The Farm Boy store at 2149 Yonge St. is temporarily closed after failing a DineSafe inspection. (Sheila Matano/photo)
A busy grocery store near Yonge Street and Eglinton Avenue is temporarily closed following afailed DineSafe inspection.
According to Farm Boy’s website, its midtown Toronto location, at 2149 Yonge St. at Soudan Avenue, is closed today and tomorrow, but is expected to reopen on Wednesday at 8 a.m.
City of Toronto’s DineSafe web site indicates that the store was last inspected on Sept. 8 after inspectors observed “one or more crucial infractions ... under the Food Premises Regulation that present an immediate health hazard that cannot be corrected during an inspection.”
The Farm Boy store received a red card for four infractions, two of which are deemed “crucial,” for food premise maintained in manner permitting health hazard (rodents) and for failing to protect food from contamination or adulteration.
The supermarket was also handed a “significant infraction” for failing to protect against harbouring of pests, and a “minor” one for food premise not being maintained with food handling room in sanitary condition.
CP24 has contacted Toronto Public Health for further comment on the matter.
In an email to CTV News Toronto, Farm Boy said it is “committed to upholding the highest standards of food safety and cleanliness.”
“Following a public health order, our Yonge and Soudan location at 2149 Yonge St., Toronto, is temporarily closed. We take this matter very seriously and are taking immediate action, including a full sanitation of the store and a comprehensive review by our pest control management company,” spokesperson Aaron Wade wrote.
“We are working closely with public health officials to ensure all requirements are met and will share updates on reopening as soon as they are available. We remain dedicated to providing a safe and clean shopping environment for our customers and apologize for any inconvenience or concern this may cause.”
The exterior of a Farm Boy grocery store is seen in Toronto, Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023. (Chris Young/The Canadian Press)
Several people who live in the area and shop at this Farm Boy location have taken to social media to express their shock at the store’s sudden and unexpected closure and share their experiences.
Some said they’ve seen rodents inside the store on occasion, which they said may be due to several ongoing construction projects in the immediate area.
Sheila Matano, who lives nearby, told CP24 that she shops frequently at that Farm Boy location and was surprised to see its doors locked and shutters drawn when she tried stopping by this afternoon to pick up a few items.
“I could see the employees in there cleaning up,” she said.
Matano said she’s never seen any pests inside the store but has seen some rat droppings in its rice area.
She said she’s disappointed that the company hasn’t sent out an email informing customers of the situation and the efforts being made to rectify it, adding that would help “restore confidence.”
Matano noted that she’s a long-time customer who enjoys shopping at Farm Boy, especially in the fresh meat and fish departments, and is looking forward to the midtown Toronto location reopening with a “clean record.”
Farm Boy in Barrie, Ont.(CTV News/Mike Arsalides)
The Farm Boy store at 2149 Yonge St. was previously inspected on July 7, 2025 and passed, with inspectors noting that “no infractions were observed under the Food Premises Regulation.”
It did, however, previously receive a yellow conditional pass in May, April, and February. In all of those instances, the store was handed the significant infraction of “fail to protect against harbouring of pests.”
The daycare in Brantford, Ont., says it caught one live bat this week, pictured, and one dead bat tested positive for rabies. (Submitted by Kim Stewart)
A daycare in Brantford, Ont., is closed for a public health inspection after a bat found at the centre tested positive for rabies.
Grand Erie Public Health (GEPH) said Friday that it confirmed a bat discovered Monday at Creative Minds Daycare tested positive on Wednesday for the virus, prompting concern from parents.
The daycare told CBC Hamilton a child found the bat and handed it to a worker during morning playtime.
Public health said the daycare, which is near Wade Street and Brunswick Avenue in West Brant, will remain closed until the public health department has finished investigating and confirms no more bats are present. The daycare cares for around 145 children and employs around 30 people, it told CBC.
"Parents and caregivers were promptly informed," public health said in a news release. The department said it contacted "all individuals who had direct contact with the bat" and advised them to receive post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) — special treatment to prevent infection.
