The owners and staff of Future Bakery are breathing easier today after a man was arrested for defacing a Ukrainian poster on their store at least six times.

Toronto Police believe they have ended what is called a ‘multiple hate-motivated mischief to property.’

Police said the man repeatedly visited and defaced a sign outside Future Bakery, on North Queen Street, from February 7 to March 9 when he was arrested in an undercover operation.

Officers said on February 7 the suspected visited the bakery and allegedly spray painted anti-Ukrainian slogans on a large mural hung outside.

Police in a release said the man caused about $25,000 worth of damage to the sign and store.

Detectives allege the accused returned on February 26, about 8 p.m., and tore off portions of the banner.

He returned again on February 28, around 3:30 a.m. and defaced the banner by splashing black paint on it, police alleged.

Police said he returned on March 4, around 11:44 p.m. with a jar in his hand.

“The man approached the parking lot of the establishment and threw the jar against the wall,” police alleged.

Undeterred, the suspect on March 6, around 10:22 p.m., returned to the bakery with a hockey stick with what appeared to be a blade attached to the end and tried to cut the banner in several sections, according to police.

The suspect came back on March 9, at about 12:26 a.m., and was carrying a long pole in his right hand which had a knife attached to the end of the pole.

That same day charges were laid against Andrey Malyshev, 39, of Toronto. He was charged with two counts of possess weapon for committing offence, mischief to property over $5,000 and four counts of mischief to property under $5,000.

He appeared before a Finch Avenue West court on March 9.

 

 

Olga Kantor is glad she will not be returning to her native Russia any time soon.

Kantor, who is in her 80s, was spared deportation from Canada due to the chaotic situation in Russia, which is waging a brutal war against Ukraine.

There has been a halt on deportations from Canada to Russia because of the situation in that country. Flights from Russia are not allowed in Canadian airspace and it is dangerous for flights there.

Court heard that Kantor arrived in Canada in January 2020. She has a grown child here who is a citizen.

She did not have the proper immigration documents and deportation proceedings was underway to send her home.

Kantor appealed the deportation to a Federal Court of Canada and a judge ruled she had obtained a fair hearing.

“These relatives are willing and able to provide support for the applicant,” according to the judge in a written decision. “The applicant (Kantor) experienced significant hardship growing up in the Soviet Union during the Second World War and continues to suffer long-term effects.”

Kantor has two children, one who died and the other a citizen.

“The applicant will face irreparable and irrevocable harm should she be forced to return to Russia where she has no one to care for her,” according to the judge.

The senior will remain in Canada until the situation improves in Russia.

Immigration lawyer Richard Kurland said Kantor can still “try her luck with a new application based on current events” in Russia.

 

 

Councillor Mark Grimes will be in attendance at a zoom meeting taking place

on March 16 as part of the Mimico Residents Association’s (MRA) annual general meeting.

The MRA said Grimes will take some questions from those attending the virtual meeting.

Please join us for a recap of the past year and bring your questions for our guest speaker Councillor  Grimes, the MRA said.

The meeting takes place from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Please register to attend this free event on Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/…/tZIscOusrDwsHtYZda8La…

 

 

Many across the City agree that residents expect better snow clearing operations from
city officials especially with the high taxes we pay.

At least one City Councillor has gone as far as asking for a review of what went wrong
with the slow removal of tonnes of snow that fell during a snowstorm last January.
Councillor Josh Matlow, of Ward 12, says his office received more than 700 complaints
over the slow removal of snow from the January storm and he wants something done
about it.

Matlow has moved an urgent motion before City Council called ‘Clearing the path toward
a safe and accessible winter,’ that was seconded by Councillor Mike Layton, calling for a
Major Snow Event Post-Operational Report to include: quality of service delivery on

sidewalks, roads and cycling infrastructure; timeliness of snow clearing and removal ac-
tivities. They want the prioritizing of snow removal from community safety zones, access to pub-
lic transit and the clearing of windrows.

The storm dumped about 55 centimetres of snow on Toronto in just over 16 hours, crip-
pling large sections of the city. It shut both major highways leading in an out of Toronto.

