Honest Ed’s store — famous for its cheesy outdoor signage and low prices — has been quietly put up for sale

Honest Ed’s, the Toronto landmark known as much for its cheesy outdoor signage as its low prices, is up for sale.

Sources confirmed to the National Post that the famous Bloor Street store has been put on the block, along with some surrounding land also owned by the Mirvish family, and several real estate companies have been invited to make an offer in a transaction that could be worth about $100-million. This was later confirmed by the store’s long-time manager Russell Lazar.

He opened his store on a Saturday, and watched a torrent of customers pour in — the store was mobbed

“It never really [publicly] hit the market,” said one real-estate source with knowledge of the offer, which appears to have been kept deliberately quiet. Colliers International is said to represent the listing.
The store — impossible to miss with its high-wattage outdoor marquee and schmaltzy posters like “Honest Ed attracts squirrels! At these prices they think he’s nuts!” — was first opened in 1948 by Ed Mirvish. His seed capital of $212 came from cashing in his wife’s insurance policy.

FileInside Honest Ed's discount store.

“He opened his store on a Saturday, and watched a torrent of customers pour in — the store was mobbed. It was the opening day of Honest Ed’s,” notes the retailer’s website.

From the store, the Mirvishes expanded and diversified their empire and today operate the most prominent company in the Canadian live-theatre business, Mirvish Productions.

The Honest Ed’s store has 160,000 square feet, but the total development being sold is said to encompass about 350,000 square feet, according to sources. The area around the store is known as Mirvish Village and features more upscale boutiques, book stores, art galleries and restaurants that are more in tune with the surrounding upscale Annex neighbourhood.

PETER REDMAN / NATIONAL POSTDavid Mirvish at Honest Ed's store at Bloor St. West and Bathurst at the end of a fashion show that was part of the 60th anniversary celebrations for the famous discount store.

Mr. Mirvish’s son David, who now owns the properties, told the National Post on Monday that nothing has been sold. He would not comment about his holdings in the area or how the various properties have been assembled.

Honest Ed Mirvish's picture is shown in his office in Toronto, Ontario Wednesday July 11, 2007. 

“We are about to celebrate our 65th anniversary and I’ll talk about that,” said Mr. Mirvish, who worked alongside his father running the family business, until Ed Mirvish died in 2007.

“I’m planning it for 2014 and for 2015, if you would like to talk about that.”

Mr. Mirvish said there have always been rumours about the property and the land — a prime location on the subway line — being for sale.

“Everything is on the market with me …  you never know what will happen in the future,” said Mr. Mirvish. “For the moment, we are planning our anniversary.”

The sale of the land and property would come as Mr. Mirvish forges ahead with plans for a massive condo project further south in Toronto, on King Street West.

In October 2012, Mr. Mirvish and acclaimed Toronto-born architect Frank Gehry unveiled plans for what has been referred to as “three iconic towers” in the theatre district.

Courtesy of Gehry International, Inc.View from the south, Courtesy of Gehry International, Inc -- An artist's rendering of the condominium and arts complex for King Street West in Toronto designed by Frank Gehry to replace Mirvish's Princess of Wales theatre.

The condo towers are to be 80 storeys high and the project includes an art gallery, retail space and studios for the Ontario College of Art and Design University.

Honest Ed's, located at the corner of Bathurst and Bloor Street in Toronto, Monday July 15, 2013. 

The plan is in the municipal-approval process.

Toronto condo developer Brad Lamb said any buyer planning to purchase the Honest Ed’s site for a multi-family residential project couldn’t expect to be allowed anything like the density that is planned for the King Street project.

“They’ve opened the flood gates on King Street,” said Mr. Lamb.

“What will happen [in The Annex] is someone like RioCan [a retail landlord] will probably partner with an office developer or condo developer, and we’re talking about a 10- to-12-storey development.”

Mr. Lamb said he hadn’t heard anything about the sale of the Mirvish property but said he would welcome any change to the area.

“It would be great,” said Mr. Lamb, about the Honest Ed’s site. “That thing is an eyesore.”

 People line up in a catwalk in Toronto at Honest Ed's in November 2000 for the annual turkey giveaway.

CNW Group/Toronto Hydro Corporation fileToronto's Honest Ed's.

FileInside Honest Ed's discount store.

FileInside Honest Ed's discount store.

The iconic Honest Ed's, located at the corner of Bathurst and Bloor Street in Toronto, Monday July 15, 2013.

