Cold-blooded murder...

...at one of the busiest intersections in Hogtown...

TORONTO ••• One person is dead and two others remain in hospital after gunfire erupted in broad daylight in the area of Queen Street West and Peter Street, Saturday evening.

“When I heard the first gunshot I looked outside because I was in a streetcar and I saw one guy in a white shirt, a black man, fall to the ground."

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UPDATE: Don't be black, don't be black...

GAWWWDAMMMMITTT!

Urban assassins apparently learning from their mistakes... bodycount rises to two...

Smoke Dawg was Jamaican and a member of the Halal Gang, made up of him along with Puffy L’z, Mo-G, and SAFE. Smoke Dawg had ties with Drake’s OVO and served as the opening act on the superstar’s Boy Meets World European tour last year.

Second dead man identified...

The two men, both from Toronto, were formally identified by police Sunday as 21-year-old Jahvante Smart and 28-year-old Ernest Modekwe. According to family and friends, Smart was a rising rapper who went by the stage name “Smoke Dawg,” while Modekwe was a music brand manager who was also known as “Kosi.”

That's the 49th and 50th homicides of 2018. According to police statistics, there have been 199 shootings in the city as of June 25.

I blame the National Rapper Association.

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COMPARE AND CONTRAST: Canada's post-national...

...social justice broadcaster......not too big on identifying information...but there are pictures of... count 'em... eight very caucasian people throughout the article...

Two men are now dead following a "brazen" daylight shooting in Toronto's downtown entertainment district on Saturday evening. One of the two men was believed to be in his 20s, while the woman is believed to be in her 30s.

I had to find another source, but, fwiw, the 37 year-old woman involved is an innocent bystander who caught a stray.

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LAST WORD: Mayor Tory says he's "damn mad"...

...maybe he should have a word with his buddy Drake...

Mayor John Tory actually presented Aubrey “Drake” Graham with a key to the city in February 2016 — about six months after two people were shot to death during the rapper’s OVO Fest after-party at Muzik nightclub, another unsolved crime the rapper has stayed silent on despite Crime Stoppers urging him to ask witnesses to come forward.

Does Drake have space to get another memorial tattoo?

Nota Bene... Apparently no spokes-warriors from Black Lives Matter, Toronto were available for comment.

Celebutante Toronto Rap Darling speaks out

Dear Drake... are you really drawing an equivalence between yourself and a violent convicted criminal?

"I’m concerned, concerned for the safety of my family, my friends, and any human being that could fall victim to this pattern."

Sorry, folks... if you're presenting the case of an innocent black man murdered by racist cops, you don't want to lead with a 300 lb. convicted felon resisting arrest with a hot gun in his waistband...

Sterling, a Bloods gang banger had quite the rap sheet before he was gunned down in an altercation with the police. The charges include battery, assault, drug and weapons charges, and being a dead beat dad.

So, Drake... are you really saying there are so many similarities between you and Alton Sterling that you actually fear for your life? Or did your publicist just hand you this list of happy horseshit?

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UPDATE: Gee, Drake, what about the victims...

...at your big Toronto do?

Drake is certainly entitled to be concerned about the incidents in the United States but it took him 10 days to comment on the shooting at his own party in Canada.

In a song called All Charged Up he raps “Niggers snitching on us without no interrogation. I stay silent ‘cause we at war.” In another the song No Tellin, he says, “Yeah, police comin’ ‘round lookin’ for some help, On a case they gotta solve, we never help ‘em.”

He wrote he is “concerned for the safety of my family, my friends and any human being that could fall victim to this pattern.” He would know. But those slain at his event in Toronto were not killed by police.

Nor were the 23 people shot to death in Toronto so far in 2016 — a 109% higher number of victims compared to last year.

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UPDATE2: What big brains in rapperland...

...chose to die on this shit-smeared hill?

"In the wake of 37-year-old Alton Sterling’s death, many people within the hip hop community have come forth to express their outrage and disbelief."

Alton Sterling was the stuff of your worst nightmares, guys. It's why you all have gated mansions and round the clock bodyguards.

This is why precisely we don't take you seriously.

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RELATED: Vilifying the police...

...and the totally predictable "law of unintended consequences"...

