Two 18-year-olds from Toronto have been charged by police in connection with a series of violent bank robberies, including one in Mimico in which two officers were hospitalized.

The 22 Division officers were treated for cuts and stab wounds in hospital and released.

Police allege the men are responsible for four bank robberies which were committed in the South Etobicoke area in a violent spree that terrorized tellers from January 25 to March 24.

Hold Up Squad officers said during the robberies a man would enter the bank with a balaclava mask to conceal his identity. He would approach the teller and hand over a note that said he had a gun and demanded cash.

Police said during the March 26 robbery, in which the officers were injured, the men were armed with knives.

“The man then went behind the teller counter while holding the knife and yelling at the teller,” officers said in a release.

Plainclothes officers were nearby and arrived at the scene with the men still inside the bank.

“One man ran out of the rear exit with an officer pursuing him,” police said. “The officer caught up with the man and was able to place him in custody after a violent struggle.”

Another violent struggle broke out between the officer and suspect inside the bank.

“The man stabbed the officer in the abdomen during the struggle causing serious injuries,” according to police.

Hold Up Squad officers conducted a search warrant and located clothing and other evidence linking one man to several robberies.

Neelkanth Shah, 18, was arrested on March 26 and charged with: attempt murder, aggravated assault, robbery with an offensive weapon, four counts of robbery and five counts of disguise with intent.

He appeared for a bail hearing on March 27 at Old City Hall Court.

Nathaniel Mohabir, 18, was arrested the same day and charged with: robbery with an offensive weapon, disguise with intent and assault with intent to resist arrest.

He is slated to return to court on May 3.

Police suspect this family may have been using COVID-19 to avert a massive drug bust.

Two members of a Brampton family will appear in provincial court in April after $1.6 million worth of drugs were found in a suitcase belonging to one of their children, aged 10 and 12.

The RCMP Cpl. Dmitri Malakhov said the family of two adults and the two children were arriving from Montego Bay, Jamaica, on February 2021, at Pearson Airport when their luggage were examined.

Police said one piece of the children’s luggage contained 7.7 kilograms of cocaine, worth $962,500; 93 kilograms of marijuana, worth $688,940, and 218 grams of hash, worth $4,360.

“A suitcase concealing cannabis was checked in under the ticket of a 12-yar-old girl,” the RCMP said in a statement. The value of the drugs seized is estimated at $1.6 million.

Police said both parents were charged with three counts each of importation of a controlled substance and three counts of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.

The children were released to other family members.

“Seizures like this underscore the necessity for the RCMP to work closely with our law enforcement partners and the public to protect our communities and our border,” Said Inspector Barry Dolan, RCMP Officer in Charge of Toronto Airport Detachment.

 

The needy in the community are the big winners as more two vanloads of non-perishable items were collected in the first annual Lakeshore Village BIA Cruising Easter Bunny.

A team of volunteers on March 27 circled the area collecting bags of food that were left by residents on their porches to help St. Margaret’s Church, on Sixth Street.

All the children had an opportunity to have their photos taken with the Easter Bunny, who said it was the most photos he ever had taken of him.

Organizers said the campaign was a success and they plan to continue it next year.

St. Margaret’s official Julie McMillan said their cupboards were “overflowing” with the much-needed donations to help feed the community.

“We have finished sorting out the food and for the first time in a long time our cupboards are overflowing,” McMillan told volunteers.

The food will be made available to those in need through programs offered by the church.

Kris Korwin-Kuczynski, Chair of the Lakeshore Village BIA, said it was a very successful food drive and thanked the many residents for pitching in.

“This community has been good to us,” he said. “Now it is our turn to give back to the community.”

He thanks St. Margaret’s Church and the New Toronto Ratepayers Association for their support.

John, a volunteer, said he was taken back by the large amount of food left on the porches to pick up.

“It was a fair bit of work,” John said. “But we totally loved it and enjoyed watching the children with the Easter Bunny made our day.”

The Easter Bunny was surrounded by children as he hopped along Lake Shore Blvd., near Sixth Street, handing out candies.

The drivers of vehicles passing by did a double take and many pulled over so their children could get some candies and have a photo taken with the Easter Bunny. Others were blowing their horns.

One young child, in a stroller, recognized the bunny and demanded to have a photo taken with the long-eared rabbit.

Mimico residents are in shock after learning that two Toronto Police officers were injured in their local bank.

The officers, who have not been identified, are in hospital with knife wounds after a bank robbery in Mimico went sour.

Officers from 22 Division were called to a TD Canada Trust Bank, at 2472 Lakeshore Blvd. W., and Allen Avenue, just after 7 p.m. on March 26.

