Toronto hotels closed to the public, open only to migrants and homeless

Two “Refugee Hotels” in Toronto were supposed to be temporary shelters, but instead, they’re now closed to the public and exclusively used by asylum claimants and homeless

he Toronto Plaza Hotel in North York is still housing upwards of 500 refugee claimants and homeless people, despite reports from September 2018  stating the municipal and federal governments were planning to end the stays of homeless and asylum seekers at hotels last year.

In addition, True North has confirmed North York’s Radisson Hotel Toronto East is now closed to customers due to “renovations,” according to an employee at the front desk. The hotel is still housing refugee claimants. (No reservation times are currently available for the hotel on travel websites Expedia.ca and Booking.com.) 

This hotel made headlines last year and was dubbed the “refugee hotel” by regular guests; many leaving negative reviews online because of the hundreds of asylum seekers living there over the past two years, which guests were unaware of when booking.

News reports from November 2018 stated that over 570 refugee claimants were living at that Radisson location, taking up 146 out of the 240 rooms available.

City of Toronto officials did not immediately respond to direct questions about the current situation of the two hotels.

They did, however, provide general information from the City of Toronto website. It’s unclear how many asylum seekers are staying at the Radisson in North York, how long the City plans to house those without shelter in these two hotels, or how much it’s costing the City to pay for all of the rooms.

City officials estimate the added cost over the past two years was $64.5 million, due to the spike in asylum seekers coming to Toronto.

The Toronto Plaza Hotel in North York, a 199-room hotel near the connection of Highways 400 and 401, still had full occupancy of asylum seekers and homeless as of Thursday night. The CBC reported in November that the City of Toronto had submitted an offer to buy the rundown Plaza (35 rooms were closed for mould problems), to help house the city’s homeless and migrant populations.

Hours after the CBC report was released, however, the City backed out of being a prospective buyer. The City is paying a discounted rate of around $50 per room per night, as well as food costs, according to the CBC report.

Occupants of the Plaza Hotel have their rooms cleaned regularly by hotel cleaning staff, individuals staying at the hotel told True North.

Several of people outside the Plaza Hotel said the majority of the occupants are refugee claimants, most coming from Nigeria. There are also noticeable populations of Mexican and Middle Eastern asylum seekers at the hotel.

“Though we have seen recent monthly irregular migration numbers at their lowest since 2017, we acknowledge and appreciate the significant role that officials across Toronto have played in providing temporary shelter to asylum claimants,” says Minister of Border Security Bill Blair’s spokesperson Marie-Emmanuelle Cadieux.

Although Ottawa-based news outlet Blacklock’s Reporter reported the Department of Immigration said this week the total number of migrants that were intercepted by RCMP last year dropped from 20,593 in 2017 to 19,419 last year, the total number of people entering Canada to claim asylum still rose in 2018.

In 2017, 50,390 entered Canada illegally and legally to file refugee claims.That number jumped to 55,695 in 2018, according to the federal government’s website.   

“While the federal government is no longer paying for hotel rooms, Minister Blair continues to engage with Mayor Tory and Minister MacLeod to discuss immediate housing pressures, all while ensuring the safety and security of our borders,” continued Cadieux.

Blair’s office declined to say whether the federal government will give additional funding on top of the $50 million initially promised by the Trudeau government to help Manitoba, Quebec and Ontario to offset costs associated with the influx of illegal border-crossers.

The provinces and major cities’ governments are claiming the costs they’ve incurred from the influx are much higher, at several hundred million dollars to date.

Inside the Plaza Hotel, which is mainly occupied by young families, kids are playing soccer in a foyer and other games with friends, while mothers tend to babies in strollers and swaddles. African music plays from one of the conference rooms adjoining the hallway.    

“The workers are really good here. They’re really nice and kind,” says one homeless woman who moved from Israel to Canada several years back. She has been living at the Plaza Hotel with her niece and two kids for the past two weeks, and is currently on the Ontario Disability Support Program. 

“I have my niece with me here. She’s young, eighteen,” says the the woman, describing an unwanted encounter between her niece and one of the migrant men staying at the hotel.

“So he seen her with me and he jumped on my car [and said], ‘I want to talk to you, what’s the name of your friend? I want to talk to her, can you give me her number?’”

“Another guy, from Nigeria, he followed me from here [in front of the building], up to my [hotel room] door. He want to talk to me and I said, ‘No.’ ‘Give me your phone number,’ [he said.] I said, ‘No. I’m saying no.’ And I just walked away.”

“I was scared of him but I didn’t show him fear. As long as you keep away from people, you have no problems. I’m very careful. Most of the guys are nice.”

She also says the City of Toronto is pushing people to find a place, but that people are having trouble finding affordable, safe housing.

“People cannot live in a place like this,” she said about migrants looking for prospective apartments in Toronto. “Especially when you are new, and you don’t know people, and it’s a very criminal neighbourhood and the building is scary and smelly,” she said.

A man outside of the hotel said he, his wife and four children travelled from Afghanistan to America and then crossed the border into Canada where they were arrested and applied for refugee status.

“I love Canada,” he said in an interview in front of the hotel. “My situation was not good in Afghanistan… I worried about my children.”

  

A 25-year-old woman from the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent, living at the Plaza Hotel since September, described the hardships she has faced so far in Canada.

After coming to Canada because her father already lives here, she is now homeless and unable to find work. Her family kicked her out of the house because she does not get along with her stepmother.

When asked if she illegally crossed into Canada from the American border, she gave an unusual response.

“I wish I did,” she said without skipping a beat. She seemed to think she would have received better treatment had she come into Canada illegally.

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Toronto's Danforth shooter was political, religious and possessed a stockpile of illegal guns

Remember when the left-wing Toronto media immediately ruled out terrorism after the Danforth attack?

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, and later claimed the Danforth attack was one of their greatest accomplishments of 2018. Meanwhile, theToronto Sun’s Joe Warmington reported that Toronto Police were investigating the shooter’s online activity (including visiting ISIS websites) and his recent trip to Pakistan — a terrorist training hotbed. Warmington also reported that police believed the shooter was an experienced gunman who had received training.

Instead of factoring this information into their coverage, the groupthink media completely ignored reports from the Toronto Sun.

Some left-wing journalists condemned anyone who dared to suggest that the Muslim shooter who attended a fundamentalist Islamist mosque may have been inspired by ISIS or jihadist terrorism.

Instead, the mainstream media insisted that the Danforth shooter was some kind of victim worthy of our empathy and forgiveness.

After the harrowing attack that killed 10-year-old Julianna Kozis and 18-year-old Reese Fallon and injured 13 others, the mainstream media decided to focus on the shooter. They painted him as a victim.

With a straight face, Toronto journalists reported that the shooter had a “million dollar smile” and insisted that his deadly rampage was motivated simply by mental illness.

When Sun writer and True North fellow Anthony Furey unveiled the bombshell that the family’s statement (which blamed the shooter on “mental illness”) was written by a publicist with ties to the NDP and ties to organizations linked to radical Islam, the mainstream media didn’t flinch.

