Doly Begum MPP for Scarborough Southwest
We are here to help!
3110 Kingston Rd, Unit #5 416-261-9525 • dolybegum.ca DBegum-CO@ndp.on.ca
Volume 48 No. 22
BEACHMETRO.COM
Drop in or make an appointment.
416-690-1032 • beyrima.ca RBerns-McGown-CO@ndp.on.ca
February 4, 2020
Beach’s first legal cannabis shop to open this month By Alana Rayman
THE CANNABIS retail shop that moved into the site of the former iconic Randall’s Stationery store on Kingston Road will be officially opening its doors for business on Friday, Feb. 14. Sessions on the Beaches’ grand opening celebrations on Valentine’s Day will commence with a ribbon cutting and speeches at 9:45 a.m., and the store will be open for customers at 10 a.m. A large crowd is expected for the opening, said Sessions on the Beaches co-founder and CEO Stephen Fry. He said he is excited to bring this concept to the Beach area and that the Sessions cannabis shop
concept is already working well in Collingwood. The Kingston Road shop will be Sessions Cannabis’ second store to open, and plans are also in place to open in Hamilton and Cambridge this spring. Fry said new customers can expect “a welcome embrace, a safe product and an education. We are pumped to be the first ever cannabis store in the Beach, and there will be specials and lots of swag bags to celebrate this momentous occasion.” The road to Sessions on the Beaches’ opening has not always been a smooth one, however. Many area residents were horrified to hear that the beloved Continued on Page 2
Eloise Chandler celebrates her 110th birthday at Harmony Hall PHOTO: ALAN SHACKLETON
Andy Sue and Wing Ye have been running the Flower Centre on Kingston Road for the past nine years. Late last month Andy was subjected to a racist rant about the coronavirus by a woman he did not know.
Community shows its support for Flower Market after racist incident By Alan Shackleton
PEOPLE FROM across Toronto have been showing their support for the owners of a Kingston Road flower shop after an incident in which one of the store’s owners was subjected to a racist rant regarding the coronavirus because he is of Chinese descent. Andy Sue and his wife Wing Ye have been running the Flower Centre, at 1012 Kingston Rd., just west of Bingham Avenue, for the past nine years. The store has been
in Sue’s family since 1972, and he grew up in the area and now lives in southwest Scarborough. He said he was stunned to have been the victim of a verbal attack by a woman he did not know who came into the store on Jan. 24, the day before Chinese New Year, and blamed him for the coronavirus. “We’re Canadian and no different from anybody else here,” said Sue. “To be singled out for the coronavirus, when I had nothing to do with it was so offensive. I was being made the face of the coronavirus by
WINTER STATIONS
this person, and they were blaming it all on me.” Andy and Wing, who grew up in Leslieville, were understandably upset by the incident. Sue shared his experience on a BlogTO story about racist incidents being directed towards people of Chinese descent in the city. That resulted in a television news story, which then raised the attention of others in the community to the incident. Fellow Kingston Road business owner David Brown, of Fearless Continued on Page 2
By Amanda Da Silva
SHE SHOWED up promptly at 11:30 a.m., walked in holding onto her great niece’s arm and made her way to the front of the hall. Eloise Chandler celebrated her 110th birthday at Harmony Hall, at 2 Gower St. in East York, on Wednesday, Jan. 22, surrounded by some family and staff but mostly her fellow euchre players. Chandler was just expecting her weekly round of euchre when she saw all of the decorations and said was “shocked” and “speechless.” After waving to her guests that included Beaches-East York MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith and Beaches-East York MPP Rima Berns-McGown, she sat down and thanked everybody for coming. “I wish you all the best in all the years to come,” said Chandler.
On Jan. 21, 1910, Chandler was born in Georgetown, Guyana. She is the youngest of 13 siblings. Chandler came to Canada in 1920 and has been a resident of Toronto ever since. She worked for many years at a bank. Harmony Hall was built in 1967 by the East York Barbershoppers as a Centennial project for local seniors. The South Riverdale Community Health Centre (SRCHC,) now runs the hall and offers a number of seniors’ activities including euchre and carpet bowling. The SRCHC staff and some of the euchre players believe that Chandler was part of one of the original group of people that started going to the hall back in the 1960s. Chandler is an active and social Continued on Page 2