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Honda Indy brings loads of noise & drama to Toronto

Toronto's Honda Indy has to compete for a citizen's summer entertainment dollar, which is probably why the city's downtown car race landed one of the three "two-for-one" race weekends in this year's Indycar calendar - a long weekend of racing that begins with a day of free practices and qualifying laps before two races back to back. With a variety of other races filling out the bill, it means a weekend of near-satiation for motorsport fans, and just a little more irritation for folks who simply don't like this sort of thing.
Opponents of the downtown Indycar race, now in its third decade, complain about the inconvenience and the road closures but mostly they complain about the noise. Oddly enough, that's exactly what fans of the weekend race enjoy about it, and this year's race had noise of every sort, from little four-banger engines to turbocharged V6s to rotary Wankels and monster V8 and V10 powerplants tearing open the clear blue sky that graced the whole three days.
The two Indycar races are the main event, of course, but there's probably more fun to be found in the supporting events, which include the three tiers of racing series in the "Road to Indy," which includes USF2000, Pro Mazda and Indy Lights, each running open-wheel cars of increasing sophistication, with drivers as young as fifteen sitting behind the wheel. I tried to pay more attention to these overlooked series this year, and found that I really enjoyed the USF2000 races.
Running a V4 engine, these relatively small cars have low, almost tubular bodies with long suspension struts, skinny wheels and two simple wings, front and back, that make them look like the Formula 1 cars of the late sixties. Driven by men like Jackie Stewart and Mario Andretti, they only raced for a couple of years before the science of aerodynamics and the quest for grip made race cars look more like planes. They were quick and agile, and as the USF2000 cars piled into turn one after the green flag, I could almost imagine what pro racing looked like in the days before you needed the backing of several major conglomerates to run a team.
The other big series on the card in Toronto was the Pirelli World Challenge, running four classes of cars that are as close to "stock" as you'll find outside of a dirt track these days. The big engines and money are in the GT and GTS classes, where you'll find Porsches, Mustangs, Vipers, Camaros and Audi R8s making the most noise of the weekend, with the biggest sound coming from the Cadillac CTS V-Rs, which made a truly terrifying sound as they powered in and out of corners.
The most entertaining race, as far as I was concerned, was on the low end of the PWC card - the Touring Car and Touring Car-B classes running compact sedans and budget econoboxes around the street track carved out of the Exhibition grounds and a stretch of Lake Shore Boulevard. The might have been lowered, race-prepped and tuned up, but these were the same Civics, Fiat 500s, Mazda 2s, Minis and Ford Focuses that fill our streets and jostle for parking spaces, and it was a gas watching them lunge through corners and sprint down the straights like toddlers running for an ice cream truck.
The biggest crowd pleaser of the weekend was a pair of demonstration races of the Stadium Super Trucks, a new series just launched by NASCAR driver Robby Gordon. Racing trucks fitted with huge tires and massive suspension tear around the track, turning corners on two and three wheels and hitting ramps that give them massive air. With star drivers like Paul Tracy behind the wheels, Gordon has refined an old idea that comes off like the thinking man's Monster Truck. It was stupid fun, and judging by the crowd reaction, a hit in the making.
The main event, however, is the pair of Indycar races. The idea of running two races on consecutive days might be great for maximizing the spectator value of a street race like Toronto, but most drivers have admitted beforehand that having barely 21 hours instead of a week or two to recuperate between races is something like hell. Then there are the mechanics who have to spend the night rebuilding engines, transmissions, and even whole cars if they hit the wall or each other the day before.
On top of that, Indycar chose Toronto as the place to hold the first standing start in the history of the race. Instead of running a couple of formation laps before sprinting down the start line under the green flag (like NASCAR,) the cars would form up in a grid behind the starter's flag (like Formula 1.) Since many Indy drivers had never done a standing start in their professional career, if at all, this was even more controversial than the two-fer races.
As if to add just a bit more drama to the weekend, racer Ryan Briscoe broke his wrist in a crash near the end of Saturday's race, so his team tapped young Indy Lights driver Carlos Munoz to take over his car for Sunday. At a press conference before the Sunday race, Munoz described how he got the call at 7pm the night before, as he was packing for an early flight home the next morning.
"I was very surprised because it was really late," Munoz said. "I talked to a bunch of different guys and they said you have to take this chance ... These guys have been running here since Friday, and going into it this late is like swimming with sharks."
Saturday's race was ragged. The planned standing start was aborted when a driver at the back of the grid stalled, and the race went on with stalls, collisions and race incidents, culminating in a comic podium mishap where second place winner Sebastien Bourdais dropped his crystal trophy bowl to watch it shatter, and Dario Franchitti was told, just before stepping up to the podium, that he was being penalized for a race incident and would be moved back to thirteenth place. His win was reinstated afterward, but it was no doubt on his mind as he stood and watched Bourdais' trophy bounce and break.
Back on pit row, Graham Rahal was reviewing the race, which saw Tristan Vautier make contact with his car on lap thirty-five, sending him into a spin and Vautier into a stall. It put him near the back of the race, in twentieth place, and with less than a day until the next race, I ask him how he's going to prepare.
"I feel good at this moment. It definitely was a physical race, there's zero doubt about that. But you know we're going to get a lot of rest tonight. Go get some sleep and get a big steak in us, get some energy and go back at it. This is a tough place; it's bumpy, as you can imagine and our hands get blisters which you definitely have to tape up before tomorrow."
Rahal is from a racing family - his father Bobby won the first race on the Toronto street circuit in 1986, and co-owns the team Graham drives for alongside teammate John Jakes. He knows a rough race when he sees one.
"From the looks of it there are a lot of parts laying around on the track - people were really hard on each other today."
Back at his team's paddock, I ask Donny Stewart, Rahal's crew chief, what he has to do to get the car ready again for tomorrow. It sounds like more work than most people do on their cars between buying it and selling it, but this is normal here.
"This weekend we have a little more because we damaged the underwing in this race so we'll have to change the underwing, get our backup car out and get the underwing off that one. Swap it to this car. We'll rebuild the brake calipers just because of the temperatures from when we stalled. So we'll rebuild that tonight."
"We'll take the gear stack out and inspect everything, do a good nut and bolt on the whole car. Change air filters. For the engine, take a good look at the exhaust. Preventative maintenance is the biggest thing, really."
The next day's race begins with a standing start again. This time it takes, and the ensuing race runs in the hottest temperatures of the weekend. Walking the track wall taking pictures, the race seems cleaner than the day before, but there are still crashes, one that takes out John Jakes, Rahal's teammate. By the third day of driving, the track is black with rubber and littered with bits of shredded tire.
I feel bad for James Hinchcliffe. It's the hometown race for this Oakville-born driver and despite the obvious support for fans and no shortage of media, he finishes eighth the first day and 21st the second, after his throttle sticks in the pit lane before the start, leaving him at the back of the pack for the whole race.
In the end, it's Scott Dixon's weekend. The New Zealander wins both races - three in a row - and a hundred thousand dollar prize offered to anyone who can win a whole race weekend. His daughters end up getting much of the attention from the cameras at the winner's circle, his youngest making off with Bullseye, the stuffed toy mascot of Target, his car's sponsor. After the customary champagne bath, it's all over, and the business of tearing down the Toronto Indy track for another year begins. By the end of the month all that's left will be the burnout marks on pit lane.

