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Rob Ford's Toronto

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Fifth Estate story concentrated on the crime and connections rather than the substance abuse. That is where we want to see the attention go.
 
lurker28 said:
Avid lurker and someone who's met DiBattista a number of times socially and in business dealings, want to say the idea of him being connected to GFL in some nefarious way is riveting but highly highly unlikely. GFL is a direct competitor to his business & there is NO love lost there. Don't really think he's a big piece of the Ford mystery - they've partied together & know eachother long time but that's about it from what I can gather amongst gossipy friends right now (and these friends would throw him under the bus without thought, that they haven't speaks volumes) Dig all the digging & thinking going on here, don't wanna see potential & promising pondering lost in the weeds. (Thank you-and damn you-for all the info to come out here. Forum has been addictive like crack!! Lol)

Didn't really like DiBattista the times I've met him but am pretty certain (even guys can be a gossipy catty bunch after a few scotches, lol) he's not as connected as the forum here is wondering.

I won't say stop digging and theorizing but I will say the GFL + underworld connection + Ford angle seems more promising...that was a huge contract for a small new company at the time which makes it extra suspect in hindsight.
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Thanks for sharing. A lot of people focused on the fact that DiBattista's after hours club was shut down after the Star started asking questions, although logically speaking, that's what you would do with any private illegal club that becomes the focus of a newspaper story.
 
typezed said:
Fifth Estate story concentrated on the crime and connections rather than the substance abuse. That is where we want to see the attention go.
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I agree, most people only know about the substance abuse problem, glad to see the criminal element brought out for people to see the connections.
 
rightwingSUVdriver said:
Thanks for sharing. A lot of people focused on the fact that DiBattista's after hours club was shut down after the Star started asking questions, although logically speaking, that's what you would do with any private illegal club that becomes the focus of a newspaper story.
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DiBattista's name comes up in the ITO. I believe Lisi called him, I haven't looked at the ITO in a few days, so much has happened, I can't remember anything. Must be on crack.
 
dforthandbview said:
Goldsbie tweeted "Bombshell: Farah says that the people who called him with death threats said they were doing so on behalf of the Mayor." I must not be paying full attention because I don't recall that.
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I would have to agree - this is pretty huge. Definitely the biggest thing to come out of the show, and I'm amazed the interviewer didn't say "I'm sorry, can you repeat that a third time? These men said they were representing the mayor?"

But, um... guys in fancy cars with a suitcase of cash should know better than to show up in a dangerous 'hood saying flashing a suitcase of money saying "we represent the mayor" - it feels a bit like it's something out of a badly written movie. I'm amazed that it didn't get spread around like wildfire and hit the twitter/blogosphere the same way that "Jasmin" story did. I'm tempted to say I don't believe it... even though I want to. I'm also not sure that I believe the "he had this girl that he loved" angle when the original story seemed to change a couple of times when he was talking to reporters.

Ugh. Anyway - anyone know if there's still a big story ready to hit in the star tomorrow?
 
guitarchitect said:
I would have to agree - this is pretty huge. Definitely the biggest thing to come out of the show, and I'm amazed the interviewer didn't say "I'm sorry, can you repeat that a third time? These men said they were representing the mayor?"

But, um... guys in fancy cars with a suitcase of cash should know better than to show up in a dangerous 'hood saying flashing a suitcase of money saying "we represent the mayor" - it feels a bit like it's something out of a badly written movie. I'm amazed that it didn't get spread around like wildfire and hit the twitter/blogosphere the same way that "Jasmin" story did. I'm tempted to say I don't believe it... even though I want to. I'm also not sure that I believe the "he had this girl that he loved" angle when the original story seemed to change a couple of times when he was talking to reporters.

Ugh. Anyway - anyone know if there's still a big story ready to hit in the star tomorrow?
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He never said that the "suitcase of cash" people represented the mayor. I think he implied it was mafia-kinda organized crime people.
 
rightwingSUVdriver said:
He never said that the "suitcase of cash" people represented the mayor. I think he implied it was mafia-kinda organized crime people.
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All comes back to the point that a government official who put's themselves into a position like this opens themselves to blackmail. Mafia-type people probably wanted the video to gain a hand over the Mayor. They wouldn't want money to keep it quite, they would want favours.
 
rightwingSUVdriver said:
Thanks for sharing. A lot of people focused on the fact that DiBattista's after hours club was shut down after the Star started asking questions, although logically speaking, that's what you would do with any private illegal club that becomes the focus of a newspaper story.
Click to expand...

I think the timing on the club being gutted was just caRp luck on DiBattista's part. Through a friend I was invited there one night and didn't go (who goes to Royal York and Bloor from downtown for fun??) and then later when I asked said friend about checking the place out, he said it wasn't happening anymore. Supposedly it was a members only business lounge but too far off the beaten path to draw interest from downtown business folk.

As to the Lisi connection and phone calls in the police report...DiBattista might just be an occasional dry cleaning patron of sorts?? Lol. He does know Ford which means he'd likely know Lisi's extracurricular work?
 
lurker28 said:
I think the timing on the club being gutted was just caRp luck on DiBattista's part. Through a friend I was invited there one night and didn't go (who goes to Royal York and Bloor from downtown for fun??) and then later when I asked said friend about checking the place out, he said it wasn't happening anymore. Supposedly it was a members only business lounge but too far off the beaten path to draw interest from downtown business folk.

As to the Lisi connection and phone calls in the police report...DiBattista might just be an occasional dry cleaning patron of sorts?? Lol. He does know Ford which means he'd likely know Lisi's extracurricular work?
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Just looked at the ITO again and I was right. Lisi got a call from Romeo Battista that went to message and later on Lisi got a text from either David or Richard Fidani. What's odd is that I can't seem to find a date on the page, must be part of the blacked out area. There is no way Lisi was going to scare those drug dealers alone.
 
rightwingSUVdriver said:
He never said that the "suitcase of cash" people represented the mayor. I think he implied it was mafia-kinda organized crime people.
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Here's the quote about organized crime:
"There were some people in the neighbourhood… I would say people that were in organized crime. That drove in and showed people a suitcase of money."
and
"Coming in in fancy cars and showing cash, look, you know, here's my number, give me a call."

Findlay: "Farah started hearing about phone calls from people he was told had close connections to the mayor."
and later...
Findlay: "There were threats made on behalf of the mayor or the mayor's office?"
Farah: "On the behalf of the mayor yeah"
Findlay: "You said they were calling on behalf of Rob Ford?"
Farah: "Right, right."

On rewatch… yeah, he doesn't look totally honest there.
 
runningnowhere said:
All comes back to the point that a government official who put's themselves into a position like this opens themselves to blackmail. Mafia-type people probably wanted the video to gain a hand over the Mayor. They wouldn't want money to keep it quite, they would want favours.
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Yup. Crack video blackmail = government contract.
 
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