The South Bayview Bulldog

Increased security at the ferry docks following the terrorist incidents in Europe have slowed holiday traffic to an unseen backlog. People slept in their cars on motorways to the port City of Dover and are still piled up.

Russian athletes who have never been found to have taken performance drugs will get a chance to persuade their sports federations to let them compete, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided. The world governing body’s ruling 15-member executive board met Sunday via teleconference — with the Rio Games’ August 5 opening ceremony less than two weeks away — and decided that responsibility for ruling on the eligibility of Russians remains with the international federations. It issued a tricky “guilty until proven innocent” type of condition to the Russians. “Under these exceptional circumstances, Russian athletes in any of the 28 Olympic summer sports have to assume the consequences of what amounts to a collective responsibility in order to protect the credibility of the Olympic competitions, and the ‘presumption of innocence’ cannot be applied to them,” the IOC said.

NATURAL JUSTICE

But the IOC then added that the rules of natural justice mean that each athlete must be given the opportunity to show that such collective responsibility is not applicable in his or her individual case. Last week, Canadian law professor Richard McLaren produced an official report which described extensive doping and cover-ups across a series of summer and winter Olympic sports and particularly at the Sochi Winter Olympics hosted by Russia in 2014. Doping agency was rotten from the top down

A 24-hour restaurant big enough to house jumbo jets, 450,000 condoms, a multi-faith worship centre and beds that extend to accommodate the lankiest of basketball players. They are some of the attractions at the otherwise spartan Rio Olympics athletes’ village which welcomes residents in a month. News 18.

It was an exciting couple of hours Saturday evening at Talbot Park as Roberto Osuna attended his pitching clinic and Q and A. Here we see the gang of kids who participated and a very happy young man, one of many who has a personal memory of the event.

Great to see so many new faces interested in joining #HealthyKids! We'll be at @TP_NNO in RV Burgess Park until 9 pm pic.twitter.com/dNUdlpLKQR

— HKCCEastYork (@HKCCEastYork) July 23, 2016

Come run, jump and play @TP_NNO Thorncliffe Park Neighbours' Night Out! #HKCCEastYork pic.twitter.com/uGRYih3qu0

— HKCCEastYork (@HKCCEastYork) July 23, 2016

There’s lots of discussion on the local Chit Chat Facebook page about the departure of Wiseys Pies and Bakehouse from 874 Eglinton Ave. E at Laird, the location where it was established in Canada barely two years ago. Since then the business has been a success and its founder Gary Wise and his Canadian wife Karen have moved back to Gary’s native New Zealand to participate in the Wiseys enterprise there. The business here succeeded to another New Zealander, Anthony Spinley and his wife Jen. Now we know that Wiseys will go in the direction of supplying its products to retailers rather than concentrating on its own retail stores. How long will they be at 874 Eglinton? Very recently staff was saying the end of the year but Paddy Duncan on Chit Chat says she was told March of 2017. The sad fact is Wiseys is gone from Leaside where it had offered hope for a strong business presence on Eglinton East. Read about how the Wiseys phenomenon first came to light through the pages of the South Bayview Bulldog  Also see Leaside Chit Chat 

Hikari Sulu is gay with a family and Lieutenant Uhuru vamps Mr. Spock. And thus does the 2016 Star Trek sequel opening today in Toronto flesh out (so to speak) the crew members of the USS Enterprise. Hope that ship is a new one since the original is now more than 50 years old. Always fun.

How hot was it on Bayview Ave Saturday afternoon? It was so hot you could throw ice cubes at the patios (please) and never hit a soul. Happily, the power stayed on and there were lots of in and out cooling stops available for those who had to walk the length of the business district. Who knew walking through the cosmetics department at Shoppers Drug Mart would be so pleasant for a man? Even the diehard perpetually door-open Elegant Garage Sale had its door closed Saturday. This otherwise cool Bentley Continental GT (below) looked sweaty too although the owner was no doubt calm about the $250,000 Canadian price tag.

Over at Toronto Zoo, they introduced the Panda twins Jia PanPan and Jia YueYue to ice. What was the rush? It’s July 23 already. This shows Jia PanPan ( the brother) while YueYue was napping. Smart girl.

There was a small drama on Bayview Ave. when the fire department roared up to the Shoppers Drug Mart in the old Bayview Playhouse sirens screaming Saturday morning. What played out next was a classic rite of passage in the lives of all children. A father was waiting with his little daughter. She gripped her dad’s hand tightly. Then she apologized to the firefighters for pulling the alarm. Then everybody went home.

Leonard’s Restaurant at 220 Laird will close Sunday for the last time. It has been a neighborhood eatery and hangout for years. The staff are saying only that the business has been sold.

City news release