The province is trying to take away the land on which Billy Bishop Airport operates in order to force the city to allow jets to operate there. It’s a rash move that only underscores the premier’s fixation with all things Toronto.
It was particularly tone deaf of the premier to give a press conference at the Island airport just hours after two Air Canada pilots were killed at LaGuardia Airport when their jet collided with a firetruck on the runway. His decision to proceed with the announcement speaks volumes about the premier who is a “Get-R-Done” kind of leader: tactless, rash, politically expedient.
He has declared the airport site a “special economic zone.” This means the province would not have to do an environmental impact assessment. The special economic zone designation was supposed to be used to get roads into the Ring of Fire for resource extraction, not as a bully tool to force a major change on Toronto’s waterfront without due consideration and consultation.
Apparently, Ford’s jet dreams stem from a poll showing that Toronto residents are clamouring for this move. He has yet to produce this poll, and he has certainly not done any kind of feasibility study. He is more working off of “vibes.”
The bulk of new jet flights would be to the U.S. at a time when the federal government is urging more trade and travel overseas, not to the States. The jets that can land at Billy Bishop would not have the range for transatlantic routes. Billy Bishop is a postage-stamp- sized airport with no significant hangar space and no parking for airline patrons. The potential for a LaGuardia-type tragedy is far greater in a smaller space. Then there is the heavily used harbour and waterfront. The new aircraft would be very close to new residential towers and ferry traffic, to say nothing of the noise and pollution.
Doug Ford’s grand ideas for what Toronto should be doing while ignoring the needs of the province makes one wonder what he has up his sleeve. There seems to always be an end game that is not directly related to stated goals.
Removing selected parcels of the Greenbelt from protection was not about solving the housing crisis. No expert thought this was a sensible move due to the lack of basic infrastructure. It was an opportunity to benefit specific developers who would buy the farmland cheap and then make millions when development restrictions were lifted. The RCMP still has Ford under criminal investigation for that scheme.
Closing the Ontario Science Centre in the middle of the night was not to “protect the children” from a potentially collapsing roof; it was to build a new science centre on the Exhibition grounds which would require a parking garage, the same parking garage that the province has promised to build for the new luxury spa that will be built on the site of the former Ontario Place.
Ford has placed the Toronto school boards under provincial supervision. He is giving an obscene paycheque to the supervisor who is unqualified but a friend of the Conservative Party. This does not improve the educational experience. This move also appears to be about selling off school lands to developers while the market is depressed. Selling off school properties or closing schools with low enrolment was prohibited by the province until it got into the driver’s seat.
Ford has mused about his disdain for the residents of the island. He also suggested he would build a new island in Lake Ontario for a grand convention centre on the scale he said of “shock and awe”. Maybe our little Trump is suggesting evicting the 600 island residents and displacing the treasured city park with a new convention centre. Is this his end game?
Ford is also meddling in Ottawa where he is trying to get the Carney government to amend the Criminal Code to allow everyone to carry pepper spray so we can attack one another should we feel threatened. He is not dealing with the $500-billion provincial debt, health care, education, or the housing crises. These are true provincial responsibilities. Be a premier, or at least try to be one.
As we move into spring, I’ve been hearing from many neighbours about what’s on their minds—community safety, the state of city services, and how we keep University-Rosedale a welcoming and liveable place for everyone. I wanted to share a few updates on how we’re responding.
Some residents have raised concerns about recent home break-ins. I have been in regular contact with Toronto Police, and I hosted a community meeting to hear directly from Toronto Police with nearly 300 residents in attendance. Officers are actively investigating and have already made a number of arrests. They also offered practical advice—like reinforcing doors and windows—and emphasized how important it is to report suspicious activity right away. Staying informed and looking out for one another continues to make a real difference, and I’m grateful to everyone who has taken the time to stay engaged on this issue.
Just as important is staying connected as a community. University-Rosedale has always been a place where people from many backgrounds live side by side, and maintaining that sense of respect and belonging matters. With the recent rise in discriminatory acts of violence across the GTA, I recently co-hosted an interfaith meeting with Reverend Wendell Gibbs of First Baptist Church, bringing together local clergy to talk about how we can strengthen relationships and reduce hate. These conversations are thoughtful, sometimes challenging, and always worthwhile. We’ll be continuing that work with upcoming events, including an interfaith planting and a “One Toronto” walk in early May. I hope you’ll consider joining us.