“By the end of the week, too many local streets were still impassible in North York,
Scarborough, East York, Etobicoke and downtown,” the politician said. “Sidewalks and
parking in front of long-term care homes left many seniors and caregivers homebound.”
Here in South Etobicoke many seniors were forced to cancel Wheel Trans service, trips
to their doctors or hospitals and to remain at home.

“Pick-up or drop-off areas and sidewalks around schools left many students and parents
with no choice but to walk in live lanes of traffic to and from school,” he said.
Matlow said many residents reported getting mixed messages from 311 saying that a
request could not be filed as crews hadn’t started snow clearing on their street or having
their requests closed with no action or explanation at all.

“The City’s snow communications primarily focused on boasting about the tons of snow
removed, rather than actively working to resolve the concerns that residents shared via
311 or through my office,” Matlow noted.
He said even an online PlowTO map that gave real-time data on the progress of clearing
and salting operations was wrong.
It left Mayor John Tory calling for a post-operational report on various City Divisions
reaction and handling of the major snow event.

“I believed that it (report) did not go far enough to address to the very real and underly-
ing problems that many were experiencing in the moment,” Matlow warned.

“The service standards the City of Toronto provides for snow clearing and removal isn’t

good enough,” he complained. “I also believe residents deserve accountability and an-
swers to exactly what went wrong.”

There are some side streets in the South Etobicoke area that still hasn’t undergone a full
snow removal since the storm.

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 to work in community journalism.

M is for Action.

Yes, you read that right. (Ok, March is for Action!) This March, let M stand for ‘make
things happen’.

As the weather warms up and the days get longer, you’ll notice that the birds and the
bees AND the squirrel activities are well underway. They are making things happen. It’s time for you to do the same.

Let’s make things happen!

Too often we wait for approval or an invite or a date on the calendar to tell us what to
do. ‘Oh, it’s spring, March 20th, time to get ready to garden…’ I say: sit down right
now (well after you finish reading this column) and make a list of five things
you’ve been putting off that you wish to make happen this year. What? It’s not the
new year you say? Well it doesn’t matter does it? I say M is for action and making
things happen because you decide what happens in your life.

It’s easy to forget in our days full of habits and repeating errands. But you are making
choices all the time.à Daily, I know that you choose the clothes
you wear and the food you eat. You choose how much you eat and you choose
who you talk to. You choose what time you go to sleep and you choose what time
you get up. But, Monika, I have to go to bed because of work, you say. Sure. Yet,
you know very well that you always have one to two or even more extra hours at the
end of the day that you fill up with activities other than work. What are they?
Are you studying? Are you watching your favourite show? Are you reading? Are you
taking care of a family member? There is no right or wrong answer here.

The point is you are choosing how much time each activity takes up in your life.
Some people value having an hour-long family dinner. Others may prefer a quick
bite and then a game of chess or bocce ball. How about you?
Your day is full of making choices and when you are presented with the idea of
planning something bigger and better in your life…I have a feeling that you all of a
sudden decide that someone else has to make that decision for you. That someone
else is in charge.

But it’s hard, you say. Yes, I agree with you. It is hard.
Making choices, making things happen in our life is
an important decision. You are in control. So, believe
me when I say: you can decide to do something on
your forgotten list this year.
Start the new year off (I mean March) on the right
foot. Make a list of those five things that you’ve been putting off and put the rough
outline in your calendar and your to-do list. Take six to seven days to review it
daily. Your mind loves a good puzzle. Your mind is exceptional at solving
problems. Allow your mind to see this list as a new challenge.

Why? Well for starters, our confidence grows with every new task we accomplish.
Our belief and our faith in ourselves also grow with every new skill and experience
we have. When life gets tough, the more skills and experiences we have, the easier
and faster we can recover. That’s the ultimate sign of natural health. If you have
a desire to grow bigger and better in your life, in your body, in your mind, choose
now, choose this year to make some changes. You can do this by adding into
your day one new task or lesson that you will accomplish. And get it done. Tell me
what you have chosen.