They continued to push the narrative that the shooter was a victim.

Instead of directing their scorn and outrage at the deranged shooter who stole innocent lives and terrorized a popular neighbourhood in Toronto, countless journalists directed that hate and anger at my colleagues and I at the Toronto Sun.

They accused us of “Hate-Mongering,” “Conspiracy Theories” and pushing a “Bigoted Narrative”

Well, a new report from the Toronto Police destroys the left-wing media’s narrative.

Previously redacted documents from the Toronto Police released to Global News on Tuesday reveal what was found in the killer’s bedroom after his evil rampage.

This is what we learned from the newly unsealed search warrant:

    The shooter had a stockpile of weapons, including: “two fully loaded AK-47 magazines, two loaded 9 mm magazines, two loaded drum magazines, three fully loaded extended magazines, and additional types of shotgun ammunition.”
    Police found a collection of DVDs focused on the Iraq war and 9/11 conspiracy theories, mostly produced by the kooky conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. According to Global News, who first reported on this unsealed police warrant, “Conspiracies about the 9/11 attacks, which were orchestrated by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organization, also persist in the Arab world and countries such as Iran.”
    Police found receipts for $9,300 in cash payments sent to a Pakistani Mosque, for “membership fees” and a “mosque fund.”

So much for the idea he was a “lone wolf,” “not political” and “not religious.”

This police report gets us one step closer to the finding the truth when it comes to the Danforth terrorist attack.

It vindicates my colleagues and I at the Toronto Sun and reminds all Canadians that we can no longer trust a mainstream media who have caught red-handed pushing fake news and a made-up narrative.

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Hundreds of victims, millions of dollars stolen in Toronto taxi card scam

Imagine popping your debit or credit card into an ATM the day after taking a cab ride, not being able to withdraw cash and then realizing it’s because the card you’re trying to use is not your own.

Toronto Police allege that’s exactly what has been happening in the city for more than a year to hundreds of unsuspecting victims who have lost millions of dollars.

And an ongoing fraud investigation into the taxi fare scam has so far led to the arrests of six people on more than 260 charges.

“We’re in the millions of a loss when you put them all together,” Det.-Const. Kristin Thomas said Thursday of the cash defrauded from passengers after riding in cabs belonging to several of the city’s licensed taxi companies.

Cabbies have allegedly been handing passengers an altered point-of-sale machine and when the customer tries to pay the fare, they are met with an “error” or “problem” message when entering their PIN.

“The transaction would not process properly and the driver would ask for the machine back to rectify the problem,” Thomas said, alleging the cabbie then removes the customer’s card and surreptitiously replaces it with another card from the same bank.

After completing what they believe is a “proper transaction,” the customer removes the “switched” card and exits the taxi.

Thomas claims the taxi driver would then head to a bank associated with the customer’s card and use it in an ATM along with the PIN captured by the point-of-sale machine.

“The customer’s funds (were) depleted from their accounts fraudulently,” she alleged, adding passengers have no idea they have been victimized until they are notified by their bank or they try to use the swapped card.

Police executed search warrants at three addresses on Dec. 19, 2018, and allegedly seized a point-of-sale machine, financial documents, mail and personal banking information relating to the identity theft victims.

Four men, a woman, and a boy were arrested.

Charged are Toronto residents Alex Ghakhar, 22, Adam Ghakhar 22, Mohammad Sarwar, 25, Tracy Begley, 48, John Alexander Mackenzie, 24, and a 16-year-old boy who can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

The accused faces a slew of charges such as fraud over $5,000, fraud under $5,000, identity theft, unauthorized use of debit or credit card information, possession of property obtained by crime and possession of proceeds obtained by crime.

Thomas said the accused are all known to each other, but she provided no further details on the relationships between them.

While she did not identify the cab companies that employed the suspected fraudsters, Thomas did say the taxi providers have been co-operating with investigators.

She cautioned that the alleged taxi fare scam remains “very active” in the GTA and police receive reports that fit the pattern several times a week.

Thomas warned taxi riders to protect their financial information.

“Keep your eyes on your debit card or visa at all times,” she said.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 416-808-5500 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).
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19 charged in Toronto GTA drug bust Project Vickery

A major drug bust this week seized more than $2.1 million worth of drugs and cash and saw 19 people arrested in the GTA.

Multiple search warrants were executed Wednesday as part of Project Vickery — a collaboration between the Durham Regional Police and the RCMP —which has been targeting drug traffickers since the fall of 2018.

Search warrants were executed at 15 residences in Durham, Toronto, Peel Region and Kingston. All the arrests occurred without incident and there were no injuries, Durham cops say.

Investigators seized more than $600,000 in cash, four firearms and five vehicles as proceeds of crime, and $1.5 million in drugs which included fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin.

The 19 people arrested are facing more than 148 charges. Police said their names will be released at a later date.

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Man dead, woman critical in separate hit-runs in Toronto

A man is dead and a woman is in hospital with life-threatening injuries after two separate hit-and-runs in Toronto on Thursday evening.

In the fatal incident, Toronto Police say a man was crossing at Bathurst and Lennox Sts., south of Bloor St. W., around 9:20 p.m. when he fell onto the roadway and was run over by what witnesses described as a large green commercial vehicle, possibly a garbage truck, that was turning right from Lennox to go south on Bathurst.

Police say it’s possible the driver is unaware they hit anyone. Police are working to identify the victim.

About two hours earlier, around 7 p.m., a 67-year-old woman crossing Patterson Ave. on the north side of Danforth Rd. when a black SUV going northeast on Danforth struck her in the crosswalk while turning left onto Patterson. The vehicle, which police say likely has damage to its front left corner, then fled.

Meanwhile, police are requesting help finding family or friends of a woman who was killed by a garbage truck earlier this week.

On Tuesday around 6 a.m., a woman in a laneway at 155 University Ave., near Adelaide St., was struck by a reversing garbage truck driven by a 19-year-old man. She died at the scene.

Police say they have been unable to reach her next of kin, so on Friday they released her name, Hang Vo, 58, in hopes someone who knows her will come forward. Police say she frequented homeless shelters in the city.

Anyone with information on any of the cases is asked to call police at 416-808-1900 or Crime Stoppers.

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Video released in brutal New Year's Day beating of Toronto lawyer

Startling new video has been released in an effort to identify two men responsible for a horrific downtown attack on New Year’s Day that left a lawyer in a coma until recently.

Toronto Police say the victim, David Shellnutt, was walking on Queen St. W., just west of Bathurst St., with a woman — reportedly his girlfriend — around 12:30 a.m. on Jan. 1 when the assault unfolded and was captured by a nearby security camera.

A “verbal interaction” occurred between Shellnutt, the woman and the occupants of a blue Dodge Charger, Det. Scott Allan, of 14 Division, said Thursday, adding the men in the car may have made “a lewd remark” to the woman.

