Charlotte Hornets at Toronto Raptors NBA Highlights February 28, 2020

The Charlotte Hornets defeated the Toronto Raptors, 99-96. Terry Rozier recorded 18 PTS, 6 REB and 6 AST for the Hornets, while Devonte’ Graham added 18 PTS, 4 REB and 5 AST in the victory. Norman Powell tallied 22 PTS and 3 AST for the Raptors.

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Gentrification is pulling apart Toronto’s communities

As cities develop, what is protecting the neighbourhoods that make them unique?

It’s a question Toronto is grappling with as gentrification creeps into neighbourhoods around the city.

Little Jamaica

The Eglinton Crosstown project — which is running a year behind schedule and set for completion in 2022 — has had a profound impact on the Little Jamaica neighbourhood, between Allen Road in the east and stretching west to Keele Street.

The project has reduced foot-traffic through the neighbourhood, leading to reduced business in the shops that line Eglinton Avenue. While this is felt across all 19 kilometres dedicated to the Crosstown, businesses closing in Little Jamaica threaten the cultural enclave.

Dalton Higgins is a long-time resident and homeowner in the Little Jamaica area. He has seen firsthand the impact of the Crosstown’s construction on the neighbourhood.

“Every season there’s a batch of new stores — mom-and-pop retailers — that are going under,” Higgins said. “I think that’s having an adverse and extremely negative impact on . . . the morale of neighbourhood residents and local business owners.”

The best way to preserve the neighbourhood is for money to be injected back into the shops that are struggling, Higgins said. Store owners “just want to be able to keep their doors open and weather the storm until 2022” when the Crosstown is now expected to be complete.

Area councillor Mike Colle moved Wednesday to do just that, urging city council to compensate small businesses on Eglinton Avenue after news of the project’s further delay. City council adopted the motion, which also requested a report on the feasibility of opening a section of the Crosstown, and moved to clean up construction equipment that blocks storefronts.

Black UrbanismTO was established in 2018 to help engage the community and businesses “from a cultural heritage perspective,” as a response to the displacement of Black communities.

Dane Gardener, who co-founded the not-for-profit group and has familial ties to Little Jamaica, said the easiest way to engage affected communities is simply through conversations with them.

“Having conversations, having safe spaces, being active on Eglinton and having consistent conversations with the businesses to notify them and bring them up to date” on project developments is crucial, he said.

A major worry for Gardener is that there won’t be a Jamaican cultural area to lean on when he eventually has children of his own. The neighbourhood could be lost, Gardener said, meaning “we’re going to have a bunch of people who are not going to be able to have an identity in the city.”

“I don’t understand why the city isn’t worrying about that,” he said. “We need to have self-identification. People need to know who they are and where they come from, and we need to celebrate that.”

Higgins pointed to systemic anti-Black racism as a contributing factor in the way the government approaches the Little Jamaica community.

“We like to pat ourselves on the back for being the most multicultural city on the planet,” Higgins said, but “urban planning and city building does not live on a separate island when it comes to anti-Black racism. It sort of hits us everywhere.”

If developments were disproportionately affecting a white community, there would be more attention paid by local area politicians to community concerns, Higgins said.

The issues faced by Little Jamaica are a microcosm of a larger issue of gentrification leading to a loss of historically-relevant cultural enclaves.

Parkdale

Chemi Lhamo calls herself a “product of Parkdale.” Lhamo grew up in the neighbourhood and attended Parkdale Collegiate Institute. She said that on-the-ground consultation with the community would help preserve the west-end neighbourhood’s large Tibetan diaspora.

While Lhamo said she couldn’t speak for every individual community member, she said “it would be great to see community consultations with the Tibetan community, specifically with Tibetan translators to speak to the elderly that walk around Parkdale.”

There are monasteries in Parkdale where Tibetan seniors come to pray, Lhamo explained. Going there and speaking directly to them could lead to meaningful discussion about community developments, she said.

“There’s a difference between consultations and meaningful consultations. If consultations are happening just because you need to meet the quota of saying that you’ve (spoken) with community members on the ground, that doesn’t do it for me,” Lhamo said.

As Parkdale continues to gentrify, Tibetan-run restaurants have faced massive rent hikes that make it too expensive to stay in business.

“We had Tibetan restaurants . . . (that) because of the rent hikes almost closed down multiple times,” Lhamo said. “I remember the times where a lot of other restaurants that tried to open up . . . weren’t able to keep up with the business because the rent was just too high.”

Lhamo said the rapid change in the community has made her reflect on the systemic issues that exist for racialized Torontonians.

It “really makes someone like me reflect on some of the systematic barriers that exist for racialized people but also for Tibetan refugees that had to be displaced not once but more than twice, from Tibet to India to Nepal,” Lhamo said. “Coming to Toronto for a better life and then being again systematically wiped out” through rent hikes or building managers that don’t handle the most basic of maintenance.

“That is a way to push them out — because once the low income families that had been here for many years are driven out, they make minor renovations to apartments and then they hike up the rent by $500,” Lhamo said.

There’s no clear answer on how to avoid gentrification and a loss of culture, said Ute Lehrer, professor at York University’s faculty of environmental studies. “There’s two different things that come together,” said Lehrer.

“One is the infrastructure investment that is needed for the city to grow. And, at the other end, the economic interest of small business owners that don’t have a lot of extra capital on their side.”

“I think it is very, very important for the well-being of this city that we have these pockets of neighbourhoods where we have strong cultural identities,” said Lehrer.

Projects like the King Street pilot are examples of situations where those with political and media connections could get rapid response from government officials. “There was some outcry of some people who had direct links to the media and were very loud and were heard,” Lehrer said.

The need for grassroots community engagement is what has prompted groups like Black Urbanism, an urban planning group which facilitates community engagement events about culture and identity.

