Sunday, December 26, 2021

Caiwan Cunningham, 20, was gunned Christmas Eve in the stairwell of a Lawrence Heights building on Friday, Dec. 24, 2021


A 20-year-old man was shot to death Christmas Eve in the stairwell of a Lawrence Heights building.

Toronto Police responded to the building in the area of Replin and Flemington Rds. — near Allen Rd. and Lawrence Ave. W. — around 9:15 p.m. after receiving reports of shots fired.

A man in his 20s was found suffering from gunshot wounds and was taken to hospital where he died.

“This shooting is now a homicide,” Const. Dave Hopkinson said Saturday.

The dead man has been identified as Caiwan Cunningham.

He is the city’s 83rd murder victim of the year and the 45th killed by a firearm.

Police said there are reports that suspects were seen fleeing the area traveling south on foot.

“This is an active investigation and police remain in the area carrying out inquiries to establish the full circumstances of the occurrence,” Homicide Det.-Sgt. Brandon Price said in a statement released Saturday.

“Anyone who may have seen Caiwan Cunningham, have heard, or witnessed anything suspicious, is urged to contact Homicide investigators,” he added.

Another man was wounded in a shooting at a Brampton house party on Christmas Eve.

Peel Regional police say the gun violence occurred in the area of Williams Pkwy. and Chinguacousy Rd. around 6 p.m. on Friday.

Officers arrived on scene and located the victim. He was transported to a local hospital.

There was no suspect information immediately available.

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Saturday, December 25, 2021

DEADLY CHRISTMAS: Man gunned down in Lawrence Heights, Toronto's 83rd homicide of 2021

A man was shot to death Christmas Eve in the stairwell of a Lawrence Heights building.

Toronto Police responded to the building in the area of Replin and Flemington Rds. — near Allen Rd. and Lawrence Ave. W. — around 9:15 p.m. after receiving reports of shots fired.

A man in his 20s was found suffering from gunshot wounds and was taken to hospital where he died.

“This shooting is now a homicide,” Const. Dave Hopkinson said Saturday.

The dead man, whose name was not immediately released, is the city’s 83rd murder victim of the year and the 45th killed by a firearm.

There are reports that suspects were seen fleeing the area traveling south on foot, Hopkinson said.

Another shooting took place at 8 a.m. on Christmas Day at St Clair Ave. W. and Hilton Ave. — just east of Bathurst St.

Police say a car struck some other cars, fled the scene, and officers subsequently located a suspect armed with a gun in a vehicle in an underground parking lot.

Officers struggled with the man before taking him into custody.

In another case, a man was wounded in a shooting at a house party in the area of Williams Pkwy. and Chinguacousy Rd. around 6 p.m. on Friday.

Police on scene located the victim and he was transported to a local hospital.

There was no suspect information.

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Friday, December 24, 2021

Jamie Hagley, 21 murdered close to intersection of Grandravine Drive and Driftwood Avenue of Toronto


Some of the doorways at the townhome complex have Christmas decoration in front of  them. One of them had a pile of sawdust in front of it marking the spot where a 21-year-old man was shot and killed.

“Bang bang bang.  Three shots,” is what one man described he heard.

Fear of the violence is why he did not wish to share his name as he walked with his family from his niece’s townhouse – passing the scene of the shooting – and into a nearby parking lot.

“I was watching TV with him,” he said referring to one of the children he walked with.

“That’s gunshots,” he recalled saying at the time. “And it is pretty close.”

It was about four units away.

Police announced that Thursday at about 9:37 p.m., they responded to a call about a shooting in the Jane and Finch area close to intersection of Grandravine Drive and Driftwood Avenue.

Officers found a man outside a townhouse unit who had been shot.

He was pronounced deceased at the scene.

Friday morning police identified the victim as Jamie Hagley, 21, of Toronto.

He is the city’s 82 nd homicide of the year.

“I come to visit because I am really worried about them,” said the man who was visiting his niece and her young family.

“It’s terrible.  And that is why we need to move from here because it is not a good place to raise kids.”

A woman  walking through the complex Friday to take out her garbage – who identified herself as Claire – said she has lived in the area for 21 years.

“I heard the shots when they happened,” Claire said. “It is frightening. It is a sad and it is frightening.”

“I called everyone I know who has a son, just to find out if their kid was okay.”

The townhouse complex is across the street from where another shooting happened on September 7, that killed a 30-year-old man.

“We need to get out of here because I am worried about them and the kids,” said the man walking with his family.

“Christmas is tomorrow.  Somebody has to live with that for the rest of their lives. They don’t have a son.  He was just 21 years old.  It’s sick.”

Investigators would like to speak with anyone who may have information or have dashcam or video surveillance of the area.

They are asked to contact police at 416-808-7400, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477)

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Sunday, December 12, 2021

Mel Lastman, first mayor of amalgamated Toronto, dead at 88


Mel Lastman, one of the most memorable mayors in the history of Toronto and the first to lead the amalgamated city after serving many years in the role in North York, died Saturday of heart failure at the age of 88.

Lastman was mayor of North York from 1973-1997 and when Metropolitan Toronto became the City of Toronto, Lastman got the top job, beating incumbent Toronto mayor Barbara Hall in 1998. Lastman was re-elected in 2000 with 80% of the popular vote and served until his retirement in 2003.

Born on March 9, 1933, Lastman also was a highly successful businessman, starting the Bad Boy furniture chain in 1955.

Postmedia chairman Paul Godfrey called Lastman “the Pied Piper of the people of Toronto,” who gave his life for the city he loved.

“He was a visionary and he was underestimated,” said Godfrey, who knew Lastman for more than 50 years.

