February 27th, 2020 · Comments Off on GREENINGS: Short-term gains lead to long-term losses (Feb. 2020)
Province has no business case for reckless cuts
By Terri Chu
Last year, Premier Ford and friends dropped $231 million of “taxpayer” money on killing wind energy projects. It’s one thing to not build any more but spending money to cancel projects? That’s next level “respecting” taxpayer money (as he likes to say). What this government has shown us is that it cares not one whit for being fiscally responsible and it cares not one whit for the best interests of the citizens.
Rather than installing more EV charging stations, Ontario is removing them in a step that’s sending air pollution in the wrong direction. GO’s justification is that the spots are not making sufficient revenue to justify their existence. I’m pretty sure there’s a Greek proverb that reads society grows great when old men plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in, not society grows great when we make decisions solely based on first quarter profits.
We are in this climate mess precisely because of our narrow focus on short-term monetary results. Now Ford wants to take the driving forces of our climate crisis and spread them to every facet of our society. As if it wasn’t bad enough that our children face food shortages in the future, he wants to ensure they aren’t educated enough to think critically about how to cope with the crisis.
Universities now have ridiculous metrics that funding is to be measured against, including “graduate earnings” and “proportion of graduates employed in related fields.” What this spells is essentially the death of liberal arts. Schools will now only focus on pumping out graduates in high earning professions. I don’t even know how liberal arts graduates measure up, whether or not their profession is in a “related field.” The point of education is to broaden your mind and allow you to think critically, regardless of the profession you choose in life.
At the secondary level, the Ford government wants to institute mandatory e-learning despite the fact that students in primarily e-learning-based institutions are finding themselves unmotivated by the format.
Other than saving money, there’s no reason to push students to get their education online. On the one hand, Ford pats himself on the back for banning cell phones in school and then, in a move consistent only with profit-based ideology, he demands students do mandatory e-learning courses. There’s only one meaningful motivation behind this and it is NOT in the best interests of the youth. Meanwhile, we have enough money in our budgets for tax cuts to the tune of billions, primarily targeted at wealthy individuals.
At the primary level, class sizes have ballooned. On the personal side, my daughter’s JK classroom has 29 students in it. Teachers are asking for a raise that matches inflation, something that isn’t an unreasonable ask. However, Ford is refusing to budge on an issue he knows he’s on the losing side of. Teachers aren’t worth a pay raise of 2%, but MPPs are worth an additional 14%. These are all ideological attacks. They’re not even consistent with the “saving money” claims.
Our climate is on the cusp of losing its ability to sustain human life because of short-term focus on profits over trifling details like clean drinking water. If our education system collapses, it will not be able to even produce the workforce that has been instrumental in operating the levers of capitalism. Short-term thinking means we kill the golden goose for a tasty roast goose. This is being implemented at every level of this government.
Our kids deserve a lot better than this. Australia is feeling the effects of short-term thinking. We need not follow suit. Let’s plant those trees, even if we won’t sit in their shade. Let’s stop going profitably backwards.
Terri Chu is an engineer committed to practical environmentalism. This column is dedicated to helping the community reduce energy use, and help distinguish environmental truths from myths. Send questions, comments, and ideas for future columns to Terri at terri.chu@whyshouldicare.ca.
February 27th, 2020 · Comments Off on ARTS: Bloor St. Culture Corridor celebrates Black History Month (Feb. 2020)
February corridor offerings abound
A Tafelmusik presentation, The Indigo Project, which starts Feb. 27 at 427 Bloor St. W. (Trinity St-Paul’s) is a musical journey exploring the implications of the blue dye that touched the lives of the lowest classes. COURTESY TAFELMUSIK
By Meribeth Deen
For many institutions on the Bloor St. Culture Corridor, Black History Month is every month. However, if you’re keen to jump into the spirit of the month, there are plenty of ways to do that between Bathurst and Bay streets.
If you find yourself on Bathurst, head directly to A Different Booklist Cultural Centre (Bloor and Spadina). They have a stellar line up of events that you do not want to miss, and the bookstore will be offering 20 per cent off on “essential” books to celebrate African Liberation Month (Franz Fanon, W.E.B DuBois, Walter Rodney, Roxane Gay). On February 20, enjoy the Literary Salon with Roger McTair, who will discuss his short story collection My Trouble with Books.
