World’s best skater calls local rink her home

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12:13 am

As all eyes turn to the Olympic Games later this month, Willowdale residents will have an extra reason to pay close attention.

Competing for South Korea in the ladies’ figure skating competition, 19-year-old Yu-Na Kim has lived with her mother in the Yonge & Finch area over the last few years, honing her skills at the Toronto Cricket Skating & Curling Club.

“She’s the undeniable favourite, I think most people would say,” said top Canadian choreographer David Wilson. “She has an extreme talent.”

Kim arrived in Willowdale in May 2006 for a choreography program created by Wilson. Though only expected to be here for a few weeks, the impact of the neighbourhood and city on Kim was significant.

“She liked being here so much that she decided to stay,” said Wilson. “She and her mother love Toronto. They feel really at home here.”

The new environment seems to have had the desired effect on Kim, who won the World Championship in 2009. Wilson described the Cricket Club where he works with Kim, alongside former Canadian Olympians Brian Orser and Tracy Wilson, as warm and supportive.

Vegan eatery offers tempting lunch buffet

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12:12 am

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Kale brings vegan, organic and macrobiotic fare to the Yonge and Eglinton neighbourhood.

Conscientious eaters appreciate the healthy alternatives to the usual pub grub, and workaholics like the fast-food format, with a help-yourself stainless steel buffet and coolers of take-away items.

The light from a large window at the front bounces around the white-walled room, reaching even the dark-wood cash counter and blender area at the back.

About 25 simple olive green chairs pull up to light-wood tables. Grey slate floors give the space a modern feel and, with the help of the exposed pipe ceiling, create echoes of nearby conversations.

Oversized black-and-white photographs with colourized kale in various scenarios decorate one wall, chalkboard menus another. Kale features in the cuisine as well, in two of the six freshly squeezed juice blends and as a hot choice, steamed, from the self-serve area.

The menu changes daily, depending on what produce is available from grocers that fit the vegan and organic mandate. Today, there are 12 options — six hot and six cold — to choose from, and offerings range from baked leek pie to tomato-tofu salad to coleslaw to squash perogies.

Salads and hot dishes are sold by weight ($2.40 for 100 grams on either a dine-in plate or a takeout recyclable paper container). The small tucked-away kitchen also turns out tofu burgers, and there are a handful of prepared sandwiches in the open cooler, but, as one server points out, “most people just go for the buffet.”

Cold green bean salad boasts satisfyingly still-firm pods tossed with sesame seeds and sea salt in a judicious drizzle of 100 per cent pure olive oil. A squirt of lemon or drop or two of balsamic might have stepped things up a notch.

Better is a cold marinated salad of raw broccoli florets, diced red pepper, cauliflower pieces and celery slices. A simple dressing of parsley, balsamic vinegar, sunflower and sea salt adds oomph without overpowering the vegetables’ inherent flavours.

The wonderfully earthy aroma of portobellos is trumped by the oily consistency in warm organic brown rice with mushroom. Onion, sea salt, Cajun spice and sunflower oil add interesting complexity, but it’s hard to get past the greasiness.

Eating chopped-up tofu wieners at a restaurant seems kind of silly to me, but the sauce of straightforward tomatoes, sea salt, garlic and parsley does the protein good, and I’m surprised to find myself reconsidering the versatility of the veggie dog.

Also pleasing is a tangle of flat, white rice noodles, cooked just so, with nori and sliced shallots in a mild but sufficient sauce of tamari and 100 per cent sunflower oil. Freshly squeezed juices and smoothies, vegan and gluten-free desserts, plus certified Fair Trade coffees and teas round out the meal.

Kale Eatery 2366 Yonge St., 416-792-5253 Lunch for two, excluding tax, tip and alcohol $25

Inside the manic mind of T.O.’s famed funnyman

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12:10 am

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Howie Mandel wrote his new book, Here’s the Deal: Don’t Touch Me, while recovering from a serious heart condition, which required “internal defibrillation.”