But if you’re a community without the connections, “then you are not heard,” Lehrer said. “The natural effect of this is that yes, there will be some businesses will stay on, they will survive. But others will go under and the neighbourhood will change.”

Regent Park

In the downtown community of Regent Park, the story of neighbourhood redevelopment has echoes of the issues faced citywide. Efforts to revitalize the neighbourhood came with community consultation and plans to build not only new buildings, but also social programs, said Ismail Afrah, a community member and volunteer with the Regent Park Neighbourhood Association.

“Revitalization was a two-pronged approach,” Afrah explained. As the project continued, it became clear that “one prong was forgotten.” While the building projects were completed, the social projects were not fully realized, though “there are some remarkable community benefit initiatives that came through (from developers),” Afrah said, pointing to Daniels Spectrum, an arts and culture centre that opened in 2012.

Whil Afrah is hesitant to say he’s optimistic that social programs will be fully implemented, he said the association is keeping an eye on things and holding the city accountable. “When they’re held accountable, they perform better.” Afrah and the RPNA attend community update meetings about the revitalization and negotiating with Toronto Community Housing to ensure resident needs are addressed.

One group that Afrah works closely with is Access to Recreation, where community members are fighting for better access to the Pam McConnell Aquatic Centre. Given the city’s centralized program registration system, Regent Park is battling all 2.5 million Torontonians for access to services. Data provided to the Star last winter shows that only about a quarter of registrations at the aquatic centre are for registrants who live in or near Regent Park.

“The facilities have been built, they’re beautiful but . . . some of our kids have never been in the pool. So the physical development has happened. You’ve built the facilities. However, given the policies and the institutions and the structures and the technology, we can’t access it. So that’s gentrification,” Afrah said.

“We are fighting a big machine” when it comes to gentrification, said Zhixi Zhuang, associate professor with Ryerson University’s school of urban and regional planning.

Conscientious planning is the easiest way to develop cities in a way that preserves neighbourhoods for community residents. “Whenever we do some big projects . . . Think about ‘what is the impact on the people and the local community?’ ” Zhuang urged.

If small, locally-owned businesses diminish, “the collective history of that neighbourhood, of (that) space will be gone. And it’s kind of destroying the urban fabric.”

Consultation with communities needs to go beyond simple public meetings, and urban planners can’t take it for granted that everyone affected by a development will show up, let alone know the schedule of when public consultations are being held, Zhuang said.

“You have to go to them,” she said. Instead of simply meeting at city hall or in board rooms, going into stores and public spaces to have these conversations is a better way to engage the public, Zhuang said.

“Any time the city has . . . long term construction like this, they need to plan that very carefully , because things get destroyed and we’ll never, ever get them back.” In turn, developments harm people and the community — especially underrepresented groups, Zhuang said.

“That’s really problematic because we pride ourselves as one of the most diverse and multicultural cities in the world. But when it comes to saving these cultural neighbourhoods, we are not doing anything and that’s a shame.

If we’re not even saving our cultural heritage, how can we claim that we are the most diverse and multicultural city?”

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Toronto Mayor John Tory appears to reverse course on protecting Downsview lands for jobs

Land at the Downsview Airport set currently aside for employment will “more than likely” be redeveloped to include residential uses says Mayor John Tory — a reversal of his previous position that the site be protected for jobs.

Future redevelopment of the 150-hectare site — currently operated by Bombardier — is now being overseen by Tory’s former chief of staff, Chris Eby. Eby is executive vice-president of the company set up to develop the land for PSP Investments, the investment arm of the pension plan for federal public servants, which bought the land from Bombardier in 2018.

“We have always expected and anticipated that the redevelopment of this Downsview site will result in it being the location of thousands of jobs,” Tory’s spokesperson Don Peat said in an emailed statement. “It will also, more than likely, include a significant number of residential units, including affordable housing.”

Tory’s recent comments, first reported by the Globe and Mail, seems to contradict what the mayor himself said about the site in March 2018. They also appear at odds with council, as the city is actively fighting appeals by PSP Investments and others over the city’s policy of protecting employment lands.

“That is employment land and I hope it will continue to be,” Tory told reporters in 2018.

“I don’t accept the notion that every single piece of land without exception … should just be allocated because we decide we’re going to have condo towers and apartment buildings everywhere. We need places for people to work.”

The conversion of land designated for employment to allow the building of more lucrative residential developments as the city grows at an unprecedented pace has been a contentious issue since council approved updated policies to protect sites like Downsview in 2013.

The process for converting employment lands for other uses is a lengthy and difficult process, subject to a comprehensive review by the city.

In May 2018, PSP Investments announced it had entered into an agreement to buy the Bombardier lands — sandwiched in the northwest elbow of where Allen Rd. meets Wilson Ave. just north of Hwy 401 and accessible by Line 1 — with options to continue operations at the manufacturing facility for several years. In December, Bombardier said it planned to open its new plant at Pearson Airport in 2023.

Canada Lands Company, a Crown corporation that manages properties on behalf of the federal government, owns 230 additional hectares, including Downsview Park, and is responsible for plans to develop pockets for new residential, commercial and park space.

Eby, now executive vice-president of PSP’s Northcrest Developments, told the Star it believes that with the aerospace uses being vacated and recent transit improvements to the area there is “an opportunity to revisit the land use framework in this area.”

“As we explore this opportunity — and to be perfectly clear, we are at the beginning stages — we will be working closely with the local community and other stakeholders, including the City of Toronto,” he said in a statement, adding those discussions will be about how PSP can support “important public policy priorities,” including economic development and also increasing the supply of affordable

Peat, Tory’s spokesperson, said any formal application would go through all the regular city processes.

“City planning staff are working with PSP to determine the right mix for this site, consistent with city policy and other developments elsewhere,” he said.

Toronto’s chief planner Gregg Lintern told the Star that it remains the city’s goal to “protect and maintain employment areas.” But with an active appeal over the future of the Downsview site, he said “consideration of other land uses does occur.”

