Access to Ont vax verification code staged by month of birth

The new Ontario vaccine verification app with QR code will be available to those born in January, February March, and April starting today with those born in later months to be allowed onto the site in stages, the government has announced. CTV

Premier addresses province

Friday: Alphonso Davies gives Canada a shot at World Cup

The notion that Canada might actually perform well enough in World Cup play to win, is utterly alien. And yet, and yet. The astonishing talent of a young man from Edmonton is being revealed on the soccer pitch. And his personal story is equally amazing.

Rod Black leaves TSN

Long-time football, basketball and figure skating commentator Rod Black is leaving Bell Media. It isn’t exactly clear why. Toronto Sun

Chilling bow and arrow killer a terrorist

Woman critically hurt after walking onto Hwy 401 at Yonge

A woman has been critically hurt when she was hit by a truck on eastbound Highway 401 near Yonge St Thursday afternoon. OPP say she apparently walked onto the highway. Her purpose in making this dangerous decision is unknown. No car or other vehicle has been found.



Maze of unknowns awaits Canadian day-trippers to the US

There’s excitement about the US reopening its border to Canadians in November. But the devil is in the unknown details of tests when you come home plus the price and genuine value of insurance if you get stuck stateside.

Do-or-die battle to save low-rise Davisville west of Bayview

SERRA, the South Eglinton Ratepayers and Residents Association, is sounding a battle-cry in the developing struggle to save the low-rise Davisville neighbourhood between Mt Pleasant and Bayview Ave. A City Community Consultation meeting next Monday (October 18) will acquaint homeowners with efforts to deny approval of a 23-storey tower on the southeast corner of Eglinton East and Hoyle Ave. As the SERRA news release suggests, the entire area faces the prospect of development similar to the canyons being built west of Mt. Pleasant. Join the Community Consultation

Photoshop shots of Expressway work say road gone forever

A reader of the development site Urban Toronto has photoshopped pictures of the signs at what was the Logan Ave ramp to the Gardiner Expressway. He changed the signs from Road Closed to Road No Longer Exists. Cute.

Leafs put TikTok on helmets as they beat Habs in opener

The Maple Leafs have defeated Montreal 2-1 before a near-capacity crowd at Scotiabank Arena Wednesday night. Immediately before the game, the team announced a one-year deal with TikTok to place the video platform’s logo on their helmets. Toronto Sun

Rosedale stop will have an elevator 70 years after it opened

Work has begun at Rosedale Subway Station on Yonge St. to install an elevator. The venerable Line 1 station will also get better signs and CCTV. The full job will be finished in 2024. Rosedale Station opened in 1954.

Best drone delivery, plain homeless and US day-trippers OK

Lungs for transplant have been whisked by drone from Toronto Western to Toronto General Hospital in a mere six minutes. Best use of a drone ever.

Who has mandate to speak for homeless?

Some 2,500 of Toronto’s homeless are in leased hotels like the former Roehampton at 808 Mt. Pleasant. The Toronto Star is asking what will happen when the leases expire. At the same time, a body called the Shelter Housing Justice Network is demanding that the City open up parks to encampments. The Facebook picture above shows an apparently homeless and disoriented man rolling around on the pavement at Yonge St and Eglinton Ave Tuesday. Among other things, he was shouting “nobody cares.”

US to allow Canadians back beginning in November

Unused Wellington St W incinerator to be community hub

The long-since decommissioned City of Toronto incinerator known as the Wellington Destructor is about to be renovated into a new community hub says a news release. The real estate development company TAS has been chosen and has been given a long-term lease. The Destructor was commissioned in 1925. It’s at 667 Wellington St West.

SERRA presses for full community vision for Canada Square

SERRA, the South Eglinton Ratepayers and Residents Association, will meet online Wednesday evening with participants of a community consultation starting at 6.30 p.m. Recent indication that City staff is wavering on the specifications presented by the people-based Midtown Working Group has given urgency to the meeting. SERRA is urging you to join the meeting tonight.

Some local oddities to amuse and ponder for true meaning

You see them too but The Bulldog has a mania for such things. At upper left, the animated GIF was tweeted by Leaside High School to celebrate a two-day week. Things must slow in the office too. Then there’s the strange story of President’s Choice Tomato Soup. It vanished six months ago and most of the signs for it are gone too. But wait. The secret Loblaws code DNO means that the soup may yet come back. Want to bet? At centre left is a suspiciously Communist sign hung on Roxborough Ave. Looks like the crowd at the 1917-Russian-revolution phone number see an opening in the Indigenous media stories. At the bottom, you can watch the Danny Thomas Show (1953) on CHCH. Or maybe not. Finally, there are suggestions that authorities put a bike rental station at each end of the seemingly endless tunnel in the new bus station at Union Station. Pedestrians are shuddering. We love our oddities.