Police say detectives were hot on the trail of the thieves, who are believed to be committing robberies in the Etobicoke area.

Two plainclothes officers, who were working on another case nearby, heard the call and rushed to the bank and apparently confronted the robbers inside.

Insp. Andy Singh said both suspects were armed with knives and got into an altercation with the officers.

One officer was stabbed and the other was cut, Singh said.

One man was arrested inside the bank, while the other fled the scene and was arrested after a short foot chase down Lake Shore Blvd. W. Two knives were recovered at the scene.

“It truly showcases how dangerous and how quick these situations and how they can quickly escalate,” Singh said.

He said both officers were transported to hospital and were in stable condition. They were visited by Chief James Ramer later that night.

Police said there was no threat to public safety.

The suspects are slated to appear for bail hearings.

 

By DAVE KOSONIC

Many requiring a trim relied on barber Charlie Sabia to do the job at his barbershop located at the Burnhamthorpe Mall near Renforth Drive.

Charlie would likely be surprised if he discovered that his former shop is now the home of the Blackstar Cannabis facility that is one of many new marijuana shops in Etobicoke.

The barber was one of the originals at this mall where he cut hair for about 35 years. He retired from barbering a few years ago.

“It is midnight in my life,” he told me as he explained that he was not renewing the lease for his shop at the west end of the plaza.

But Charlie had no need to apologize because he was aged 85 when he set down his barbering scissors for the final time. He earned his barber’s license in his native Italy when he was 16 years old and worked steadily until his retirement.

Charlie had hundreds of customers that came from all over Etobicoke because his patrons knew he would cut their hair to match their personal preferences.

His English was tilted and he would say: “I will cut your hair how you want. You have to wear it. I don’t”. If a customer wanted to sit quietly and relax while Charlie coiffed hair he respected his client’s preference and remained silent.

On the other hand patrons who wanted to talk knew that Charlie listened to every word. “What you tell to me nobody else will never know,” he would assure me if I told him some secrets while seated in his barber’s chair.

Charlie took public transportation to and from work daily which was more than an hour each way he commented. He wore a blue smock while barbering but was always dressed in suit tie and the works when travelling to work or returning home after a day’s work. He was a sharp dresser.

Charlie told me that each evening he and his wife shared a bottle of wine during dinner which always included original Italian-style pasta mixed with seafood prepared by his wife. Charlie would then giggle and add that that he never worried about drinking and driving because he never drove a car and didn’t possess a drivers’ license.

I have no way of contacting Charlie and I hope that he is still enjoying his well-deserved retirement with his wife at his side. A couple of other barbers subsequently took over Charlie’s shop after he departed but both gave up ownership because good old Charlie just could not be replaced.

Toronto Public Library staff are getting involved in the COVID-19 fight.

Library workers starting next week will begin contacting about 35,000 seniors to let them know they are eligible for COVID-19 vaccines and to answer their questions.

Library staff will initially be reaching out to 10,000 library users who are age 80 and over, according to the city, followed by 25,000 calls to seniors between ages of 70 and 79.

A Vaccine Equity Transportation Plan was also announced to help ensure vulnerable residents and seniors can obtain the vaccinations by removing obstacles to transportation and making it easier to travel to clinics.

Officials said starting March 29, the City will have transportation options for seniors aged 75-years-old and over by extending service hours for assisted ride services provided by community organizations.

And Toronto Community Housing (TCHC) is undertaking work to help seniors in their 83 seniors’ buildings get vaccinated without delay.

The City has reached out to 40 senior-serving organization from across Toronto, offering financial support to increase staffing and redeploy staff to reach clients and support booking of vaccine appointments over the coming weeks.

The City has offered agencies up to $10,000 to ramp up capacity for this important work from now until the end of April.

“The agencies were selected to ensure the City is reaching targeted populations, including Indigenous, Black and South Asian communities and other population groups including Hispanic, Tamil, Korean and LGBTQ2S seniors,” the city said.

More than 200 pharmacies in Toronto are offering the AstraZeneca vaccine right now and the City expects that number to grow as the Government of Ontario expands the pharmacy vaccine program.

Existing Wheel-Trans customers who are eligible for vaccination can book rides to and from their vaccine appointments by calling Wheel-Trans Reservations at 416-393-4222, seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. or online at the Wheel-Trans Self-Booking

Customers who qualify for Wheel-Trans service, and would like to arrange a trip to and from their vaccination, can apply by calling Wheel-Trans Customer Service at 416-393-4111, Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The easiest ways for eligible seniors to book appointments are: online (City-operated clinics): https://covid-19.ontario.ca/book-vaccine/

Phone (for City-operated clinics): 1-888-999-6488 (TTY 1-866-797-0007), online (hospital clinics): www.vaccineto.ca or phone (hospital clinics) at 1-888-385-1910.

