Brodie Merill, 2009 MLL Defensive Player of the Year. Courtesy: Tracy Johnson
By Perry King
When a sports team wins a league title in their inaugural season, they’re going to get some attention.
But somehow, the Toronto Nationals, an expansion franchise of Major League Lacrosse (MLL)—the National Lacrosse League’s (NLL) outdoor lacrosse counterpart—did the deed in the quietest way possible.
Neighbourhood residents have complained about The Social's crowded sidewalks. Beth Macdonell/Gleaner News
By Beth Macdonell
In what seems to be a response to the city issuing an increased number of fines last year, Richard Lambert, co-owner of The Social (1100 Queen St. W.), is asking the city to rezone the address to allow it to operate as a nightclub.
Tags: General
Perry King/ Gleaner News
By Jacob Arnfield
It’s no surprise that as the election year proceeds, the question of how best to improve our streetscapes is rearing its head.
Recently, the Board of Trade ranked Toronto’s long commutes worst among global cities of comparable size, the TTC is under heavy scrutiny, and bike lane proposals are being met with vehement support and vehement opposition.
Tags: General
Perry King/ Gleaner News
By Emina Gamulin
Snowdon Pharmacy (264 Bloor St. W.) has had many tough times in its 104-year history, but the changes the provincial government proposes to cut drug costs may be the biggest challenge the community institution has faced thus far.
Tags: General
The brainchild of original editor Deanne Fisher, The Annex Gleaner originally had a mandate to represent and foster our local community and we’ve stuck to our guns.
Tags: General
Courtesy: Nick Snow
By Perry King
With U of T’s bittersweet playoff loss to against York University Feb. 24, Nick Snow capped a memorable university athletics career that almost did not happen.
The last five years were a maturing experience for Snow. The basketball program gave Snow the chance to see and compete in basketball games worldwide, and connect with other academically gifted athletes. “It’s been fantastic. It’s like I have 12 brothers to share all my experiences with,” said the six-foot-eight centre. “The program has supported me when I’ve been through health problems, and that’s very important to me. I’m not sure where I would be without Varsity Blues Basketball.”
In 2005, after high school, the London, Ont. native was diagnosed with auto-immune hepatitis—a condition where his immune system attacks the liver as if it were not his own. Because of those problems, Snow’s spleen became enlarged.
But it did not stop Snow.
“When I first came to U of T, the doctors said I would never be able to play any contact sport again because it was dangerous to do so with an enlarged—and thus unprotected by the ribs—spleen,” wrote Snow in an email.
After a rough summer, Coach Mike Katz, along with Dr. Doug Richards at U of T’s Sports Medicine Clinic (55 Harbord St.) and Nirtal Shah, the team’s physiotherapist, “helped put together the first ever documented ‘spleen protector,’” said Snow.
Developed from composite materials into a shell, made to fit around his left rib cage and midsection—to protect him and his opponents on the court—Snow was able to play for five seasons.
“He continued to soldier on that way, but that became a given, you know. It certainly didn’t hold him back physically or ability wise,” said Katz.
When Snow played, he was integral part of the offense and defence. This season alone, he was a stable defensive player, averaging 11 points a game and 4.4 rebounds in nine league games.
But this season was an odd one for both the Blues and Snow. Although the team went 9-1 against the CIS and was ranked in the CIS Top Ten for much of the early season, they almost crumbled. They sustained four tough losses to perennial opponents in University of Ottawa and Carleton University. After winning five of their last six OUA games, they let a poor 21–3 start dictate the rest of their playoff game against York, eventually losing 86–79.
“The loss to York was very tough to handle. We had high expectations of ourselves as a team, with lofty goals. Unfortunately, we didn’t attain those goals. I give York credit though, they really came out ready to play, and hit some really tough shots down the stretch that won them the game,” said Snow.
Snow’s season was about as unpredictable. “I first had someone land on my ankle in a pre-season tournament, then after one game back I got the H1N1 flu, and over Christmas I injured my knee, getting a bone bruise that would keep me out about six weeks,” said the resilient Snow.
“He’s been a starter for the last three years, he’s been an integral part of the team. Unfortunately, this year, he was chronically injured and that upset the dynamic of the team and it didn’t make for a good year for him,” said Katz. “It was very disconcerting for everybody.”
For Katz, Snow’s best basketball was about to bloom in his senior year on the team. “Leadership notwithstanding, it’s about the fact that he wasn’t able to play. And we missed his skill and experience; he’s a big guy. He’s our big man, and if we get him to play enough, that’s what this is really about.”
The Blues are losing four starters to graduation. For Katz, the summer is a crucial time to develop many of the returning and incoming players who have developed their skills and gained high performance experience.
As for Snow, he is opting for rest. “For now, I’m just lifting weights, swimming and cycling. I’ll get back into playing a bit more seriously later on, but for now, just healing and training.”
But his love for the game will always be strong, injuries or not. “I’ll always play basketball, to what extent I’m not sure. I would love to work around basketball and sports, in the sports administration side of things, so we’ll see if there are any jobs for me out there!”
Courtesy: Sharon Weatherall
By Beth Macdonell
“All the skills I have, I use to protect mother earth,” said Danny Beaton as the early morning sun shines across our table at Future Bakery (483 Bloor St. W.).
Tags: General
By Emily Landau
To outside eyes, Lilly Barnes may be a woman of the world, but her world ends in the Annex.
Courtesy Library and Archives Canada
By Leigh Beadon
Mutual friends arranged that we meet in a respectable downtown restaurant in Toronto. She wore a black, crushed velvet jump suit and a sultry pink tam over hair that was still thick and blonde nearing 70. She stole the wine glasses
Tags: General
By Rebecca Payne
This June, the Annex Residents’ Association and the Heritage Toronto will dedicate two plaques to commemorate the grassroots community action that helped halt the construction of the planned Spadina Expressway. One is proposed for the northeast corner of Spadina Road and Bloor Street West, and the other for the Kendall Street subway entrance.
Tags: General
By Beth Macdonell
In the early 1990s, residents and merchants of Kensington Market successfully organized to increase garbage pickup days from two to three days a week.
Tags: General
By Claude Saravia
Matt James/Gleaner News
Chad Mutchler was watching from a friend’s roof that cold Feb. 20 when a fire ripped through the Queen West neighbourhood just before dawn.
It took 150 firefighters in 30 trucks to extinguish the six- alarm inferno that destroyed a section of Queen Street West, between Bathurst Street and Portland Avenue in 2008.
Tags: General
Filthy dirty homemade fun
It’s probably a fair bet that St. Valentine, whosoever that borderline-apocryphal personality might be, probably didn’t think of his life’s work as culminating in an excuse for greeting card makers and confectioners to have a one-day sales bonanza. And yet, here we are.
Tags: General