Some concerned parents in New Toronto are hopping mad after learning two young students were taped to their chairs by a teacher.

A teacher at Seventh Street Junior School has been put on home assignment and stands to be demoted or lose his job after an investigation by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB).

The TDSB has confirmed it is probing allegations that two children were taped to chairs by a teacher at the school.

Board officials said it is not the first time an Ontario teacher has faced allegations like this. Toronto Police and the Children’s Aid Society are also involved in the case.

No further details about the allegations have been released by the school board.

The teacher, and an early childhood educator, have both been placed on home assignment pending the outcome of an investigation, the Board said.

“In the meantime, we have offered social work support for the students in the impacted class,” said TDSB spokesman Ryan Bird. “These allegations are very serious and, if true, would be completely unacceptable and could result in serious consequences up to and including dismissal.”

The TDSB says they have offered social work support for students in the impacted class.

A parent told the CBC that her five-year-old daughter was one of the students taped to her chair.

“She told me she was supposed to be sitting in her seat and kept getting up. And so the teacher told her that she was going to have to put tape on her so that she wouldn’t move.”

The mom received a call from another parent whose child saw the teacher tape down her daughter.

She had her daughter explain what had happened to her.

“I sat down and she showed me that a piece of green tape was placed across her thighs on to the sides of the chair,” she said.

Apparently it was not the first time tape was used by this teacher to subdue a child.

 

 

An alleged carjacker is behind bars for ripping off a 65-year-old man of his expensive vehicle as he was stopped at the side of the road.

Police said two other accomplices are still at large and have intensified their search to get them off the streets.

Officers said they responded to a robbery call on July 4 in the Rathburn Road and Islington Avenue area.

Detectives said a senior was driving his car when he stopped at the side of the road and got out.

He was approached by three men who were wearing masks.

“One man got into the car as another pointed a handgun while making a demand for the car keys,” according to a police release. “The third man pushed the 65-year-old man out of the way, then all three men fled the area in the car.”

Members of the force’s Hold Up Squad issued a search warrant on July 14 and located one of the bandits and took him into custody.

A non-functioning handgun and some property taken from the car during the robbery was found in the search, police said.

Diondre Roy, 18, of Toronto, was arrested and charged with robbery with firearm, disguise with intent, fail to comply with probation, fail to comply with a release order and possession of property obtained by crime.

The suspect appeared in court for a bail hearing on July 15 at the Toronto West Court, 2201 Finch Avenue West.

Two suspects remains unidentified. They are both described as male, black, about 5’5” tall with a medium build.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7350, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), or at www.222tips.com.

 

 

Some local thieves are preying on struggling Alderwood family-owned restaurants trying hard to earn a living.

Two restaurants on Horner Avenue have been broken into from July 7 to July 13 setting back the owners thousands of dollars from the theft of cash, food and damages.

Police have not been able to identify the bandit from security video since he was wearing a hoodie and mask.

The man in a video is seen taking a rock and throwing it through a pane of glass that smashed to the floor.

The video shows the burglar entering the restaurant and running to the cash where he grabbed a small sum of cash from the register.

“It took less than a minute and he was in and out,” recalls a stunned Selda Oncel, who with husband Cenk, own Leziz Kitchen, at 418 Horner Avenue.

Oncel said the robbery cost her more than $1,200 out of their own pockets to replace the glass door. They also lost a small amount of cash from the register had to shut for a day as the door was repaired.

“We are a small business and its takes us a long time to earn that money,” she says.

Oncel says the robbery occurred on July 7 at about 2 a.m. Cenk was working at the eatery and had left about 1 a.m.

“Someone was watching and broke into the place after he left,” she believes. “We are very disappointed by this. We are struggling and it was quite a big hit for us.”

The family were able to pay for the repair through a line of credit, as it was the same amount they would have to pay their insurance company.