I also know how much it matters that the city delivers on everyday services. After years of pushing for improvements, we’re starting to see progress with 311. Service requests are being tracked more closely, and a new public dashboard will soon make it easier for residents to see how the city is responding. It’s a behind-the-scenes change, but one that should lead to more reliable follow-up and greater transparency. When people take the time to report an issue, they should be able to see that it’s being addressed.
Of course, there’s still plenty to do. Pothole repair season is underway after a tough winter, and crews are working across the city to catch up. Please continue to report larger issues to 311—it really does help ensure they’re prioritized appropriately. At the TTC, where I chair the audit and risk management committee, we’re focused on improving safety, reliability, and the accuracy of real-time information so riders can better plan their trips. Small improvements in communication can make a big difference in daily commutes.
Looking ahead, there are some important planning conversations underway. A draft Chinatown planning framework is coming forward, which is an important step in setting a vision for the future of the neighbourhood. I will continue working with community members and city staff to find practical ways forward.
There’s also good news. Bike Share Toronto continues to grow, with record ridership and further expansion planned, including in our ward.
More people are choosing active transportation, and the city is working to keep up with that demand. Council has also supported strengthening protections for smaller trees—an important step in preserving our urban canopy and the green spaces that make our neighbourhoods more liveable.
In addition, there is strong support for addressing abuse of accessible parking permits, helping ensure these spaces are available for those who truly need them.
Finally, the revitalization of Queen’s Park North is moving ahead. This is an exciting opportunity to enhance one of our most important public spaces.
The project has received strong support and is being refined based on feedback from both experts and the community, including added environmental safeguards.
Done well, this will be a space that serves residents for generations to come.
As always, I hope to see you out in the neighbourhood. Please save the date for our Environment Day at Central Tech on May 10, and our Spring Spectacular and sapling giveaway at Christie Pits on May 17.
University-Rosedale is a special place, and it’s the people here who make it that way. Thank you for staying engaged, sharing your concerns, and continuing to look out for one another.
Dianne Saxe is city councillor for Ward 11, University-Rosedale.
Province handed top $350,000-job to a totally unqualified person
By Jessica Bell
Last year, the Ford government put eight school boards including the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and the Toronto Catholic District School Board (TCDSB) under provincial supervision to address so-called financial mismanagement.
Oversight of the TDSB was taken from elected school board trustees and handed to a supervisor, Rohit Gupta—a finance professional with no direct experience in the classroom. Mr. Gupta earns $350,000 a year.
Have our schools improved since the takeover? No. It’s become worse.
The supervisor has created a climate of decision-making chaos for parents at the TDSB.
The official way for a parent to raise an issue is to first go to the teacher, then the principal, then the superintendent, and then the trustee. With the trustee removed, it’s become a bit wild west.
The school community, including our office, regularly reaches out to the supervisor, but he rarely responds.
Parents on the special education advisory committee and the parent youth advisory committee use their influence to raise issues with TDSB leadership.
Our office has resorted to repeated phone calls and letters to get a meeting with Ministry of Education officials about the need for renovations at Kensington School. It felt out of place to raise a local issue with staff responsible for overseeing 4316 schools, but there is nowhere else for us to go.
After public outcry, the TDSB has now established a Family Support Office, tasked with responding to parent enquiries. We don’t know how effective this new office will be.
The TDSB’s financial troubles remain. Ontario is solely responsible for funding school boards and has failed to provide enough money to boards to pay the salaries and deliver the programs they are legally required to provide. By bringing in a supervisor, the government is pretending to fix a problem entirely of their own making.
The supervisor is making drastic decisions with no notice or public say. Even learning about these decisions is challenging. The supervisor’s decisions are buried deep in the bowels of the TDSB’s website, sometimes months after the decision has been made.
I don’t dislike all the supervisor’s decisions, just most of them. Reinstating Barry Sketchley as principal of Rosedale School of the Arts was a populist move, but the cuts are terrible.