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Salvatore 'Sam' Calautti pal, James Tusek had 'multiple gunshot wounds'

By Terry Davidson ,Toronto Sun
TORONTO - A suspected Mafia hitman and an associate killed in Vaughan late last week died of “multiple gunshot wounds,” York Regional Police have confirmed.

It was around 1 a.m. Friday that police found 41-year-old Salvatory “Sam” Calautti slumped behind the wheel of his black BMW outside Terrace Banquet Hall, shot in the head.

James Tusek, 30 — believed to be a long-time associate of Calautti — was found beside the car. He was shot in the stomach and chest and died of his injuries after being rushed to hospital.

Investigators believe Toronto-based Calautti, a father of three, was the prime target in that night’s killings. He and Tusek had just left a bachelor party where as many as 500 guests were present.

And while there were still 100 people celebrating when police found Calautti and Tusek, police have reportedly had a tough time getting witnesses to come forward.

Calautti was long on police radar as a suspect in gangland killings.

One reportedly includes the still-unsolved November 2010 murder of Nick Rizzuto Sr., father of Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto.

Rizzuto Sr. was shot sniper-style while standing in the kitchen of his mansion.

In 1998, Calautti was acquitted of first-degree murder in the death of businessman Guiseppe Conguista, who was shot multiple times two years earlier near Finch Ave. and Weston Rd. — reportedly over a $500 debt.

Police charged Calautti again in 1999 after four men were shot at while stopped in a car at a Toronto intersection, but he was set free once again. And in 2000, he became a suspect in the murder of Vito Rizzuto associate Gaetano Panepinto, who was shot in his Cadillac after leaving his west Toronto home.

A police source has told the Toronto Sun that Calautti was a known hitman with extensive ties to Calabrian organized crime, and had a fair share of enemies among rival Sicilian mobsters.

“Investigators do believe this was a targeted event,” Const. Blair McQuillan said while at the murder scene Friday.

Investigators are currently going over video footage from the area, and are asking anyone with information to contact them.

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Slaying of Salvatore "Sam" Calautti and James Tusek has expert wondering if Montreal’s Mafia war is coming to Toronto

By Peter Edwards, Jennifer Pagliaro
  
Salvatore (Sam) Calautti, 40, seldom travelled alone or without a gun — a sensible precaution for a man suspected in at least five unsolved gangland hits, including the slaying of Nicolo (Uncle Nick) Rizzuto Sr., father of Montreal Mafia boss Vito Rizzuto.