"Baltimore, a city of 622,000 people, has long been blighted by deep-seated poverty and drug crime in some neighborhoods. The city saw a 63 percent surge in homicides last year, with 344 people slain."

Citizens of Baltimore... remember, you did this.

Cariba-whosis?

I'M SURE IT'S JUST A COINCIDENCE...

TORONTO — Thirteen people were injured after nearly a dozen shootings across Toronto over the long weekend, one of which sparked chaos as gunshots rang out in a packed nightclub.

“This is not a normal weekend in the City of Toronto,” said Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders.

Whatever do you mean, Chief?

For the past two years, the gated mansion located at 37 The Bridle Path has been a haven for party after party after party. This one, taking place on the long weekend that saw a lot of people in town for Caribana and Drake’s OVO fest, ended in early-morning gunfire.

Drake, Drake... that sounds so familiar.

UPDATE: The beat goes on...

Toronto police are investigating the city's fourth shooting in a day after a man in his 20s was shot in Humber Heights in the area of Scarlett Road and Braeburn Avenue, north of Lawrence Avenue West,on Monday night.

If only there was a law.

FROM THE COMMENTS:

As a Toronto Cop friend of mine said this morning —
“13 people shot this weekend."

"But fortunately no one was carded”.

UPDATE2: Spoke too soon... it's now 17

UPDATE3: It's not over yet...

One male victim is in critical condition and a second person is injured after they were shot in the city’s Flemingdon Park neighbourhood on Wednesday afternoon, Toronto paramedics say.

Where stereotypes come from...

Hamzeh Serhan, 20, of Ottawa was sipping on a Slushie in the outdoor courtyard between Ottawa Community Housing units on Caldwell Avenue when he was swarmed by a group of armed youths and gunned down in broad daylight Wednesday.

After he was shot at close range, the victim stood up and turned as if to flee when he was shot in the back another four times. Witnesses, including one eyewitness who said he stood within 20 feet of the shooting, described the suspects as a group of about six black youths, who scattered on foot once the fatal shots were fired.

He said the victim was a man of Middle Eastern descent in his early 20s known to live in the neighbourhood.

The usually extremely vocal Black Lives Matter Ottawa was apparently unavailable for comment.

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RELATED: In other Ottawa murder news

Kirvens Lamarre, 22, appeared by video link in an Ottawa courtroom Saturday morning — his first appearance on a second-degree murder charge in the death of 24-year-old Devon Labelle. Labelle, 24, known as “D-Loc,” was found stabbed and bleeding on a busy corner on Montreal Road on the afternoon of April 27.

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RELATED2: A growing culture of violence

Mayor John Tory actually presented Aubrey “Drake” Graham with a key to the city in February 2016 — about six months after two people were shot to death during the rapper’s OVO Fest after-party at Muzik nightclub, another unsolved crime the rapper has stayed silent on despite Crime Stoppers urging him to ask witnesses to come forward.

Just keepin' it real, huh Drake?

“Just know man like Fif, he’s a sickaz/ You get tanned, he don’t miss tings,” Drake rapped on the record.

Sorry, Aubrey... the evidence suggests otherwise.

**********

LAST WORD: With one week left to go...

...in September, Toronto continues to stack bodies...

Hey, dummies...

...it's a game played exclusively by multi-millionaire celebrities who have no connection whatsoever to your lives or your dreams...

In January, Kawhi Leonard reportedly bought a $13-million mansion in San Diego.

Some other obscenely wealthy men are about to offer him 190 million dollars over five years to stuff more balls in Toronto.What's the big deal here?

This is a bunch of freakishly tall people who stuff a ball through a hoop. Buying a hundred dollar hoodie doesn't mean you're on the team or that Kawhi is your bro. Is your life that devoid of meaning?

Meanwhile, the entire downtown area is paralysed. Not a good day to have a heart attack or any sort of medical emergency, or gawds forbid your house catches fire.

The potential for mob violence has also gone through the stratosphere. If even a fraction of this crowd becomes panic-stricken, for whatever reason, thousands of people could be trampled.

Good luck, Hogtown.

**********

UPDATE: What could possibly go wrong?