The supervisor has increased class sizes for special education, resulting in Beverley school in Baldwin Village losing a teacher, and Lucy McCormick Senior School in the Junction losing two teachers.
Kids who attend these schools need extra care. They cannot cope in a regular school. Many children have serious developmental issues, including Down’s syndrome, autism, and complex medical conditions. Parents describe these schools as lifelines.
The supervisor has removed the maximum class cap of 32 kids for Grades 4 to 8, meaning very large classes are coming to some classrooms in September.
Class sizes are already very large. I interviewed teachers at King Edward School to get an understanding of what’s going on in our schools, and it’s not great. Some classes have 33 students in classes with not enough desks or chairs. There is just one educational assistant for the entire school. This is typical, not exceptional.
We keep seeing signs that the Ford government “supervised” TDSB and TCDSB plan to sell off schools to developers. The TDSB has directed Eastdale Collegiate Institute and Heydon Park Secondary School to shut off enrollment for incoming students in Grade 9 and beyond, prompting fears of closure.
Toronto City Council currently opposes the inclusion of school properties in housing redevelopment plans and in mid-December directed city staff to exclude them from its Avenues Policy, which is designed to encourage new mid-rise housing.
The province-led TDSB and the TCDSB are now going to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) to contest the city’s move to protect school properties from development. This is another u-turn for the Ford government who had previously prohibited such closures but now that they are in direct charge of the boards, they see a development opportunity.Selling a property for development is a foolish choice in a city growing as quickly as ours, because odds are, we will eventually need these school properties again. Surplus properties should be offered to other school boards or the city to keep the land public, not sold off in a one-off fire sale.
My goal is to ensure every one of these kids can reach their full potential in safe and welcoming classrooms. We need well-run, accountable, and democratic school boards, and more highly qualified educators in the classroom, not cuts and poor decisions from up high.
I will continue to advocate with parents, students, and educators to protect and improve our public school system. Please contact our office if you have a story that you would like me to raise with the Conservative government, or if you need assistance.
Jessica Bell is the MPP for University-Rosedale and the Shadow Minister for Finance and the Treasury Board. You can reach her office at jbell-co@ndp.on.ca or 416-535-7206.
BMV Books at 471 Bloor St. W. BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS
By Howard Pressburger
Do you remember when you learned to read? Was it Fun With Dick and Jane? Dr. Seuss, or P.D. Eastman? Maybe a coffee-table book about Liberace? No matter what, you probably learned to read from a book: a real, honest-to-goodness, printed-on-paper, held-in-your- hand, book. A book doesn’t require batteries or uploading. It’s tactile, and it makes a real sound when you turn the page. It may even have a musty aroma. Books are anachronistic. They take up space, and when you move, you probably have regrets, but like me, you can’t live without them.
Fortunately, there are a couple of great places in the Annex to keep you supplied; there are “two households, both alike in dignity.” Not the Montagues and the Capulets, but BMV and Seekers Books. BMV, located at 471 Bloor St. W., occupies the space that was once the Hungarian Castle restaurant, while Seekers is hidden under the stairs below Mezcalero at 509 Bloor St. W., around the corner from Wildhearts Café (see my previous article). BMV is like an inviting, magical castle, replete with helpful stewards. Seekers is like a monastic cell, where a learned man can help you make sense of the world.
As far as bookstores as a concept, I really feel that the Annex BMV is the perfect example. The store is bright and open, with large front windows, high ceilings, and a central staircase that is wide and inviting. The space is festooned in different colours and merchandised in such a way that there seems to be a surprise at every turn, such as hidden staircases. It’s everything an inviting bookstore is meant to be, without having to resort to inspirational hand towels.
Seekers Books at 509 Bloor St. W. BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS
Seekers personifies the proper Toronto used bookstore. It’s all business; no fluff. It’s organized, compact, and shoehorned into an old basement. But that’s the charm. The best used bookstores are all repurposed buildings and spaces: old insurances offices, warehouses, small factories, and even an abattoir. And I don’t know if it was my teenage brashness, but I found that the older, bearded, perpetual English literature grad student never thought much of me. Sitting at the checkout table—which was always an old, ornate desk, recovered from the office of the building’s original owner—the man in charge would dispense judgment on me and my high school chums who went downtown to exercise our intellectual muscle. Always humbled, we would return to our suburban wasteland armed with poetry, prose, and reference works we would use to impress our classmates. Alas, always a Pyrrhic victory, since the highest point of intellectualism was the profoundness of the lyrics of Bruce Springsteen.
