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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