But neither his gun nor his associates saved the longtime GTA hitman Friday morning when he was shot dead in his BMW X6 after attending the stag of a local bookie at the Terrace Banquet Centre in Vaughan that was attended by 500 guests, 100 of whom were there at the time of the shooting.

His longtime associate, James Tusek, 35, was also slain.

The double gangland hits have investigators wondering if the Montreal Mafia wars have moved to Toronto. “It could be the beginning of a new front of struggle in the Montreal war,” said Antonio Nicaso, an author and expert on international organized crime, who has lectured police forces in several countries. He noted that two men connected to the mob war were murdered in Sicily in April.

“After Italy, Ontario may also be involved in the showdown,” he said.

Vito Rizzuto’s underworld enemies in Ontario are believed to have conspired with some Montreal mobsters in a war in that city that led to the murder of Rizzuto’s father, eldest son, brother-in-law and several of his closest associates.

The Star has learned Calautti was investigated in the unsolved November 2010 murder of Rizzuto Sr., who was shot dead by a sniper while standing with his wife in the kitchen of his Montreal mansion. Police saw one of Calautti’s longtime associates in Montreal the day after the Nick Rizzuto Sr. murder: “You have to consider the presence of these people at the time of the murder,” a police investigator said.

Vito Rizzuto was released from a U.S. prison in October after serving almost six years for his role in the underworld executions of three Brooklyn mobsters in 1981. Immediately on his return to Canada, he is believed to have huddled with supporters in the GTA before returning to Montreal. Since his release, at least half a dozen of his enemies have been slain in Montreal and Sicily.

Calautti was believed to be a “made man” in the ‘Ndrangheta, or Calabrian Mafia. He was considered by police to be muscle for at least three local mob groups, including bitter enemies of Vito Rizzuto.

The police sources noted that there is extreme tension between Rizzuto’s crime group, which has Sicilian roots, and many GTA mobsters, whose roots are in the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta.
Video

The police source said he wondered if the killing was set up by someone Calautti trusted. He said he found it surprising that someone with the hitman’s street sense could be ambushed in his car: “It’s hard to think someone snuck up on him. Sam was the type of guy who always carried a gun.”

A short, squat man, Calautti commanded considerable fear in underworld circles because of his proclivity for violence.

“Sam was such a hothead,” one of the police sources said. “He had beefs with everybody.” It’s no surprise he met a violent end, he added. “It’s something that eventually was bound to happen.”

“He loved to do (debt) collections,” the source said. “Loved to beat people, always had a gun. Anything in the violent end of gangsterism is what he would do.”

This source added, “He always, always, always travelled with another organized crime figure.”

Police were called to the Terrace Banquet Centre on Creditstone Rd. around 1 a.m. on Friday after shots were heard. They found one man dead in the parking lot. The second victim was taken to hospital where he died of his injuries, said York Regional Police Const. Blair McQuillan.

A bullet hole could be seen on the passenger-side door of Calautti’s BMW as it was loaded onto a flatbed truck before 10 a.m. on Friday.

Charges against Tusek were stayed in 2011 after he was arrested for taking part in a $16-million Niagara Region marijuana grow-op. Several people entering a north-end Toronto home on Port Trail Rd. believed to belong to Tusek’s family refused to speak to a reporter on Friday.

Even before the Nick Rizzuto Sr. murder, Calautti had long and often tense relations with the Montreal-based Rizzuto crime family. Authorities say the Rizzuto group also has a strong and long-standing GTA presence.

Calautti was the prime suspect in Operation RIP, which investigated the 2000 slaying of Vito Rizzuto’s former right-hand man, Gaetano (Guy) Panepinto in Toronto in October 2000.

Calautti had been close friends with ‘Ndrangheta member Domenic (Mico) Napoli, a mobster who was in conflict with Panepinto over gambling territory. Napoli and his associate Antonio Oppedisano disappeared and were believed murdered in early 2000.

Police investigated but couldn’t prove the theory that Panepinto cremated the bodies at his discount casket shop on St. Clair Ave. W.

Even though police didn’t prove their case, there were severe repercussions for the Napoli and Oppedisano murders. Oppedisano was the son of a major ‘Ndranghetta boss in Southern Italy. Not long after his disappearance, Calabrian mobsters visited Montreal and spoke to Rizzuto.

Sources say that Rizzuto quickly distanced himself from Panepinto, saying he had nothing to do with the killings of Napoli and Oppedisano.

In October 2000, Panepinto was shot dead while driving his Cadillac in West Toronto. That murder was never solved.