This is just a long-winded way to say that Patrick, who is the current owner of Seekers, is nothing like those curmudgeonly clerks of my past. Patrick is the real thing; he wants people to read; he wants to help people read; and he wants to help people read books that will enhance their lives. Patrick personifies Seekers Books. He is the most recent in a long line of caretakers of this store. Visiting the location in his youth, he became absorbed by the magic. Years later, he became the owner. He may or may not know how that happened, but in addition to an economic transaction, I believe there was some form of psychic transaction as well. Somehow the store’s entire collection, both past and present, resides in Patrick’s mind. Whenever I’m looking for a specific book, I always visit Seekers first. If he’s got it, Patrick knows exactly where it is (don’t reshelve things in the wrong place as there may be a minotaur ready to brutally correct you). If he doesn’t have it, he knows the last time he had it, and at least a physical description of the person who bought it. He’s always willing to discuss books, literature, philosophy, and the other lively arts, with an arid sense of humour.
BMV is where I go when I don’t know what I want. It’s definitely a destination in the neighbourhood when I want some light entertainment, or if I’m looking for a gift. It’s also my second stop, after Seekers, when I’m looking for a specific title, although that miracle has only happened once. When I recently purchased a random book from BMV, the person on cash, smiling and engaging, even though he had a beard and may have been a grad student, said the following: “If you’re looking for something specific, you probably won’t find it here, but it’s an adventure nevertheless.”
No glooming places, this morning will they bring, The sun with no sorrow, may show his head, Go hence to have more talk of these things, Some shall be pardoned, but all will be read. For never shall we have far to go, To find books, like Juliet and Romeo.
Howard Pressburger is manager of Wiener’s Home Hardware, the beloved retail institution established in 1922.
Seaton Village resident Charles Spearin of Broken Social Scene performing at the 2015 Open Tuning festival, which returns this year on June 6. The organizers are looking for volunteers, musicians and locations – please visit opentuningfestival.wordpress.com to learn more. PHOTO COURTESY NEIL MUSCOTT/GLEANER FILE PHOTO
Proximity to four subway stations impacts the Annex
Radical changes in height and density within 200 metres and 500 metres of transit hubs. COURTESY CITY OF TORONTO
By Damola Omole
On Jan. 27, 2026, amidst heaps of leftover snow from a historic storm, the City of Toronto’s Station Area Zoning Project team hosted an open house at the West End Alternative School, where individuals from within and around the Annex community learned more about the city’s updated zoning for Toronto and East York neighbourhoods.
The city’s latest planning strategy involves updating neighbourhood zoning requirements to permit certain heights and densities to be built in proximity to Protected Major Transit Station Areas (PMTSAs) PMTSAs are a subset of Major Transit Station Areas, (MTSAs) which the city defines as areas within about 500 to 800 metres, or roughly a 10-minute walk, of existing or planned higher-order transit stations (subways, GO Transit, light-rail). There are currently 120 approved MTSAs across the city.
The distinction between PMTSAs and MTSAs is that, of the 120 approved MTSAs in the city, 95 of them (all PMTSAs) have required minimum densities where the city can also require affordable housing through inclusionary zoning.
The city and the provincial minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing established P/MTSAs through Official Plan Amendments (OPAs). Subsequently, in August 2025, the minister’s approval brought Chapter 8 of the Official Plan into effect, fostering a wave of changes like increased density and height permissions within 200 and 500 metres of the stations, as well as required minimum densities in PMTSAs.
This brings us to the city’s current goal which is to translate the new provincially approved policies into each applicable neighbourhood around Toronto.
The Planning Act directs the city to set zoning permissions to allow heights and densities, but not every site will be able to build to the maximum limit—there are different allowances depending on whether the site is designated as “Neighbourhoods,” “Apartment Neighbourhoods,” “Mixed Use Areas,” or “Regeneration Areas.”