Also on February 20, Rivka Campbell will discuss Jews of colour with a focus on Jews of Jamaica at the Miles Nadal Jewish Cultural Centre (750 Spadina). Campbell, a Jewish woman of Jamaican descent, seeks to build community among Jews of colour in Canada while opening dialogue about cultural and ethnic diversity. Campbell has faced challenges finding harmony in both the Black Canadian and Jewish communities. She’s called herself “too Black to be Jewish, too Jewish to be Black,” but despite her challenges, Campbell says she still finds ways to be meaningfully involved in her Jewish community, even serving as a synagogue administrator in Toronto.
Throughout the month of February, Alliance Française (24 Spadina) invites visitors to travel across Africa by viewing the photographs of Nadine McNulty. McNulty photographed families throughout the continent over a 20-year period, and her work focuses on quickly disappearing traditional ways of life. On February 28, the exhibition will be accompanied by a performance by Njacko Backo, a percussionist, singer, storyteller, choreographer, and songwriter/ composer who has been performing for children and adults since his childhood in Cameroon. His programs for children and youth draw on parallels and differences between Canadian and African family life.
Starting on February 27, Tafelmusik (427 Bloor) presents the cross-cultural multimedia project The Indigo Project, created by Alison McKay. This musical journey explores the vast social, cultural, and political implications of the blue dye that touched the lives of Europe’s lowest classes and its courts, North American slave plantations, and current-day garment workers.
On a completely different note – but not to be missed – is the world premier of Up TO and Including Their Limits, a new performance by the internationally-acclaimed artist Cassils at the Gardiner Museum (11 Queen’s Park). Cassils is known for jaw-dropping feats that highlight non-binary and trans visibility and violence, like pummelling a 2,000 lb block of clay and being set on fire in front of a live audience. Only 100 tickets have been released, and they’re going quickly!
These are just a few of February’s highlights of the Corridor, and they offer an important message: even the middle of winter is full of culture and colour in Toronto. So be sure to make the most of it.
Comments Off on ARTS: Bloor St. Culture Corridor celebrates Black History Month (Feb. 2020)Tags:Annex · Arts
Designed by IBI Group, the Theory Condo building is projected to rise 30 storeys and will house 243 condo units. BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS
In May 2020, the Annex Gleaner celebrates 25 years of publishing. In celebration, we are republishing highlights of our past; this feature, Fear of High Buildings Groundless by city-building columnist Alfred Holden, is from May 2001. As thirteen developments are going up in the Annex area it appears Holden’s views were prophetic.
By Alfred Holden
Howard Cohen and I have lunch together sometimes. He’s the only developer I can talk to – he “gets” the city, rides the streetcars, passes me clippings from the New York Times and, like a journalist, thinks he can earn his living and make the town a better place at the same time.
Cohen is a former City of Toronto planner who now builds condominiums. Many are in or near Gleaner territory, among them 20 Niagara St., the nearly-completed District Lofts near Richmond St. W. and Spadina Ave., and the Ideal Lofts, now under construction on College St., just west of Bathurst.
Without exception the buildings, which have been designed by a team headed by architect Peter Clewes, are clean and contemporary – boldly, bravely so, when you consider how most developers seem to think the public only wants “wedding cake” condos: buildings dripping curlicues and baroque ornament.
Ideal Lofts is in a better class. It has potential to live up to its name, as good design in and of itself – there’s a lot of glass, and glass is great – and it is a nicely-fitted addition to the bustling streetcar strip it will be part of.
On College St. Ideal Lofts’ front – clean and square like old factories nearby – rises right from the sidewalk, continuing the shop facades. Up a few floors Ideal steps back and then back again, yielding open terraces for residents and angles that let more sun down to the street.
At the back, the building’s nine or so storeys step down until the ideal blends at roof-level with the single-family homes to the south on Markham St.
Ideal, eh? By all rights, Howard Cohen should be the hero of neighbourhood groups.
But at the moment he’s not.
Cohen’s firm, Context Development Inc., is the one that’s butting heads with various groups over plans for a condominium on the grounds of St. James Cathedral, east of Yonge St. at Adelaide and Church streets.
It’s all a bit iconic: Context was chosen by the church’s board, from a number of potential developers, because of the higher-grade city-building that it has been doing.
Now they are in the hot seat.
Complicating factors, hugely, is the historic nature of the site, including the proposed demolition of the attractive parish hall there, and the presence of an old burial ground.
There is no easy way to resolve these matters.
