Toronto will be putting on the Ritz, literally and figuratively. Once completed in 2009, the Ritz-Carlton Toronto will be the first Ritz combined hotel and condominium residence in Canada. The 53 story structure will be located on Wellington Street between Simcoe Street and John Street. The cost is estimated at 300 million dollars.

The name Ritz-Carleton itself is synonymous with the term 5-star and this will be no exception. With 267 hotel rooms and 135 condos in a 700,000 square foot facility, the Ritz-Carleton Toronto will certainly cater to the rich and famous. In addition it will be the home to Toronto largest spa at 23,000 square feet. The presentation centre for the condos will be open this September. Before you go scurrying off to choose your unit, the suites will range from $700,000 for one of the smaller pied-a-terrres to $11,000,000 for the palatial penthouse on the 52^nd floor that is an astounding 10,920 square feet in size. Wouldn’t you just love to know what the monthly maintenance fees would be on a place like that?                      

How many times have you been to an event or watched one on television and noticed that many of the best seats in the house are empty? It may have been a sporting event, a great show, festival, theatre, or concert. Often times corporations purchase seats in a large block and offer them to clients and employees, but still don’t necessarily fill them all. Or perhaps you purchased tickets to an event long ago and then something came up at the last minute and you couldn’t find anyone who could attend in your place. So, your seats sit empty.

Kids Up Front Toronto would like to make sure that there are never any empty seats in the house again by distributing the unused tickets to needy children in Toronto. They are partnered with local charitable organizations that serve children to ensure that the available tickets are distributed fairly. And they work in partnership with sporting organizations, theatre groups, concert promoters, entertainment groups, and special event organizers to obtain tickets.

The Kids Up Front Toronto Foundation is one year old and in one short year over 22,000 local kids have had the opportunity of a lifetime attending a great event that they would otherwise never have the chance to see. If you have tickets to donate – even at the last minute – please call 416-530-2352 or e-mail kidsupfront-to@corusent.com You may also bring them in person, by mail, or messenger to the Nelvana Building (Corus Entertainment) located at 32 Atlantic Avenue, Toronto, ON M6K 1X8. from 8:30 AM. - 5:30 PM. Donations are also graciously accepted and income tax receipts will be issued. For more information follow the link below.

http://www.kidsupfront.com/index.html

Computers have become absolutely indispensable in our lives. We work, keep in touch with friends and family, bank, shop … and the list is endless. For many people not knowing how to use a computer can seriously hamper their ability to find a job. For seniors and others with disabilities very often a computer is their connection to the world and saves them from feelings of loneliness and isolation.

St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre is offering free seminars in English and in Cantonese on how to use computers. Some of the areas to be touched upon will be how to look up a word in an online dictionary, how to look up a city map and print it out, how to do online banking, and how to book airline tickets online. The English seminars will take place on Saturday, August 25^th from 11:30 AM – 1:30 PM. The Cantonese seminars will take place on Friday, August 24^th from 12:30 PM – 2:30 PM and on Saturday, August 25^th from 9:15 AM – 11:15 AM.

Make your reservation without delay. Call 416-493-3333. The St. Paul’s L’Amoreaux Centre is located at 3333 Finch Avenue East, at the southwest corner of Finch Avenue and Warden Avenue.

According to The Gatehouse, a non-profit organization in Toronto that helps victims of child abuse during the investigative process, 1 in 4 children will be the victims of abuse. To make this statistic all the more tragic, the children usually know their abuser. Unfortunately most people don’t realize how prevalent this is in our communities and we don’t know how identify the signs of child abuse.

 
The province has announced a 1.1 million dollar training program that will develop workshops for elementary school teachers to provide them with the education to recognize the signs of child abuse and how to help the abused children. This is a good start, but not the answer. As a society we are each responsible for the safety of our children and must do everything possible to stop predators. We must all be educated in how to identify the signs of abuse and what we can do about it.

 
The Gatehouse receives approximately 22 new calls every month from adults wanting to deal with childhood abuse and they do offer a number of programs for child and adult survivors. To learn more about the great work that The Gatehouse is doing, follow the link below.

http://www.thegatehouse.org/

The Art Gallery of Ontario is not closed. Many people think that it is already shut down for renovations, but although it is under construction, it is vibrant with some fabulous exhibits. Until October 7^th you will have the opportunity to see Medieval and Renaissance Treasures from the Victoria & Albert featuring 35 exquisite pieces of art from 300 AD – 1600. One of the jewels of the exhibit is Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex. The Codex is a notebook written in da Vinci’s unusual style of writing backwards. Also until October 7^th is the opportunity to view several sculptures in marble and bronze by one of the great masters – Gian Lorenzo Bernini who lived from 1598 – 1678. The Treasures of the Tsimshian exhibit is also on display. This very important collection North American First Nations art is part of the Dundas Collection. It features 39 First Nations objects from the 1700s and 1800s.

 
Visit the AGO and soak up the beauty of the art on display. The gallery is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. From Wednesday – Friday the gallery is open from 10:00 AM – 9:00 PM. Saturdays and Sundays the hours of operation are 10:00 AM – 5:30 PM. For all of the details follow the link below.

http://www.ago.net/navigation/flash/frameset.cfm

Over 55,000 children in the GTA are skipping meals because their families don’t have enough money for food. Are you shocked and horrified that this is going on not in some far-flung third world country, but right here at home? Our children are going hungry in a society with plenty and this is just not acceptable. Awareness is the key to change.