It was a scary time, and Mandel’s grim fears are a constant theme throughout the book. It’s unnerving, because Mandel has always been the most boyish of performers.

His brush with mortality seems so different from the devil-may-care lad we thought we knew.

The other health issue in the book is Mandel’s OCD. He takes us on a tour of his horror of human contact, which he’s often played for laughs, but not here.

Clearly, the OCD is a constant concern, and always has been. During his Yuk Yuk’s years in Toronto, he must have been suffering in silence every time we hugged him or high-fived. He said nothing, and we never knew. Of course, in these days of H1N1, Mandel looks like a bit of a seer.

The book has a co-author, but it feels like Mandel’s voice. He takes us on a tour of his charmed life, and the best parts may be his reminiscences of life in middle class suburban Toronto.

His was a happy childhood, with a family that loved him, trips to Florida, a childhood sweetheart that he married, nothing that would indicate the blessed maniac he would become. He went to work at a carpet store, but his heart wasn’t in that; the irrepressible prankster was emerging.

He would hold client meetings in the men’s room of the carpet store, waiting for the customer to question it. They never did! “Why don’t you get on amateur night?” his friends pleaded. He did, and the rest is history.

I don’t remember Mandel’s first performance, but I do remember that quickly afterwards he became the best performer on open mike night and was quickly promoted.

He got his first feature in under a year, something of a record. There’s a great picture in the book of a manic Mandel in front of the Yuk’s marquee that reads “Howie Mandel — A Borderline Psychotic.” He looks so proud.

And on he goes to California, to bigger and bigger rooms and to becoming a household name by the mid-’80s.

But the book finally tells the stories that are the purest Mandel: the pranks, hoaxes and practical jokes. Most of these pranks were played upon a hapless innocent named Lou Dinos, who was Mandel’s opening act.

These stories have circulated for years, and Mandel finally tells them: Dinos is made to wear a dress on tour to take advantage of family rates on planes; Dinos’s fake paternity of a 13-year-old boy and more. Howie acknowledges that these stunts took advantage of his trusting friend, and he apologizes publicly for them.

But the pranks may, in fact, be Mandel’s finest work, so elaborately calibrated that had they been documented at the time they would not have been out of place as an exhibit of performance art. There are also great anecdotes about his public pranking on TV shows such as the Tonight Show and Regis and Kathy Lee. There are lots of laughs in this book and a surprising amount of heart. Reading it, you may find there’s more to Howie Mandel than you thought.

T.O's gold medal mom

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12:08 am

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Rosey Edeh is racing through the airport, late for her flight to Calgary to interview Olympic athletes for Global TV’s ET Canada.

As she runs to catch her plane she’s attempting to answer my questions via cellphone on how to balance parenthood and career. The irony of the situation isn’t lost on us.

Rosey Edeh is an overachiever. It’s common knowledge the stunning television personality competed in the 1988, 1992 and 1996 Olympics in 400 metre hurdles.

But what most don’t know is she had a baby girl and became a single mom smack in the middle of her Olympic career.
With 15 months to recuperate from childbirth, lose her baby weight and retrain her body into a finely tuned hurdling machine, everyone assumed Edeh’s Olympic hopes were dashed.

Everyone except Edeh. “I knew, even when I was pregnant, I would be in the Olympics. The power of that thought never left me,” she says. “When I heard it would be darn near impossible, I knew I had to do it.”

With the help of her mother who cared for baby Micha, Edeh was back at the track a week after delivery.

Her goal: make it around the track for a mile. Nice and easy. Since she was breastfeeding, she remembers double wrapping her “milk makers.”

She took it slow, adding a mile when ready. For a strong foundation, she weight trained. As the Olympics loomed closer, her training intensified to that of a world-class athlete.

Long story short, not only did Edeh make the team, she placed sixth and set a new Canadian record that still stands. Her proudest moment was on the podium with her baby girl in her arms. I get tired just thinking about it.

I’ve met Edeh’s now 15-year-old daughter on several occasions, and she is as elegant and sophisticated as her statuesque mom. How did Edeh do it, I wonder? How does a single mom with an incredibly demanding career raise such a great kid?

