Protest at Toronto City Hall

Two sets of protesters shouted across dividing lines of Toronto Police officers in Nathan Phillips Square on Saturday, May 6, 2017. I wasn't aware of the event before I came above ground from the parking lot and saw flags and a crowd near the entrance to City Hall and it quickly became apparent that the police were serious about keeping the groups apart, for good reason as they came to blows later.

The first thing I noted was that there was a group closest to the entrance and some of the people were wearing helmets. Then there was a line of police in bright yellow coats, then a line of bike police in darker yellow coats followed by a line of their bicycles and finally there were a bunch of people looking towards the other protesters and many of these people were wearing masks. It seemed a bit tense and I wasn't too sure what was going on except that it was a very divisive protest that seemed to involve a lot of noise and large speakers. I couldn't understand what they were saying so I took pictures and hoped to find out what was going on later.

It was billed as free speech rally against M-103 from 11:30am to 2:30pm. Now I had to look up M-103 and found it to be a private member's motion to condemn Islamophobia, racism and religious discrimination which was passed March 23, 2017. Put forward by Liberal backbencher MP Iqra Khalid with the stated purpose of reducing the climate of hate and fear in Canada. The protesters had Canadian flags and appeared to be against terrorism which they associate with Muslims and attacks against free speech which has put them against those that support M-103, so protesters showed up to protest the M-103 protesters. There were more anti-protesters than the original M-103 protesters. This protest has taken place, in one form or another, several time this year alone including the recent one on March 4.

Anti-protesters

I had only recently become aware of the antifa because of the many for and against Trump protests in the United States, they are anti-Trump. Antifa is short for Anti Fascists and the people in masks had a large banner saying 'Toronto Against Fascism'. A short check of the net shows the group is fast to use violence as a tool against the alt-right and as a result those that they protest against have started wearing helmets for protection.

Members of the Jewish Defense League at the protest

See more of the protest after the jump.

Canada takes Bronze in ICU World Cheerleader Championships

With more than 2,500 cheer athletes competing in the International Cheer Union 2017 World Championships, Team Canada did an amazing job and captured Bronze in the All Girl Premier division. Cheerleading was recently recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the prestigious competition was held in Orlando, Florida and included athletes from 70 countries. The ICU promotes healthy competition, education and rule development and has 110 member countries with national federations that take part in continental and regional competitions leading to the annual World Championships. (Photos and video provided)

The ICU Championships took place April 26-28, 2017 with 7 divisions - POM Doubles, Hip Hop, Hip Hop Doubles, Coed Elite, All Girl Elite, Coed Premier and All Girl Premier. United States grabbed three medals including two gold medals in All Girl Premier and Coed Premier Divisions while England and Chile earned their first gold medals. Canada's All Girl Premier team has 29 athletes from Ontario, British Columbia and Manitoba.

The Team Canada All Girl Performance

ALL GIRL ELITE - Gold: Team England, Silver: Team Germany Bronze: Team Slovenia
ALL GIRL PREMIER - Gold: U.S. National Team, Silver: Team Finland, Bronze: Team Canada
COED ELITE - Gold: Team Chile, Silver: Team England, Bronze: Team Puerto Rico
COED PREMIER - Gold: U.S. National Team, Silver: Team Chinese Taipei, Bronze: Team Finland

Canada's other national teams included Coed Premier with athletes from 5 provinces, the Junior All Girl Advanced from Mississauga, Ontario (PCT Cobras) and the Junior Coed Advanced from Cambridge, Ontario (Cheer Sport All Stars).

"Due to the popularity of the sport and international fan requests to watch their respective teams compete at the World Championships, the ICU partnered this year with the Olympic Channel to live stream the global event. Featuring news, articles, and live programming about the power of sport and the Olympic Games, the Olympic Channel is a digital-first, multi-platform global media destination. Video coverage of the event on OlympicChannel.com has spread rapidly, receiving more than 7 million views in the first few hours of release."

Blossoms on University Avenue

In the middle of the wide street is an impressive centre boulevard, full of planters, trees and the occasional statue. The fruit trees are full of florets and the occasional tree has started to blossom. In just a couple days the street will be full of peak blossoms.

Osgoode Hall at University Avenue and Queen Street West has a great strand of crab-apple trees that are also close to blooming.

May Giveaways at the Honda Indy Toronto

High octane racing will return to Exhibition Place in July 2017 and the organizers are giving fans a chance to win a prize every day of May.

"3 WAYS TO ENTER = More chances to WIN! Purchase tickets to the 2017 Honda Indy Toronto (already purchased? You're entered!) (maximum 1 entry per ticket account). Enter via the online form HERE (maximum 1 entry per email address). Get up to 31 extra entries by following the DAILY social media instuctions on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. Contest opens May 1 at 11:00am ET and closes May 31 at 2:59pm ET and Each Winner will be announced daily at 3pm ET."

The heat of summer will make the beer gardens a big part of keeping cool around the track during the July 14-17 race weekend. Off track fun will also include Victory Circle, Honda World, Thunder Alley and Paddock/Garage access. Thunder Alley will feature the Cooper Tire Mobile Tour, live entertainment, vendors, driver autograph sessions and interactive exhibits.

The race series competing in Toronto for 2017 will be the Verizon IndyCar Series, NASCAR Pinty's Series, Mazda Road to Indy, Porsche GT3 and the Stadium Super Trucks.

