Residents of the Long Branch community are facing a tough fight to save a historic Black Barn Maple tree that is estimated to be 160 years old from being cut.

An application to build two oversized houses and garden suite on two lots at 36 Ash Cres. was heard by the Committee of Adjustments last April and is being appealed.

The committee on September 14 deferred a decision on the application until the applicant obtained an arborist to develop a Tree Protection Plan.

More than a dozen residents have written letters opposing the build that they claim would injure and remove the Maple tree.

“This application results in an overbuild to what is permitted on the lot and if approved would be directly responsible for the removal of two significant trees,” Christine Mercado, chair of the Long Branch Neighbourhood Association (LBNA) wrote in a September 6 letter to Barbara Bartosik, Deputy Secretary Treasurer, of the Etobicoke York District Committee of Adjustment.

“ … There is significant doubt that the Applicant has any intention of upholding this TLAB decision and preserving the Silver Maple or a Spruce Tree on the abutting lot,” Mercado told Bartosik.

She said the Maple tree has the potential to be a heritage tree due to its health and size.

Max Dida, Supervisor of the Tree Protection and Plan Review – West District, wrote that “Urban Forestry requests that the Committee of Adjustment panel defer this application until the applicant/owner provides Urban Forestry with the necessary information to confirm whether the following bylaw protected tree can be adequately protected.”

Councillor Amber Morley in a letter said two trees would be impacted by the build and called for the application to be deferred “to allow the applicant to develop a suitable Tree Protection Plan and to provide Urban Forestry with the time necessary to conduct a site review, impact study, and submit their comments.”

Residents said the tree is close to a property line and if approved it will lose at least half its roots and tree canopy.

“The Black Barn Maple is protected as potential to be a Heritage Tree even though for it to formally go through the process it requires the owner to agree and sign off,” wrote Judy Gibson, chair of the Tree Canopy Preservation and Enhancement Committee, of the Long Branch Neighbourhood Association

“This will also set a precedent that no tree in Toronto is safe, no matter its size or even if it is a historical tree,” residents said. “The oversized house would require the Black Barn Maple of Long Branch to be destroyed.”

This Silver Maple is one of four trees in Long Branch recognized as a Historical Tree by Forest Ontario.

“This tree cannot be replaced by planting any number of new trees, not in this generation,” residents claim.

More than 600 people are losing their jobs after the parent company that owns the Toronto Star said it was getting out of the community newspaper and flyer businesses.

Nordstar, the company that owns the Toronto Star and other newspapers, said last month that it is seeking bankruptcy protection for the unit that owns more than 70 local newspapers and magazines and axing hundreds of jobs.

The Etobicoke Guardian, which has served the community dutifully for decades, is one of the many regional newspapers that will be shut. It and a number of other publications will only have an online presence.

Nordstar says it is putting its Metroland Media Group division into creditor protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act as part of a restructuring plan.

Metroland owns dozens of community newspapers and magazines which are delivered alongside advertising flyers. The company said it is getting out of the flyer business entirely.

“The decline of the print and flyer distribution business was significantly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, and by the reduction of flyer usage both by readers and advertisers as a marketing vehicle,” the company said in a statement.

Only the company’s six daily newspapers will continue in print and online. Those publications include the Hamilton Spectator, Peterborough Examiner, St. Catharines Standard, Niagara Falls Review, Welland Tribune and the Waterloo Region Record.

Those being shuttered in print includes the Guardian and newspapers serving Mississauga, Brampton, North York, Scarborough, Vaughan, Pickering, Oshawa, Oakville and Burlington among others.

In February 1981, Metrospan Community Newspapers, a unit of Torstar and Inland Publishing Company, which was formerly owned by The Telegram Corporation, and the Eaton and Bassett families, merged to become Metroland.

At one time the company had as many as 20,000 delivery persons province-wide performing door-to-door delivery of flyers, papers and print materials.

Metroland at its peak owned four printing plants in Ontario. Its presses had the capacity of printing 250,000 newspapers in full-colour every hour.

The closures and layoffs followed failed talks between Postmedia and Metroland Media Group to merge to become a stronger company.

News outlets have been under pressure for years claiming online giants like Google and Facebook owner Meta have scooped up advertising dollars.

Area residents and businesses said they were saddened over the closures since it gives them less outlets to get their message and sales out to the community.

Mayor Olivia Chow speaks at LAMP General Meeting

MAYOR Chow’s office cancelled her speech to LAMP citing an emergency. She said that she will be back to deliver her speech.

JOIN US ONLINE! We’re excited to invite you to join us via live stream on SEPT 21ST @ 7:00 PM for @lampchc’s 46th Annual General Meeting!

Special thanks to everyone who has shown interest in attending and those who have pre-registered. Unfortunately, due to limited seating we will no longer be registering or admitting any other guests to join us in person.

Don’t miss this engaging conversation as we address “The Prescription for a Livable, Healthy, Thriving City: The Power of Community Working Together to Improve Well-Being”.

Keynote Speaker: Mayor of Toronto @oliviachow

Special Invitee: @cllrambermorley

You can stream the speech live.

To view online visit: bit.ly/lampagm2023-virtualpass

Local pest controller Edwin Darra is a very busy man. Photo by Susanna Basheir.

It’s a busy time of the year for local exterminator Erwin Darra as the weather turns colder.
Darra is on the road most of the time working as a pest controller helping
residents curb pests, rodent or bed bug infestations that come with the
changing season.
“At this time of the year we are busy with mice and rodent
infestations,” he said. “They are coming into homes through cracks in the wall for the heat and forage for food.”

Many people have rodents in or around their homes.