The massive Montreal RCMP investigation dubbed Project Colisée found that in 2006 that Calautti ran up more than $200,000 in gambling debts to the Rizzuto crime family. After he refused to pay, that debt was believed to be assumed by a GTA mobster.

Other gambling debts run up by Calautti were considered the spark for the hostilities that led to the 2004 shooting of Louise Russo, an innocent victim in a North York sandwich shop, one of the police sources said.

Calautti owed roughly $200,000 to an online gambling operation with ties to the GTA mob and the London, Ont., Hells Angels. When Calautti refused to pay, his sponsor, Sicilian mobster Michele (Mike) Modica, was stuck with the debt. A hit team was trying to kill Modica in the California Sandwich shop when gunmen missed and paralyzed Russo.

A father of three, Calautti ran a pizzeria and gelato shop on Dufferin St. On Friday, employees were packing up the patio as two homicide detectives arrived in an unmarked car. A man at the restaurant refused to speak to a reporter, saying only that the restaurant was closed.

When asked why, the man said because of “flooding.” Both new and regular customers who arrived on Friday were confronted with a hastily written “Closed due to flooding” sign taped on the window.

Former neighbours on Woodbridge’s Rota Cres. recalled Calautti and his estranged wife as a nice couple who helped build a fence in their backyard. Detectives arrived at 8 a.m. looking for his wife, the new owner said.

In 1998, Calautti was acquitted by a jury of the fatal shooting of Giuseppe Congiusta, 32, outside a North York social club. Congiusta was shot nine times on Sept. 5, 1996, near the MS social club at Finch Ave. W. and Weston Rd.
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/07/13/slaying_of_hitman_and_his_friend_has_expert_wondering_if_montreals_mafia_war_is_coming_to_toronto.html
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Hit on Salvatore "Sam" Calautti could be message from Montreal Mafia

Rob Lamberti, Special to the Toronto Sun
TORONTO - Police attribute at least five hits to Calabrian mob assassin Salvatore “Sam” Calautti.

More than likely, the man who owned the Cinquelire restaurant on Dufferin St. in Toronto is probably behind even more, say police.

The 41-year-old father of three children was violent, enjoyed inflicting pain and made a lot of money for his bosses.

“Him? There’s five (hits) that we know of, probably more,” said a police source. “You can probably even double the number.

“He was very unique, a one-of-kind type of guy,” the source said. “That was their own words. That’s their own words, of the gangsters, that he was one of a kind. He was a difficult guy to control, difficult guy to manage. But … he’s the type of guy who makes a lot of money.”

And the totals on how many people Calautti assaulted, shot, or tortured during his violent reign of terror?

“Hundreds,” the officer said.

But the question that is on police investigators’ minds is if the slaying of Calautti and his associate James Tusek, 35, could be the mark of Montreal mob chieftain Vito Rizzuto reclaiming his command over the Ontario underworld.

He once had powerful influence over the dealings of the Mafia and the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta in Eastern Canada until he was jailed for his role in the deaths of three New York area mobsters. His leadership was challenged while Rizzuto served his 10-year sentence in a Colorado jail.

Since his return to Canada last October, there has been a settling of accounts in Quebec, police said.

It was long thought by police that the bloodshed in Quebec wouldn’t occur in Ontario, only because Ontario is a quiet, safe place to launder their millions of dollars earned in drug trafficking, gambling and other mob businesses.

But now police wonder if the murder of Calautti early Friday outside a Vaughan banquet hall is Rizzuto exacting vengeance for the slayings of his father Nicolo, his son Nick and other important members of his organization.

One of those significant players in the Rizzuto organization was Getano Panepinto who was murdered in October 2000. He was slain to maintain the peace with the Rizzuto group following the murders of Calautti’s close associates Domenic Napoli and Antonio Oppedisano.

Napoli and Oppedisano were muscling in on Panepinto’s illegal gaming machine business. It’s believed the two were murdered in the basement of Panepinto’s casket shop on St. Clair Ave. W.

Toronto homicide detectives removed chunks of concrete in hopes of finding microscopic forensic evidence of the slayings.

Investigators were told the Napoli and Oppedisano were buried under a Scarborough shopping mall, but their remains were never found.

Calautti was acquitted of the 1996 murder of Guiseppe Conguista, who was riddled with bullets following a discussion about a $500 debt. He was however jailed for a shooting incident.

Calautti, who is close to people on the ‘Ndrangheta’s Camera di Controlo, is also believed to be involved in the slaying of Rizzuto’s father Nicolo.

Nicolo was killed by a sniper’s bullet in 2010 as he sat to dinner with family, in the same manner that former Montreal Calabrian mobster Rocco Violi was assassinated in 1980. Violi’s two brothers were also murdered during the violent transition that led to Nicolo’s rise to power.

