ONE OF THE TREES (by Canadian flag) slated to be cut for cycle path. The removals of the 13 trees have been placed on hold for now.

No trees will be cut down for now.

A Long Branch property owner has for now stopped the city from chopping down 13 healthy and much-needed trees as they upgrade bicycle lanes between Birmingham Street and Dwight Avenue.

Christina Sobolak is the owner of a historic Bell Telephone Building, at 80 Birmingham Street, which is now converted into the Birmingham Business Centre.

Sobolak was stunned to see in a city plan that one of five huge Linden trees that are planted around her iconic building will be cut down. The tree is estimated at about 60-years-old.

The City of Toronto is upgrading the existing bicycle lanes on Birmingham Street between Kipling Avenue and Dwight Avenue to protected bicycle lanes, called cycle tracks.

“I cannot believe this. I haven’t been able to sleep at night,” she said. “I love this tree’”

The city in a letter said due to the nature of the project about 13 trees will be removed.

City officials in a construction notice said one ‘street tree’ will be removed on Birmingham Street, nine street trees on Dwight Ave. and three from Murrie Street on the boulevard.

Sobolak said the trees slated to be ‘massacred’ are healthy and good for the environment.

“There is no need to cut this tree if you are making my lawn longer towards the east and my driveway narrower,” she wrote to city officials. “That tree is part of a matching set of Linden trees that encircles my beautiful building, “the beauty queen” of Birmingham St.”

The city said concrete curb, painted buffer and bollards would be added to separate cycle tracks from the motor vehicle lanes. The existing westbound bicycle lane between Islington Avenue and Dwight Avenue would be relocated against the north curb, between the parking lane and sidewalk.

The road resurfacing between Islington Avenue and Dwight Avenue will include sidewalk upgrades that reduce crossing distances and encouraging slower turning speeds. Five parking spots will be lost.

However, Councillor Mark Grimes said later the tree removals will be stopped and other options are being looked at.

Suresh Pillai, a field ambassador for the project, said “we have reviewed the situation … we wish to inform you that the tree will not be removed at this location.”

The heritage designated Bell building was completed in 1926 and by 1929 some 52 staff worked there and handled a daily average of 13,000 calls to Humber Bay, the Towns of Mimico, New Toronto and Long Branch. The building served the community until 1981.

ONE OF THE MANY WW1 warplanes that was flown in battle by Gauld, inset.

The Gaulds’ are a prominent family in Mimico with one member having a school named after him and the other a true hero and Canadian World War 1 flying ace.

Lieutenant George William Gladstone Gauld, lived on Lake Shore Blvd. W., for many years and was a legendary aviator in WW1, who was credited with five aerial victories.

Gauld prowess with aircraft occurred while flying a Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5a for 74^th ‘Tiger’ Squadron in 1918.  He, and fellow aces Ira Jones and Harold Shoemaker, in July 1918, ‘flamed’ a Rumpler reconnaissance plane.

And on August 2, he and Frederick Gordon, cooperated to capture an LVG German recon plane. On 26 October, Gauld drove down a German-made Fokker D.VII out of control. On 1 November 1918, he captured a Fokker D.VII and drove another one down out of control.

The Germans had produced more than 3,300 of the formidable Fokkers fighters by late 1918.

After the war, according to The Mimico Story by Harvey Currell, Gauld studied law at Osgoode Hall and in addition to his practice, went on to serve as Mimico’s town solicitor for 40 years.

Gauld was married to Irene Davidson, daughter of Douglas Davidson the local Justice of the Peace.  Her brother Bryce Davidson was shot down over Germany on July 1918 and killed.

The aviator son of Janet and George Gauld, was a practicising barrister by 1930.

The flying Gauld was well-placed and belonged to the Connought and Lakeshore Lodges. He was also a member of the Ontario Club, the Royal Canadian Yacht Club and the Rotary Club.

During the war, about some 207 pilots had died in combat and 79 pilots died from non-combat related causes while flying the British bi-plane fighter aircraft, called the S.E.5 and S.E.5a, during World War I.

Fellow Ace James Ira Thomas Jones scored 37 victories flying the British-made S.E.5a. He volunteered to fight the Bolsheviks and was posted to the Archangel front but saw no further air combat. He retired from the Royal Air Force in 1936.

