Election coverage: Justin Di Ciano

Justin Di Ciano, who was considered the main contender to beat long time Ward 5 councillor Peter Milczyn, had to wait over four hours on election night only to find out that he had lost by a margin of just 0.46 per cent.

Named the 2010 Etobicoke hero of the year for community service, Di Ciano decided to run because he thought “the community [needed] to become more socially and culturally integrated and self-sustaining.”

And indeed, for four hours after the polls closed, it looked like Di Ciano was ahead of Milczyn by 66 votes.

Early Monday night, Di Ciano’s campaign office at the corner of Bloor Street and Islington Avenue was a site of jubilation. By as early as 8:15 p.m., CP24 had declared Milzcyn defeated.

At the sight of the red checkmark beside Di Ciano’s name on TV, his family and supporters who were huddled around a single computer erupted into screams and shouts, jumping and hugging each other.

Di Ciano remained cautious.

“Relax,” he said. “It’s far from over.”

By 9 p.m., with 96 per cent of the votes in and what appeared to be a long wait ahead, he was worried.

“It’s down to the wire,” he said, his forehead wrinkled in a frown. “I don’t know if we’re going to win this thing.”

John Chiappetta, and Rob Therrien, and former MPP and councillor of Etobicoke, Morley Kells were also in the running.

The delay on election Monday was caused by a malfunctioning voting machine at the Stonegate Road polling station, leaving 86 ballots uncounted.

Officials decided that the ballots would be taken to Scarborough for a recount. In the presence of Milczyn supporters and Julien Di Ciano, Justin’s brother, the ballots were reprocessed. Twelve ballots had to be re-marked on separate ballots and fed through the machine again since the machine would not process them.

With the long wait ahead, everyone moved to Di Ciano’s after-party in a private room at the Crooked Cue pub to await the results. Standing in front of the crowd, Di Ciano declared that, win or lose, he intended to enjoy his party. Receiving constant updates from his brother regarding the last count, Di Ciano mingled with his supporters. Many assumed he had already won.

By midnight, the much smaller crowd’s mounting frustration was obvious, many calling the delay ridiculous. Even Di Ciano’s mother decided to head home.

At 1:25 a.m., when everyone had moved into a corner by the main bar, Justin received a message from his brother. His voice cut through the conversations.

“Guys, we lost.”

The delayed ballots gave Milczyn the extra 107 votes he needed to retain his seat.

Dead silence followed the unexpected announcement, broken by Justin who, still seated, began thanking everyone for their help in the campaign. Shocked and tearful, his remaining supporters hugged each other.

Walking up to the bar, Justin grabbed a shot glass that the bartender, unasked, had put down.

“It is what it is,” he said, retaining his composure.

With such a tight vote, Justin said he may ask for a recount. But he was relaxed.

“I just want to go home and sleep. It’s been a hard, long-fought campaign … I’m going on vacation for a week.”

He thanked his supporters throughout Ward 5.

“[I’m] humbled. It was a wonderful experience to go to all those doors and listen to all those wonderful comments … [it] made it worthwhile.”

Di Ciano’s campaign covered a range of issues across Ward 5. If elected, he intended to set up a business improvement area on The Queensway and get rid of body-rub and holistic massage parlours.

He also planned to cut down on high-rise development on The Kingsway, encourage small-business development through the ward, spearhead community safety initiatives, and revisit the development of the Etobicoke Civic Centre and Six Points interchange.

The campaign had been rife with accusations of smear tactics. Di Ciano claimed that Milczyn had tried to persuade voters that there was a relationship amounting to a conflict-of-interest between Dunpar Developments – a construction company Di Ciano’s brother works for – and Justin.

Di Ciano will now focus on a lawsuit he has launched against all parties involved in a call made to voters the weekend before the election. The call suggested that Di Ciano had been accepting vacations and contributions from Dunpar Developments.