As the car stopped at a nearby red light moments later, Shellnutt is seen in the video grabbing a bag of garbage from a trash pile on the sidewalk and tossing it in the direction of the Charger.

Allan said two passengers exited the vehicle, rushed Shellnut and began a physical altercation.

During the assault, one man punches Shellnut in the head “causing him to go rigid and fall backwards onto the concrete,” he said. The victim struck his head on the sidewalk as he fell.

In the video, Shellnutt is clearly out cold as a second man punches him in the face.

Allan said the blow smashed Shellnutt’s head into the concrete yet again.

The assailants quickly jumped back into the Charger and the driver took off south on Bathurst St., then east on Adelaide St.

Shellnutt suffered a serious head injury and was rushed to the hospital in critical condition.

Still in hospital but now out of his coma and slowly recovering, the 36-year-old social-justice lawyer posted a message — with “some help” — earlier this week on a GoFundMe page set up by friends to ease his financial burden because he has no short-term or long-term disability benefits. 

“I am walking now but still in pain and intubated,” Shellnutt writes. “It is becoming clear that though I’m progressing well it will be a long road of recovery and rehabilitation.

“Your support of this campaign has made this path ahead of me that much smoother and reduced my stress significantly. It is, and will always be, impossible to say thank you enough,” he adds.

Allan said Shellnutt does not face charges for tossing the bag of garbage.

And he urged anyone who recognizes the assailants in the video to come forward and help police identify them.

One man is described as 25 to 35 years old, about 6-foot-1, with a medium build, dark brown hair worn in corn rows and a pencil beard. He wore a grey coat over a black hooded top, black pants or jeans with rips on the front of the legs, white socks and black running shoes with blue soles.

The second man is also thought to be 25 to 35 years old, about 5-foot-9, with a medium build, short dark brown receding hair, and a goatee and moustache. He wore prescription glasses, a black waist-length coat over a black hooded top, medium blue jeans with rips on the front of the legs and light blue or navy running shoes with white soles.

The vehicle police are looking for is believed to be a 2019 Dodge Charger SXT with an unknown Ontario licence plate.

The colour of the car, B5 blue, is “unique” and it may be a rental, Allan said.

Anyone with information with information is asked to call police at 416-808-1400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477).

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One person critically injured in shooting outside Highway 407 Station

A 21-year-old was critically injured when gunfire erupted in a TTC subway station parking lot in Vaughan late Tuesday.

York Regional Police say officers responded to a “weapons call” in the Highway 407 station parking lot — located at Hwy. 407 and Jane St. — just after 11 p.m.

“When officers arrived, they located a male victim who appeared to have been shot,” Const. Laura Nicolle said Wednesday.

She said the victim, a Toronto man, was transported to hospital with “serious injuries.”

“Anyone who may have witnessed this incident that has not spoken with investigators is asked to come forward,” Nicolle said.

“Investigators are also appealing to any nearby businesses or residences that may have video surveillance, or any drivers who may have dashcam footage, to please come forward.”

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 1-866-876-5423, ext. 7441, or call Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).

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Toronto road-rage encounter caught on video

A man received minor injuries after jumping on a moving car following some sort of road-rage incident downtown on Tuesday evening.

Video footage obtained by CTV News Toronto shows one man walking from a blue car towards a white car at about 9:45 p.m. in the area of Dundas St. E. and George St., near Sherbourne St.

“There was an altercation. The allegation is the driver (of the blue vehicle), not the car, was struck by the suspect (white) vehicle,” Toronto Police Const. David Hopkinson said Wednesday.

The driver of the blue vehicle jumped on the white vehicle in what appears to be an attempt to stop the car.

The jumper was carried on the hood of the white vehicle a short distance before falling off.

“The injuries were very minor. Scraps to both knees,” Hopkinson said.

The incident is being investigated as a possible fail-to-remain, he said.

Police are still looking into the incident.

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Toronto weapons cache, including loaded AK-47 magazines, found at home of Danforth shooter: police docs

Nearly six months after the Danforth shooting, newly unsealed search warrants show that police discovered a cache of automatic weapons ammunition — including fully loaded AK-47 magazines — in shooter Faisal Hussain’s bedroom.

The new details of the Danforth shooting investigation released Tuesday were previously redacted by the Crown and shed new light on the shooting that killed 18-year-old Reese Fallon and 10-year-old Julianna Kozis and injured 13 others.

The unsealed portions of the information to obtain orders (ITO) for Hussain’s home reveal that police found two fully loaded AK-47 magazines, two loaded 9 mm magazines, two loaded drum magazines, three fully loaded extended magazines, and additional types of shotgun ammunition.

Police believed the discovery of the ammunition indicated the presence of other types of firearms. To date, investigators have only said that a handgun was found at the scene.

    “It is reasonable to believe that when fully loaded magazines are located, there would be a firearm or firearms parts in the residence,” investigators said according to the search warrants. “Locating that firearm and ammunition would provide further evidence of planning and preparation of the offence.”

An empty gun box was also found in the bedroom, along with a long gun case, a number of cellphones and white powder that police suspected was cocaine.

Jooyoung Lee, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Toronto, said the AK-47 and its variants are part of a prohibited class of firearm in Canada and the ammunition may have come from the U.S.

“This suggests, at least from a bird’s eye view, that this individual may have gotten this ammunition from somebody who was smuggling ammunition and firearms from the United States,” said Lee. He also called for more long-term studies on where guns used in Canadian crimes originate from.

“Canada has this very unique challenge of enforcing firearm and ammunition regulations domestically because of its position next to several States where an AK-47 magazine and [the ammunition] is very easy to come by,” he said.

According to police, Hussain, 29, opened fire with a handgun in Toronto’s Danforth neighbourhood, a bustling area of bars and restaurants, on July 22. He shot himself in the head after exchanging gunfire with police.

Global News has previously reported that the handgun found at the scene was a .40-calibre Smith & Wesson stolen in Saskatchewan in 2016.
Conspiracy DVDs found

As police continued to search for a motive, the newly released details of the investigation show that police seized videos about Iraq and 9/11 conspiracy theories in Hussain’s bedroom.

The DVDs included films by American conspiracy theorist Alex Jones such as The Road to Tyranny, which promotes the claim of government involvement in Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. A popular right-wing conspiracist, Jones and his Infowars show were banned from Apple, Facebook and YouTube last year.

Other DVDs found in the apartment were titled Loose Change and 9/11 in Plain Site. Both also offer up discredited conspiracies about al-Qaida’s attacks on the United States.

The series of DVDs also included Terror Storm, Painful Deception, American Dictators, Iraq for Sale and Weapons of Mass Deception. A DVD with the handwritten title what is Islama was also found.

The types of documentaries police found are popular in the right-wing anti-authority movement, said Prof. Barbara Perry, a hate crimes expert at the University of Ontario Institution of Technology.

“That’s one of the common places where you’ll find these sorts of conspiracy theories,” she said.