Coun. James Pasternak, who represents the area in his Ward 6 (York Centre) and is a member of Tory’s executive committee, said residential development is not in the cards.

“We already have enormous residential intensification under the Downsview Secondary Plan with neighbourhoods built in Stanley Green, and planned for William Baker and Allen District,” he said referring to the Canada Lands development plans. “That is all that is on the table right now. These lands have great potential as a transformational employment and light industrial zone.”

He said while he looks forward to public consultations and working with the owners, “the local community has been assured there would be no further intensification.”

Maria Augimeri, who previously represented the area, had warned that the land was being privately shopped around as having potential for housing, despite the employment area designation. She has advocated for increased park space.

“I’m very disappointed and suspicious of what the mayor’s office is really up to,” she told the Star Tuesday. “He should tell Downsview residents what he’s planning.”

Since 2013, when council approved policies by city planning staff to protect various employment lands, including at Downsview, developers have launched dozens of appeals of that decision at the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal — the quasi-judicial body made up of provincial appointees who have the final say on land planning disputes.

Earlier this year, tribunal adjudicator Gerald Swinkin agreed with key tenets of the city’s position on the broader policy issues and knocked down a common argument from developers.

“There is no evidence to support the view that there is a need to convert employment lands to non-employment uses to meet the land supply necessary to create the dwelling units that are necessary to accommodate the city’s forecast population growth,” he said.

That decision concluded just one phase of the appeals. Site-specific concerns, like those at the Downsview site, have yet to be adjudicated.

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Three pedestrians hit in Toronto as car breaks gas line, strikes building

TORONTO — Police say three people are in serious condition after being hit by a car in Toronto’s north end.

The vehicle then slammed into a building and gas line, causing a leak.

Officers say the crash happened just after 8 a.m. in North York.

The two men and one woman were rushed to hospital.

Roads in the area remain closed as crews repair the leak.

The driver stayed at the scene and police say an investigation continues.

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Toronto Maple Leafs @ Florida Panthers NHL Highlights 2/27/20

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Tough year for Torstar as revenue challenges continue

Torstar Corp., owner of the Toronto Star and other Canadian newspapers, announced its fourth-quarter results on Wednesday, posting a $51.9 million net loss for the year as operating revenues slid nearly 12 per cent amid declines in print and digital advertising.

Revenue from subscriptions provided the lone major source of revenue growth during the year, up one per cent, as digital revenue in the category increased while print decreased.

For the fourth quarter, the Toronto-based company posted a $14.1 million profit, boosted by one-time gains from changes to its pension plan and the sale of properties in Ontario, but it made clear that it faces a challenging operating environment in which print advertising, still its largest source of revenue, is declining and “global technology giants” dominate the digital advertising sphere.

Looking forward, the company said that harnessing “data as a key asset” to grow digital subscriptions is central to its business strategy. In a nod to the significance of the challenges ahead, Torstar flagged a new risk, warning it is in danger of being delisted from the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) as a result of thin trading of its shares.

“The TSX has broad discretion regarding delisting,” the company said in its earnings release. “If the TSX determines that we no longer meet the applicable listing requirements, including with respect to the public distribution or liquidity of the Class B non-voting shares, there is a risk that the TSX may delist them.”

Torstar’s shares, which fell 6.8 per cent to close at 41 cents on Wednesday afternoon, have lost 58 per cent of their value over the past year and are down 94 per cent over the past five years.

The company has made numerous attempts to reverse its fortunes since announcing it was selling its Harlequin book publishing company to News Corp. for $455 million in 2014.

In 2015, it paid roughly $200 million for a 56 per cent stake in VerticalScope Holdings Inc., a digital media company with 600 consumer enthusiast forums and content sites. VerticalScope posted an operating loss of $3.6 million in its most recent quarter and Torstar said revenues there “continued to be impacted by the ongoing transition of user forums to a new technology platform.”

Torstar also invested tens of millions of dollars in Star Touch, a tablet-only app that was launched in 2015 and scrapped in 2017 after it failed to attract as many readers as management had hoped.

If the TSX determines we no longer meet the listing requirements, including with respect to the public distribution or liquidity of the Class B non-voting shares, the TSX may delist them

This past December, one year after a rebranding effort that doubled the number of journalists at its StarMetro commuter daily newspapers, the company stopped their print editions and also announced voluntary buyouts for other editorial employees.

That came a few months after the company suspended its 2.5-cent quarterly dividend in an effort “to preserve cash and strengthen our financial position,” after posting a $40.9 million quarterly loss in October.

Suspending the dividend saved millions of dollars per year, but also started the clock on a potential shift in the company’s governance structure: There are about 10 million class A shares with voting rights, mostly held by families of the original owners through the Torstar Voting Trust, which is chaired by the company’s board chairman, John Honderich.

There are also about 71.5 million class B shareholders without voting rights, that are freely traded.

If the dividend is not paid out for eight consecutive quarters, the class B shareholders would gain voting rights.

Bob Hepburn, director of communications at Torstar, said the company is sticking to its plan to review its dividend policy before the end of 2020.

Torstar said restructuring in 2019 reduced 640 positions, which will result in $41.3 million in annualized cost savings.

The efforts tie into other cost-savings measures: It also transferred eight pension plans to the College of Applied Arts and Technology Pension Plans, which reduced its exposure to defined benefit pension liabilities and resulted in a $24.6 million gain in the fourth quarter.

Earlier this month, it announced a $25.5 million sale of the land and building used by the Hamilton Spectator newspaper, which followed a decision last year to close its print and mailroom operations there.

Lorenzo DeMarchi, chief financial officer of Torstar, said during the earnings call Wednesday that sale is expected to close in the first quarter of 2020.

“We continued to face a challenging print advertising market in 2019 resulting from ongoing shifts in spending by advertisers,” DeMarchi said. “Similar trends have continued early into 2020 and it is difficult to predict if these trends will worsen, improve or continue.”