She shares with me how close mother and daughter are. “We finish each other’s sentences. I have a deeper understanding of who she is because I don’t have to share her with anyone. That’s one of the few benefits of being a single parent.”

Edeh admits her biggest parenting mistake is common among modern moms and dads. “It’s buying kids too much stuff especially when you feel guilty for going away or not spending enough time with them. They really only want your time. The smile on their face from a new iPod or cellphone is temporary.

According to Edeh, dealing with a teenager is all about “open communication and no judgment. If you judge or punish a kid, when they come to you with the truth, then they’ll learn to lie to you!”

I couldn’t let Edeh get onto the plane without some fitness tips for time-crunched moms — since her upcoming book, The Diva and the Jock, is about that very topic. “You can get a good workout in 30 minutes” claims Edeh.

“Circuit training’s a great way to work your whole body. Use push-ups, running and squats. Variety makes for effective training and keeps things interesting.”

The plane’s ready to take off so Edeh signs off.

And so ends another conversation between two multi-tasking mummies who cram too much into their days.

Demolition deadline looms for historic sites

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12:07 am

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Groups interested in saving two historic aircraft hangars slated for demolition on the former CFB Downsview air base will have until Feb. 1 to put a deal in place.

“Talks are continuing,” said David Soknacki, chair of Downsview Park’s board. While discussions are ongoing, Soknacki said that “incredible challenges” exist, most specifically relating to Defence Department concerns over security and the financial viability of proposals for the buildings and land.

“You’ve got a proposal that has a couple of very high hurdles,” Soknacki said. Built in 1943, the hangars were designated as heritage buildings by the federal government in 1992.

In a January statement, the Heritage Canada Foundation called on Defence Minister Peter MacKay to delay demolition to allow for talks to find demolition alternatives to continue.

“I think there are some creative solutions as to what to do with historic hangars,” said Carolyn Quinn, director of communications at the Heritage Canada Foundation. “These buildings are extraordinarily good examples of aircraft hangars,” said Paul Oberman of Woodcliffe Properties, who has restored heritage properties including the North Toronto Station. “They’re extremely well designed and well proportioned.”

Oberman is currenly working to save the buildings in a deal that would likely involve a land exhange between the park and the Defense Department. Current talks involve a number of options, including residential and commercial retail, that would not necessitate adversely altering the buildings. Despite restoration costs he estimated to “be in excess of $10 million” before they are repurposed, Oberman is optimistic. “I’m virtually 100 per cent confident we can find a viable use for the buildings.”

Voters will choose MPP for Toronto Centre Feb. 4

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12:06 am

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THE DEPARTURE OF George Smitherman from Toronto Centre’s provincial riding opened up the position, with the by-election taking place Feb. 4.

Liberal nominee Glen Murray, New Democrat Party nominee Cathy Crowe, Progressive Conservative nominee Pamela Taylor and Stefan Premdas for the Green Party are contesting the vacant seat.

Smitherman held the position for 10 years for the Liberals, serving as health minister, energy and infrastructure minister and deputy premier before resigning to take a shot at the Toronto mayoral race.

“One of the things George left behind was he empowered people,” Murray said, naming the Tamil community as one group who used the riding as a stage for their international conflicts.

“…George was a guy who was out there putting a platform in support of people so they could create change in their life, and I would like to try and continue that legacy,” he said.

The former mayor of Winnipeg is also a founding member of the Canadian AIDS Society. He has also worked for drug rehabilitation, which he said caused him to advocate for social housing.

“Recognizing through that process that if you don’t have a home you don’t have a life; it’s very hard to construct a family, to have a partner, to have a job and to have dignity and to feel safe in the world if you don’t have a home,” he said, reiterating his commitment to eradicate homelessness in Ontario by the end of this decade.

Cathy Crowe, NDP nominee and riding resident, is a community health nurse and has worked with the homeless and disadvantaged for 25 years.

