A8 nationalpost.com
TORONTO
B Y N ATA L I E A L C O B A
Councillors voted yesterday to
end a “backwards policy” that
has kept stores closed on such
public holidays as Christmas,
saying it’s both a question of
competitiveness and reflecting a diverse city.
The economic development
committee approved giving retailers the choice to stay open
on such days as New Year’s
Day, Victoria Day and Christmas, after representatives for
large and small stores spoke
in favour of the amendment.
It still has to be ratified by city
council before taking effect.
John Kiru, executive director of the Toronto Association of Business Improvement
Areas, said this is about the
ability of local businesses
people to make their own decisions.
While the main impetus
for change is a question of
fairness — the current restrictions apply only to retailers, but there are a number
of exemptions depending on
what is sold, and if the outlet
is deemed a tourist destination — proponents also note
that in a city as diverse as Toronto, it doesn’t make sense
any more to close on certain
religious holidays.
“I don’t celebrate Christmas. I have nothing to do, so
why not do shopping?” said
Shalini Srivastava, mananger
of the Albion Islington Square
Business Improvement Area,
which has a concentration of
Indian, Pakistani and West Indian stores.
Retailers have also complained about “ambiguous”
laws. “It’s got so confusing we
have to turn on the radios in
the morning to understand
what we can do and where
we can go,” said Peter Thoma,
who was speaking on behalf of
Oxford Properties, which includes Yorkdale mall.
Many malls, including the
Eaton Centre, have obtained
tourist status, and have been
allowed to stay open. Mississauga’s Square One recently
announced it has been granted tourist status.
Councillor Suzan Hall
(Etobicoke North) wondered
whether employees would feel
pressure to work on days they
didn’t want to, but Michael
Williams, manager of economic development, said staff
have not found any examples
that produced “controversy.”
“I would never deny no one
feels subtle pressure, but in a
day of 10% unemployment our
feeling is that the freedom for
employees to work on certain
days outweighs other factors,”
Mr. Williams said.
The Employment Standards Act guarantees workers
the right to refuse to work on
holidays.
The lone councillor to vote
against extending holiday
shopping noted that he has
never had someone demand
that stores be open on Canada
Day. “I’m not sure the public is
demanding that retail stores
be open 365 days a year,” said
Councillor Case Ootes (Toronto-Danforth).
“It’s all a question of evolution,” said Councillor Howard
Moscoe (Eglinton-Lawrence),
who campaigned against Sunday shopping in the 1990s.
“Toronto has evolved to the
point where it’s the right thing
to do to remove all the restrictions and let the market take
care of itself.”
National Post
IT TOOK 100 YEARS BUT
A TOWER BEGINS TO RISE
Secret tape
clears
principal
Charges dropped
against Maria
Pantalone
BY ADAM MCDOWELL
BY KENYON WALLACE
At the northwest corner of
Yonge and Gerrard streets
yesterday, excavators scooped
and clawed speedily and hungrily at the soil as if making up
for lost time.
“We’re moving very fast,”
acknowledged Riz Dhanji,
vice-president of sales and
marketing for Toronto developer Canderel Stoneridge.
“What we want to do is create
a landmark.”
It took a full century and
several tries before a company
pulled it off, but towering
architecture is finally taking
shape in the College Park area.
Several weeks after the machines showed up and started
hauling away dirt, the developer will host Mayor David
Miller and Councillor Kyle Rae
for an official groundbreaking
today for Aura, one of several
new buildings shining beams
of light and colour onto a part
of town known for an aura of
dull grey.
Aura in particular promises
to dramatically alter the look
of Toronto’s skyline thanks
to its height and its relative
distance from other supertall
towers. Measuring 75 storeys
and 243 metres, the condominium is set to become the
tallest residential building in
Canada, unless one includes
the mixed residential-and-hotel Trump Tower, now rapidly
climbing at Bay and Adelaide.
(The Trump will have fewer
floors, at 59.) Aura will smash
the height record for the city
north of Queen Street, currently held by Minto’s Quantum North at Yonge and
Eglinton.
While the developer said
Aura is more than 97% sold,
take heart: The $17.5-million
penthouse, with its 13-foot
ceilings and 360-degree views,
is available, Mr. Dhanji said.
The developer offers an optimistic move-in day of 2012.
Aura will join other condo
projects adding thousands of
residents to the area:
❚ The 45- and 35-storey twin
towers of Murano on Bay
north of College, where movein for residents finished last
month. Developer Lanterra is
also building Burano across
the street. It is now climbing above the hoardings and
should be completed in 2012.
❚ The 30-storey Lumiere condominium down the street by
Menkes, which will be completed this year.
❚ The completed Residences
of College Park, standing 154
and 140 metres tall (51 and
45 storeys respectively) on
Bay just north of Gerrard, the
height of which is not quite in
the Aura-sphere, but remains
impressive. The Residences
were also built by Canderel
Stoneridge.
Before these condos came
along, the area stretching
from roughly Grosvenor Street
down to Gerrard, and between
Bay and Yonge, had long remained a relative dead zone
in the north-central section of
downtown.
Mr. Dhanji said seven years
ago, much of the local retail
space was unleased and pedestrian traffic was light. “You
would come in this neighbourhood and it was the scariest
thing. That Yonge and College
area was considered not so appealing,” he said.