What you will notice after a few days, maybe a couple of weeks is that you have
grown tremendously. And since spring is around the corner, you are right right ‘on
time’ with the pace of mother nature. My wish for you is to bloom and expand. I
wish for you to thoroughly enjoy your life. This is possible when we take on new
skills, new life lessons, new tasks with an open mind, a willing heart and a bold first step forward AND grow this spring.
Nature takes away any faculty that is not used.
– William R. Inge

Monika Meulman,
Founder & Owner
The Healing Muse Apothecary
416-347-5449
2859 Lake Shore Blvd. W.,
Inspired Living
@healingmuse
www.healingmuse.com

 

 

Who knows the difference between tyranny and freedom?

The answer: UKRAINIANS. Hundreds of thousands are being displaced, threatened and
their government close to over throw. Close your eyes for a moment and think, imagine, feel
the emotions of a mother in the dark, clutching her child tightly, as bombs drop around you,
alone with no hope in hell because a despot threatens the World with a nuclear catastrophe.
It is just you, alone, listening to the tanks of an invading army to take away your freedoms.
This is not a flashback to the thirties with brown shirts coming to knock on your door. it’s
now, it’s today.

I seem to be getting angry these days. The isolation has exposed the grumpy guy’s split
personality. In my personal life I have biases like yours. As a Judge, I wear objectivity robes
and special glasses that filter out personal beliefs. They allow me to recognize bias and work
to suppress them. You need to know that I returned the equipment when I retired. Originally,
I intended to write about growing up in Long Branch, my parent’s fish and chips store, the
thriving lakeshore communities with five movie theatres, and so on. I started to, but I became
so disturbed with disrespect and misrepresentation of our Charter by some protesters
demanding its protection while ignoring what it says, calling Trudeau a tyrant, a dictator,
comparing him to Putin. They know not what these words mean. Ask any Ukrainian. They
know! I felt compelled to clarify the debate.

Let’s talk rights and our privileges. In Canada, we have a Charter. We have elections. We
can choose the party and their policies. The NDP and Liberals formed a majority supporting
‘mandates.’ We have an opposition. If they gain sufficient Parliamentary support, they can
call an election or form a new government. To avoid chaos and provide certainty, we have
elections but only at certain intervals or conditions–non confidence votes. The Emergency
Act was a non-confidence type of vote which was passed by a majority. If one feels their
rights are breached, we have the Charter. The Charter guarantees your rights and freedoms
SUBJECTED to such unreasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified
in a free and democratic society. The spirit is Canadian, one of compromise and
accommodation. If you see yourself a victim you use our independent Courts for redress.
They are very pro-Charter, Harper thought too much so.

I sympathize with the followers, not their leaders. They were like the Russian soldiers. They
thought their cause was to free the Ukrainians from an oppressive government. They were
offering a Russian autocracy, In Canada they chanted “I am fighting for your freedom”. But
what were their leaders offering. Read the Manifesto. It was similar to Putin’s claim —
telling me our system of Justice is wrong. It was like Trump telling Vice-President Pence,
in our case the Governor General, how to take over my Parliament.

The followers employed ‘willful blindness,’ the source of the millions of dollars donated. Significant amounts came
from United States and White Nationalists whose goal is to ignite a supremacists’s revolution.
They ignore the words of our Charter and the idea of accommodation. They manipulated
information by showing the jumpy castles and treats while ignoring the slogans, swearing,
name calling, T-shirt slogans, Confederate and Nazi symbols They were caught up in the
party but ignored their need to role model; to use the moment as a teaching event. How
many took their children to the Supreme Court building and explain this is how we settle
disputes in Canada? Did they say to the young ones, you can’t get your way by holding your
breath, that we should compromise and share? Did they tell the children that the bad symbols
were not Canada’s friends.

The protesters forgot that in Canada there are more peaceful alternatives. In the Ukraine
there is no such choice. The best the protesters offered was an autocracy, a rule by a few,
according to the Manifesto. Some threatened to do or die. Their philosophy would be Their
Rights, not yours. I think our Charter is better. The solution sounded very similar to what
the Russians were offering – my way or else.