Ace Harold Goodman Shoemaker, of New Jersey, answered a call for volunteers in 1917 and was sent to Toronto for training with the Royal Flying Corps. To gain combat experience, he was attached to the Royal Air Force, joining 74 Squadron in July 1918. After scoring five victories as an S.E.5a pilot, he was reassigned in 1918. Shoemaker and another U.S. pilot went down over German lines when their Sopwith Camels collided. Reported missing on 5 October 1918, the International Red Cross later reported that Shoemaker died in a prisoner of war camp in Germany. He was buried in the cemetery at Bony.

A school was also named after the family. The George R. Gauld Junior School, at 200 Melrose St., was opened in 1923 and has been named after the Superintendent of Education for almost 100 years.

St. Margaret Church New Toronto is 115 years old.

It must have been the loudest belly laugh that I heard in the last year.

The patio was filled and it was nice to see people milling around and smiling again following a Stage 2 opening of businesses on June 30.

Patio lovers were munching on pub fare again and chatting with their friends in the warm sunshine of a fine South Etobicoke day.

At one table old friends were discussing the virus, or the Maple Leafs failed run for the Stanley Cup, when someone made a remark and the table burst in laughter; a loud deep belly laugh that erupts between old friends who have not seen each other for some time.

A deep hug, with no mask for a change, the friends hugged as if it was the last time.

The orders for wings and draft beer our local pubs and clubs were flowing on this sunny day; as residents compared notes on those who survived COVID-19 and the many others who didn’t make it.

It seems like every few days we would hear of another friend or neighbour who died in solitude or did not have the support required. Many had a small, if any funeral service, due to virus restrictions.

Our community is tight and news slowly made the rounds of those who, God bless their souls, were taken away from us by the dreaded pandemic. Business or civic leaders, warehouse worker or courier; the virus went after all with vengeance, no holds barred.

Most of us today are thankful that we made it through the global pandemic and can survive to live another day with our friends and loved ones. Thankful we are to be here and appreciate life.

Still, it bothers many of us not knowing the full extent of our friends and cherished community members who we have lost and will never see again. We will remember them.

Members of St. Margaret church in New Toronto, and other groups, are going around the community collecting the names and information of those whose lives were taken by the virus.

It is a large undertaking, since many of those who passed were living in long term care homes.

Rev. Jaqueline Daley said a memorial service will be held at her Sixth Street church to pay tribute to the dozens from the area who were taken away by COVID-19.

“There are still many others who we don’t know about,” she says. “We will give them the blessing that they all deserve.”

A tribute will be paid to those who passed. Their names will be listed in a special service to honour each and every one of them.

They all will be honoured as they rightfully should in a showing of love and respect by neighbours, loved ones and community residents in this time of deep loss.

Tom Godfrey is Publisher of The South Etobicoke News, who lives in the community. He was a Reporter at the Toronto Sun for many years before deciding to use his skills for community journalism. 

Summer heat is upon us. The rising temperatures, cool refreshing lakes, barbeques and iced cold drinks brewing are all around us. I ask you to pause now and stop to see the beauty all around you. We tend to think that beauty is the grand mountain side or the glass lake reflecting a majestic forest. We clammer to get to some secluded hideaway that no one knows about to find a prized piece of land, our wonderful earth has created.

But beauty is just about everywhere. It is right here. Look around. I am willing to bet, that as you take a moment you notice new ‘old’ things and places around you that you have forgotten in one way or another.

“Life is a blank canvas, and you need to throw all the paint on it you can.”

― Danny Kaye

Whether you delight in seeing your childrens’ smiling faces or your favorite, glorious bright red, potted geraniums blooming at their fullest in this summer heat, look around and take a deep breath AND allow yourself to feel visually nourished and comforted by the beauty that surrounds you. The smiles, the colour, the blooms, the flight of the birds, the wind in the trees, the rising smoke of the bbq are pleasing to the senses. They enhance our life. They strengthen our hearts and the love we feel, daily.