But a key anxiety here is a deep-rooted bias against tall buildings. The original proposal for the site called for a 34-storey tower.
Enough said. You can hear the anger and the catcalls rising – the arguments about increased traffic; the angst about “crowding” in the city; the fury over the sacred god – the church – under siege by the secular one, money.
Yet time and experience and change are telling us our fear is unjustified, and ultimately harmful to the city.
Building up, not out, is the solution to a range of issues related to sprawl, transportation, pollution, long-term stewardship of land and, closer to our streets, improved quality of urban and community life.
Ideal shows how it can be done – what a long way Toronto’s planners, architects, and better developers have come since the 1960s and 70s, when angst reached its apex in an emergency height limit slapped on the city’s downtown development.
At the time the norm, indeed the requirement, was to blockbust – buy up the houses, shops, everything on entire blocks, bulldoze them and erect the era’s famous “towers in the park”.
“Open spaces” were somehow to redeem the buildings’ height. But at places like St. Jamestown near Parliament and Wellesley streets, the “parks” became empty, windswept, and ugly. All the demolition and destruction, and the disappointing city spaces that resulted, earned tall buildings a bad rap.
Fast-forward to 2001. Design principles have changed, but the terror over tall remains. Witness public upset over plans for two tower condominiums at Yonge St. and Eglinton Ave.
Here too is interesting irony.
The progressive left that once decried development and opposed towers now supports greater urban density – “Mainstreeting”, or building more compactly, building up not across, infilling, not sprawling.
The right-wing now owns the kind of properties it once blockbusted and has embraced NIMBY – not in my back yard. The headline on a National Post story about Minto’s Yonge-Eglinton point-tower project said simply, “Up is Down.”
Construction for The Waverly, a rental tower at 484 Spadina Avenue north of College Street, is currently underway. BRIAN BURCHELL/GLEANER NEWS
Yet neighbours are not threatened; those battles are still won. The need to weigh scale and context is embedded – as Howard Cohen has demonstrated. “You don’t want point towers at College and Bathurst,” he told me over coffee in his office in the Ryrie Building on Yonge St.
Some problems, like shadows, have serendipitous solutions. A tall thin tower, for instance, may yield a twenty-minute shadow; a lower long slab-building can cast darkness that lasts all day.
Some issues, such as traffic and parking, are proved moot with high buildings. Witness the mid- and high-rise Spadina Rd. and St. George St. apartment houses, where garage space can be rented by the public because many tenants living close to the subway, or who walk, don’t have cars.
Finally, at another level, the architectural opportunities created by tall buildings – for grandness, for innovations, for buildings that support modern life and embrace urbanity – are many, and not always predictable.
One of New York’s best-known images is of the Trinity Church at Wall St. and Broadway, with its spire nestled among the skyscrapers.
In Toronto, “I walk under this building, and its freedom,” Inez Zangger, a guest from Switzerland, told me last month while he walked through Commerce Court, where Toronto skyscrapers reach their peak. “Looking up, you see that anything is possible.”
Yet fear of heights persists in Toronto’s heart. “Sometimes,” Cohen tells me, “it seems like people (downtown) want Mississauga in the city.”
January 31st, 2020 · Comments Off on ON THE COVER (Jan. 2020)
Sanscon Construction crew members carefully guide the granite erratic found during construction of the Major Street Parkette to its new home in the Howland Avenue Parkette. James Roche of DTAH looks on. For more on the parkettes and their granite benches, please click here. NEILAND BRISSENDEN/BLOOR ANNEX BIA
Comments Off on ON THE COVER (Jan. 2020)Tags:Annex · News
A rendering by the Gleaner of the scale of the project superimposed on the corner of Bloor St. W. and Spadina Rd. GRAPHIC BY NEILAND BRISSENDEN
By Khyrsten Mieras
Connectivity, diversity, and adaptability, these are the buzz words promoters are using to describe a proposed redevelopment of the northwest corner of Bloor and Spadina. Members of the development team presented the project’s updated design during a community meeting at Trinity St. Paul’s United Church in December 2019.
The developers began preliminary consultations in November 2018. Owners of 334 Bloor St. W. and 344 Bloor St. W. and adjoining parking lot (to the east face of Shopper’s Drug Mart) have partnered on this project and billed it as a unified 350 Bloor St. W.
A recent meeting held by the design team and developers included two existing property owners and architects from IBI Group. They informed stakeholders of updates to the plan in advance of submitting an application to the city for approval. Key topics on the agenda included the planning framework, summary of previous meetings, and proposal for floor plans and landscapes.