As the Annex is a nexus of subway stations (St. George, Spadina, Bathurst, Christie, Dupont, and Museum), potential changes to the development landscape are significant. COURTESY CITY OF TORONTO
“Neighbourhoods” include a range of residential uses within lower scale buildings, as well as parks, schools, local institutions and small-scale stores and shops; detached houses, semi-detached houses, duplexes, triplexes and various forms of townhouses as well as interspersed walk-up apartments with or without elevators that are four storeys or less.
“Apartment Neighbourhoods” feature apartment buildings and parks, local institutions, cultural and recreational facilities, and small-scale retail, service and office uses.
“Mixed Use Areas” include a wide range of residential uses, offices, retail and services, institutions, entertainment, recreation and cultural activities, along with parks and open spaces.
“Regeneration Areas” are areas of the city that are no longer in productive urban use and these sites will be open to a variety of commercial, residential, live/work, institutional and light industrial uses that can be mixed within the same block or even the same building.
Under the new policies, on sites designated as “Neighbourhoods” in Toronto’s Official Plan, multiplexes and apartments may be built up to 6 storeys within 200 metres of a station; up to 6 storeys fronting a major street; and up to 4 storeys beyond the 200 metre zone and not fronting a major street.
In “Mixed Use Areas, Apartment Neighbourhoods, and Regeneration Areas,” the permitted density of a structure within 200 metres of a station is a floor space index (FSI) of 8 or more. The permitted density of a structure between 200 and 500 metres from the station is an FSI of 6 or more.
The City of Toronto’s explanation of floor space index from their presentation materials. COURTESY CITY OF TORONTO
Up to 30 storeys is the permitted building height for “Mixed Use Areas, Apartment Neighbourhoods or Regeneration Areas” in Toronto’s Official Plan on large, multi-tower sites (that can fit three or more towers) within 200 metres of a station. The permitted building height decreases to 20 storeys when the structure is 200 to 500 metres from a station. Taller heights may be permitted if a block plan is provided that includes the creation of public streets, parks, open spaces, public art and a mix of building types.
At the open house, Kyle Knoeck, the City of Toronto’s Director of Zoning, provided more clarity. “The province and the city have new planning policies that mandate increased density of housing and also jobs around transit stations, and the point of that is really to maximize the benefit of all the investment that governments are making into building transit in Toronto,” Knoeck said.
When asked to comment on how the planning policies would impact the Annex specifically, Knoeck referenced the neighbourhood’s various transit stations.
“There are transit stations in the Annex primarily along Bloor Street, and so those stations will receive permissions for larger and denser development.”
He continued: “You know, one development near the Annex on the former Honest Ed’s site is an example of the scale of development that could be permitted in other areas near transit stations.”
Knoeck is referring to the iconic Honest Ed’s discount department store that operated from 1948 to 2016 at Bloor and Bathurst.
Since the store’s closure and sale in 2016, the site has been transformed into the Mirvish Village housing development. Much of Mirvish Village has been built already; however, once fully completed, it will have a park, high- and low-rise apartments, a food hall, and other amenities.
Knoeck also discussed how the city’s inclusionary zoning requirements, which necessitate affordable housing in new residential developments located near public transit, are factored in.
He said that “[inclusionary requirements] when implementing zoning in protected major transit station areas would allow the city to secure those affordable housing units. But now, the province has announced that they’re considering pausing the implementation of inclusionary zoning until 2027.”
The Ford government recently paused its affordable housing policy, calling the rules it wrote “unnecessary red tape and requirements” that make it more expensive to build. This has subsequently delayed inclusionary zoning policies in Toronto.
In a city seemingly marred by an affordability crisis, many spoke out against this decision.
Among them was Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow who frankly said, “People need homes they can afford.”
Knoeck, however, remained neutral on the city’s stance regarding inclusionary zoning.
After all, the city has yet to opt in or out of the inclusionary zoning program.
“We don’t have a decision on that yet, but right now, as it stands, we’re assuming that the zoning that we’re proposing here would enable us to implement inclusionary zoning, which means affordable housing.”