In the summertime, we usually think of getaways and holidays and a lot of lots of travel. I’m sure many of us are going on a camping trip or a hiking trip, or two. And, as there are more places accessible to us to travel, we get away to beautiful grottoes, waterfalls, seasides and mountainsides. This month, I want you to also seek out the beauty that surrounds you every day. Look at your wonderful partner or your family or a smiling friendly face from your next-door neighbor. Really look, taking a breath, taking a moment to visually digest the connection that grows between, each time.  Maybe, you recognize your greatest joy and beauty when you see your loving pet that is always happy to see you.

This month, let us focus  on seeing the beauty that surrounds us as we choose wonderful adventures near and far. No matter where you go, allow the experience of you being able to see even the tiniest treasures to fill your heart and help you feel refreshed, rejuvenated, and in love with life again. It takes so little time and space for you to find beauty in just about anywhere. Maybe there’s a duck family with ducklings floating by on the river. Maybe it’s your favourite ice cream shop down the street that does the most perfect triple decker ice cream scoop.

Maybe, just maybe, as you see your own reflection in the flowing river or a serene, calm lake you may see the beauty that is within you. I wish for you to see the the beauty that is you.

Let us venture out this month, explore and open our arms up to seeing the beauty absolutely everywhere we go. Allow the beauty that surrounds you to inspire you and fill your cup to the fullest.

“A journey is best measured in friends, rather than miles.”

– Tim Cahill

Share with us, let us know where you find beauty this month!

Monika Meulman is the founder and owner, The Healing Muse Apothecary, 3180 Lake Shore Blvd. W., 416-347-5449 @healingmuse or visit www.healingmuse.com

This July 1 ought to be a day of remembrance and reflection on the universal right to dignity.  I asked my niece, Natalie, for her thoughts regarding the discovery of the Kamloops’ and Saskatchewan’s lost children.

Natalie is a member of the urban Indigenous Anishinaabe Kwe and member of Shawanaga First Nation. She is a wise, thoughtful and respected in her community. She wrote, “When we lose a child they take with them a part of our bodies, our energy, our spirits. Without them, we would be less of who we are and less of who we could have become. Now imagine this on a grander scale across family members, across communities, across nations, across the country, and across time. Each life isn’t just one life taken.”

It sweeps like a bush fire that effects everyone who was close to them. That effect ripples outward, and through generations, to relatives who just know them by stories and the trauma that was inherited. Replanting a forest after a bush fire seems like an insurmountable task. That’s where we are now – a people in mourning trying to regrow what was taken from us, something that will never be exactly the same, while the perpetrators keep lighting fires and calling it reconciliation.

The bush fire analogy is fitting, if we look beyond the immediate moral impact of these forced removals. Modern science tells us that an entire population for now and future generations can be damaged. Family is essential for the development of healthy humans. It provides the love, training, and support for childhood growth. Breaking the family unit destroys identity. People become commodities.

Inuit were identified by numbers. Modern psychology speaks about separation anxiety and other illnesses. If untreated, they lead to a number of issues such as anxiety, depression and various character disturbances. Without family or therapy a person is left alone, unaware of the cause of their stress. They often seek self-medication like drugs, alcohol and even suicide.

Genetics suggests that early life trauma may alter genetic make-up, transferring the condition to future generations.

Natalie noted that: by banning long hair, they introduced gender roles that weren’t part our societies; by banning our clothing, they banned how we chose to present ourselves to the Creator; By banning language, we lost our oral history; By banning our interrelationships, our knowledge of parenting and how we saw ourselves within nature that was fundamental to our survival was lost.

Our traditional rules were based on honour, ancestors, sharing, dignity and grace.” They respected their surroundings and the spirits of animals and forests for their gifts of food and shelter. The land within tribal territories was for all; unlike the Europeans whose rights were based on property ownership. Their world was one, in harmony with nature. Only now, we appreciate our duty to protect ‘Mother Earth’

We took advantage of their traditions of trust. We saw them as naive. We failed our promise of land, clean water and health care. Without them in the War of 1812, we all would be waking up under the Stars and Stripes. While they trusted us, we were deceitful and treated their families as a commodity without name, courtesy or explanation. In law, a concept of Unjust Enrichment suggests you may be indebted to someone if you were enriched at the expense of the other without any good legal reason permitting you to keep that enrichment for yourself. If you took unfair advantage and continue to profit from the other person, the other party may be entitled to damages – we may still owe the First Peoples.