"Raptors parade runs late, descends into chaos with overcrowding. The parade was temporarily halted at the square due to safety concerns, and fans were told to get down from the arches."

**********

UPDATE2: 15:55 Friend just texted me...

...reports of shots fired at Raptors celebration... people running along Bay St. Nothing on the web just yet.

**********

UPDATE3: Confirmed. One woman shot... so far.Oops... looks like two people shot... but don't worry,
Drake's got this...

"The championship parade continued after the shooting -- with Drake taking the stage and telling the reported 1.5 MILLION people in the streets to hug each other and spread love."

Problemo solved.

**********

UPDATE4: No gun... no problem...

Four people have been taken to hospital following two reported stabbing incidents as hundreds of thousands of people crowded the area to cheer on the Toronto Raptors as part of an NBA Championship victory parade.

**********

UPDATE5: The bodycount grows...

Four people were injured after gunfire broke out at Nathan Phillips Square during a massive celebration for the Raptors Monday afternoon.

There were multiple reports of gunshots and stampeding at around 3:45 p.m.

Four shot... four stabbed... and the night is yet young.

Disband the Raptors and confiscate all basketballs. #IfItOnlySavesOneLife.

And Winston Churchill wept

Once again, the capricious and unknowable will of, well... THAT GUY...

A huge counter-terrorism investigation is under way after a bucket bomb was detonated on a packed London Underground train at Parsons Green. Witnesses described scenes of terror and panic after the blast sent a "fireball" and a "wall of flame" through a District line service in west London.

At least 22 people were injured, including a boy believed to be aged about 10.

Could have been much worse... apparently the device malfunctioned, likely a fortuitous by-product of centuries of cousin-marriage.

Stand by for the usual flood of candles and teddy bear memorials...

Social media was similarly awash with people offering a comforting hot drink to those caught up in the aftermath.

As Kate at SDA is wont to say... "We won't let these atrocities change us... and that's a mistake."

**********

RELATED: The fun never stops...

On the heels of the heinous terror attack that just occurred at a London Tube station Friday, reports are now coming in that two women in France have been attacked with a hammer by a man shouting "Allahu Akbar."

**********

UPDATE: Brits expecting more attacks

Britain lifted its national security threat level to critical from severe on Friday, meaning an attack is expected, after a bomb on a London commuter train injured 29 people.

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MEANWHILE, BACK AT THE RANCH:

Toronto cops also have their hands full...

A 33-year-old man is dead after being shot several times overnight around 3 a.m. inside a building on Glamorgan Avenue, near Kennedy and Ellesmere roads.

The victim has been identified as Anthony Soares.

Wait a minute... you mean Anthony “Fif” Soares.

“Just know man like Fif, he’s a sickaz/ You get tanned, he don’t miss tings,” Drake rapped on the record.

Well, "tings" sure didn't miss him.

The MSM ain't talking about the Drake connect here because, uh... patriarchy?

And...

A dramatic scene broke out in the Jane St. and Driftwood Ave. area this morning in what has been described as a knife fight that resulted in police shooting a suspect.

And...

Toronto police have charged 24-year-old Yeshudyan Ragbir with first-degree murder after a woman was found without vital signs in a North York home Wednesday.

It happens so often nowadays... nobody really cares anymore.

The Usual... well, you know...

...I'll let Drake spell it out...

At around 1:16 p.m. on Wednesday, emergency crews were dispatched to a townhouse complex on John Garland Blvd. near Humber College Blvd. for reports of a man in his late 20s who had been shot.

This is the city’s 22nd homicide of 2019.

That's 16 men and six women so far.

nota bene... I'm pretty sure Aubrey "Drake" Graham was raised better than that...

He was raised by his mother in Forest Hill, an affluent and predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Toronto. He attended Jewish day school, had a Bar Mitzvah at age 13 and observed the Jewish High Holy Days with his mother.

*********

UPDATE: Homicide 22 dentified as Blaine Grindley...

“He’s not on the streets doing this and doing that, He’s a young, ambitious Black person,” said Dahlia Foster, Grindley’s aunt.

Of course, that's John Garland Blvd... as in "Murder Alley, Ontario."

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RELATED: Oops... almost missed Homicide 21...

