Kodak's Building 9 was once employee hub of Toronto complex

TORONTO - The massive Mount Dennis block, nicknamed Kodak Heights, used to sit at the top of Photography Dr.

From early photographs, which now lie in archives, the building complex appears majestic, housing thousands of Kodak employees in the early 1920s.

In 2013, the last remaining building became home to squatters, teenage graffiti artists, and the property of Metrolinx, the government organization that oversees public transportation in the GTA.

At one time, this abandoned building was a key and active component in Kodak’s international camera production and distribution.

Building 9 was constructed in the 1940s and served as an employees’ building, offering recreation and relaxation to Kodak’s constantly expanding staff.

Inside, clubs like the Kodak Heights Camera Club could be found. The club housed the majority of cameras released by Kodak throughout the years for employees to use and admire. On the cusp of the emerging digital age, Kodak was unable to keep up and compete with companies like Canon and Sony, and filed for bankruptcy in 2012.

The actual Mount Dennis location, or Kodak Heights, was officially closed down in 2005. Following almost immediately, the corporation demolished buildings one through eight. The last building was spared while the company sat in talks with different potential buyers.

Metrolinx bought the space in 2012 for $48 million, and had plans to make it the final destination point for their Light Rail Transit (LRT) line they’ll begin construction on soon. After talking to the community, however, the space is now up for re-evaluation in an attempt to retain the historical culture of Kodak Heights.

There are several plans in the works right now, all centering around how to restore the building and the best use for the building.

If Metrolinx decides to use it for LRT space, the landscape will change by 2016. If a muesum is erected, it will change by 2017.
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Toronto takes $150 million budget hit from Queen's Park cut

TORONTO - Finance Minister Charles Sousa should stop trying to claw back $150 million in provincial funding from Toronto’s budget, Mayor Rob Ford said Friday.

Ford demanded Premier Kathleen Wynne’s government reverse a decision to deliver a potentially crippling funding cut to the city over the next three years starting with a $50-million drop in the 2014 budget.

In a face-to-face meeting with Sousa set for Monday, Ford said he’ll be telling him bluntly: “I want the $50 million.”

Sousa advised the mayor’s office of the cut in a letter sent last week. City officials had been planning for that money staying in the budget until at least 2018 and pointed to a 2008 letter from the provincial finance ministry detailing the funding phase-out.

“This decision comes as a complete surprise to me and the city and we are very, very concerned,” Ford said at a press conference. “These are vital, vital funds that we need to continue helping our most vulnerable residents.”

The city allocates that funding to its social housing programs and would require a roughly 5% property tax hike or massive budget cuts to fill the hole.

“This money will have to come from cuts to vital programs. I am not increasing taxes over what I promised, 1.75% (in 2014),” Ford said. “It is going to come down to program cuts, unfortunately. It’s the province’s fault — the province hasn’t given us the money. Ask Premier Wynne why she’s doing this.”

The mayor had been gearing up to cut the Toronto land transfer tax by 10% this year. Ford said Friday he’s still cutting the tax and urged Wynne and Sousa to get their house in order.

“They’ve got to find efficiencies,” said Ford, who is still optimistic there will be a successful resolution to the money squabble. “They’re squandering billions of dollars up there ... they’ve got a spending problem not a revenue problem. We’ve put our house in order down here.”

Sousa didn’t show any signs of reversing the cut Friday and denied the province had committed to the funding back in 2008.

“They’re not being left in the lurch,” he said.

The city knew that the province would phase out the funding as it uploaded other costs to the net benefit of Toronto of more than $700 million, Sousa said.

In addition to taking on a greater share of social service and court security costs, the province is forgiving a $200-million loan to the city which has so far missed 16 scheduled repayments.

“There’s only one taxpayer and if the mayor feels that it’s appropriate for other levels of government to increases taxes so that he can say he didn’t, I’m not for that,” Sousa said.

But Councillor Paula Fletcher said Ford’s been sending a message from city hall that “we really don’t need any money” by cutting the car tax and looking at cutting the land transfer tax.

