Four people were hospitalized following a crash as motorists tried to dodge bales of hay strewn on the Gardiner Expressway near Kipling Avenue.

The incident occurred on November 11 around 6:30 a.m. and police are investigating how the hay ended up on the busy roadway.

Police said drivers on the Expressway tried to dodge the bales  when the crash took place that involved four vehicles.

“A large amount of hay bales were observed on the Gardiner Expressway eastbound lanes,” Const. Shannon Eames said in a statement. “Drivers attempted to avoid the hazard, which resulted in a collision involving four vehicles.”

A 48-year-old passenger was transported to hospital with life-threatening injuries. Three other people were transported to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Anyone with information or dash camera footage is asked to contact Toronto police at 416-808-1900, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), or at www.222tips.com.

Two Etobicoke homes were among seven targeted in break and enters in which nine high-end vehicles were stolen during the serial robberies.

One of two men was arrested following the September 7 to November 7 thefts that left behind $1.3 million in damages to the homes and property stolen. Another suspect is at large.

Homes in the Royal York Road and Darlington Crescent and Islington Avenue and The Kingsway were heisted by the robbers who were wearing face covering to disguise themselves.

Police said in most cases the robberies occurred while the terrified homeowners were at home. The thieves were searching for keys of vehicles parked in their driveway.

Detectives from a recently-formed Provincial Car Jacking Joint Task Force (PCJTF) said the thieves would in most cases enter the homes by throwing a rock or brick through the glass in their front door.

The homeowners were confronted by the robbers who demanded their car keys, according to police.

In a few incidents the stunned occupants were forcibly dragged to rooms where the keys were kept.

Police said a knife was produced in some of the thefts, and in three cases the thieves fled with both of the victims vehicles.

The crooks targeted larger homes in affluent areas of North York, Toronto and Etobicoke, according to police.

Naz Tokhi, 19, faces 33 charges including nine counts of theft of autos, nine counts of wearing a disguise, six counts of break and enter commit, three counts of break and enter with intent, possession of property obtained by crime and commit indictable offence.

He appeared in court on November 9.

Anyone with information is asked to contact police at 416-808-7350, Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), or at www.222tips.com.

Police have said the vehicles are stolen and placed in shipping containers for export abroad or for use in committing crimes.

The Task Force was created to tackle the rising incidents of violence related to auto crimes across the Greater Toronto Area. Local police services have combined resources and established the unit to further co-ordinate law enforcement efforts in combating these crimes.

This collaborative approach aims to disrupt the networks responsible for violent and high-risk auto thefts and maximize enforcement efforts against criminal organizations.

The Etobicoke Lakeshore Santa Claus parade needs your help.

For the second year, the parade has created a Go Fund Me page to help raise funds to operate the popular event, which takes place on December 2.

It starts on Dwight Avenue and runs to about Thirty Sixth Street.

“Santa and his tireless Elves are eagerly preparing for another spectacular parade,” organizer Aaron Crhak wrote. “We take immense pride in being a 100% volunteer-driven community event, and we are counting on your unwavering support to make this year’s parade unforgettable.”

Crhak said there’s a new float that will be unveiled at the parade next month.

He said up to 70,000 people line the streets yearly to catch the show and meet Santa. Area businesses also get into the spirit and move their goods to the sidewalk to obtain sales.

“The parade brings back the enchanting sounds of bands, the energy of schools and community groups marching together, colorful and captivating characters,” Crhak said. “The awe-inspiring floats fill the streets with magic.”

He said community support is needed, whether if it volunteering you time, making a donation or spreading the word.

“Your involvement makes a significant difference,” Crhak said. “Let’s come together to create another remarkable Etobicoke-Lakeshore Santa Claus Parade experience.”

You are urged to make a donation to Go Fund Me webpage.

Six South Etobicoke non-profit organizations including Haven on the Queensway are recipients of an Ontario grant to help them better serve the community.

A total of $518,600 in funding was made to the groups by the Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) capital grant stream.

“This funding will help to ensure that our community has safe and ready access to critical programming, activities and spaces,” said a release from MPP Christine Hogarth’s office.

The groups receiving the funds are MABELLEarts, A Greener Future, Furniture Bank, Second Harvest, Haven on the Queensway and the Jean Augustine Centre for Young Women’s Empowerment.