"On Fan Friday, your Ontario Honda Dealers will cover the cost of admission for everyone to check out the spectacle and excitement of the Honda Indy Toronto, in exchange for a donation to Make-A-Wish® Canada. With generous support from fans, Honda Canada and the Ontario Honda Dealers have raised more than $400,000 for Make-A-Wish® during the previous two seasons, helping to make the wishes of children who are living with a life-threatening medical condition come true. Honda Fan Friday will feature a jam-packed schedule of on-track action, IndyCar series qualifying for Saturday's race! Stunt shows, contests, autograph sessions and all kinds of off-track entertainment will be in full gear from gate open to close across the event site, providing something for everyone, race fan or not!"

Damaged Transformer on King Street West in Toronto

An explosion and smoke from an underground hydro transformer vault at the RBC building on May 1, 2017 caused quite the mayhem in the City's financial district during the afternoon rush hour. Monday's excitement started as pedestrians were passing by the grates covering the vault and the smoke went into the PATH system. Police quickly closed the road as the fire department used carbon dioxide gas to put out the fire which smoldered for hours. In the photo at top you can see a firefighter cross the street in front of a flatbed trailer that has the damaged transformer (covered in plastic) and the replacement transformer (light grey near the truck). A crane is in the background and is used to lift the units while the truck in front is a vacuum excavator which would be used to pump any water out of the underground vault and possibly clear out some blocked ductbanks.

Some grounding materials and parts near a hydro truck

Another view of the transformers. Damaged is on the left, new unit on the right

The box on the old transformer looks heavily damaged while the transformer itself doesn't look too bad

King Street West is shut down from Bay Street to Yonge Street

The vault is in front of the RBC building, just east of the Scotiabank building

The transformer is oil filled and consists of coils of wire wrapped around metal cores. It looks like the cable or connection might have failed and arcing of the high voltage would have caused the explosions. Fire and the arc would melt the plastic insulation of the cables and caused the heavy smoke. If power wasn't cut off immediately due to the fault current then the explosions would continue until power was switched away from the area or the cables degrade enough where they couldn't sustain the current flow. They would probably have to splice or replace some of the cables, put the new transformer into the vault, make the connections and perform switching operations to put the transformer and vault into service. I wouldn't be surprised if the work was done by late tonite or early Wednesday morning. We shall see if Toronto Hydro make public the reason for the equipment failure.

Graffiti Murals in Toronto

Now that biking weather has returned I've gotten to see more of the city and happened upon some graffiti murals on some garage doors off Dundas Street West and a few other places.

Fox

An interesting horse

Some of the paint is peeling

Upcoming Spring Sessions of Toronto's Festival of Beer 2017

Update: Enter my contest to win tickets to the Spring Sessions May 20-21 Beerfestival - see my post here, contest ends Wednesday night, May 17.

The Victoria Day holiday weekend is perfectly made for beer, after all it is named the May Two Four weekend, so I am glad to see the warm up to the summer TFOB will have the BeerFestival return to Fort York - May 20 and 21. This year, Garrison Common at the historic fort will feature the Campfire Sessions with live acoustic performances by Elliott BROOD on Saturday and The Trews on Sunday.

"Spring Sessions of Toronto's Festival of Beer is going to be an incredible time to stay in the city," said Les Murray, President of Beerlicious Inc., "We have Canadian rockers Elliott BROOD and The Trews headlining our festival, along with a fantastic selection of brews to sample and a great roster of local restaurants and food trucks for people to enjoy. We're also bringing back the cottage in the city theme this year, with fire pits, outdoor games and lawn chairs to tie the theme together - you don't want to miss it!"

Musician Elliott BROOD is a Juno award winning artist that has a blackgrass, death country style and is currently in the studio working on their album Ghost Gardens which is planned for release this Fall. The Trews are a Canadian hard rock band from Nova Scotia which has released a number of albums and have won seven East Coast Music Awards, three Independant Music Awards and five Juno Award nominations.

This is the fourth year for the Spring Sessions which are part of the amazing Toronto's Festival of Beer family. Just like getting back to the cottage with good friends, food, music and some tasty cold suds and where you can even sit around the campfire pits and toast some marshmallows. Tickets are on sale now at www.beerfestival.ca with earlybird tickets selling for $30. Get them now before they go up in price or sell out. Each ticket to the 19+ beer sampling event also gets you a commemorative festival sampling mug along with five sampling tokens. I still use my mug so I look forward to adding another to my collection.

"The event celebrates Canada's rich brewing history with experts of the brewing craft from around Ontario and a wide selection of restaurateurs, food trucks and performances for people to enjoy, all within a cottage theme. Featuring 30+ brands onsite, this is Canada's premier celebration of the golden beverage and cottage in the city!"

Come back later for a ticket contest where I will give away two sets of tickets - a pair of tickets to Saturday's session and a pair of tickets to Sunday's session.

Peak Blossoms back in Exhibition Place

A ring of fruit trees circles the large fountain in Toronto's CNE exhibition grounds, full of blossoms and ready for the bees of Spring. Joined by this group of trees is an adjacent pathway near Bandshell Park lined with the trees and at several other locations.

"In May of 2002, 68 Japanese Flowering Cherry trees were donated to Exhibition Place by the Sakura Project. These Instagram-worthy trees overflowing with fluffy white or pale pink flowers, are at peak bloom during the last week of April or first week of May depending on the weather." The flowers can be found sprinkled around the property at the General Services Building, the Press Building, Bandshell Park, Princess Margaret Fountain, FountainBlu and the Liberty Grand.