The last school closed 25 years ago. Natalie is entitled to rage, yet, she reflects hope and writes “While our communities are still recovering from the pow wow grounds, social media, and nations. We celebrate our resilience. We are community-builders, even in spaces that formerly wouldn’t have accepted us.”

We are reclaiming our spirit teachings and with universal support, not ‘colonial direction’, with dignity not patronage, we can grow together. Re-planting a forest after a bush fire seems like an insurmountable task but if you have faith in the forest, you know that Bush Fires release nutrients; provide exposure to more sunlight, and prompt certain trees to bare seeds.

It takes time to regrow, and it will never be the same forest, but it will grow. Just stop lighting fires. We owe everyone dignity. We are unable to move into the future without coming to grips with our past. We owe everyone Justice, not just monuments to honour those forgotten. We need a forensic investigation into the circumstances of these deaths. There are no time limitations here.

Judge Lloyd Budzinski retired after 28 years and was a former Crown Attorney, Defence Counsel and Ontario’s Assistant Deputy Minister of Criminal Law. He was a Chief Prosecutor in the trial of ex-RCMP officer Patrick Michael Kelly, who was found guilty of murder for throwing his wife from a 17th floor balcony in March 1981.

ETOBICOKE SWIMMER Summer McIntosh will be the youngest to represent Canada at the Tokyo 2021 Games.

KATRINA BELLIO is the third Etobicoke student to be part to the Canadian Olympic swim team competing at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

SWIMMER RUSLAN Gaziev also hails from Etobicoke and this is first games.

South Etobicoke has always been known for our top swimmers, from Marilyn Bell who swam across Lake Ontario to those making a name for themselves today.

It is no surprise that Etobicoke Swim Club’s Summer McIntosh will be among the youngest member of the Canadian Olympic team competing at the Tokyo 2021 Olympic Games this month.

McIntosh, 14, a Grade 10 Student at Silverthorn Collegiate, is making a name for herself in elite swimming.

She narrowly edged Rio Olympic star Penny Oleksiak in June in the 200 metre freestyle finals and won herself a spot on the Olympic team.

Oleksiak later described McIntosh as “all gas, no brakes.”

“I know going into races, she’s going to go, go, go,” says Oleksiak of McIntosh. “I love her work ethic. She’s really strong in and out of the pool mentally.”

Swimming Canada and the Canadian Olympic Committee have said 26 swimmers will represent our country in Tokyo. There will be 16 females and 10 males.

Three Etobicoke Swim Club swimmers including; Katrina Bellio, Ruslan Zaziev and McIntosh will be competing in Tokyo. Etobicoke has placed 31 swimmers on Canadian Olympic Teams since 1956.

“One of Silverthorn Collegiate Institute’s own Grade 10 students, Summer McIntosh is on her way to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics,” tweeted school principal, Sam Iskandar. “Congrats for swimming and placing first in Olympics qualifers. Proud moment.”

Etobicoke swim experts say McIntosh appears to be following the success of her mother, the former Jill Horstead, a 1984 Canadian Olympic swimmer, and former All-American swimmer who attended the University of Florida.

“The genetics are such that McIntosh, based on what she has been able to accomplish so far, certainly has the potential to be even better,” one official said.

McIntosh is described as “an extremely talented swim teenage sensation … nothing short of unbelievable.”

She was named Swim Ontario Athlete of the Month after her record breaking performances at the Spring Ontario Swimming Championships.

Bellio and McIntosh had been teammates for several years at Etobicoke, one of the top teams in Canada, before McIntosh made the jump to the Toronto High Performance Centre.

Bellio won the 1,500 freestyle at the Canadian Olympic Trials, with a time of more than two seconds required for her to pack her bags for the Tokyo Olympics.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” Bellio said. “I’m still in shock. It’s incredible to be 16 years old and be nominated for the Olympics.”

Gasviev, 21, finished third in the 100-metre freestyle in the 2021 Canadian Olympic swimming trials that qualified him for Tokyo.

The Summer Olympics are set for July 23 to August 8 in Tokyo.

The Etobicoke Swim Club was founded in 1954. Its goals are to support young people with the drive, determination, talent and desire, to realize their maximum potential in competitive swimming.