Photo: "a wee maple leaf on a big pregnant belly" by torontopile, member of the blogTO Flickr pool.

Your Toronto morning news roundup for Wednesday July 2nd, 2008:

A 17-year old high school student in Waterloo may have discovered a way to use bacteria to break down plastic bags in a matter of weeks. He's won several school awards and scholarships for his studies, and now that he has media attention, perhaps he'll get some major funding from a company or the government to pursue things further.

Stories like this define us as Canadians. People waited in line for over two hours to board ferries to the Toronto Islands yesterday, because (in addition to larger than normal crowds) they were only using two of the four available ticket booths. Perhaps this was due to people not waiting until they got to the islands to smoke their wacky tabacky?

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While many of us were heading to see Canada Day fireworks, a good number of people up in Vaughan were running from fire. An old flour mill burned out of control and part of the structure came crashing down, prompting evacuation of residents from the area. Fire marshals are investigating, and it wouldn't surprise me if they discovered Roman Candles or Burning Schoolhouses in the rubble.

A veteran clubber (or late bloomer?) died on Monday after taking "herbal ecstasy", a natural energy-boosting pill marketed as an alternative to the real deal. The next day, a woman at the same club, taking a similar product, was carted off by paramedics and is in critical condition. Will these incidents spur on a "war on herbs"?

The Vancouver Canucks have offered Leafs captain (and current free-agent) Mats Sundin a 2-year deal worth a whopping $20-million. Take it Mats.