On Monday, April 29th, 2019 the injured man succumbed to his injuries and was pronounced deceased in hospital. He has been identified as Premachchandran Sundaralingam, 53, of Toronto.

Richard "Rick" Turner, 48, of Toronto, has been identified as the suspect.

Eggshell blue... that's gonna go nicely...

...with his Bridal Path eco-mansion...

"He enters a state of existential reflection, with a realization of his impending mortality: what will be the intrinsic value of his music, if the ice caps melt and the world is no longer sustainable?

Or perhaps more pertinently, he realises that with his stadium-sized cultural standing, and ability to impact on the world at large, he is in an undeniable position of power to enact meaningful change and ensure the survival of the planet’s ecosystem – a network nearly as complicated, beautiful, and wonderfully diverse as Drake himself."

Complicated? Like Avril Lavigne? I suppose that's one word...

"In a song called All Charged Up he raps 'Niggers snitching on us without no interrogation. I stay silent ‘cause we at war.'"

"In another the song No Tellin, he says,'Yeah, police comin’ ‘round lookin’ for some help, On a case they gotta solve, we never help ‘em.'"

Yeah... he's a absolute peach. And just a bit of a poseur...

"He was raised by his mother in Forest Hill, an affluent and predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Toronto. He attended Jewish day school, had a Bar Mitzvah at age 13 and observed the Jewish High Holy Days with his mother. 'My mom has always made Hanukkah fun,' Drake recalls."

You're a "gangsta-come-lately," you gotta try harder, I guess.

**********

RELATED: In other "Snitches get Stitches" news...

Justin Trudeau's "post-national hip-hop state"... it's a cold, cold place.

York Regional Police Insp. Thai Truong told reporters as many as 400 students from around the region were at the party when Rizwaan Aboobakar Wadee was shot.

“The biggest concerning factor, one of the most frustrating factors for us, is that when police arrived on scene after 4 a.m. and located the deceased... nobody was in the house,” he said.

“Not a single person that we know about had tried to assist Mr. Wadee or stayed on scene.”

Toronto Star does the unthinkable...

...calls out former DeGrassi child actor for repeatedly ignoring police requests...

Some cited the lyrics in his song 'No Tellin' as a possible explanation. “Yeah, police comin’ round lookin’ for some help on a case they gotta solve, we never help ’em.”

Soares, who was 33, had a rap sheet with three gun possession convictions.

Who, exactly, are Drake's gangbanger pals?

This year, a senior Toronto police officer, now retired, questioned why Drake had invited a young rapper who is facing firearms, assault and kidnapping charges along as his opening act on the European leg of his Boy Meets World tour.

Street-cred by proxy? Seems a little cowardly to me.

Kudos to Torstar (something I never imagined saying) for violating one of Toronto's unwritten taboos.

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RELATED: Hey, Aubrey... I get it...

...gotta rub up against some actual thugz to get that gangsta credibility...

His new persona as the cocksure prince of hip-hop ("Last name ever, first name greatest," he brags on "Forever") seemed to clash with his middle-class Jewish upbringing and former career as a teenage soap star.

He was raised by his mother in Forest Hill, an affluent and predominantly Jewish neighborhood in Toronto. He attended Jewish day school, had a Bar Mitzvah at age 13 and observed the Jewish High Holy Days with his mother.

Yessirree, he came up hard.... the mean streets of Forest Hill.

THE MUSIC THAT SOOTHES MENS SOULS

MAKIN' YO MAMA PROUD:

-- "While the dollar value of the money seen in the clip hasn't been confirmed by Drake or Area 29, rumours are flying about how Drizzy spent a cool seven figures on Saturday night. Akademiks may have helped fuel the fire by stating in his caption that Drake 'threw like a milly' at the Houston strip club." --

BODY COUNT CONTINUES TO RISE:

-- Ezra Blount’s death mark’s the tragic concert’s death toll to 10." --

Get out your decoder rings...

"Calgary police say the violence is generally localized to individuals of a group that is very disorganized and lacking in the structure of traditional gangs. Communities within central and northeast Calgary have the highest shooting occurrence rates and the shootings are most likely to happen during the night on weekends."

Meanwhile, back in Toronto's "gun free zone", or as I like to call it... the Home of the Whopper...