Darra has been operating a company called Entom-X for about six years and has a list of regular customers.
If it is not rodents, then he is tackling bed bugs, a huge problem, which stick around year round.
“We get calls for bed bugs all the time,” he said. “They are constant and in some homes year round.”
The bed bugs are treated a number of ways which usually means getting rid of where they live. They prey on humans or pets, Darra said.
He will visit your home or office and conduct a free inspection. This allows him to examine the affected areas by bed bugs or other issues and come up with the right approach to tackle the problem.
They use advanced heating treatment to eliminate the bugs from your home or commercial locations. It is safe and effective unlike chemicals that can cause damage to your property or be harmful  to your health.

The dreaded bedbug feeds on humans and our pets.

“I have a good success rate,” Darra said. “We usually start
off with an inspection and may have to conduct multiple visits.”
On any given day, he may get called to take care of cockroach, wasps, hornets, ticks, ants, spiders, beatles and other infestations.
Regardless of whether you encounter sow bugs,
silverfish, ants, centipedes, or spiders, an Entom-X
professional can take care of your pests.
“These pests tend to follow the general human population,” said the exterminator. “They get into the home through humans, baggage or through the walls or vents.”
Every day is different since customers have different issues or pests in their homes.
“There is never a dull minute,” Darra said. “Each case is different since everyone has different sorts of
infestations.”
It usually cost customers by the job and the number of visits required to get rid of the pests.
Darra can be reached at 647-883-2789 or e-mail entomx@tutanota.com

Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital Cemetary

Volunteers are working to identify a number of
Indigenous people who were buried in unmarked
graves decades ago at the former Lakeshore
Psychiatric Hospital Cemetery.
Researchers are trying to identify how many rest at
the Horner and Evans Avenues site and the
communities they were taken from.
The cemetery was in operation for 84 years. It opened
in 1890 and was shut by the Ontario government in
1974. Some 1,511 people are buried there. Many of
them died at the Mimico Asylum Lakeshore Psychiatric
Hospital, at Lake Shore Blvd. W., and Kipling Ave.

Remembering loved ones who will not be forgotten. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Most of the burials were unmarked. The
placement of 154 small markers with the
name and year of birth and death of the
deceased only began in 1957.
“It is our sincere wish that these souls will
find peace and tranquility,” said Ed
Janiszewski, who has been working to
identify the graves for years. “The focus
was to give some dignity back to these
people who had been forgotten perhaps. To
have seen this place abandoned like that
was distressing to say the least.” he told
CityNews.
Janiszewski has confirmed about 10 of
those names as belonging to people from
Indigenous communities.
“The hospital back in the 30s and 40s had
been focused on northern Ontario,
servicing that area, before being a more
localized hospital. That gave a good clue
that there would be a lot of Indigenous
people who’d been brought here.”
Back then patients assisted in making coffins and
burying other patients at the asylum cemetery. The
treatment of the patients at the Lakeshore Psychiatric
Hospital was cruel, including forced labour, and violent
restraint methods.
Although Ministers and Priests performed burial
ceremonies for many patients, most of the graves were
left unmarked.
A list of Indigenous people buried at the cemetery,
includes a boy who is only listed as “Indian Boy,”
according to public archive materials.
Further investigation is needed to
determine how many of
the unmarked graves are of Indigenous children and
families and the communities they are from.

Thousands of people turned out to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Taste of The Kingsway last weekend.

The annual festival of music, food, family entertainment and vendors is sponsored by the Kingsway BIA and ran from September 8 to 10.

Billed as Etobicoke’s largest street festival, it featured a diverse range of international cuisine and was a showcase for the many local businesses.

The main stage on Saturday featured headliner Elton Ron and there were pop-up performances by Footloose Dancewear.

There was also face painting, a Reptilia show, super dogs shows, fun zone and a Monkey Movers Party Bus.

For the sports fans, NHL Alumni Nik Antropov and Thomas Kaberle made an appearance.

The weather and food was good and a fun time was had by all.

Guns similar to these taken off the streets in Alderwood area. Police photo.

Police are making the public aware of an arrest made in a firearm investigation.

On September 8 officers from 22 Division executed Criminal Code Search warrants in the Brown’s Line and Evans Avenue area.

They didn’t come out empty handed.

Officers seized three semi-automatic handguns, a long gun and a large quantity of firearm ammunition.

Norman Craig, 69, of Toronto, has been arrested and charged with: two counts of unauthorized possession of a restricted firearm, unauthorized possession of a prohibited firearm, possession of a loaded prohibited firearm, possession of a prohibited device, three counts of careless storage of a restricted-prohibited firearm, careless storage of a non-restricted-prohibited firearm and careless storage of ammunition.

He was scheduled to appear at the Toronto Regional Bail Centre, 2201 Finch Avenue West, on September 9.

Toronto Police are probing the seizure of a smart camera planted by thieves to conduct surveillance on homes for possible break and enters when the owners are not at home.

Officers last week found a residential break and enter camera device set to photograph a home at Echo Valley Ridge, in the Kipling Avenue and Burnhamthorpe Road area.

Police were called by the homeowners to investigate a suspicious device, according to an alert from 22 Division officers.

“The device was hidden amongst overgrown shrubs next to the driveway of the residence,” police said. “The camera was facing a home across the street.”

Police determined the camera was a Blink brand surveillance camera ‘which was painted green, connected to ‘a wireless 4-G LTE transmitter,’ and powered by two heavy duty battery packs.

The Blink cameras, when turn on, record clips based on motion detection and send a notification to a compatible mobile device used by crooks, who are notified the owners may be leaving or returning to the home which they possibly plan to rob.

The camera is one of the most used surveillance methods in home or office premises. It provides live monitoring and security streaming through a wireless connection.

Police said due to a spike of robberies of large homes which back onto green spaces, owners and officers are encouraged to look for camera devices as this one in or around their houses ‘which may have been broken into or is targeted for a potential break in.’