She is a founding member of the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee, declaring that homelessness is a national disaster. She said it caused the governmen to pour about $1 billion into the cause.

One problem she said she would solve, if elected, would be recession relief.

“In the midst of a recession there has been no emergency relief fund,” Crowe said, or emergency aid that organizations can apply for.
PC nominee Pamela Taylor also brings an advocacy background to the election.
She had a pivotal role in the development of Peregrine Co-op Homes and is a long-time advocate for improving legal representation for low-income citizens.

“In 2007 I took it to the political world because I realized this was the place I could effect the greatest change,” Taylor said, listing the St. James Town Safety Committee, the Bleeker-Wellesley Activity Network and Vertical Watch as her current pursuits.
Stefan Premdas, an employment and job creation specialist, advocates for equality and diversity in the workplace.

101 townhouse co-op fight continues in court

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12:04 am

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A case involving a Thornhill housing co-op was in court recently, with residents battling against York Region for control of their community.

“Its decimated the sense of community,” said Jim Common, president of the Thornhill Green Co-Op. Common, who has lived in the community for most of his life, said the changes he has seen since York Region took control of the housing co-op several years ago have been drastic.

“We’ve had crackhouses; we’ve had one of the other board members saying there was a brothel,” Common said.

In 2006, York Region placed the 101-unit townhome co-op at Yonge Street and Royal Orchard Boulevard into receivership. In May 2008, residents were notified that the region would be buying the homes. Backed by the Co-operative Housing Association of Canada, Thornhill Green residents have since fought to retain control of their community.

"We see it somewhat as a takeover,” said Harvey Cooper, manager of government relations with the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada. “There wasn’t any sort of notice given to the co-operative.” With 550 non-profit housing co-operatives in the province, Cooper said there is concern over what the outcome of this case will mean for other similar communities.

“We do fear it may establish some legal precedent,” he said. Murray Klippenstein, lawyer for the Federation, echoed the significance this case could have.

“This decision from the courts could be very, very important, because it set precedents that could affect hundreds of co-ops in the province, with assets in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” he said. Klippenstein said that the region had acted with a hidden agenda, “taking over very valuable property for less than it’s worth.”

Common, a real estate agent for Re/Max, agreed regarding the value that lies within the property.

“Because they are transferring it from a co-op into their housing pool, they do have the right to redevelop it, sell it, do anything,” he said. “It theoretically would make sense for them to sell the property and relocate the people that are on subsidy.”

Sylvia Patterson, director of housing and residential services for York Region, said that co-op residents have nothing to fear.

“The plans are to continue to operate the property as it is today, as a social housing community. The only thing that’s going to change is the ownership of the property.” A date for the court’s ruling has not been released.

What if kids got to choose where they went to school?

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12:02 am

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Alice: “Will you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
Cheshire Cat: “That depends a good deal on where you want to go.”
Alice: “I don’t care.”
Cheshire Cat: “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
—Lewis Carroll

’Tis the season for parents of Grade 6 students to angst about their child’s next steps in school. This can be a parenting watershed: Who gets to choose a school, the child or the parent?

Whatever your answer, try this: Fast forward 15 years. Your now adult child is in a serious conversation with his/her fiancé(e) about the children they plan to have. He or she says: “My parents didn’t listen to what school I wanted to go to. I don’t want us to parent that way.”

Let’s not parent like that. It deprives our children of a potentially useful learning experience, and it’s not so hot for fostering positive family relationships in the long term. This is especially pertinent as our kids go through adolescence because, during that developmental stage, they take their distance from us anyway, and pushing them away is too easy. It happens every time we play the authoritarian card.

Sometimes as parents (around safety, for example) we have no choice. But when using our authority is unnecessary, it’s all downside, no upside. It builds distance.

The second undesirable outcome of taking all the power is that we deprive our kids of an opportunity to learn to be strong decision makers.
A family is a team, for better or for worse. The classic question that interviewers use to scrutinize wannabe MBA students is “how many gas stations are there in the U.S.?” They could care less what the answer is. They’re looking for people who will build a team to collect info strategically. They’re looking for team leaders who will grow and empower their people. Another word for that is “parent.”

