Police describe the crime as the lowest of the low.

Toronto Police have launched a city-wide dragnet to put behind bars a violent six-foot fugitive who  is on the lam for assaulting an 85-year-old woman at the Kipling subway station.

Officers have identified a suspect who is sought for the July 7 attack on the senior who was allegedly assaulted and suffered serious injuries.

The senior was knocked to the ground and was rushed to a local hospital.

Police said they were called to the Kipling Subway station around 11:15 a.m. for a report of the senior being assaulted.

The bully then fled the scene.

Kelon Peters, 35, of Toronto, is sought for assault cause bodily harm and fraud in relation to TTC fares.

Police said the suspect is violent and should not be approached. Call 911 if you see him.

 

 

The site of a former Royal Canadian Legion hall in New Toronto is being put to good use to help others in the community.

The Canadian Helen Keller Centre (CHKC) will be getting a new building at 150 Eighth Street, a site that kept the community together for decades as the Legion’s Branch 3.

The building, when built, will contain 56 fully accessible and affordable units for Canadians who are deafblind, CHKC officials said.

“Together, we are ensuring that Canadians who are deafblind live life as independently as possible,” the Centre posted on its Facebook page. “It’s a good day!”

Mayor John Tory and Ahmed Hussen, Minister of Housing and Diversity and Inclusion, with other politicians on July 8 pledged funding for seven new affordable and supportive housing developments, as part of Phase Two of the federal Rapid Housing Initiative (RHI).

“I am committed to getting more housing built,” Tory said. “These seven projects demonstrate how our governments and community partners are working together to get more housing built as soon as possible.”

He said the projects will create 260 affordable and supportive homes in Toronto and “grow the capacity and expertise of Toronto’s non-profit housing development sector.”

 

The other projects include Wigwamen Incorporated, 525 Markham Rd., Akwa Honsta Non-Profit Aboriginal Homes, 136 Kingston Rd., St. Clare’s Multifaith Housing Society, 1120 Ossington Ave., WoodGreen Community Housing, 60 Bowden St. and 1080 Queen St. E., St. Felix Centre, 25 Augusta Ave., and the CHKC.

The Centre’s mission is ‘to empower the deafblind community through consumer driven services and opportunities that maximize independence.’

The City has set an ambitious target of approving 18,000 new supportive homes over 10 years in the HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan. The funds will support people experiencing or at risk of homelessness to achieve housing stability and begin improving their health and well-being.

New Toronto veterans, legionnaires and members of the public have gathered annually for more than 30 years  at a large cenotaph in front of former Branch 3 to remember Canadians fallen in war on the Sunday before Remembrance Day, and on November 11.

The huge granite cenotaph has since been moved to the grounds of Humber College at Kipling Ave. and Lake Shore Blvd. W.

 

Long Branch business owners vow to challenge a plan to remove their angled parking spots along the south side of Lake Shore Blvd. W., to install parallel parking and a widened sidewalk and patios.

Business owners say the removal of the angled parking means they will lose business since they will not be able to provide ample parking for their customers.

“We do not have laneway parking and the delivery trucks will have to park on the road and disrupt traffic flow,” said Corey Bowes, an official of the Long Branch Business Improvement Association.

He said it took quite a fight years ago to have the angled parking installed, mostly due to a lack of parking in the area.

Business people in the area say they already suffer slow sales due to an ongoing watermain installation project which has disrupted traffic flow. They warn a sidewalk installation project will mean more construction and less sales.

“Angled parking allows more cars to park per meter of sidewalk than parallel parking, so it’s a very efficient way to make parking available on this busy street,” according to a Long Branch Neighbourhood website.

Councillor Mark Grimes in a June 9 letter requested the General Manager, of the City’s Transportation Services,  report back by April next year of a ‘conceptual design to replace the angle parking between 3285 and 3809 Lake Shore Blvd. W.’

City staff are to report back with a “more detailed design and funding sources.”

Grimes said Lake Shore Boulevard West is classified as a “major arterial,” with two lanes in each direction with TTC streetcars sharing the inside with other traffic, and bike lanes designated on both sides of the road.