“We have given the impression that we’re not interested in funding,” Fletcher said. “I think that’s a bad impression to be giving — we need this money.”

Ford fired back he’s doing what voters want him to do.

“Taxpayers elected me to get rid of that $60 car tax, I did exactly that,” he said. “I’m doing what I was elected to do and that is reduce the size and cost of government and keep taxes low.”
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DSB awaits province OK to sell millions in property

TORONTO - Toronto public school board trustees have approved a three-year plan that could see them sell off millions in property.

They now have their fingers crossed hoping the province will approve it.

The Toronto District School Board approved the capital plan close to midnight Thursday but must now hope the provincial government lifts a capital funding freeze imposed last year.

Queen’s Park slapped the freeze on the Toronto board following cost overruns on school renovation and construction projects.

TDSB vice-chairman Shaun Chen said the board had hoped the freeze would have been lifted earlier when the current fiscal year’s capital budget had been balanced.

“I’m very hopeful we can move forward,” Chen said. “There is a lot of need in our system. We have schools that are busting at the seams and students need a safe and appropriate learning environment. That includes our facilities.”

Chen would not discuss specifics about the plan, which media reports indicate could raise as much as $162 million and apparently includes a list of 11 properties to be sold.

“The plan will see board generating revenues from property sales, would spend on key priority capital projects,” Chen confirmed.

The province must first approve the plan before it can proceed, but that won’t be the end of their work with the Ministry of Education, he said.

“Even with individual projects the ministry has to give approval to proceed on each of those projects,” Chen said. “They’re there every step of the way.”

Lauren Ramey, spokesman for Education Minister Liz Sandals, said the ministry has yet to receive the TDSB capital plan but expects it will be submitted “shortly.”

The ministry will also review a report submitted by a “special assistance team” appointed to help the board with its finances, she said.

“We’re hopeful the TDSB’s capital plan will address the conditions to lift the capital freeze,” Ramey said in an e-mail. “We’ve been clear that the freeze did not mean that the board should stop all accommodation and capital planning efforts and it did not apply to any projects already underway.”
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Toronto's plastic bag fee debate buried

Mayor Rob Ford helped hammer the “final nail in the coffin” of Toronto’s five-cent bag fee on Wednesday.

Ford made a surprise appearance at the public works committee to vote to bury the plastic bag debate indefinitely.

The mayor — an ex-officio member of all council committees — didn’t speak during the debate but did cast his vote on the winning side of the 5-2 vote to receive a report on plastic bag reduction strategies “for information.” That result keeps the issue away from council and almost entirely rules out any debate to bring back the bag fee or the ill-fated bag ban for at least a year.

“Torontonians pay enough in taxes, they don’t need to be nickel and dimed every time they go to the store to buy groceries or buy something,” Ford said in a press conference following the vote.

Ford led council in trashing the bag fee last June but at the same debate councillors also ended up voting to ban plastic bags. After a legal challenge, council ended up dropping the ban late last year.

“Today I cast my vote as mayor at the public works and infrastructure committee ... to make sure we put the final nail in the coffin of this plastic bag fee once and for all,” Ford said. “Folks, we have to remember, these (plastic) bags are 100% recyclable and reusable.”

Public works chairman Denzil Minnan-Wong acknowledged the issue could be brought back to council with a two-thirds vote but suspected there was “debate fatigue” around plastic bags.

Councillor Janet Davis tried to get the committee to order city staff to consider a bag fee as part of the city’s long-term waste strategy.

“There is definitely a desire for this government to take proactive action on plastic bags,” Davis said.

A number of councillors lamented the fact the city has spent so much of its time debating plastic bags.

“This council has some sort of Freudian preoccupation with plastic bags,” said Councillor John Parker.

Councillor Michelle Berardinetti hoped the bag fee debate would return after the next election.

“We’ve beat the issue to death and it is something that should be raised in the next term of council,” Berardinetti said.