“These organizations play an important role in building a strong community through their advocacy and outreach,” Hogarth said. “This support will enable these organizations to better serve the people of Etobicoke-Lakeshore and continue to make a positive difference.”

She said the grants help to improve the infrastructure that residents need to thrive whether it’s purchasing equipment, building a new space, or completing renovations, retrofits or repairs.

These grants support projects that are having a positive impact in Etobicoke-Lakeshore, she said.

“This support will enable these organizations to better serve the people of Etobicoke-Lakeshore and continue to make a positive difference,” Hogarth said.

Neil Lumsden, the province’s Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, said non-profit organizations deliver programming that makes a difference, whether it’s helping people train for new careers or learn new things.

“That’s why capital grant support is so important,” Lumsden said. “This funding will help ensure these spaces remain the heart of communities across our province.”

Heather Fullerton, of Haven on the Queensway, said the funds will give their group and clients a much stronger ability to access digital communications.

“We are truly grateful for this fantastic support and look forward to seeing the improvements in action,” she said.

Leah Houston, Executive Director of MABELLEarts, said her group is addressing generational inequities and building public realm where it’s needed most.

She said vulnerable communities need opportunities to build the social capital they need to respond to the challenges they face including climate change, the housing crisis and increased isolation.

“We are truly grateful for this fantastic support and look forward to seeing the improvements in action,” Houston said.

The Ontario Trillium Foundation is an agency of the Ministry of Tourism, with a mandate to build healthy and vibrant communities throughout Ontario by investing in community-based initiatives and strengthening the impact of the province’s non-profit sector.

 

 

A man is in custody after a woman was stabbed to death in a condo building early in the morning.

Police said they were called to a condo in The Queensway and Kipling Avenue area about 6:10 a.m. on November 10.

Officers said a woman, who has not been identified, was found with stab wounds and taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries and was pronounced dead soon after.

A man was taken into custody and brought to hospital with minor injuries. The woman and the man were known to each other.

It is not known what charges, if any, will be laid.

No other information on the circumstances that lead to the stabbing has been released.

 

A plan to convert a large chunk of land in the area of Kipling and Evans Avenues from employment to mixed use areas has been turned down by City Council.

Councillor Amber Morley moved a motion for the conversion of 340-364 Evans Avenue and 12-16 Arnold Street from core employment to mixed use or regeneration areas by removing the lands from Official Urban Structure Plan.

Morley told council the huge tract of land can be used for mixed use and by the film industry to shoot movies to be next to other studios in the area.

She envisions ‘a hub on the site’ and met with film industry officials to seek their input.

“It is a unique site and a unique opportunity,” Morley told a council meeting on October 12. “It will be a site that Etobicoke Lakeshore will be proud off.”

City of Toronto Chief Planner Gregg Lintern told council there are a number of large studios in the area and the industry hires thousands of people.

City staff said Toronto is the fifth largest movie making hub in North America and two of the top film schools are located here.

Staff said the industry requires large spaces to build sound stages and brings in about $2.6 billion in business a year to the city.

Council was told there is only 13 per cent of employment lands left in Toronto and the companies there hire more than 400,000 workers who hold good paying jobs.

Councillors were told there are only about five large tracts of lands deemed for employment left in the city and they have to be preserved to create jobs and companies will have room to expand.

They heard in many cases the proposed mixed use buildings are not built and the lands are sold for high prices due to the rezoning from employment to mixed use.

Two other motions to make similar rezoning changes in different parts of the city were also rejected by council.

Councillors voted 17 to seven to turn down Morley’s motion.

Over 5,000 businesses here are active in all aspects of film and television, including production and distribution, animation, music publishing and recording, and radio and television.

The Toronto film workforce is growing and currently employs over 35,000 residents.

Toronto is one of the top five screen-based industries in North America with a full scope of industry connections, services, suppliers, talent, crew, facilities and locations delivering everything required for success in pre-production through post production.

The city has about two million square feet of space to accommodate a full range of large and small productions and studio expansion will bring in an extra 450,000 square feet of new studio space. We also have the world’s largest purpose-built sound stage.

Some of the largest studios as Disney, Paramount, Sony, Universal, and Warner Bros shoot movies here.

One of the largest packaging company in Canada which has been a fixture on Evans Avenue for almost 80-years is being demolished to construct a new Amazon warehouse, residents say.