He said the road “is configured to allow angled parking, which protrudes onto the sidewalk and makes reversing out of parking spots into traffic potentially dangerous due to other parked vehicles restricting visibility of oncoming vehicular and bicycle traffic.”

“The public realm along Lake Shore Boulevard West would be greatly improved by replacing the angled parking with parallel parking spots and widening the sidewalk to allow more room for pedestrians, streetscape beautification, and restaurant patios,” Grimes wrote.

“Given that there is no major capital construction scheduled for this area in the next five years, having a conceptual plan in place would allow for the work to be undertaken through potential future private development,” he told City staff.

Etobicoke York Community Council in 2017 approved a Parking and Streetscape Pilot Project on Lake Shore Boulevard West, between Thirty Sixth Street and Thirty Seventh Street, with a conceptual design, cost and parking supply implications. The pilot project was never implemented

 

 

You too can be an online sleuth.

A search is underway in South Etobicoke for a 14-year-old girl who disappeared in Montreal more than 60 years ago after moving here with her family from Germany.

Rosemarie Helga Doederlein would be 81 today and is believed to be in the South Etobicoke area, according to her sister Vera, and daughter Christie Hastie, in an online posting.

The family has set up a Facebook page with thousands of followers trying to find Rosemarie.

It has been nearly 68 years since Vera last saw Rosemarie or heard her voice.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think of her,” Vera says.

Rosemarie was a teen when her mother sent her to a bakery a few blocks from their Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, apartment in Montreal one afternoon in late 1954. The non-English speaking sisters had arrived several weeks earlier from their native Germany.

Vera recalls her parents Hilda and Oskar died heartbroken.

“She was never found. No trace. Nothing. They looked for the rest of their lives,” she says.

“A lead came in saying they believe my sister Rosemarie may have ended up in the Etobicoke area in 1954 and lived there,” Vera said in a post.

“Does anyone recognize her or have heard any facts related to her middle name, hometown, date of birth or maiden name,” she asked online.

One follower responded “that age enhanced photo reminds me of a woman who lived in Mimico Estates. She was always out and about, retired and collected empties.”

“I spoke to her often and she had a European accent,” the woman wrote. “I suddenly stopped seeing her.”

The family can’t stop wondering if Rosemarie was sold for prostitution or child trafficking, domestic work or was at the wrong place at the wrong time.

“She was a gorgeous tall bright blue eyed girl who didn’t speak any English or French yet,” Vera said. “She was kind and innocent and very helpful.”

The family still has hope and is working with the Jane Doe Project, which helps reunify families.

For more information visit https://www.facebook.com/groups/missing1954rosemarie/

 

TTC burn victim Nyima Dolma was happy and living her dream in Canada when her life was suddenly cut short.

Nyima, 28, was set on fire with a flammable liquid on June 17 and suffered fatal second and third degree burns to her body. She was on a TTC bus minutes away from Kipling Station when the attack occurred.

Nyima was of Tibetan background and was accepted in Canada with her family from India several years ago. They had been living in the Mundgod region in India, in an area known as a ‘Tibetan refugee establishment.’

Her dad, Tsering Pasang, had arrived in Toronto earlier and held three jobs as he awaited his wife and two daughters to join him for a new life in Canada.

“Her family and friends mentioned that she had devoted her life to helping those around her,” family members wrote about Nyima on social media.

“My sister was on her way to work as a professional caregiver when she was attacked by a stranger who threw lighter fluid on her and set her on fire,” according to her sister.

Her dad Tserinmg, who suffered from depression, couldn’t handle it and committed suicide after hearing the shocking news of his daughter’s death in her new country.

“My mom and I are grieving and trying to make sense of the situation,” Nima’s sister wrote.  “He (our dad) will forever shine the brightest in my heart.”

Almost $10,000 has been raised in a Go Fund Me campaign to help with the funerals of dad and daughter.

The grieving family said they will use the money for funeral expenses and health-care costs.

It is reported that the services will occur on July 15 at 12:30 p.m. at St. John’s Dixie Crematorium, at 737 Dundas St E., Mississauga.

Meanwhile, the accused Tenzin Norbu has had charges against him upgraded to murder.

He appeared before an Etobicoke court earlier this week.

