BULLDOZERS are flattening the 18.8 acre site where Campbell’s Soup stood for more than 90 years in New Toronto (below). Photo by Tom Godfrey.

A sign of the times in South Etobicoke.

Another piece of history is being lost as an army of bulldozers have begun to flatten the Campbell Soup site, which has been a mainstay of the community for almost 100 years.

Mountains of rubble are all that’s left of the iconic U.S. company, which was established in 1931, and has hired generations of families from the area.

Some former Campbell employees were on hand to witness as the last of the historic manufacturing companies that once settled in the area was demolished. Major companies like Goodyear Tire, Anaconda Steel, Gilbey’s Distillery and many others are long gone.

Campbell in its heyday employed more than 600 people and purchased tonnes of vegetables and other products from hundreds of farmers in southern Ontario.

The new owners of the property, QuadReal Property Group and Weston Consulting, have grand plans for the huge eight-building 18.8-acre complex at 60 Birmingham St., at Dwight Ave.

A site plan filed by the company features three new one-story industrial warehouse spaces that will replace the smaller buildings and a series of exterior Campbell facades from 1931 and 1944 will be retained.

The company announced its closure in 2018 but officially shut in 2019. The closure of the plant saw 380 people laid off. Company president Ana Dominguez said the building simply couldn’t be retrofitted into something new and economically viable.

The redevelopment will provide on-site parking for 285 vehicles. A total of 86 loading dock spaces are proposed as part of the redevelopment to support typical warehouse distribution operations.

Members of the community have filed a 600-name petition against the project, which they claim will increase truck traffic, dust and noise in the area.

“Our neighbourhood is already carrying lots of responsibilities on its shoulder, housing THC, a Women’s Shelter and a Waste Management plant” wrote irate resident Zsuzsanna Lichner.

“It seems like the neighbourhood is becoming a dumping ground of truck depots, waste management and social services, effectively inhibiting our community’s growth,” Lichner said.

She said “residents had to go the extra mile and collect over 600 signatures for a petition to (obtain) a simple information session from the developer. “

“This session was extremely one-sided, with minimal time for the residents’ questions,” she noted.

POLICE searching for this arson suspect who torched a business. Toronto Police photo.

A police search is underway to find an arsonist before he strikes again.

Toronto Police have released an image of an arsonist, who they say broke a window and tossed a lit object into a business that caused a significant amount of damages.

Emergency crews were called to The Queensway, near Winslow St.,  just east of Royal York Rd., on January 4 around 9:10 p.m.

Toronto Fire Services said according to a caller, someone had broken the glass of a storefront and started a fire.

Fire and smoke were found inside a business on the first floor and was quickly knocked down by firefighters.

The firebug took off on foot and hopped in a waiting vehicle, which left southbound on Milton St., police said.

Above the business is a residential unit on the second floor, fire officials said, in which a mother and two young girls were living and they managed to escape safely.

The suspect vehicle is described as a small, light-coloured SUV, but there isn’t a description of the driver.

Anyone with information or video surveillance footage is urged to call police at 416-808-1100 or Crime Stoppers at 416-222-8477 (TIPS).

Ret. Judge Lloyd Budzinski weighs in on many subjects.

From the Bench
By Retired JUDGE LLOYD BUDZINSKI

I want to talk abut expert evidence and the Judicial role.
Today we read about different views of psychiatrists as to whether someone had a limiting mind to such a degree that it can afford a defense. In criminal law a person needs to intend his actions, consequences and appreciate what they are doing as wrong.
It is called Mens Rea.

The problem has arisen in other matters associated with a witness’s reliability over time to recall events accurately such as historical incest cases where the complainant is challenged that her recall of the events some 20 years ago, when she was 8, is unreliable. Courts must be very careful how they use this type evidence. It is dangerous and can lead to wrongful convictions or mistaken acquittals.

This matter became significant to me, as a Crown Attorney, when prosecuting a former undercover Police Officer for murdering his wife. We will call him Mr. X. The Crown belief was that he pushed her from the 19th floor of the Palace Pier. He was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment with no parole for 25 years. The theory was that he had a lover; wanted to marry her and needed money. He recently had purchased an insurance policy for his wife.

The problem is that he had two sweethearts. One with whom he had shared his plans for money. Ms. A and the new one, Ms. B, whom he preferred and wanted to marry. His wife refused a divorce citing she ‘knew too much’ about his criminal behavior as a police officer.

The marriage would silence the new lover but to silence the Ms. A, he needed something else to keep her silent. So, he invited her to his apartment while he confronted his wife. The purpose was to have Ms. B involved with the murder so that she, thinking herself an accomplice, would be too frightened to testify against him. A technique he learned as an undercover officer. Gangs would often ask a newcomer to commit an offence to verify their sincerity to the team.

He was right, when she was originally interviewed by the police she provided no information of what she had witnessed as his wife was pushed from the balcony.

I want to caution the reader, this was the Crown’s theory, alleged by the evidence but what are the facts the jury drew from the evidence to convict him will never be known.

