Premier Doug Ford has outlined some tough guidelines to fight the fast-spreading Omicron variant.

He announced all publicly funded and private schools will move to remote learning starting January 5 until at least January 17.

All the new measures to take effect on January 5 at 12:01 a.m.

All indoor dining at restaurants and bars are gone and the capacity limit has been reduced to five people indoors and 10 people outdoors.

There will only be outdoor dining, takeout, drive through and delivery allowed.

Retail stores, malls, public libraries and personal care services limited to 50 per cent capacity.

Saunas, steam rooms and oxygen bars closed.

Capacity at weddings, funerals and religious services limited to 50 per cent capacity per room.

Outdoor services must have two-metre distancing between all attendees.

Employees must work remotely unless their work requires them to be on site.

Gyms and other indoor recreational sport facilities closed, except athletes training for the Olympics and Paralympics and certain professional and elite sports leagues.

Outdoor facilities are permitted but with a 50 per cent capacity limit on spectators.

Museums, galleries, zoos, science centres, historic sites, amusement parks, festivals and other attractions closed.

Outdoor establishments allowed with restrictions and capacity limits.

Indoor meeting and event spaces closed with limited exceptions, except those with outdoor spaces, which can operate with restrictions.

Non-urgent surgeries paused

In Ontario on January 2 there were  another 13,578 new cases of COVID-19. That followed 16,714 cases on Sunday and a pandemic-high 18,445 cases on Saturday.

 

 

 

A thief is still on the run from Toronto Police for ripping off a man using an ATM machine in The Queensway and Kipling Ave. mall area.

Police said on December 6 about 9:10 a.m. they responded to the theft.

“A man was using the ATM,“ according to police. “The suspect approached the man and tapped him on the shoulder.”

Detectives said “when the man turned to face the suspect, the suspect took the man’s scarf and wallet.”

The culprit sped away on foot.

A security camera photograph has been released.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-1100, 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).

 

The former Six Points Plaza is remembered by many today for the iconic Westwood Theatre that showed top movies for almost 50 years and saw many glory days.

Six Points intersection where Kipling Avenue meets both Bloor and Dundas Street W.

The famed movie house, where a number of movies were filmed, shut its doors in 1998 and sat vacant until 2013. It is now the site of a new development hub that will feature an upcoming Etobicoke Civic Hall, public library branch, gym and health centre.

Many residents have great memories watching movies at the olden and comfortable theatre back in the day with family and friends. It was a more laid back time.

An application is now underway for a zoning by-law amendment from the City of Toronto to permit the redevelopment of the Six Points Plaza to include four mixed-use blocks of land for high-density and medium-density buildings and parkland.

The park will be located on the south side of Bloor Street West, between Jopling Avenue South and Beamish Drive, and north of Dundas Street West.

Liberty Development has proposed seven towers ranging from 10 to 45 storeys, of mostly residential space on the 13.8 acres (5.6 hectare) site.

Block 1 is east of Jopling and when completed will consist of a 45–storey and 42-storey condo towers that would provide 918 residential units, of which 572 would be one-bedrooms, 175 would be two-bedrooms and 127 three-bedrooms.

Block 2 consists of a 30–storey residential tower and 10-storey building with 451 residential units, 287 one-bedrooms and 93 two-bedrooms.

Block 3 is south of Bloor Street and consists of a 10-storey mixed use building and 25-storey tower that would provide 333 units. Block 4 consists of a 35-storey residential building with 428 units.

Some 914 parking spaces are proposed for the redevelopment of which 645 are for residents, 53 for non-residential uses and 216 for visitors. Also planned are 1,652 bicycle parking spaces.

The site is about 300 metres from Kipling subway and GO stations, including the Kipling Metrolinx Transit Hub, from where trains and buses across the Greater Toronto Area can be accessed.

The application is going through the hearings process.

 

 

Kudos to area realtor Graham Rowlands for more than $20,200  raised in an annual online auction to help charities in the community.

Rowlands in a final tally on social media said $20,205 was raised for local charities.

“Special thank you to our platinum sponsors Financial Health Management Group and Lakeshore Smiles Dentistry,” according to a post.  “Thank you all prize donors, Jenny from Kitchen on Sixth for all the pies, all the bidders and everyone who donated money for all these awesome organizations.”

When it was divvied up, some $3,362 was donated to LAMP Community Health Centre, $4,010 to Women’s Habitat of Etobicoke, Lakeshore Arts received $2,885, Haven on the Queensway $3,295, Jean Augustine Centre for Young Women’s Empowerment obtained $2,937 and some $3,715 was donated to the Etobicoke Humane Society.

Social media was quick to thank the organizers, donors and those who purchased items for sale.

“Thank you Graham for another successful fundraiser. Love seeing all the love and support in the community,’ said Laura Robinson.     

 

 

If you are looking for vaccinations there are some available on January 28 at Holy Angels Church Hall, at 28 Jutland Road. A mobile immunization clinic will be at the church from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. See flyer.