Print advertising still accounted for 32 per cent of revenue, followed by print and digital subscriptions at 25 per cent, flyer distribution at 22 per cent, and digital advertising at 13 per cent.

Looking at all of 2019 compared to the previous year, print advertising declined 21 per cent to $155 million, digital advertising declined 8.1 per cent to $60.3 million, and flyer distribution revenue declined 11 per cent to $103.5 million. Print and digital subscriptions increased one per cent to $119.7 million, but the company did not separate them out.

Overall, operating revenue in 2019 declined 11.8 per cent to 479 million.
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Potentially deadly fentanyl batch leads to 12 overdoses at T.O. injection site

An alleged drug dealer faces charges after 12 people overdosed on a potentially lethal batch of fentanyl at a supervised injection site in the heart of the city.

Toronto Police say emergency crews were called to The Works — located at Yonge Dundas Square — on Wednesday evening after people started overdosing and couldn’t be resuscitated by naloxone, which can reverse an opioid overdose.

There are currently no fatalities.

“Of particular interest is the fact that despite being administered naloxone, none of the individuals recovered in a way that is typical for a fentanyl overdose,” Supt. Steve Watts, who heads up the Organized Crime Enforcement, said Thursday at police headquarters.

“This leads us to believe that the substance distributed was a mixture of fentanyl and another undetermined substance.”

A sample of the drug has been sent to Health Canada to be analyzed.

A man was arrested for trafficking the drugs soon after police arrived on site.

Whanny Mymuller, 38, is charged with two counts of possession for the purpose of trafficking and possession of proceeds of crime.

“While we arrested one alleged drug dealer, there is the possibility that there are further batches of this substance remaining on our streets,” Watts said.

“As we have stated on numerous occasions, purchasing and ingesting street drugs is truly a form of Russian roulette,” he said. “The risk of public safety ingesting street drugs is critically high.”

Watts said many more people could have overdosed if police weren’t quick to react.

Unlike other jurisdictions, he said Toronto has no safe zone at supervised injection sites.

“We will enforce right up to the doorway and that needs to be done in light of (Wednesday) night,” Watts said.

Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health Eileen de Villa issued a statement saying her office has shared information within the harm reduction community about the tainted local drug supply.

“The events that unfolded clearly demonstrate the need for supervised consumption services and the life-saving benefit they provide,”de Villa said.
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Killer drunk driver Marco Muzzo could be free in April

On April 28, drunk driving killer Marco Muzzo will make another bid for early release from the minimum-security prison where he’s serving his 10-year sentence for a crash that killed three children and their grandfather in 2015.

It’s hard to imagine the heir to a billion-dollar construction empire won’t be successful this second time around — not when he’ll have served almost half of his sentence.

As unfair as it may seem, that’s considered a long time for a first offender — even for a horrific crime we will never forget.

On that bright Sunday afternoon of Sept. 27, 2015, Muzzo had just flown home on a private jet from his bachelor party in Miami when he got into his Jeep and headed to King City with almost three times the legal limit of alcohol in his system.

His poor victims didn’t stand a chance.

Muzzo, 29 at the time, blew through a stop sign and T-boned a family minivan at the intersection of Kirby Rd. and Kipling Ave. — north of Kleinburg — killing driver Gary Neville, 65, and grandchildren Daniel Neville-Lake, 9, brother Harrison, 5, and sister Milagros, 2.

The children’s mother, Jennifer Neville-Lake, had to learn her entire world had just been destroyed when she saw her van’s twisted metal on the news.

To his credit, Muzzo never tried to evade responsibility or even seek bail. He pleaded guilty and didn’t appeal his 10-year jail term, believed to be the stiffest on record for impaired driving causing death.

So how much time is enough time?

Whatever it is, it’s certainly not the scant three years that he had served when Muzzo first applied for day and full parole in November 2018.

The board took just 20 minutes to deny his release. No one questioned Muzzo’s remorse but rather his lack of insight into his issues with alcohol.

Insisting the tragedy was an isolated incident and he didn’t need alcohol counselling, Muzzo then stunned the parole hearing when he said he’d need to consume eight or nine drinks before considering himself too impaired to drive.

And for the first time, Muzzo had disclosed that three years before the crash, he’d been jailed briefly for public intoxication after being denied entry to a Vaughan strip club: When arrested, he was “belligerent and rude” to police and tried to kick out the cruiser windows.

No, he still didn’t get it.

“It would seem you were trying to present yourself as a modest and responsible drinker who had simply made a terrible mistake on the day of the fatal decision,” the two-member panel said in its written decision.

“In the board’s view, you intentionally failed to disclose key information as you were hoping to paint yourself in a better light. In reality, you were simply impeding the progress you might have otherwise made.”

Muzzo isn’t likely to make that mistake again come April. A year and a half will have passed since he was last before the parole board and you can be sure he’s been doing all the alcohol abuse counselling he can find.

Not surprisingly, Neville-Lake believes he’s yet to pay his debt to society.

On her Facebook page, she’s asked her many supporters to write the parole board to oppose Muzzo’s release: “I am asking if you would share your stories with the Parole Board and Corrections Canada about how my family’s chapter in impaired driving has affected and changed you,” she wrote. “Please tell them if you are afraid of what the offender represents or may do if he is released and comes back into your community.”

An online petition opposing Muzzo’s parole has garnered more than 27,000 signatures.

But Muzzo has been eligible for full parole since May 2019. Assuming he’s now done the necessary counselling and can convince the parole board that he now has insight into his problems that he didn’t have before, there’s little chance he won’t be set free.

He will get his second chance. While the mother and daughter of his victims will not.

As Neville-Lake wrote in her heartbreaking victim impact statement at his first hearing:  “I don’t get parole from this life sentence of misery and despair.”
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Victoria Smith said she was defrauded by Shaun Rootenberg

A romance con-artist deserves at least six years in prison for defrauding a woman of hundreds of thousands of dollars, leaving her feeling broken and suicidal, his sentencing hearing was told Monday.