Was it, Ms. A’s testimony or the circumstantial evidence or both, one supporting the other? I like to think it was the last. Juries are not allowed, unlike the U.S., to discuss their reasons. Unlike a judge who must articulate his findings. A jury simply makes a finding “beyond a reasonable doubt that a planned and deliberate murder was committed”.

The police had investigated the case for several months and were ready to lay charges based on a load of evidence, but all circumstantial including: a number of alternative explanations he gave to the police and various friends that were different.

The one to the police was essentially, that “she was on a stool trying to fix a rattle on the ceiling edge, near the railing when he heard a scream and ran to the balcony but she was over the rail as he tried to put his arms around her but she fell, he couldn’t hold on. “

The police had conducted forensic testing, expert evidence, but were never able to verify his statement the time and distance made the defendant explanation impossible.

Of course, there was the classical motive, money and a lover, lovers? At this time, we didn’t know there were two.

Now I started, by talking about expert evidence and have digressed to this example trying to provide some background to The care lawyers and judges must use in dealing with experts to illustrate my point.
Well, it’s going to take longer than I thought. Let’s leave the story here. We will continue next time when I tell how the first lover, months later, came forward. Stay tuned. Feel free to send an email to the newspaper if you have any legal questions for the judge. You can reach him at thesouthetobicokenews.gmail.com

Judge Lloyd Budzinski retired after 28 years and was a former Crown Attorney, Defence Counsel and Ontario’s Assistant Deputy Minister of Criminal Law. He was Chief Prosecutor in the high-profile trial of former RCMP officer Patrick Michael Kelly, who was found guilty of murder for throwing his wife from the 17th floor balcony of their Palace Pier condo in March 1981.

TORONTO POLICE CONST. Matthew Saade, salutes the half-mast flag, in tribute to his former partner, Sgt. Andrew Harnett.

Officers of 22 Division have joined their Canadian police colleagues in mourning the loss of Calgary policeman Andrew Harnett, who was killed on New Year’s Eve in a hit and run crash.

For Toronto Const. Matthew Saade, who now works at 51 Division, it was a emotional time as he has previously worked with Harnett, who has been working as a Calgary cop for 12-years.

Sgt. Harnett, 37, was his partner for six years during his stint in Calgary.

Saade was photographed saluting the Canadian flag, which has been flying at half-mast outside the downtown station.

Toronto Police Chief Jim Ramer, on behalf of his officers, expressed condolences to Harnett’s family.

“I want to express our deepest condolences to family, friends and colleagues of Sargent Harnett,” the Chief said.
A police webpage was filled with hundreds of regrets and condolences for Harnett and his family and friends from officers from across Canada and the U.S.

It was on December 31 just before 11 p.m., when Harnett had pulled over the vehicle after running the license plate and discovering it didn’t match the SUV.

He spoke with both the driver and passenger before the vehicle fled, striking and dragging Harnett, who was described by Calgary Police Chief Mark Neufeld as a “highly decorated” 12-year member of the Calgary Police Service.

Despite the “desperate” attempts of fellow officers and paramedics, Harnett died at the scene, according to Calgary police.

Two men, one 17 and the other, 19, have since turned themselves in. Police had issued a province-wide dragnet for their arrests. They face first degree murder charges in the death of the officer.

Officer Harnett is remembered as having a “passion to serve,” and his love for policing developed during his early years in his hometown of Hagersville.

“He was born to be a police officer and he knew it,” his brother Jason Harnett told CTV News. “He just had a passion to serve. There was right and wrong, and he really believed in that.”

Harnett was a volunteer member of Crime Stoppers while a student at Hagersville Secondary School. He also served as a military police officer.

He is the 12th officer to be killed in the history of the Calgary Police Service, dating back to 1878. The last officer who lost his life while on duty was Const. Darren Beatty, who died in 2001 during a training exercise.

Funeral arrangements are being finalized.

POLICE RESPOND to stabbing in Mimico on January 1, 2021. Police file photos.

It has been a violent 2021 for police so far and it is only the first day of the year.

Toronto Police were scouring the streets of Mimico for evidence as they responded to one of 2021’s two stabbings that occurred early New Year’s day.

Shortly after 1 a.m. officers were dispatched to a stabbing that took place at Mimico Ave. and Lake Shore Blvd. W.

“Officers located an adult male with stab wound,” according to a police tweet. “The man was taken to hospital. The suspect fled on foot.”

Police describe the suspect as a male white, in his 60s, with a red hat and white hair.

The victim was treated in hospital and is expected to survive.

Hours later at 6:50 a.m. officers were called to deal with another stabbing in the Queen St. W., and Dunn Ave., in the Parkdale area.

Police said in that attack a man was suffered multiple stab wounds. He is expected to survive.

One man is in custody.

The Mimico incident brought back bad memories for residents of a shooting last August at the same spot.  In that case, a man was shot several times in the same area by a shooter who fled on foot.

The victim survived and the shooter is still at large.

And, on December 30 a local man was shot by police for allegedly waving an axe or hatchet near Lake Shore Blvd. W. and Twenty Fourth Street, in Long Branch.

The Special Investigations Unit is investigating the incident that sent a 30-year-old victim to hospital with serious gunshot wounds.