Councillor Mary-Margaret McMahon questioned why council messed with the bag fee in the first place.

“The fee worked, it changed people’s behaviours for the better,” she said. “Why did we go down this weird, slippery slope?”
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St. Lawrence Market North redevelopment fight heats up

TORONTO - Get ready for a fight over the St. Lawrence Market North project at city council.

Councillor Doug Ford vowed Monday that he’ll to try to stop the $91-million redevelopment — up from the original $74.8-million price tag — next month.

“I will fight it at council,” Ford said.

Councillors on the government management committee voted 3-3 against stopping the project and were also deadlocked on whether to move ahead with the initiative.

The project update now goes on to city council without any recommendation.

The new building is slated to replace the existing one located on the north side of Front St. E. — across from the St. Lawrence Market.

City officials say it would house consolidated court services — which are presently in three different buildings — and offer a “significant improvement to a city landmark and tourist destination.”

Part of the jump in the proposed budget was attributed to a 250-space underground parking garage set to be built on the site.

“We’re going out and we’re spending (a) disproportionate amount of money downtown all the time,” Ford said after the vote.

He questioned why the city would spend “$100 million on courthouses? For what? We don’t need $100-million courthouses when I can’t even afford to put a park up in Etobicoke.

“(In) Etobicoke North we get crumbs, people out in Scarborough get crumbs.”

Ford lamented his belief that downtown councillors get millions in Section 37 money from developments.

“Distribute the money equally to all the boroughs not just downtown all the time,” he said.

Councillor Pam McConnell, whose ward includes the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood, argued the city could end up saving money on the building — and likely “make money at the end of it.”

My community asked ‘What are we going to do with a 1967 building that no longer functions?’” McConnell said.

She stressed the project was already approved at the original price by council.

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti blasted the “magical” project.

“I think we need to stop the bleeding,” Mammoliti said, before urging the committee to direct staff to take no further action on the project.

“This is bleeding, this has cut into a city artery … and we need to stop it now.”
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TTC operators face 500 assaults, threats a year

TORONTO - Assaults on TTC workers have dropped by more than 15% annually since 2009 but operators still face around 500 assaults and threats each year, the TTC’s court advocate says.

Stuart Budgell said the number of incidents have dropped from 600 a year to around 500 since he began working with assault victims four years ago.

He spoke with the Toronto Sun after news broke Monday of two men jailed for separate assaults on TTC operators.

In one case, Varatharajan Ponnampalam, 46, was sentenced to 120 days after pleading guilty to assault on a female TTC driver last year. The woman was hit four times with an umbrella by a man “acting in a disorderly manner” on the 102 Markham bus on June 8.

Before the attack, she asked him to “settle down.” After he refused, she asked him to leave the bus.

He struck the driver, leaving her with “some severe bruising on her hand,” said Budgell.

Ponnampalam entered his guilty plea five days later. He was also handed a year probation, with conditions forbidding him from riding on the victim’s bus.

In the second case, Anthony Savo-Sadaro, 43, was handed 25 days in jail and two years probation after pleading guilty June 10 to assault.

He grabbed a male bus driver’s arm on April 18 and “demanded to be driven to a nearby liquor store” while riding the 123 Shorncliffe bus.

“They’re fine, they’re back at work,” Budgell said of the two workers.

Budgell’s job is to provide support for victims through counselling and working with the Crown for sentences that “reflect the severity” of the assaults on drivers.

“We don’t really get to ban people from the TTC,” Budgell said. “Many of the judges feel that people need to use our services.”

Over half of all incidents involve spitting. Most assaults revolve around fare evasion, according to Budgell. A number of attackers are “intoxicated people.”

“They lash out at our operators,” he said.

While some workers dust themselves off, others never return to the wheel, Budgell said.

He recalled a 26-year-old female driver who was punched for “no reason” after only three weeks on the job. She suffered a broken eye socket and now works in another capacity at the TTC.

