Cdn-Firearms Digest Monday, December 29 2008 Volume 12 : Number 906 In this issue: Toronto Star - Slain man was a mystery to his neighbours land seizure ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 15:41:24 -0800 (PST) From: Bruce Mills Subject: Toronto Star - Slain man was a mystery to his neighbours http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/558750 Slain man was a mystery to his neighbours Tenants at east-end Toronto apartment block next to police station recall frequent boozing, arguments Dec 28, 2008 04:30 AM Iain Marlow STAFF REPORTER The 11-storey block of community housing units at 1021 Birchmount Rd., shrouded in mist yesterday afternoon just north of Eglinton Ave. E., is not a place where tenants know their neighbours. No one on the top floor around Kurt Gonsalves' apartment could say they knew him. But a few seemed to know at least two things. First, he had not been in the building long - perhaps three months, maybe a little more. Second, he was found dead on Christmas morning - killed by whatever brutal tactic is euphemized by police as "trauma to the face." Only one apartment door on the 11th floor had Christmas decorations. This is a place, according to Shontal Francis, 28, who lives down the hall, where "people come and they go." She's been here, walking these pale green, halogen-lit hallways, for about a year. She didn't know Gonsalves, 49, personally. It seems no one did. "I didn't even know he had a roommate," Francis said, peeking around her door. Apparently he had two. One, whom police won't identify, was found badly beaten at the scene of the crime. Another, Ryan Walters, 27, later turned himself into police. Walters appeared in court yesterday, charged with second-degree murder in connection with Gonsalves' death, Toronto's 70th homicide of 2008, and with aggravated assault in connection with the beating of the roommate. He remains in custody, said Toronto police homicide Det. Sgt. Steve Ryan. Although no one knew Gonsalves, a couple of people knew of him. Francis knew Gonsalves and his friends were often rowdy. "They were pretty drunk a lot of the time," she said. "But he seemed like a nice guy." One neighbour, who lives next door to Gonsalves' apartment, said they often heard arguments. Vincent Williams, 51, speaking from his doorway, said that for the most part the trio seemed "a bunch of happy fellas. Always drinking, always drunk." There were always people around that end of the hall, said Theepan Yogarajab, 19, as he looked to where two police officers sat staring at a crime scene tape sealing the room, waiting - one officer said - "for someone more important to come along." His mother, Pathmathevy, 53, doesn't know any neighbours and never walked down that end of the hallway. Others who answered their doors on Gonsalves' floor retreated shyly, declining to answer questions, closing the door with murmurs. There was a gunfight here a year ago. Toronto Police's 41 Division station is right next door. On an elevator heading down, a bearded man with an Eastern European accent slowly shook his head. "This building is chaotic," he said. "Our first neighbour is a police station. You'd think we'd be safe. I've been living here for 13 years and I don't know two people." He got off and walked away. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 22:13:00 -0600 From: "T.Bennett Finley" Subject: land seizure Mike Ackerman wrote: "Just because you are unlucky enough to have a plane crash on your private property, you can now be robbed of your legally acquired and lawfully purchased land because some grief mongers want to erect a symbolic monument. This is total bullsh!t. A private land owner should have every right to choose not to sell his/her land for any or no reason s/he sees fit. Once the mob can take whatever it wants by force, having failed to get it by fair trade, there is no more rule of law, just legalized piracy." Mike, we have always had "legalized piracy" in Canada and very few ever objected..sheep that we are. Remember the farmers who were charged and convicted for attempting to sell their own wheat outside the Wheat Board. Some went to jail, in Canada, just a few years ago. I never heard much objection outside of the Prairie Provinces. The court ruled that there is NO RIGHT to private property in Canada. And as you well know, that is happening with firearms too. Bennett ------------------------------ End of Cdn-Firearms Digest V12 #906 *********************************** Submissions: mailto:cdn-firearms-digest@scorpion.bogend.ca Mailing List Commands: mailto:majordomo@scorpion.bogend.ca Moderator's e-mail address: mailto:drg.jordan@sasktel.net List owner: mailto:owner-cdn-firearms@scorpion.bogend.ca FAQ list: http://www.canfirearms/Skeeter/Faq/cfd-faq1.html Web Site: http://www.canfirearms.ca CFDigest Archives: http://www.canfirearms.ca/archives To unsubscribe from _all_ the lists, put the next four lines in a message and mailto:majordomo@scorpion.bogend.ca unsubscribe cdn-firearms-digest unsubscribe cdn-firearms-chat unsubscribe cdn-firearms end (To subscribe, use "subscribe" instead of "unsubscribe".)