The South Bayview Bulldog

A funeral service will be held for Tamara Levine who died unexpectedly at the age of 37 on Friday, November 18, 2016.  The service will take place at the Mount Pleasant Visitation Centre, 375 Mount Pleasant Road on Friday, November 25th at 1:30 p.m.. An obituary on the site of the Humphrey Funeral Home says: “Left to mourn are her parents, Carol Cowan (Allan Kaplan), Michael Levine (Donna Orenstein), as well as her quadruplet siblings, Alexis, Peter, Katherine (deceased), older sister, Elizabeth, younger brother, Josh, and a large extended family. Tamara was a brilliant creative force who cared deeply about everyone around her, family, friends and those less fortunate. She travelled the world extensively and worked tirelessly, professionally and voluntarily to make it a better place.”  A 2003 profile of Tamara’s father notes that Peter, Alexis and Tamara were born as quadruplets with one of the babies, Katherine, dying at five-and-a-half months after heart surgery. The obituary says donations may be made to the Levine Quadruplet Endowment (which funds the Levine Family Lectureship in Women and Mental Health), Women’s College Hospital Foundation, www.wchf.ca. Condolences, photographs and memories may be forwarded through the Humphrey site.

Wind Mobile will take the name Freedom Mobile, the company says. It has been newly acquired by Shaw Communications. Freedom Mobile said existing accounts, which number more than a million, will be seamlessly transitioned to the new brand.

 

The trial of Liberal backroom operators Pat Sorbara Gerry Lougheed in Sudbury heard a jolting remark from a Crown Lawyer today when he said Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault “sought certain benefits” to run in a provincial byelection. The remark stunned the court. Later reporters peppered Crown Vern Brewer with questions. He suggested that Thibeault was not charged because: “The section makes it an offence to offer, not necessarily to receive (a bribe).” The “benefits” were not described. Sorbara and Lougheed are charged with offering such a bribe. .Mr. Thibeault’s lawyer was enraged by the interpretation of events and said the Crown was sullying Thibeault’s reputation. The comments were wrong he said.  The charges against Sorbara and Gerry Lougheed stem from allegations the pair offered a would-be candidate a job or appointment to get him to step aside in a 2015 byelection in Sudbury for Thibeault, the premier’s preferred candidate Thibeault, was then the New Democrat MP for Sudbury.

There will be arts & crafts, games, a cake walk, raffles, karaoke, SANTA and more! See you at Maurice Cody Public School, Saturday, November 26, 2016 between 10 a.m. and  3 p.m.

You can now use your mobile phone to pay and/or remotely top-up your Green P fees when parked on South Bayview!  More

Mayor John Tory has said that it’s time to again examine privatized garbage collection east of Yonge Street. He made such privatization a plank in his election campaign in 2014 but soon after the vote said he had reasons not to proceed. The media has played all this with a straight face  — as it should — but the reasons offered for not proceeding in the first place seem feeble. The story goes that a delay was called because the city was about to start negotiating a new contract with its unionized outside workers. A deal was signed earlier this year and the mayor now says that contract gives the city updated numbers to work with and see if the private sector can deliver a comparable service, but at a lower cost.

HUH?

Rob Ford concluded that west side privatization saved ten or eleven million dollars a year when CUPE employees were making less than they are today. That saving has never been effectively refuted. There seems no question that privatization will save the City money — and it would have done so two years ago. Cynical ratepayers will recall that Mr. Ford also pledged to privatize the east side collection. But he argued that it could only be done after the 2014 election. Is there a pattern emerging here? Mr. Tory should be concerned that taxpayers may reasonably decide they are being manipulated for the purposes of his re-election.

People headed into Service Ontario in the Dawsco Plaza at 939 Eglinton East may find a private guard writing a ticket for their car if they parked in front of Select Sandwich right next door. A visit to Service Ontario can be short or long. But the guards are authorized to issue tickets payable to the City and they were called there in at least one recent case by the sandwich house. The Dawsco Plaza has lots of parking but each business has its name on two or three spots — “Reserved for Select Sandwich” — etc. It’s not clear that Service Ontario has any spots but if does, as soon as those one or two spaces are filled — there is no parking for the rest of the taxpaying mob required to visit SO  So much for free parking.

Canadian Press says that CSIS, the Canadian anti-espionage agency, is out to steal whatever it can from among Canada’s most valuable secrets.  The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is making frank statements in briefing notes prepared for service director Michel Coulombe, CP says. “Russia and China, in particular, continue to target Canada’s classified information and advanced technology, as well as government officials and systems,” CSIS quoted as saying.

 

The Leaside Volleyball Club 17U girls have won gold in their class at the Girls Provincial Cup this weekend.

Crowded downtown streets turned dangerous Sunday when a car apparently leaped a curb and struck a woman pushing a stroller with a child. She was seriously injured and is in hospital where doctors say she will recover. The infant was not seriously hurt. All this occurred at Bay and Cumberland Streets as the Santa Claus Parade was just getting underway a block away.

Thanks to Scot Mills @GraffitiBMXCop and Laura Howells @LauraHowellsNL for tweets on today’s Santa Claus Parade.

Santa tells crowd he's been doing this parade for 112 years. pic.twitter.com/8HXB15tqGk

— Laura Howells (@LauraHowellsNL) November 20, 2016

Welcome band from Attica New York to 2016 Toronto Santa Claus Parade #TOsanta pic.twitter.com/WDpj8Zk3Ol

— Scott Mills 🇨🇦 (@GraffitiBMXCop) November 20, 2016

[Video] Toronto Police Pipe Band and Chief's Ceremonial Unit #TOSanta pic.twitter.com/UrZJ0qn8zP

— Scott Mills 🇨🇦 (@GraffitiBMXCop) November 20, 2016

Phillippines Heritage Band #TOSanta pic.twitter.com/xoveO9I8ss

— Scott Mills 🇨🇦 (@GraffitiBMXCop) November 20, 2016

Letters for Santa…Express post to the North Pole #TOSanta pic.twitter.com/30a05s3zSb

— Scott Mills 🇨🇦 (@GraffitiBMXCop) November 20, 2016