Peter Venetas independently represents the developers and their process for community engagement, design, and approvals. He said that the redevelopment “offers a really amazing opportunity to provide both new housing, replacement rental housing, expanded offices, and then an interconnection to the TTC, as well as a series of other benefits to the public realm.”
For connectivity, he says the project aims to join the building with the surrounding neighbourhood and make improvements to the public realm through landscaping and widened sidewalks. There will also be a connection to other sites through subway integration that allows access between the building, the Spadina subway station, and loading and parking areas.
Their plan for diversity and adaptability will be incorporated through various uses of the building for retail, office, condo, and rental units, as well as modes of transportation like biking, walking, and public transit. Crossroads will also play a role in the building’s design, as it will be located on the northwest corner of the intersection at Bloor Street West and Spadina Road next to the subway. There will also be outdoor spaces with trees at street level and terraces on upper levels.
Several community members who attended voiced their concerns on issues like environmental stewardship, affordable housing, parking, shadow studies, and height of the projected 36-storey building. Team members said they are still making adjustments to the proposal.
In a subsequent interview with the Gleaner, Councillor Mike Layton explained that maximum height for the development is based on the Knox College Corridor, which protects the view of Knox College from the south side of College Street at Spadina Avenue to the north side of Bloor Street West.
“That would essentially put the maximum height of the building around 110 metres, which if you translate that into storeys is probably in the low 30s,” said Layton. “But then there’s also other things to address: the shadow impacts on any park space in the northwest [and] the transition from the tall building to the neighbourhood designation further west. So there’s a lot of other things that may impact the height that we don’t know yet.”
“Around sustainability the city has our green building standards that this building would have to follow as well. But when you look at how our city’s growing…it’s difficult to argue that this wouldn’t be an appropriate place for development, it’s just how is this development going to interact with the surrounding area,” Layton added.
Edward Leman, co-chair of Planning and Zoning for the Annex Residents’ Association (ARA), said that the project developer approached the ARA in the summer of 2018 to collaborate. Along with the Harbord Village Residents’ Association (HVRA), they set up a working group and held meetings to discuss plans and address concerns for the development.
“I think the really important thing is the shadow studies and the underground parking. They haven’t decided how much and that has a big impact on Bloor, the shops on Bloor, and so on,” said Leman. “So, we don’t know the two very important bits of information still missing.”
Venetas noted that it is difficult to speculate the timing for the completion of the project, as the application has not yet been submitted. He said that the approval process will likely take two to three years and the construction start date will depend on the market.
The developer’s representative declined repeated requests to share an image of their proposed development for this story.
Emerging from the dust will be much greater density
The Annex is by no means exempt from the building boom that sees the City of Toronto with more cranes in the sky than any other North American municipality.
The Gleaner is distributed to homes from College Street in the south, Dupont to the north, Avenue Road to the east and Christie Street to the west, and includes thirteen development sites all within our catchment.
These developments are at various stages along the stream from pie-inthe- sky to near completion. Many have shovels in the ground. What’s clear is that there is no consensus within the development industry whether it is wise to consult with the local community ahead of an application or skip the talking and get right to it by aiming high and planing to fight it out to try and get as much density as possible.
Notably, Westbank, the Honest Ed’s redevelopment of Mirvish Village, took the pre-application community consultation to a whole new level creating a win-win situation for developer and local stake-holders alike.
There is a mix of condominium, rental, and institution uses planned. In the next two to five years the population of the Annex will increase considerably.
See the image below for more on what to expect. Click on the image to enlarge.
January 31st, 2020 · Comments Off on NEWS: Aroma suddenly shuttered (Jan. 2020)
Closure leaves customers shocked
Locally loved, this Aroma Espresso Bar location (the first in Canada) was locked out by the landlord, unable to meet its rent obligations. Brian Burchell/Gleaner News
By Brian Burchell
A bailiff, acting for the landlord, has changed the locks at Aroma Espresso Bar (500A Bloor St. W.) having posted a notice stating rent in arrears of $24,538.70. The landlord is Harbour Sixty Steakhouse Inc., and the first Aroma Cafe location in Canada was beloved by many members of the Annex community.
“A franchisee buys a dream, which like any dream has a bit of a nightmare all wrapped up in it. You have to hit the ground running and eventually you run out of breath…”
—Philip Kuntz, longtime loyal customer
Philip Kuntz claims he was the first customer of this Aroma location.
