer Pagliaro 

1926 Lawren Harris canvas auctioned for record $11.2 mln

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That uniquely Canadian vision of the Rocky Mountains painted in oil by Group of Seven founder Lawren Harris has sold for $11.2 million making it the most expensive piece of art ever to sell at a Canadian auction. Mountain Forms is a statement about the land known to generations of citizens young and old. The sale at Heffel Fine Art Auction House in Yorkville fetched a 9.5 in bidding plus an 18 per cent buyer’s premium bringing the total cost to $11.21 million. CBC

Sunday lunch to help local man suffering from liver cancer

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Bayview Ave. restaurateur Otta Zapotocky is inviting local residents to help an area man who has been diagnosed with stage-four liver cancer. Eduart Qose and his lovely family, wife Maria and daughters Erina, 10, and Nikola, 6, left for Germany on Sunday in the hope that unique treatment there can help him. Meanwhile, friends here have organized a Leaside Lunch for Life on Sunday, November 27, 2016 from 12 to 3 p.m. as a chance to have the proceeds of lunch go to the Qose family to help deal with the costly treatment and other expenses of this crisis. People can help by having lunch at Otta’s restaurant, Val d’Isere, 1581 Bayview. Family and friends have shown amazing support, but treatment has exhausted their resources. Otta asks that as many as possible join him for a quick bite and glass of wine to show – and give — support. If you can’t attend, a donation may be made here.
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Boundary re-drawn between St. Anselm, Canadian Martyrs

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The Toronto and District Catholic School board has re-drawn the boundary line between St. Anselm School on Bessborough Drive and Canadian Martyrs School at 520 Plains Rd in East York. The issue was crowding at St. Anselm which sits on property which will not permit much expansion. Parents voted Monday on the matter. The issue has stretched over four years. Kids who are already being bused to St. Anselm will now be bused to Canadian Martyrs. The issue for St. Anselm can only get worse as development in Leaside explodes. Canadian Martyrs has space available.

Radio station tells of East York girls, 6, on hookey walk

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Shauna Hunt of 680 News is raising an alarm Wednesday afternoon about two 6-year-old girls who it is said wandered away from their unnamed East York school, or maybe just left it. They apparently found their way to the home of one girl but not before a local woman. identified as Deirdre, became alarmed to find the kids trying to cross a busy thoroughfare (unnamed) and spoke to them. Then she followed them home. Their mother was there, identified as Melissa. She is said to have been shocked to see her daughter and her friend and called the school. 680 News 

Survey says kids pulled out of hockey because of cost

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South Bayview is a hockey loving place in a hockey loving country, but for some parents, it seems, the cost of fitting out a kid for the ice is just too much. A survey done by Leger Marketing says as many as 34 percent of parents have removed their children from hockey because they just can’t make ends meet. The survey is called Beyond the Blue Line.