Cascades Inc., a leader in the recovery and manufacturing of green packaging and tissue products, has been located at 450 Evans Avenue since 1955.

The company operated in 90 locations and had 12,000 employees when the branch was closed for strategic repositioning of its business in Ontario and globally.

Cascades closed its South Etobicoke branch in August 2021 and sold the almost 17-acre property for reportedly more than $40 million to Prologis Inc., of the U.S.

It was the fourth Cascades plant to be closed in Ontario in the last four years. The company was one of the largest packaging company in Canada, which also shut plants in Barrie, Peterborough and Burlington.

The sprawling plant is being demolished to build two large warehouses on the site for Prologis, Inc., a global leader in logistics real estate with a focus on high-barrier, high-growth markets. Its customers include BMW, DHL and Federal Express, to name a few.

The company said on its website it has more than one million employees in 19 locations, more than 6,700 customers and moves more than $2 trillion in goods yearly.

Prologis has another plant at 185 The West Mall, and others across Canada and the U.S.

A boom in online shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic is making it tough to find warehouse space in many provinces, industry insiders say.

Industrial space is being gobbled up at a dizzying rate as companies expand their storage and fulfilment centres to cope with the demands of e-commerce.

With storefronts closed intermittently during the pandemic, retailers rushed to offer online shopping to keep sales going. Those companies needed additional space to store inventory and process orders for delivery.

Statistics Canada said retail e-commerce sales were up 110.7 per cent year over year to $3.5 billion in January.

Officials said Canada’s industrial markets are the tightest in North America and the country can’t build space fast enough to satisfy the “voracious” demand.

Toronto, Vancouver and Ontario’s Waterloo region had the lowest availability rates for warehouses. Halifax, Calgary and Edmonton had the highest.

Social media has been busy with chatter in regards to the Prologis warehouse being built.

No Shipping Terminals, a local group against the large warehouses, has a map of existing and planned warehouses that show 450 Evans as being a location.

“It is one of the warehouses for Amazon that is being built in the community,” a spokesperson said.

Another resident had no doubts that an Amazon warehouse will soon be up and running.

“The 450 Evans location is going to be an Amazon distribution center,” the man said. “Having spoken to the workers on the site they’ve all said Amazon are going there.”

Another person wrote that the larger lot that was Cascades is going to be a shipping terminal, much to the chagrin of most people who live in the Alderwood.

“It means lots more trucks running up and down the already over congested Evans,” another resident wrote. “At least the trucks will force some of the morons who do 100km/h up Evans to slow down.”

Food insecurity in the Stonegate area has reached crisis proportions and a local food bank say users have risen by more than 300 per cent since the pandemic.

The food bank at Christ Church St. James church, at 194 Park Lawn Road, is reporting that attendance there is up by 300 per cent and is reaching out for help to feed people.

“The Stonegate Community Health Centre is actively working to reduce barriers to accessing healthy food,” said the centre’s Executive Director Charis Romilly Turner. “We are working closely with community partners … and running programs that build nutrition literacy, reduce social isolation and increasing access to food.”

Stonegate runs a weekly year-round Good Food Market where boxes of food are given at cost to local individuals and families dealing with food insecurity and hunger during the holidays.

They also provide fresh produce year round for those who are struggling to put healthy food on their table.

The organization has given out more than 3,500 boxes since the annual program began in 2010.

The program ensures that those on fixed incomes have access to fresh fruit and vegetables at cost.

They also operate a ‘prescription food’ program prescribing a Good Food Market credit to food-insecure clients with pre-existing health conditions to obtain fresh produce.

The organization is seeking donations of $25 or more each to provide a local family with a large box of fresh produce.

The Good Food Box is a non-profit fresh fruit and vegetable distribution system operated by FoodShare Toronto. All the top-quality food comes from local farmers and the Ontario Food Terminal.

They said $50 provides Good Food Boxes to two families, $100 for four families, $250 will provide boxes for 10 families and $500 for 20 families in need.

The organization said 100 per cent of the donations goes towards fresh healthy food for those in need.

To make a donation you can visit their website at www.stonegatechc.org or contact Julia Graham, the Community Programs and Engagement Coordinator, at 416-231-7070 ext. 229.

Charitable tax receipts are available for every donation over $10. Thank you for your support this holiday season.