“Aroma Canada came to have its own direction after a number of years trying to fulfill the original vision of the founder, who is based in Tel Aviv, Israel,” says Kuntz. “Aroma Canada sought to source local foods instead of having everything flown in as per franchise rules as it would be more economical given the high rent at the place. [The location], except perhaps for the first year, never made any money.”
For Kuntz, the story of Aroma Canada illustrates how difficult it is for many franchisees to cope with high rents and a highly competitive marketplace for food and drink while concurrently trying to toe the strict corporate line dictated by their agreements with head office.
He says the first operator of the cafe was so popular that people would stand in line just to be ignored by him.
“A franchisee buys a dream, which like any dream has a bit of a nightmare all wrapped up in it. You have to hit the ground running and eventually you run out of breath. I have lived through at least six administrations which never made money and eventually would pass it on, selling the dream. It was an unsustainable trajectory where the incoming management did not do its due diligence.”
Compounding the problems, he says, were strict rules from Tel Aviv requiring food to be imported. Kuntz says those rules began to be strictly enforced about a year ago, a point which he describes as “the beginning of the end”.
The last operator, Levi Tobe, confirmed to the Gleaner Kuntz’s background information for the reason for closing.
Tobe regarded the corporate requirement to import food from Tel Aviv as “untenable, and as things inside Aroma were changing [those rules being enforced], things did not work out.”
There are unconfirmed reports the location may become a wine bar venue.
The Tel Aviv headquarters for Aroma did not respond to a request for an interview for this story. The landlord, Harbour Sixty Steakhouse Inc., also did not reply to a request for an interview.
Comments Off on NEWS: Aroma suddenly shuttered (Jan. 2020)Tags:Annex · News
January 31st, 2020 · Comments Off on FORUM: University-Rosedale has a housing affordability crisis (Jan. 2020)
Ford forgets “affordable” in his housing plans
By Jessica Bell
Leonard is 72, lives at 103 Avenue Rd., and is the latest victim of Toronto’s affordable housing crisis. Here’s Leonard’s problem: he lives on $1,600 a month from his pension, and $1,500 of that is spent on rent. He has $100 a month to spend on everything else. For food, Leonard has protein shakes and one small meal a day.
Leonard’s corporate landlord wants to increase his rent by nine per cent, well above the legal limit. Leonard is terrified that if the increase is approved by the Landlord Tenant Board he will be homeless.
Eighty-six-year-old Roland is facing a similar crisis. Roland lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment on Walmer Road, his home for nearly 50 years. Roland just received an eviction notice, which says that he has to move out so the building can be renovated. The property manager says all tenants have to be out, even though none of the permits for the renovations have been filed. Roland doesn’t know where he’s going to go.
Leonard and Roland’s experience is common. Big business and global capital have set their sights on Toronto’s booming rental housing market, and our neighbours are the target. Corporate landlords are taking advantage of legal loopholes by pushing through above-the-guideline rent increases, and renovating apartments in order to evict long-term tenants and replace them with new renters who pay exorbitant market rents.
Toronto is the most expensive place for renters in Canada, and it’s getting worse. A report by Rentals.ca estimates rent will increase by 7% in 2020, reaching $2,800 a month. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives calculates a person needs to earn $33 an hour to afford to live in Toronto. The majority of Torontonians earn far less than that. To survive, many residents are working longer hours, taking on debt, living in overcrowded apartments, moving out of the city, or falling into homelessness.
The Ford government says the housing crisis can be solved by building more homes, but the real solution is to create more affordable homes. Here are four policies we can implement right now to achieve this goal:
1. The Ontario Government and its agency, the Local Planning Appeals Tribunal, should stop stymieing the City of Toronto’s plan to restrict short-term rentals to a person’s primary residence. In today’s unregulated short-term rental market many investors are buying homes, kicking out tenants, and listing the property on AirBnB. In its review of AirBnB listings, advocacy group, Fairbnb, calculated that Toronto’s new law could return 5,000 homes to the long-term rental market.
2. The Ontario government should introduce sensible inclusionary zoning rules that require new large developments to make an agreed-upon percentage of units affordable, and an agreed-upon percentage of units to be two and three bedroom. Toronto has more cranes in the sky than any other city in North America, but the homes being built are too small and too expensive to meet our city’s needs.