Leziz Kitchen has been open for about two years and its Turkish Mediterranean cuisine has gained quite a following online in the community. They can be reached at 416-259-9838.

Another restaurant was robbed on Horner Avenue a week later.

“Our beloved family owned small business Jodie’s Restaurant was broken into yesterday,” wrote Molly-Sarah Roberts, of Jodie’s Restaurant, at 313 Horner Avenue. “An enormous amount of food, money and alcohol was stolen not to mention the damages to the property.”

The family is urging residents to support local and dine in or take out.

Jodie’s Restaurant can be reached at 416-255-5552.

 

Toronto Police have arrested a man who was sought for assaulting an 85-year-old woman at Kipling subway station more than a week ago.

Police say the elderly woman was rushed to a local hospital following what they say is a random attack that occurred around 11:15 a.m. on July 7.

The victim was revived at the scene and taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries, paramedics say.

Kelon Peters, 35, of Toronto, has been charged with assault cause bodily harm, fraud in relation to fares and breach probation.

He is before the courts.

Since then more officers and TTC special constables have been deployed to patrol the sprawling station, in which a young woman was set afire and has since died second and third degree burns to her body.

A memorial service was held for Nyima Dolma, 28, at the Tibetan Cultural Centre, on Titan Road, that was attended by members of the community.

The support worker was on her way to her job when she was set on fire on a TTC bus near the Kipling station on June 17 and rushed to hospital with second and third-degree burns. She succumbed to her injuries on July 5.

A cremation service was held at Mississauga’s St. John’s Dixie Crematorium.

Almost $40,000 has been donated in a Go Fund Me campaign to help the mourning family pay for Dolma’s burial and other related expenses.

Tenzin Norbu, 33, of Toronto, has been charged with murder.

 

 

 

Police describe the crime as the lowest of the low.

Toronto Police have launched a city-wide dragnet to put behind bars a violent six-foot fugitive who  is on the lam for assaulting an 85-year-old woman at the Kipling subway station.

Officers have identified a suspect who is sought for the July 7 attack on the senior who was allegedly assaulted and suffered serious injuries.

The senior was knocked to the ground and was rushed to a local hospital.

Police said they were called to the Kipling Subway station around 11:15 a.m. for a report of the senior being assaulted.

The bully then fled the scene.

Kelon Peters, 35, of Toronto, is sought for assault cause bodily harm and fraud in relation to TTC fares.

Police said the suspect is violent and should not be approached. Call 911 if you see him.

 

 

The site of a former Royal Canadian Legion hall in New Toronto is being put to good use to help others in the community.

The Canadian Helen Keller Centre (CHKC) will be getting a new building at 150 Eighth Street, a site that kept the community together for decades as the Legion’s Branch 3.

The building, when built, will contain 56 fully accessible and affordable units for Canadians who are deafblind, CHKC officials said.

“Together, we are ensuring that Canadians who are deafblind live life as independently as possible,” the Centre posted on its Facebook page. “It’s a good day!”

Mayor John Tory and Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion, with other politicians on July 8 pledged funding for seven new affordable and supportive housing developments, as part of Phase Two of the federal Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI).

“I am committed to getting more housing built,” Tory said. “These seven projects demonstrate how our governments and community partners are working together to get more housing built as soon as possible.”

He said the projects will create 260 affordable and supportive homes in Toronto and “grow the capacity and expertise of Toronto’s non-profit housing development sector.”

 

The other projects include Wigwamen Incorporated, 525 Markham Rd., Akwa Honsta Non-Profit Aboriginal Homes, 136 Kingston Rd., St. Clare’s Multifaith Housing Society, 1120 Ossington Ave., WoodGreen Community Housing, 60 Bowden St. and 1080 Queen St. E., St. Felix Centre, 25 Augusta Ave., and the CHKC.

The Centre’s mission is ‘to empower the deafblind community through consumer driven services and opportunities that maximize independence.’