“You had this vibrant retail
strip going up Yonge Street
from Dundas Square, and at
Gerrard it sort of stopped,” said
Shawn Micallef, editor of Yonge
Street magazine and the author
of the forthcoming book Stroll:
Psychogeographic Walks
The surprise revelation of a
secret tape recording has led
Crown prosecutors to drop all
charges against public school
principal Maria Pantalone,
alleged to have made death
threats against her former
husband and two teenage
sons.
The tape, played to the
Crown and police shortly before trial was scheduled to
begin, was recorded by Ms.
Pantalone during an April
2009 family counselling session, at which time she was
alleged to have made the
threats.
Crown prosecutor Tom
Leishman said the tape “did
not constitute clear evidence
of a threat made by Ms. Pantalone.”
“After having reviewed the
matter thoroughly and having considered the public interest in further prosecution,
I’m persuaded that I cannot
prove the allegations against
Ms. Pantalone beyond a reasonable doubt,” Mr. Leishman
said outside the Finch Avenue
courthouse.
Ms. Pantalone was alleged
to have told her two sons, “I’m
going to kill you both,” and to
have pointed her finger in the
form of a gun at her own head
while looking at her ex-hus-
Individuals who
laid this totally
fabricated charge
did so to ruin me
CANDEREL STONERIDGE
Today is the official groundbreaking for Aura, which at 243 metres is to become
the tallest residential building in Canada. The penthouse is going for $17.5-million.
TORONTO’S TALLEST RESIDENTIAL TOWERS
The top eight, including existing buildings and those under construction
243 m
210 m
186 m
Aura at
College Park
174 m
166 m
165 m
Maple Leaf Square One King
44 Charles Quantum
North Tower
Street West Street West
2
Ritz-Carlton
Toronto
163 m
Residences
of College Park
MIKE FAILLE / NATIONAL POST
College St.
Aura
condo
tower
Gerrard St.
Yonge St.
City council
will vote on
recommendation
‘I’m not sure the public is
demanding that retail stores
be open 365 days a year.’
—Councillor Case Ootes
Condo at Yonge & Gerrard will be tallest of the tall
Bay St.
Shopping
365 days
a year
urged
NATIONAL POST, FRIDAY, APRIL 23, 2010
Dundas St.
0
m
250
N
JONATHON RIVAIT / NATIONAL POST
Through Toronto. He said the
“ugly hole” of the parking lot
formerly at Yonge and Gerrard
was partly to blame for the void
at the halfway point between
Queen and Bloor.
Mr. Micallef approves of
Aura, calling it “a really, really
tall skyscraper in the right
spot,” and noted its construction fulfills long-held hopes
for the area.
Mark Obaldeston’s 2008
book Unbuilt Toronto describes how defunct department store chain Eaton’s
began assembling land at
Yonge between College and
Gerrard in 1910. The company
imagined it could pull downtown Toronto’s centre of gravity north from King Street. In
1928, it announced a project
sprawling across the entire
block, capped by a majestic,
204-metre-tall tower.
“The Depression hit, and all
we got was this nice Eaton’s,
which is the Winners now,”
Mr. Micallef said.
Eaton’s dreamed wild
dreams for the site once again
in the early 1970s, when it
teamed up with developer
John Maryon to create a plan
for a supertall, 140-storey
tower on the site. Not surprisingly, the idea appears not to
have gone very far. Canderel
Stoneridge president Michael
La Brier, fresh from fighting to
build the comparatively modest Aura, laughed at the technical and financial challenge
of trying to build such a massive building during the 1970s.
“Show me the doable and I’ll
show you a good project,” Mr.
La Brier said. Building Aura,
he said, was fiscally practical
given the unique size and position of the parcel of land the
company acquired in 2006. “It
was never about us being bigger than anybody else.”
National Post
amcdowell@nationalpost.com
band, according to Mr. Leishman.
Reading from a statement
outside the courthouse, Ms.
Pantalone said she felt “relieved to have been finally vindicated.”
“I was taken to jail in front
of my very young nephews,
the youngest being five at
the time. I was the one who
got strip-searched and got to
spend the night in jail with my
shoes taken away from me, no
blanket, no pillow and left to
sleep on a stone bench,” she
said. “The three individuals
who laid this totally fabricated
charge did so to ruin me.”
This case isn’t the first time
Ms. Pantalone, the 52-year-old
sister of Toronto deputy mayor Joe Pantalone, has encountered legal troubles. In 1996,
Ms. Pantalone faced charges
brought by a relative who
claimed she had scratched and
uttered a death threat against
the relative. The charges were
withdrawn.
A decade later, Ms. Pantalone was charged with two
counts of assault and pleaded
guilty to throwing excrement at
a 12-year-old. However, she was
granted an absolute discharge,
ensuring that she would have
no criminal record.
Mr. Leishman said last
April’s charges came against
the backdrop of a “protracted
and extremely bitter matrimonial litigation focusing on
support payments and custody battles.”
Despite having been suspended with pay as principal
of Ossington/Old Orchard
Junior Public School since the
alleged incident, Ms. Pantalone remains popular and wellliked by parents and students.
Following last year’s charges, supporters started a petition for her reinstatement. It’s
unclear, however, whether Ms.
Pantalone will get her job back.
National Post