Conspiracies about the 9/11 attacks, which were orchestrated by Osama bin Laden and his terrorist organization, also persist in the Arab world and countries such as Iran.

The search turned up two receipts for $9,300 for cash payments to the Abad Co-operative Housing Society in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. The receipts were labelled “mosque fund, membership fee, transfer, pillars and forms fees.”

The court documents add to the portrait of Hussain who police described as a troubled loner captivated by violence and explosions. They show that while Hussain had no criminal record, he had several run-ins with the law that included an arrest for shoplifting two days before the shooting. He was let go unconditionally.

Police were also called to Hussain’s apartment three times in 2010 to deal with an “emotionally disturbed person,” according to the documents.

The Toronto police and the province’s Special Investigations Unit are conducting separate investigations into the Danforth tragedy.

Neither has offered a timeline on when their work might be completed.

Toronto police did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new information and Monica Hudon, a spokeswoman for SIU, said their investigation was “ongoing.”

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Arson eyed in vehicle fire at Woodbine Racetrack in Rexdale on Friday January 11, 2019

A fire in the parking lot of Woodbine Racetrack early Friday is being investigated as a possible arson.

Emergency crews were called to the west parking lot at the track, located on Rexdale Blvd. in Etobicoke, shortly after midnight for reports of a vehicle on fire.

The blaze spread and Toronto Police say “over 10 cars (were) on fire” before it was extinguished by firefighters.
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Lingathasan Suntharamoorthy, 36 at 100 Dundalk Dr. in Toronto, 2 others hurt in three shootings

A woman’s frantic shrieks from a cellphone filled the eighth-floor hallway of a Scarborough highrise on Saturday.

About 12 hours earlier, Lingathasan Suntharamoorthy, 36, was gunned down inside his eighth-floor apartment at 100 Dundalk Dr. – near Kennedy Rd. and Hwy. 401 —- and his heartbroken sister was on the other end of phone hearing from a cousin that he may be dead.

“We don’t know if it is him or not, we are just waiting for confirmation by the police,” Rubin Ariaratnam said Saturday at the Kennedy Place apartment building.

The sister’s worst fear came to pass soon after when an officer knocked on her door, the cousin later explained.

On a night where gunman sprayed the city with bullets leaving one man dead and two wounded in three separate shootings in the span of a few hours, Toronto Police say officers responded to the Dundalk Dr. highrise around 11:50 p.m. and found a man suffering from multiple gunshot wounds.

The man, later identified by cops as Suntharamoorthy, was pronounced dead at the scene becoming the city’s fourth murder of 2019 – the fourth slain in six days.

“Officers attempted CPR, contacted EMS and Toronto Fire, who arrived on scene shortly thereafter,” Homicide Det. Robert North said Saturday at 41 Division. “Unfortunately, despite all the efforts of the officer’s and EMS the man succumbed to his injuries.”

No suspect description was immediately available but investigators are reviewing the building’s surveillance video.

Officers stood guard throughout the day at the door to the apartment, securing the scene for investigators.

Shattered glass was strewn across the sidewalk and roadway outside the building, beneath Suntharamoorthy’s balcony, and a section of a townhouse complex across the street was cordoned off with yellow crime scene tape.

It was not immediately known how the townhouse complex was involved.

Amy Li, part of the apartment building’s ownership, said she received a call from a resident around 11:45 p.m. Friday saying glass had showered down on them as they sat in their idling car outside the building.

Earlier in the night, around 9.m. Friday, another man believed to be in his 20s was rushed to a trauma centre with serious injuries after gunfire erupted at a suspected at a condo near Bathurst St. and Fort York Blvd. that was possibly being used as an Airbnb.

A third man walked into hospital early Saturday morning with gunshot wounds that cops suspect were suffered when gunshots rang out at a Scarborough strip mall on Victoria Pk Ave., north of Eglinton Ave. E.

Speaking about his slain cousin, Ariaratnam said Suntharamoorthy worked for a Sri Lankan tow truck company in Toronto and had been in and out of jail over the years since coming to Canada.

He claimed his cousin acted as “muscle” for the towing company, helping resolve matters when needed.

Suntharamoorthy made headlines in 2005 when he and three other men were charged after a mentally disabled man was brutally beaten to death at a Scarborough diner, near Midland and Lawrence Aves.

Suntharamoorthy was subsequently convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to five years behind bars.

He was back in the news in 2010 after leading OPP officers on a high-speed chase along Hwy. 401 while was on probation and suspended from driving.

A few years ago, while Suntharamoorthy was serving federal penitentiary time, Ariaratnam said he acted as an escort for his cousin after he was granted a day pass to attend his mother’s funeral.

In January 2017, Suntharamoorthy was in the news yet again when Toronto cops issued a Canada-wide warrant for his arrest.

He was in custody at the time and making a court appearance when a clerical error enabled him to walk out of the courthouse.

At the time, he was deemed to be “unlawfully at large” and police described him as “violent and dangerous.”

Six months later, Suntharamoorthy surrendered to police at 42 Division in Scarborough.
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Aseel Yehya, 18, was fatally shot on a Rexdale street on Jan. 9, 2019

The young man gunned down on a Rexdale street last week has been identified.

Aseel Yehya, 18, was shot shortly before 9:20 p.m. Jan. 9 at Elmhurst and Redwater Drs., just west of Islington Ave. and a block north of Hwy. 401.

Toronto Police told the Sun at the time that Yehya was walking on Elmhurst when a dark-coloured four-door car pulled up, “a number of individuals exited the vehicle and shot the man.”

Yehya is the city’s third homicide of the year.

No arrests have been made. Anyone with information is asked to call police at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers.
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Lorraine Kerubo Ogoti, 30, the victim of Toronto's second homicide of 2019

The victim of Toronto’s second homicide of 2019 has been identified as a 30-year-old woman.

But while police haven’t said the death of Lorraine Kerubo Ogoti was indeed a murder-suicide, they say no suspects in the woman’s death are outstanding.

Emergency crews responded to an “unknown trouble” call 2:17 p.m. Tuesday at an apartment building at  544 Birchmount Rd., just south of St. Clair Ave. E.

Once there, police found 40-year-old Mowlid Hassan lying on the concrete sidewalk outside the building’s entrance after apparently leaping from an eighth-floor balcony.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police also located Ogoti inside an apartment on the eighth floor, suffering life-threatening stab wounds.

She also died at the scene.

Police have yet to comment on the relationship between the two.
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18-year-old dead after shooting on Elmhurst Dr in Etobicoke

A young man who was shot in the west end of the city late Wednesday is Toronto’s 3rd homicide victim of the year.

Toronto Police received multiple reports of gunshots at Redwater and Elmhurst Drs., in the Islington Ave. and Rexdale Blvd. area, around 9:20 p.m.

They found the 18-year-old on the ground suffering “severe trauma.” He was taken to hospital but died.

Police have not released the victim’s name.

They say a number of men were seen fleeing in a black car. No other suspect descriptions were immediately provided.