“This woman has never driven a bus again,” Budgell said. “She’s terrified of driving.”
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Ford juice incident no big deal: Witness

An eye witness says the incident in which a drink was thrown at Mayor Rob Ford in Little Italy on Saturday has been blown out of proportion.

Scarborough resident Melissa Dwyer said that the civic leader acted “like nothing ever happened” when a cup of juice was thrown at him during the Taste of Italy festival.

Dwyer, who was at Crawford Rd. and College St. to celebrate Father’s Day with her family, said the mayor talked to a woman who threw a cup of juice at him.

“You could tell he definitely felt a little sad inside, but that didn’t stop him from continuing with the rest of his day,” Dwyer said.

Both the mayor and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, joked about ordeal on their weekly talk show Sunday afternoon, calling it a “little shower.”

Dwyer said even when Ford and his assistant caught the woman, they weren’t angry and appeared calm.

“They caught her and asked her, ‘Why would you do this?’ but nobody got angry at her. Everyone was very pleasant about the entire situation,” Dwyer said.

She added that after his staff member alerted police officers, who were standing nearby, the mayor walked away and continued taking pictures with people who had gathered and formed a line around the block.

The crowd of people who witnessed what had occurred, and those who walked by afterwards, were impressed with how he handled the situation. Even some of the vendors who were working the event commented on it, Dwyer said.

Councillor Doug Ford told the Toronto Sun’s Don Peat Saturday that the people at the festival treated him, “like a friggen rockstar.”

Shannon Everett, 27, of Toronto, has been charged with assault. She is scheduled to appear in an Old City Hall courtroom on July 23.
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Former madam warns against legalizing brothels

A former madam warns that organized crime — not sex trade workers — will reap the benefits if Canada’s Supreme Court legalizes brothels.

Tania Fiolleau, a Vancouver-based former madam turned TV talk show host and activist, said she is concerned about the potential ramifications of legalizing brothels.

Canada’s top court finished a week of appeal hearings Friday which could result in a dramatic change to the country’s prostitution laws.

At issue is the constitutionality of three sections of the Criminal Code that ban brothels and deal with living off the avails of prostitution and soliciting. “(Crime syndicates) would rather have legalized brothels that are fronts,” Fiolleau said. “That’s what they like to do. It’s going to bring more crime into it because it’s a cash business.”

Fiolleau said in her experience, legalization will only increase the risk faced by prostitutes.

“They say the women can get tested (for sexually transmitted diseases) more regularly but the john doesn’t get tested,” she added. “Her tests come back clean then she has (unprotected sex) with a dirty trick and her tests are null and void.”

Fiolleau, host of Tania’s Truth Talk on Joy TV, said when she was involved in the business, her brothel was backed by the Russian mafia. The Asian and biker gangs are also heavily involved, she said.

Fiolleau is calling for the government to impose tougher laws, like those in Sweden, where strict penalties for Johns caught buying sex resulted in a dramatic decrease in prostitution.

“We have been pushing for that for years,” she said.

But Valerie Scott, a sex worker advocate, countered Fiolleau’s assertions are wrong. Scott, one of three women who brought forward the case which has lead to the Supreme Court appeal, said moving prostitution out of the shadows benefits everyone.

“When it’s brought above ground and into the light it makes it far more difficult for organized crime to operate,” she said.

Scott said studies have been done focusing on sex workers and sexually transmitted diseases. Sex workers practice safe sex because they have no emotional attachment to johns and don’t fear losing them.

“We can get guys to use condoms,” she said. “We’re not in love with them. Love is the biggest risk factors for STI.”

Scott said she is happy with how the arguments unfolded in court last week and anticipates it could take up to a year before a decision comes down.

“We’d rather they take their time and get it right,” she said.
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Toronto Police Chief, officers do their job with Project Traveller

TORONTO - So just what is it police may have picked up in this massive raid that had Chief Bill Blair so skillfully dodging reporter’s questions?
The notorious alleged crack video? Talk on wire taps about buying or selling the video?