I linked the Ukrainians to the protests because I think there is a mutual solution – a
compromise. It benefits us all. The Truckers have collected millions of frozen dollars. Some
came from simple honest sympathizers and much from the extreme right. Truckers, show
good faith, take several million and hire a team of lawyers. Use the Courts to balance our
Freedoms. Donate the remainder of the monies and help real Freedom Fighters, fighting for
their lives.

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 Chief Prosecutor in the trial of
ex-RCMP officer Patrick Michael Kelly, found guilty of murder for throwing his wife from a 17th
floor balcony in March 1981. He can be reached at lbudzinski@talkjustice.info

By Patricia DeGuire

Chief Commissioner

Ontario Human Rights Commission

 

Every day is International Women’s Day, but today, at the Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC), we pause to honour the achievements women have made towards gender equality in the workplace and towards a more equitable society.

Today we celebrate how far we have come, but we know that more and greater change is possible – and needed. For example, gender equity has not yet been achieved in the boardroom, in C-suites and in compensation. According to the Osler report on  2021 Diversity and Leadership at Canadian public companies, while women are being recruited onto company boards at a steady pace, women are making very little progress at the executive officer level. For Indigenous women, Black women, women from other racialized groups and women with disabilities, the situation is even more disappointing.

Women have contributed significantly to all aspects of our social and economic society, including in science, technology, engineering and math. While some of us may never have our names etched into our history books, all of us are worthy of recognition. We are mothers, daughters, sisters and friends. We are neighbours and colleagues. We are leaders making an impact internationally and in our local communities – such is the case for the remarkable Black women the OHRC featured on our social media channels during Black History Month.

Women deserve a gender-equal world, free from bias, stereotypes and discrimination. And we should lift as we climb up this precipitous and arduous mountain – or as we aim to shatter the glass ceiling. In doing so, we are creating a critical mass. And that, too, is our duty.

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated disparities for women, and especially women in the work force. It has negatively affected their health, social and economic well-being, resulting in resilience fatigue and a “she-cession” that is still prevalent, especially among women in the 55+ age-bracket. Among the women bearing the fiercest brunt of the pandemic are women with intersecting Code-protected identities, such as our Black, other racialized, Indigenous and LGBTQ2S+ sisters. The disproportionate impact these women experience is well-documented, including in the OHRC’s Policy statement on human rights in COVID-19 recovery planning.

On International Women’s Day, let us keep women, and other vulnerable groups, at the forefront of our collective consciousness. Anything short of equipping them with the tools they need to not just survive, but thrive, would be an abdication of our collective responsibility.

A man has been arrested with bear spray and an airsoft pistol after eight TTC users were allegedly sprayed with an unknown substance in brazen assaults.

The suspect is accused of assault after police alleged he sprayed at least eight people at different times on TTC property with an unknown substance.

Police said the suspect was arrested at the Finch subway station on March 5 at 6:48 p.m. by Special Constables from the Toronto Transit Commission.

Police allege between October 16, 2021, and March 5, 2022, a man assaulted people on eight occasions on TTC property by spraying them with a substance.

“The man had a baton, bear spray and an airsoft pistol in his possession when arrested,” police said in a release.

Delan Lewis, 24, of Toronto, is charged with three counts of carry concealed weapon.

He appeared at an Old City Hall Court on March 6.
Investigators believe there may be more victims.

 

 

Police are searching for a hit and run driver who hit a 64-year-old cyclist injuring her near Burnhamthorpe Road and Highway 427.

Detectives said the woman was cycling eastbound on Burnhamthorpe Road, approaching the on-ramp for Highway 427 north when she was hit.

“The driver of the vehicle did not stop and fled the scene,” police said. “The woman was transported to hospital with serious injuries.”

The vehicle is described as a dark-coloured Honda Accord or similar model. An image has been released.

Investigators are asking local residents, business, and drivers, who may have security or dash camera footage of the area or incident, to contact police.

This investigation is being conducted by members of Traffic Services.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-1900, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), online at www.222tips.com, online on our Facebook Leave a Tip page, or text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637).