Bird bath designer, musician, gardener, and decorator all lived here
The once-grand 1117 Bathurst St. home will likely be demolished. MIKE MASTROMATTEO/GLEANER NEWS
By Mike Mastromatteo
It’s a sad visage greeting the traveller passing by the abandoned, crumbling house on the east side of Bathurst Street, just north of Dupont Street.
The house at 1177 Bathurst St. is a grand foursquare redbrick home with a rounded arch entryway and a small dormer window peeking out from the apex. Daylight streaming through openings in the roof indicate not all is well with the home.
Given the predominance of Victorian and Edwardian designs, foursquare-style buildings were a rarity for turn-of-the-century Toronto homes. Although the foursquare style was criticized for its lack of adornment, it won favour for its functionality, affordability, and more efficient use of interior space.
Nonetheless, 1177 Bathurst St., a home that has quietly sheltered dozens of families, guests, and lodgers over the last 120 years, is nearing the end of its days. It has been abandoned and boarded up for the last several months, and in an eerie tableau, the house appears to lean slightly to the left, indicating to the wistful that the house is aware its time is up.
This could be the last opportunity to tell of its history.
The building at 1177 Bathurst St. was constructed around the year 1905. It was the home of George and Lydia Plumb, English immigrants who arrived in Canada in 1885. George Plumb was a gardener by trade. He and Lydia were parents to daughter Marion (born 1906), son Noel (born 1911), and the youngest girl Audrey (born 1911).
Sadly, the 1921 Canadian census does not list Audrey Plumb along with the rest of the Plumb family at 1177 Bathurst. Given the high incidence of infant mortality in the early part of the 20th-century, one might assume young Audrey Plumb did not live long. Did the walls of this home absorb any of these unhappy emanations?
However, there were some happy moments for the Plumb family at the home. The Toronto Globe and Mail reported on April 5, 1923, that Noel Plumb, then about 12 years old, won a share of the $150 prize money in the Canadian Society for the Protection of Birds contest for designing bird baths, bird houses, and bird drawings. Noel and some of his classmates from the Hillcrest Manual Training Centre impressed the judges with their “cement pedestal bird bath.”
We don’t know much else about Noel Plumb’s post-1177 Bathurst life, but he did survive until April 17, 1990—passing away at age 79.
And the oldest daughter, Marion, would go on to another small but treasured moment. The March 10, 1948 edition of The Globe and Mail mentioned Marion’s performance as a soloist at the 23rd anniversary of the Park School Old Girls’ Association.
An odd quirk comes to the fore in researching the history of 1177 Bathurst St. It seems there was more than one gardener named George Plumb in Toronto from 1900 to 1925 or so. In addition to the George Plumb at 1177 Bathurst, there was another George Plumb, gardener, who in 1905 resided at 778 Yonge Street, and later at 20 Blake Street.
In any case, Lillian Plumb, George’s widow, resided at 1177 Bathurst St. until the mid-to-late 1930s. Following the Plumbs, 1177 Bathurst St. became home to George McFadden, a painter and decorator. McFadden, born 1882, resided at 1177 Bathurst for only about four years before the home went to his widow Edna, who shared the property with friend Nora Armstrong and lodger George Allen. Allen worked as a driver/dispatcher for the Toronto Daily Star, and it’s a safe bet he carried home free copies of the newspaper for the landlord.
Nora Armstrong hung on until 1963, after which the home began its slow transformation to a rooming house. A duplex to let classified ad appeared on Nov. 5, 1963, and again on Jan. 10, 1974, this latter one asking for $170 per month in rent.
Rental ads would appear periodically over the next 33 years, with the monthly rent appreciating along the way. By 2007, the rent climbed to $1100 per month. By today’s affordable housing challenges, paying $1100 a month for such a large, well-located property is only to dream of.
Although there would be new owners and tenants over the years, the property’s sad decline was in evidence by the mid-1980s. Hastening its fall, was a Sept. 28, 2025 fire in the home’s upper floors. Firefighters had to cut holes in the roof to extinguish the flames. The house was unoccupied at the time, but it is rumoured squatters had gained entry and were responsible for the fire.