So be a great team leader. Ask your Grade 6 child what should matter about a school. Make written lists of pros and cons of each school together. If your child stonewalls and refuses to participate, try a role play. Switch roles. Say, “Let’s pretend you’re the parent and I’m the kid and let’s have the school conversation.” That may be more fun and open doors to communication.

Let it be funny: you can pretend to be the kid and have fun hamming it up. Encourage them to do the same in their pretend role as parent. That playfulness has a wondrously freeing effect on communication. It will give them some “emotional slack” to then get more serious.

When your kid says, “What school should I go to?” say, “I don’t know.” Cultivate not knowing because you can’t know what the best fit is and because this is, above all, a teachable moment.

Life is full of choices; learning how to make them is important. In making this decision, your child gets an important life skill, and that’s what you want. As well, adolescents take better care of that which they create, meaning their academic future.

If you and your child reach an impasse, because you want academic excellence and they only want to be with their friends, remember this: what do they call the last guy out of med school? “Doctor.” Remember also that there are good and bad ways to disagree. Bad ways put you 100 per cent in the driver’s seat and disempower your child.

Good ways involve many conversations that begin with, “You and I don’t agree about school. Let’s talk about what matters to both of us and why. I’ll try really hard to listen to your point of view.”

If you get quiet, sit on your hands and listen really hard, the issue of who gets to win may fade into the background, and you may find that consensus appears by magic, born of that high-tech tool called communication.

A culinary adventure awaits in Leaside

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12:01 am

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It is rare for one entrepreneur to get food, service and price fine tuned, in one month. Segar Kulasegarampillai has managed this and more.

Hailing from Sri Lanka, Segar honed his skills at Mildred Pierce, and put in a productive stint in Vancouver.

He has bravely and confidently opened on Bayview, in modest but funky digs, and is hoping to bring a new cuisine to a neighbourhood festooned with a variety of Italian and Indian fare.

A learning moment: the cuisine is billed as “spice route,” and we have to be walked through this concept. In Segar’s hands, it means taking French classics and tweaking them with spices from India, Thailand and Morocco.

He has wisely started with a menu that does not overreach: six appetizers and eight mains comprise this carte. We make our choices while munching on crispy pita, baked with yogourt, that has been put in the oven as we walk in the door and arrives with three chutneys. Good start.

Roasted parsnip and cauliflower soup arrives steaming. It is naturally thick and dairy-free, relying on the inherent sweetness of the winter vegetables when they are slow roasted and touched by cumin ($5). Cumin reappears in our other appetizer — sautéd chicken livers, accompanied by spinach and onion sambal, all of which is enlivened by a splash of marsala. This humble part of the bird is scarce in the city, and I hope other kitchens will take note ($7).

For our entrees we seek the advice of our sharp-as-the-proverbial-tack waitress who, without hesitation, recommends the lamb and the duck. I am considering the Seared “dry” sea scallops, but the look in her eyes steers me away.

Lamb shank braised in Madras spices is tarted up with fried shallots and is perched on a bed of basmati rice pilaf. It has been cooked slowly to break down the fibre of this tough meat and is falling off the bone by the time it is placed on the table.

By using “Madras” spices, Segar has no constraints as to how he builds the taste, and he is not sharing the formula. I love this dish ($17).

Roasted Muscovy duck breast more vividly illustrates the spice route philosophy. This bird is rarely seen in South Asia. It is displayed in a fan of medium rare slices and, instead of the rice pancake with Peking duck, we see a new presentation that features an ultra-thin dal pancake.

Instead of hoisin, the condiment of choice is a date-ginger compote that balances the rich meat ($17).

Not only is the quality of desserts impressive, but Segar does something that every woman has on her wish list. Each sweet is complex and perfect, but they are also small and all are priced at $4.