The City has set an ambitious target of approving 18,000 new supportive homes over 10 years in the HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan. The funds will support people experiencing or at risk of homelessness to achieve housing stability and begin improving their health and well-being.

New Toronto veterans, legionnaires and members of the public have gathered annually for more than 30 years  at a large cenotaph in front of former Branch 3 to remember Canadians fallen in war on the Sunday before Remembrance Day, and on November 11.

The huge granite cenotaph has since been moved to the grounds of Humber College at Kipling Ave. and Lake Shore Blvd. W.

 

Long Branch business owners vow to challenge a plan to remove their angled parking spots along the south side of Lake Shore Blvd. W., to install parallel parking and a widened sidewalk and patios.

Business owners say the removal of the angled parking means they will lose business since they will not be able to provide ample parking for their customers.

“We do not have laneway parking and the delivery trucks will have to park on the road and disrupt traffic flow,” said Corey Bowes, an official of the Long Branch Business Improvement Association.

He said it took quite a fight years ago to have the angled parking installed, mostly due to a lack of parking in the area.

Business people in the area say they already suffer slow sales due to an ongoing watermain installation project which has disrupted traffic flow. They warn a sidewalk installation project will mean more construction and less sales.

“Angled parking allows more cars to park per meter of sidewalk than parallel parking, so it’s a very efficient way to make parking available on this busy street,” according to a Long Branch Neighbourhood website.

Councillor Mark Grimes in a June 9 letter requested the General Manager, of the City’s Transportation Services,  report back by April next year of a ‘conceptual design to replace the angle parking between 3285 and 3809 Lake Shore Blvd. W.’

City staff are to report back with a “more detailed design and funding sources.”

Grimes said Lake Shore Boulevard West is classified as a “major arterial,” with two lanes in each direction with TTC streetcars sharing the inside with other traffic, and bike lanes designated on both sides of the road.

He said the road “is configured to allow angled parking, which protrudes onto the sidewalk and makes reversing out of parking spots into traffic potentially dangerous due to other parked vehicles restricting visibility of oncoming vehicular and bicycle traffic.”

“The public realm along Lake Shore Boulevard West would be greatly improved by replacing the angled parking with parallel parking spots and widening the sidewalk to allow more room for pedestrians, streetscape beautification, and restaurant patios,” Grimes wrote.

“Given that there is no major capital construction scheduled for this area in the next five years, having a conceptual plan in place would allow for the work to be undertaken through potential future private development,” he told City staff.

Etobicoke York Community Council in 2017 approved a Parking and Streetscape Pilot Project on Lake Shore Boulevard West, between Thirty Sixth Street and Thirty Seventh Street, with a conceptual design, cost and parking supply implications. The pilot project was never implemented

 

 

You too can be an online sleuth.

A search is underway in South Etobicoke for a 14-year-old girl who disappeared in Montreal more than 60 years ago after moving here with her family from Germany.

Rosemarie Helga Doederlein would be 81 today and is believed to be in the South Etobicoke area, according to her sister Vera, and daughter Christie Hastie, in an online posting.

The family has set up a Facebook page with thousands of followers trying to find Rosemarie.

It has been nearly 68 years since Vera last saw Rosemarie or heard her voice.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think of her,” Vera says.

Rosemarie was a teen when her mother sent her to a bakery a few blocks from their Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, apartment in Montreal one afternoon in late 1954. The non-English speaking sisters had arrived several weeks earlier from their native Germany.

Vera recalls her parents Hilda and Oskar died heartbroken.

“She was never found. No trace. Nothing. They looked for the rest of their lives,” she says.

“A lead came in saying they believe my sister Rosemarie may have ended up in the Etobicoke area in 1954 and lived there,” Vera said in a post.

“Does anyone recognize her or have heard any facts related to her middle name, hometown, date of birth or maiden name,” she asked online.

One follower responded “that age enhanced photo reminds me of a woman who lived in Mimico Estates. She was always out and about, retired and collected empties.”