 

Long Branch residents are welcoming a new store catering to the local and Caribbean communities.

The Lakeshore Grocery and Convenience store, at 3391 Lake Shore Blvd. W., at Twenty Eight Street, has been open for about a month.

The owner stocks a large selection of local and Caribbean grocery items from Trinidad, Guyana and Jamaica.

A former butcher, he plans to carry a selections of meats.

The store carries most items a convenience store should including fresh and frozen meats and seafood, coconuts, deli sandwiches and Jamaican patties made fresh daily.

“I’m so excited about this new business!,” one woman said on social media. “Spices and cooking ingredients from Trinidad, Guyana and Jamaica.“

The store is open seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. and can be reached at 647-859-9120.

Thanks to some kind New Toronto small businesses a Christmas day in the life of a ‘lonely and hermit like’ senior was livened up with a fashionable haircut and gifts from newfound friends.

The senior was depressed and never left home according to an e-mail sent just days before Christmas to Andy Dinner, of Your Neighbourhood Barbershop, by the man’s sister, Dianne, who lives in Tillsonburg.

Dianne said her 68-year-old younger brother is alone and badly needs a haircut but couldn’t afford one.

“I am more than willing to pay if you allow me by Mastercard,” Dianne wrote in the e-mail that was posted on social media.

“He (brother) is very depressed being alone and we are hermits right now due to our age and vulnerability to COVID ourselves,” she explained. “He has had two COVID vaccinations ..”

Dianne said her brother did not have access to an Iphone, email or the Internet.

“We would love to do this for him and can you help us facilitate that,” she asked.

A generous Dinner told Dianne that he had booked in her brother for a cut, which he will do for free.

“It was a real pleasure for me to help out this family and give the man a cut,” Dinner said afterwards. “Other merchants found out and donated gifts to him as well.”

The barber still wonders how the senior’s sister in Tillsonburg found out about his shop.

The senior, with a fashionable trim, was presented with some meat pies and other goodies by Restaurant on Sixth, after owner Jenny found out about his  plight.

“I’m gonna do it for free,” Dinner told the family. “Merry Christmas.”

 

Christmas may be a time for giving, but the folks at Mimico’s Martin Luther Evangelical Lutheran Church have been feeding the needy all year round.

On this brisk morning members of the church’s Bowls and Blessings program are providing free piping hot Turkish Lentil Soup from a table outside their 2379 Lake Shore Blvd. church to those who are homeless or hungry.

Program coordinator Emma Latham says the soup is dished out twice a week, usually on Tuesdays, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. It continues in January.

“We give out soup, bread, donations and clothing to anyone who needs it,” she says. “We would like members of the community to know that they can come to the church for help.”

Volunteers Andrea, William and church secretary Marlena Muller, were filling containers with steaming soup for a steady stream of residents, both men and women of all ages.

Many of those seeking soup are on a first-name basis with the servers and there is a friendly exchange of banter and belly laughs that fills the air.

Muller says residents are encouraged to take a new winter jacket from a rack that hangs next to a food pantry in which items can be obtained or left for those in need.

‘”Sometimes we are the only ones that these people may know or can talk to,” she explains. “Many of the clients are alone and have no one at home so they come here.”

Earlier there was a 90-year-old regular who stopped by to chat.

The volunteers say the senior is estranged from his family and attends the Bowls and Blessings program whose members are his adopted family.

The spirit of giving is also not far away from stylist Romanie Persaud, owner of Rendezvous Hair Salon, at 3693 B Lake Shore Blvd. W., near Thirty Seventh Street, in Long Branch.

Persaud organized a successful food drive at her salon and encouraged her many loyal customers to bring a non perishable food item.

With the help of friends, she carted in about 20 plastic bags of much-needed food items that will help fill the pantry and feed those at risk at St. Margarets New Toronto Anglican Church, on Sixth Street, in New Toronto.

“This is something that I always wanted to do,” she says. “There are a lot of people in need in the community and we hope to help some of them.”

Church official Julie McMillan said the items will help those in need in the community.

“We are very grateful,” McMillan says. “Many people will benefit from this food.”

Animal lover Christina Murie is hoping to have a merry Christmas with her new bunnies, Sugar and Spice.

The New Toronto resident picked up the cute pets this week after her last two bunnies, Leo and Ruby, were killed by a suspected pit bull that was allowed into her Business Centre building, at 80 Birmingham Street, where the rabbits lived in a pen in the basement.

Leo and Ruby were chased and killed by the snarling dog, which left Murie and area children devastated.  The bunnies were buried in a service conducted under a magnolia tree by a local pastor.

“The school kids always stopped by to play with the bunnies before they were killed,” she says. “These are my two new ones.”

She obtained the cute bunnies from a neighbourhood teen who breeds them.

“I ended up taking a girl Sugar and brother Spice instead of the other original brown bunny,” she says. “It was a hard decision. They are only eight weeks old.”

She hopes the new bunnies grow into their comfortable home.

The deaths of Sugar and Spice outraged many in the community after it was detailed online.