It was only a couple of weeks ago when George Wass, 62, died due to injuries he received after being beaten on the porch of his Parkdale boarding house. Wass was one victim of many in the area and after he suffered such horrible consequences, everyone hoped that would be the end of the Parkdale attacks. But a new incident, which occurred early Tuesday morning, shows that Parkdale is still a very scary place and one that is being targeted.
Dan Chiarelli, 45, was walking home to his boarding house on Maynard Avenue at about 3:00 a.m. after dropping his girlfriend off at the street car. Hearing someone run up behind him, Chiarelli turned around only to be met with a punch to the face. The attacker then continued to kick and punch Chiarelli fiercely for several minutes. It was only after someone from a nearby apartment building yelled at him to stop that the attacker fled.
Chiarelli is the sixth Parkdale victim to be attacked since January. All victims have lived in one of two boarding homes on Maynard Avenue and the first five were mental health patients. Chiarelli once worked as a mechanic but is currently unemployed and living off social assistance. He says that his attacker wore dark clothes and a scarf over his face; the attacker in the first beatings always wore a ski mask. Police believe that the same individual is responsible for all six beatings. Chiarelli says that the attack was “senseless” because the attacker didn’t say one word to him, nor did he even reach for Chiarelli’s wallet.
Police are definitely increasing patrols in the area, with both uniformed and plain-clothed policemen patrolling the area 24 hours a day. Still, residents of the area say it’s not enough and that the police presence needs to still be stepped up. “We’re not feeling secure,” said the owner of one of the boarding homes. “It’s quite paralyzing.”
Chiarelli also doesn’t think that the current police presence is enough to stop the attacks. He’s looking to move out of the area as soon as possible, and says that the day can’t come soon enough when he can leave Parkdale, an area of the city that is becoming incredibly dangerous.
Earth Hour: How Much Electricity Did Toronto Really Save?
If you were expecting to drive along Toronto’s streets on Saturday night during the Earth hour of 8:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and find everything dark, you would have been surprised. Especially if you drove by the houses of some of those that are leaders in the area. Yes, this is the one hour every year that we’re supposed to disconnect and unplug everything electric, all in an effort to save electricity and show our commitment to doing so every day from hereon out. So you would expect that the leaders of the city would be doing the same, right? Disappointingly, no, that was not the case on Saturday.
The Toronto Star did their own digging and drove around to some of the most prominent houses in Toronto during Earth Hour on Saturday to see who were following their own rules, and who were not. The results were indeed surprising. First up was Jed Goldberg, the President of Earth Day Canada. Surely his lights would be out, wouldn’t they? Nope. Reporters took pictures of the light radiating out of the windows of Goldberg’s home and as they were doing so, a neighbour asked them what they were doing. After telling her, the neighbour went back into her house. Just a few minutes later, the Goldberg home went dark. Only for a few minutes though. Then a young man came out of the house yelling that the picture was not taken fairly; they have solar panels on their home and drive a hybrid car. Unfortunately, they still couldn’t play by the rules on a day that they helped impose.
Ontario Energy Minister, Brad Duguid, was also put to the test as his house was also checked on during Earth Hour. Duguid actually wasn’t even home during the energy-saving hour, but his family was. And they had the lights on in the kitchen and the living room. Later, a statement was made saying that the Duguids had their lights off for the “majority” of the time and that they only turned them on to receive some food that was delivered. However, Star reporters say that they were outside of the Duguids home for the entire hour and that the lights were on for about half an hour, and no food was delivered.
David Miller, former Toronto Mayor, also had several lights on in his home including two on the front porch, one in the hallway, and other odd lights here and there. However, he gets a bit of a pass as he’s currently overseas and won’t be returning until later this week. But what were the reasons for the other oversights? They seem to be only limp excuses from those who are pushing us to constantly reduce and conserve.
But it wasn’t just the lights on at the leader’s houses that hurt Earth Hour this year. Toronto only saw a 5% reduction in the energy used during Earth Hour 2011, which is half of what was reduced during Earth Hour 2010. Mississauga faired much better though, reducing energy used by 8%.