In a victim impact statement read through the prosecutor, Victoria Smith said Shaun Rootenberg engaged in an elaborate plan of deception while he romanced her and another woman at the same time.

“I feel like I was raped by Shaun over the course of a year and a half,” Smith said in her statement. “My life story has been written by a villain.”

Superior Court Justice Beth Allen had convicted Rootenberg, of Thornhill, Ont., of defrauding Smith, despite his contention that frequent strip searches in detention had violated his rights and that the judge was biased.

Prosecutor Mitchell Flagg urged Allen to sentence Rootenberg, alias Shaun Rothberg, to between six and seven years in prison. He also called for him to pay Smith $622,000 in restitution.

“Mr. Rootenberg ruined a woman’s life, not just financially but emotionally and psychologically,” Flagg said. “He just keeps offending.”

Flagg said a greed-driven and remorseless Rootenberg had previously scammed close friends and family. He’d been convicted for multiple frauds, including one involving his psychiatrist brother worth $1.2 million, court heard.

The Smith scam came shortly after Rootenberg had finished serving a four-year penitentiary term for a 2009 conviction. It was, Flagg said, not a commercial transaction gone sour.

“This misuse of her money ... was not some kind of error in judgment,” Flagg said. “Mr. Rootenberg took every last dollar this woman had.”

Defence lawyer Bryan Badali denied the fraud was sophisticated and complex. It involved only one victim, who failed to do due diligence before handing over her cash, the lawyer said.

“Ms. Smith, as Your Honour found, failed to protect herself,” Badali said. “(But) I’m not saying she should be blamed for it.”

Badali submitted letters supportive of the father of two in calling for a sentence of three and a half to four years for his client, who still insists he’s innocent, and a fine or restitution of $558,907.25.

Smith, a divorced mother of two, met Rootenberg on the e-Harmony dating site in July 2013. Believing him to be a financier, she would soon give him $595,000 to invest for her. Instead, Rootenberg bought himself a new BMW and paid off gambling debts.

Smith, who initially believed she was involved with a Shaun Rothberg, complained to police about 18 months after meeting him, when she accidentally discovered his real identity.

“I received a shock that changed me forever,” Smith said in her statement. “I was in a relationship with a man that had been lying to me and stolen my life savings.”

Smith said she suffered a nervous breakdown, almost succeeded in killing herself, and still has unrelenting anxiety and difficulty trusting anyone.

Rootenberg, she also said, was having unprotected sex with her while also sleeping with another woman.

Toronto police initially charged the repeat offender with defrauding a second woman, Dr. Kim Barker, but those charges were dropped.

Barker resigned under a cloud as medical officer of health for the Algoma Public Health Unit in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., in 2015 after her affair with Rootenberg became known. She had hired him as Shaun Rothberg, to be interim chief financial officer of the unit.

Recently disclosed documents show Barker, who says he preyed on her vulnerability as a legally blind woman, hid her close personal relationship with Rootenberg from the health unit board.

On the stand briefly on Monday, Rootenberg told court that frequent lockdowns in pretrial detention and issues with disclosure had hampered his ability to defend himself properly.

Allen reserved her sentencing decision.
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Anaheim Ducks @ Toronto Maple Leafs February 7, 2020 NHL Game Highlights

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GTA home sales forecast to climb 10 per cent this year, January sales up 15.4 per cent

TORONTO -- The Toronto Regional Real Estate Board says January home sales were up 15.4 per cent from the same month last year, while it expects home sales for the year to rise about 10 per cent overall.

January saw 4,581 home sales, up from 3,968 last year, while the average sales price of $839,363 was up 12.3 per cent compared with a year earlier.

Looking ahead at the year as a whole, the real estate board is forecasting about 97,000 home sales, up from 87,825 last year.

It expects the average selling price to run at about $900,000 for the year, up nearly 10 per cent from the average of $819,319 last year as new listings are expected to be flat to down.

The board says both price and sales growth are likely to be concentrated in the semi-detached, townhouse and condo markets that are somewhat more affordable, but that the average price could rise further if detached home prices see a similar pace to other home types.

It says that many buyers have been affected by the mortgage stress test, pushing them to change expectations on home price, type or location, as well as to look to alternate lenders.
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Four students were in car that gunman opened fire on outside Cedarbrae Collegiate Institute

Police say that four students were unharmed after a gunman opened fire on a vehicle that they were seated in outside Cedarbrae Collegiate Institute on Wednesday afternoon.

Officers were called to the high school, in the Markham Road and Lawrence Avenue East area, at 1:11 p.m. for multiple reports of shots fired.

They arrived to find multiple shell casings in the school’s parking lot and other areas, with a vehicle parked there with several bullet holes in it.

“We were able to determine that there was four high schools students seated in that white Mitsubishi when a lone gunman approached them and fired into the vehicle,” Insp. Mandeep Mann told CP24 at the scene. “Thankfully and fortunately no one in that vehicle was struck by the gunfire.”

Police have described the suspect as a black male between the ages of 18 and 20. He is believed to be between five-foot-ten to 6-feet tall and has a slim build. He was wearing a black winter toque and a red sweatshirt and was last seen running from the scene in a southwesterly direction, according to police.

On Wednesday afternoon, The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) said the entire building was in full lockdown while police investigated this incident.

During a lockdown, all of the doors are secured and no one is allowed in or out of the building with the exception of police officers.

Seven other elementary schools were also placed in a hold and secure position due to the shooting.

“There is a heavy police presence searching the area for a suspect,” Const. Alex Li told CP24 earlier in the day. “Obviously it is concerning that it is in such close proximity to the school.”

Li confirmed members of the Emergency Task Force as well as canine units were called to the scene.