I settle on a feuillete (layers of flaky pastry) interwoven with intensely lemony custard and strewn with fresh berries. Perfect flavour, perfect size and perfect price. It is my hope that Segar prospers with its current profile. We must reward a restaurant that shows us that fine cuisine can be gracious without being exorbitant and that there’s real joy in the creation and presentation of food.

City council looks for a new location for area ice pad

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11:59 pm

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BAYVIEW PARENTS MIGHT be hauling their hockey-playing broods to a new arena in the area in the near future.

City council is currently scouting out locations for a new ice pad, and on the list is Sunnybrook Park, Bond Park and the York Mills and Don Valley Parkway loop.

A report to council stated that Sunnybrook Park would be a suitable location because of its sufficient space and the existing and underutilized parking area. In addition, Bond Park has the space necessary, but the arena could have a negative impact on the city’s existing baseball diamonds.

The new arena would be a replacement for the current Don Mills Civitan Arena, which is being swallowed up by a shopping centre and proposed condominium buildings.

“The hockey rink technically doesn’t even have a parking lot. The parking lot that is used by the current hockey rink belongs to Cadillac Fairview,” said Coun. John Parker. “So we sort of think, do we put a $5 million or so into a rink that is in the middle of somebody else’s property, or do we take this occasion to look elsewhere for the future of arena activity in Don Mills and build a new arena somewhere else in the area from the ground up?”

The city’s shortage of ice pads came to the forefront in November when the Leaside Girls Hockey Association wrote a letter to Mayor Miller, citing discrimination over ice access, which sparking a city-wide debate.
The Civitan site is also being considered, and talks with Cadillac Fairview are taking place.

Bloor and Spadina assault disturbs neighbourhood

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11:56 pm

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Two men have been arrested following an alleged sexual assault that took place Jan. 9.

According to police, a young woman left a bar in the Bloor Street West and Spadina Avenue area with two men, who then drove her in a Hyundai Elantra to an apartment in the Dufferin Street and Bloor Street area. Here the woman was allegedly sexually assaulted by both men. She was then driven in a Mazda 3 to the Dufferin Street and Geary Avenue area where she was left on the side of the road. She was allegedly hit several times while in the car.

Tim Grant, chair of the Harbord Village Residents Association said this is one of many late-night altercations, some of which have been quite violent, that have taken place in the area.

“It was a terrible event and a terrible situation,” Grant said, but he added, “The concern is not specific to that event.”

He said altercations like this happen in the area enough to the point where he has heard of some people moving elsewhere.

“We only hear about it when residents call us, and usually they don’t call us until it has happened many times,” he said.

Large development threatens Bayview strip

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11:55 pm

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LEASIDE RESIDENTS HAVE expressed concern over the proposed grocery store development at the northwest corner of Bayview Avenue and Broadway Avenue.

“We completely understand the property is going to be developed,” Wayne Silberman, a Resident Working Group member said but added, “This is not the place for a big box retailer.”

On Jan. 7, about 125 residents of North Leaside and Sherwood Park held a meeting to discuss the ramifications of the proposed development at the former site of the Brennan Pontiac Buick dealership.

Their main concern is traffic that is caused by this type of retailer, according to Silberman. He also said residents were concerned with the proposed size of the building because the dimensions that were presented to the city greatly exceeds the zoning bylaws for that particular property.

Coun. Cliff Jenkins said the application is for a two-storey grocery store and LCBO, but at 50 feet high, it would compare to a four-or five-storey building. He said the developer applied for a minor variance to the existing bylaw, but he added, “It is probably more properly dealt with as a full rezoning application.”

He explained the application method the developer chose excludes any type of community consultation.
Currently the site is zoned so that a building can occupy up to 33 per cent of the site, but the proposal is for 96 per cent occupancy.
Geoff Kettel,the first vice president of the Leaside Property Owners’ Association, said residents are concerned with maintaining the Bayview commercial strip.

“The more sort of one-off developments there are, the more that impinges on the Bayview commercial strip, the old-fashioned main street,” Kettel said, adding the old-fashioned street is already succumbing to development on Laird Drive.
The earliest the committee of adjustment could make a decision on the proposal is Feb. 3.