Congratulations to the design industry for actually doing something about it. They have created Canstruction, a very unique competition where teams of volunteer professionals and students create unconventional works of art from thousands of cans of food in less than 8 hours. Held in cities across North America, this year is Toronto’s 9^th annual Canstruction. The reason for this fabulous event is to create awareness of the problem of hunger in our cities and to make people understand the importance of donating to their local food banks. After the competition is over all of the cans of food used in the creation of the works of art are donated to the daily food bank. In case you think that this event is “small potatoes”, excuse the pun, last year’s Toronto Canstruction resulted in over 70,000 pounds of food donated to the Daily Bread Food Bank.

This year’s Toronto Canstruction will take place at the TD Centre on Monday, November 5^th. The exhibits will be on display until Sunday, November 11^th. For more information on Canstruction follow the link below.

http://www.canstructiontoronto.org/

To join the fight against hunger in Toronto, contact the Daily Bread Food Bank. Visit their website by following the link below.

http://www.dailybread.ca/

Beware of curbsiders! Until today I didn’t know what a curbsider was. Curbsiders are actually unregistered car dealers posing as private citizens and selling cars. They specialize in selling cars that are stolen, have had their odometres rolled back, or have liens against them. Consumers who purchase from these unscrupulous people are at risk because they have no recourse after the fact. Only transactions made with registered car dealers are protected through the Motor Vehicles Dealer Compensation Fund.

 If you are suspicious of someone who is trying to sell you a car you can easily check to see if he is a registered dealer by going to the Ontario Motor Vehicle Industry Council (OMVIC) website at www.omvic.on.ca or by calling them at 1-800-943-6002. If you suspect someone of being a curbsider you can report them to the OMVIC by e-mail at nocurbs@omvic.on.ca or by phone at 1-888-NOCURBS.

 
There are still many good used cars and honest people out there if you decide to buy from a private person. Just be careful and take a few precautions. Make sure that the seller provides you with a Used Vehicle Information Package and have the car checked out by a mechanic that you trust. 

I happened to be at the National Film Board recently at John and Richmond and I was just astounded at all of the wonderful things going on there. Did you know that there are personal viewing stations where you can watch award winning films absolutely free?

Every Saturday at 3:00 PM the NFB hosts Cinema Saturday showing the best NFB animated films for children and families. Cinema Saturday is free for workshop participants or $2.00/person for the general public. On September 17^th the NFB will be hosting the WILDsound Film Festival which shows short films from around the world. It will be facilitated by an industry professional because the object is for the audience to give their honest feedback of the films during a question and answer period. The time is 7:00 PM and the cost is $10.00. The NFB will be hosting the WILDsound Screenplay Festival on September 19^th where you will have the opportunity to see Toronto actors perform new scripts. Your feedback may just help to decide whether the script is ever made into a film. The time is 7:00 PM and the cost is $10.00. The third Thursday of every month at 7:00 PM the NFB presents A World of Shorts – the best films from the Worldwide Short Film Festival. The price is $6.00 for the general public and $4.00 for students, seniors, and NFB members. There are classes, workshops, and more. Check it out for yourself. Just follow the link below.

http://www.nfb.ca/

Have you heard of the game Street Wars? If not, you will have the chance to observe or participate in the 3 week Toronto tournament taking place from September 10^th – October 1^st. For those of you wondering what kind of new fangled game will be invading Toronto, Street Wars is really nothing more than a very elaborate game of water tag for adults.

The brain child of Frank Aliquo, a 30-something New York lawyer and action movie buff, feels that Street Wars is great way for people to live out their action movie fantasies in a safe environment. Men and women actually pay $45.00 to participate. The object of the game couldn’t be more basic – track down your target and “assassinate them” by soaking them with water. At the beginning of the game participants are given a dossier with detailed information on their target. In order to win a player must assassinate/soak the person with his/her dossier. Vancouver held the first Canadian tournament 2004. The London tournament has had the largest number of participants – 250.

Some say that this game promotes and glorifies violence. Others say that it is good clean fun and keeps you cool on the streets in the hot summer. What do you say?

I thought that I’d heard of every specialty television channel imaginable, but this takes the cake. Both Bell ExpressVu Digital TV and Rogers PersonalTV have just launched 24/7 commercial free programming for infants and toddlers. Called BabyFirstTV, it is presently being offered free as an introduction. After the trial period it will be available with a monthly fee which will depend on your existing package.

Those who are used to playing the Baby Einstein DVDs for their infants and toddlers probably don’t find this as absurd as I do. A major study presently being conducted at DePauw University in Indiana has already shown that the average baby is exposed to more than 500 hours television before their first birthdays. This research project which is due to be completed in 2009 is studying the impact of television on baby development.

The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend any television for children under 2, and will stay with that position until there is research that proves otherwise. The Canadian Pediatric Society is currently reviewing their position and until then has nothing to say on children under the age of 2 years watching television. Parents seem to be quite divided on the issue. What are your views?