Nothing?

The chief, brilliantly, would not answer either way.

In fact more than ten times, in ten different ways, the dogged reporters tried to trip up Chief Bill Blair to draw the link between Mayor Rob Ford and the Dixon Rd. raids.

Like Nick Wallenda on the high wire, the chief was cautious.

“I am not able to disclose any of the investigative methodologies that were employed in this case or to disclose any of the evidence that has (been) obtained,” said the chief about ten times. “The only place for the legal disclosure is in a court of law.”

What was that code for? Or was it just a chief laying out the facts?

You have to read into it yourself what you think it all means. You can be sure there will be reporters at the court hearings of those who were charged in this operation.

The conundrum continues. It is, as they say, a riddle wrapped up in an enigma.

Meanwhile, the irritated mayor was more concise.

“You guys can’t get it through your thick skulls,” Ford angrily told reporters following him into an elevator at City Hall. “I’ve already answered all these questions. I have nothing to do with this.”

He didn’t call them maggots this time at least — although clearly media vans following him and reporters and camera people approaching him on his personal driveway is starting to look more like harassment than fostering accountability.

If he was concerned about what police were up to Thursday, he didn’t show it. In fact, had nothing but kudos for them.

“I congratulate the police on doing their work,” said Ford.

Congratulations are in order.

The bottom line is the city is safer today because of it.

After the Eaton Centre and Danzig St. massacres a year ago and the head-in-the-sand approach of “one idiot with a gun” there is nothing but praise for shutting down violent criminal enterprise from me.

It was incredible police work.

“Police shut down a stream of guns into the GTA which gangs use to build their criminal enterprise, to terrorize, wound and murder to protect their million dollar drug operations,” said crime specialist Ross McLean. “It was impressive and I think the chief and Toronto Police deserve congratulations.”
In fact I offered just that when talking to Blair after the news conference while teasing him on how adept he was in the news conference.

That was some fine footwork by the big guy.

“I kept bringing it back to the (bust)” Blair told me with a grin. “It was a very important operation.”
You better believe it.

More than $572,000 in cash seized, 40 guns, $3-million in drugs, 43 arrested and an alleged criminal organization, temporarily at least, shut down.

Think of the lives that may have been saved.

But who are we kidding? The only reason there was so much interest in this news conference is because people are hoping it’s another piece in the puzzle linking the mayor to some alleged crack video.

The dogged media peppered the chief.

They did their job.

He did his.

In doing it, Blair managed not to throw Ford to the blood-thirsty sharks if indeed there is a connection, but didn’t protect him from possible future revelations either.

In fact everything after this news conference was exactly where it was before it: Plenty of rumour, gossip and speculation but still, so far at least, no smoking pipe.

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Privatized trash pick-up winning complaints battle: Report

TORONTO - Toronto’s privatized trash collection has generated fewer complaints so far this year than its garbage pick-up performed by city workers.

A report going to the city’s public works committee next week finds double the average number complaints per week in the first quarter of the year in areas of the city collected by unionized city employees compared to areas where collection has been contracted out.

In the first three months of 2013, there were around 15 “daily service requests” per week in Districts 1 and 2 — the two areas of the city where collection has been privatized — while the complaints in Districts 3 and 4 were around 30 per week.

Mayor Rob Ford led city council in contracting out garbage collection in District 2 — the area west of Yonge St. and east of the Humber River — earlier this council term. While complaints spiked when the service switched from city employees to GFL — the company that won the bid — things now seem to be running smoothly, according to city staff.

The staff report does stress service is getting better across the city.

“Although these service request numbers for District 3 and 4 are higher than District 1 and 2 they are an improvement over last year’s average per day of 50 complaints,” the report notes.

Public works chairman Denzil Minnan-Wong called the numbers “fantastic.”

He argued it shows privatizing garbage pick-up was the right thing to do.

“This report shows a clear win not only in terms of price but service performance exceeds that of the public sector,” Minnan-Wong said.

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