“I spoke to her often and she had a European accent,” the woman wrote. “I suddenly stopped seeing her.”

The family can’t stop wondering if Rosemarie was sold for prostitution or child trafficking, domestic work or was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

“She was a gorgeous tall bright blue eyed girl who didn’t speak any English or French yet,” Vera said. “She was kind and innocent and very helpful.”

The family still has hope and is working with the Jane Doe Project, which helps reunify families.

For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/missing1954rosemarie/

 

TTC burn victim Nyima Dolma was happy and living her dream in Canada when her life was suddenly cut short.

Nyima, 28, was set on fire with a flammable liquid on June 17 and suffered fatal second and third degree burns to her body. She was on a TTC bus minutes away from Kipling Station when the attack occurred.

Nyima was of Tibetan background and was accepted in Canada with her family from India several years ago. They had been living in the Mundgod region in India, in an area known as a ‘Tibetan refugee establishment.’

Her dad, Tsering Pasang, had arrived in Toronto earlier and held three jobs as he awaited his wife and two daughters to join him for a new life in Canada.

“Her family and friends mentioned that she had devoted her life to helping those around her,” family members wrote about Nyima on social media.

“My sister was on her way to work as a professional caregiver when she was attacked by a stranger who threw lighter fluid on her and set her on fire,” according to her sister.

Her dad Tserinmg, who suffered from depression, couldn’t handle it and committed suicide after hearing the shocking news of his daughter’s death in her new country.

“My mom and I are grieving and trying to make sense of the situation,” Nima’s sister wrote.  “He (our dad) will forever shine the brightest in my heart.”

Almost $10,000 has been raised in a Go Fund Me campaign to help with the funerals of dad and daughter.

The grieving family said they will use the money for funeral expenses and health-care costs.

It is reported that the services will occur on July 15 at 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Dixie Crematorium, at 737 Dundas St E., Mississauga.

Meanwhile, the accused Tenzin Norbu has had charges against him upgraded to murder.

He appeared before an Etobicoke court earlier this week.

 

Alderwood’s Kenji Tamane is a top Canadian gymnast who is on his way to achieving his dream of competing for his country in an upcoming Olympic Games.

Tamane, 20, and members of the Canadian gymnastics team left Canada on July 10 to compete in two major international competitions that will help propel him to his goal; to represent Canada in the 2024 or 2028 Olympic Games.

“I am very excited and looking forward to the competition,” Tamane said before catching a flight at Pearson Airport. “I will be competing with the Canadian team at the Pan Am and Commonwealth Games.”

He is in the gym training daily and was a member of the Junior Canadian National Team in 2018 and 2019.

Tamane placed fourth in the rings competition at the 2019 Canadian Championships.

At the 2018 Championships, the athlete placed first on rings, second on pommel horse, third in the all-around, fourth on high bar and fifth on parallel bars. He also came in second at Canadian National Championships in May 2022.

“I specialize in the rings and competitive gymnastics and hold several medals in Canada for the sport,” he said “My goal is to place in the top three in the Pan Am and Commonwealth Games.”

The former Silverthorn Collegiate Institute Computer student is training full time these days in a bid to achieve an Olympic gold or other medals for himself, or the Canadian delegation.

His family moved to the Alderwood area about five years ago so Kenji, and his brother, can train at Toronto Gymnastics International (TGI) at 77 Brown’s Line.

Tamane and some of the Canadian squad will be competing at the 2022 Pan American Gymnastics Championships which runs from July 15 to 17 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

They then fly to Britain to train and get ready to compete in the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games that runs from July 28 to August 8, in Birmingham.

The Commonwealth Games is televised and the competition is tough. Team Canada will compete against the 72 nations and territories of the Commonwealth across 19 different sports.

The 2024 Summer Olympics Games will take place from July 26 to August 11 in Paris, France.