“The sooner we are all vaccinated, the sooner we can bring this pandemic to an end, so when you become eligible please take steps to register and get vaccinated.” said Mayor John Tory.

 

 

 

Now that the Campbell’s Soup Factory lands in Mimico have been flattened and its smokestack demolished, residents are preparing for a fight.

A Go Fund Me campaign has been launched to raise funds to pay for an appeal that has been submitted to the Committee of Adjustment, said organizer Zsuzsanna Lichner.

“The Campbell Soup Factory in Mimico has been closed down,” Lichner wrote on the Go Fund Me Page. “It is turning into a last-mile distribution center that would operate 24/7 at 86 loading bays for heavy-load trucks.”

She said “residents were not given a chance to express their views about the development that is only a few feet away from their house and school.”

The area resident said a Committee of Adjustment has approved 242 extra parking spots and a parking entrance that abuts a residential street.

“We believe that will lead to a major disruption of the local traffic and negatively impact road safety,” Lichner wrote. “We are raising funds to pay for the appeal that that has been submitted.”

The factory, which opened in 1931, has been flattened to make way for what will be a “last mile” distribution centre.”

Campbell’s 1931 and 1941 facades will be retained. One that was built in 1944 but no longer exists, will be rebuilt.

The factory operated from 1913 to 2014 and at one time employed generations of local residents and purchased crops from area farms.

Proposed by QuadReal Property Group, with Weston Consulting as planners and designed by Ware Malcomb Architecture, the project consists of three one-storey industrial warehouse buildings that will replace eight smaller industrial buildings that collectively served as the former Campbell Soup Factory.

No date has been set for a hearing.

So far just more than $100 have been raised in the campaign, which has a goal of $300.

The Ontario Budget brought good news in that more money is being spent on health care and new hospital beds across the province.

Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethenfalvy’s 2021 budget on March 24 pledges an additional $5.1 billion to create 3,100 new hospital beds.

It is part of a $30-billion, 10-year expansion and renovation plans for Ontario’s hospitals.

He said new spending in major hospital projects are underway, or in planning, and includes a rebuild of the Mississauga hospital in partnership with Trillium Health Partners.

The redevelopment plan will involve a new acute care tower at the Mississauga Hospital and new post-acute complex at the Queensway Health Centre. There will also be a new wing to be built at the Peel Memorial Centre for Integrated Health and Wellness.

The proposed projects will free up a significant amount of capacity at the Credit Valley Hospital site.

There will also be an addition of inpatient beds and ambulatory care at London Health Sciences Centre and new hospitals are planned for Windsor-Essex and Moosonee and ambulatory care centre on Moose Factory Island.

He said Trillium will continue to address capacity challenges as a result of growing demand for health care services and aging infrastructure.

Bethenfalvy said construction is underway at new long‐term-care homes in Mississauga, Ajax and Toronto under the Long‐Term Care Accelerated Build Pilot Program. Completion dates are slated for early 2022.

The province announced a second round of Ontario Small Business Support Grant payments to eligible recipients. Approximately 120,000 small businesses will receive an additional $1.7 billion through this round of support in the form of grants of a minimum of $10,000 and up to $20,000, bringing the estimated total support provided through this grant to $3.4 billion.

They will spend $614 million to provide workers with employment and training support, with $117 million targeted towards women, youth, people with disabilities, racialized and Indigenous people. There will be $21 billion in funding over the next 10 years to expand and repair highways and bridges and $14 billion over the next 10 years to build and upgrade schools.

“You can’t have a healthy economy without healthy people,” said Bethlenfalvy. “For the past year, we have been focused on protecting people from COVID-19. Many challenges lie ahead.”

The spending includes $1.8 billion in 2021–22 to continue providing care for COVID‐19 patients, address surgical backlogs and keep pace with patient needs, he stated.

The province will spend $61.6 billion over the next 10 years in public transit, including the five priority transit projects, which are four subway projects in the Greater Toronto Area and the updated Hamilton LRT project), the GO Rail Expansion program and the Kitchener GO Rail Expansion project.

Trillium Health Partners is one of the largest community-based hospital systems in Canada. It is comprised of the Credit Valley Hospital, the Mississauga Hospital and the Queensway Health Centre.

The hospital in the last year received over 1.7 million patient visits and 276,003 visits to the hospital’s Emergency Departments and Urgent Care Centre. They at the same time  performed 65,520 surgeries and delivered 8,364 babies.