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In a message to parents that was viewed by CBC Hamilton, the daycare said at least one child and one employee had come in contact with the bat Monday. It also said one other bat was seen alive in the facility on Tuesday, and workers captured and released it.
Kim Stewart, a parent, told CBC Hamilton she has since withdrawn her four-year-old from the daycare and is "not impressed" with how Creative Minds handled the situation.
Parent worried there may have been more bats
Stewart said Creative Minds informed parents and guardians about the two bats found at the daycare this week, but that communications have been unclear. She also said a daycare staff person told her at least two more bats were found at the facility in June, but that was not communicated formally by the daycare.
"Luckily no one has been injured," Stewart said. "It could have been very bad."
CBC Hamilton also spoke to another parent who shared Stewart's concerns.
"While the risk of rabies in our region remains low, rabies is a serious illness that is fatal if untreated, but preventable with prompt medical attention," the region's acting medical officer of health, Jason Malenfant, said in a news release Friday.
"This is why we take every potential exposure seriously, act promptly to identify and follow up with anyone who may be at risk and remind everyone to avoid handling or coming into contact with wild animals."
Importance of early treatment against rabies
Public health said rabies can be fatal if not treated before symptoms begin, and noted the virus can be transmitted through a bite wound, open cut or mucous membrane, such as the eyes or mouth, from the saliva or mucous of an infected animal.
Last year, a Brantford-area child died from rabies in the first domestically acquired case of human rabies in Ontario since 1967. The child had come into contact with a bat, the Haldimand-Norfolk Health Unit confirmed.
Daycare owner Vicki McNabb spoke to CBC Hamilton alongside Laura Bailey, whose daughter goes to Creative Minds. Bailey is also helping McNabb communicate with the media.
Since 2016, Bailey said, Creative Minds has operated out of an old public school building. She said the daycare is looking into whether a roof replacement in March led to bats getting in.
Most parents supported daycare's response, owner says
Bailey said the child picked up the dead bat on Monday and gave it to the worker, who promptly disposed of it and cleaned the child and the area. Creative Minds contacted the parents of the child immediately, she said, but did not inform the wider daycare community of exactly what had happened until Thursday.
"I want to make sure I have all the proper information" before sharing it with families, McNabb said.
Bailey said Creative Minds took all the right steps knowing what they knew at the time and said she thinks "99.9 per cent of parents" supported how they responded.
"Could it have happened faster? Yes," Bailey said. But McNabb and her team are experts in child care, "not crisis communications," and "we don't want to make 145 families panic until we have all the right information."
Creative Minds Daycare is closed temporarily for an inspection after a bat found there tested positive for rabies. (Submitted by Creative Minds Daycare)
Stewart said she took her son to get a rabies shot at Brantford General Hospital on Thursday and saw a number of other children from the daycare, as well as people who work there.
Alena Lukich, spokesperson for Brant Community Healthcare System, said the team administered 10 rabies vaccinations at the hospital on Thursday.
Stewart said she remains concerned that communication from the daycare throughout the week has given parents partial information — for instance, she learned from a worker and not the daycare that a child and worker had touched the rabid bat. She also heard from her son earlier that there was at least another bat, but that wasn't confirmed.
Stewart also received photos and video from staff showing a bat flying in the daycare, two others in a bucket and fruit that was eaten by what she suspects were bats.
In a screenshot from a video, a bat can be seeing flying through the daycare on Tuesday. (Submitted by Kim Stewart)
"Why do we have to piece it together like investigators?" asked Stewart.
Bailey said the videos and images were recorded by workers to document incidents and that they have been shared without context.
She said the bats in the bucket were found outside the daycare in June, and that a worker found them before kids came up and released them off the site. She said the video of the flying bat and the image of the bat in the container were taken Tuesday when the live bat was captured inside.
Creative Minds only knows of two bats coming inside, she said.
Bailey said bats in this part of the world typically eat insects and that the food was likely eaten by mice, which have been dealt with. She said workers found and disposed of the food when they inspected it before preparing meals in the facility's kitchen.