Police sources say if Calautti’s slaying is linked to Montreal, then the motive is vengeance.

But did Calautti’s murder harbour a second message from Montreal, urging Ontario’s Calabrian mob leaders to abandon any thought of rebellion and to toe the line?

“You have to consider it,” said an investigator. “You have to consider the drug rip angle, it’s hard to say. With (Calautti), he was doing robberies, he was doing drug rips, he was borrowing money and never paying (back). The suspect list is a cast of thousands, and they’re all plausible.”
http://www.torontosun.com/2013/07/13/slain-hit-man-could-be-message-from-montreal-mobsters
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Slain Mafia hitman 'a prolific killer': Salvatore ‘Sam’ Calautti

By Chris Doucette , Rob Lamberti ,Toronto Sun
VAUGHAN - One of the two men executed early Friday in a banquet hall parking lot northwest of the city was not only a well-connected Calabrian mobster, he was also “a prolific killer,” according to a police source.

Salvatore ‘Sam’ Calautti lived by the gun, so it should come as no surprise he died by a gun.

A source told the Toronto Sun it’s suspected the 41-year-old left “a ton” of dead bodies in his wake over the years. Even other mobsters have described him as “a hot head” and “one of a kind.”

The Mob hitman and debt collector, who was involved in the drug trade and enjoyed gambling, had a reputation for being ruthless.

When people who owed money were warned they’d be getting a visit from Sam, they tended to pay up, the source said.

Calautti has been tied officially to at least two murders and four attempted murders over the last 17 years but he always managed to beat the rap.

He faced a first-degree murder charge for the slaying of Guiseppe Conguista, who was found riddled with bullets in 1996.

It was alleged at the time that the two had met outside a gaming house near Finch Ave. and Weston Rd., which was run by a close friend of Calautti, to discuss a $500 debt.

Conguista, a father of two, was shot nine times.

Calautti was found not guilty by a jury the following year when a witness provided a description of the shooter that didn’t match up.

He was charged with four counts of attempted murder in 1999 after a gunman ambushed four men in a car at an intersection in North York.

The shooter in that attack pulled up in a vehicle next to the victims on Falstaff Ave., just west of Keele St., and opened fire. One of the men was hit in the arm, the others were unscathed.

It appears those charges didn’t stick either.

A year later, Calautti was suspected of killing Gaetano ‘Guy’ Panepinto, an associate of the Rizzuto family — a Sicilian Mafia group based in Montreal.

The coffin business owner was at the wheel of his Cadillac in Etobicoke when he was shot six times.

Investigators suspected the killing was retaliation for two of Calautti’s friends who vanished and are presumed murdered. But they were never able to pin Panepinto’s slaying on him.

Calautti’s luck wasn’t confined to the courtroom.

Just last year the restaurant owner was in the news after he cashed in a $168,000 Proline sports lottery ticket.

It’s unclear how James Tusek, who was also shot to death Friday morning, is tied to the Mob world. But he also had his share of run-ins with cops.

He was among three men charged with attempted murder and other offences in 1997 for brutally stabbing Craig McGuire, 23, a manager of a Just Desserts in Scarborough, and beating up his 26-year-old friend.

And Tusek was one of eight people charged in a $16-million marijuana grow-op bust in Niagara in 2008 — the region’s biggest such bust at the time and the second-largest Ontario had ever seen.

The accused were allegedly growing pot in numerous locations, including an old church.

However, the case fell apart and Tusek’s charges were stayed after a judge accused three Niagara Regional Police officers involved in the drug investigation of misconduct.
http://www.torontosun.com/2013/07/12/slain-mafia-hitman-a-prolific-killer
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Suspected mob hit man ID’d as victim in brazen Vaughan stag party murder

One of the two men killed in the targeted shooting outside a bachelor party north of Toronto early Friday was long suspected by police of being a Mafia hit man because of his many links to past shootings and killings.

Despite the suspected links, Salvatore Calautti, 41, of Toronto, who often went by the nickname Sam, managed to avoid charges or gain acquittals when evidence mounted.

Killed alongside him was James Tusek, 35, also of Toronto.

The two men were shot dead as they left a large stag party in Vaughan that was attended by many known and suspected mobsters from the area.

Despite as many as 150 guests still being at the bachelor party when police arrived, investigators are having trouble finding co-operating witnesses to the shooting. As many as 500 people are thought to have attended at the stag’s peak.

One of the men, likely the primary target of the killers, was shot in the head inside a black SUV. He was already dead when police arrived. The other victim was reportedly shot in the stomach and chest and died later in hospital.