 

Alderwood’s Kenji Tamane is a top Canadian gymnast who is on his way to achieving his dream of competing for his country in an upcoming Olympic Games.

Tamane, 20, and members of the Canadian gymnastics team left Canada on July 10 to compete in two major international competitions that will help propel him to his goal; to represent Canada in the 2024 or 2028 Olympic Games.

“I am very excited and looking forward to the competition,” Tamane said before catching a flight at Pearson Airport. “I will be competing with the Canadian team at the Pan Am and Commonwealth Games.”

He is in the gym training daily and was a member of the Junior Canadian National Team in 2018 and 2019.

Tamane placed fourth in the rings competition at the 2019 Canadian Championships.

At the 2018 Championships, the athlete placed first on rings, second on pommel horse, third in the all-around, fourth on high bar and fifth on parallel bars. He also came in second at Canadian National Championships in May 2022.

“I specialize in the rings and competitive gymnastics and hold several medals in Canada for the sport,” he said “My goal is to place in the top three in the Pan Am and Commonwealth Games.”

The former Silverthorn Collegiate Institute Computer student is training full time these days in a bid to achieve an Olympic gold or other medals for himself, or the Canadian delegation.

His family moved to the Alderwood area about five years ago so Kenji, and his brother, can train at Toronto Gymnastics International (TGI) at 77 Brown’s Line.

Tamane and some of the Canadian squad will be competing at the 2022 Pan American Gymnastics Championships which runs from July 15 to 17 in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

They then fly to Britain to train and get ready to compete in the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games that runs from July 28 to August 8, in Birmingham.

The Commonwealth Games is televised and the competition is tough. Team Canada will compete against the 72 nations and territories of the Commonwealth across 19 different sports.

The 2024 Summer Olympics Games will take place from July 26 to August 11 in Paris, France.

A police manhunt is underway to nab a man who punched a woman in her 60s unconscious and fled at the Kipling subway almost a week ago.
Police say the woman was rushed to a local hospital following what they say is a random attack that occurred around 11:15 a.m. on July 7.
Since then more officers and TTC special constables have been deployed to patrol the sprawling station, in which a young woman was set afire last month and has since died second and third degree burns to her body.
A suspect face a number of charges and is before the courts.
In the most recent incident, the woman was walking through the station when she was approached by the suspect, according to detectives.
It is alleged that the suspect then punched the woman in the face unprovoked, knocking her unconscious.
The victim was revived at the scene and taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries, paramedics say.
The suspect was last seen in the station and it is unclear whether he boarded a bus or subway.
He is described as a black man in his mid 30s. He was wearing a black shirt, black pants, a black toque and a white scarf.

Police have now issued photos of the suspect, who is described as dangerous and should not be approached. Please call 911 if you see the fugitive.
These incidents are among a list of other violent incidents on the TTC in recent months, including one which saw a woman pushed onto the tracks at Bloor-Yonge station in April. The woman survived.

July is always an emotional month for the Stewart family of Long Branch.

It was in July 1944 the Stewart family lost two sons in the Second World War. Their dad was also killed in battle just weeks before.

Long Branch residents David Dudley and Mary Lillian Stewart had four daughters: Lillian, Mabel, Gertrude and Helen, and two sons, David Henry and George Edwin.

The community stood firm and grieved with the Stewart family when Dudley and sons, David and George, after being killed abroad five days after their father died in WWII.

Lance Sergeant David Dudley Arthur Stewart Sr., served with 15 Canadian General Hospital, Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps. He died on October, 18, 1942 at the age of 45.

David Dudley Sr., was single and a clerk at Eaton’s, when he enlisted in the First World War at age 20 in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF).  After arriving in England in April 1917, his chronic bronchitis led to lung tuberculosis. He returned to Canada for medical treatment.

He then enlisted in 1939 during the Second World War. He served in the Royal Canadian Army Medical Corps that was responsible for all medical and dental services in the Army. The Corps delivered the wounded to battlefield medical stations (Casualty Clearing Stations), or to hospitals for more intensive medical care.

David Sr. would years later be joined in the battlefield by his son, who left behind in Long Branch their mom and sisters.