McNabb and Bailey said Creative Minds closed proactively and the wildlife control company they're working with has completed most of the work to ensure any bats that exit the building can't get back in. They hope to open once public health gives them the all-clear.
Going forward, Creative Minds will keep families in the loop about what's happening, McNabb told CBC Hamilton. She said she's accountable for everything that happens at the daycare and focused on moving forward.
"Things happen, and then we look at those things and we fix those things," she said.
Public health spokesperson Lindsay English told CBC Hamilton the health unit's investigation involved interviewing staff, reviewing what happened, and communicating with caregivers and health-care providers to determine who had potential exposure that warranted medical treatment.
On Aug. 8, the health unit reported another bat in the region tested positive for rabies.
In its Friday news release, it said animals including foxes, raccoons, skunks and bats can carry and spread rabies, and even bites or scratches too small to see can transmit it.
It recommends people bitten or scratched by animals seek medical attention immediately and report to public health.
In 1985, the Canadian government tried to stop Jamaican bakeries and restaurants from using the term "beef patty." Patty vs. Patty,a new documentary from CBC Short Docs, tells the story of Toronto's bizarre patty wars: when the city's patty vendors refused to change the name of their beloved snack, and made international headlines along the way. At the time, Canada's Meat Inspection Act classified a beef patty as what goes in a hamburger. It could contain only meat and seasoning and it couldn't be encased in dough or a crust. Therefore, a Jamaican patty — widely known as a flaky pastry with a spiced beef filling — didn't meet the criteria.
Patty vendors faced fines of more than $11,000 in today's dollars for not complying
Michael Davidson was the manager of his family's bakery, Kensington Patty Palace, in 1985. His parents had opened the bakery after moving to Toronto from Jamaica in the 1970s.
Michael Davidson was the Manager of Kensington Patty Palace in 1985. In the documentary Patty vs. Patty, he shares his side of the story in the fight to call Jamaican beef patties…well, patties. (CBC / Patty vs. Patty)
In February of 1985, Davidson's parents were on vacation in Jamaica when he received a visit from a food inspector from Consumer and Corporate Affairs.
Inspectors visited at least eight patty vendors that month, demanding that they rename beef patties to, well, anything except "beef patty." The officials threatened fines of $5,000 (more than $11,000 in today's dollars) if the shops didn't comply by changing their menus, packaging and signs.
In the documentary, Davidson recalls that the associated costs of changing the bakery's name and sign, and registering a new business name would have cost the business $10,000 (roughly $22,500 in 2022 dollars).
"The unnecessary burden that we were being placed under would have brought the business to a premature end," Davidson says in the documentary.
Kensington Patty Palace in 1985. (CBC / Patty vs. Patty )
Despite the threat of fines, the vendors resisted. They banded together and refused to sell the patty under any other name. Davidson became their representative.
He found himself at the centre of the controversy when community outrage propelled the story into the media spotlight. Davidson made headlines in newspapers and on local TV news.
The Patty Summit
Politicians got involved; lawyers got involved; the Jamaican consulate got involved. "People would call them and say, 'Oh, this part of our heritage is being destroyed,'" recalls Davidson in the documentary.
Eventually, bureaucrats from Consumer and Corporate Affairs and representatives for the patty vendors met at a so-called "patty summit" on Feb. 19, 1985.
In the end, a compromise was made: while vendors couldn't use the term "beef patty," they could call their product a "Jamaican patty."
On Feb. 23, 1985, Davidson and Kensington Patty Palace held a celebration at the store. "It was a day in which we invited everyone to come down and celebrate with us," says Davidson.
Feb. 23 is now known as Patty Day in Toronto, in commemoration of the day it became OK to call them Jamaican patties.
Told from Michael Davidson's perspective, Patty vs. Patty weaves together first-hand anecdotes, archival footage and satirical re-enactments to tell this story of bureaucracy gone amok, community resistance and a delicious pastry — officially known as the Jamaican patty ever since. Watch Patty vs. Patty on YouTube.