“I can understand that it is quite a hectic scene and there are concerned parents but please do not attend the school,” Li added.
“Please pay attention to the updates from the school. The school will be updating through their social media accounts.”

Shortly before 3:30 p.m., police confirmed that the lockdown at the school had been lifted.

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Toronto photo radar cameras have been disappearing from streets

They cost about $50K and weigh over 360 kg, but 4 of these cameras have been stolen.

City officials say they're frustrated after four of Toronto's photo radar cameras were stolen and another vandalized before they could issue a single ticket.

The "automated speed enforcement" cameras are among 50 placed in wards around the city as part of the Vision Zero program that aims to eliminate fatalities and serious injuries on city streets.

But now, Toronto police are investigating after someone managed to steal a handful of the over 360-kilogram machines that are set up to record license plates and mail out tickets to speeders across the city.

"We condemn it," city spokesperson Brad Ross told the News.

"You're removing a tool to help, you're potentially removing or getting in the way of an opportunity to save a life."

Speed is a factor in approximately one third of all serious injuries and fatalities in Toronto, Ross said. The cameras are part of a multi-pronged effort to bring those incidents down to zero — a plan that includes reducing speed limits, upping police enforcement and installing signs.

Last year, 42 pedestrians were killed on Toronto streets. Four have died so far this year.

The cameras are portable so that they can be moved around the city as needed. Each is worth approximately $50,000 each, but Ross says Torontonians won't be the ones footing the bill.

"The vendor is responsible for replacing them and they're doing that," he said. He said that stipulation was one of the terms of the contract the city signed when purchasing the cameras.

Two of the stolen cameras have already been replaced and another two will be installed early next month, the city says.

At the moment, there are two cameras in each ward collecting data and issuing warnings to the owners of vehicles that are found to be speeding.

Starting in April, the city will begin issuing fines to owners of vehicles caught speeding by the cameras.

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Anne Murray tried to buy the Toronto Maple Leafs in the 1980's

Yes, the Springhill, N.S.,-born songstress sought to buy the Toronto Maple Leafs from Harold Ballard, as part of group of investors, during the 1980s.

"Anyone who's ever read anything or knows anything about me knows that I'm the most avid hockey fan ever," the singer told CBC News in February 1985.

"I mean, I'm an avid sports fan, but hockey, in particular, has been my love for a long time."

At that point, the Murray-involved push for the Leafs had recently been reported on in the media and the Snowbird singer confirmed the figure surrounding the bid.

$40M for the frequently losing Leafs?

"Of course, now, I was only offering $40 million and Harold [Ballard] wants $100 million," she said, referring to the controversial Maple Leafs owner.

It was not a great time to be a Leafs fan at that point, as the team only won 20 games during the season that Murray was talking about her interest in the team. Some fans were even wearing custom-printed masks to games, signalling their embarrassment with the flailing franchise.

The Toronto Star had reported that the offer had first been made in 1983 and that Murray's group sought to buy the team, Maple Leaf Gardens, as well as the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

The paper also said the proposed offer had not been discussed by the board of Maple Leaf Gardens, suggesting it did not progress very far.

'Not once have they won'

Yet the story of Murray's Leafs bid made news when it was publicly disclosed and it came up again on CBC's Venture a couple of years later.

Host Patrick Watson gave viewers a brief overview of how the Ballard years had been for Leafs fans, when the Venture episode went to air in January 1987.

"Not once have they won the Stanley Cup since he took the reins and yet, seeming to defy many of the basic rules of good business, he's racked up the company's fattest profits ever," Watson said.

'Enjoyable conversations' ... but no deal

Venture interviewed Lyman MacInnis, a financial advisor who met with Ballard on the singer's behalf.

"We had a couple of very enjoyable breakfasts and we had some very enjoyable conversations about Anne Murray and to this day, I'm not too sure that Mr. Ballard realized that I was trying to buy the company from him," MacInnis told Venture.

The $40-million offer that the Murray group made may have been a bit low, even considering the Leafs' long struggles on the ice. Venture said Fortune magazine put the value of the team at $50 million and Watson said real estate experts believed Maple Leaf Gardens could fetch $60 million if put up for sale.
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Toronto puts plan to tax vacant homes on hold,

A proposed tax on vacant homes in Toronto will likely be delayed for at least another year after the concept was found to be in need of more investigation during the city's 2020 budget discussions.

On Tuesday, Coun. Brad Bradford asked the city's chief financial officer to complete a report on the proposal by the second quarter of 2020, after the city's upcoming budget has been set.

"We do need a made in Toronto solution. [The] context, challenges and the pressures facing our city are unique," said Bradford, who represents Ward 19, Beaches-East York.

"They're going to need to take some time to make sure that we get it right."

A vacant-home tax is designed to increase a city's supply of rental homes by penalizing the owners of properties that are not being fully used, thus encouraging them to make the properties available for rent.

Toronto's budget committee approved Bradford's motion on Tuesday to more closely examine the implications and challenges of a vacancy tax.

Ana Bailao, Toronto's chair of planning and housing, has also voiced her support for the tax.

Other cities have grappled with how to administer the tax, how to reliably identify vacant homes and how onerous the tax rate should be.

There are also questions about the efficacy of the tax itself, and whether or not the concept actually increases a city's rental supply.

In Vancouver, where a similar tax was introduced in 2018, property owners are taxed 1.25 per cent of the assessed value of their property if it isn't their principal residence or if it is not rented for at least six months per year.

"There is data to show the supply of rental properties has improved," said Toronto's chief financial officer Heather Taylor during Tuesday's budget meeting. "However they're in a price category that might not be deemed affordable."

Vancouver's tax generated close to $40 million last year, though Bradford said the tax should not be viewed as a source of revenue, but instead as a policy to increase supply on the rental market.

Lessons from Vancouver

Critics of the tax say it has mostly resulted in high-end properties being made available for rent, since the people who can afford to keep a property vacant often own expensive homes.