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Jeffery MacIntyre, 25 charged with three Toronto bank robberies

Toronto Police have charged a 25-year-old man after three banks were robbed in four days.

Police say a man entered a bank in the Bloor St. W. and Jane. St. are last Wednesday around 2:30 p.m., gave staff a note saying he had a gun, and demanded cash. He fled after receiving an unspecified amount of money.

Two other banks were robbed in a similar fashion on Thursday morning at Dundas and Dufferin Sts. and Saturday afternoon at Dufferin St. and St. Clair Ave.

Jeffery MacIntyre, 25, of no fixed address, was arrested on Sunday, police announced Wednesday. He faces numerous charges including three counts of robbery with a firearm and three counts of disguise with intent.

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Two found dead in 544 Birchmount Road apartment: Toronto police

Police say they are investigating after a man and a woman were found dead at an apartment building in the city’s Scarborough Junction neighbourhood on Tuesday afternoon.

Officers were called to the eighth floor of an apartment building at 544 Birchmount Road, south of St. Clair Avenue East at 2:17 p.m., reportedly for a complaint about a person with a knife.

“What they discovered was a male deceased located at the exterior of the building,” Det. Rob Choe told reporters outside the building Monday evening. “Furthering their investigation, they also discovered a female deceased within one of the units in the building.”

Both people had sustained trauma, Cho said, though he could not yet say how they died.

“Both deceased have sustained some significant trauma here. How they sustained their injuries is something we’re trying to ascertain at this point,” he said.

Choe said several witnesses discovered the bodies and police received multiple 911 calls.

He said police are not ruling out any possibilities at this point.

“We’re in the preliminary stages of this investigation. It’s very early,” he said.

Police are not currently looking for any suspects.

“It doesn’t look like we’re looking for anyone right now, however we’re still leaving all the avenues open,”Choe said.

Neither of the victims has been identified so far and Choe said he’s not yet sure if they lived at the building.

A section of the building has been taped off and officers are canvassing for witnesses.

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US citizen Randy Jackson, 35, used NEXUS pass to smuggle 67 guns into Canada

A Michigan man who lived an otherwise “exemplary” life says he didn’t appreciate the “possible serious consequences” of smuggling 67 firearms into Canada until after he was caught and watched last year’s spike in gun violence in the Toronto area.

“Over the last year, I’ve seen ... the impact of bringing firearms into Canada,” Randy Jackson, 35, told a judge Monday after pleading guilty to smuggling handguns across the border using his Nexus pass.

“There was a shooting somewhere in the GTA in the news almost every day. It’s a painful thing, it’s a painful feeling to see so many stories break and wonder if I had any fault in it.”

Jackson pleaded guilty only to trafficking four weapons, including three handguns Canadian border officials found stashed in his underwear as he attempted to cross from Port Huron, Mich., into Canada on Oct. 12, 2017.

But as part of the plea agreement, he also admitted buying 67 handguns, which were not for his own use, at various Michigan firearms dealers in 2017 and smuggling them into Canada to be sold on the black market.

The authorities looked into Jackson’s cross-border and gun purchasing history after Toronto police seized a loaded Glock 19 9 mm handgun. They determined he was the source, that he had a girlfriend and children in London, Ont., and was a regular traveller to Canada using a Nexus pass.

According to the federal government website, the Nexus program allows low-risk, pre-approved travellers to use designated border crossings without being subject to regular questioning by customs and immigration officers.

Defence lawyer Christian Angelini described his American client as a devoted dad, who coaches basketball and has no criminal record or arrests in his past. Born in Lansing, Mich., Jackson enlisted in the Michigan National Guard at 19 and served two tours of duty in Kuwait with the U.S. armed forces.

At the time of his arrest, he was working as a patient attendant at a Michigan hospital while studying health care administration with hopes of eventually settling in London, Ont., to live full-time with the mother of his two sons, aged 10 and 3, and her two other children. Angelini said Jackson “appears to have lived an exemplary life and it’s very sad the mistake that he has made and the effect it is having on him and his family.”

Prosecutor Erin Pancer agreed while Jackson does not appear to fit the profile of a gun smuggler, he used the guise of an “upstanding citizen” to cross the border with the illicit cargo almost every weekend in 2017.

“That’s why he was able to get the Nexus pass, that’s why he was able to cross so freely into the country and that’s why he was able to conceal the firearms,” Pancer told Ontario Court Judge Riun Shandler.

Pancer also outlined for the judge the grim records Toronto set in 2018 when the city marked the highest number of shootings — 424 — in its history, and said “inevitably one of (Jackson’s) firearms is going to be used in a shooting.”

Further, the Crown attorney noted that 51 of the city’s record 96 homicides in 2018 were firearm-related deaths.

The court heard no details on who bought the guns or how much money Jackson may have earned.

Wearing a black golf shirt and black baggy trousers, his hands folded in front of him, the soft-spoken military man told court he was “deeply sorry” for what he did and wanted to “state clearly that I am not, and have never been, involved in any gang, foreign or domestic.”

Fifteen of the purchased firearms — including the three he was carrying stuffed in his underwear — have been recovered at various crime scenes in the GTA, Durham and Middlesex County, which includes London, the court was told.

Pancer and Angelini agreed to an eight-year sentence, which the prosecutor said is on par with punishments given to other gun sellers. That penalty also reflects the purchase of the entire cache of weapons.

The judge reserved his decision until Friday, saying he wanted time to provide written reasons, but assured a tearful Jackson the sentence wouldn’t stray from the joint submission.
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Boy, 16, brought replica handgun to Avondale Secondary school in North York

A 16-year-old boy is in custody after he allegedly brought a replica handgun to a high school in North York on Tuesday morning.

Toronto police say they received a 911 call directing them to Avondale Secondary Alternative School on Silverview Drive, south of Cummer Avenue, at 10:52 a.m. for a report of a gun seen by a student.

Investigators said a boy believed to be 16 years-old brought a handgun to school in his backpack.

Officers arrived at the scene, seized the gun and arrested the teen.

Const. Jen Sidhu said no lockdown or hold and secure measure was ordered as the arrest occurred quickly.

Police later said the firearm seized was a replica not capable of live fire.
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Leigh Ming, 34, of Toronto was arrested and charged with first-degree murder of first homicide of 2019

Toronto police have arrested a 34-year-old man accused of committing the first homicide of 2019, a stabbing in Scarborough.

Ian Dyer, 36, was stabbed to death near Danforth and Midland Aves just after midnight Sunday, on the 12th floor of a Toronto Community Housing building.

He was found with “obvious signs of trauma to the upper body,” police said. Though first aid was administered, he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Leigh Ming, 34, of Toronto was arrested Tuesday morning and charged with first-degree murder.

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Crystal Papineau, 35 of Toronto dies after being found unconscious in clothing donation bin

A 35-year-old woman is dead after she was found unconscious inside a clothing donation box early Tuesday morning.

Paramedics confirmed that they had been called to the area of Dovercourt Rd. and Bloor St. W. shortly after 1:30 a.m.

