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Newsstand: March 18, 2015
If you're under the age of 48, you have not been alive to see the Toronto Maple Leafs win a Stanley Cup. Sadly, this year won’t be your year either, since the Leafs have been bounced out of playoff contention once again. In the news: Kristyn Wong-Tam wants to curb construction noise, a former Paralympian is asked to remove her service dog from a Toronto Tim Hortons location, Captain John’s is up for auction again, and more pieces of the Gardiner come tumbling down.
Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale) is asking the City’s licensing committee to prepare a staff report that would look into how it could do a better job of combatting noise disturbances caused by construction sites. Wong-Tam’s request will be submitted on March 24, and will ask the City to explore the possibility of creating stiffer fines or escalating penalties for crews and developers who continue to operate outside of permitted construction hours on a regular basis. Current rules allow construction noise from Monday to Friday between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. and on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., but Wong-Tam suspects that many construction sites purposely operate outside of these hours and treat any fines incurred as a regular business expense that must be managed in order to keep production moving forward.
While at a Toronto Tim Hortons location last Friday, former Paralympic rower Victoria Nolan says that an employee asked her to remove her service dog from the premises. Nolan, who is blind, says the employee told her that she would be able to stay seated at the restaurant, but her dog would have to be moved outside. Nolan refused to move her service dog, and eventually the employee returned to apologize for having made the request in error. A spokesperson for the chain called the incident “unfortunate,” saying the employee didn’t recognize the dog was a service animal, even though Tim Hortons’s own policies indicate that staff members receive accessibility training.
Stop me if you think you’ve heard this one before, but it looks like Captain John’s is back up for grabs. PortsToronto says that the deal struck last year with businessman James Sbrolla fell through, and it’s seeking new purchase proposals from now until April 13. Qualified buyers will need to meet the key goal of removing the ship from the harbour by the May 11 deadline.
There’s also a case of déjà vu under the Gardiner Expressway. On Tuesday morning, police were called to a section of the aging structure near the Don Valley Parkway where a chunk of concrete fell from the eastbound Gardiner onto the westbound section of Lake Shore Boulevard, blocking the left lane. According to Toronto police, another section of the Gardiner close to Jarvis Street and Sherbourne Street was also under investigation after reports that more concrete fell from the area on Tuesday. No injuries were reported in either instance. Crews will be out today conducting a visual inspection of the expressway and workers have already begun bracing sections with timber where significant chipping exists.