3. Ontario should look to the BC government’s work to tame global capital with a vacant homes tax. Statistics Canada estimates Toronto has 65,000 vacant homes — and 9,000 homeless. A tax would encourage absentee owners to rent out these homes and also raise revenue for new housing.
4. Ontario should provide better protection for renters against illegal evictions. Duty council should be available at the Landlord Tenant Board to level the playing field. Currently, only 2% of tenants attending an LTB hearing have legal representation, yet 79.5% of landlords do. The Ontario government should also enforce its own rules by finding and fining landlords who illegally evict a tenant by falsely claiming they are renovating or moving a family member in, only to relist the property for a higher price.
Toronto should be a fair, vibrant, welcoming, and thriving city for all. Our elders, including Roland and Leonard, as well as our entertainers, nannies, caregivers, cleaners, teaching assistants, bus drivers, and paramedics deserve to live a good life here. This is our city too and we are going to fight to stay.
Contact our office at jbell-co@ndp.on.ca to get updates on our work to make housing affordable.
January 31st, 2020 · Comments Off on CHATTER: Homicide on Harbord (Jan. 2020)
On December 22, police responded to a call from a residence in Harbord Village, where they found a woman suffering from severe head trauma. They immediately arrested a 29-year-old man named Colin Harnack, who was charged with second-degree murder. The woman, 51-year-old Julie Berman, was rushed to hospital. She succumbed to her injuries a short time later.
Berman, 51, was a trans woman who actively fought for LGBTQ2S+ rights for 30 years.
The accused made his first court appearance on December 23, but has yet to enter a plea. His next court appearance will be on January 15. He is believed to have been remanded into custody.
In late December, friends gathered to remember Berman and spoke about her work on behalf of the transgender community, who suffer disproportionally from violence, hate crimes, suicide, and murder.
—Patricia Mamede, Gleaner News
Comments Off on CHATTER: Homicide on Harbord (Jan. 2020)Tags:Annex · News
January 31st, 2020 · Comments Off on CHATTER: Police seek help in identifying robbery suspect (Jan. 2020)
Image of suspect still at large. Courtesy Toronto Police Service
The Toronto Police Service has released new images of a man involved in a robbery that took place in the Annex area last month and is seeking help from the public to identify him.
According to police, the incident occurred on October 14 at around 5:30 p.m., when an 87-year-old woman was walking on Brunswick Avenue, south of Bloor West. The woman was attacked by a man from behind. He threw her to the ground and robbed her of her belongings. He then fled the area on foot, heading east through an alleyway.
Police previously released images of the suspect, however newly released security camera images and photos show the man’s face more clearly. He is described as about six feet tall with a thin build. At the time of the robbery, he was carrying a white bag and wearing a dark toque, two-toned sweater, dark pants, and dark shoes.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 416-808-1400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-8477.
—Khyrsten Mieras/Gleaner News
Comments Off on CHATTER: Police seek help in identifying robbery suspect (Jan. 2020)Tags:Annex · News
January 31st, 2020 · Comments Off on CHATTER: College Street bar owner and manager convicted of sexual assault (Jan. 2020)
The owner and the manager of a now-closed bar on College Street have been convicted of gang sexual assault and administering a stupefying drug to a 24-year-old woman in 2016. The bar where the incident took place was closed shortly after charges were laid.
According to the victim’s recollection of the assault, she asked for two drinks and subsequently started to feel disoriented. At a later point, she accepted a shot of whiskey, another drink, and two lines of cocaine before blacking out. The victim’s name is not being released, due to a publication ban.
Nine hours of video footage from the bar’s security camera show the two men snorting cocaine, drinking, and taking part in multiple sex acts with a woman in various locations throughout the bar. This footage, a key piece of evidence during the trial of this case, shows the woman tripping and struggling to stand up.
Both the bar owner, Gavin MacMillan (age 44), and the manager, Enzo De Jesus Carrasco (age 34), pleaded not guilty to all charges and claim that the sex was entirely consensual.
MacMillan received bail but remains under strict house arrest. Carrasco’s bail was revoked, but he maintains his innocence and his lawyer says they are considering an appeal. Carrasco remains in custody awaiting two other sexual assault trials involving three other women.
A sentencing hearing for the men has been set for the end of January 2020.
—Patricia Mamede, Gleaner News
Comments Off on CHATTER: College Street bar owner and manager convicted of sexual assault (Jan. 2020)Tags:Annex · News