Police spokesperson Jenifferjit Sidhu said Toronto Fire rushed to the scene and cut the donation box open to rescue the woman. Paramedics attempted CPR, but the woman was pronounced dead at the scene sometime later.

The circumstances that led to her being inside the donation box are unknown at this time. Her name hasn’t been released, as police are still trying to notify her next of kin.

Sidhu said the matter is not considered suspicious and no criminal investigation is underway.

The box has since been removed by the owner, who is legally required to do so since it had been tampered with, Sidhu said.

Only a week ago in Vancouver, a similar tragedy occurred when a 34-year-old man became trapped in a clothing donation bin and died.

There have been at least eight Canadian donation-bin deaths across the country since 2015, including five in B.C. This is believed to be the first death in Ontario.

The rash of deaths prompted the municipality of West Vancouver to seal clothing bins and investigate safer options for accepting donations.

Activists who work with those struggling with poverty say the bins can provide a dangerous temptation for people living on the streets, particularly in the winter.

The death of the man in Vancouver prompted an advocate to call for the “death traps” to be immediately fixed or removed.

The donation boxes are often equipped with spring-loaded doors to prevent animals from climbing in. But tragically, people can become trapped in the opening as well.

Prof. Ray Taheri of the school of engineering at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus said the death of a B.C. woman in a bin last July prompted him to get his students working on ways to retrofit the bins.

He said removing up to 2,000 bins just in British Columbia would cost too much money, so the best solution would be to change their design as quickly as possible using the ideas his students have come up with.
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Toronto rents expected to rise 11% this year

If you, like most young working-class Torontonians, are already struggling to keep up with the demands of simply existing in Canada's most expensive city, prepare to be gobsmacked.

The average annual rent for an apartment or condo in downtown Toronto is expected to increase by as much as 11 per cent over the next year, according to a panel of 16 housing experts surveyed by rentals.ca.

Professional economists, data analysts, university professors, politicians, property managers and affordable housing advocates from across the country all agree that "finding the right apartment, house or townhouse to call home will continue to challenge renters in 2019," especially in Toronto, and especially for those who don't already live in a rent controlled place.

Nationally, rents are predicted to rise about 6 per cent by the end of 2019, with Vancouver and Ottawa showing increases of 7 and 9 per cent respectively.

Toronto's number is expected to be higher, however, thanks to an insufficient number of rental units and the reluctance of anyone to move those from units that do already exist (for fear of their rent jumping up hundreds, if not thousands of dollars per month).

Variables such as immigration, job growth and stricter mortgage qualification rules are similarly driving up demand and, thus, prices.

"With increasing rents and declining credit availability for mortgages, residents are likely to stay put," said Ben Myers, president of the real estate advisory firm Bullpen Research & Consulting, in the rentals.ca report. "With expanded rent control implemented in 2017, tenants are incentivized to stay in their current home."

Toronto has the lowest rental turnover rate in Canada, if not the lowest in North America, says Myers, at just 11 per cent.

"Many young couples and families have decided to postpone purchasing a home, which has driven two-bedroom rental rates to nearly $2,600 a month in Toronto," says Myers, noting that it's now "more expensive to own" than rent for residents of the city.

Acclaimed urban studies theorist and U of T professor Dr. Richard Florida also cites supply as one of the driving factors behind Toronto's skyrocketing rent prices.

"When new students or researchers come to the University of Toronto, they tell me the same thing: They have to endure an auction where people actively bid on apartments," he said. "I've never seen anything like it anywhere else in North America."

The City of Toronto is currently working on a 10-year plan to address the shortage of rental units as demand continues to increase.

Mayor John Tory wants to add some 40,000 units to the market over the next 12 years, according to Affordable Housing Development manager Valesa Faria, with 3,300 or more coming available per year starting in 2020.

For now, though, we can expect to see an increase in what experts call "renovictions"—where landlords upgrade their properties to target luxury tenants and hike the rent rates far beyond what those who currently live in the units can afford.

"As fewer units are turned over, there is less supply, and rental rates increase further," says Meyers.

"The dynamic is shifting away from 'bubbly' house prices to 'bubbly' rental rates."
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Ian Dyer 36, of Toronto stabbed to death on Gordonridge Place, near Danforth Road and Midland Avenue.

The city has marked its first homicide of 2019 after a man was stabbed to death at an apartment building in Scarborough’s Kennedy Park neighbourhood early Sunday morning.

Shortly after midnight, 36-year-old Ian Dyer was found suffering from a stab wound inside a unit on the 12th floor of a residential building on Gordonridge Place, located near Danforth Road and Midland Avenue.

Despite life-saving efforts, police say Dyer, who was located without vital signs, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police have not yet released any information on possible suspects but said officers are currently reviewing video surveillance footage and interviewing residents of the building.

“The canvass last night didn’t yield a lot of information just due to the early morning hours so we are re-canvassing this morning,” Det. Paul Worden told reporters on Sunday afternoon.

Worden confirmed that Dyer did not live in the building but had been staying there at a friend’s place for the past few days.

Worden said he believes Dyer was alone in the unit for a brief period of time before the suspect or suspects arrived.

“We’ve been able to narrow down a timeframe in which we believe the murder took place. We are asking anybody in the building… between 11:30 p.m. and midnight (who) may have heard any kind of commotion or seen Mr. Dyer or anybody in the building who looked suspicious to contact us,” he said.

“We are trying to track Mr. Dyer’s movements in the day leading up to his death so if anybody has any information about where Mr. Dyer was yesterday… we would like information on that as well.”

Police are also looking for information about a German Shepherd that got loose from the 12th floor apartment where Dyer was killed.

“There was also a large dog in the apartment that got out and it ended up on one of the other floors. We’d like to know if anyone saw a large German Shepherd wandering the halls at that time,” Worden said.

“Maybe they could help us figure out how it got down to the other floor. That might be some indication of where people went after this occurred.”

When asked about public safety, Worden said the building has a “troubled past.”

“Unfortunately violence is not uncommon there. I don’t think the risk level is any higher than it would normally be in that building… The information that we are getting is that the building and that particular floor had heavy drug activity,” he said.

“The type of people who show up and deal in drugs, that leads to robberies and other violence. So it stems from that. There are a lot of good people in the building and they are being taken advantage of and they feel like they can’t live full lives because they are limited and scared to move around the building freely.”

Police do not believe the victim was involved in any criminal activity at the time of the stabbing.

“He wasn’t doing anything of a criminal nature at the time he was killed. He was in the apartment with friends and everything was fine according to the people who were last with him,” Worden said.

The murder weapon has not yet been recovered.

A post-mortem examination will take place later today or tomorrow.
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Two arrested after double shooting in The Beaches in Toronto

Two suspects are in custody after shots rang out in a daylight shooting in the city's east end Sunday.

Toronto police responded to a shooting call in the area of Queen Street East and Woodbine Avenue at around 2:30 p.m.

