Advertisement
(Image: Blair by Pete Morawski; Police by CP Images)
Zulfiqar Khimani holds the distinction of being Toronto’s most prolific parking enforcement officer. In the last five years he has issued roughly $4 million in fines to drivers parked illegally in Forest Hill and north Toronto. Khimani is also one of the city’s highest-paid parking enforcement officers, having earned $107,585 last year. And he’s not even a real cop; the parking enforcement jobs are staffed by civilians.
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney (Image: Twitter)
In June, it seemed the rumours that Conrad Black had high-ranking government help with his application for Canadian residency had been quelled—but now they’re back. More than 80 lawyers (all immigration specialists) have signed an open letter to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney, saying they believe he helped speed along the newspaper magnate–cum–jailbird’s temporary permit. The letter is in support of a Toronto lawyer, Guidy Mamann, who had suggested such a high profile case wouldn’t have been left solely in the hands of civil servants without a “wink or nod” from the minister. Following Mamann’s comments, Kenney’s office asked the Law Society of Upper Canada to investigate and formally censure him, but the file was closed due to lack of evidence. Surprisingly, the famously litigious baron has steered well clear of this particular war of words. [Globe and Mail]
The sex scandal consuming Toronto’s Korean community began when six international students said they were repeatedly gang-raped by members of their small church. The accused allege that their eccentric pastor brainwashed the women to deflect attention from his own transgressions
Holy orders: Jae Kap Song, the founder and pastor of Jesus First, encouraged his flock to wear church uniforms and live together in six shared apartments
One July day in 2007, an 18-year-old woman checked into her Toronto-bound flight at South Korea’s Incheon Airport. She was travelling light—she had with her one suitcase containing clothes for a range of seasons, some books and a favourite brand of face cream. She had been living with her grandparents in South Korea and was joining her mother, who had split with her father and moved to Toronto to study acupuncture three years earlier.
A court-ordered publication ban prevents me from identifying the woman, but I’ll call her Yeri. Her plan was to learn English at one of Toronto’s hagwons, Korean-run cram schools that cater to the thousands of young men and women who come to Canada on student visas each year. With command of the language, she would get into a better college in South Korea and ultimately, her family hoped, receive coveted job offers at multinationals.
From the airport, Yeri headed to a Bloor and Islington apartment building where her mother lived in one of six units leased by members of Jesus First, a Korean Presbyterian church run by a pastor named Jae Kap Song. Her mother belonged to the church and expected her to join, too. They’d share one of the apartment’s bedrooms. A second bedroom was shared by two male members of Jesus First.
Although gang activity has dominated the news of late, the city is cracking down on another type of criminal this summer—villainous garage-sale vendors. Bylaw officers are out enforcing several six-year-old bylaws that ban homeowners from holding more than two yard sales per year (because they can clog residential streets and annoy neighbours) and business owners from off-loading commercial merchandise under the pretext of a garage sale. Although the fuzz usually give violators a warning (only about five tickets were issued for yard sale infractions last year), fines can reach up to $5,000 for scofflaws. Luckily, there’s always eBay. [Globe and Mail]
(Image: Christopher Drost)
Seeing as Giorgio Mammoliti’s curfew suggestion hasn’t gained much traction, the offbeat councillor has offered up a different idea to stem gun violence in Toronto: appoint himself anti-gang czar. Mammoliti told the Toronto Sun that, with four years to work his magic, and the help of the municipal, provincial and federal governments, he would send gang activity plummeting. “If that did not show results over a four-year period then I would resign my seat,” he offered, graciously. Mammo proposed a host of measures, including cutting social benefits for anyone found with an illegal gun in their home or cooperating with gang members; evicting anyone in TCHC buildings harbouring criminals; and cutting money from mentorship programs for older teens and spending the money on kids under age five. He also took this latest opportunity to again lobby for bringing back the death penalty. We don’t imagine council will be handing the crime file over to him anytime soon. [Toronto Sun]
Rob Ford is claiming victory after Dalton McGuinty pledged $12.5 million to help prevent gun violence across the province—including a guarantee that the current funding of $5 million a year for the Toronto Anti-Violence Intervention Strategy (TAVIS) would be permanent. After an hour-long meeting with McGuinty and Police Chief Bill Blair yesterday, Ford said, “There was no B.S….The Premier said he is going to continue funding TAVIS. That is exactly what I asked for and that is what I got.” Despite the mayor’s evident satisfaction, the Toronto Star pointed out that the province has reliably forked over cash for the program, which sends police into priority neighbourhoods, since 2006, and at least one NDP MPP wondered if the funding was ever really in danger. Moreover, Ford didn’t get the main item on his wish list, which was an additional $5 to $10 million for extra police officers. Still, the mayor is set to meet with Stephen Harper today—perhaps the tough-on-crime prime minister will be feeling generous. [Toronto Star]
(Images: Dalton McGuinty, Communitech Photos; Rob Ford, Christopher Drost)
(Image: Christopher Drost)
A 19-year-old man has been charged in connection to the brazen Scarborough shooting—but that story has been largely overshadowed by Rob Ford’s confusing but strident response to the gun violence. On Wednesday evening, the mayor suggested lengthening gun-related sentences and changing federal immigration laws to make it possible to kick gun-toting thugs out of the city. When asked by AM640’s Arlene Bynon how exactly the latter would work, he answered:
I don’t know, and that’s what I’m going to sit down with the prime minister and find out, how our immigration laws work. Obviously I have an idea, but whatever I can do to get ’em out of the city, I’m going to. Regardless of if they have family or friends, I don’t want these people, if they’re convicted of a gun crime, to have anything to do with the city of Toronto.