"They're definitely not affordable by any means, but people have been forced to rent them out," said Cameron Fazli, a residential rental property manager in Vancouver.

"It has created a lot of inconvenience for a lot of people who own property."

Even proponents of the tax concede that it disproportionately frees up high-end properties. Still, they argue that enough affordable units enter the rental market to make the system worthwhile.

"I think it's definitely a good idea; it's a step in the right direction," said Raza Mirza, a member of the advocacy group Housing Action for Local Taxpayers Vancouver.

He added that a vacancy tax should be part of a larger housing plan.

Mirza also said Toronto could improve on Vancouver's introduction of the tax by more firmly establishing how many vacant units currently exist and measuring how many enter the rental market after a tax is introduced.

Unlocking homes that are 'built and ready to go'

Von Palmer, chief communications and government affairs officer at the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, said the city should instead give developers incentives to build new rental properties.

He also noted that determining if a home is vacant can be difficult, and in some cases, potentially infringe on privacy laws.

"There are better ways to bring on more rental supply," he told CBC Toronto.

Bradford's motion calls on the city to examine the vacancy tax in relation to other initiatives that could boost the rental supply.

He said he would wait on the full staff report before committing to the idea, though he expects the tax to be an effective aspect of the city's overall mission to create more affordable rental housing.

"When we look at the Vancouver experience that they've just been through in implementing it there's certainly lessons that we can take from that," Bradford said.

"The nice thing about this is that these are rental units that are, for the most part, built and ready to go."

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Toronto cops find submachine gun in Elvis Iniguez's bedroom, but charges dropped

Charges against a man who had an Uzi submachine gun in his bedroom have been dropped because Toronto police officers took a shortcut to searching his house when their long night shift was almost over.

It was 6:53 a.m. on Sept. 11, 2017, when officers Ben Caunter and Scott Rogers arrived at Elvis Iniguez’s home and knocked on the door. It was seven minutes before the scheduled end of the last of a week of overnight shifts.

The two officers had been there earlier in the night as well, when Iniguez called 911 asking for assistance. His girlfriend was chasing him around smashing plants at his house, he complained.

When the two officers arrived that first time, Iniguez was outside his house and appeared calm and sober but a woman was visibly agitated. She seemed intoxicated and was shouting, swearing and calling Iniguez names, court heard.

He didn’t want her charged, he told the officers, just out of his house.

The woman asked to gather her things and change her clothes before leaving. With everyone’s agreement she went upstairs alone. The officers then drove her to a friend’s house.

About 30 minutes later, the woman called police.

She said she had seen an Uzi in a bedroom inside Iniguez’s home and ammunition magazines in a Goodlife fitness club bag on the left side of the bed in another bedroom.

The two officers were skeptical. After consulting detectives, they decided the circumstances wouldn’t amount to grounds for a judicial search warrant but also didn’t want to ignore a gun report. Without a warrant, the only option was to ask Iniguez to consent to a search of his house.

When the officers returned and knocked on Iniguez’s door, they did not bring a consent form with them, a printed sheet advising a person of their rights that someone signs before police do a consent search. The form says the person has the right to contact a lawyer and the right to refuse the search.

Iniguez was woken by the knocking and answered the door dressed in a T-shirt and underwear.

The account of what happened next differs considerably.

The officers told court they spoke with Iniguez on the porch and inside his foyer. They told him of a report that he had an Uzi in a bedroom. The officers could not recall the specific words of their interaction, court heard, but understood Iniguez gave permission for them to look around.

He wasn’t told he could refuse the search, or that he could speak with a lawyer about it. Nor was he warned of the potential jeopardy he could face from the search, the officers agreed. It never occurred to them because they didn’t believe they would find a gun and would soon be on their way home.

Upstairs, Caunter found a Goodlife fitness bag containing ammunition magazines. Rogers said he asked Iniguez where the gun was and was directed to another bedroom closet. Inside a bag, Rogers found an Uzi, more magazines and a single bullet.

According to the officers, Iniguez said he had the gun for years and didn’t know what to do with it. Iniguez was arrested upstairs and handcuffed, they said.

Iniguez, however, told court things went differently.

He said the officers burst through the door when he reached to open it, pushed him up against a wall, pointed a gun at his head and shouted: “Where is the f—king gun?” He said he was cuffed immediately and taken upstairs.

He said he never gave consent for a search and told them the gun wasn’t his.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Heather McArthur found inconsistencies in everyone’s testimony.

She found it improbable that the officers immediately shoved a gun in his face when he had been so polite with them just hours before and the officers didn’t even believe they would find a gun.

She rejected his evidence but that didn’t mean she accepted the police version.

“Both officers have vague and unclear memories with respect to what was said to or by Mr. Iniguez before they entered his home, and before they searched for the gun,” McArthur said in her ruling, published Monday.

Without evidence of consent, the search was deemed unreasonable and a violation of Iniguez’s Charter rights.

“The conduct of the officers in this case falls towards the more serious end of the spectrum,” McArthur said. “Mr. Iniguez had a high expectation of privacy in his home.”

Caunter had been a police officer for about 17 years at the time; Rogers for almost seven. They should have known better, she said.

“In my view, the officers’ failure to turn their minds to the requirements for a consent search is not inadvertence but more akin to negligence or willful blindness.

“They were anxious to book off-shift and thought it would be ‘quick.’

“It seems clear that the officers decided that finishing their night-shift on time was more important than ensuring that Mr. Iniguez’s constitutional rights were respected,” she said in her ruling.

The evidence found during the search was excluded from trial, leading to Iniguez’s acquittal, said Roots Gadhia, his lawyer.

“A man’s home is his castle,” Gadhia said.

“It’s the one thing that protects us from the state, that our home won’t be invaded by police without them doing everything to make sure they are acting within the boundaries of their power,” Gadhia said.

Toronto police are aware of the court ruling.

