Juno News - October 26, 2022


The sad reality of what’s taking place on Toronto’s streets


Episode Stats

Length

6 minutes

Words per Minute

179.02666

Word Count

1,133

Sentence Count

90

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Behind me is the Bond Hotel, one of three hotels owned by the Silver Hotel Group,
00:00:06.440 which was used as a homeless shelter over the past two years during the pandemic.
00:00:12.220 It has since been sold to the City of Toronto for an undisclosed, ungodly, no doubt, sum,
00:00:18.760 and will be converted into affordable housing.
00:00:22.200 Meanwhile, until that happens, the drug dealers continue to apply their trade outside the hotel,
00:00:27.980 and the mayhem at this corner is unbelievable, particularly at night.
00:00:34.940 This hotel shelter is within walking distance of the condo where Rick Craddock and his lovely wife reside.
00:00:42.760 Rick was brutally beaten and nearly left for dead back in May.
00:00:48.520 Jane and I have a friend of ours that's in the restaurant business.
00:00:51.400 Jane came home that night and she says, oh, Tony's at this restaurant, we've got to go see him.
00:00:54.840 So I said, okay, let me just take the dog for a quick walk.
00:00:58.340 I came down and I got to the corner of the building and one of my neighbors came running down to ask me a question.
00:01:07.540 And while we were standing talking, we could hear all this yelling and screaming going on down, you know, to the north of us.
00:01:15.740 And when I got to the kids' playground, what was happening is the building next door to us was a co-op and they had balconies.
00:01:22.880 And the people were on their balconies yelling at these two fellows because their dog was in the kids' playground.
00:01:29.720 And, you know, it's like doing all its business.
00:01:33.120 And there's signs all over the place, no dogs allowed, and it's City of Toronto.
00:01:37.560 And as I was walking by, I stopped and I said to the fellows, you know, they're right.
00:01:43.860 He said, I said, you need to listen to them.
00:01:45.500 You shouldn't have your dog in here.
00:01:46.940 You know, this is really not the place to have it.
00:01:50.020 You know, kids play in here daily.
00:01:52.640 And he's yelling and screaming at me that, well, it's a service dog.
00:01:56.220 And I know darn well it wasn't a service dog.
00:01:59.460 So I went, well, whatever.
00:02:00.600 And as I started walking away, out of the corner of my eye, I caught him coming off because he was on top of where the slide is.
00:02:09.660 And he jumped down to the ground.
00:02:11.780 And I got to where the first gate is, and I just kind of held it shut with my hand so he couldn't open it.
00:02:17.220 So what he did was he climbed up on top of the fence, which has got to be a five-foot-high fence.
00:02:23.420 And how he got on top, I don't know.
00:02:24.700 But anyway, he got on top of the fence.
00:02:26.100 And, you know, I backed up away from him, and he just, it was like a wrestling match, you know, where the guy comes off the top rail.
00:02:35.520 Boom.
00:02:36.380 Took me down to the ground.
00:02:38.900 So while I was on the ground, stomped on my hand, broke my hand, and then this friend of his was holding him back.
00:02:48.120 And he kept saying to me, you need to get the hell out and get out of here.
00:02:50.760 Well, there were a lot of things that had happened I wasn't aware of, but I couldn't get up, and I couldn't stand up, you know.
00:02:58.120 So I finally got up, but I couldn't move.
00:03:01.040 And with that, he came back at me again, and he pushed me backwards.
00:03:06.400 And there's a couple of garbage cans, and they're chained to a steel post.
00:03:10.660 He pushed me backwards.
00:03:11.820 I hit my head on the post and knocked myself out.
00:03:14.160 And then I came to, and I thought, I'm going to call 911, and then I'll give my wife a call.
00:03:20.920 You know, you need to come down.
00:03:22.080 This is what's happening.
00:03:24.140 And I couldn't get through.
00:03:25.420 911 was busy.
00:03:27.360 But what it was, why it was so busy, is they received 30 calls in about 10 minutes about my meeting.
00:03:34.680 And there happened to be two plainclothes police officers were just over at Young Church in Dundas.
00:03:43.440 So they're like, wow, we're right there.
00:03:45.500 We're nice and close.
00:03:47.180 So they were the first ones here.
00:03:49.300 There was, all Mutual Street here was completely shut down.
00:03:53.460 There were like two or three fire trucks, ambulance.
00:03:56.760 I don't know how many police cars showed up.
00:03:59.060 It was unbelievable.
00:04:00.980 They just poured in.
00:04:02.300 I was rushed into St. Mike's Hospital.
00:04:04.680 I called Jane.
00:04:06.840 Jane came down, got the dog.
00:04:08.820 She ran up, dropped the dog off, and then met me at the emergency.
00:04:13.820 So while I'm in there, of course, they did an MRI.
00:04:17.280 They did CAT scan.
00:04:18.640 They did all kinds of stuff.
00:04:20.720 Now, the thing was, while I was there, I had no feeling in my legs.
00:04:27.280 Yeah, from, you know, from my waist down.
00:04:31.740 And I thought, wow, this is weird.
00:04:33.720 So the doctor then came back out with the results of the MRIs and everything.
00:04:37.900 And he just walked in and he said to Jane, and he goes, well, you broke your back.
00:04:41.840 Oh, is that when you tumbled into the...
00:04:45.180 No, I think that was when he came down off the top of the fence, because he came right
00:04:51.580 down on top of me.
00:04:53.400 And then I fell backwards with him on top of me.
00:04:57.040 And that's, I think that may be when it was, because when I tried to get up, I couldn't get up.
00:05:01.580 Does it traumatize you, or do you...
00:05:03.760 No, it doesn't, actually.
00:05:06.080 It doesn't at all, because I know, you know, the guy has been arrested by the police.
00:05:11.800 He has been charged.
00:05:13.100 The cop did tell us when he did come up to the emergency.
00:05:16.460 He did say that he's known to them, but he's never been violent before them.
00:05:20.620 But they do wellness checks, and he's one of the, on their list, right?
00:05:26.800 This, folks, is John Tory's Toronto, a city that has declined considerably under his watch
00:05:35.360 over the last eight years.
00:05:37.180 It's like a personal attack on the city of Toronto, okay?
00:05:40.820 It's always been a beautiful place.
00:05:42.920 And I, you know, I've traveled all around, and I always bragged about living in Toronto.
00:05:46.600 Well, I'm from Toronto, you know, great.
00:05:49.200 Now, I wouldn't dare tell anybody I'm from here.
00:05:52.220 The violence has just skyrocketed.
00:05:54.900 And I'm putting this in an eight-year, you know?
00:05:58.100 So John Tory's done two terms so far.
00:06:00.280 Yeah.
00:06:00.840 Hopefully, he's finished.
00:06:02.880 But, you know, he did two four-year terms, eight years, and that's when things really started to go sour.
00:06:09.080 Rick is one of the innocent victims of this cesspool.
00:06:13.400 Thankfully, he has survived to tell the tale.
00:06:17.900 For True North, I'm Sue Ann Levy.