(Image: Christopher Drost)
While Toronto reels after another public shooting, Giorgio Mammoliti is recycling his much-loved curfew idea. During the “Summer of the Gun” in 2005, Mammoliti suggested a 10:30 p.m. curfew for kids under 16, and then revisited the proposal during his short-lived bid for mayor. This time, the councillor believes the 14-and-under crowd should not be able to venture out past 11 p.m., asking “what are they doing out at that time of night?” Putting aside that 14-year-old Shyanne Charles was shot a full twenty minutes before Mammo’s would-be curfew, wouldn’t it make more sense—and be more sensitive—to focus on the perpetrators and not the victims? Then again, Rob Ford has gone that route, and he’s not making much more sense than Mammoliti. [Toronto Sun]
Police Chief Bill Blair briefs the media (Image: Gang Investigators)
Already unnerved by two brazen public shootings this summer, the city is now grappling with the Scarborough shooting that ended the lives of 14-year-old Shyanne Charles and 23-year-old Joshua Yasay and wounded more than 20 others. We’ve pulled together the main threads of discussion playing out in the media, including what Rob Ford plans to do about gangs in Toronto, and what changes are ahead for residents in community housing.
This morning, Police Chief Bill Blair briefed the media about last night’s gun fight in Scarborough that killed two and left 21 others with gunshot wounds. He confirmed that two shooters began firing at each other around 10:40 p.m., sending a block party near Morningside and Lawrence into chaos. Blair also said there are “strong indications” that gangs were involved and that the threat of retaliations is high. Those looking for more details may want to consult this incredibly detailed account of the night, pieced together by a Redditor who scoured Twitter for relevant tweets. As the user points out, the information in the tweets can’t all be verified; however, the account forms a clearer picture of whose party it was, what happened, who was hurt—and why retaliatory shootings seem likely. [Reddit]
(Image: Sandra Cohen-Rose and Colin Rose)
David Chen, better known as Chinatown’s badass “vigilante grocer,” has a new reason to celebrate: an amendment to the Criminal Code that extends people’s power to make citizen’s arrests was due to receive Royal Assent in the House of Commons today. Chen, who owns the Lucky Moose Food Market on Dundas Street West, made national headlines after he chased down a shoplifter, tied him up and placed him in a van. The rough-and-tumble street justice earned Chen charges for assault and forcible confinement—but, after a rush of popular support, he was acquitted. The story sparked the push for the newly minted Citizen’s Arrest and Self-Defence Act—popularly known as the “Lucky Moose Bill,” which is probably the best name for a crime bill anywhere. [Toronto Sun]
Every trip to the mall, every phone call, every email can be stored and potentially used against us in the future
Read the rest of this entry »
What’s your privacy worth? According to a recent study by the German Institute for Economic Research, less than 66 cents. The Institute presented moviegoers in Berlin with a choice when they purchased film tickets online. They could buy them from a theatre that demanded their cellphone numbers, which could be used however the theatre pleased, or, for the same price, they could buy a ticket from a theatre that didn’t ask for any personal information. Eighty three per cent of patrons chose the latter. The next batch of customers was presented with the same choice, only this time the privacy-friendly theatre charged a little bit extra—half a euro, or 66 cents Canadian. Sales dropped to 31 per cent. The lesson? We may prefer privacy, but we’re not really willing to pay for it.
Bill Blair is the latest city personality to voice doubts about Adam Vaughan’s suggestion to ban guns and bullets. On Friday, the police chief argued that—despite what Vaughan (and others) have warned—Toronto is unlikely to have another “summer of the gun,” and offered a no-nonsense view of the ban proposal, saying, “I don’t see that would be a solution to the problem.” Blair explained his position using the oft-cited stat that about 70 per cent of seized handguns are smuggled in from the U.S., with the remainder stolen or otherwise obtained from legitimate gun owners. In other words, banning guns or ammo wouldn’t do much—except to make some people (read: voters) feel like someone (read: a potential mayoral candidate for 2014) is taking action. [National Post]
There were 45 homicides in Toronto last year. It’s a grim group: a 28-year-old man was gunned down at a family barbecue; a 21-year-old mother of a two-year-old was strangled by her estranged husband; a 35-year-old police officer died when he was struck by a stolen snowplow. But, to criminologists at least, 45 is good news. That’s 16 fewer victims than 2010, and a precipitous fall from the all-time high of 89 in 1991. Overall crime rates have dropped by almost half since 1992, despite the fact that the city keeps growing by an average of 34,000 people a year.
Read the rest of this entry »
(Image: Neil McIntosh)
There’s no rational reason to own a gun in the city. Gophers aren’t chewing up our fields, we have no black bears going through our garbage bins, and the raccoons aren’t dangerous enough.
—Councillor Adam Vaughan, on why a bylaw restricting the storage, sale and use of ammunition in Toronto makes perfect sense given the city’s lack of dangerous critters. However, gun control legislation tends to be contentious, and critics, including Rob Ford, are already saying such a ban would unfairly target hunters—and wouldn’t necessarily curb gun violence, since gang members will surely find a way to get ammunition. Vaughan doesn’t buy any of that, saying he’ll table his motion at the next council meeting, now that the recent plastic bag ban has the ban ball rolling. [National Post]
Advertisement
© 2013. All Rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part strictly prohibited. Toronto Life is a registered trademark of Toronto Life Publishing Company Limited
