Toronto Tech Week to launch later this year with backing from city, Shopify, Google

‘Unsafe for children’: Mayoral candidate Vogiatzakis promises to ramp up security in public parks

A mayoral candidate is vowing to have security teams monitor parks and remove people doing drugs at the green spaces, if elected.

Mike Vogiatzakis held a news conference at city hall Friday, where he shared some initial promises.

“People (who) are not supposed to be in those parks, who are bringing drugs to those parks, who are injecting needles in their bodies, they will be removed (from) those parks immediately and their needles will go with them,” said Vogiatzakis.

He vowed to release a new pledge each week for the rest of the campaign.

Summer flooding sinks some fall harvest hopes

A number of Manitoba farmers say they are expecting this year’s harvest to be one of the worst they’ve seen after major flooding decimated fields at the start of summer.

Bob Elliot, who has been farming east of Stonewall for 43 years, said he’s expecting the operation’s 5,500 acres to produce roughly half their normal yield.

Stonewall has logged the most precipitation this summer, with 523 millimetres of rainfall between May 1 and Aug. 16, according to Manitoba’s weather conditions report.

Elliot said the amount of rain has created a “unique” situation for farmers. “This is something that I don’t think anyone around here has ever seen.”

Toronto Tech Week to launch later this year with backing from city, Shopify, Google

TORONTO - A Toronto non-profit is launching a tech week for the city, filling a hole created by the recent departure of the annual Collision conference.

The organizers of Toronto Tech Week say the event will run between June 23 and 27 and feature hundreds of panels, hackathons and social events.

Satish Kanwar, an organizer behind the event and a former Shopify vice-president, says the event will strive to help the country retain and nurture tech talent while also attracting investments to the sector and boosting the city's competitiveness.

He says the City of Toronto, e-commerce giant Shopify and Google's cloud business are all presenting sponsors that have provided funding or other support to the event.

City blames bad weather for creating new sinkhole on Sturgeon Creek path

After a massive water-filled hole on a Sturgeon Creek active-transportation pathway took more than a year to fix, a new sinkhole has opened nearby.

In June 2023, the Free Press reported on a gaping depression stretching seven metres long, three metres wide and up to a metre deep that opened on a pathway leading to a playground on Amarynth Crescent near the Sturgeon Creek active-transportation route. The city finally made repairs in October 2024.

Now, about 12 metres away from that spot, a new crater has appeared.

The hole, about three metres long and 2.5 metres wide, has been blocked off using metal rods and plastic netting, but resident Philip Kaban said the opening is getting larger.

Five-way tie for first means Manitoba Open is still up for grabs

Garrison Smith isn’t sure why he’s playing the best golf of his life up in Canada this summer.

But the 26-year-old Texan has a very tasty theory.

“You know, I did have poutine here (Thursday) night. And I had some in New Brunswick, too,” Smith said Friday as he grabbed a share of the lead at the midway point of the Manitoba Open at Elmhurst.

He may be on to something.

Planned Elmwood Hub project combines 115 mixed-income housing units, social supports, programs

A long-awaited project will aim to add 115 new homes in Elmwood, with on-site social programs to support some of its more vulnerable residents.