Amidst shouts against the information in the phone call, Di Ciano raised his voice. “I’ll tell ya, there’s a good lawsuit coming in … that lawsuits gonna feel real good.”

An interview with an inspiration

Professor Ramin Jahanbegloo has, so far, been the most interesting person I have interviewed. In an article I did for The Varsity about his recent peace prize win, Jahanbegloo discussed his life, ideas, and inspiration.

‘Non-violence is the future of humanity’

U of T prof wins peace prize for promoting human rights

As a philosophy student in France, Ramin Jahanbegloo admired Nelson Mandela and took part in “Free Mandela” campaigns. On Nov. 5, he was awarded the 2009 Peace Prize by the Association for the United Nations in Spain, an honour that has gone to Mandela himself, as well as Mikhail Gorbachev and South African singer and civil rights activist Miriam Makeba. The prize is awarded to individuals with exceptional records of promoting human rights and the objectives of the UN.

Born in Iran, Jahanbegloo initially pursued a pre-med degree. But he grew disgusted by how science was taught, with auditoriums full of students who worried about good grades rather than engaging in discussions. He switched to philosophy in France, influenced by post-1968 radicalism. In 1997, he came to Canada, teaching at U of T until 2001.

Jahanbegloo made headlines in 2006, when he landed in Iran’s Evin prison for four months in 2006, accused of preparing a military revolution. He returned to U of T in 2008, teaching political science. Jahanbegloo’s philosophy revolves around the concept of dialogue and building bridges between cultures. “People think I am idealistic, and that politics is about pragmatism,” he said in a recent interview. “I think non-violence is one of the most pragmatic philosophies today because it is about the future of humanity.”

The Varsity: Why do you think you won the prize?

Ramin Jahanbegloo: I think there is an intellectual conviction in what I have been teaching and the non-violent action that took me to prison. I have also related very closely non-violence to inter-cultural dialogue.

TV: You have had several interviews on your 2006 imprisonment. Do you feel that it defines you too much in the public eye?

RJ: I hope not, because it is a bitter part of my life. It is no honour to go to prison. That aspect of my life is of course important for me, because it has left me with a lot of consequences, but I try to go beyond it. Non-violence has helped me a lot to go beyond it. I do not have any bitterness; I try to get to pragmatic results from my imprisonment. I think one has to go beyond his or her own tragedies to think of the political construction of a country in democratic matters.

TV: Currently, there is another Iranian-Canadian, Hossein Derakhshan, who is being held without trial in Evin prison. What do you think will happen with his case?

RJ: Yes, I know him and have met him. I hope nothing bad happens. He is a very controversial figure in the Iranian public sphere because he supported the Iranian regime and attacked many dissidents. I support him because we cannot engage in dialogue with someone in prison; there is no use of condemning someone who is already suffering. What we need to do if we find individuals who are what I call philo-tyrannical—in favor of tyrannies—is support and defend anybody fighting them. It is not because we don’t agree with someone that we should not fight for their rights.

TV: If you could speak to Derakhshan now, what advice would you offer?

RJ: I would say that he needs to fight mentally and to build up his future in a more ethical way. I would suggest he do some readings and writings in prison if he can, and to somewhat revise his own ideology.

TV: You talk a lot about bridging cultures. What does this mean for you?

RJ: I wrote a book called Clash of Intolerance where I explain that there is no such thing as clashes because of culture. The clashes come from intolerance inside those cultures, from people who do not respect each other, from lack of understanding.

We need to replace hostility with hospitality. When you are a host for another culture you try to understand that culture and try to enrich your culture from that culture. This is what we try to do in Canada.

Canadian multiculturalism, if done in the best way, should be an inter-cultural dialogue and not separate communities, but support learning and listening between communities. Creating bridges is replacing the culture of monologue and intolerance with a culture of dialogue and respect.

TV: Is Canada a multicultural model for you?

RJ: In comparison to what is going on in Europe, certainly, but not in comparison to what is going on in India. India has been living with its diversity, which is much more profound than in Canada. India has never had a problem including a new religion into its culture.

