Theatre impresario and fraudster Garth Drabinsky is actually, for real, finally out of appeals. The Supreme Court of Canada announced today that it will not hear an appeal of an Ontario Court of Appeal decision last September, which had upheld a 2009 fraud conviction based on Drabinsky’s financial misdeeds at live theatre company Livent Inc. in the ’90s. What that means is Drabinsky will serve out the remainder of his five-year sentence. And, as long as they don’t have chorus singers in jail, he won’t be able to swindle anyone for a while. Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »
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Garth Drabinsky needs to just accept that he’s staying in jail
Urbanist Richard Florida thinks a Toronto casino would be an “unmitigated disaster”
With the politicking already underway on the prospect of a swanky Toronto-area casino, we were craving some straight talk on urban gambling dens. Enter imported urban theorist (and trick-or-treating expert) Richard Florida, who bluntly rejected the idea on Metro Morning earlier today. “If you polled virtually every urbanist and everyone who’s studied urban economic development—Conservative, Liberal, NDP, right, left, centre—everyone would agree that casinos, as an economic development tool, are an unmitigated disaster,” Florida said. His rationale: the costs associated with keeping a casino open, like a higher police presence to deal with more crime, far outweigh any of the cash it would generate. Florida also sarcastically described Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation chair Paul Godfrey as “uniquely qualified among all economists who ever studied that issue in the history of the world.” Yikes. Imagine what he’d say about Godfrey’s plan to open a temporary casino while the permanent one is being built. Listen to the entire segment [Metro Morning] »
(Images: Richard Florida, Ed Schipul; casino chip, Sam DeLong)
OLG pushes for a casino in the GTA, downtown councillors push right back
The Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation wants to open a big ol’ casino in the GTA, which it says will create jobs and spark private investment (and, if Doug Ford has his way, help fund a Sheppard subway). According to OLG chair, Paul Godfrey, the ”world-class gaming centre” could pour billions into the province’s coffers and attract scores of tourists. Not true, says the Toronto Star’s Royson James, who thinks casinos are just a fancy way to take money from the poor and vulnerable to fund services that the middle-class refuse to pay for. Downtown councillors like Adam Vaughan have already shown they’ll fight plans to put a casino in their wards, while the two Dougs (Ford and Holyday) are focused on the potential windfall. We’re bracing for another protracted fight down at city hall—and we might, in the spirit of the matter, place a wager on the outcome. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
QUOTED: Nick Kouvalis politely invites Doug Ford to put a sock in it
I really hope you quote me on this part because it’s important….You had councillors who made a decision to vote for the light-rail transit at-grade on the east side of Eglinton. You can’t…expect them to come back and vote for you on other issues when you go out and say things like you wouldn’t let them run your daughter’s lemonade stand. You can’t do that.