“Officers located two male victims suffering from apparent gunshot wounds,” Insp. Anthony Paoletta told CP24 at the scene. 

The two male victims were both conscious and breathing, police said. Both were taken to hospital for treatment and are believed to have sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

Two males were taken into custody in connection with the shooting a short time after police responded to the scene.

Paoletta said police believe the incident began north of the area where the victims were found, on Woodbine Avenue, near Kingston Road.

“At this point in time I believe the victims may have been in a vehicle and the incident began at that intersection,” Paoletta said.

He said the evidence suggests that the victims were shot while inside a vehicle and that they then travelled south and went into a local business.

“We have a scene with a vehicle. We’ve also located three firearms in relation to this event that we believe are related to this incident,” Paoletta said. 

He said shell casings were recovered at the intersection of Woodbine Avenue and Kingston Road. There is no evidence so far that shots were fired on Queen Street, Paoletta said.

It’s not yet clear whether the victims and suspects knew each other, police said.

There were unconfirmed reports about a third possible victim, but there has been no evidence to support that so far, Paoletta said.

Paoletta called the shooting “concerning” and said police are asking anyone with information about the incident to call investigators.

A large stretch of Queen Street East has been shut down as police investigate the shooting.
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Toronto's first murder victim of 2019 stabbed at troubled TCHC building

Another day, another violent death.

Toronto’s first homicide of 2019 is worryingly familiar: On the weekend, with a knife, in a tough TCHC building.

It’s like a horrible version of the board game, Clue.

The city’s first murder victim is Ian Dyer, 36, stabbed to death after a fight in a building near Midland Ave. and Danforth Rd.

According to Toronto Police Det. Paul Worden, who spoke to reporters outside 41 Division in Scarborough, Dyer was killed between 11.30 p.m. and midnight on Jan. 5.  Dyer did not live in the building and had been staying with friends; he was alone in the apartment and not doing anything of a criminal nature when he was killed.

The scene of the crime is a 12th floor apartment at 40 Gordonridge Place, a building notorious for crime and decrepitude.

In fact, a handful of TCHC buildings on Gordonridge are infamous enough to have earned a spot in the urban lexicon — they’re called G-Ridge, or Ghetto Ridge.

As Worden said at the press conference Sunday, the building has a troubled past.  There was a stabbing murder in the same building last April; there’s a history of shooting and other violent incidents.

“It all starts with drugs,” said Worden, who described the 12th floor at 40 Gordonridge as having heavy drug activity.

As has been written before, Toronto Community Housing buildings hold only 4% of the population but are the source of 25% of violent crimes in the city.

Those statistics usually overshadow the fact that these buildings are home to plenty of law-abiding people.

Worden made reference to the majority of residents in the development, calling them  “Good people … who cannot move around freely,” as they live in fear of the criminals in their midst.

Residents of 40 Gordonridge who were interviewed over this latest killing had a litany of complaints about living in fear in rundown buildings; they said neither management nor security seemed particularly concerned about anyone’s well-being. One woman said she’d solved the safety problem for herself by putting double-locks on her door and keeping a length of pipe handy. She also never leaves her apartment at night.

Any comment on the murder?

“This is nothing new,” she said.

One of the big problems faced by the TCHC is a transient population that uses their buildings for crime, drug dealers in particular. Thanks to various rules and regulations, those non-residents can’t be barred from the buildings. At the same time, it’s almost impossible to permanently evict any “bad apple” residents.

That means the TCHC cannot protect the majority of its residents from predatory visitors and tenants unless the Ontario government makes changes to the Trespass to Property Act and the Housing Services Act.

The city awaits those changes, Premier Ford.

Mayor John Tory addressed the city’s first murder of 2019 on Sunday afternoon, listing the steps taken so far: The hiring of 200 police officers last year; the hiring of 100 new special constables for TCHC buildings;  some much-needed repairs to run-down buildings (thanks to cooperation among various levels of government) and investments in activities for kids and families.

“All we can do is be patient and steadfast in our determination to make sure we address the root causes, support the police and change some of the laws, including the gun laws,” said Tory. “And that’s exactly what we’re doing.”

The mayor said he was fed up with seeing the same people causing the same problems, over and over again.

“Most of the people who live in TCHC are decent, hard-working people who need a little help for a variety of reasons, yet there’s this small minority who insist on carrying out their illicit activities in these same buildings,” he said.

“We’re seeking increased power from the province to get these people out of the buildings. To me, they forfeit the opportunity to live in Toronto Community Housing if they engage in these kinds of activities.”

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Two injured in brazen daylight shooting in The Beaches

It was a shootout worthy of the wild west in the Beaches on Sunday afternoon.

Around 2:30 p.m. police say shots were fired in the Woodbine Ave. and Kingston Rd. area.

A short time later, a car containing the victims reportedly showed up on Queen St. E. just east of Woodbine.

Paramedics transported one victim, found inside the Queen St. E Wine Rack store suffering gunshot wounds to his lower body, to hospital.

A second victim found nearby was also rushed to St. Mike’s, reportedly suffering multiple gunshot wounds.

An Audi SUV with visible bullet holes was parked in front of the Wine Rack, surrounded by police tape.

Further east along Queen St. at Elmer, police were occupied with a Mercedes left with its doors open halfway into the roadway, next to what appeared to be a sideswiped taxicab.

Witnesses said two men were seen running from the Mercedes towards Elmer Ave., but police managed to take them both into custody.

Three guns were recovered — one found discarded in a salt bucket on an Elmer Ave. property.

Police closed eastbound traffic on Queen East and Woodbine Avenue between Queen and Dundas during their investigation.

The scenario unfolded quickly, with witnesses barely able to register the gunshots before the scene was awash in emergency crews.

Stacey, who lives in the area, had just arrived home when the gunfire erupted.
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What Justice Tulloch actually said about Police carding in Toronto

The widespread confusion over what Justice Michael Tulloch said about police carding in his report released last week demonstrates why police race-crime statistics should be available to everyone.

To begin, let’s deal with what Tulloch actually said as opposed to what much of the media reported he said.

First, he did not say police have no right to stop people on the street and question them – known as street checks – if they have reasonable grounds to believe they may be involved in criminal activity, including having a gun in their possession.

He said, correctly, that police have no right to engage in carding, meaning arbitrary and random street checks where the only reason for stopping and questioning someone is their race, or that the officer must fill a quota of cardings.

Second, he did not say street checks have little or no impact on crime. He suggested the opposite.

He said carding has little or no impact on crime and what little impact it may have is negated by the distrust and lack of co-operation it instills in the community targeted, such as the black community.

This is what he actually said: “Some police street checks were proper. The improper practice of random carding led to the Regulation. (More on this in a moment).  The Regulation led many police officers to not conduct any street checks, whether proper or not. The lack of any street checks at all might have encouraged some types of crime to increase.”

I’d argue it’s obvious the lack of any street checks by Toronto Police last year contributed to the record number of murders, shootings and gun violence on our streets, one reason being that armed gang members no longer feared being stopped and questioned by police.