I do hope that Canada also becomes like this, where cultures truly intersect and enter a dialogue together, and do not necessarily have a superficial meeting at the economic level.

TV: A lot of your work deals with India. Where does your passion for India come from?

RJ: My passion started about 30 years ago. I used to find books on India in the libraries of my parents, and at around age 12 I used to try to read them. I have been travelling to India practically every year for the past 20 years and I lived there for two years. It is a country I take very seriously. I say either I was born Indian in my previous life, or will be born Indian in my next life.

TV: Who or what was your inspiration for your philosophy of non-violence?

RJ: My most important role models are the three non-violent thinkers: Mahatma Ghandi, Martin Luther King, and Dalai Lama. I was very lucky to meet very interesting people who were my professors or whom I worked with, and among these I can name Cornelius Castoreadis, Paul Ricoeur, and Isaiah Berlin, with whom I [wrote] a book.

TV: Considering your philosophy, how do you feel about Obama increasing troops in Afghanistan, and his proposed closure of Guantanamo Bay?

RJ: I am very much against sending troops to Afghanistan and very much in favour of closing Guantanamo. I think these kinds of prisons are not useful at the level of making things more human. They create more cruelty and violence. There is no way you can handle Middle Eastern conflict with violence. In the long run, all the actors in this game have to find a way to sit down and dialogue together on non-violent ways of constructing democracy.

TV: In interviews you talk about Gandhi’s “democratization of democracy.” Is this the democracy you want to see?

RJ: Yes. I think the most important aspect of Gandhi’s view is that he tries to take democracy further and make it more participative and deliberative. Gandhi says that we need to bring more ethics into politics, and this aspect is related with the fact that you need to make citizens responsible for their own destiny. It is not that democracy is given from above—[rather], it is a work that comes from the bottom. He tries to talk about shared sovereignty, a shared fate: citizens have to educate themselves on how to handle democracy and its future.

TV: You talk about how you want dialogue as democracy in Iran. How do you think dialogue can be created between Iran and the West? Why has it not happened?

RJ: It has happened at the level of civil society, but not at the level of governments. Governments have political ambitions, and most of the time they put political ambitions before the common good. We have to pay attention to the fact that we need to deconstruct politics as not just politics among leaders, but among everyday citizens.

TV: You gave a speech on Thursday at a U of T graduation. What was your key advice for the graduates?

RJ: The idea that graduation is a beginning in life. I was telling the students that they need to think of their future work in a responsible way and that university has always been a shared horizon of dialogue in a very cosmopolitan civic space. Life is like reading from one chapter to another while not knowing what will happen in the next chapter. I told students to start writing their new chapters, because if you stop writing you will never make history.

TV: Where do you think the roots for dialogue come from? How early should we begin teaching this concept?

RJ: I believe we can begin teaching non-violence as early as primary school. We should, especially [in] Canada, teach the spirit of tolerance to children of eight to10. They are very perceptive and can understand stories about tolerant figures. Later on, you can talk about peace and why it is so important. Canada is a salad bowl of cultures, and each of these students would understand who they are standing next to. They should not take it for granted.

Centennial coverage: chemical gas leak

Scarborough residents near Lawrence and Morningside Avenue are being told to stay indoors and keep all windows closed after a sulfuric acid leak from Chemtura Chemical plant in Scarborough.

"The incident seems to be just about finished," the manager of CJ Trucking Service told Centennial reporter Janice Yeung. He added that all employees are staying indoors, and cannot see anything visible outside the windows.

“The cloud is thinning out but they’re not taking any chances,” Toronto fire captain Mike Strapko told CTV. He said the situation is under control.

The mist had travelled for approximately 100 metres. Sulphuric acid-type mist is corrosive and can cause burns on the skin.

The Chemtura Chemical plant has given no comment on the issue, stating that they are too busy.

Nineteen support vehicles have been dispatched to the incident, which has been declared a Hazmat level 3.

