Yonge and St. Clair newspaper vendor dies

Pedestrians walking along the east side of Yonge Street just north of St. Clair Avenue will notice a small memorial outside of Shoppers Drug Mart. It sits where, for years, a neighbourhood fixture sat.

Since 1993 Glenn Olsheskie sold copies of the street publication Outreach Connection and, more recently, its successor, Toronto Street Connection. Olsheskie died on April 12 from complications associated with diabetes. He was 72.

Publisher Leith Squires, who bills Toronto Street Connection as “a newspaper publication distributed and sold by the poor and homeless on Toronto’s streets weekly,” said he called Olsheskie a friend for 23 years.

“He was a good friend,” he said. “I’ll miss him.”

Squires said Olsheskie loved working at Yonge and St. Clair and was always adamant that no one else was to sell papers in “his area,” which he traveled to by motorized scooter from his downtown apartment.

Squires said Olsheskie lived alone and had no family.

“He was very private,” he said.

Olsheskie was often seen accompanied by a dog — if not two or three — though none were his. Local dog owners often entrusted him with watching their furry friends while they shopped nearby, and he was known to have a bag of doggy treats to keep them in line.

Squires will be filling in on Wednesdays and Thursdays until he finds someone else to peddle the $2 paper in that location.