“City Of Toronto has lost a true icon in Mel who is an instrumental part of the growth of both North York and the city of Toronto and one of the city’s greatest ever Mayors.”

Godfrey added Lastman “was also a trailblazer in both business with Bad Boy and then later as the mayor of the first amalgamated city of Toronto and all the challenges that go with something as major as that.”

Lastman’s funeral will be held Monday at Benjamin’s Park Memorial Chapel.

Lastman’s wife, Marilyn, died at age 84 on New Year’s Day in 2020 after a long hospital stay. They had been married for 67 years.

Son Blayne Lastman, who relaunched the Bad Boy chain in 1991 and often had his father make cameos in commercials, had told the Sun at the time of his father: He’s frail. He’s trying,” adding then Lastman had “lost his best friend.”

Tributes to Lastman poured in on Saturday night, including from current Toronto mayor John Tory.

“He was so committed to the city and worked throughout his time in office to make sure Toronto moved forward as one united city into the 21st century,” Tory said in a statement.

“I was a co-chair of Mayor Mel’s campaigns for Megacity Mayor and had the privilege of serving in his “kitchen cabinet,” during his time in office,” Tory said.

“He was a kind, good-hearted man with a larger-than-life personality who always wanted to do the right thing for people.”

Tory also lauded Lastman’s contributions to North York.

“Before amalgamation he spent so much of his life serving the people of North York and building up North York. This part of the city wouldn’t be thriving as it is now without the work Mel Lastman did over many decades,” Tory said.

Ontario premier Doug Ford tweeted: “He was a great Mayor and he touched many lives. Ford added Lastman was a “true leader and builder.”

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown tweeted: “Very sorry to hear about the passing of Mel Lastman. I got to know him while I was serving at the provincial level. He had a wealth of knowledge on Toronto, Ontario and Canada. He leaves behind a very impressive legacy of City building. Condolences to his family and friends.”

Lastman had a teflon-like ability to shake off the types of slips of the tongue (like his comment about being boiled alive in water in Africa) or photo ops gone wrong (like when he shook the hand of a member of the Hell’s Angels) that would get politicians in trouble today.

Lastman once memorably called in the Canadian Forces to help Toronto dig out of a series of blizzards and was in charge during the SARS outbreak when he fought to revive the city’s flagging tourism industry.

Lastman reportedly borrowed $2,000 to open his first appliance store

Years later he reflected on how he championed the city during his time as mayor of Toronto, telling the Canadian Press in 2013:

“(Toronto politicians) should be selling it over and over again and telling people how lucky they are in living in such a multicultural city as this. The diversity of Toronto is unbelievable to what it was. You think back, everybody spoke English wherever you went. Today you hear all different languages no matter where you go — on the subway, on the bus, on the street, a restaurant, no matter where you are — and it sounds great,” Lastman said.

Godfrey told the Sun Saturday: “In the hearts of Torontonians he’s a Canadian icon.”

Lastman is survived by sons Blayne and Dale, six grandchildren and two great grandchildren.

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Toronto Real Estate: Insatiable demand, low supply means record prices


Now that we’re into December and 2021 is almost behind us, it seems only fitting that this wild, record-setting year of Toronto real estate is winding down with more records being set.

The November sales figures, released last week by Toronto Regional Real Estate Board, will come as no surprise to those who have been even casually following this market.

Inventory remains low, prices continue to rise, and in the absence of any strong and decisive moves on the interest rate front, there is little indication that much will change any time soon.

With 9,017 sales, the most, in fact, ever reported by TRREB for the month of November, the seasonal slow-down that once characterized our market appears to be a thing of the past.

Eager buyers, evidently keen to lock in limited-time-only rock-bottom interest rates, don’t appear to have the option to take a break.

Thus, demand remains insatiable while the supply of new listings, an essential component of any healthy and balanced marketplace, is far below adequate.

For the sixth consecutive month, new listings continued their decline to a total of just 10,306 for the month of November — down 13.2% year-over-year.

Given the nature of supply and demand, the upward pressure on prices has continued unabated.

With the average selling price in the city of Toronto now $1,163,323, the average cost of a home is up a full 21.7% from November 2020. Which, it should be noted, was already an increase of 13.3% from the same month one year prior which was, at the time, considered a noteworthy indication of how strong our pandemic real estate market was proving itself to be.

What this all means, really, is that the numbers aside, the conditions that have defined our real estate marketplace since the pandemic began have gone from what felt like a remarkable anomaly to essentially our new normal.

Whereas once there was a gap between sale prices in the 416 and 905, which by extension represents the availability of options for those priced out of homes in the city, the pandemic-driven suburban exodus drove that migration at warp speed. That inventory has been absorbed, which is why you see prices almost everywhere rising so dramatically.

In the months ahead, what I hope to see is some further scrutiny and analysis dedicated to understanding whom exactly is competing to buy these homes. It seems obvious that the state of our market cannot simply be the result of fired-up would-be homeowners battling it out against one another.

That just seems unlikely almost two years into a pandemic that was understood to be the catalyst for changing the nature of the way we all relate to our homes.

Someone needs to be looking at how much of the current momentum in our marketplace is being driven by corporate ownership and speculation, both the institutional-type investors gobbling up as much inventory as they can and those simply utilizing home equity lines of credit to fund a down payment on second or third properties.

Even if such buyers only make up a portion of people making offers on any given property on any given offer night, that type of participation is substantial enough to be adding to the momentum — and the rising prices.

Once we have even a small degree of understanding around who is driving the bus here, only then does it actually make sense to consider the types of measures, if any, worth considering to calm things down.

For all the talk of government interventions like banning blind bidding and introducing cooling off periods, none of that will make so much as a hint of difference if it’s the investor class pouring fuel on this fire.

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