Rinaldo Cole, 33, and Dwayne Campbell, 30, were both pronounced dead on scene after efforts to revive both men proved unsuccessful. The woman who was celebrating her birthday, meanwhile, was rushed to Sunnybrook Hospital.

Police have not released any information about potential suspects at this point, refusing to even speculate on how many people may have opened fire.

**********

UPDATE: From better to diverse...

Despite there being “upwards of 200 people” at the party, Toronto Police Det. Rob North says police are struggling to find witnesses. “We’ve had very little co-operation from people,” North said.

How many of those 200 potential witnesses do you think will have been in the bathroom when the mayhem commenced?

It's the Danzig bloodbath all over again.

Also in Scarberia...

A shooting inside a Scarborough bar has sent five people to hospital.

Gunfire first erupted inside McGradies Tap & Grill on Victoria Park Avenue near Ellesmere Road at around 2:30 a.m.

And...

Two men were shot in a suspected drive-by shooting in the neighbourhood of Eglinton East Saturday night, Toronto police say. As a result of the shots, two men later made their way to hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Police say it's not clear if the shooting was targeted.

You'll be happy to know Toronto cops aren't totally incompetent. They were able to offer up one suspect description from this weekend's mayhem...

"A gas bar attendant told Toronto police he saw two stabbing victims walking to his east-end gas station early Sunday morning. Police say the suspect is white, six feet tall and in his 20s and 30s."

Those damn violent honkies!

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LAST WORD: The usual stereotypes, er... suspects

Police said he emerged from the car wielding a shotgun, much to the surprise of some passersby who came to his aid, thinking he might be injured. He then forced a woman out of her black Dodge Journey at gunpoint, and fled the scene in her car.

Quinnton Drake, 25, of Ajax, faces 21 charges including possession of property obtained by crime, six counts of pointing a firearm, robbery and dangerous operation of a motor vehicle.

If only there was a law...

But, but, but...

...he's just so McDreamy...

When President Barack Obama took office, in 2009, he championed the cause of government transparency, and spoke admiringly of whistle-blowers, whom he described as “often the best source of information about waste, fraud, and abuse in government.” But the Obama Administration has pursued leak prosecutions with a surprising relentlessness.

Including the Drake case, it has been using the Espionage Act to press criminal charges in five alleged instances of national-security leaks — more such prosecutions than have occurred in all previous Administrations combined.

Funny how that works, huh?

Toronto Homicide Cops round up...

...farmers, hunters and... wait a minute...

Toronto paramedics confirmed that one male victim, since identified by police as Mohammed Gharda, 17, of Toronto, was pronounced dead at the scene after a shooting in Scarborough early Sunday morning. An 18-year-old male was taken to hospital with serious, possibly life-threatening injuries.

But, wait... there's more...

"One man is dead following a shooting in the city’s downtown in the area of Yonge and Wellington streets on Sunday night, Toronto police confirm. Three armed suspects fled the area westbound on Wellington Street in a small black car."

Surprise, surprise...

"He has been identified as 28-year-old Toronto-resident Jaiden Jackson. Police say Jackson was at Pick 6, a newly opened restaurant and sports bar co-owned by the rapper Drake and his head of security, when he left with an unidentified woman around 9 p.m. "

Toronto's 30th & 31st homicides of 2018.

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UPDATE: The hits just keep on coming...

"A male victim believed to be in his teens was injured in a North York shooting at around 2 p.m. Monday afternoon in the area of Jane Street and Sheppard Avenue. Two male suspects were seen fleeing the area after the shooting, according to officers. No descriptions of the suspects have been released."

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RELATED: Pays you money, takes you chances...

Toronto police are investigating after one man sustained serious injuries in a stabbing at Spadina Station Sunday afternoon. Police said the stabbing may have taken place in the pedestrian tunnel at the busy station.

Subway trains on lines 1 are currently bypassing Spadina Station because of the investigation.

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LAST WORD: A little "Felonious Interruptus"

The two suspects taken into custody were identified by police as Amiin Mohamoud, 18, and Zarie Pitamba, 18, both of Toronto.

Each is facing a dozen charges relating to firearms possession and drugs possession.

What 6 year-old girl wouldn't want...

