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.

 

Mimico road-builder James Franceschini arrived in Canada at the age of 15 in 1906 with no money, could not speak English and had no place to stay.

He was helped by a Toronto cop who found the teen a place to sleep that first night in this city. The young man found a job the very next day.

Franceschini, who would work hard and overcome many struggles, became a self-made millionaire in less than 10-years in Canada.

The entrepreneur in 1912 founded and built Dufferin Construction, Canada’s largest road construction company, which celebrated its 100^th anniversary in 2012.

As soon as he made his first millions, he lost the fortune due to a bad contract and a decline in construction due to World War 1. He had his steam shovel, horses and equipment repossessed.

No one to be kept down. He embarked on a series of small contracts with the City of Toronto, which included clearing snow and repairing roads. He also worked excavating the foundation for General Motors Canada assembly plant in Oshawa.

By 1917, Dufferin Construction won the first provincial highway construction tender to grade the Rouge Hill portion of Kingston Road, known as Highway 2.

Franceschini, and his wife, Annie, had a daughter Myrtle in 1921, and a few years later went shopping for a mansion to join their friends on the prime Mimico lakefront.

They purchased a grand manor home named ‘Ormscliffe,’ described as a California-style bungalow and renamed the estate “Myrtle Villa” after their daughter.

He made headlines in the 1930’s when a gang of extortioners threatened to kidnap his daughter and fired a shot through the window of his home.

Their Lake Shore Blvd. and Royal York Rd. area mansion stood on five-acres of prime lakefront property. A house was built for his brother Leonard and row housing for staff. Franceschini purchased land and constructed an equestrian centre for his prized Hackney horses.

The couple were devoted to charitable work, and in 1930 they hosted the Shiners’ North American Convention in Toronto, with a reception at Myrtle Villa.

In the 1930s, Dufferin was flying high. The company was building major highways for all levels of the Ontario government. Then suddenly the boss was thrown in jail.

In the 1940s, Franceschini’s company was building minesweepers for the Canadian Navy, when he was arrested on suspicion of engaging in “Fascist activities.”

He was detained for a year in an internment camp and was released to receive medical treatment. A public inquiry determined his complete innocence. Now in ill health and semi-retired, the businessman moved into a new home in Mount Tremblant, where he lived until his death in September 1960.

Myrtle Villa was sold in 1959 to Amedeo and Lawrence Longo, brothers who developed the Amedeo Garden Court Apartments on the property. They retained and repurposed most of the existing buildings and garden features, while new apartments were constructed among the estate buildings.

 

Toronto Police say the attempted abduction of an eight-year-old Etobicoke girl was much more serious than many first believed.

Officers are asking the parents and teachers of young children to remain vigilant.

Police from 23 Division said the incident occurred last March 19 at around 12:27 p.m. when officers responded to a call for unknown trouble at St. John Vianney Catholic School, in the Albion Rd. and Islington Ave. area.

Duty Insp. Michael Williams said children were playing outside at lunchtime at the south end of the school, when a man approached the girl and attempted to put her over his shoulder and flee.

Williams said other children in the playground noticed what was going on and approached the man, which seemingly scared him off. Police say he left the girl and appeared to flee toward the Humber River ravine.

Police said the child didn’t sustain any injuries and it is unclear if she was targeted.

The man is described as white, six-feet-tall, with a heavy build. Officers are concerned that the suspect was dressed in all black, police said.

He was wearing a black ski mask, black baseball hat, black sweater, black gloves, black pants, black shoes and carrying a black backpack, police said in a release.

The principal put the school in lockdown immediately, and students were brought inside, police said. All children were accounted for.

The Toronto Catholic District School Board said in a statement that it is “deeply troubled” by the incident and urged anyone with information to contact police.

Several other schools in the area were also put on hold and secure. All alerts have been lifted.
Police continue to look into the reports and urge anyone who was in the area, that may have dashcam or security camera video, to contact police.
Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7474, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477) or online at www.222tips.com.