TTC buses along the 86D Scarborough and 54A Lawrence routes are being diverted to the Lawrence Avenue and Beechgrove area. Strapko told the Toronto Star that three TTC buses have been told to drive passengers from affected areas to Coronation Street.

“We are working closely with the fire department people. All the protocols were already followed.” Ron Moeser, Ward 44 Scarborough East councillor told Centennial reporter Ellie Kim.

Moeser also said he is working with Toronto East Community Awareness and Emergency Response (CAER) group, which takes care of alerting the community when emergencies happen.

Toronto Police Constable Wendy Drummond told the Toronto Star that a man near the affected area is not feeling well.

Coordinator of Public Information and Media told Centennial Reporter Mersiha Gadzo that the Toronto EMS have not received any calls to transport residents in the area.

Nearby institutions include Crimson Tigers Karate, Scarborough Gym Elites Club, Janelan Park, Omni the Display Source, SG Enterprises, AEP Canada, All Canadian Self-Storage, York Bookbinders, CJ Trucking Service, and Henry Company Canada.

The Toronto District School Board website said students in Joseph Brant, Huron Park, Peter Secor, and William G. Miller schools will stay indoors.

The Chemtura Corporation is a petroleum manufacturing plant which employs 4,000 employees worldwide.

Steve Kowch, author and reporter, visits Centennial Journalism students

Kowch gets students comfortable with journalism

Radio guru visits journalism school to give advice on how to make it in media

Steve Kowch always seemed to be in the right place at the right time.

Calling himself one of the only journalists to ever scrum Pope John Paul II, Kowch spoke to students at Centennial College Tuesday, about his new book, “99 Things You Wish You Knew Before Making it Big in Media.”

But it’s more than luck that puts Kowch at the front line when he covers a story. For him, it’s all about having a dream to be a reporter.

Kowch told students to do whatever it takes to chase their dreams, and emphasized the importance of a positive attitude.

“I never believed you couldn’t do it,” he told students. “I always assumed that people would speak to me…I always [went] to the scene.”

Recounting his coverage of the papal tour in Canada in the ‘80s, Kowch admitted that he would have done anything to get that interview.

“I have no shame. I’ll [even] use kids,” he said, referring to how he got close to the former pope in Yellowknife by mingling with children standing in the front row at a gathering.

He was the only reporter to clinch that interview.

The point, Kowch said, was that he didn’t ask for permission.

“If you don’t believe they’re going to talk to you, you’re absolutely right, [they won’t].”

Kowch, who has been in the media for 40 years, started at 17 as an office boy at the Montreal Star, where he told everyone there that he wanted to be a reporter. He has since been a Quebec National Assembly bureau chief with CJAD and CFRB, general manager at Standard Broadcast News, and radio program director at CFRB and CJAD. He currently teaches radio courses at Humber College and Seneca College. The courses’ popularity inspired his decision to write his book.

A positive attitude, Kowch told students, is an important quality in a good journalist.

“When you have a positive attitude it’s like Moses parting the Red Sea,” he said, adding that 75 per cent of the journalists his students might eventually encounter will be very negative.

“Attitude is the only thing you can control…Positive beats out negative every time.”

Commenting on the growing trend of multiplatform journalism, Kowch urged students to be eager to do whatever they can.

“People need to become polyvalent. You need to be able to multitask now more than ever,” he said. “Why fight it? The more that you want to do, the more valuable you are.”

Kowch was part of a downsizing at CFRB, losing his job after being there for 14 years. He reminded students that in media, “It’s not about if you’re going to get fired, it’s when. But it doesn’t mean you’re not good.”

Above all, Kowch stressed, journalism is about making a difference.

“There will be times you’re sitting in the front aisle of history and you’ve got to pinch yourself and say, ‘I can’t believe I’m here. I can’t believe they’re paying me to do all this.’ That’s when you go home at night and you say ‘Wow! What a job I have.’”