Now, back to the “Regulation.”

Tulloch is referring to Regulation 58/16 under Ontario’s Police Services Act, approved by the now-defeated Liberal government in 2017.

Intended to regulate carding, it’s a 10-page mess of legalese that caused police services like Toronto to drop street checks entirely, lest they be accused of racism for misinterpreting it.

Tulloch said of Regulation 58/16: “The Regulation as it is drafted is a confusing and somewhat convoluted document to read. It was perceived by most stakeholders throughout my consultations – police and community members alike – as being too complicated and hard to follow. They felt it was written for lawyers, not police officers or community members. They wanted it to be simplified. Even lawyers who I have consulted with agree.”

When lawyers say something is too complicated to understand, it’s too complicated to understand.

Tulloch, fulfilling the mandate he was given by the previous Liberal government to review Regulation 58/16, made 104 recommendations about how to improve it, including better police training so officers are confident they understand the difference between legitimate street checks and illegitimate carding.

It’s up to Premier Doug Ford and Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government to decide what to do with Tulloch’s report, if anything.

Much of what he says is logical and sensible, but the problem in my view is that his report ignores the elephant in the room.

That is, what constitutes “reasonable” grounds for a police street check in an era when it’s now often assumed – in our courts, on human rights commissions and in much of our media – that the police are systemically racist and that police officers can be guilty of not only “conscious” but “unconscious” racism?

In that context, for decades now, the real, underlying debate in Toronto about the policing of the black community has been this:

Are higher crime rates in the black community the result of systemically racist policing, or, alternatively, are police more frequently but legitimately in conflict with the black community because a small minority within it commits a disproportionate amount of violent crime?

The problem is that because of the lack of publicly available data of all police race-crime statistics – rather than small parts of it which are occasionally and selectively made public –  this debate occurs largely in a vacuum.

Ironically, the same people who once opposed releasing this data for fear it would be used to portray blacks as criminals, now want it released to prove police are racists.

In the real world, data is just data. How it’s interpreted is the significant issue.

But we won’t have an honest debate about this issue – and a fair, workable and realistic policy on police street checks – until all of this data is publicly available, so it can be assessed and debated out in the open.
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Toronto police hunt suspect vehicle following gunbattle near Gerrard and Greenwood Aves

Do you recognize this car?

It’s one of two cars Toronto Police believe were involved in a brazen shootout in an east end neighbourhood on Friday.

And investigators are asking the public for help in identifying the vehicle.

Police say officers responded to Walpole Ave., near Greenwood Ave. and Gerrard St. E., after gunshots rang out around 2:20 a.m.

A number of people in two parked cars were shot at by a man on foot; they returned fire and pursued the man as he ran off, Const. Allyson Douglas-Cook said in a statement released Saturday.

An occupant of one of the cars was shot in the head and suffered other gunshot wounds. Following surgery, he’s still fighting for his life in hospital.

The exchange of gunfire left several other cars in the vicinity riddled with bullet holes and one or two nearby houses with holes in their windows. Shell casings were found all over the scene.

Locals reported hearing as many as 15 to 30 shots.

Police have now released a security camera image of a red Nissan Altima believed to be one of the two vehicles involved.

Anyone with any information regarding the car or its whereabouts is asked to call police at 416-808-5500 or Crime Stoppers anonymously, at 416-222-TIPS (8477).
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Saul Betesh, the Toronto "Shoeshine boy" killer seeks first taste of freedom after 41 years

For more than 40 years, heinous child killer Saul Betesh has remained behind bars, serving his life sentence without daring to request any kind of release — even though he’s been eligible since 2002.

But the Sun has learned that’s about to change.

For the first time, the notorious shoeshine boy killer plans to appear before a parole board; the 68-year-old Betesh is expected to ask a panel in British Columbia next month to let him out of Pacific Institution on escorted temporary absences, often the first step before seeking parole.

It’s hard to imagine this monster could ever be let out in the community.

It was so long ago. And yet the memory of the vicious rape and murder of Emanuel Jaques remains an indelible scar in our city’s history, a marker often used to demarcate the end of Toronto the Good.

Jaques was just 12, a slight, handsome boy who was saving up money to buy dog food for the new puppy promised him by a neighbour in Regent Park. So he built himself a shoeshine box that summer of 1977 and he painted it light green.

He then went to his parents, recent immigrants from Portugal, and begged for permission to shine shoes with his older brother at the corner of Yonge and Dundas Sts.

Back then, downtown Yonge St. was a seedy stretch of body rub parlours and strip joints. It was no place for a child.

His father finally relented — a decision he would regret for the rest of his life.

Betesh was a 27-year-old steel rigger who had worked on the CN Tower by day and as a gay S&M prostitute by night. Violent and remorseless, he’d been in and out of psychiatric treatment since he was five and poured nail polish remover in his babysitter’s ear.

His best buddy was Robert “Stretcher” Kribs, a bouncer at the Charlie’s Angels Body Rub. Their bond was a mutual appetite for sex with underage boys who they’d lure to Kribs’ apartment above the massage parlour with promises of cash, a new bike or a kite.

It was close to 5:30 p.m. on July 28, 1977 when Betesh approached the Jaques brothers and their friend. He offered them $35 to help move some camera equipment.

Emanuel leaped at the chance and his brother went to a payphone to call home for permission. By the time he returned to say their mother had said no, Emanuel was already gone.

For 12 tortuous hours, he was held captive and raped by the men in the third-floor apartment.

“What was Emanuel Jaques?” Betesh shrugged at his trial. “I wasn’t thinking of Emanuel Jaques, except possibly before and possibly after. I suppose he was part of my fantasies.”

Their original plan was to drug and dump Emanuel in a park. When the drugs didn’t work, Kribs and Betesh decided to hold his head under water in the sink until he drowned.

Police found the boy’s naked and bruised body four days later in a trash bag atop the roof of the body rub.

Kribs pleaded guilty to first degree murder.

Betesh claimed he was not guilty by reason of insanity — but a jury decided otherwise and he’s been serving his life sentence ever since.

While Kribs has applied for parole — and been rejected — in the past, Betesh has never tried.

Perhaps he knew he stood no chance, especially when he’s never expressed a shred of remorse.

“No, I’m not sorry,” he told Toronto Life in 1979. “I don’t feel anything except sorry that it’s put me in here. They say that’s part of my illness. I’m not sorry.”

Now he wants to be let out on escorted day passes?

Betesh has spent these last years at a prison in Abbotsford, B.C. where he’s been looking for pen pals when he’s not working in the prison greenhouse or watching science fiction on TV.

In his post on Canadian Inmates Connect, he describes himself as a practising “Druid Bard” who is a fan of dungeons and dragons, Magic the Gathering, stained glass window making and sewing quilts for charity.

“In closing,” writes the sadistic child killer, “I won’t lie to you. My crime was bad, but with treatment and a bit more time I feel I can once again become a productive member of society.”

Not in this lifetime, he can’t.
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