Officers were first called about problems at the party just after 1 a.m., Friday, by a caller saying there was a weapon at the scene. Arriving at Terrace Banquet Centre, an opulent rental hall on Creditstone Road, officers found two men with obvious signs of violence in the parking lot outside.

One likely the primary target, was shot in the head inside a black SUV. He was already dead when police arrived

“Our homicide unit was deployed. Investigators determined they were shot outside a private function, described as a bachelor or stag party,” said Sgt. Whitney.

I can say that we do not believe that the shootings were random and it does appear the deceased were targeted

A large stag party was held at a rented banquet centre starting Thursday evening. Such sprawling, ticketed events have become a rite of passage for many well-to-do young men in the area, a few of whom have ties to organized crime clans that have long and deep roots in the region. When a gangster, mob associate or a gangster’s son, nephew or future son-in-law is getting married, tickets are aggressively sold to raise money for the would-be groom.

Thursday’s party attracted many men from the Woodbridge area and surrounding communities of Vaughan who are linked by police to traditional organized crime, the term law enforcement uses for the Italian Mafia, although there is no indication the organizers were of particular, high-value interest to police.

Despite more than 150 guests still being at the party at The Terrace banquet hall in Vaughan when police arrived, investigators are having trouble finding cooperating witnesses to the shooting

York police could not yet confirm whether the shooting is tied to organized crime.

“I know when something like this happens it spurs all of our imaginations. I can say that we do not believe that the shootings were random and it does appear the deceased were targeted,” said Sgt. Whitney.

The shooting seems strikingly brazen, and not only because it took place less than 250 metres from York police’s District Four headquarters at the corner of Creditstone and Rutherford Road.

Because tickets to these stags are typically professionally printed and distributed for sale in the community, police often know about them in advance and stake them out with surveillance teams to get photos and video of who is there and who is talking with whom.

Police investigators comb the area surround the Terrace banquet hall in Vaughan Friday. 

The more savvy of gangsters know this and have been known to spot the intelligence officers skulking in vans or cars and wave smugly to them in the acknowledged cat-and-mouse games gangsters and cops both play.

Some high profile gangsters buy a couple of tickets and send an envelope of money as a gift to the groom with an associate who passes along his boss’s regrets at not being able to attend personally.
Sgt. Whitney said he did not know whether this stag was under surveillance by police.

If it was, it is unlikely officers would have stayed watching it until the end, unless they had an operative working inside the stag undercover.

Police are appealing for anyone who attended the party or who were in the area around the time of the shooting to contact police to aid in their investigation.

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Vaughan slayings: Suspect in five unsolved murders among two gunned down

Salvatore (Sam) Calautti, a GTA mobster who was the suspect in at least five unsolved murders, was shot to death with another man outside a stag party in Vaughan overnight.

Calautti was one of two men found shot to death — the other being his friend James Tusek, 35 — when officers were called to the Terrace Banquet Centre on Creditstone Rd. in Vaughan around 1 a.m. for a weapons call.

They found one man dead in the parking lot following the shooting. The second man was taken to hospital and died of his injuries there, said York Regional Police Const. Blair McQuillan.

Calautti, whose age was given by York Region Police as 41, was investigated in the still-unsolved October 2000 murder of Gaetano (Guy) Panepinto.

Panepinto ran a cut-rate casket shop in west Toronto and acted as the Toronto representative for Montreal mobster Vito Rizzuto.

Panepinto was killed shortly after Calautti’s best friend, Domenic (Mico) Napoli, and Antonio Oppedisano vanished and were presumed slain in early 2000 after a dispute with Panepinto over gambling territory.

While he was a short, plump man, Calautti had a fearsome presence in the mob world.

He ran up huge gambling debts to the Rizzuto crime family in Montreal, which were settled when another GTA mobster stepped in to make payment.

He also legally won hundreds of thousands of dollars through legalized gambling in Ontario.

“At this point it doesn’t appear to be a random event,” McQuillan said at the crime scene Friday morning. “Investigators do believe this was a targeted event.”

Police confirmed there was a bachelor party taking place at the hall last night, with as many as 500 guests in attendance. It’s believed close to 100 people were there at the time of the shooting.

Some witnesses have already spoken to police, but they are looking to speak to anyone who was at the party or interacted with the victims.

With a York Region police station visible from the scene, mobile command centres were set up Friday morning.

Crews loaded a BMW SUV onto a flatbed truck that was driven away before 10 a.m. Friday morning. It was the only car left parked beside the large banquet hall on a commercial road.

One woman who said she worked at the hall showed up to work at 9 a.m. but was turned away by officers. She said she was told to go home.