In 2019, Makow Architects announced plans for a new development, the Annex Lofts, at the northeast corner of Bathurst Street and Bridgman Avenue. This would have involved the demolition of 1177 Bathurst St. and adjacent properties. Although the plans never came to fruition, other developers no doubt are planning their next moves.
Meanwhile, a sheet of paper taped to the front porch of the building might be the death knell for 1177 Bathurst St. Addressed to the property’s trustees, the paper is an unsafe building notice from the city’s building inspection department. There are problems with the joists, walls, and the very foundation. The building may or may not be physically revived but the memory will always remain of the ones who lived there.
A repair café participant gets some expert help to fix his gear. COURTESY KARMA CO-OP
By Brian Burchell
The Small Appliances & Electronics Repair Café, co-hosted by Karma Co-op & Repair Café TO is returning on Saturday, March 28, from 12:00 p.m.– 3:00 p.m.
Bring your favourite but not-quite-functional small appliances and electronics. Stay to watch and learn precious repair skills from the fixers.
One can bring multiple items for repair but only one item per person will be fixed at a time. After an item is fixed, you can add your second item to the waitlist.
People bring all kinds of items. Here are some of the items that have been fixed in the last few years: electric razors, clippers, Bluetooth speakers, radios, clocks, shredders, mixers, blenders, food processors, a fabric steamer, a hand-held vacuum, and an electric scooter. Of course, not everything can be fixed, but most problems can be diagnosed; for example, a replacement part or a battery may be needed. And of course, older items were typically designed to be repaired, whereas many modern appliances are not. So, the repair cafe at times is also an education in how to shop for appliances that can be fixed.
All the Repair Café fixers and coordinators generously donate their expertise and time to bring these events to our community. They receive no compensation. Donations are welcome and can help cover the expenses for both the fixers and Karma.
Any surplus monetary donations are shared with Karma Co-op and Repair Café Toronto for co-produced events. Please note that Karma Co-op cannot accept donated appliances as it lacks the space to store them.
Karma Co-op is located 739 Palmerston Ave. The repair café is free to attend and everyone is welcome!
Khevin Enriquez brought a warm personality to his safety role
Crossing guard brought infectious enthusiasm to the role. COURTESY PARACHUTE
By Arathanie Rajakumar
Known for his charm and warmth, even on the coldest winter days, crossing guard Khevin Enriquez is one of three winners of the 2025 Canada’s Favourite Crossing Guard contest.
Out of 136 nominations from five provinces, Khevin Enriquez stood out for his friendly conversations and the way he brightened his pedestrians’ days. Although Kevin has now stepped down from his crossing guard role, he made the busy intersection at Bedford Road and Lowther Avenue, a place where children could cross safely and parents could feel at ease.
“It could be unpredictable with a lot of kids…so it helps a lot to have someone else who is focused on their safety and their well-being and is looking out for them,” said Dylan Skurka, a teacher at Keystone School.
Beyond keeping everyone safe, Enriquez’s kind and cheerful demeanour put a smile on the faces of everyone crossing. To the people he helped in the community every day, Enriquez was more than just a crossing guard; he was a friendly face who brought comfort and joy to every interaction.
When he wasn’t there he was “missed by pedestrians, especially children,” said Mahvash Solati, a resident of the community.
Parachute, a national charity devoted to injury prevention, has been recognizing Canada’s top crossing guards through this annual contest since 2005. In a post celebrating Enriquez, they wrote that “Even with heavy traffic and ongoing construction, he remains calm, friendly and attentive. He greets everyone with genuine kindness and ensures children, parents and pedestrians feel safe and cared for. He lifts people’s spirits, and teaches the children about safety in engaging, memorable ways.”
Enriquez is also passionate about being involved in the community through organizing art programs and Filipino theatre productions that allow people to appreciate and celebrate diverse cultures and traditions. These programs reflect his dedication to the neighbourhood and to spreading positivity.
Khevin Enriquez’s compelling smile and dedication to looking out for everyone will be deeply missed by students, staff, parents, and the entire community. The compassion and humanity Enriquez showed will continue to inspire the community, leaving a lasting impression on all who knew him.
