Pawel Dwulit/Toronto Star Toronto Community Housing CEO Gene Jones pauses to reflect during a visit to a development in the Jane St.-Finch Ave. W. area.

Toronto Community Housing Corp.’s new CEO charts new course for troubled agency
Published on Friday July 06, 2012 
Pawel Dwulit/Toronto Star
Toronto Community Housing CEO Gene Jones pauses to reflect during a visit to a development in the Jane St.-Finch Ave. W. area.
Donovan Vincent
Staff Reporter

A few weeks before taking over as Toronto Community Housing’s new CEO last month, Gene Jones sent an email to all staff at the agency’s head office telling them to clean up their desks.

Before his June 18 start date he had inspected the building on Yonge St., just south of the Rosedale subway station, and didn’t like seeing “clutter everywhere.’’

“First of all, it’s a safety hazard. Secondly, it’s presentation . . . we want to be a professional agency,’’ says Jones.

It’s but a small example of the new direction he has charted for the housing corporation.

Jones, who previously served as executive director of the Detroit Housing Commission, Michigan’s largest public housing body, feels a disconnect exists between the people who run Toronto Community Housing and its tenants.

He wants to bring TCH closer to its residents, while somehow finding money to improve public housing units, a tall order given the $750-million repair backlog and no new money in sight.

Meth labs allegedly found in Scarborough apartment building; man charged
Timothy Appleby
The Globe and Mail
Published Friday, Jul. 06 2012, 9:31 AM EDT
Last updated Friday, Jul. 06 2012, 9:34 AM EDT

A 30-year-old Toronto man faces drug charges after police raided a Scarborough apartment building Monday and allegedly discovered three small methaphetamine labs.

Police responding to a neighbour’s complaint at 190 Borough Drive initially believed they had discovered a marijuana grow-operation.

Two of the apartments were allegedly set up to produce meth, a fiercely addictive drug linked to a wide array of serious health problems, while the third appeared to have served as a lab in the past, police said.

Dan Ye was arrested in one of the apartments and he appeared in court at Old City Hall Thursday.

Drug squad officers said the investigation was continuing.

Aside from the hazards attached to meth use, amateur labs are also notoriously dangerous to operate and there have been numerous instances of fires and explosions.

Ahmad Nehme appeared in Quebec Court Friday afternoon to face charges of first degree murder. Police handout

Lasalle man accused of killing his wife faces first-degree murder charges
James Mennie, The Gazette : Friday, July 06, 2012 5:44 PM
(…)
MONTREAL – A 48-year-old man arrested after a woman was discovered stabbed to death Thursday in what police describe as a domestic dispute will return to court July 16 to face a charge of first-degree murder.

Ahmad Nehme appeared in Quebec Court Friday afternoon in a white t-shirt, sweatpants, slippers and handcuffs as the charge was read into the record.

Looking dazed and disoriented after being arrested at his LaSalle home where the body of Catherine De Boucherville, the mother of two teenaged children, was discovered, Nehme spoke only to tell Judge Gilles Cadieux he had chosen lawyer Franco Schiro to represent him.

A man described by Schiro as a family member attended the proceeding, and when the accused was asked to confirm his choice of counsel, caught Nehme’s attention, pointed to Schiro and said: “Frank.”

He later refused to speak to journalists.

“The only connection to Ontario is an encumbered real property and a bank account. In contrast, the parties have three real properties in China and significant bank accounts,” said Ontario Superior Court Justice Peter G. Jarvis.

Mobile immigrants test Canadian court’s reach in divorce
Adrian Humphreys Jun 24, 2012 – 9:48 PM ET | Last Updated: Jun 24, 2012 9:52 PM ET

A high-stakes divorce between a wealthy businessman and his wife — who immigrated from China to Canada as a couple but left most of their money abroad — is raising questions about the power of Canadian courts over highly mobile and affluent immigrants.

The acrimonious marital split has already brought accusations of parental child abduction, scuttled an initial public offering on the Hong Kong stock exchange, drawn evidence of $165.5 million in tax havens overseas and revealed the couple’s $3-million Toronto home has been only occasionally occupied.

It is indicative that Canada is a very popular destination for people of affluence

And now, the family’s on-again, off-again residency in Canada has prompted a Family Court judge to ponder what power he has to settle the matter. “The only connection to Ontario is an encumbered real property and a bank account. In contrast, the parties have three real properties in China and significant bank accounts,” said Ontario Superior Court Justice Peter G. Jarvis.

Similarly, the children have been shuttled back and forth between Canada and China, like “pawns in the larger dispute,” said Judge Jarvis, complicating the role of a court in settling custody.

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