—Nick Kouvalis, Rob Ford’s campaign architect and former chief of staff, speaking on Doug Ford’s sometimes-corrosive influence on city hall, particularly his off-the-cuff snipes at colleagues. That Kouvalis, not exactly known for his tact, would tell Doug to cool it is probably sufficient evidence that the rookie councillor might want to rein himself in a little bit. After all, if you don’t constantly insult your colleagues, maybe they’ll be a little more willing to support some of your policies. Unless you’re proposing a Ferris wheel on the waterfront. Or a lottery to pay for subways. [Globe and Mail]
QUOTED: Giorgio Mammoliti on Karen Stintz’s (politically!) salacious behaviour
(Image: Christopher Drost)
—The one and only councillor Giorgio Mammoliti, speaking after yesterday’s transit vote, about TTC chair Karen Stintz, the woman who basically pushed to have herself fired and then got her job right back in the same day. Mammoliti’s allusion to the “orange side” is a nice retreat from his usual full on red baiting, but it’s still pretty silly (almost as silly as the Sun claiming Mammoliti “had nothing negative to say about Stintz”). The newly constituted TTC board, along with the councillors who bucked Rob Ford yesterday, is hardly a left-wing splinter group. As for getting chewed up and spit out, we suspect Stintz isn’t worried. These days, she seems to be doing most of the chewing up and spitting out. [Toronto Sun]
Turns out, Doug Ford’s office budget is tiny—but it’s not nothing
While Doug Ford loves to remind people that he hasn’t spent a single penny on office expenses, the Globe and Mail has learned that he’s off by about $2000. According to the invoices obtained by the paper, Councillor Ford has spent $2,076.01 of his own money on office expenses since last February, including $1,529.46 at his family business and campaign firm, Deco Labels and Tags. All councillors have a $30,000 budget (not including their staffers’ salaries), and they have to post their expenses online, whether they come from that budget or are out of pocket—it’s the kind of policy that prevents them from using their personal wealth to buy political influence. Like his baby brother’s own business card scandal, this is another case of incredibly small potatoes. As the Globe points out, Doug’s office is still City Hall’s leanest. It’s funny: if Ford would just disclose his financials like everyone else at City Hall, he’d get to maintain his claim to frugality fame while avoiding the scrutiny of eagle-eyed Globe reporters. Read the entire story [Globe and Mail] »
Tiger Woods’s Toronto sports doctor, Anthony Galea, faces a home court date
While Toronto doctor Anthony Galea couldn’t help Tiger Woods keep that whole adultery thing under wraps, he did help the pro golfer recover from knee surgery—although his methods are the subject of serious legal controversy. Galea is known for a rather unorthodox approach to sports medicine, using techniques that include something known as blood spinning, where a person’s own blood is placed in a centrifuge and reinserted in their body, apparently with greater healing properties. Of course, Galea is also known for (allegedly) using human growth hormone in his treatments—which is both way less cool and way more illegal than blood spinning—and pleaded guilty last summer to smuggling the stuff into the U.S. The plea kept him out of prison, but now he’s facing a court date in Toronto on a variety of related charges. Read the entire story [ESPN] »
Both brothers Ford end up on the integrity commissioner’s bad side
Like blonde hair, an obsession with football and a love for public weight loss campaigns, it appears the ability to piss off Janet Leiper, the city’s integrity commissioner, runs in the Ford family. A pair of reports has emerged from the commissioner’s office reprimanding both Mayor Rob and Councillor Doug for their sundry misbehaviour. First, there’s the mayor, who, as a councillor, accepted donations to his personal charity from lobbyists. And although council ordered Ford to repay the donors, all he has provided is letters from three of those lobbyists who don’t want to be reimbursed. Leiper says Ford’s stubbornness could constitute a violation of the Lobbyist Code of Conduct. Meanwhile, a complaint filed by activist Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler is keeping Doug Ford busy. After a run-in at city hall, Freudenthaler filed a complaint alleging the councillor threatened him. The councillor called the complaint—and the integrity commissioner’s call for an apology—“a bunch of horseshit” and said the activist is “a little prick.” During the exchange, Doug reportedly told Chaleff-Freudenthaler that “what goes around comes around,” a comment he has now gone to fantastically awkward lengths to explain. Doug’s comments have received more and flashier coverage than Rob’s alleged missteps, but the stories suggest a mutual failure from the brothers to recognize that their actions can have consequences. Or, to put it another way, that what goes around comes around. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
Quoted: Mike Del Grande on Playboy, public libraries and (imaginary) men in trench coats
When I think of libraries I think of wholesome….I don’t think of men in their trench coats in the library.