“We can confirm the findings have been passed on to our Professional Standards Unit and will be reviewed,” said Connie Osborne, a spokeswoman from Toronto police.
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Jalen Colley, 21, Joshua Gibson-Skeir, 20, and Tyronne Noseworthy, 19 dead in Toronto Airbnb shooting

Toronto police announced on Tuesday that a deadly shooting at a downtown Airbnb was likely a murder-suicide.

The violent incident that has shocked many in the city left three dead and two wounded.

The victims have been identified as Jalen Colley, 21, and Joshua Gibson-Skeir, 20, who police say lived in Brampton but CBC News has confirmed hailed from Nova Scotia, and Tyronne Noseworthy, 19, of Toronto.

Police still aren't saying who opened fire first or who died by suicide.

"While it will be weeks before a complete narrative of the incident can be determined, given the investigative work that continues, initial evidence does indicate that two men were murdered and one man died by suicide," said Const. Alex Li in an email statement.

"We are not yet in a position to confirm or deny any other aspect of the ongoing investigation."

Late Monday, police released the cause of death of the three young men. Colley died of a gunshot wound to his throat, Gibson-Skeir died of a gunshot wound to his abdomen and Noseworthy died of gunshot wound to his head.

Two of the victims are considered to be Toronto's seventh and eighth homicide victims of the year.

Preliminary autopsies done on Monday

Preliminary autopsies were done on Monday and the results were received the same day.

Police said in the release that the investigation is ongoing. No other details about the victims have been released. Police have not released a photo of Gibson-Skeir.

On Friday at about 10:20 p.m., police were called to 85 Queens Wharf Rd. for reports of a shooting.

The shooting happened in a unit on the 32nd floor of a condo on Queens Wharf Road, near Bathurst Street and Fort York Boulevard, before spilling into the hallway.

Two of the men were pronounced dead at the scene, a third in hospital. A fourth man, 20, was taken to hospital with serious injuries. A fifth sustained a minor cut and is cooperating with police.

Police have said there are no outstanding suspects. "Preliminary investigation indicates that the shooters involved are now deceased," police said in a release on Saturday.

Police have not revealed what they think is the motive for the shooting or the sequence of events that led up to it.

Two firearms have been recovered from the condo building.

In an interview with Toronto's CP24 on Monday night, Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders said the incident began at a birthday party.

Anyone who was in the area at the time or who has relevant information is urged to call police at 416-808-7400, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).
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Torstar Corp. selling Hamilton Spectator building, land for $25.5 million

TORONTO — Torstar Corp. has signed a deal to sell the land and building used by the Hamilton Spectator newspaper for $25.5 million.

The sale follows a move by Torstar last spring to close its Hamilton printing and mailroom operations.

Torstar said last year that if the property was sold it expected the Spectator will continue to operate a head office in a new location in the Hamilton area.

The sale is subject to customary closing conditions and adjustments and is expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year.

Torstar publishes the Toronto Star as well as six regional daily newspapers in Ontario, including the Spectator, and more than 80 weekly community newspapers in Ontario.

Torstar holds an investment in The Canadian Press as part of a joint agreement with subsidiaries of the Globe and Mail and Montreal's La Presse.
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Toronto condo to limit short-term rentals after triple homicide inside Airbnb

TORONTO -- A condo in downtown Toronto that was the scene of a fatal shooting Friday night is planning to end short-rentals at the building as city regulations around the rentals face an appeal.

Three men were killed and two other people were wounded following a shooting inside the downtown condo building in the area of 85 Queens Wharf Rd., located near Lake Shore Boulevard and Bathurst Street, shortly before 10:30 p.m.

Toronto police stated that the incident started inside a 32nd floor unit that was being rented through Airbnb, and that the men who were shot were at the unit for a party.

“There was a party, it was an Airbnb party but we don’t know what led up to the shooting,” Acting Det.-Sgt. Henri Marsman told reporter Saturday.

Toronto media spoke with at least a dozen owners, tenants and short term rental guests at the building on Saturday, many of which said the building has several short-term rental suites, and talked about seeing parties frequently.

In an email to residents, obtained by the media, the property management wrote that changes are coming in relation to short-term rentals at the building.

 “We have many owners that are in favour of short-term rentals as well as many against,” the note stated. “In light of this incident and the increasing violence throughout the city, we will be drafting and sending out a new rule that will limit the renting any unit less than three months.”

After the shooting, a spokesperson for Airbnb said in an email statement to the media that it banned the booking guest.

“We have zero tolerance for this type of behaviour, and we ban both party houses and unauthorized parties on our platform,” the statement stated.

This is not the first time in Toronto where there has been violence at a short-term rental unit.

In August, a man was shot at a luxury Airbnb property in the Bridle Path neighbourhood.

In January 2019, police investigated a shooting at a short term rental in the same building where the triple homicide Friday night took place.

In 2017, the city passed regulations permitting short-term rentals, which are any rental that is less than 28 consecutive days long, across the city only in principal residences, but the regulation is facing a road block.

 “The short-term rental zoning bylaw amendments are now in force pending resolution of a legal challenge following an appeal of City Council’s bylaw around short-term rentals across the city in principal residences. Within their principal residence, people can rent up to three rooms or their entire home,” said City of Toronto spokesperson Brad Ross in an email.

Thorben Wieditz, a spokesperson for Fairbnb, which has been working for years to stop “ghost hotels,” said the city’s rules help prevent “investment condos.”

“So hosts … can register with the city and receive a short rental permit that shows [they] are actually renting out [their] principal residence and not some investment condo,” Wieditz told the media Saturday afternoon.

Councillor Joe Cressy told reporters the regulations passed two years ago are being appealed which means the city can’t enforce the rules, but he said the city wants short-term rentals to follow the rules anyway.

“Work with the city, abide by our rules today and let’s stop with these ghost hotels and these party suites,” he said.

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