A post-mortem has yet to be scheduled.
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The $11,000,000,000 threat to Toronto's economy: How traffic congestion kills the economy

Did you drive to work this morning? A new study says you not only contributed to traffic congestion, but also prevented someone else from using the road.
Transit users don’t get too smug. Your decision to take the train or bus during rush hour has the same impact, inspiring people to take their car instead of packing themselves in with other transit commuters.

In fact, the study shows both transit and traffic congestion is keeping many workers at home. They're either telecommuting or giving up their jobs altogether just to avoid the every day gridlock that can be both financially and emotionally draining
The C.D. Howe Institute study says the combined social and economic costs of congestion are costing cities billions of dollars in lost revenues. It's calling on governments to make better infrastructure decisions to try to stop the economic bleeding.

"When congestion makes people choose to stay at home rather than travel, all sorts of activities are curtailed, resulting in a quantifiable loss to the economy," says Benjamin Dachis, author of the report called, Cars, Congestion and Costs: A New Approach to Evaluating Government Infrastructure Investment. "These losses should be included in the costs of congestion and, in turn, estimates of the benefits of new infrastructure investment."

It’s the latest in a series of reports calling on governments to fix transit gridlock issues in major Canadians cities.

The C.D. Howe report estimates the costs of congestion in the Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area to $7.5 to $11 billion a year, which is an additional $1.5 to $5 billion than current forecasts.

That’s money lost when people choose to stay away from urban centres as a result of increasing congestion.

Dachis points out the benefits of “urban agglomeration,” including people accessing jobs that better match their skills, in-person knowledge sharing and more demand entertainment and cultural opportunities, which benefit other people.

"When congestion makes urban interactions too costly to pursue, these benefits are foregone, adding significantly to the net costs of congestion," said Dachis.

“The social returns from infrastructure can be substantial.”

The report says government aren’t calculating these benefits in their infrastructure spending decisions, which he argues is a mistake.

Dachis recommends governments in Canada should make infrastructure investment by calculating the positive and negative external factors in their cost-benefit analysis used in the initial decision to build.

They should considering charging the “social costs” for users, which Dachis says includes fares and tolls to the extent that they generate economic activity at the destination.

"Charge users of infrastructure the full social costs, to the extent possible," he wrote in the report. "In the case of transportation infrastructure, governments should charge users for the full cost of congestion, but invest in more infrastructure than would be self-sufficient from fare or toll revenue alone, with a view to increasing quantifiable benefits from urban agglomeration."
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The 2013 Toronto Flood: By the numbers

Now that the worst of the water has drained away and the city's infrastructure is (almost) back to normal, now seems like a good time to take stock of Toronto's biggest ever rain event. In the minutes after the surprise deluge began, thousands of buildings went dark, the subway ground to a halt, and major highways, local roads, and underpasses disappeared beneath the murky brown water - all in time for the evening rush-hour.
Using the data that's currently available (there's still a lot of tallying going on) it's possible to get a sense of the storm and its effects. The fact that there were very few injuries is a symbol of the lessons learned from Hurricane Hazel, Toronto's deadliest natural disaster made worse by poor city planning.
The sheer amount of rain that fell on the Toronto is absolutely staggering. Using precipitation figures for downtown and the number of square metres in the city limits, it's possible to estimate around 61,110,000,000 (61.1 billion) litres of liquid fell from the sky. By comparison, the Rogers Centre, closed and filled to the top of its domed roof, would only hold 1,600,000,000 (1.6 billion) litres.
A giant would need to use the stadium as a bucket (and the roof as a cup) 38 times to bail out all of the rain were it gathered into a single sprawling lake. That body of water, by the way, could cover an area of 630 square kilometres to a very shallow depth.
At the peak of the deluge around 300,000 Toronto Hydro customers were without power, almost a third of its 709,000 subscribers. It's important to note the term "customers" doesn't equal people: an apartment building and family home both represent just one subscriber, the company says.
The outage also affected the TTC, particularly underground. 5 separate closures snarled subway network and left 37 of 69 stations without service. Just 65 shuttle buses made avoiding the chaos practically impossible.
Also on the rails, a Richmond Hill bound GO train became trapped just south of Pottery Road amid rising Don River flood waters. 1,400 people (and 1 Northern water snake) were on board by the transit agency's estimate.
In terms of calls for help, the city's non-emergency 311 line received more than 1,000 notices about flooded basements. Figures aren't yet available for 911 calls, though emergency services said they experienced a high volume of requests for help.
It's tough at this stage to put a dollar figure on the damage. The latest estimate pegs it at well above the $600 million clean-up cost from the 2005 tornado. In unusual losses, a high-flying employment lawyer's Ferrari became swamped in the Dufferin underpass and inspired a fake Craigslist ad.
As a bonus feature, here's a look at the rain for the entire GTA (the graph above is only for Toronto) compared with the Rogers Centre capacity. Yikes.

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