The boys’ mom Mary Lillian almost feinted and said she “lost everything she had to live for,” after being told of the death of her husband and sons by a newspaper reporter.

First son David Henry enlisted in March 1942 at age 26 in the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry as a Lance Corporal.  His brother George Edwin would enlist in September 1942, at age 20, as a Gunner in the Royal Canadian Artillery.

A month after George Edwin enlisted, his father David Sr., died in England in October 1942. He is buried in Brookwood Military Cemetery, in Surrey, the largest Commonwealth war cemetery in the U.K.

Both Stewart brothers perished five days apart in the Normandy campaign: George Edwin died at age 22 on July 21, 1944, followed by his brother David Henry who died at age 27 on July 25, 1944.

David Henry Sr. is buried in Bretteville-Sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery in Calvados, France among the almost 3,000 casualties. His brother, George, is memorialized at the Bayeux Memorial also in Calvados, erected in honour of more than 1,800 who died with no known graves.

Mary Lillian lost both her husband and her sons, and four girls lost their father and brothers.  The sacrifice of this family can never be forgotten.

 

 

Etobicoke’s Wayne Reid is a third generation Jamaican jerk sauce maker who is on
a mission to spread his unique flavours to jerk lovers everywhere.

‘Flavour guy’ Reid, as he is dubbed at cookouts, is the owner and operator of Reggae Kitchen Inc.

He will never forget his journey to success began after learning his great granny perfected a nice-tasting jerk sauce two generations ago in Jamaica.

The recipe was shared in the family until his great grandmother found success selling it at the Boston Jerk Centre, a farmer’s market in Port Antonio, Jamaica.

When Reid learned of his family’s history with flavours and spices, he was inspired to start his own line of authentic Jamaican sauces.

He spent his young adulthood playing with different formulas and quickly became
known as the “Flavour guy.”

It took 20 years until Reid bottled his first original flavour.
“Never give up. Find your dream and pursue it,” Wayne insists.

Reggae Kitchen Inc. has five different jerk sauces, including mango, tamarind and
masala, available at Ocean Season Food Mart, Maple Lodge Chicken Shop, Nicey’s Jayoras Market and Danforth Foods.

Call Wayne at 647-205-8537 or reach on Instagram at Wayne Reid @WayneRe02957302

The co-founders of Long Branch’s newest restaurant, Masala Blvd., are former Humber College business students who met in classes.

“We were always looking for good Indian food,” recalls Yashan Jandal, one of three partners who own the spicy  eatery. “We used to drive by here on our way to Mississauga and Brampton to get good Indian food.”

Yashan, with partners Ragat Agarwal and Sahil Aggarwal, agreed to fulfill a need by bringing good Indian street food to their bright restaurant at 3260 Lake Shore Blvd. W., a former fish and chips store.

“All the dishes are homemade and everything is under $10,” Agarwal said. “Students can have quick healthy food at affordable prices.”

Masala Blvd. has been open for several months and the word is spreading fast. There were many Humber students eating in, or ordering little brown boxes of tasty Indian street snacks.

There are two small tables outside that were busy from students having a bite in between classes, as Humber College is across the street.

“A lot of the Humber College students like our food and come here for lunch,” he said.

One student enjoying a meal said she’s hooked on the food and has been returning every day.

“I can’t get enough of this,” she said. “I try something different all the time and it is all good.”

Mohit and Mohamed said they drove to Long Branch from Mississauga to try out Masala Blvd. since they had been reading great reviews and following the eatery online.

“The food was great and well worth the drive from Mississauga and the price of gas,” said Mohit after devouring a snack box. “We will be coming back for more.”

Mohamed said eatery has better food than the ones in Mississauga.

“These people concentrate on the flavour of Indian street food,” he said.

The street food includes items as samosa chana, Papari Chaat, Mumbai Bhel; made from puffed rice and masala peanuts; Bombay Club  Sandwich, Paneer Szechuan Sandwich; stuffed with cheese: butter chicken momos; in a creamy butter chicken sauce and many other filling dishes.

Masala Blvd. can be reached at 647-550-4440 or by email at masalablvd.to@gmail.com  or you can visit https://linktr.ee/masalablvd