That’s silver-tongued budget chief Mike Del Grande on the Toronto Public Library’s Playboy magazines and books (and those nefarious men in trench coats who apparently read them). Aspiring Rob Ford spokesperson Toronto Sun muckraker Sue-Ann Levy did a bit of digging to uncover the sordid collection, which consists of microfilm at the Toronto Reference Library and a handful of books scattered throughout the system. “It certainly gives a whole new meaning to jacking up the literacy rate,” she writes in her column. To which we say, who ever talks about “jacking up” the literacy rate? Also, ew. [Toronto Sun]
Giorgio Mammoliti says city massage parlours are also operating illicit opium dens
Forget the budget—here we have a single story that involves Giorgio Mammoliti, massage parlours and heroin. Oh my! The Toronto Sun is reporting that the oh-so-colourful councillor claims opium dens are operating out of city-licensed massage parlours. Naturally, the councillor wants to revoke the parlours’ licenses, and ever the righteous crusader, Hot Wheels says he’s already shut down eight such clubs. Of course, a police inspector says the force is unaware of an opium den boom and that Mammoliti has not contacted them. Read the entire story [Toronto Sun] »
York University cans whistleblower, likely damaging its reputation just a little bit more
York University has fired a staff member that helped reveal possible fraud at the school, a move that probably won’t reflect well on the institution. The Toronto Star reports that the university “abruptly dismissed Ken Tooby,” who was one of the early whistleblowers on potential fraud dating back to 2009. Although both Tooby and a York spokesperson refused to comment on the situation, this can’t be good for the school’s reputation—news of whistleblowers being canned or otherwise harassed never helped anyone. With all the other negative news surrounding the university lately, it’s beginning to seem as if the school only makes headlines for something frightening, sad, horrible or otherwise controversial. In other words, if there’s bad news about a Canadian university, it’s probably about York. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
Christopher Hume spreads rumours about a waterfront casino at Ontario Place
The Toronto Star’s Christopher Hume says the rumour mill is churning out reports of a potential waterfront casino, most likely at Ontario Place. Of course, the casino idea is nothing new. As Hume reminds readers, Giorgio “Boatloads of Sex Workers” Mammoliti most recently suggested it (that’s the same man who recommended turning industrial wastelands into a red light district, if you’ll recall). But there is reason to believe a casino might actually be in the cards. For one, it would appeal to Rob Ford’s desire for fast cash. (The potential to build a monorail to the site wouldn’t hurt, either.) Then again, Hume writes, a casino would be a far cry from the family destination Ontario Place is supposed to be. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
Hazel McCallion’s shady behaviour could have led to $11 million in savings for her son
Hazel “Haters Gonna Hate” McCallion once voted in favour of a motion that could have cut the fees charged to developers—and netted her son $11 million in savings. The vote happened while McCallion was already scheming on behalf of her son, behaviour that led to an inquiry into her conduct. Although McCallion moved the motion herself and declared no conflict of interest, the incident somehow escaped the inquiry’s report. But while McCallion has avoided any legal ramifications, it’s been suggested that she basically got off on a technicality (the laws governing conflicts of interest are exceedingly narrow). Though, as we’ve said before, it’s likely none of this matters for McCallion anyway. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »
Michael Bryant to write book about cyclist’s death so the world can finally hear his side
Former attorney general Michael Bryant is writing a memoir titled 28 Seconds about the contentious moments leading to the death of cyclist Darcy Sheppard. According to a press release, the aptly named book is an “unflinching description of one man’s descent into a kind of hell,” and will “chronicle the fateful aftermath of that late summer evening in August 2009, an evening when everything changed.” We thought Bryant wanted everybody to just forget about that fateful evening—which, really, everybody probably had—but apparently he actually wants everybody to remember it and relive it.
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Gawker gotchas: a roundup of Toronto’s most embarrassing moments according to the gossip giant
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Earlier this week, the Globe and Mail’s “Caption Writing Person” set off an online frenzy with a series of epic one-liners mocking Hollywood excess in the age of the Occupy Everywhere movement. But it wasn’t long before people began wondering—for no good reason, really—whether the Globe had been hacked. For its part, Gawker published a post saying the caption writer had gone “rogue” (an adjective we think remains best reserved for failed vice-presidential candidates). Of course, we’re just grateful that this Can Con moment was far less embarrassing than the usual appearances. Nonetheless, some Toronto Gawker headline highlights, after the jump.
