Doly Begum MPP for Scarborough Southwest
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Volume 50 No. 3
BEACHMETRO.COM
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416-690-1032 • beyrima.ca RBerns-McGown-CO@ndp.on.ca
April 6, 2021
Glen Stewart Ravine spring clean slated
PHOTO: ALAN SHACKLETON
Customers enjoy a final drink on the patio of The Fill Station Bar on Queen Street East in the Beach on Good Friday afternoon. After only being allowed to reopen on March 20, outdoor restaurant and bar patios were again ordered closed as of April 3 as part of the Ontario ‘shutdown’ to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Patios are not the problem, say residents frustrated by ‘shutdown’ By Alan Shackleton
THE WEATHER was cold on Good Friday afternoon, but the tempers of some the customers enjoying their last day on the patio of The Fill Station Bar on Queen Street East in the Beach was decidedly hot. Friday was the last day that restaurant and bar patios in Ontario could legally be open as the provincial government had ordered a ‘shutdown’ as of 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 3, in an attempt to stop the rising case numbers of COVID-19. Considering the patios had only
been legally allowed to open again on March 20 (after being ordered closed shortly before Christmas) it was a bitter pill to swallow for both the owners and the customers. “I think it’s ridiculous,” said Don Lamoreux from his table at The Fill Station. “The patios are very safe. They are outside and they are OK. This is putting a knife into the hearts of the owners.” Lamoreux and other customers on the patio felt the provincial government shutdown is not addressing the real causes of what is spreading COVID-19 in the Greater Toronto Area.
“It’s counterproductive. This is not where they should be focussing their energy. They should be concentrating on the factories and warehouses, it’s not the patios,” he said. Ontario has seen a huge surge in the number of COVID-19 cases over the past two weeks, with numbers reported on April 3 showing more than 3,000 new cases on both April 2 and 3. Mark Swift said the government needs to be making vaccinations a priority while also looking at factories and schools as areas where the virus is spreading. Continued on Page 5
THE FRIENDS of Glen Stewart Ravine are planning their Annual Spring Cleanup of the area for Sunday, April 11. Those taking part are reminded that they must observe all COVID-19 safety protocols. The ravine, which covers a large expanse of the Beach community between Kingston Road and Queen Street East, has been heavily used over the past year as people seek ways to get outdoors during the continuing pandemic. “Unfortunately, some of them have left behind ‘traces’ of their presence,” said the Friends group in a release. The cleanup takes place between 10 a.m. and noon, and those who want to help are asked to meet at the ravine entrance on Beech Avenue just south of Kingston Road. Participants must bring their own gloves and wear a mask. Bags
to collect the litter in will be provided by the organizers. Unlike the cleanup in past years, there will be no refreshments provided or information displays due to COVID-19. To raise awareness of the need to protect the ravine, children are invited to take part in a poster contest. Kids can bring the colourful posters they make to the cleanup and they will be put up in the notice board boxes by the ravine’s entrance and also used on social media. Some of the suggested messages young poster-makers could use are “Please Stay on the Trails”, “Please Keep Your Dogs Leashed”, “Litter Hurts” and “Help Save Our Ravine”. For more info on the cleanup and the poster contest, please visit Friends of Glen Stewart Ravine on Facebook.
Thirty-six years and cooking with columnist Jan Main By Alan Shackleton
WHEN IT comes to food and recipes, Jan Main has made, written, tried and tested a lot over the past 36 years she has been writing The Main Menu column for Beach Metro News. Main remembers walking from her Kingswood Road house in late 1985 with her four-year-old son Timothy over to what were then the offices of Ward 9 Community News on Kingston Road to let them know she was interested in a foodwriting position that was opening up.
In January of 1986 her first column ran in print. “I was so excited when they told me I’d got the job,” Main remembered in an interview late last month. “I’ve always loved doing this column, and it was a wonderful stepping stone as it got writing under my belt and my name out.” Along with writing The Main Menu column she also wrote for a number of Canadian publications, Canadian Living and the Toronto Star among them. Main was born to be connected to food, be it making it, writing Continued on Page 11