"...Robotics Engineer Barbie"...

She hasn’t given up her dream house, but the new Barbie knows how to code like a boss. With eight different ethnic variations and careers spanning musician, pastry chef and even beekeeper, diversity was the biggest focus for the brand.

It gets better...

The American toy company announced it's adding dolls with braided hair texture, a new body type and Barbies who reflect permanent physical disabilities.

Barbie's new body type features a smaller bust, less defined waist and more defined arms.

The backstory here is paramount. For example, did wheelchair Barbie take a stray round at a Drake concert? Did less endowed Barbie get bullied by the mean girls?

And where was Ken... off retouching his makeup?

DIVERSITY, STRENGTH... YOU KNOW THE DRILL...

-- "Metro Nashville Police Chief John Drake said Solomon Henderson, 17, confronted 16-year-old Josselin Corea Escalante in the cafeteria before firing shots which hit her and one other student." --

How did authorities miss this freak?

-- "Henderson posted antisemitic content and posted a flyer from the Goyim Defense League — a neo-Nazi white supremacy group — and praised Adolf Hitler. He praised other mass shooters and had images of a layout of his high school, guns and ammunition." --

Meanwhile back at the ranch...

-- "Toronto Police identified the man who started the fire as 39-year-old as Julian De Souza. He has been charged with arson. — disregard for human life." --

I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO PRIME MINISTER DRAKE'S FIRST BUDGET...

-- "Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smite has put forward Petition E-6629 to the House of Commons, pushing the Canadian government to drop the voting age to 16. This follows the UK’s announcement on Thursday that they’re lowering their voting age to 16 for all elections." --

The usual... well, you know

Toronto police scoop up four local farmers & hunt... wait a minute...

Through an extensive investigation by the West Field Command Gun Violence Suppression Unit, four males, Ahmed Siyad, 27, Olad Olad, 20, Mohamud Duale, 28, and Ahmed Dirie, 26, all from Toronto were were identified and arrested.

Surveillance video showed them pumping 33 bullets into a helpless man who just happened to be in a parking lot in the Jane and Finch area. They face 26 criminal counts including attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and a myriad of firearms charges.

And, take note snowflakes... it ain't epidermal... it's about culture...

In a song called All Charged Up, Drake raps “Niggers snitching on us without no interrogation. I stay silent ‘cause we at war.” In another the song No Tellin, he says, “Yeah, police comin’ ‘round lookin’ for some help, On a case they gotta solve, we never help ‘em.”

Pretty tough talk for an upper-middle class soap opera child actor from Forest Hill.

THE MUSIC THAT SOOTHES MEN'S SOULS

-- "Georgia rapper 'TROUBLE'... [real name Mariel Semonte Orr], who notably collaborated with Drake and the Weeknd, was shot dead in a home invasion early Sunday morning after a night of partying. 'Life short af dawg smh Neva know when yo numBa gon be called!' he wrote a month before his murder. 'Be grateful. Forgive – Don’t forget.'" --

THE MUSIC THAT SOOTHES MEN'S SOULS...

-- "Grammy Award-winning rapper Lil Durk, 32, is charged with conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire in the slaying of Saviay’a Robinson, 24, who was gunned down on Aug. 19, 2022, according to an FBI affidavit released Friday. He has also been nominated three times and was a featured performer on Drake’s 'Laugh Now Cry Later.'". --

Meanwhile back at the ranch...

  --  "Peel Regional Police say a man in his 40s has been hospitalized after being shot in a plaza near Dixie Road and Eglinton Avenue in Mississauga Saturday afternoon. Investigators have not released suspect information."  -- 

THE MUSIC THAT SOOTHES MEN'S SOULS...

-- "Hassan Ali, known as Toronto rapper 'Top5,' was stabbed hours after attending a concert by fellow Canadian Drake at a park in the United Kingdom. Ali was approached by a group who damaged his car before stabbing him in the leg. He is facing five gun-related charges, including possession of a weapon and unauthorized possession of a firearm." --

Meanwhile back at the ranch...

-- "Toronto Police have arrested three teenagers following an armed robbery in North York that led to the seizure of a loaded handgun and prohibited ammunition." --

And there's another one.